The Environmental Working Group said the plan “represents a crucial first step in tackling the growing PFAS contamination crisis and finally offering some relief to communities polluted by toxic PFAS.”
EPA is hoping to release a host of major deregulatory measures and other policies this year, including high-profile proposals governing perfluorinated chemicals, power plant air toxics and waste releases, stormwater requirements and more, according to the agency’s latest regulatory agenda, though many of the measures have yet to begin White House review.
Environmentalists are raising concerns that a bipartisan compromise the House Energy and Commerce Committee struck on Superfund legislation addressing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) will weaken Democrats’ push for a more aggressive measure now pending in defense authorization legislation.
Supporters of legislation banning the use and importation of asbestos under EPA’s toxics authority are gearing up to advance the bill in the Senate after the House Energy and Commerce Committee voted overwhelmingly Nov. 19 to approve a bipartisan compromise, which gives the chlor-alkali industry as much as 10 years to phase-in the ban.
The announcement on the clearinghouse coincides with the release of “Dark Waters,” a film about the attorney who uncovered DuPont’s attempts to hide PFAS contamination and its decades of scientific findings.
The recent appellate ruling requiring EPA to consider risks from existing chemicals’ legacy uses under the revised toxics law may force the agency to re-do several already issued draft risk evaluations and rush to revise upcoming drafts, according to environmentalists and other plaintiffs, potentially forcing the agency to miss statutory deadlines for some of the first 10 substances under review.
House science committee Chairwoman Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) has followed through on her long-running threat to subpoena EPA for allegedly withholding data on its decision to drop assessments of 10 chemicals, including formaldehyde, that were being conducted by its Influential Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) program.
The Dec. 10 meeting will provide an overview of planned updates to the agency’s process for reviewing new chemicals ahead of the regulatory review framework’s release by the end of the year.
A federal judge has rejected EPA’s effort to block environmentalists’ suit challenging the agency’s refusal to craft asbestos reporting rules under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), a potentially precedent-setting ruling that could further bolster plaintiffs’ efforts seeking to challenge EPA petition denials.
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is criticizing the Defense Department’s (DOD) approach for developing a new occupational exposure limit (OEL) for the solvent trichloroethylene (TCE), including DOD’s decision to exclude a controversial study EPA has used to set TCE risk values to protect against fetal heart malformations.