Preview Newsletter
AM ACC 3/25/2016
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(ACC Mentioned) PE, PP, Suspension PVC Prices Rise in March
Mar 24, 2016 | Plastics News
By Frank Esposito
Strengthening demand and higher raw material costs have pushed North American prices for polyethylene, polypropylene and suspension PVC prices up since March 1. -
(ACC Mentioned) U.S. Chemical Output Edges Up in February on Broad Gains
Mar 24, 2016 | Zacks Equity Research
U.S. chemical production continues its gaining streak on a monthly basis with output rising in February on higher production in all seven chemical producing regions – according to the latest monthly report from the American Chemistry Council ("ACC"). -
(ACC Mentioned) EPA Inspectors Focus on New Chemicals, Substantial Risk
Mar 25, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Pat Rizzuto
The Environmental Protection Agency's chemicals enforcement office is focused on compliance with the new chemicals and substantial risk notification requirements of the Toxic Substances Control Act... -
(ACC Mentioned) Prepping REACH Dossiers for 2018 Challenging
Mar 25, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Pat Rizzuto
Preparing chemical registration dossiers for Europe's REACH 2018 deadline is a greater challenge than it was to prepare dossiers for the regulation's 2010 and 2013 deadlines, a senior Elementis official said March 24. -
Legislation Would Require More Lead Testing in Schools
Mar 24, 2016 | E&E News PM
By Tiffany Stecker
A New Jersey congressman has floated legislation to require states to enforce lead testing in school drinking water systems in exchange for receiving certain federal funds. -
California: Chemical Warning May Scare Poor from Canned Food
Mar 25, 2016 | AP (In The Washington Post)
By Ellen Knickmeyer
California plans to delay state-required warnings on metal cans lined with the chemical BPA, arguing too-specific warnings could scare stores and shoppers in poor neighborhoods away from some of the only fruits and vegetables... -
Michigan Report Finds EPA Failed to Exercise SDWA Authority in Flint
Mar 24, 2016 | InsideEPA
By Amanda Pallaschi
EPA failed to use its authorities under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) to mitigate the harm from high lead levels in Flint, MI, drinking water and should clarify provisions in the lead and copper rule (LCR)... -
The Racism at the Heart of Flint’s Crisis
Mar 25, 2016 | New York Tımes
By Editorial Board
An important new report makes clear the principal cause of the water crisis in Flint, Mich.: the state government’s blatant disregard for the lives and health of poor and black residents of a distressed city. -
Echa Round-Up
Mar 24, 2016 | Chemical Watch
Echa has added four harmonised classification and labelling (CLH) intentions to its registry for... -
D.C. Circuit Sides With NSPS Critics In Case Briefing Schedule
Mar 24, 2016 | InsideEPA
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has set a briefing schedule in the case challenging EPA's power plant new source performance standards (NSPS) that largely aligns with a slower schedule... -
Inside Moniz's Mission to Reshape the Energy Department
Mar 25, 2016 | PoliticoPro
By Darius Dixon
The clock is ticking down on Ernest Moniz’s three-year campaign to reshape the Energy Department’s mammoth bureaucracy. -
Oil Milestone: Fracking Fuels Half of U.S. Output
Mar 25, 2016 | CNN Money
By Matt Egan
It recently hit a new milestone in the U.S. Fracking now accounts for more than half of all U.S. oil output, according to the Energy Information Administration. -
Pennsylvania Oil Industry Sues to Stop New Regs
Mar 25, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Leslie A. Pappas
An association of small independent oil producers in Pennsylvania sued in Commonwealth Court to stop proposed oil and gas regulations from going into effect, less than a month before they... -
Colorado Bill Threatens Oil, NatGas Operators, Industry Says
Mar 24, 2016 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Richard Nemec
The Colorado House passed HB 1310 to the state senate last week, causing continued concern among officials at the Colorado Oil and Gas Association (COGA) and across the industry. -
Nebraska Lawmakers Back New Fracking Well Requirements
Mar 25, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Christopher Brown
The Nebraska Legislature approved a bill March 24 that would impose additional disclosure requirements on operators of wells used in hydraulic fracturing, and public-notice requirements on the state Oil and Gas Conservation Commission... -
Safety Board Staff Did Not Rig Low Morale Report -- IG
Mar 24, 2016 | E&E PM News
By Sam Pearson
U.S. Chemical Safety Board staff did not manipulate the findings of a consultant's report to pin blame for the agency's poor morale on senior leaders, said a report released today by U.S. EPA's Office of Inspector General. -
Chemical Exposure Deaths on the Job Getting Rarer
Mar 25, 2016 | Boston Globe
By Matt Rocheleau
Millions of people across the nation work every day around materials that could prove dangerous or deadly without proper handling. -
NRC Probing Safety Culture Concerns at TVA Watts Bar Plant
Mar 25, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Rebecca Kern
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is investigating concerns about a potential “chilled work environment” and fear of retaliation among employees who voice safety concerns at Tennessee Valley Authority's Watts Bar nuclear plant. -
Plenty of Facts But Little Action on Flint
Mar 24, 2016 | Roll Call
By Jeremy Dillon
When Congress returns from its recess April 4, two months, three oversight hearings and four congressional delegation visits to Flint, Mich. will have passed since House Republicans went into “fact-finding mode”... -
Sparking Democratic Control of Water in Flint and Beyond
Mar 25, 2016 | The Hill - Congress Blog
By Kelle Louaillier
The vultures are circling. As people in Flint, Michigan organize to demand justice from a system that failed them horrifically, the private water industry is jockeying to position itself as the solution—not just in Flint, but nationwide.
Industry and Association News
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Environment News
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(ACC Mentioned) PE, PP, Suspension PVC Prices Rise in March
Mar 24, 2016 | Plastics News
By Frank Esposito
Strengthening demand and higher raw material costs have pushed North American prices for polyethylene, polypropylene and suspension PVC prices up since March 1.
PE prices surged an average of 5 cents per pound, canceling out price drops totaling that same amount that had hit the market in January and February.
U.S./Canadian sales of high density PE were up almost 10 percent in the first two months of the year, according to the American Chemistry Council in Washington. Domestic HDPE sales were up only 1.3 percent, but export sales skyrocketed 48 percent for the two-month period.
In the U.S./Canadian linear low density PE market, two-month sales grew 7 percent, with domestic growth of 3.5 percent boosted by a 20 percent uptick in exports.
West Texas Intermediate crude oil prices began March around $36 per barrel, but soon approached $42 and were just under $40 in late trading March 24. Crude oil prices are used as an international price-setter for PE, even though most PE made in North America is based on natural gas.
On the supply side, the Braskem Idesa joint venture expects to be shipping new PE from a plant in Mexico by the end of April.
Regional PP prices ticked up an average of 1 cent per pound in March, although some buyers saw different outcomes. Prices had been flat in February after experiencing four consecutive price increases from October through January. Those increases had totaled 10 cents per pound.
“March pricing continues to be negotiated with varying outcomes,” market analyst Scott Newell said in an email. “Imports are here and are grabbing market share. This has created competitive situations in which many PP producers are responding with lower prices.
“It’s very much a mixed bag and dependent on what kind of price structure you have and what supplier you deal with,” added Newell, who is with Resin Technology Inc. in Fort Worth, Texas.
North American PP sales grew almost 3 percent in the first two months of 2016. Domestic sales growth of just over 4 percent was lessened by a 53 percent drop in export sales.
PVC up 4 cents in March
The regional suspension PVC market saw prices jump an average of 4 cents per pound in March, as several planned and unplanned production outages caused resin supplies to become tight.
“Weather has been improving, which usually helps PVC demand in construction, but there’s been limited volume [of resin] available because of the outages,” an industry source said.
Regional PVC prices had been flat in February after dropping an average of 1 cent per pound in January. Major PVC suppliers now have announced an additional increase of 3 cents per pound effective April 1.
http://www.plasticsnews.com/article/20160324/NEWS/160329852/pe-pp-suspension-pvc-prices-rise-in-march
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(ACC Mentioned) U.S. Chemical Output Edges Up in February on Broad Gains
Mar 24, 2016 | Zacks Equity Research
U.S. chemical production continues its gaining streak on a monthly basis with output rising in February on higher production in all seven chemical producing regions – according to the latest monthly report from the American Chemistry Council ("ACC").
The Washington, DC-based chemical industry trade group said that the U.S. Chemical Production Regional Index ("CPRI") edged up 0.2% for the reported month following a 0.5% increase a month ago and a 0.4% rise in December. The U.S. CPRI, which is measured using a three-month moving average, was created by Moore Economics to track chemical production in seven regions nationwide. It is comparable to the Federal Reserve’s industrial production index for chemicals.
Per the ACC, activity for the U.S. manufacturing sector – the largest consumer of chemical products – went up 0.2% in February after remaining flat in the previous two months. The sector is a major driver for the chemical industry which touches around 96% of manufactured goods.
