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ACC AM Feb 19
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(ACC Mentioned) Report: Corporate Industry Hiring ‘White Coats’ to Defend Dangerous Chemicals
Feb 18, 2016 | Chem Info
By Andy Szal
Numerous high-profile, industry-backed consulting groups stalled or stemmed government and academic research into potentially harmful chemicals, according to a recent report. Vice News and the Center for Public Integrity analyzed 149 publications from top scientists at Gradient Corp., an environmental consulting firm in Cambridge... -
(ACC Mentioned) US Light Vehicle Sales Suggest Evaporating Consumer Confidence
Feb 18, 2016 | ICIS News
By Mark Victory
Declining US light vehicle sales in January suggest evaporation of consumer confidence and worsening general economic conditions, according to ICIS analysis on Thursday. Since the launch of the Global Automotive report in October 2015, we have been warning that underlying statistics, such as the US labor participation rate, pointed to... -
(ACC Mentioned) Outside Groups Spend Almost $3.5 Million For Ohio's Primary
Feb 18, 2016 | The Columbus Dispatch
By Jessica Wehrman
Outside groups have spent at least $3.47 million in Ohio so far this election cycle, including some $561,812 supporting or opposing individual presidential candidates, according to a review data filed with the Federal Election Commission. Of them, a group supporting former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush leads the pack, spending $409,687 on mail... -
(ACC Mentioned) U.S. Supreme Court Fight Scrambles TSCA Rewrite Chances
Feb 19, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Anthony Adragna
The Senate could effectively shut down if leaders cannot agree on a path forward for President Barack Obama's forthcoming pick for the U.S. Supreme Court, potentially imperiling the chances of revamping the nation's primary chemicals law, former lawmakers and congressional aides told Bloomberg BNA. -
Agencies Seek to Spur Advanced Toxicity Test Use
Feb 19, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Pat Rizzuto
The National Toxicology Program and the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Validation of Alternative Methods (ICCVAM) are crafting separate but related strategies to increase the regulatory acceptance of alternative toxicity tests, according to a senior NTP scientist. -
EPA Sets New Safety Requirements for Superfund Site
Feb 19, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Paul Stinson
The Environmental Protection Agency has announced new safety requirements for the temporary armored cap at the San Jacinto River Waste Pits Superfund Site located in the Houston metro area. Prompted by the discovery of what the agency called “possible damage” to the cap, the EPA... -
Study Investigates Proliferation of Plastic in Waterways Around New York
Feb 18, 2016 | The New York Times
By Lisa W. Foderaro
At the office of NY/NJ Baykeeper, an environmental group, Sandra Meola spread out her haul. For six months last year, she plied the bays and rivers around New York City, skimming the shimmering surface with a fine-mesh net in search of her nemesis: plastic. Here it was in abundance. A kelly-green floss pick. -
(ACC Mentioned) Congress Moving To Restrict Drone Flights Near Chemical Plants
Feb 18, 2016 | Chemical & Engineering News
By Glenn Hess
In response to the soaring use of drones, Congress has taken the first step toward prohibiting their unauthorized flight in the airspace over and near chemical plants and petroleum refineries. A bill (H.R. 4441) to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) includes a provision that would direct the agency to set strict new guidelines to keep... -
$10 Million in Grants Awarded for Rail Safety Upgrades
Feb 19, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
The Federal Railroad Administration announced Feb. 18 it has awarded almost $10 million to eight states to improve safety at rail crossing along routes where energy commodities are carried. The grants, awarded under the Safe Transportation of Energy Products by Rail program, will fund nine projects around the country intended... -
PHMSA Cites Corrosion in California Pipe Spill
Feb 19, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration cited in a report released Feb. 17 external corrosion as the main cause of a 2015 pipeline failure in California that resulted in the release of more than 120,000 gallons of crude oil. The preliminary factual report's finding regarding the Santa Barbara County, Calif., pipeline spill... -
Coast Guard to Withdraw Proposal on Fracking Wastewater
Feb 19, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Rachel Leven
An upcoming U.S. Coast Guard action to formally withdraw a 2013 policy proposal—but consider individual requests on moving fracking wastewater by barge—could present opportunities for industry and transparency concerns for the public, attorneys for industry and the environment told Bloomberg BNA. -
Pennsylvania Pipeline Task Force Issues Wish List
Feb 19, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Leslie A. Pappas
Pennsylvania's governor-appointed Pipeline Infrastructure Task Force detailed a 184-item wish list of steps state agencies, lawmakers, industry and local governments can take to streamline the upcoming build-out of pipelines in a final report released Feb. 18. -
Major Natural Gas Leak Sealed Near Los Angeles
Feb 18, 2016 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Timothy Cama
The company responsible for the natural gas leak north of Los Angeles said Thursday that it had “permanently” sealed the leak after four months. Southern California Gas Co. and the California Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources confirmed that the leak at the Aliso Canyon gas storage facility in Porter Ranch, Calif., had been sealed... -
Leaking Gas Well Near Los Angeles Permanently Sealed
Feb 19, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Carolyn Whetzel
California oil and regulators confirmed Feb. 18 that Southern California Gas Co. has permanently sealed the leaking, damaged well at its natural gas storage field near Los Angeles. California Department of Conservation Chief Deputy Director Jason Marshall made the announcement at a Feb... -
EPA Reportedly Hints ESPS Compliance Date Could Remain Despite Stay
Feb 18, 2016 | InsideEPA
By Abby Smith & Doug Obey
EPA is suggesting that the deadline for states to submit plans for its existing power plant greenhouse gas rule will slip in the wake of the high court stay, but the agency is also privately hinting to states that it may still be able to maintain a 2022 start date to the rule's compliance period should the stay eventually be lifted. -
Parties Bear Down For Brutal Firefight Over SCOTUS
Feb 18, 2016 | PoliticoPro
By Burgess Everett
Both Mitch McConnell and Harry Reid now have evidence that their showdown over a Supreme Court pick is paying political dividends — with hard-core partisans, at least. A pair of national polls from CBS and NBC showed Americans are sharply divided over the future of Antonin Scalia’s Supreme Court vacancy, with roughly half favoring... -
KY. Activists To Petition McConnell On Nominee
Feb 18, 2016 | E&E News PM
By Hannah Hess
Liberal activists plan to take their fight for consideration of President Obama's Supreme Court nominee to the Senate Republican leader's home state. Tomorrow, Kentucky residents who have organized with a coalition of progressive groups will deliver more than 500,000 petition signatures to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's office in Louisville. -
EPA Focuses FY17-19 Enforcement On Industrial Discharges, Air Toxics
Feb 18, 2016 | InsideEPA
By David LaRoss
EPA's just-announced enforcement priorities for fiscal years 2017 through 2019 include two new areas of focus covering accidental chemical releases and industrial water pollution and an expansion of its existing focus on hazardous air pollutants to include community-level air toxics, while continuing four of the agency's other... -
Environmentalists Fault Provisions In Boiler Air Rule
Feb 18, 2016 | InsideEPA
Environmentalists suing EPA over its revised air toxics maximum achievable control technology (MACT) rule for large “major” source industrial boilers say they intend to challenge the rule's limits on carbon monoxide (CO) as well as “work practice standards” that the agency is allowing in lieu of complying with some emissions limits. -
EPA Sued for Not Regulating Perchlorate in Drinking Water
Feb 19, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Amena H. Saiyid
Spurred by federal inaction over drinking water contaminants, the Natural Resources Defense Council sued the Environmental Protection Agency Feb. 18 for failing to set limits for perchlorate in drinking water (Nat. Resources Def. Council v. EPA, S.D.N.Y., 16-01251, 2/18/16). -
NRDC Cites Flint Crisis In Suit Seeking EPA Perchlorate Water Standard
Feb 18, 2016 | InsideEPA
By Maria Hegstad
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has followed through on its threat to sue the agency for failing to craft a drinking water standard for the rocket fuel ingredient perchlorate within a two-year Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) deadline, saying the Flint, MI, drinking water crisis shows the needs to curb toxics in water.
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(ACC Mentioned) Report: Corporate Industry Hiring ‘White Coats’ to Defend Dangerous Chemicals
Feb 18, 2016 | Chem Info
By Andy Szal
Numerous high-profile, industry-backed consulting groups stalled or stemmed government and academic research into potentially harmful chemicals, according to a recent report.
Vice News and the Center for Public Integrity analyzed 149 publications from top scientists at Gradient Corp., an environmental consulting firm in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that competes with firms such as Cardno ChemRisk and Ramboll Environ.
Gradient, in particular, counts powerful lobbying groups the American Petroleum Institute and the American Chemistry Council among its clients.
The company generally criticizes other studies rather than conduct its own research, and Vice and CPI reported that Gradient scientists find common chemical exposure levels harmless "98 percent of the time."
Gradient also frequently comments or testifies during Environmental Protection Agency reviews of potentially toxic chemicals, which often stalls investigations for the already backlogged agency.
In addition, Gradient's papers help defend companies in legal disputes over chemical exposure. The Vice and CPI report cited emails between a corporate attorney and Gradient's Peter Valberg in an effort to tie mesothelioma to tobacco use.
