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Pending Chemical Bill Could Protect Monsanto From Pollution Lawsuits
Mar 1, 2016 | Chem.Info
By Andy Szal
Ongoing congressional discussions about chemical oversight legislation could determine whether Monsanto should be forced to pay hundreds of millions over its production of now-banned industrial chemicals. -
EPA to Increase Oversight of State Drinking Water Programs
Mar 2, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Rachel Leven
The Environmental Protection Agency announced it will increase its oversight of state drinking water programs in light of the crisis in Flint, Mich., and similar instances in other cities. -
Chemical Board Releases Fertilizer Explosion Video
Mar 2, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
The Chemical Safety Hazard and Investigation Board released a safetyvideo Jan. 29 on the 2013 fatal explosion and fire at West Fertilizer Co. in West, Texas(20 DEN A-10, 2/1/16). -
EPA Proposes Chemical Safety Rule Changes
Mar 1, 2016 | Environmental Leader
By Jessica Lyons Hardcastle
The EPA is proposing changes to its chemical safety rules that will require companies in three industries — paper manufacturing, petroleum and coal products, and chemical manufacturing — to assess whether safer technologies and chemicals are feasible. -
Advocates File to Dismiss Crude-by-Rail Lawsuit
Mar 2, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
Environmental groups are asking a federal appeals court to dismiss their challenge against the Transportation Department's crude-by-rail rule, in light of mandates Congress made in its multiyear surface transportation law (Am. Petroleum Inst. v. United States, D.C. Cir., No. 15-1199, 2/29/16). -
White House Signs Off on Gas Pipeline Safety Rule
Mar 2, 2016 | PoliticoPro - Whiteboard
By Elana Schor and Andrew Restuccia
The White House budget office on Monday cleared a proposed rule for gas transmission pipeline safety that's set for release in the "next couple of weeks," Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration chief Marie Therese Dominguez told lawmakers today. -
Senate Pipeline Safety Bill Snags on GOP Objections
Mar 2, 2016 | PoliticoPro
By Andrew Restuccia and Elana Schor
At least one Republican is voicing objections to a provision in the Senate's pipeline safety legislation that lets lawmakers view the industry's unredacted emergencyresponse plans, slowing down a bipartisan bill that had once been expected to pass easily. -
House GOP Rolls Out Rule-Slashing Platform
Mar 2, 2016 | E&E Daily
By Hannah Hess
House Republicans who will help shape the GOP's election-year agenda on federal rule reform said yesterday that they want to build a "modern and transparent regulatory system" that reduces burdens on small businesses, while "balancing environmental stewardship" and other interests.
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Pending Chemical Bill Could Protect Monsanto From Pollution Lawsuits
Mar 1, 2016 | Chem.Info
By Andy Szal
Ongoing congressional discussions about chemical oversight legislation could determine whether Monsanto should be forced to pay hundreds of millions over its production of now-banned industrial chemicals.
The New York Times reports that the House version of a bill to revise the outdated Toxic Substances Control Act specifically targets legal liability for polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs.
PCBs had a wide variety of industrial uses as a fire retardant, including in production of paints, pesticides and paper. But the chemicals were also linked to environmental concerns and severe health problems and were banned in the 1970s.
Monsanto produced nearly all PCBs over the course of more than four decades, and recent litigation over the chemicals has skyrocketed -- from individuals dealing with health complications to school districts and municipalities with crumbling PCB-laden buildings.
In addition, six cities are suing the agrichemical giant over the costs to clean up PCB pollution.
But a provision inserted in the House version of the chemical bill stipulates that past EPA regulations would disqualify legal claims -- and specifically referenced agency restrictions on PCBs.
That, the Times reported, could allow Monsanto attorneys to seek dismissal of PCB-related lawsuits. An attorney representing Monsanto in Texas federal court cited the language during a case in November.
Republican aides denied that the provision was added on Monsanto's behalf but did not offer further details in the report; Monsanto told the Times that the company did not ask for it and that, regardless, it is not responsible for improper disposal of PCBs.
Numerous states, meanwhile, also worry that the House and Senate versions of the chemical bill would, in different ways, delay or prohibit state restrictions of chemicals under EPA review.
It remains to be seen what language will emerge in a final bill, but despite the numerous complaints, seemingly all involved in the debate despise the Toxic Substances Control Act and want an overhaul to pass.