Within the manufacturing sector, production rose in several chemistry end-user markets in February including food and beverages, appliances, motor vehicles, construction supplies, fabricated metal products, computers, semiconductors, rubber products, paper and furniture.
The February reading showed a rise in chemical output across the board. All seven chemical producing regions (Gulf Coast, Midwest, Ohio Valley, Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, West Coast and Southeast) racked up a 0.2% gain in the reported month.
By segments, chemical production was mixed in February. Gains across manufactured fibers, adhesives, other specialties, organic chemicals, plastic resins, pharmaceuticals and pesticides were neutralized by lower production of inorganic chemicals, synthetic rubber, fertilizers, pesticides, coatings, consumer products and industrial gases.
Overall chemical production also went up 2.3% year over year in February with all regions scoring gains.
The U.S. chemical industry, a more than $800 billion enterprise, is heavily linked to the overall condition of the nation’s economy. It has been consistently leading the U.S. economy’s business cycle due to its early position in the supply chain. The industry is clawing its way back after being shaken by the global economic crisis.
The ACC envisions domestic chemical production to rise 2.9% in 2016 and 4.4% in 2017. The trade group also sees the momentum to continue through the second half of the decade riding on new capital investments and capacity additions.
The shale gas boom and ample supply of natural gas liquids has been a huge driving force behind chemical investment on plants and equipment in the country and have provided the U.S. petrochemicals producers a compelling cost advantage over their global counterparts. The ACC expects this competitiveness to drive new capital investment in the country.The shale bounty has incentivized a number of chemical makers to pump in billions of dollars to ramp up capacity in the country. Chemical producers including Dow Chemical (DOW - Analyst Report), LyondellBasell Industries (LYB - Analyst Report), Eastman Chemical (EMN - Analyst Report), Westlake Chemical (WLK -Snapshot Report) and Celanese (CE -Analyst Report) are investing heavily on shale gas-linked projects to take advantage of abundant natural gas supplies.
While the chemical industry still faces headwinds from a slowdown in China, sluggishness in some parts of Europe, soft agriculture market fundamentals and weak demand in the energy space, the industry’s recovery momentum is expected to continue this year, helped by continued strength in the automotive space, positive trends across the construction markets and significant shale-linked capital investment.http://www.zacks.com/stock/news/211436/us-chemical-output-edges-up-in-february-on-broad-gains
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(ACC Mentioned) EPA Inspectors Focus on New Chemicals, Substantial Risk
Mar 25, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Pat Rizzuto
The Environmental Protection Agency's chemicals enforcement office is focused on compliance with the new chemicals and substantial risk notification requirements of the Toxic Substances Control Act, a senior EPA official said March 24.
“For years we've been focused on Section 5,” said Gregory Sullivan, acting director of the waste and chemical enforcement division of EPA's Office of Civil Enforcement. “PMN compliance is critical,” he said at the annual Global Chemical Regulations Conference co-hosted by the American Chemistry Council and Society of Chemical Manufacturers and Affiliates (SOCMA).
Section 5 of TSCA regulates new chemicals. Chemical manufacturers that want to make a new chemical are required to first file a premanufacture notice, or PMN.
Sullivan highlighted two 2015 cases resulting from alleged violations of the PMN requirement: R.E. Carroll, Inc., in which EPA imposed a $41,890 penalty for that company's alleged failure to file one PMN and a mistake made on another, and Infineum USA L.P., in which the company received a $36,473 fine after it disclosed to the agency its failure to file a PMN.
EPA's Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics has increased the number of significant new use rules, or SNURs, that it has issued in recent years, Sullivan said.
His office is therefore increasing its focus on compliance with those SNURs, he said.
Substantial Risk Notifications, CDR Submissions
Another “cornerstone” of TSCA, said Sullivan, is the requirement in Section 8(e) that chemical manufacturers notify the EPA immediately when they learn about a previously unrecognized human health or environmental problem that may result from their chemical.
One case that shows the importance the agency places on those notifications involved DuPont, which in 2010 agreed to pay $3.3 million to resolve Section 8(e) allegations that it failed to report information from 57 rodent studies, he said.
Sullivan also referred to the inventory provisions of Section 8 under which the agency maintains the TSCA inventory of chemicals that are being or have been sold in the U.S.
EPA's Chemical Data Reporting rule implements the law's requirement to maintain an inventory.
In December 2015, American International Chemical agreed to pay $307,020 to settle allegations that it violated the Chemical Data Reporting rule by failing to file required information for 15 chemicals.
Enforcing compliance with the 2016 CDR will be a “very important part of our enforcement focus for next year,” Sullivan said.
The CDR requires companies that made more than 25,000 pounds of any chemical in 2012, 2013, 2014 or 2015 to file production volume, processing and use information between June 1 and Sept. 30. The reporting threshold drops to 2,500 pounds if a chemical is subject to certain TSCA regulations.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=85821746&vname=dennotallissues&fn=85821746&jd=85821746
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(ACC Mentioned) Prepping REACH Dossiers for 2018 Challenging
Mar 25, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Pat Rizzuto
Preparing chemical registration dossiers for Europe's REACH 2018 deadline is a greater challenge than it was to prepare dossiers for the regulation's 2010 and 2013 deadlines, a senior Elementis official said March 24.
Preparing for Reach 2018 “is the biggest and most challenging registration project I have seen in my career,” said Jim Hagan, global director of product stewardship and compliance at Elementis PLC. He spoke at the Global Chemical Regulations Conference, co-hosted by the American Chemistry Council and the Society of Chemical Manufacturers and Affiliates, or SOCMA.
REACH, the registration, evaluation, authorization and registration of chemicals regulation (EC No. 1907/2006 ), requires that all chemicals made in or imported into the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway in volumes of more than 1 metric ton but less than 100 metric tons be registered to remain on the European market.
Remaining on the market keeps the chemicals available to secondary companies that use them to make electronics, paint, paper, vehicles, building materials and other goods.
Andreas Herdina, the European Chemical Agency's “ambassador” to small- and medium-size companies, said ECHA expects to receive about 60,000 dossiers in 2018.
Off-the-Shelf Solution
Hagan said Elementis must register six times more, or 131, chemicals in 2018 compared to the 23 it registered in 2013.
There are hundreds of individual tasks that must be completed to make sure each chemical is accurately identified and has required data or letters granting Elementis access to use another company's data, Hagan said.
Managing that many tasks and making sure all are completed in time is especially challenging, because new staff could not be hired, he said.
Elementis has addressed that dilemma by working with two software development companies to obtain programs that would serve its particular needs, according to Hagan.
One software system, which tracks substance volume, alerts compliance officers when that volume is reaching certain thresholds that would trigger some kind of regulatory compliance action, he said.
The other software program has a dashboard that lets Elementis track projects by status, by deadline and by their cost efficiency. It can be adapted for regulatory systems other than REACH and for other types of regulations, such as for pesticides or pharmaceuticals, he said.
V.M. “Jim” DeLisi, president of Fanwood Chemical, Inc., described some “lessons learned” from REACH's earlier deadlines.
“Upper management was poorly engaged,” DeLisi said. “There was a lack of awareness of the deadlines.”
Management has to understand that required tasks must be completed and all materials must be gathered six months or more before the May 31, 2018, deadline, he said.
Profitable Opportunities
DeLisi's main recommendation: “Start early. Start early. Start early!”
Other tips:
• get a clear picture of the ways a company's chemicals are used;
• start communicating down the supply chain now;
• decide on dossier format (chemical substance or intermediate);
• take an active role in the registration process;
• involve a toxicologist to participate early on; and
• adapt companies' IT systems to REACH requirements.
“Handled correctly, REACH is profitable opportunity for innovative companies,” he said, adding that a company that complies will stay on the market, while a competitor that doesn't will not.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=85821732&vname=dennotallissues&fn=85821732&jd=85821732
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Legislation Would Require More Lead Testing in Schools
Mar 24, 2016 | E&E News PM
By Tiffany Stecker
A New Jersey congressman has floated legislation to require states to enforce lead testing in school drinking water systems in exchange for receiving certain federal funds.
New Jersey Democratic Rep. Donald Payne's H.R. 4879 would amend the Safe Drinking Water Act to block grants from U.S. EPA's Drinking Water State Revolving Fund to states that don't require testing.
"This bill encourages transparent monitoring of school drinking water, so that we can do our job of keeping our children safe," he said in a statement.
Payne represents Newark, N.J., where the school district found elevated levels of lead in 30 public schools earlier this month.
The bill would require that schools built before 1996 undergo twice-yearly testing of water from faucets in kitchens, sinks in bathrooms and water fountains. Schools built after 1996 would have to test water annually.