The subsequent report was used to cast doubt on the links between Pam Collins' illness and her exposure to asbestos during years working for GE.
"I've cross-examined some of the best defense experts in the country, and I've never heard even the most hardcore advocate for the defense ever claim that smoking causes mesothelioma," one of Collins' attorneys told Vice and CPI. "Nobody has ever gone that far before Peter Valberg."
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(ACC Mentioned) US Light Vehicle Sales Suggest Evaporating Consumer Confidence
Feb 18, 2016 | ICIS News
By Mark Victory
Declining US light vehicle sales in January suggest evaporation of consumer confidence and worsening general economic conditions, according to ICIS analysis on Thursday.
Since the launch of the Global Automotive report in October 2015, we have been warning that underlying statistics, such as the US labor participation rate, pointed to a US macroeconomy that was more vulnerable than widely believed, and that any Fed interest rate rise had the potential to expose those weaknesses.
With even Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen now warning that US financial conditions have worsened since the Fed rate rise in December, this has now passed from prediction to reality.
Of course the interest rate rise was not the architect of the deteriorating US macroeconomic conditions – for that we must look to the headwinds from China, falling stock market prices and the psychological impact of the falls in crude oil prices, along with continued volatility and uncertainty scaring off investors and consumers across the globe.
Nevertheless, the rate rise has contributed to the worsening US position and it seems unlikely that the same decision would be taken from today’s vantage point.
Worryingly, despite sharp falls in crude oil prices – which typically drive auto consumption higher on the back of both raw material cost reductions allowing greater scope for price relief and lower fuel prices reducing running costs – US light vehicle sales fell in January year on year as higher light truck sales were overturned by sharp falls in passenger vehicle sales. This suggests increased consumer nervousness over general financial conditions, as does the December fall in durable goods sales.
Uncertainty is also plaguing financial markets – this is clearly shown by the extreme swings in stock and currency markets in early February as investors react strongly to each piece of economic news, and demonstrates the current fragility of the markets not just in the US but across the world.
A fall in US car sales typically precedes a downturn in the US economy by around 12 months – although the correlation between the two has been weaker since the last recession because, 8 years on, markets are still yet to return to their previous equilibrium.
It would be wrong to take a single month of lower passenger car sales as a prophecy, but added to the wider market signals it is clear that growth prospects in the US are deteriorating, as shown by the significant slowdown in US GDP growth in the fourth quarter to 0.7% from the third quarter’s 2%.
It remains, however, premature to talk of a collapse, and a recession is far from a fete complete – even if the gathering headwinds hint to this on a global scale, as John Richardson further argues in the February global automotive report.
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(ACC Mentioned) Outside Groups Spend Almost $3.5 Million For Ohio's Primary
Feb 18, 2016 | The Columbus Dispatch
By Jessica Wehrman
Outside groups have spent at least $3.47 million in Ohio so far this election cycle, including some $561,812 supporting or opposing individual presidential candidates, according to a review data filed with the Federal Election Commission.
Of them, a group supporting former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush leads the pack, spending $409,687 on mail, media production and media placement in Ohio. The group, Right to Rise, is the top super PAC supporting Bush’s bid for the White House. One group – Planned Parenthood Action Fund – spent $1,041 against Bush. That group also spent money opposing Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas and Marco Rubio, R-Fla.
The database is aimed at capturing spending in a state, but might omit some figures. For example, a national ad buy that airs in a state isn’t counted. Nor are many digital ad campaigns.
Still, it’s the most specific figure available to determine the degree to which outside groups are focusing on Ohio as the March 15 primary approaches.
Groups spent $73,219 against Democrat Hillary Clinton, and no outside groups have spent on her behalf. In all, four groups weighed in against her – Freedom’s Defense Fund, the Tea Party Majority Fund, the Tea Party Victory Fund and the Conservative Majority Fund. All four groups largely used their money for voter contact via mail or phone calls. The Tea Party Majority Fund, for example, spent $11,174 last October for calls opposing Clinton and $14,898 in January.
Democrat Bernie Sanders, meanwhile, had $56,330 spent on his behalf by the National Nurses United for Patient Protection.
New Day for America, the super PAC supporting Ohio Gov. John Kasich, has not bought any ads explicitly supporting Kasich in Ohio. It has, however, spent $4,033 for mobile and digital ads to oppose billionaire Donald Trump.
“We're not worried about Jeb in Ohio because he isn't even going to make it out of South Carolina,” New Day spokeswoman Connie Wehrkamp said.
The U.S. Senate race in Ohio has also drawn significant outside spending, with groups spending more than $2 million to date to oppose Democrat Ted Strickland, according to the FEC. Among those opposing Strickland are the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Koch Brothers- backed Americans for Prosperity and the Fighting for Ohio Fund, a super PAC supporting incumbent Sen. Rob Portman. That group spent $14,000 for online ads opposing Strickland last February and March, according to the FEC database.
But Strickland’s campaign puts that number at nearly $5 million, saying the database hasn’t captured spending by the NRSC, by One Nation, a Karl Rove-backed group; and by the American Chemistry Council. Some of their tally includes spending aimed at opposing Strickland; some supporting Portman.
The FEC has Portman receiving just $409 worth of support from the National Rifle Association Political Victory Fund. The FEC’s figure does not include $166,574 that the Ohio Republican Party reportedly spent supporting Portman.
Portman campaign manager Corry Bliss said Democrats have also spent far more on TV against Portman. In all, he said, they’ve spent about $1.3 million against him. The groups include the Sierra Club, the National Resources Defense Council, Planned Parenthood and SEIU. That figure, he said, does not include online spending against Portman.
Nationally, outside groups have already spent nearly $208 million on the presidential race, including $166 million for Republican candidates and $31 million against Republican candidates, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks political spending. Democrats, meanwhile, have seen $5.1 million spent on their behalf and $5.2 million spent against them. The Wesleyan Media Project Thursday reported that interest group involvement in the GOP primary is up 22 percent over 2012 levels and 75 percent over 2008.
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(ACC Mentioned) U.S. Supreme Court Fight Scrambles TSCA Rewrite Chances
Feb 19, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Anthony Adragna
The Senate could effectively shut down if leaders cannot agree on a path forward for President Barack Obama's forthcoming pick for the U.S. Supreme Court, potentially imperiling the chances of revamping the nation's primary chemicals law, former lawmakers and congressional aides told Bloomberg BNA.
Overhauling the Toxic Substances Control Act still faces better odds than most legislative efforts because the House and Senate both passed their bills revamping the statute by wide margins. But the legislation's pathway to becoming law could narrow considerably depending on how the Supreme Court battle shapes up in the weeks ahead.
“Unless there is some agreement on how to proceed, this has the potential to affect much of the Senate business for the entire year,” former Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) told Bloomberg BNA in an e-mail. “There is a difference between considering and delaying or defeating a nomination, and refusing to even acknowledge or consider a nomination. The latter position could poison whatever prospect of bipartisanship might exist on some other important issues.”
The Senate's schedule was already expected to not be overly strenuous this year given the presidential election, but Justice Antonin Scalia's sudden death Feb. 13 further scrambled the landscape.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said almost as soon the death was announced that the vacancy “should not be filled until we have a new President.” An aide to McConnell said Feb. 18 that it was up to Democrats to decide whether they will block broadly supported legislation in protest over Republicans’ refusal to consider an Obama nominee.
Work Stoppage Eyed
Some Republicans agree that if Senate leadership refuses to consider an Obama Supreme Court nominee that the chamber's work could grind to a halt. That would imperil a broad swath of measures, including any merged TSCA reform package from the House and Senate-passed bills (S. 697; H.R. 2576).
“Depending on how each side digs in over the next week or so, you could really see the Senate shut down for the year,” Chris Vieson, who served as director of floor operations for former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), told Bloomberg BNA. “If you have this lengthy battle for 10 months on one nominee, you can only really get small stuff done.”
Chris Miller, former environmental adviser to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), agreed something like TSCA reform—even with 60 bipartisan co-sponsors in the Senate—was exactly the type of legislation that could be caught in the crossfire and ultimately not passed.
“I'd be on the lookout for a slowdown from Senate Democrats on all or maybe select legislative business items if Republicans really follow through on McConnell's initial threat,” Miller said.
Others More Bullish
Other former senior aides were more bullish that the Senate could still pass select items. One former Senate Republican leadership aide pointed to 2013 when Reid launched the so-called nuclear option by eliminating the filibuster for most nominees, but the chamber continued work on various legislation.
To be sure, the aide said, Republicans erected additional procedural barriers to many requests and did not agree to unanimous consent requests for many typically non-controversial matters. But it's unlikely Democrats would completely block bills with significant buy-in from both parties, like the TSCA bills, over the Supreme Court battle, the aide said.
Benjamin Dunham, former chief counsel to the late New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D), agreed that the significant backing from important members of both parties would prevent a TSCA rewrite from getting swallowed up in any Senate gridlock.
“This is a top priority for important members of both parties, so I think it will find a way to slip through even if other bills are held up,” Dunham, now a senior managing director with Dentons, told Bloomberg BNA. “There will be some exceptions to any effort to stop work in the Senate, and I think passing a final TSCA bill will find a way through as well.”
