Air

The Defense Department and military services say Colorado's draft indoor air guidance to address vapor intrusion from volatile organic compounds has significant flaws, namely that its screening and cleanup levels are too stringent and that it gives regulators too much leeway in determining case-specific cleanup requirements while giving the regulated community little direction in appropriately addressing vapor intrusion problems.

Further, DOD argues Colorado should promulgate the guidance as a rule given it sets binding action and remediation standards, among other things.

A pending federal appellate court case could provide a key test for EPA's ongoing enforcement suits against utilities for allegedly violating its original new source review (NSR) rules, with many observers saying the ruling could trigger eventual Supreme Court review. The case, United States v. Duke Energy Corp., could determine how industrial facilities calculate an increase in emissions that triggers NSR requirements, industry lawyers and other legal experts say.

The White House's top environment official, James Connaughton, is promising a closer review of controversial Clear Skies provisions that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) says would allow industrial facilities to avoid existing air toxics control requirements and emit huge amounts of toxic chemicals.

Connaughton's pledge came at a Senate environment committee hearing Feb. 2 on a reintroduced Clear Skies bill that was held as part of Republican efforts to jump-start action on the administration-backed legislation.