The legislation would also hold local education agencies responsible for notifying parents, EPA and the state within 48 hours if inspectors find high lead levels. EPA defines the "action level" for lead in drinking water to be 15 parts per billion.
http://www.eenews.net/eenewspm/2016/03/24/stories/1060034601
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California: Chemical Warning May Scare Poor from Canned Food
Mar 25, 2016 | AP (In The Washington Post)
By Ellen Knickmeyer
California plans to delay state-required warnings on metal cans lined with the chemical BPA, arguing too-specific warnings could scare stores and shoppers in poor neighborhoods away from some of the only fruits and vegetables available — canned ones, officials said Thursday.
Instead, the state on May 11 will require stores to post general warnings at checkout counters about the dangers of BPA and note that some canned and bottled products being sold have liners with the toxic chemical.
The decision and rationale of the California Environmental Protection Agency are angering some community and public-health groups.
It’s “ridiculous. It’s paternalistic,” said Martha Dina Arguello, executive director of Physicians for Social Responsibility-Los Angeles. “I just can’t imagine that it’s a better idea not to let us know what’s in our food.”
The warnings are coming on line in California under the state’s Proposition 65, a measure approved by voters in 1986 that requires businesses to notify the public about high levels of chemicals in products or places.
California officials decided last year to add BPA, or bisphenol A, to the list of about 800 other chemicals requiring Proposition 65 notices. Manufacturers use BPA in epoxy liners of some cans, bottles and jars.
Some studies have determined the chemical was an estrogen-like substance that at high levels could harm the female reproductive system.
That 2015 decision by California is controversial. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned BPA from baby bottles and sippy cups in 2012, but it says the level of BPA that leeches into food is safe otherwise. The federal agency also is awaiting the results of more studies.
Ordinarily, the state would either require manufacturers to put those warnings on the cans, or make grocers post signs on canned-goods shelves specifically warning that “Brand X tomato sauce, Brand Y green beans” have the targeted chemical in the can, said Allan Hirsch, chief deputy director of the state EPA’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment.
For BPA, though, “we think that would be kind of chaotic,” the state official said. “Retailers might react ... by just pulling canned and bottled foods off their shelves entirely,” which would be bad news in neighborhoods without good grocery stores.
“We would want to make sure that people, especially in low-income communities, still have access to canned fruits and vegetables. That’s certainly better than not having access to them,” the state official said.
Hirsch also acknowledged hearing “some concern from retailers” about how the warning is going to work.
Kathleen Roberts, executive director of the can industry’s North American Metal Packaging Alliance, said Thursday that confusion “from these warning signs could further limit healthy choices, particularly for low-income families in inner-city neighborhoods and rural communities.”
Rather than require warnings for specific cans and other goods when the warning-requirement kicks in in May, the state plans to make merchants place general notices saying some cans for sale in the store have BPA.
State officials foresee requiring more specific notices after perhaps a year. That would give can manufacturers more time to label their cans and to see what ongoing medical studies find regarding safe and unsafe levels of the chemicals, Hirsch said.
It’s the state’s arguments about BPA and canned vegetables in so-called food deserts — neighborhoods too poor to attract top grocery chains — that offend the community groups.
“California is willingly putting out the language ... excluding a whole sub-population of people from protection,” said Jose T. Bravo, executive director of Just Transition Alliance, an environmental health and labor coalition in San Diego.
The community representatives say they plan to file protests before a final decision by another state agency that approves such regulatory changes.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/california-chemical-warning-may-scare-poor-from-canned-food/2016/03/25/b4bae920-f261-11e5-a2a3-d4e9697917d1_story.html
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Michigan Report Finds EPA Failed to Exercise SDWA Authority in Flint
Mar 24, 2016 | InsideEPA
By Amanda Pallaschi
EPA failed to use its authorities under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) to mitigate the harm from high lead levels in Flint, MI, drinking water and should clarify provisions in the lead and copper rule (LCR) that contributed to the state's misinterpretation of the rule's requirements, a state task force investigating the water crisis finds in a new report.
The March 21 report from the governor-appointed Flint Water Advisory Task Force (FWATF) says that while “the causes of the crisis lie primarily at the feet of the state by virtue of its agencies' failures and its appointed emergency managers' misjudgments,” EPA also failed in its role as the overseer of state and local regulatory actions under SDWA.
“Only after broad public revelation of the magnitude of the crisis and of [Michigan Department of Environmental Quality's (MDEQ)] multiple failures -- and, not coincidentally, the opportunity to garner positive recognition -- did EPA exercise its authority under SDWA and issue its Emergency Order on January 21, 2016,” the report states.
EPA issued the emergency order under SDWA section 1431, which allows the EPA administrator to take “such actions and he or she may deem necessary in order to protect the health of such persons.” Environmental and community advocates had urged EPA to take such action.
But the task force report points out the agency could have used other SDWA authority under section 1414 to take action sooner. Section 1414 says “that when the agency finds a public water system out of compliance, the EPA must notify the state and public water system of the violation,” the report says. Then, if after 30 days, the state has not followed its enforcement action -- which in this case would have been appropriate corrosion control treatment (CCT) as required in EPA's LCR -- the EPA must issue an order to comply.
“In the case of Flint, EPA did not use this authority as required by the SDWA,” the report's authors state.
A legal source who is beginning to look at EPA's role in the Flint crisis in the context of reexamining cooperative federalism with the states says section 1414 is “a seldom used provision under SDWA,” and “there was confusion” within EPA over how and when that SDWA authority should be used.
“I think that will change and it should change,” the legal source says. “They should have moved more aggressively in this case, and they didn't because the tool hadn't been used much.”
The FWATF, which conducted over 60 interviews and reviewed public documents in making its conclusions, recommends that moving forward, EPA should resolve ambiguities and fix “loopholes” in its LCR, which critics of both the rule and the official recommendations for an updated rule currently under review have also urged.
“Unfortunately, despite the clarity of its intent, the LCR's language has been subject to various interpretations from one state, and one water system, to another,” the report's authors write, noting that while MDEQ's misinterpretation of the LCR “may be among the most egregious examples of lax and myopic compliance practices, there are pronounced concerns that the effectiveness of the rule has been compromised.”
LCR Changes
Specifically, the FWATF recommends that when reviewing the National Drinking Water Advisory Council's (NDWAC) 2015 recommendations for a new LCR, EPA should ultimately “clarify and strengthen” the LCR, “particularly requirements related to LCR sampling protocols, and [lead service line] replacements -- and, more generally, strengthen enforcement protocols with agencies delegated primacy.”
It also recommends that EPA revisit the LCR's 15 parts per billion (ppb) action level for lead, engage Michigan representatives in its ongoing LCR revisions and call for “frequent and accessible public outreach and education on lead-in-water risks,” -- including a requirement that utilities inform customers when a lead service line in present in their home.
But the recommendations note that “optimized corrosion control will continue to be important in the long term, even after LSLs are replaced, due to other sources of lead in the distribution system such as lead solder and brass fixtures.”
The legal source echoed that perspective, noting that many in the water industry say “the perfect situation is we pull all the lead pipes out, but the cost is going to be exorbitant.”
“With proper corrosion control, the water is safe,” the source says, adding that CCT is separate from the public health concerns of monitoring and loopholes in the rule that might permit flushing before testing for lead.
The task force's recommendations also note that although the LCR should mandate “proactive replacement” of LSLs, it should occur in a manner “that appropriately balances risks and financial impacts.”
Regulators' Misunderstanding
EPA first asked MDEQ about its CCT actions in February 2015, after EPA Region 5 employee Miguel Del Toral tested the water in the home of Flint resident LeeAnn Walters and found lead levels of 104 parts per billion (ppb) -- nearly ten times the 15 ppb action level under SDWA.
EPA officials asked MDEQ what types of CCT it was using and told state officials that the LCR “unambiguously” requires CCT. MDEQ responded -- “incorrectly,” the task force report notes -- that it had a CCT program in place, but provided no details. Meanwhile, EPA “was trying to determine whether the high lead levels at LeeAnne Walters's house represented an isolated or system-wide problem,” the report says.
“Ultimately, it required Lee Anne Walters's inquiry of Flint Utilities Department personnel for EPA to learn that Flint did not have CCT in place,” the report states.
That misunderstanding stemmed from MDEQ's erroneous interpretation of the LCR provisions on CCT as needing two consecutive, six month periods of lead monitoring before starting CCT. EPA, in a series of emails beginning in February 2015, interpreted MDEQ's description of its CCT program to mean that corrosion control treatment was being performed, when instead the state was merely conducting its consecutive periods of lead monitoring. An earlier Michigan Office of the Auditor General's report concluded that there was “no reason to believe DEQ willfully misrepresented the information to the EPA.”
Finally, in an April 24, 2015, email, MDEQ clarified to EPA that Flint was not practicing corrosion control treatment, and in July, “the second round of LCR monitoring results ended MDEQ's misinformed interpretation of the LCR,” the FWATF report states.
“Unfortunately, EPA not was insistent or forceful enough to prompt MDEQ to require Flint to add CCT for almost 3 months after EPA was aware of its absence. This needlessly extended the time during which Flint residents were exposed to corrosive drinking water with potentially high levels of lead,” the report concludes.