Key Quotes
Former Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.): “Unless there is some agreement on how to proceed, this has the potential to affect much of the Senate business for the entire year.”
Benjamin Dunham, former chief counsel to late Sen. Frank Lautenberg: “There will be some exceptions to any effort to stop work in the Senate, and I think passing a final TSCA bill will find a way through as well.”
Chris Vieson, former senior House aide: “If you have this lengthy battle for 10 months on one nominee, you can only really get small stuff done.”
Sen. David Vitter (R-La.): “I am hopeful that unrelated issues will not stop its passage given the widespread support for TSCA reform.”
Whether Senate business continues through the year depends on a host of factors, including whether Republican senators continue to back McConnell's call not to consider an Obama Supreme Court nominee and who the president selects for consideration, former Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) told Bloomberg BNA in an e-mail.
“There will be lots of wrangling before we know how it works out,” Pryor, now a partner with Venable LLP, said.
Vitter Remains ‘Hopeful.'
Despite the battle over the Supreme Court vacancy looming, Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), one of the lead sponsors of the chemical statute overhaul, said he remained confident the legislation could be passed.
“I am hopeful that unrelated issues will not stop its passage given the widespread support for TSCA reform,” Vitter told Bloomberg BNA in a statement.
Other groups also pushing for TSCA reform said they remained confident the legislation's strong bipartisan backing would carry it across the finish line.
“We continue to believe that a reform legislation that is so broadly supported by both Democrats and Republicans in the House and the Senate can and will reach the President's desk, regardless of the other issues before the Senate,” Anne Kolton, vice president of communications at the American Chemistry Council, told Bloomberg BNA.
Richard Denison, a senior scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), described the chemicals reform bill as “one of a small handful of things pending in Congress” with adequate support from both Democrats and Republicans to move and said that a legislative slowdown due to the Supreme Court battle might “be motive for Congress to move those things it can move,” like TSCA.
House and Senate staff are currently working at resolving differences between the narrower House-passed H.R. 2576 and the broader S. 697. Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, recently told Bloomberg BNA the House was moving more slowly than he wanted but remained optimistic the bill would pass in 2016 (29 DEN A-11, 2/12/16).
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Agencies Seek to Spur Advanced Toxicity Test Use
Feb 19, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Pat Rizzuto
The National Toxicology Program and the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Validation of Alternative Methods (ICCVAM) are crafting separate but related strategies to increase the regulatory acceptance of alternative toxicity tests, according to a senior NTP scientist.
Robotic and automated high-throughput toxicity testing programs such as Toxicology in the 21st Century, or Tox21, and the Environmental Protection Agency's Toxicity Forecaster (ToxCast) are generating consistent, high quality data that is more reliable than would be comparable data generated by individual scientists, Warren Casey, director of NTP's Interagency Center for the Evaluation of Alternative Toxicological Methods (NICEATM), told Bloomberg BNA.
“The science is the easier part,” Casey said. He spoke with Bloomberg BNA Feb. 16 and 17 prior to a workshop the EPA and NTP held at Research Triangle Park in North Carolina to improve the utility of information coming from high throughput toxicity tests.
The harder challenges impeding the acceptance of advanced toxicity testing and predictive computer modeling involve institutional changes, fears professionals have and human discomfort with change, he said.
New Approaches Can Be Threatening
University science programs have come to depend on the millions of dollars their laboratories receive for traditional animal-based research, Casey said.
The new approaches to chemical safety analysis also threaten professionals and the careers they have built, Casey said.
For example, pathologists, who examine tissues from laboratory animals that were exposed to a chemical and interpret the test results to determine whether the chemical caused harm, can fear advocates of emerging predictive toxicity approaches, he said. The message can sound like someone is telling the professional “we don't need you anymore,” he said.
Yet the support and participation of pathologists, medical researchers, and biologists whose research on biological changes necessary for disease to occur has informed in vitro tests; and the support of regulators, who have to answer specific questions about chemicals and their effects, is critical if toxicology is going to transform into a discipline that can address more chemicals, chemical mixtures, health effects and life stages than is currently possible, Casey said.
More Specific Strategies
The NTP, working with its federal partners, intends to develop a broader strategy to move away from animal testing and the institutional and cultural barriers to it, he said.
The agencies in the program are discussing how to best develop and issue such a strategy, he said.
Options could include working through an interagency committee established under the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, through the Department of Health and Human Services or through some other organizational structure, Casey said.
Meanwhile, ICCVAM's member agencies are crafting strategies in 2016 to increase the regulatory acceptance of alternative tests and to broaden the scope of scientists that are part of the development and evaluation of such tests, he said.
ICCVAM is comprised of representatives from 15 federal regulatory and research agencies that require, use, generate or disseminate toxicological and safety testing information. These include the EPA, Food and Drug Administration, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Consumer Product Safety Commission, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and Department of Defense.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST, is interested in joining ICCVAM, Casey said.
Agencies within ICCVAM are working on strategies to reduce, refine or replace animals for the core regulatory toxicity tests commonly called the six-pack studies, Casey said. Those studies examine acute oral, dermal, and inhalation toxicity, as well as skin irritation, eye irritation, and skin sensitization of chemicals.
Draft strategies will be released, for public comment, later this year, Casey said.
High Throughput Technologies
Tox21 is a federal collaboration of the NTP, EPA, FDA and National Institutes of Health, including its National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences. A robotic screening system housed at the NIH has tested 10,000 chemicals and pharmaceuticals for their potential to disrupt biological pathways and possibly cause toxicity.
ToxCast has generated biological activity and toxicity prediction data on more than 1,800 chemicals using high-throughput testing equipment combined with computational toxicology. ToxCast tests, called screens, use more than 700 high-throughput assays that address a range of cellular responses and about 300 signaling pathways. Data generated through the ToxCast program is being used by EPA's Endocrine Disruption Screening Program to rank and prioritize chemicals for further testing.
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EPA Sets New Safety Requirements for Superfund Site
Feb 19, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Paul Stinson
The Environmental Protection Agency has announced new safety requirements for the temporary armored cap at the San Jacinto River Waste Pits Superfund Site located in the Houston metro area.
Prompted by the discovery of what the agency called “possible damage” to the cap, the EPA said in a Feb. 17 release that it directed the potentially responsible parties (PRPs)— International Paper and Industrial Maintenance Corp.—to add 24 hour/seven-day-a week surveillance and warning buoys around the perimeter of the site boundaries.
The parties on Feb. 16 confirmed they agreed to EPA directives, including a requirement to inspect the cap quarterly instead of semi-annually.
Located in Harris County, the 14-acre site consists of a set of impoundments built in the mid-1960s for disposal of paper mill wastes and surrounding areas containing sediments and soils potentially contaminated with the waste materials that were placed in the impoundments.
Cause of Cap Damage Remains Unknown
The issuance of new safety requirements follows the December 2015 discovery by an EPA inspection dive team of possible damage to the temporary armored cap to the Superfund site.
Visual dive operations, the EPA said, “found displacement in the stone cover of the protective cap but could not fully delineate the damaged area or the full extent of damage to the protective cap.” Pursuant to the agency's direction and oversight, the potentially responsible parties delineated a damaged portion of the rock layer surface area measuring 25 inches by 22 inches, according to the agency.
“The precise cause of the damage to the cap is unknown and under investigation,” according to the EPA statement. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will help investigate, the agency said.
Pulp, Paper Mill Waste Sent to Site
Champion Paper Inc. in 1965 and 1966 transported pulp in addition to solid and liquid paper mill wastes to the site. The company's mill used chlorine as a bleaching agent, according to an EPA synopsis of the Superfund site.
A sampling of the site led to the discovery of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and polychlorinated furans, which are suspected as human carcinogens. Sampling also discovered some metals in wastes in the impoundments.
According to the EPA, physical changes at the site in the 1970s and 1980s resulted in partial submergence of the impoundments north of Interstate 10 and exposure of the contents of the impoundments to surface waters.
As directed by the agency, the parties deployed equipment and materials to repair the cap on Dec. 29 and finished repairs Jan. 4 under EPA oversight. Both protective permeable textiles and rock were added to the damaged area, the agency said.
Sediment Collected From Area
As required by the EPA, the parties collected sediment samples both from the damaged area and the surrounding undisturbed areas of the cap to confirm no materials have been released from the site.
Collected sediment sample results showed waste material containing dioxins, a non-water soluble-hazardous substance, was exposed due to damage to the armored cap, the agency said.
“While it is unlikely that waste material containing dioxin was released into the environment, additional scientific data is needed to confirm no materials have been released from the site,” the agency said, noting that it has directed the PRPs to collect and analyze additional samples.
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Study Investigates Proliferation of Plastic in Waterways Around New York
Feb 18, 2016 | The New York Times
By Lisa W. Foderaro
At the office of NY/NJ Baykeeper, an environmental group, Sandra Meola spread out her haul. For six months last year, she plied the bays and rivers around New York City, skimming the shimmering surface with a fine-mesh net in search of her nemesis: plastic.
