Toxics

EPA efforts to expand toxic chemical regulations and reform its risk-assessment process, as well as the debate over revising the Toxic Substances Control Act, are just some of the topics featured in our Toxics section.

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EPA efforts to expand toxic chemical regulations and reform its risk-assessment process, as well as the debate over revising the Toxic Substances Control Act, are just some of the topics featured in our Toxics section.

On Eve Of Hearing, EPA, NGOs Spar Over Standing To Challenge TSCA Rule

On the eve of a key appellate hearing, EPA and environmentalists are sparring over the groups' standing to challenge one of EPA's framework rules for implementing the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), responding to a court order that asks the parties to address the issue in the upcoming oral arguments. In a May 10 filing , attorneys for the petitioners urge the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit to consider two recent appellate rulings that the environmentalists say...

Environmentalists Filing

EPA Filing

May 6 Order


Quote-Unquote: House testimony on PFAS legislation

The House Energy & Commerce environment subcommittee is scheduled to hold a landmark legislative hearing May 15 on a host of bills aimed at addressing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination, responding to growing pressure in communities for regulatory and other action to clean up and prevent new contamination. As Rep. Dan Kildee (D-MI), co-chair of the bipartisan Congressional PFAS Task Force, told Inside EPA's Suzanne Yohannan, the hearing is a key step in lawmakers' efforts to enact control...

Rep. Kildee, Key Task Force Leader, Details Path For Advancing PFAS Bills

On the eve of a key legislative hearing, Rep. Dan Kildee (D-MI), the Democratic co-chair of a bipartisan task force aimed at addressing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), is detailing the path he and other lawmakers plan to take to advance PFAS legislation in the House though their effort still likely faces a rocky path. In an exclusive interview with Inside EPA , Kildee said he is confident that if lawmakers can pull together a strong, technical basis for legislation,...

Nuclear Issues

Energy Infrastructure

Flooding

Treatment and Disposal of Hazardous Materials

Chemical Facilities


Carper seeks five GAO studies on climate impacts

Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE), the top Democrat on the Senate Environment & Public Works (EPW) Committee, is urging the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct a series of studies examining how climate change threatens the environment, human health and the federal government’s fiscal exposure. His office says “the nonpartisan, fact-based reports could eventually serve as the basis for additional committee oversight and legislation.” Carper is asking GAO to look into five subject areas: the risks of nuclear waste storage from...

NEJAC warns of equity harms from EPA chemical safety, EtO rollbacks

EPA’s National Environmental Justice Advisory Committee (NEJAC) is urging EPA to halt proposed rollbacks of an Obama-era rule on limiting safety risks from industrial facilities and of the agency’s risk assessment of the solvent ethylene oxide (EtO), warning that the efforts could increase public health risks for equity communities. The panel outlined the concerns in a pair of May 3 letters to agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler, the first addressing EPA’s attempt to reverse Obama-era updates to the Risk Management Plan...

EPA Could Address Blood-Lead Level Rise In Next Update To Action Plan

EPA's toxics chief Alexandra Dunn says the agency's next update to the Trump administration's action plan on reducing lead exposures could address data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that shows children most exposed to lead have recently seen increases in their blood lead levels (BLLs). Dunn told the agency's Children's Health Protection Advisory Committee (CHPAC) during its May 9 meeting in Washington, D.C. that the information is “maybe something that we could address in an update.”...

EPA issues draft ESA framework revising Obama-era pesticide reviews

EPA is seeking public comment on revisions to an Obama-era framework for assessing pesticides’ risks under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and saying the new approach will ensure an efficient, effective process based on transparent science, though environmentalists counter that the agency is failing to adequately protect species. “EPA’s draft framework allows the agency to consider real-world data that will better reflect where pesticides are actually used, and which species could be affected and those that are not likely to...

House, Senate lawmakers introduce flurry of PFAS bills

Bipartisan House and Senate lawmakers have introduced a flurry of bills on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) that attempts to mandate toxic release reporting and federal facility cleanups of the chemicals and bar incineration of PFAS waste, coming just days before a key House panel is scheduled to hold a legislative hearing on the class of toxic, non-stick chemicals. The efforts in part would seek to push initiatives aimed at Defense Department (DOD) PFAS contamination -- found in communities that...

EPA Seeks CHPAC's Help With Crafting Health Risk Communication Policy

EPA is asking its Children's Health Protection Advisory Committee (CHPAC) to help with crafting a policy to ensure the agency communicates consistently about environmental and public health risks, prompting mixed reactions from committee members who say the Trump administration is still failing to take full advantage of the panel's expertise. The agency wants “to learn from you to get this right,” Corry Schiermeyer, associate administrator for the Office of Public Affairs (OPA), told CHPAC May 9, referencing draft charge questions...

Republicans See Possibility Of Compromise On Bill Restricting Asbestos

Top House Republicans say they could agree to a compromise with Democrats on a bill to limit asbestos risks, though they say any deal will have to address concerns that a bill does not unduly limit production of chlorine used to treat drinking water and does not impose infeasible testing and other requirements on EPA. “I think there's definitely stomach to try to do something. We'll go from here. We’ll see where is that ground, I know that they would...

Democrats Grill Toxics Chief Over EPA's Narrowed TSCA Review Of Asbestos

House Democrats grilled EPA toxics chief Alexandra Dunn over the agency's narrow approach to addressing risks of asbestos, though Dunn declined comment on a pair of leaked internal memos regional staff wrote raising concerns about the agency's approaches and underscoring concerns raised by environmentalists and others. During the May 8 hearing before the House Energy and Commerce environment panel hearing, Democrats asked Dunn to comment on internal memos , first published by the New York Times , that EPA...

California announces plan to ban chlorpyrifos

California regulators are planning to ban the pesticide chlorpyrifos by initiating a process to cancel the product’s registration in the state, a move that would end almost 20 percent of the chemical’s domestic use even as federal regulators weigh whether they will continue to allow its use. Cal/EPA Secretary Jared Blumenfeld announced the plan in a May 8 press release , citing evidence that the compound causes serious health effects in children and other sensitive populations at lower levels of...

New findings show jump in sites with PFAS contamination

New findings from the Environmental Working Group (EWG) say that, based on public data, the number of locations with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) contamination has jumped from 172 locations identified last year to 610 locations, likely adding to the pressure EPA is under to regulate the chemicals. EWG May 6 released an updated interactive web-based map , in conjunction with Northeastern University researchers, using public data on public water systems, military bases, airports, industrial plants, firefighter training sites and...

EPA Expands Asbestos SNUR While Curbing Risk Evaluation, Irking Critics

EPA's recently finalized rule regulating renewed uses of asbestos expanded the number of applications subject to regulation but cut some of those applications from a related risk evaluation of existing uses, angering critics who say the agency is further narrowing any future toxics rule on existing uses and shows why a total ban on asbestos is needed. Robert Sussman, a former EPA deputy administrator who is now counsel to the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO), describes it as the “shrinking...

Industry Raises Fears Over EPA's Asbestos Shift But Largely Backs SNUR

Industry lawyers who represent chemical and other industries are generally backing EPA's recently expanded significant new use rule (SNUR) governing legacy uses of asbestos, though like environmentalists, some industry attorneys are raising concerns that EPA has shifted certain uses from a related evaluation of ongoing uses to the SNUR. EPA's recently finalized SNUR , issued under the revised Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) section 5(e), generally requires manufacturers and others who want to revive an obsolete use of the mineral...

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