In addition to MDEQ's April email, EPA Region 5 also had a detailed draft report from Del Toral detailing the extent of the problems in Flint. Environmental and other advocates have criticized EPA for downplaying this report, though the task force does not explicitly make this charge.
Other Investigations
The report's release follows hearings by the House Oversight & Government Reform Committee, where Republicans argued EPA failed to properly exercise its authority under SDWA and inquired why it took so long for the agency to act.
EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy testified at the March 17 hearing that the agency “had insufficient information to understand the potential scope of the lead problem until more than a year after the water supply was switched [from the Detroit water system to the corrosive Flint River]” and emphasized the “incomplete” and “confusing” information the agency received from Michigan.
“In hindsight we should not have been so trusting of the state for so long when they provided us with overly simplistic assurances rather than substantive responses to our increasing concerns,” McCarthy said. “EPA Regional staff repeatedly asked MDEQ to address the lack of corrosion control treatment. We missed the opportunity last summer to get concerns on the radar screen. That I regret.”
The Michigan-appointed task force is one of several efforts examining agencies' culpability in the crisis. In addition to congressional probes, EPA's Inspector General is in the midst of a review, and the Department of Justice is also investigating the lead contamination in what a source previously told Inside EPA is likely a criminal investigation.
http://insideepa.com/daily-news/michigan-report-finds-epa-failed-exercise-sdwa-authority-flint
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The Racism at the Heart of Flint’s Crisis
Mar 25, 2016 | New York Tımes
By Editorial Board
An important new report makes clear the principal cause of the water crisis in Flint, Mich.: the state government’s blatant disregard for the lives and health of poor and black residents of a distressed city.
The report released Wednesday by a task force appointed last year by Gov. Rick Snyder to study how Flint’s drinking water became poisoned by lead makes for chilling reading. While it avoids using the word “racism,” it clearly identifies the central role that race and poverty play in this story. “Flint residents, who are majority black or African-American and among the most impoverished of any metropolitan area in the United States, did not enjoy the same degree of protection from environmental and health hazards as that provided to other communities,” the report said.
Mr. Snyder, a Republican, and many Republicans in Congress have tried to deflect and minimize the state’s responsibility for the Flint crisis. Mr. Snyder has said the crisis represented a collective failure of local, state and federal governments. And congressional Republicans like Jason Chaffetz of Utah have sought to pin virtually all of the blame on the Environmental Protection Agency, which many of them oppose for ideological reasons.
The task force cut through to the truth and said the agency most at fault was the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, which reports to Mr. Snyder. The agency failed to instruct officials in Flint, which was under state control at the time, to treat its water with chemicals that would have prevented lead from leaching from pipes and plumbing fixtures into the drinking water. The agency continuously belittled the concerns of local residents and independent experts, and lied to the E.P.A., telling it that Flint was properly treating the water.
Mr. Snyder’s office comes in for harsh criticism for relying on the department’s assurances that the water was safe despite mounting evidence that it was in fact poisoning residents. The emergency managers Mr. Snyder appointed to run Flint’s city government decided to switch the city’s water source to the Flint River from the Detroit water system and later refused requests by residents and the City Council to reverse that decision, because it would cost more money. The E.P.A. made mistakes, too, by not intervening forcefully enough until it issued an emergency order in January,even though some of its employees began raising concerns about Flint’s water early last year.
The five-member task force, which includes two doctors, a water expert and two former state lawmakers, made 44 recommendations. It said that Mr. Snyder and the Republican-controlled Legislature should provide long-term health care to Flint residents who have lead poisoning and replace water lines in Flint and other Michigan cities. It also called for changes to the state emergency manager law to give residents a way to appeal decisions made by those managers.
Mr. Snyder says Michigan is making most of the recommended changes and is reviewing the rest. There is no doubt that many of these reforms will take years to carry out, but it is essential for the governor and the Legislature to demonstrate that they are up to the task. Mr. Snyder did not inspire confidence when he said on Wednesday that he did not know if race was a factor in the Flint disaster, even though the record shows that the concerns of poor and minority residents were dismissed by his administration in ways that would never have happened with rich white communities.
Congress, which has refused to invest sufficiently in the nation’s public works and has been antagonistic to environmental protection, must also learn from the crisis. For years, poor and minority communities have suffered disproportionately from environmental degradation. Examples include the poorest neighborhoods of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and the breach of the levees in that city, communities in West Virginia that faced chemical spills and even Washington, D.C., which had its own lead contamination crisis about 10 years ago. Most of these disasters could have been avoided or mitigated by aggressive government action.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/25/opinion/the-racism-at-the-heart-of-flints-crisis.html
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Mar 24, 2016 | Chemical Watch
CLH intentionEcha has added four harmonised classification and labelling (CLH) intentions to its registry for:
2-phenylhexanenitrile. Spain expects to submit the dossier by 29 April, with a proposed future entry of acute toxicity 4, aquatic chronic 2 and acute aquatic 1.
2-butanone oxime. Germany expects to submit the dossier by 31 August, with a proposed future entry of acute toxicity 3 and 4, eye damage 1, skin sensitisation 1B, carcinogenicity 1B and Stot SE 3.
bis(α,α-dimethylbenzyl) peroxide. Norway expects to submit the dossier by 31 December, with a proposed future entry of organic peroxide EF, skin and eye irritation 2, reprotoxicity 2, and aquatic chronic 2.
crystalline silica: quartz (SiO2). France expects to submit the dossier by 31 March 2017 with a proposed future entry of carcinogenicity.]
Submitted CLH proposals
The agency has received CLH proposals for two biocide actives:
the biocide active, azamethiphos from the UK; and
imidacloprid (ISO) 1-(6-chloropyridin-3-ylmethyl)-N-nitroimidazolidin-2-ylidenamine, from Germany
And for: for phenyl bis(2,4,6-trimethylbenzoyl)-phosphine oxide, also from Germany.
Qsar guidance
Echa has updated its practical guide on how to use and report Qsars, with further advice and examples on their use for registering under REACH.
The updated guide includes:
practical examples on how to check the reliability of Qsar predictions, from some of the most commonly used Qsar software;
instructions on how to check that the conditions for adapting standard testing (Annex XI to REACH) are met; and
Qsars are theoretical models that can be used to predict the physico-chemical, biological and environmental fate properties of compounds, based on their chemical structure.
a list of Qsar software that can be used to generate information, related to REACH endpoints.
Translations of the guide, in 22 EU languages, will be available on the agency's website shortly.
https://chemicalwatch.com/45925/echa-round-up
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D.C. Circuit Sides With NSPS Critics In Case Briefing Schedule
Mar 24, 2016 | InsideEPA
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has set a briefing schedule in the case challenging EPA's power plant new source performance standards (NSPS) that largely aligns with a slower schedule sought by the rule's opponents, rather than the speedier plan EPA and its supporters sought to align with the related challenge over the agency's existing power plant GHG rule.
The court in a March 24 per curiam order in North Dakota, et al. v. EPA, et al., slated briefing to start July 15, when briefs are due for all petitioners.
EPA's response brief is due Sept. 23, while the deadline for the agency's supporters is Sept. 30.
Opponents' replies are due Oct. 21 and final briefs are due Nov. 14. The court did not schedule oral arguments.
EPA's NSPS sets separate standards for new, modified and reconstructed coal and gas-fired plants. The rule is a legal prerequisite for the agency's existing source performance standards (ESPS).
The measure's coal standard -- which requires partial carbon capture and sequestration -- has been most controversial as critics say the technology is not commercially available nor technically feasible as the Clean Air Act requires.
But the court's briefing schedule means that the same three-judge panel hearing the ESPS challenge -- comprised of Judges Karen Henderson, Patricia Millett and Sri Srinivasan -- will likely have already ruled in that case, West Virginia v. EPA, before they consider this one -- even though the NSPS is required to be in place before the ESPS.
Briefing in West Virginia is already under way, with the next deadline March 28 for EPA and its supporters to reply. The court will hear oral arguments in that case June 2 and 3.
When the parties filed proposed briefing schedules last month, North Dakota suggested a July 15 deadline for opening briefs, a Sept. 28 deadline for EPA's reply and a Dec. 5 deadline for final briefs. But EPA and its supporters wanted a petitioners' opening briefs due by April 1, EPA's reply by June 15 and briefing to end by July 20 in order to allow the court to schedule arguments early in its fall term.
The ESPS is stayed during judicial review even beyond the D.C. Circuit decision, after the Supreme Court ordered that the rule be put on ice until the justices decide whether to hear the lower court's decision or allow it to remain intact without review.
The petitioners in North Dakota did not seek a stay of the NSPS but originally sought to delay briefing in this case entirely until after the court ruled in West Virginia. While the court rejected that request, the schedule it set likely means there is a ruling in the other case ahead of EPA's reply due this fall, and almost certainly before final briefs are due in December.