Here it was in abundance. A kelly-green floss pick. A swatch of Styrofoam. A Reese’s candy wrapper. A plastic bottle cap. A cigarette filter. A squiggle of fishing line. A nutrition label. And a bright orange drinking straw. “That’s from Dunkin’ Donuts,” she said of the last offending item on the table.
The study of plastic pollution in the waterways of New York City and northern New Jersey was the first of its kind. And it turned up a sobering statistic: At any given time, an estimated 165 million plastic particles are floating in the estuaries that stretch from the Tappan Zee Bridge, along the lower Hudson River, south to Sandy Hook Bay, in New Jersey. That is more than 256,000 particles per square kilometer. Photo Sandra Meola, of NY/NJ Baykeeper, helped trawl local bays and rivers to evaluate the extent of plastic pollution in he region.
Since the federal Clean Water Act was passed in 1972, rivers and bays have grown significantly cleaner as state and local governments have imposed tighter controls on industrial pollution and sewage treatment. But one problem the act did not address has grown along with the nation’s disposable consumer culture — the proliferation of plastic debris.
Plastic pollution often goes unnoticed because water bottles, plastic bags and other large pieces quickly break down into smaller particles. Indeed, the NY/NJ Baykeeper study found that 85 percent of the particles counted were so-called microplastics, 5 millimeters or smaller, about the size of a grain of rice.
Environmental experts say that microplastics are pernicious to wildlife. Some of the plastic bits come from cosmetic products like facial scrubs and toothpastes that use synthetic microbeads, which wash down drains and cannot be filtered out by many wastewater treatment plants. Others are nurdles, resin pellets used in the production of plastics.
Not only do microplastics mimic plankton, an important food source for fish and seabirds, but they also absorb toxins commonly found in polluted waters, like PCBs, pesticides and flame retardants. The plastic particles slip easily into the food chain, contaminating wildlife and, possibly, humans.
“Smaller pieces of plastic are most concerning,” said Ms. Meola, the communications and outreach associate at NY/NJ Baykeeper. “Fish mistake tiny plastic particles for food.” Photo A boat used by NY/NJ Baykeeper skims debris with a manta trawl during its six-month investigation of local water quality. Credit Sandra Meola, NY/NJ Baykeeper
In the study, which was done in partnership with scientists from Rutgers University and the State University of New York at Fredonia, plastic samples were categorized by size and type and then counted using a dissecting microscope. Categories included fragments, foam, fishing line and clothing fiber, pellets and film. The most abundant type of plastic in samples — 38 percent — was foam, or polystyrene.
During the trawling expeditions last spring and summer, a crew from NY/NJ Baykeeper sampled 18 locations in some of the most densely populated and industrial areas in the United States, including the Passaic River, the East River, Newtown Creek, Upper New York Bay and Arthur Kill. Twelve of the sites were in New Jersey waters, and six were in New York.
The team dragged a manta trawl, a nine-foot net with a large open mouth that resembled a manta ray. The boat captain dragged the net across the water for 30 minutes at a speed of two knots. Each of the samples was then dried and cleaned of organic matter.In all, 6,932 plastic particles were counted. Relying on the methodology in a study of plastic pollution in the Great Lakes, NY/NJ Baykeeper’s researchers extrapolated that 165,840,512 particles were afloat in the 160,000-acre expanse of brackish water that makes up the New York-New Jersey Harbor Estuary.
Sherri A. Mason, a professor of chemistry at SUNY Fredonia, has sampled plastic from all five of the Great Lakes. Her data has suggested concentrations of more than one million bits of microplastic per square mile in some parts of the lakes’ surfaces. Microbeads made up more than 60 percent of the samples. Photo Ms. Meola, in the NY/NJ Baykeeper offices, explains the group’s method for gathering samples of plastics from local waterways. Credit Christopher Occhicone for The New York Times
Dr. Mason provided technical assistance on the NY/NJ Baykeeper study, which found that the average quantity of plastic per square kilometer sampled in New York waters was twice that of New Jersey waters. NY/NJ Baykeeper says it will see whether that ratio holds up when it surveys the same sites again, starting in March.
The NY/NJ Baykeeper study, Dr. Mason said, “continues the story that was started with our work” in the Great Lakes. “Plastic pollution is everywhere,” she said, “and the closer we get to the sources — us — the higher the counts.”
Dr. Mason’s research helped draw attention to the danger of cosmetic microbeads in the nation’s waterways. After a number of states enacted bans on microbeads, Congress voted in December to pass the Microbead-Free Waters Act of 2015. Under the law, companies must stop adding plastic beads to products by July 2017.
Environmental scientists and activists have embraced the new law. But they still worry about the other sources of plastic marine pollution. Plastic waste is supposed to go to landfills, or be recycled, but some of it winds up in waterways when people intentionally litter or when trash in overloaded bins spills onto streets and down storm drains.
It is nearly impossible to remove plastic from bays, rivers and oceans once it gets there, experts say. But advocates insist that more work is needed to prevent disposable plastic from reaching shores in the first place.
Ms. Meola was disappointed when New York City’s ban on plastic-foam food containers was overturned last September by a State Supreme Court justice who ruled it “arbitrary and capricious.” Still, Ms. Meola pointed to local governments like that of Rahway, N.J. — which has long banned plastic-foam containers — as foot soldiers in the movement to reverse what she called Americans’ plastic addiction.
“It’s common sense,” she said. “We can’t keep using this stuff for a few minutes and then throwing it out and having it end up in our waters.”
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(ACC Mentioned) Congress Moving To Restrict Drone Flights Near Chemical Plants
Feb 18, 2016 | Chemical & Engineering News
By Glenn Hess
In response to the soaring use of drones, Congress has taken the first step toward prohibiting their unauthorized flight in the airspace over and near chemical plants and petroleum refineries.
A bill (H.R. 4441) to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) includes a provision that would direct the agency to set strict new guidelines to keep the unmanned aircraft away from critical infrastructure facilities. The House of Representatives’ Transportation & Infrastructure Committee approved the bill earlier this month.
Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas) says he offered the provision “as a way to protect our facilities and their employees from potentially hazardous and unauthorized drone activity.” Babin represents an area east of Houston that is home to more petrochemical and refining facilities than any other congressional district.
The American Chemistry Council (ACC), an industry trade group, says the legislation targets the “potential misuse of drones for illicit purposes without interfering with their growing use by the public for recreation and their use for commercial applications.”
Perhaps the greatest threat is industrial espionage through aerial photography, says John J. Durkay, legal counsel for the International Safety Training Council, which trains contractors and employees at chemical and refining plants in southeastern Texas.
“Sometimes enterprising individuals take it upon themselves to fly over a site and then see if they can sell the photos” to a competitor, Durkay tells C&EN. “Drones photographing units can compromise facility trade secrets.”
Drones malfunctioning and crashing are another worry. “These facilities have a lot of power lines, communication towers, and so on,” Durkay says. “Especially problematic is that drones are getting quite a bit larger.”
Because of their maneuverability, affordability, and capacity to carry items, terrorists could use small drones to attack industrial targets with explosives, ACC says.
The bill now goes to the House floor for a vote. The Senate is expected to draft separate legislation to reauthorize FAA.
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$10 Million in Grants Awarded for Rail Safety Upgrades
Feb 19, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
The Federal Railroad Administration announced Feb. 18 it has awarded almost $10 million to eight states to improve safety at rail crossing along routes where energy commodities are carried. The grants, awarded under the Safe Transportation of Energy Products by Rail program, will fund nine projects around the country intended to improve warning systems at crossings and separate rail traffic from other vehicles and pedestrians. Washington state was awarded $900,000 toward the construction of a bridge overpass near Vancouver along a route where BNSF Railway Co. hauls both coal and crude-by-rail on a line that also includes Amtrak passenger service. In addition to Washington, grants were also awarded to Arkansas, California, Illinois, Louisiana, Minnesota, North Dakota and Wisconsin.
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PHMSA Cites Corrosion in California Pipe Spill
Feb 19, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration cited in a report released Feb. 17 external corrosion as the main cause of a 2015 pipeline failure in California that resulted in the release of more than 120,000 gallons of crude oil. The preliminary factual report's finding regarding the Santa Barbara County, Calif., pipeline spill that occurred on May 19, 2015, is consistent with the agency's earlier finding. In June 2015, PHMSA said that corrosion had degraded the Plains All American Pipeline LP Line 901's walls, leaving a roughly six-inch opening at the bottom of the pipe. The new report, which is subject to change, includes additional information regarding what happened prior to the release of the crude oil, and an up-to-date technical analysis. The pipeline spill itself prompted renewed calls on Capitol Hill by several Democrats for automatic shutoff valve and improved leak-detection technology requirements for pipelines.
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Coast Guard to Withdraw Proposal on Fracking Wastewater
Feb 19, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Rachel Leven
An upcoming U.S. Coast Guard action to formally withdraw a 2013 policy proposal—but consider individual requests on moving fracking wastewater by barge—could present opportunities for industry and transparency concerns for the public, attorneys for industry and the environment told Bloomberg BNA.
The focus will now be placed on the upcoming notice the Coast Guard will publish in the Federal Register, where observers will be looking to see what legal authorities the agency cites and what its path forward is for assessing risks for this type of transport. The notice could lead to litigation. It also provides a possible hook for those who want strict regulation of disposal of this wastewater.