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EPA to Increase Oversight of State Drinking Water Programs
Mar 2, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Rachel Leven
The Environmental Protection Agency announced it will increase its oversight of state drinking water programs in light of the crisis in Flint, Mich., and similar instances in other cities.
Federal officials will meet and work with each state program to improve its implementation of the EPA's existing rule aimed at controlling lead and copper in drinking water, Joel Beauvais, EPA deputy assistant administrator for water, said in a Feb. 29 letter to governors and state agencies. Proposed changes to the lead and copper rule, last revised in 2007, will be released in 2017, he said. The rule had been expected in 2016.
“We must work together to address the broad set of challenges and opportunities we face—including in the areas of infrastructure finance and investment, science technology, legacy and emerging contaminants, regulatory oversight, risk assessment and public engagement and education,” Gina McCarthy, EPA administrator, said in another Feb. 29letter. “I ask that you encourage your state agency to give this effort the highest priority.”
This action was prompted by drinking water crises in Flint and other cities that have garnered significant public concern and attention in Washington. In Flint, lead leached into the city's water from corroded pipes after the city switched its water source from the Detroit water system to the Flint River without adding corrosion controls, as required by the Safe Drinking Water Act., leaving more than 8,000 children at risk of exposure to high lead levels in their drinking water.
McCarthy also urged state officials to improve transparency on drinking water through measures such as placing state test methods and results on a public website.
While the agency's actions are in response to problems with lead in drinking water, Beauvais said the toxic metal is far from the only contaminant of concern. The agency would work with states to identify ways to improve drinking water safety overall, including ensuring necessary investments are made for oversight, McCarthy said.
The letters from Beauvais and McCarthy were accompanied by a technical memo recommending how to best meet sampling requirements under the current lead rule.
Flint Legislation
On Capitol Hill, Congress continues to offer new legislative solutions related to the drinking water crisis in Flint and similar incidents.
Reps. Paul D. Tonko (D-N.Y.) and Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-N.J.) introduced the AQUA Act (H.R. 4653) Feb. 29 to reauthorize the drinking water state revolving fund for five years—from fiscal years 2017 to 2021. The bill would require the EPA administrator to assess the risks of drought to drinking water; to create a drinking water resiliency and sustainability grant program for public water systems; and to establish a grant program for removing lead pipelines from public water systems.
The resiliency grant program would receive $50 million annually. The lead lines program would receive $100 million annually, with up to $10 million allocated for only low-income homeowners.
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Chemical Board Releases Fertilizer Explosion Video
Mar 2, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
The Chemical Safety Hazard and Investigation Board released a safetyvideo Jan. 29 on the 2013 fatal explosion and fire at West Fertilizer Co. in West, Texas(20 DEN A-10, 2/1/16). The 12-minute video shows a 3D animation of the fire and explosion, which killed 12 emergency responders and three members of the public. The blast happened when a stockpile of fertilizer-grade ammonium nitrate detonated at West's facility. CSB's safety videos consistently rank among the agency's most popular work products within the chemical safety community. “This tragic accident should not have happened,” CSB Chairperson Vanessa Sutherland said in a statement. “We hope that this video, by sharing lessons learned from our West Fertilizer Company investigation, will help raise awareness of the hazards of fertilizer grade ammonium nitrate so that a similar accident can be avoided in the future.”
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EPA Proposes Chemical Safety Rule Changes
Mar 1, 2016 | Environmental Leader
By Jessica Lyons Hardcastle
The EPA is proposing changes to its chemical safety rules that will require companies in three industries — paper manufacturing, petroleum and coal products, and chemical manufacturing — to assess whether safer technologies and chemicals are feasible.
The proposed changes to the Risk Management Program (RMP) regulations would require some facilities that use and distribute hazardous chemicals to:Consider safer technologies and alternatives by including the assessment of Inherently Safer Technologies and Designs in the Process Hazard Assessment;Conduct third-party audits and root cause analysis to identify process safety improvements for accident prevention;Enhance emergency planning and preparedness requirements to help ensure coordination between facilities and local communities;Strength emergency response planning to help ensure emergency response capabilities are available to mitigate the effect of a chemical accident;Improve the ability of LEPCs (Local Emergency Planning Committees) and local emergency response officials to better prepare for emergencies both individually and with one another; andImprove access to information to help the public understand the risks at RMP facilities.
In the last 10 years more than 1,500 accidents were reported by RMP facilities, according to the EPA. These accidents caused nearly 60 deaths, some 17,000 people being injured or seeking medical treatment, almost 500,000 people being evacuated or sheltered-in-place, and cost more than $2 billion in property damages.
