Federal Facilities

EPA’s decision to scrap its interim remediation goals for dioxin-contaminated sites is creating major uncertainty over how the agency will determine cleanup standards for the sites, sources say, because EPA says it will make decisions using its new dioxin risk assessment -- even though the agency has yet to release a key portion of that study.

Budget constraints hitting the Department of Energy (DOE) will force it in the next several months to pursue talks with state regulators to stretch out time lines under enforceable agreements for accomplishing its nuclear waste cleanups in fiscal year 2014 and beyond. A top DOE official says the department will lack the funds to meet existing, enforceable cleanup milestones after FY13.

Recyclers, environmentalists, and other advocates are intensifying their push for legislation strengthening EPA's oversight of electronic wastes (e-waste) in order to remedy concerns the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found in the administration's programs to manage federal e-waste -- one of the largest sources of the waste.

Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern states are warning that EPA's plan to designate much of the country in "marginal" nonattainment of the agency's 2008 ozone standard will prevent them from meeting the standard, as it sets impossible deadlines for cutting ozone and would not reduce ozone in Western states that hinders air quality in the East.