“If it goes the way you say it's going to, the topic is not closed,” Terry Lodge, an attorney for the Freshwater Accountability Project, told Bloomberg BNA.
These comments focus on the agency's 2013 proposed policy to establish that wastewater from shale gas extraction being moved in bulk isn't a “listed cargo” and would set up a process for conducting chemical analyses of fracking wastewater loads, for a radiation survey of each barge and other issues. The policy was sparked, in part, by commercial interests for moving these materials in bulk from northern Appalachia to Ohio, Texas and Louisiana.
The Coast Guard told Bloomberg BNA Feb. 16 that it intends to rescind through an upcoming notice its 2013 proposed policy, which declined to label fracking wastewater a “listed cargo,” in part because the chemical composition varies depending on where it's from.
For example, certain radioactive isotopes are known to be “elevated” in the Marcellus shale, the 2013 proposal said. The agency won't propose a new action but will consider individual requests and will use those experiences to inform future actions (31 DEN A-11, 2/17/16).
Opportunities, Transparency
This announcement seems to foreshadow opportunities for industry, James Elliott of Spilman Thomas & Battle PLLC, who has previously acted as an attorney for the Independent Oil and Gas Association of West Virginia Inc. and others on this issue, said. It could “allow the Coast Guard to more freely work with individual companies to potentially barge the produced water,” he told Bloomberg BNA.
Lodge, however, expressed concern that this action could make these approvals and barge movements “more or less invisible from public tracking or scrutiny.” By withdrawing the policy, the public “will have the burden of constantly requesting records” to learn about the types of and safeguards for bulk shipments of fracking wastewater “about to be shipped or more likely that have already been shipped.”
Both Elliott and Lodge said the Coast Guard's statement to Bloomberg BNA left questions unanswered, questions that may be addressed when the agency formally announces its decision through its upcoming Federal Register notice. The Coast Guard previously declined to tell Bloomberg BNA when the notice would be published.
Elliott said he would be examining the notice to understand what the Coast Guard's path forward is for determining risks, if any, of moving these materials by barge. From the Coast Guard's statement to Bloomberg BNA, Elliott said it seems like the agency intends to work with companies to generate data “to better understand the potential risk of barging produced water.”
What to Watch for
“If what they're saying is aimed at generating more information on what risks, if any, [are associated with this transport], then that too is a good development,” Elliott said.
A political observer who requested anonymity said this discussion of assessing the risks of fracking wastewater movement by barge could again prompt debate on whether this wastewater's disposal is regulated stringently enough, potentially sparking action on Capitol Hill.
Fracking wastewater currently isn't regulated under Subtitle C of the Resources Conservation and Recovery Act, where disposal of hazardous waste is addressed. Determinations of risks related to movement by barge could provide a hook for advocates to reconsider legislation such as the Closing Loopholes and Ending Arbitrary and Needless Evasion of Regulations Act of 2015 (H.R. 4215) to allow disposal of this type of waste to be regulated as hazardous waste, the observer said.
Meanwhile, Lodge said he would be looking for what the Coast Guard's existing legal authority is to move forward with individual approvals and on this general path. While issues remain in the air until the notice is published, Lodge said he would be speaking with another environmental group about taking potential legal action.
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Pennsylvania Pipeline Task Force Issues Wish List
Feb 19, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Leslie A. Pappas
Pennsylvania's governor-appointed Pipeline Infrastructure Task Force detailed a 184-item wish list of steps state agencies, lawmakers, industry and local governments can take to streamline the upcoming build-out of pipelines in a final report released Feb. 18.
The report is meant to serve as a guideline on best practices in anticipation of a massive pipeline build-out the state expects over the next decade. Pennsylvania produced more than 4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in 2014, making it the second-largest producer in the nation, the report says. Yet almost a third of wells drilled since 2004 are shut in because Pennsylvania's existing 12,000 miles of pipelines lack the capacity to handle the spike in production. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental expects 30,000 more miles of pipeline to be built over the next ten years.
The final report offers a “rich trove of information we can all use” to develop better policies around pipeline development, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Secretary John Quigley said in a webinar Feb. 18. The report is intended to identify best practices, not serve as a regulatory document, he added.
Dangers or Benefits?
Most of the recommendations are “fairly basic and general,” making it difficult to determine what impact they may have, said Daniel B. Markind, a partner at Weir and Partners LLP in Philadelphia, a corporate transactional attorney who represents numerous companies and individuals involved in natural gas and oil leasing.
“The devil truly will be in the details, especially the part about educating landowners and other pipeline development issues,” Markind told Bloomberg BNA in an e-mail Feb. 18. “Will this turn into a scare tactic about future pipeline development or will it clearly show both the dangers and benefits of building out our infrastructure? All of this remains to be seen.”
Agency Assignments Detailed
The final report did not change substantially from a draft issued in November, Quigley said (220 DEN A-9, 11/16/15).
The final version expands the 335-page draft to 658 pages by adding appendices that include task force member comments, a tally sheet of task force voting results, and a chart that assigns responsibility for each recommendation to a specific government agency, legislative body, industry or local government.
The Public Utility Commission, for example, was tasked with safety issues surrounding pipeline infrastructure, such as expanding an existing damage-prevention call network to include all classes of pipelines, establishing a centralized mapping system for emergency responders and opening a public portal to mapping information, among other measures.
Among the recommendations tasked to industry are improving coordination and communication with local landowners, conducting early outreach to impacted communities, performing regular site maintenance, requesting pre-application meetings with regulatory agencies and using Pennsylvania-sourced plant vendors and landscaping services when building new pipelines.
Department Already Strained
The DEP is the lead agency for 94 of the 184 recommendations, Quigley said. The agency has established a working group that is now analyzing each recommendation systematically to figure out whether regulation or legislation may be required.
Among the DEP's top goals are implementing an electronic permitting system and minimizing the impact of pipelines on Pennsylvania's streams, rivers and high value water resources.
Quigley said taking on the new recommendations “will be an immense challenge to an already strained agency,” and he said he could not offer a timeline for when each task would get done.
“It will take as long as it takes,” he said. “Folks can only do so much and work so many hours in a day.”
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Major Natural Gas Leak Sealed Near Los Angeles
Feb 18, 2016 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Timothy Cama
The company responsible for the natural gas leak north of Los Angeles said Thursday that it had “permanently” sealed the leak after four months.
Southern California Gas Co. and the California Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources confirmed that the leak at the Aliso Canyon gas storage facility in Porter Ranch, Calif., had been sealed thanks to a relief well the company drilled.“We are pleased that DOGGR has confirmed that the well has been permanently sealed,” Dennis Arriola, president of the gas utility, said in a Thursday statement.
“To the residents of Porter Ranch and the surrounding communities, I want to tell you I recognize the disruption that this gas leak has caused to your lives,” Arriola said at a news conference, according to the Los Angeles Times.
“I know there is nothing that I can say that will change the past, but I know that measurable actions actually speak louder than words,” he said.
The leak had forced thousands of people in a large area to evacuate since it started in October, due to the dangers of the gas and the noxious additives it contains.
But the methane in the gas meant that the leak was the most significant cause of greenhouse gas emissions in California, adding to the urgency of plugging it.
The Environmental Defense Fund estimates that the leak emitted more than 90,000 metric tons of natural gas, of which methane is the main component, into the atmosphere.
Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz visited the site earlier this week, days after a temporary plug had been applied.
The gas utility is facing criminal charges over the incident. The company, along with local, state and federal officials, is continuing to investigate what went wrong.
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Leaking Gas Well Near Los Angeles Permanently Sealed
Feb 19, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Carolyn Whetzel
California oil and regulators confirmed Feb. 18 that Southern California Gas Co. has permanently sealed the leaking, damaged well at its natural gas storage field near Los Angeles.
California Department of Conservation Chief Deputy Director Jason Marshall made the announcement at a Feb. 18 news briefing a week after the Sempra Energy utility announced it had temporarily stopped the flow of gas from the well. SoCalGas used a cement cap to plug the leak at the base of the well (29 DEN A-13, 2/12/16).
“After independently reviewing multiple tests on the leaking well—including temperature tests, noise tests and cement-bond tests—we have confirmed that the Standard Sesnon 25 well at the Aliso Canyon Storage Field is no longer leaking and the well is sealed,” Marshall said in a written statement issued after the briefing.
Since being discovered Oct. 23, the leak released an estimated 5.4 billion cubic feet of natural gas, according to preliminary monitoring data collected by the California Air Resources Board.
“While the leak has been stopped and the well permanently sealed, we have much work to do,” Dennis V. Arriola, SoCalGas president and chief executive officer, said in a written statement. SoCalGas will partner with state and local agencies to help the local community and affected residents return to normal, he said.
“We recognize the disruption the gas leak has caused local residents,” he said. “We are committed to earning back their trust and confidence over time through our actions, not our words.”
Investigation Begins
SoCalGas will continue to work with state regulators at the Department of Conservation's Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources and an independent investigator to determine the cause of the leak, Arriola said. The utility already has begun inspecting all the other 114 wells at the facility, he said.