The court in the order also granted North Dakota's request to file a separate brief from the other 24 states challenging the rule after it cited “irreconcilable conflicts . . . that preclude North Dakota from participating meaningfully in the separate briefing that those states collectively are requesting to file.”
An attorney for the state says North Dakota is pleased that the court granted it “special and distinct briefing,” which is important because the state is the lead plaintiff.
The judges also granted a request to sever and put on hold a related case, Biogenic CO2 Coalition v. EPA, which challenges how the agency addressed biomass in the rule. The court, however, denied a separate request to consolidate that case with National Alliance of Forest Owners v. EPA, which is bringing a similar challenge against the ESPS that was consolidated with West Virginia.
http://insideepa.com/the-inside-story
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Inside Moniz's Mission to Reshape the Energy Department
Mar 25, 2016 | PoliticoPro
By Darius Dixon
The clock is ticking down on Ernest Moniz’s three-year campaign to reshape the Energy Department’s mammoth bureaucracy.
Even as he helped negotiate last year’s Iranian nuclear deal and pressed the global effort to fight climate change, the energy secretary has sought to streamline the agency and improve how it oversees the national labs and approves new projects.
Unlike his predecessor, Steven Chu, who ran a department flush with $35 billion in stimulus funding, Moniz has faced the budget sequester, a divided Congress and an agency bruised by bad press after the Solyndra solar imbroglio. And he’s had to cope with that all while grappling with the still-unsolved problem of where to store much of the nation's nuclear waste.
“Some of these things are bigger and longer term than anybody who’s in for a political term has the time and/or energy to deal with,” said Dan Arvizu, who stepped down as director of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory last fall. “So, you pick your battles, pick what you’re gonna do — your two or three things — and then recognize that your clock’s going to run out before you know it.”
Certainly Moniz, a high-ranking DOE official in the Clinton administration, entered the job knowing the challenges he faced. John MacWilliams, now a top official at the agency, recalled meeting with then-nominee Moniz at his Massachusetts Institute of Technology office in April 2013, while Cambridge was still under "shelter in place" restrictions after the Boston Marathon bombing.
“I walked in and every whiteboard in the office was filled with a detailed depiction of what became the reorganization of the department,” MacWilliams said. By July of that year, Moniz unveiled his reorganization plan to the agency staff.
Many current and former DOE officials said Moniz’s biggest agenda item was a relatively unheralded one: creating the role of undersecretary for management and performance. That job focused on what Moniz and his advisers saw as their most difficult task: project management.
DOE projects tend to come in one size: massive, not only in their dimensions but in delays and cost overruns. Project management problems have kept the department on the Government Accountability Office’s infamous High Risk List for a quarter-century, soured its relationship with Congress and frustrated the network of research labs that report to it.
The Management and Performance office went over well with the White House, a former DOE official said. It also appealed to lawmakers on Capitol Hill, who hoped it might address the agency’s terrible record on nuclear waste cleanup.
Many of the frustrations over waste stem from the political stalemate over the Yucca Mountain project, as well as criticisms that DOE's weapons cleanup mission has progressed at an painfully slow pace, allowing costs to spiral higher.
“Everyone thinks Moniz is so great, but he will be leaving the biggest mess I have ever seen for his successor,” one former senior DOE official said in an email. “By the time the real liability for nuclear waste is revealed, the cost estimate for refurbishing H Canyon [a nuclear chemical separations plant] is revealed, and every other mess he has left behind, Moniz will likely be the president of some prestigious university somewhere.”
The official added: “I wonder if after a while all we’ll be doing is paying fines and not doing any research, cleanup or management of fuels and [high-level waste].”
One conservative critic of the agency says waste cleanup, called environmental management, is DOE’s single most important task.
“And the spectacularity with which it fails at it should give pause to anyone supporting any DOE activity beyond that, as far as I’m concerned," said Jack Spencer, an executive with the Heritage Foundation’s Institute for Economic Freedom and Opportunity. "DOE should be focusing on that mission and not worrying about reducing the cost of solar panels, nuclear reactors or anything else that the market is perfectly capable of taking care of.”
Much of the agency’s work to overhaul its project management falls to MacWilliams, now an associate deputy secretary focused on tackling some of DOE’s thorniest quagmires. He is also the agency’s first chief risk officer.
A former investment banker who worked at Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Partners, MacWilliams created a risk committee stacked with some of the agency's most senior project managers — people, he said, who know the “ground truth.”
But some of those decisions have generated political heat, such as the effort to defund the MOX project in South Carolina.
Moniz’s confirmation was held up for several weeks while Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) sought assurances about the administration’s commitment to the project, which would process weapons-grade plutonium into nuclear fuel. But after Moniz came to power — and the release of several studies — he had to explain that the MOX project, which was billions of dollars over budget and decades behind schedule, was a mistake. The state has since sued DOE for not collecting nuclear material from the unfinished facility on time and this week Republican Gov. Nikki Haley pressed Moniz to halt a shipment of weapons-grade plutonium from entering South Carolina.
Moniz and MacWilliams have pushed for a cheaper alternative to move the plutonium out of the state about two decades ahead of schedule. But that would likely mean laying off of hundreds of contractors, and the state opposes it.
To MacWilliams, MOX is emblematic of a flawed DOE review process. It was a first-of-its-kind project that was approved with only 25 percent of its design completed, so it wasn’t a surprise when it soon fell behind its deadlines. DOE’s new Risk Committee now requires designs to be 90 percent completed for large nuclear projects, and forces managers to address the panel at each critical decision point, so MacWilliams said these problems are unlikely to recur. “We’ll make mistakes but not these kinds of mistakes,” he said.
The goal, Moniz says, is “staying ahead of the projects before they turn into big problems” — addressing “little alligators” before they turn into “big alligators,” as he is fond of telling his staff.
While it’s critical to make structural changes to how projects are reviewed, Moniz told POLITICO, federal spending is another issue.
“We have the funding to make serious progress,” he said in an interview in his office. “We don’t have all the funding we could use effectively to fast-track projects and ultimately save life-cycle costs substantially.”
However, the Senate hasn’t confirmed either of the people Obama nominated for the Management and Performance undersecretary post.
Another priority for Moniz has been to improve relations with the 17 national labs — some of which felt they had been pitted against each other under Chu — and improve their collaboration.
“Before we leave here, it is our intent to do a major integrative report on the laboratories,” Moniz said. “That will be part of providing something that we can hand over to the next administration.”
The labs have operations in 14 states, so their directors can be some of Moniz’s best salespeople with the Senate if the department can gain the labs’ trust and generate results.
“You have really smart people and for a while they felt like they weren’t in the circle of trust,” said Jonathan Levy, who helped manage the transition between the two secretaries and eventually became a deputy chief of staff to Moniz.
The labs have long felt put upon by both Congress and DOE headquarters — “One of us gets cancer, and all of us get chemotherapy,” was how one former director of Sandia National Lab was known to describe the backlash from Washington. And although Chu had led a national lab himself, he didn’t embrace the agency bureaucracy the way Moniz has, said Arvizu, who says he's briefed eight energy secretaries during his roughly 40 years in the lab system.
“Steven Chu’s a brilliant scientist. Certainly though, one of his favorite things is not to manage a bureaucracy,” Arvizu said. Where Moniz uses collaboration, Chu unintentionally fostered a competition that was “absolutely destructive” for the labs.
Moniz also instituted a tonal change that was “huge” among lab employees by insisting that no one at DOE headquarters call them “contractors,” preferring instead “strategic partners,” Arivizu said.
Arvizu said the lab directors see their relationship with headquarters as better than ever, but they fear that ties with Washington will erode under the next secretary. So the lab directors are looking to make permanent the councils and meetings that have been set up under Moniz.
“Institutionalize,” he said, has “been the watchword for the last year or so.”
Moniz is similarly boastful of how relations have improved with the labs.
“If you look out there you will see that the laboratories are doing a lot more work together now, collaboratively trying to be more than the sum of the parts,” he said.
Moniz has also tried to bring together the Energy Department’s agency’s “applied” and basic science offices, and he executed a long-expected merger between the science and energy undersecretaries.
That built on Chu’s efforts, said Brandon Hurlbut, Chu’s former chief of staff, who is now consults on energy-sector investing. But Chu also had to focus on carrying out a new president’s priorities and rolling out billions of stimulus dollars.
Also, changing the relationship between the applied and basic research runs counter to traditional roles inside the agency bureaucracy, said David Garman, who served as an energy undersecretary under George W. Bush, in an email.
“[T]he renewable energy interests, the nuclear interests, and the fossil interests each like having their own assistant secretary as their inside-the-administration cheerleader,” Garman said. “They would all probably oppose a rational reorganization, and they would incite their allies in Congress to fight it as well.”
Garman argues that DOE offices should be organized by energy use, like transportation or buildings, rather than by energy source, such as nuclear, and he helped write a proposal for DOE reform in 2013.
Though he praised many of Moniz’s changes, Garman argued that both Obama’s energy secretaries took a path of least resistance.