While the EPA says the proposed revisions will improve chemical process safety and help local authorities respond to and plan for emergencies, some watchdog groups say the rules don’t go far enough.
“The long overdue Risk Management Plan takes an important step forward, but still lacks the teeth needed to protect communities from catastrophic disaster such as the West, Texas explosion that killed 15 people in 2013,” says Lois Gibbs, founder and training director of the Center for Health, Environment and Justice Science.
The RMP doesn’t change how the EPA evaluates chemicals, which means ammonium nitrate, the source of the 2013 explosion at the West Fertilizer Company, is still not considered hazardous, the Houston Chronicle reports. The rule also doesn’t expand the types of facilities covered by the RMP and it doesn’t force industries that are covered to change the chemicals they use.
“In fact, 87 percent of over 12,000 chemical facilities would be exempt from the requirements in this proposed rule,” Gibbs says. “The proposed rule fails to adopt preventive strategies such as requiring the use of inherently safer technologies and substituting less toxic or non-toxic chemicals when feasible. This is a substantial failure of the proposed rule.”
Keith Matthews, an attorney at Sidley Austin LLP and a former director in the EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs, notes that the prevention steps are divided into three program levels: Program 1, Program 2 and Program 3.
“All facilities with Program 2 or 3 processes would be required to conduct a root cause analysis as part of an incident investigation of a catastrophic release or an incident that could reasonably be deemed to have possibly resulted in a catastrophic release (i.e., a near-miss),” he tells Environmental Leader.
“All regulated facilities with Program 2 or 3 processes would be required to contract with an independent third-party to perform a compliance audit after the facility has a reportable release — unlike under the current rules, if the proposed rule is finalized, a facility could not meet this requirement with a self-audit.
“And owners or operators of facilities with Program 3 regulated processes that are paper manufacturers, petroleum and coal products manufacturers, or chemical manufacturers would be required to conduct additional analyses as part of what is called a process hazard analysis and would be required to evaluate the feasibility of safer technology identified as a result of the process hazard analysis,” Matthews says. “These requirements have the potential to significantly add to the burden on these facilities to comply with the RMP requirements.”
Matthews says the first thing companies should to is to assess the proposal and participate in the rulemaking. After the rule is published in the Federal Register, the public has 60 days to submit written comments online at www.regulations.gov or by mail. The agency will also hold a hearing on the proposal on March 29 in Washington, DC.
“That said, owners and operators that want to be proactive and anticipate aspects of the proposed rule that very well may be included in the final rule may want to begin to assess how they might address new requirements regarding root cause analyses, independent audits, and, for those facilities for which these requirements will apply, the more stringent process hazard analysis requirements,” Matthews says.
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Advocates File to Dismiss Crude-by-Rail Lawsuit
Mar 2, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
Environmental groups are asking a federal appeals court to dismiss their challenge against the Transportation Department's crude-by-rail rule, in light of mandates Congress made in its multiyear surface transportation law (Am. Petroleum Inst. v. United States, D.C. Cir., No. 15-1199, 2/29/16). The FAST Act (Pub. L. No. 114-94) “resolved and rendered moot the core claims that formed the basis of the Sierra Club's case,” attorneys for several environmental advocacy groups said in their motion filed Feb. 29 with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. For example, the FAST Act that was signed into law in December strengthened tank car requirements from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration's crude-by-rail rule, they said. The court has halted litigation over the crude-by-rail rule to allow PHMSA to determine how changes made by the FAST Act affect the rule and, subsequently, legal challenges on the rule. Motions on how to proceed following the stay are due to the federal appeals court March 1 (28 DEN A-14, 2/11/16).
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White House Signs Off on Gas Pipeline Safety Rule
Mar 2, 2016 | PoliticoPro - Whiteboard
By Elana Schor and Andrew Restuccia
The White House budget office on Monday cleared a proposed rule for gas transmission pipeline safety that's set for release in the "next couple of weeks," Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration chief Marie Therese Dominguez told lawmakers today.
PHMSA began crafting its long-anticipated gas safety regulation in the aftermath of a 2010 pipeline rupture that killed eight residents of San Bruno, Calif. It remains unclear whether and how the proposed rule would address the automatic shutoff valves that some safety experts say are crucial to stemming the impact of future pipeline accidents.