The leak triggered responses from federal, state and local officials and calls from nearby residents. More than 60 lawsuits have been filed against SoCalGas, including a complaint by the California Attorney General and local prosecutors. Several nearby residents and environmental groups want the facility, the fifth largest natural gas storage facility in the nation, permanently shut down.
At a Feb. 16 briefing near Los Angeles, U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said lessons learned from the leak will inform a multi-agency review of national regulations that govern gas storage fields (32 DEN A-2, 2/18/16).
California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) declared the leak an emergency Jan. 6 and directed state and local agencies to take steps to address the leak, mitigate its impacts and reduce the risks of future leaks.
New Gas Storage Rules Imposed
New emergency rules for gas storage facilities now require daily inspections of wells and additional monitoring and testing (26 DEN A-7, 2/9/16).
State regulators plan to make those regulations permanent.
CARB officials said Feb. 18 that the agency is developing a plan requiring SoCalGas to fully mitigate the greenhouse gas impacts of the leak. A draft plan will be released March 7, agency staff said at its Feb. 18 meeting in Sacramento.
On Feb. 22, a state Assembly committee will consider legislation introduced by State Sen. Fran Pavley (D), S.B. 380, to impose a moratorium on future injections of gas into the field and extractions from older wells, until studies deem the operations pose no undue risk.
Odorants Prompted Complaints
Odorants used in natural gas prompted thousands of complaints from residents of Porter Ranch and other communities downwind of the 3,600-acre storage field, which serves SoCalGas's 21 million customers in the Los Angeles basin.
Many residents reported headaches, dizziness and nosebleeds, effects state and local health officials have said come from exposure to the chemical odorants.
SoCalGas temporarily relocated over 6,400 families living near the facility located on the northern rim of the San Fernando Valley.
Relocated Residents Can Return
CARB and the South Coast Air Quality Management District have set thresholds for emissions of methane and other pollutants for affected neighborhoods before residents can be allowed to return to their homes.
With the state's confirmation that the leak has stopped, residents temporarily relocated to short-term lodging will have eight days, or seven nights, to return home, under an agreement SoCalGas negotiated with the Los Angeles City attorney. Residents moved to rental homes will have through the end of their leases to transition back home, the utility said.
In a Feb. 11 filing, Sempra said estimated total costs associated with the leak would be at least $250 million, excluding penalties and legal expenses. The company expects its more than $1 billion in insurance will cover most of the expenses.
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EPA Reportedly Hints ESPS Compliance Date Could Remain Despite Stay
Feb 18, 2016 | InsideEPA
By Abby Smith & Doug Obey
EPA is suggesting that the deadline for states to submit plans for its existing power plant greenhouse gas rule will slip in the wake of the high court stay, but the agency is also privately hinting to states that it may still be able to maintain a 2022 start date to the rule's compliance period should the stay eventually be lifted.
According to Jennifer Murphy, assistant general counsel to the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC), EPA officials told state regulators on a Feb. 16 conference call -- the first since the Supreme Court stayed the existing source performance standards (ESPS) -- that regulatory deadlines to submit state plans, particularly the Sept. 6 deadline for states to submit initial plans, will be delayed due to the high court decision.
But Murphy -- who briefed NARUC's electricity committee on the conference call later that afternoon during the group's winter meeting in Washington, D.C. -- noted that during the call, acting air chief Janet McCabe “left open that the compliance deadline of 2022 would not be slipping.”
Murphy added that EPA “did not have a lot more clarity to give” in terms of how states should move forward in the wake of the stay.
Her comments provide the first indication of how the agency may proceed since the high court Feb. 9 stayed the ESPS.
EPA has not publicly acknowledged an intent to maintain the current start and end dates to the ESPS compliance period if the high court stay is lifted and the rule upheld.
But the agency has noted that states will not be required to submit initial plans on the Sept. 6 deadline and has reiterated that it will provide tools and resources to states willing to continue planning on their own.
“EPA firmly believes the Clean Power Plan will be upheld when the merits are considered because the rule rests on strong scientific and legal foundations. Implementation and enforcement are on hold while the stay is in place,” agency spokeswoman Melissa Harrison said in a statement to Inside EPA, adding that EPA “will continue to work with states that want to work with us on a voluntary basis.”
In terms of deadlines, however, Harrison said “at this stage, it is too soon to say what adjustments might need to be made once the litigation is resolved.”
But if the agency does seek to retain the 2022 compliance dates, it could draw criticism from utility groups, who in their stay request had urged the high court both to grant the stay and extend all compliance dates “by the number of days between publication of the rule and a final decision by the courts, including this Court, relating to the rule's validity.”
Though the high court granted Feb. 9 a stay of the rule until litigation is resolved, the order remained silent on how that move should affect compliance dates under the regulation.
Planning Deadlines
Legal observers, however, are largely in agreement that at least the ESPS planning deadlines -- the September 2016 deadline to submit initial plans and the September 2018 deadline for final plans -- would be pushed back.
“The one thing that we know for sure is that deadlines will change,” said NARUC general counsel Brad Ramsay, though he added that “the deadline that are further out, the 2030 deadline and the 2022 [compliance start date], may change less than the near-term” planning deadlines.
Speaking on the stay during NARUC's winter meeting, Ramsay laid out a timeline in which litigation, assuming the case on the rule's merits is taken up by the Supreme Court, is not resolved until early 2018.
A Feb. 16 analysis -- co-authored by the Rhodium Group's John Larsen, the Center for Strategic and International Studies' (CSIS) Sarah Ladislaw and Michelle Melton and Van Ness Feldman's Kyle Danish -- suggests that the high court's stay would almost certainly delay the initial deadline for states to submit ESPS compliance plans by September 2018, even under a scenario where the court upholds the rule.
But the analysis also finds that such a delay does “not necessarily” translate to a delay of the original 2022 compliance date in the ESPS, which could mean the litigation has no impact on the emissions cuts obtained by the rule.
Jonathan Pershing of the Energy Department's policy office, speaking Feb. 16 at the NARUC winter meeting, seemed to suggest the 2022 compliance start date would remain the same, using the timing as reasoning to reassure members of the international community that the United States, despite the ESPS stay, could still meet its GHG reduction commitment to the global climate accord approved last December by countries in Paris.
“I would also note that the Clean Power Plan doesn't start tomorrow. The obligation with the Clean Power Plan was to develop a plan, but the first compliance period, frankly, goes on until 2022 and so you've got this very different structure, and in fact the international community is aware of that framework,” Pershing said.
NARUC's Ramsay, however, in his remarks noted that administrative law requires EPA to give reasonable notice before imposing deadlines on states. He outlines two options the agency has to adjust the ESPS planning and compliance deadlines: EPA could initiate another rulemaking proceeding if part of the rule is remanded, including any new deadlines as a part of that process.
“Or if we just assume the rule is upheld entirely, which is a possibility,” EPA could delay all the deadlines but maintain the current time intervals between them, an option that would preclude the agency from having to undergo another rulemaking proceeding, he said.
Ramsay clarified later: EPA “would have to open a proceeding if they were going to shorten deadlines from the current intervals, and at least give you adequate notice and explain why."
Emissions Reductions
The Rhodium/CSIS/Van Ness analysis says that any delay of the 2022 date could postpone emissions reductions and affect the cumulative emission reductions under the regulation even if the rule survives litigation. “Depending on the legal and administrative outcome of the Court’s eventual decision, a delayed start could (but would not necessarily) have an impact on cumulative emissions,” it says.
If the Supreme Court rejects the rule, the impact on emissions for the next decade is “more uncertain,” the paper says, but several factors -- low natural gas prices, recently renewed renewable energy tax credits and other regulations targeting conventional pollutants -- will likely continue to push emissions down even without the ESPS.
“There is a reasonable chance that these combined drivers could, on a national basis, push emissions down to the targets set in [ESPS] regardless of how the court ultimately rules,” the analysis says.
While the stay does not mean all states will discontinue drafting of ESPS plans, it does “increase the risk of discontinuities in planning processes underway in and among states and regions and create more confusion for utilities and other power providers in the sector, with the potential for suboptimal economic and emissions outcomes.”
McCabe, however, has been downplaying concerns that the stay may upend eventual compliance with the rule. Speaking to state air, environmental and energy regulators at a meeting of the National Association of State Energy Officials on Feb. 11, she told Montana energy official Laura Anderson that EPA has “some experience in past history with important rules that were stayed while litigation was going forward,” citing the cross-state air pollution rule and the NOx SIP call. In those instances, “time went by and people had questions, and then it all got resolved,” McCabe said. “So I think we're not in any position where we know that yet, but I think history shows that those things get worked out.”
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Parties Bear Down For Brutal Firefight Over SCOTUS
Feb 18, 2016 | PoliticoPro
By Burgess Everett
Both Mitch McConnell and Harry Reid now have evidence that their showdown over a Supreme Court pick is paying political dividends — with hard-core partisans, at least.