“Neither Secretary Chu nor Secretary Moniz wanted to take that fight on, so instead they implemented ARPA-E, the Innovation Hubs, the Energy Frontier Research Centers, and the Lab Councils while launching crosscutting initiatives on issues such as grid modernization,” he wrote. “These are essentially workarounds that overlay the organizational stovepipes. Is it wasteful and duplicative? Yes. But it avoids upsetting the stakeholders and is thus politically convenient.”
https://www.politicopro.com/energy/story/2016/03/inside-monizs-mission-to-reshape-the-energy-department-093290
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Oil Milestone: Fracking Fuels Half of U.S. Output
Mar 25, 2016 | CNN Money
By Matt Egan
It recently hit a new milestone in the U.S. Fracking now accounts for more than half of all U.S. oil output, according to the Energy Information Administration. It's a stunning feat considering fracking made up less than 2% of American oil production in 2000.
Hydraulic fracturing technology, more commonly known as "fracking," paved the way for drilling into America's enormous shale deposits. It has fueled a dramatic boom in U.S. oil production.
Back in 2000, there were just 23,000 fracking wells pumping about 102,000 barrels of oil a day. Now there are 300,000 fracking wells, churning out 4.3 million barrels per day.
Fracking "has allowed the United States to increase its oil production faster than at any time in its history," the EIA said in recent report.
U.S. output has nearly doubled over the past decade and America only trails Saudi Arabia and Russia globally.
That surge in American crude is one of the main reasons why there is a global glut in oil thatkeeps getting worse. The excess supply caused oil prices to peak in mid-2014 and crash as much as 75% since then.
"Prices are where they are because shale has been so phenomenally successful. It's changed the whole pricing paradigm," said Tamar Essner, director of Nasdaq's energy team.
So how does fracking work?
Fracking involves shooting a mixture of mostly water and sand under high pressure against a rock formation until it fractures. The sand fills the fracture, forcing crude oil out of the rock formation.
Fracking has been criticized for its potential environmental consequences, including water contamination and earthquakes. These concerns were summed up in a 2010 HBO documentary called "Gasland" that focused on communities impacted by natural gas fracking.
Shale oil is not a new discovery. It's actually been around for 60 years. What's new is that the technology has vastly improved in recent years.
Innovation has made previously-expensive fracking much more efficient. High oil prices before and after the Great Recession lured tons of investment dollars into this space, fueling a technological revolution. Investors were also motivated by extremely low interest rates to borrow cheap and invest in this technology.
The fracking revolution first hit the natural gas space, fueling a wave of production in giant shale fields such as the Barnett and Marcellus spread across Texas, New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio. But a supply glut quickly formed in natural gas, causing prices to crater.
Days of $100 oil gone for now thanks to fracking
Fracking then spread to shale oil fields, led by the Eagle Ford and Permian Basin of Texas and the Bakken formation of North Dakota. This turned out to be a game changer because it brought about a ton of new supply that was cheaper to drill than deepwater projects or even the Canadian oil sands.
"The incremental amount of new supply was really underestimated. I don't think any OPEC member took shale seriously until maybe two years ago," said Essner.
The other game-changing characteristic of fracking shale oil is how fast the entire process is. While deepwater production in places like the Gulf of Mexico require tons of lead time, shale wells can be drilled and start pumping oil relatively quickly.
The "fast-cycle" nature of shale is one of the reasons many believe the days of $100 oil are gone for now.
Lately, shale drillers have dialed down pumping and U.S. oil output has declined a tad in recent months because oil prices fell as low as $25 a barrel.
However, everyone expects some of these oil fields to be easily switched back on the minute oil prices hit levels where they can make money. For some shale oil fields that price can be as low as $40 a barrel.
"It puts a ceiling on how far and how fast prices can go up," Essner said.
http://money.cnn.com/2016/03/24/investing/fracking-shale-oil-boom/
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Pennsylvania Oil Industry Sues to Stop New Regs
Mar 25, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Leslie A. Pappas
An association of small independent oil producers in Pennsylvania sued in Commonwealth Court to stop proposed oil and gas regulations from going into effect, less than a month before they were set to undergo a final regulatory review (Penn. Independent Petroleum Producers Assoc. v. Commonwealth of Pa., Pa. Commw. Ct., No. 219MD2016, filed 3/24/16).
The Pennsylvania Independent Petroleum Producers Association (PIPP) filedsuit March 24 in the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania against the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), the Environmental Quality Board (EQB) and the Independent Regulatory Review Commission (IRRC), according to court documents and a press release from PIPP.
The suit asks the court to declare a proposed rulemaking to revise the state's oil and gas regulations unlawful and seeks to postpone an April 21 IRRC hearing on the proposed regulations until a court can rule on the matter.
The lawsuit alleges that the proposed rules are illegal because they were developed in conjunction with rules covering hydraulic fracturing and nonconventional shale gas wells, when the rules should have been developed separately.
The “Environmental Protection Performance Standards at Oil and Gas Well Sites,” more commonly referred to as Chapter 78 and 78a of the Pennsylvania Code, have been in development for nearly five years. The DEP initiated the rulemaking in April 2011, but only last year did it divide the rules into two chapters that treated conventional oil and gas differently from unconventional gas wells (156 DEN A-5, 8/13/15).
The EQB, a board that reviews environmental regulations, voted 15-4 in favor of the final rulemaking in February, sending it for a final review to the IRRC, which is responsible for reviewing regulations to make sure they are consistent with other laws and statutes (23 DEN A-6, 2/4/16).
It is the first suit from the conventional industry that addresses the proposed Chapter 78 regulation package as a whole, Joe Thompson, vice president for drilling and operations at Devonian Resources, Inc., and press secretary for PIPP, told Bloomberg BNA in an e-mail March 24.
Neil Shader, press secretary for Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection, told Bloomberg BNA in an e-mail March 24 that the department does not comment on litigation.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=85821753&vname=dennotallissues&fn=85821753&jd=85821753
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Colorado Bill Threatens Oil, NatGas Operators, Industry Says
Mar 24, 2016 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Richard Nemec
The Colorado House passed HB 1310 to the state senate last week, causing continued concern among officials at the Colorado Oil and Gas Association (COGA) and across the industry.
HB 1310 narrowly passed out of committee earlier this month, causing concerns by the state's two main industry trade associations, which fear a chilling impact on oil and natural gas activities, including hydraulic fracturing (see Daily GPI, March 15). Those concerns were magnified when the measure was passed by the lower house last week and sent on to the state senate, though one knowledgeable capitol watcher told NGI it has little chance of passage.
"The bill ignores 70 years of legal precedent as applied to the liability of oil/gas companies in Colorado and actually treats oil and gas as if it's hazardous waste rather than products that Coloradans rely on every single day," said COGA spokesman Doug Flanders. HB 1310 would "radically change" state law and legal standards, he said.
"We're very disappointed that it passed out of the full House despite opposition from a broad and diverse coalition of business leaders and organizations."
The measure's own language indicates that if were to be signed into law it "would hold oil and gas operators strictly liable for their conduct if oil/gas operations, including a hydraulic fracturing treatment or reinjection operations cause an earthquake." Plaintiffs would be given five years after discovery of alleged damages or injury to file a legal action.
Any quake damage to the surface owner’s property could conceivably be found to be the liability of the oil/gas operators working in the area. The legislation makes it easier for the landowners to sue, and to allege oil and gas operations have harmed their land, structures on the land or any persons on their land.
The lawmakers' action ignores Gov. John Hickenlooper's last five years, during which he has turned the state into "a model for other states and countries, Flanders said.
"By far, Colorado already has the most rigorous oil/gas regulations in the nation protecting our environment, our citizens and their private property." COGA has urged that the legislature let the state's new rules work, rather than "consistently changing the rules for political purposes."
http://www.naturalgasintel.com/articles/105814-colorado-bill-threatens-oil-natgas-operators-industry-says
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Nebraska Lawmakers Back New Fracking Well Requirements
Mar 25, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Christopher Brown
The Nebraska Legislature approved a bill March 24 that would impose additional disclosure requirements on operators of wells used in hydraulic fracturing, and public-notice requirements on the state Oil and Gas Conservation Commission before approval of injection-well permits.
The bill, L.B. 1082, would require commercial injection-well operators to sample and analyze injected wastewater at least once per year, and provide the resulting data to the Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, which regulates Nebraska's oil and gas production.
The bill also would require the certification and monitoring of vehicles used to transport well wastewater, and the periodic evaluation of an operator's ability to pay the costs of shutting down a well.
The Oil and Gas Conservation Commission would be required to provide public notice of an injection-well permit application to the county, city or village where the well would be located, and conduct public meetings to review permits, the bill said.
The bill passed on a 48–0 vote, and now moves to the desk of Gov. Pete Ricketts (R) for signature. A spokesman for Ricketts did not immediately respond to an e-mail or a phone call from Bloomberg BNA seeking comment.