Dominguez addressed the proposal's time frame for release during testimony at a House Energy & Commerce subcommittee hearing on draft legislation reauthorizing her agency's activities.
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Senate Pipeline Safety Bill Snags on GOP Objections
Mar 2, 2016 | PoliticoPro
By Andrew Restuccia and Elana Schor
At least one Republican is voicing objections to a provision in the Senate's pipeline safety legislation that lets lawmakers view the industry's unredacted emergencyresponse plans, slowing down a bipartisan bill that had once been expected to pass easily.
Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) declined to address whether he has a hold on the bill to reauthorize the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, but he told POLITICO Tuesday that "I have concerns" over the security risks of letting members of Congress view lengthy pipeline emergency plans without the redaction of information that companies consider proprietary.
By releasing unredacted plans that include the location of response assets and other data typically kept secret, Lankford said, "you're passing on a message to every terrorist" that effectively says, "here's where our vulnerabilities are."
A Senate aide said two Republicans have placed holds on the PHMSA bill, which lead sponsors Sens. Deb Fischer (Neb.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), and Gary Peters (D-Mich.) had hoped could pass by unanimous consent last week after they filed a so-called "hotline" request. Those GOP holds are being worked on and could see resolution soon, the aide added.
Another Senate aide said lawmakers are working on a compromise aimed at pleasing both sides. Fischer's office remains hopeful that the bill will be approved this week.
The provision at issue in the Senate's bill would allow any member of the upper chamber's Commerce Committee or the two House committees with jurisdiction over PHMSA to view the unredacted response plans upon request by a chairman or ranking member. The legislation won wide bipartisan support in the Senate Commerce Committee last year despite the provision, which was authored by Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and adopted as an amendment during the panel's markup of the bill.
Safety advocates have long called for wider release of the emergency response plans and lamented the copious redactions that companies often make when the documents are eventually released to landowners and locals affected by potential pipeline spills.
But Markey's provision drew strenuous objections from industry officials at the American Petroleum Institute, the Association of Oil Pipe Lines and the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, who worry that unredacted versions of the plans could leak into the public domain and possibly aid terrorists in attacks on pipeline infrastructure.
In a Feb. 10 letter to the committee obtained by POLITICO, API and AOPL called for implementing internal Senate procedures to protect the information from leaking into the open where it could "eventually find its way into the hands of those who wish to harm the public and surrounding communities."
"There are Senate mechanisms for protecting secret information and business before the Senate, but the current language does not invoke those Senate provisions or make clear information obtained by the Committee under this provision is subject to those restrictions," the industry groups wrote.
Last year, POLITICO turned heads in the industry when it obtained and publishedan unredacted version of a response plan that showed Plains All American Pipeline, the company whose pipeline rupture sullied the California coastline with as much as 100,000 gallons of oil in May, knew before the accident that a worst-case rupture could send fuel into the Pacific Ocean.
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House GOP Rolls Out Rule-Slashing Platform
Mar 2, 2016 | E&E Daily
By Hannah Hess
House Republicans who will help shape the GOP's election-year agenda on federal rule reform said yesterday that they want to build a "modern and transparent regulatory system" that reduces burdens on small businesses, while "balancing environmental stewardship" and other interests.
The nine standing committee chairmen appointed by Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) to the task force on reducing regulatory burdens announced their mission statement, ahead of a closed-door afternoon meeting in the Capitol.
Their 10-principle slate focuses on energy and the environment, including infrastructure projects and mining, and recommends that states and local communities "know best" when it comes to protecting lands and waters.
"Energy and mineral production on public lands should be competitive with energy and mineral production on state and private lands," the task force stated.
Efforts to reduce and remediate pollution should be balanced against public health and welfare costs, such as jobs lost and higher energy bills, according to the group, which includes Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.); Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah); and Science, Space and Technology Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas).
The group also declared: "All evidence used by agencies in support of a regulation should be based upon sound science, transparent and open to third-party and public review."
The lawmakers suggest some regulatory programs have achieved their goals and that further rounds of regulation are no longer needed, pointing to recent positive trends in environmental quality and public health. They did not, however, identify specific rules to be eliminated.
Other principles relate to small business, financial services and "frivolous legal proceedings." The GOP has blasted green groups for so-called sue-and-settle rulemaking and recently passed legislation to constrain the process (E&E Daily, Jan. 8).
Ryan's office confirmed yesterday's meeting, the panel's first "idea forum," was open to members only. The speaker rolled out the task force in February (E&E Daily, Feb. 5).
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