A pair of national polls from CBS and NBC showed Americans are sharply divided over the future of Antonin Scalia’s Supreme Court vacancy, with roughly half favoring Barack Obama to pick a new justice followed by a Senate vote, and the other half backing Majority Leader McConnell's plans to punt for a year. That leaves neither party with a clear edge as they both dig in for a brutal yearlong confrontation.
Still, the split decision in each poll offers an early validation of McConnell’s decision to quickly kill off a potential nomination, rather than stringing out the process with hearings and debate, only to reach the same outcome. If the blockade isn't driving away voters, and potentially threatening GOP control of the Senate, McConnell is likely to press on.
"If you find me a voter who believes Barack Obama should transform the Supreme Court in his image but also wants a conservative majority, my first question will be about the unicorn they rode in on,” said Josh Holmes, a former chief of staff to McConnell. “Nobody should confuse the volume of the outcry with widespread concern in the center of the electorate.”
But across the Capitol, Democrats are arguing that the GOP's preemptive vow to block any nominee will, eventually, prove just as unpopular as the 2013 government shutdown fight over Obamacare.
Democrats are betting that public pressure from critical home-state editorial boards, along with around the clock, months-long coverage of the GOP's blockade, will paint the Republicans as unable to fulfill their basic functions as senators. Adam Jentleson, the deputy chief of staff for Minority Leader Reid, says that McConnell’s campaign to prove his party is a responsible governing majority “might as well be set on fire.”“On the polls, Republicans are betting everything they own on what is, in the absolute best-case scenario, a coin flip for them,” Jentleson said Thursday. “The wise move would be to wait and see how those poll numbers shift once there is a living, breathing nominee.”
Those sentiments suggest that the political firefight over the Supreme Court will only intensify over the coming months. Senate Republicans are beginning to argue that there should be no hearings on the matter, with McConnell’s strategy to smother the Democrats' message by not giving them a platform in the Capitol.
But that won't stop outside groups and party committees from ratcheting up the tension with tens of millions of dollars of ads, not to mention the endless rhetorical broadsides among Reid, McConnell and their members. A conservative judicial group has already launched at least $1 million in ads backing McConnell’s position, while liberal activists from the Progressive Change Campaign Committee are attempting to embarrass McConnell at his Kentucky offices on Friday by showing up to call for him to a vote on a nominee. Meanwhile partisans are digging through years-old quotes from senators in both parties, hoping something sticks and drags down one side's argument.
And White House press secretary Josh Earnest on Thursday said the GOP obstruction will be a "legitimate" issue for voters come November.
“Given the stakes, it’s something that’ll get a lot of attention. And it’s a good thing: This is something that should be subjected to a vigorous public debate," Earnest told reporters.
But the early polling suggests the fight will be about motivating the party bases, not swinging undecided voters. This could change given the volatility of the issue and the amount of time until the election, but at this early stage there’s no indication that independent voters are breaking either way.
Americans split evenly in both the CBS and NBC polls on whether Obama should nominate a new justice and on whether McConnell should allow a vote. With a party breakdown, the CBS poll showed a neat partisan divide, with Democrats calling for a nominee from Obama, Republicans calling for a delay until the new president is sworn in and independents evenly split between those two approaches.
Fittingly, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and National Republican Senatorial Committee are now openly fundraising off the matter to motivate their most reliable donors and voters. And McConnell has written two fundraising appeals in as many days, telling donors on Thursday: "Senate Republicans are committed to waiting until after the 2016 election to confirm a new justice to the U.S. Supreme Court."
“The Republican Senate majority is the last line of defense against the Supreme Court transforming into a rubber stamp for President Obama's reckless liberal policies,” said Andrea Bozek, a spokeswoman for the NRSC.
And the Democrats say that reliable partisans will help cast out a half-dozen vulnerable incumbents to make Sen. Chuck Schumer the majority leader next year and that eventually independents will come over to their position.
"Republicans have once again shown moderates and independents that the GOP is the party of dysfunction," said Lauren Passalacqua, a DSCC spokeswoman. “Those who care deeply about protecting health care, removing dark money from politics and respecting choice will be especially motivated to support Democrats this election year."But what’s not clear is how things will shake out in individual states in the Senate elections, where five GOP incumbents are in difficult races in states that President Barack Obama has won and even a relatively safe Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) says there should be hearings on a nominee. In battleground states, however, all those at-risk senators but Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) are standing with McConnell on blocking a nominee. But they are divided on how to get there.
Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) said that confirmation hearings could mislead voters to think that the GOP was giving serious consideration to a nominee. But Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) says he’d be fine taking a vote on the nominee, which would require not only that the Judiciary Committee hold hearings but also that McConnell schedule a confirmation vote.
But regardless of those differences over tactics, the overall party strategy to block a nomination seems likely to be unshaken under the current political dynamic. Not only would McConnell have to flip and order consideration of a nominee, but the Judiciary Committee would also have to vote out a nominee, and then at least 14 Republican senators would have to support breaking a filibuster.
The outrage from the right would be deafening, so that’s not likely to happen. But no matter how the GOP decides to kill the nomination, Republicans says it’s within their right to perform what they say is the will of the voters.
“People are saying, 'Well, the voters decided when they chose President Obama,'” Johnson said in an interview this week. “Well, the voters decided in 2014 to give Republicans the majority of the Senate and have control over the confirmation process.”
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KY. Activists To Petition McConnell On Nominee
Feb 18, 2016 | E&E News PM
By Hannah Hess
Liberal activists plan to take their fight for consideration of President Obama's Supreme Court nominee to the Senate Republican leader's home state.
Tomorrow, Kentucky residents who have organized with a coalition of progressive groups will deliver more than 500,000 petition signatures to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's office in Louisville.
The death of Justice Antonin Scalia on Saturday prompted the White House to start searching for his replacement. But McConnell immediately warned the president that the GOP-controlled Senate will reject anyone Obama nominates and instead let the next president fill the vacancy. His action set the chamber on course for another partisan fight ahead of the November elections (Greenwire, Feb. 16).
Organizers, including the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC), MoveOn.org Civic Action and Demand Progress, said the petitions urge Senate Republicans to "stop obstructing and allow the process to move forward on any Supreme Court nomination put forward by President Obama." PCCC is also waging war online with a series of ads designed to link Kentucky voters to its petition.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.), currently campaigning for a Senate seat, also collected signatures, according to organizers.
Over the course of the week, some Republicans have softened their rebuke (Greenwire, Feb. 17). Yesterday, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) said it is up to Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) whether to schedule a hearing on the president's nominee. Grassley has said he will make no decision until he sees who is put forth.
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EPA Focuses FY17-19 Enforcement On Industrial Discharges, Air Toxics
Feb 18, 2016 | InsideEPA
By David LaRoss
EPA's just-announced enforcement priorities for fiscal years 2017 through 2019 include two new areas of focus covering accidental chemical releases and industrial water pollution and an expansion of its existing focus on hazardous air pollutants to include community-level air toxics, while continuing four of the agency's other five current priorities.
The agency announced its FY17-19 national enforcement initiatives (NEIs) on its website Feb. 18, and generally followed through on its Sept. 15 proposal that first floated potential the focus areas for the coming years, despite calls from many industry sectors to justify each NEI with in-depth data on environmental law violations before finalizing them.
NEIs allow EPA to focus more of its enforcement budget on high-priority targets responsible for a relatively large share of noncompliance with environmental laws. The agency takes comment every three years on which current initiatives it should drop and whether to add new areas of focus.
The FY17-19 NEIs include two completely new topics: reducing industrial water pollution, and reducing the risks of accidental chemical releases from industrial and chemical facilities.
According to EPA's website, the chemical-release NEI will focus on “reducing the risks of accidents through innovative accident prevention measures, and improving response capabilities,” including through the pending revisions to the agency's risk management plan rule for facilities that store hazardous chemicals.
The NEI for industrial water pollution will address “facilities in industrial sectors like chemical and metal manufacturing, mining and food processing” that cause nutrient and metal pollution in protected waters. The agency says its activities in that area will be “driven by water pollution data” and include both enforcing existing Clean Water Act permit limits and stopping unpermitted discharges.
Along with the two completely new NEIs, the agency's existing focus on hazardous air pollutants will continue for another three years with its scope expanded to air toxics at the community level.
EPA said in its proposal for the expanded NEI that officials have found in the course of enforcing air toxics violations that air releases from organic liquid storage tanks and from hazardous wastes pose a particular danger to vulnerable communities.
Existing Initiatives
The four existing NEIs that are being renewed without major changes focus on reducing air pollution from the largest sources, ensuring energy extraction operations comply with environmental laws, keeping raw sewage and contaminated stormwater out of water and preventing water contamination from animal waste.
The agency will drop its focus on reducing pollution from mineral processing operations,which it said in the proposal was expected to have achieved its goals of significant compliance improvements in the sector by the beginning of FY17.
However, the American Petroleum Institute (API) is already arguing that EPA's expansion of the NEIs is unfounded and ignores evidence that industry sectors are generally complying with environmental laws -- a critique that many industry groups raised on comments on the proposal.
“These initiatives are chasing after non-existent problems. API members strive to operate in compliance with federal and state laws and regulations, and emissions from refineries have declined significantly over the last two decades due to industry innovation and investment. . . . The Administration should be encouraging our domestic energy industry rather than challenging it with additional, onerous burdens,” API Senior Director of Regulatory and Scientific Affairs Howard Feldman said in a Feb. 18 statement.