Controversial Permit
The vote on the bill came one year after the controversial approval by the Oil and Gas Conservation Commission of an injection well in Sidney, Neb., located in the Nebraska panhandle near the Colorado border.
At a public hearing on the permit in March 2015, an opponent of the proposed well offered commission members a glass of fracking wastewater to drink, a moment that was captured on video, uploaded to YouTube, and watched by more than 2 million people, according to Bold Nebraska, an activist group that opposed the Sidney injection well, and that was a vocal supporter of L.B. 1082.
Bold Nebraska and the Nebraska Sierra Club also filed a complaint with the state attorney general's office arguing that the Oil and Gas Conservation Commission had violated the state's open meetings law in conducting the hearing, and was active in support of fracking-related bills during the remainder of the 2015 session and the 2016 session.
“Citizens stood up and demanded more transparency on risky fracking waste being dumped into our land and water,” Jane Kleeb, director of Bold Nebraska, said in a statement. “While we did not achieve everything citizens think must happen to protect our land and water, we once again took a major step forward, because every day folks are standing up to Big Oil.”
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=85821754&vname=dennotallissues&fn=85821754&jd=85821754
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Safety Board Staff Did Not Rig Low Morale Report -- IG
Mar 24, 2016 | E&E PM News
By Sam Pearson
U.S. Chemical Safety Board staff did not manipulate the findings of a consultant's report to pin blame for the agency's poor morale on senior leaders, said a report released today by U.S. EPA's Office of Inspector General.
The report failed to substantiate allegations by former CSB Chairman Rafael Moure-Eraso that midlevel employees tampered with an outside firm, Vantage Human Resource Services Inc., hired to make recommendations to the board.
Moure-Eraso asked the IG to investigate last year after claiming in congressional testimony that employees' meddling was to blame for the report's negative conclusions about his leadership at CSB.
Employee actions may have wasted federal and contractor resources and led the company to misrepresent its findings to the agency, he alleged.
Moure-Eraso told lawmakers the report may have been "compromised by two CSB senior members." He said they "seem to have influenced the contractor to insert critical language" and eliminate language "where the consultants believe that CSB was making progress."
According to congressional testimony, CSB hired Vantage for a contract beginning in September 2014 to identify workplace problems and make recommendations. The company briefed Moure-Eraso and board members in early 2015. The report found that 80 percent of employees had "much frustration" with leadership (Greenwire, March 4, 2015).
House Oversight and Government Reform ranking member Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), at a hearing last year, called the number "absolutely stunning."
Cummings said CSB Managing Director Daniel Horowitz and Moure-Eraso "appeared to have retaliated against" the officer in charge of the contract -- later revealed as then-Deputy Managing Director John Lau -- by making Horowitz the contracting officer instead.
Horowitz later "asked the CSB chairman for permission to search the emails" of Lau and another official, Cummings said, which Moure-Eraso granted.
The IG report said CSB staff did not violate federal acquisition regulation requirements in their handling of the Vantage contract.
To the contrary, the report said, Horowitz "acted inappropriately" by making changes to the contract without the knowledge of the contract officer and taking over as the contracting officer's representative.
However, other CSB employees also failed to follow proper oversight procedures when administering the contract, the IG said.
While CSB employees did provide feedback on a draft version of the report, there was no evidence their input caused "any significant modifications to the presentation," the IG found.
Horowitz asked Vantage not to present its findings in writing on Feb. 10, 2015, the IG report said, because he did not want the report to be leaked to the media. However, Vantage gave the presentation anyway two days later. Vantage's actions were "a serious breach of trust," Horowitz later said, according to the report.
After that, Horowitz installed himself as the contracting officer's representative, although his certification for the role had expired, the report said. The IG called the action "inappropriate." The report said Horowitz had his credential recertified and transferred oversight of the contract to another staff member after "less than 24 hours."
The Vantage contract was among the incidents brought up in a memorandum issued to Horowitz last year (Greenwire, Nov. 20, 2015). He remains on administrative leave as CSB seeks to terminate his employment, said Jeff Ruch, the director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, which is representing Horowitz in the dispute.
Responding to the report, CSB Chairwoman Vanessa Sutherland wrote the agency agreed "that the contract as a whole could have been handled more efficiently, effectively and transparently by all CSB parties."
The agency will implement recommended changes to boost training on federal acquisition rules, Sutherland said. It has also already changed one of its board orders to set clearer rules for managing contracts.
http://www.eenews.net/eenewspm/2016/03/24/stories/1060034603
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Chemical Exposure Deaths on the Job Getting Rarer
Mar 25, 2016 | Boston Globe
By Matt Rocheleau
Millions of people across the nation work every day around that could prove dangerous or deadly without proper handling. But chemical accidents like the one that killed a worker in South Boston this week are rare, and have become rarer, as workplace safety improves.
According to federal data, deaths on the job have been falling for decades, and chemical exposure incidents — which make up a small percentage of such fatalities — have declined, as well.
In 2014, the most recent year of data available, 4,679 workers died on the job in the United States, an average of almost 13 deaths every day. That was down from about 38 worker deaths per day in 1970.
And of the 128,983 workplace deaths recorded nationwide since 1992, about 8.8 percent were attributed to “exposure to harmful substances or environments.”
Only 0.03 percent were attributed to ammonia — which was leaking in the South Boston warehouse where a worker died Wednesday — as the main source of exposure, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The picture has been similar in Massachusetts, which has consistently had one of the nation’s lowest worker fatality rates in recent years, according to state by state analyses by the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations.
“Most acute fatal injuries are not chemical exposure fatalities,” said a Boston University environmental health professor, Les Boden, who has researched occupational safety and health.
Such deaths have also become less common over the years, as have workplace deaths overall, because of new technology and heightened awareness, some of which was prompted by regulation, said BU environmental health professor Richard Clapp.
Most places where people work regularly with hazardous materials have equipment and other controls to prevent potential injuries or death from contamination.
However, experts believe that harmful chemicals and substances in the workplace are ultimately responsible for a significantly larger number of chronic illnesses and deaths that go untracked because the symptoms do not typically appear suddenly, but rather over the course of years.
For example, Clapp said, a type of cancer called mesothelioma is usually attributed to workplace asbestos exposure, but such deaths are not counted in workplace fatality statistics.
The most common type of workplace deaths in 2014 were from transportation-related incidents, which accounted for about 40 percent of deaths, followed by falls, slips and trips (17 percent); violence and other injuries by people or animals (16 percent); contact with objects and equipment (15 percent); and fires and explosions (3 percent).
Men accounted for 92 percent of workplace fatalities nationally in 2014.
Clapp called the South Boston case “an extreme situation.”
“These things do happen, but they’re luckily rare,” he said.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/03/24/chemical-exposure-deaths-job-getting-rarer/T8NI30Gu4NOY391zC3PTiM/story.html
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NRC Probing Safety Culture Concerns at TVA Watts Bar Plant
Mar 25, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Rebecca Kern
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is investigating concerns about a potential “chilled work environment” and fear of retaliation among employees who voice safety concerns at Tennessee Valley Authority's Watts Bar nuclear plant.
The NRC said in a March 23 letter to the TVA's chief nuclear officer that it found that the plant's operations department created a perception that “operators are not free to raise safety concerns using all available avenues without fear of retaliation.”
The agency had received allegations and started formal inspections and interviews in November 2015 with staff at the nuclear plant near Spring City, Tenn., Scott Burnell, an NRC spokesman told Bloomberg BNA March 24.
The TVA said it is taking the allegations from employees in the operations department seriously and also began a parallel internal inspection in late December.
“To date, neither the NRC nor TVA has found any evidence of actual retaliation,” Jim Hopson, TVA's manager of public relations, told Bloomberg BNA March 24. But, he said, “Just the perception creates a chilling effect, and that's an issue we must address because that is simply unacceptable.”
Perceived Safety Concerns
The TVA first identified the potential chilling effect in its operations department, which is made up of about 180 employees and has the most important responsibilities at the plant— oversight of the physical operations of the nuclear reactor and its associated systems, Hopson said.
Hopson said some people in the department “expressed concerns about raising safety issues because there was the perception of a fear of retaliation.”
The TVA is continuing its current investigation to find the root cause of the issue, and has found the perception of a chilling effect only in the operations department, Hopson said.
“Whether or not there was true retaliation, the simple fact that there was a perception that there could be— the net effect is exactly the same,” he added.
Hopson said he didn't have details on how many employees raised concerns, but said it was a “trend that we saw developed in a fairly rapid time frame.”
The TVA said the safety culture within the operations department, which runs the control room of the nuclear plant, is of the upmost importance.
“These are the people who are ultimately responsible for the safe operation of the plant,” Hopson said.
NRC's Burnell said the agency sends a letter to nuclear plants when there are concerns raised about a chilling effect taking place, as was the case at Watts Bar. NRC defines a “chilling effect” as “a condition that occurs when an event, interaction, decision or policy change results in a perception that the raising of safety concerns to the employer or to the NRC is being suppressed or is discouraged,” he said.
Plan Of Action at Watts Bar
The letter directed the TVA to promptly notify all members of the workforce about the investigation, Hopson said. The TVA sent an e-mail, including the letter, to the Watts Bar employees on March 24, and a more general e-mail describing the investigation to all TVA employees.
Also, he said top officials at the plant have met with every member of the operations department to “clearly re-emphasize our expectation that there will be no retaliation of any circumstance when you're raising valid safety concerns.”
In the letter, the NRC gave the plant 30 days to conduct an in-depth assessment of the allegations and provide a plan of action. Hopson said the TVA is working to comply with the directives.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=85821741&vname=dennotallissues&fn=85821741&jd=85821741
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Plenty of Facts But Little Action on Flint
Mar 24, 2016 | Roll Call
By Jeremy Dillon
When Congress returns from its recess April 4, two months, three oversight hearings and four congressional delegation visits to Flint, Mich. will have passed since House Republicans went into “fact-finding mode” on the city's drinking water crisis.
So far, no solution and no agreement on the proper level of federal intervention have materialized. But a damning report released Wednesday in Michigan finds plenty of blame at all levels of government, with an added emphasis on "incompetence" at the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) and "disclosure failures" by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
“The Flint water crisis is a story of government failure, intransigence, unpreparedness, delay, inaction, and environmental injustice,” according to the report released by the Flint Water Advisory Task Force appointed by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder.
Among the task force's conclusions:
MDEQ bears primary responsibility for the water contamination in Flint
EPA failed to properly exercise its authority prior to January 2016. EPA’s conduct casts doubt on its willingness to aggressively pursue enforcement (in the absence of widespread public outrage).
Ultimate accountability for Michigan executive branch decisions rests with the Governor.
The task force’s findings echo largely the blame game played during a March 17 House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing, where Snyder and EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy each pointed the finger at the other's bureaucracy for failing the people of Flint, where a change in the water supply left residents exposed to lead and dangerous bacteria.
Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, led the Republican effort to chastise the Obama administration's McCarthy for the EPA's failure to quickly intervene in the drinking water problem. He called on McCarthy to resign, while the committee’s top Democrat, Elijah E. Cummings, D-Md., led calls from his party for Republican Snyder’s resignation.
Beyond assigning blame, House Republicans remain skeptical about the need for the federal government to provide aid to help the city fix its corroded water pipes and address the continuing health needs of residents who have been drinking and bathing in the contaminated water for months.
Chaffetz, who visited Flint on March 12, has promised accountability for the government failure in the city, but would not commit to sending federal dollars.
“The Governor and the state of Michigan has a game plan,” Chaffetz told reporters following the March 17 Flint hearing. “I want to see how that will be funded. This was created in Michigan, and I don’t know if the people of Iowa or Utah should have to pay for it.”
Snyder released a plan on Monday calling for expanded childhood health and education programs, city-wide water infrastructure replacement, and new job and economic development efforts.
The state has already spent $67 million in emergency appropriations to address the crisis, and Snyder proposed in his fiscal 2017 budget request an additional $195 million for the water infrastructure revamp.
On Wednesday, the federal government provided support in the form of a $15 million Department of Labor grant to Michigan “to assist with humanitarian and recovery efforts” by providing temporary work and career and training services.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has expanded Medicaid coverage and Head Start programs for children and families exposed to lead.
But Congress has yet to provide any aid.
The Senate came close to reaching a bipartisan deal earlier this month that would take funds from a stalled advanced automobile loan program and send $220 million to Flint through a combination of grants and loan programs. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, maintains a hold on that deal based on concerns that it would contribute to the national deficit.
Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Mich., who represents Flint, took to the House floor Wednesday to ask the chamber not to recess until they address the water crisis.
“They deserve help from the state and they deserve help from their federal government,” Kildee said. “They are citizens of Michigan, but they are also citizens of the United States who are facing a disaster, who are facing a crisis, and have every right to expect that their government will step in to help them, especially when it is clear that it was the government that did this in the first place, that made the decisions that led to this crisis.”
Kildee introduced legislation (HR 4479) in February that would provide $720 million for Flint through federal funding and a requirement for a state match that would improve the water system, provide educational and nutritional intervention services and establish a “Center for Excellence” to monitor community health.
The House has yet to act on that measure but did give overwhelming approval to another bill (HR 4470) requiring the EPA to notify the public within two weeks of discovering elevated lead levels in a community’s drinking water.
When it comes to spending federal money on the problem, Republicans have balked.
“We can be part of the solution, but we can’t be the total solution,” said Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill. “It’s going to cost money, so where does the money come from? If they thought there was going to be a $600 million federal funding stream to replace all the pipes in Flint, that is not going to happen.”
Shimkus said he would not oppose the use of existing funding mechanisms, including grants and loans to assist with infrastructure projects.
But the problem for many Republicans is the precedent federal aid to Flint would set, especially with so many other communities across the nation in similar predicaments. Elevated lead levels have been reported in drinking water in Baltimore, Newark, N.J., and cities in Ohio and Mississippi.
“Long term, it’s going to be a significant investment, and we are going to have to figure out how to deal with this,” said Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Calif., who chairs the Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittee. “It’s not just Flint. There are a number of communities across the country.”
http://www.rollcall.com/news/policy/plenty-facts-little-action-flint
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Sparking Democratic Control of Water in Flint and Beyond
Mar 25, 2016 | The Hill - Congress Blog
By Kelle Louaillier
The vultures are circling. As people in Flint, Michigan organize to demand justice from a system that failed them horrifically, the private water industry is jockeying to position itself as the solution—not just in Flint, but nationwide.
But if we are to learn anything from the enormous human tragedy in Flint, it’s that we need more democracy, not less, when it comes making sure people have clean, safe water. To bring justice to the people of Flint and avoid similar tragedies, we as a nation must treat water access as the human right it is and prioritize the democratic control of water over private profit and financial gain.
The root of Flint’s water woes have been traced to Michigan’s anti-democratic emergency management system, a demonstration of this country’s systemic racism at work. It forced a corporate model on mostly black cities, giving emergency managers near-absolute power to balance the budget by whatever means they deemed necessary. It was under this system that Flint’s emergency manager made the disastrous decision to switch the city’s water source, which led to the poisoning of the people of Flint.
When Flint residents began sounding the alarm about their water quality, the city’s emergency manager brought in the private sector. He hired Veolia, one of the world’s largest water corporations, to review the city’s water treatment process and evaluate its compliance with regulations. But Veolia raised no flags on lead poisoning when it discovered the lack of corrosion control in the water system. It even downplayed residents’ health concerns, stating that “some people may be sensitive to any water.” Because of role in prolonging the time people in Flint were exposed to lead, the corporation is now named in multiple lawsuits filed by Flint residents.
But perversely, the private water industry is pouncing on the tragedy in Flint to position itself as the solution. Just a few weeks after news about Flint’s water broke nationwide, The National Association of Water Companies (NAWC) released a statement to assure the public that private water corporations “stand ready to offer expertise and solutions to local, state, and federal officials.”
At the same time, a senator from New Jersey—the U.S. home of Suez, another of the world’s largest private water corporations—introduced a bill that would allow Suez, Veolia and their cohort to access unlimited municipal bond money—a corporate subsidy that would promote privatization and cut into tax revenue. Similar bills have failed in the past four sessions of Congress, but the private water industry is taking advantage of the crisis in Flint to try to push through this bill.
Another bill purporting to address water quality issues like those in Flint would appropriate $50 million for grants that could go directly to private corporations and fund “public private partnerships,” a form of privatization. The bill’s sponsor has received financial support from the private water industry.
Even an aid package for Flint with bipartisan support in Congress opens the door to privatization. This legislation designates $100 million for State Revolving Funds that could be used to begin replacing lead pipes in Flint—but also allows corporations to profit off Flint’s crisis by providing the first substantial funding for a controversial new program, the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act, which allows private industry to access hundreds of millions of dollars in low-interest government financing.
To be sure, we are in urgent need of fixing our country’s aging water infrastructure. But neither running our government like a corporation or handing control over to corporations is the answer. We should be investing our tax revenue in our public water infrastructure—not offering it up to private entities. The lack of democratic decision-making in Flint precipitated this disaster. Bringing in the private sector will only lead to less democracy and transparency. Residents of Flint are clear that they do not want the private water industry to step in. They are demanding the federal government free up funds to fix their water system—and keep it public.
We must stand with the people of Flint to ensure they see justice. And, we must rebuff the private water industry’s attempt to advance its agenda by exploiting the situation in Flint. Our elected officials should be developing solutions that provide greater public funding for water systems and codify democratic control of water systems, so that no other city ever faces the preventable tragedy Flint confronts today.
Louaillier is the president of Corporate Accountability International, a member-powered organization that has, for over 39 years, successfully advanced campaigns protecting health, the environment, and human rights.
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/energy-environment/274101-sparking-democratic-control-of-water-in-flint-and
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