EPA in the final NEIs also rejected calls from environmentalist groups to adopt a strict focus on reducing water pollution from animal feedlots beyond the existing NEI. "In light of the size and pollution potential of these facilities, along with the lack of comprehensive information on the industry, and its history of noncompliance, EPA must continue to prioritize animal waste in order to take the meaningful action that the American people deserve," the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Yale Environmental Protection Clinic said in joint comments on the proposed NEIs.
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Environmentalists Fault Provisions In Boiler Air Rule
Feb 18, 2016 | InsideEPA
Environmentalists suing EPA over its revised air toxics maximum achievable control technology (MACT) rule for large “major” source industrial boilers say they intend to challenge the rule's limits on carbon monoxide (CO) as well as “work practice standards” that the agency is allowing in lieu of complying with some emissions limits.
In a statement of issues filed Feb. 18 with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Sierra Club, Clean Air Council, Environmental Integrity Project and Chesapeake Climate Action Network in Sierra Club, et al. v. EPA, et al., outline the aspects of the rule that they intend to raise in their litigation.
EPA's Nov. 20 rule reconsidered certain aspects of its MACT rule curbing air toxics emissions from major source boilers -- those emitting 10 tons per year (tpy) or more of one hazardous air pollutant (HAP) or 25 tpy of a combination of HAPs. The rule retained a minimum limit of 130 parts per million for CO as a “surrogate” for other pollutants, despite calls from environmentalists for this to be made more stringent.
The environmental groups suing over the rule in their new filing say they they intend to question whether EPA has in effect weakened some specific CO limits, rendering them unlawfully weak and flouting Clean Air Act requirements to set MACT standards based on the performance of the least-polluting units.
The groups also say EPA's provisions allowing boiler operators to use “work practices” such as burning “clean fuel” like natural gas instead of coal during facility startup and shutdown violates the air law, and results in artificially weak emissions limits. The environmentalists question whether “EPA’s claim that it is impracticable to measure Industrial Boilers’ emissions during periods of startup and shutdown is unlawful, unreasonable, or arbitrary and capricious.”
The D.C. Circuit held oral argument Dec. 2 in broader litigation against EPA's major source boiler rule, “area” source rule for smaller boilers, and related air toxics rule for commercial and industrial solid waste incinerators. However, the panel of Judges Karen LeCraft Henderson, Janice Rogers Brown and Thomas Griffith gave few indications about how they might decide the suits.
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EPA Sued for Not Regulating Perchlorate in Drinking Water
Feb 19, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Amena H. Saiyid
Spurred by federal inaction over drinking water contaminants, the Natural Resources Defense Council sued the Environmental Protection Agency Feb. 18 for failing to set limits for perchlorate in drinking water (Nat. Resources Def. Council v. EPA, S.D.N.Y., 16-01251, 2/18/16).
In its complaint, the nonprofit environmental advocacy group charged the EPA with missing deadlines to propose and finalize a drinking water standard, mandated under the Safe Drinking Water Act, following a 2011 agency determination that outlined the rationale for regulating perchlorate. The contaminant can affect thyroid function and while it occurs naturally, it also is used in the manufacture of rocket fuel, explosives and fireworks.
The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Five Years
“The situation in Flint has highlighted the importance of acting swiftly to protect kids from toxic chemicals in our drinking water,” said Erik Olson, NRDC director of the health and environment program, in a Feb. 18 statement accompanying the complaint. “Yet five years after EPA promised to protect millions of Americans—including children and pregnant women—who drink perchlorate-contaminated water, the agency still hasn't even proposed a standard.”
The EPA in February 2011 determined that perchlorate was known or likely to occur in drinking water systems and at levels of concern to public health. The agency has acknowledged that exposure to high doses of perchlorate has been shown to block the uptake of iodide into the thyroid gland. This is of particular concern for women of child-bearing age because thyroid hormones are important for growth and development of the central nervous system in fetuses and infants.
Back in 2011, the EPA set February 2013 as the goal to have the rule in place. The NRDC said the EPA missed the two-year deadline to propose a maximum contaminant level for perchlorate, and another 18 months to finalize that standard.
Still Working on Proposed Rule
A year ago, EPA officials said they were developing a model to help in setting a drinking water standard for perchlorate that would be peer reviewed prior to its release to the public (56 DEN A-9, 3/24/15).
The NRDC notified the EPA in November of its intent to sue over the lack of a perchlorate standard.
“We have an obligation to ensure that every American has access to safe drinking water. It is high time for EPA to get toxic perchlorate out of our kitchen taps,” Olson added.
After the lawsuit was filed, the EPA deferred all questions to the Justice Department, which declined to comment on ongoing litigation.
Perchlorate, widely used by the military and defense industries, is highly soluble in water and can move quickly into groundwater and surface water when it contaminates soil. It has been detected in the drinking water systems that serve up to 16.6 million Americans, the NRDC said.
Perchlorate Is ‘Everywhere.'
“It's everywhere, but generally the chemical is found naturally in low concentrations of around 0.5 part per billion. Even in arid areas where the levels can go higher the concentration never exceeds 10 parts per billion,” W.A. Jackson, Texas Tech University environmental and civil engineering professor, told Bloomberg BNA Feb. 18.
He noted that the 200 ppb concentration of naturally-occurring perchlorate in the southern high plains of Texas was an anomaly.
In urban areas, perchlorate is found in concentrations as high as 100 milligrams per liter but in very localized sites that can run higher. Part of the reason for its widespread presence is runoff from fireworks and flares that are not completely burned.
The EPA said it has been detected in human breast milk, urine, blood, amniotic fluid and saliva.
“A national study representative of the U.S. population ages 6 years and older found perchlorate in the urine of 100 percent of the more than 5,000 people sampled; children had higher median urinary levels compared with those of adults, including women of child-bearing age,” according to the 2013 EPA report, America's Children and the Environment.
Despite the fact that perchlorate is easily available, Jackson said it can just as easily be removed by bacteria in the biological digestion process.
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NRDC Cites Flint Crisis In Suit Seeking EPA Perchlorate Water Standard
Feb 18, 2016 | InsideEPA
By Maria Hegstad
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has followed through on its threat to sue the agency for failing to craft a drinking water standard for the rocket fuel ingredient perchlorate within a two-year Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) deadline, saying the Flint, MI, drinking water crisis shows the needs to curb toxics in water.
The group filed its suit Feb. 18 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, years after former Obama EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson in February 2011 said that the agency should craft such a drinking water limit for perchlorate. Jackson's decision reversed a decision by George W. Bush EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson against pursuing such a standard. Her move triggered a two-year clock under SDWA for issuing the limit -- which EPA failed to do.
EPA's effort to craft the standard, or maximum contaminant level goal (MCLG), has faced a series of delays. For example, the agency's Science Advisory Board recommended that agency regulators use new models to determine harmful exposure levels, rather than using EPA's traditional algebraic approach to setting the goal.
While the agency wrestles with the complicated science on the issue, EPA's latest regulatory agenda provides a March 2017 timetable for proposing the standard, with September 2018 as the timing for the final rule.
An NRDC source told Inside EPA in December that the group was weighing a suit under SDWA Section 1449(a)(2), which allows anyone to sue the agency for failing to perform a nondiscretionary duty.
The group has now followed through on that threat, saying in part that the drinking water crisis with high lead levels in Flint underscores the need for adequate federal water standards.
“The situation in Flint has highlighted the importance of acting swiftly to protect kids from toxic chemicals in our drinking water. Yet five years after EPA promised to protect millions of Americans -- including children and pregnant women -- who drink perchlorate-contaminated water, the agency still hasn’t even proposed a standard,” Erik Olson, director of NRDC's Health and Environment Program, says in a Feb. 18 statement.
“We have an obligation to ensure that every American has access to safe drinking water. It is high time for EPA to get toxic perchlorate out of our kitchen taps,” Olson adds.
Perchlorate is used in rocket fuels and munitions, and also occurs naturally in some fertilizers. Drinking water sources across the country have been contaminated, often from the chemical's use at military and aerospace sites. Perchlorate can inhibit the body's uptake of iodine, a necessary nutrient that ensures proper regulation of the thyroid. Such regulation is extremely important to fetuses, which are dependent upon the mother's iodine and thyroid hormone levels during critical stages of development. Improper thyroid regulation for a sufficient amount of time can also result in neurological impairments to the infant.
Despite those adverse health effects, EPA has struggled to set an MCLG, however, because the agency lacks a clear understanding of the exposure levels and duration at which harm occurs.
The NRDC source told Inside EPA in December that the group's concern over drinking water standards is not limited to perchlorate but also includes the agency's failure to propose any new drinking water regulation since Congress amended the drinking water law in 1996. “This is the first time under the 1996 SDWA amendments that they would make a rule,” the source said. “And here we are 19 years later and still no rule. . . . It's pretty disappointing that the agency has taken so long and hasn't much to show for it,” the source added. EPA and Justice Department spokesmen declined to comment on NRDC's suit.
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