Preview Newsletter
ACC AM 4/12
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(ACC Mentioned) NTP Advisers Back Examination of Disinfection Byproducts, Cancer
Apr 12, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Pat Rizzuto
Seven disinfection byproducts should be evaluated for their potential to cause cancer, two scientific advisers told the National Toxicology Program April 11. -
EU Chemicals Agency Issues Substance Risk Management Update
Apr 12, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Stephen Gardner
The European Chemicals Agency and authorities in European Union member states in 2015 concluded 25 “risk management options analyses” (RMOAs) for hazardous substances and groups of substances, recommending in 20 cases that some form of action should be taken to more strictly control substances, according to a summary report ECHA issued. -
European Commission Seeks Comment on Preservative
Apr 12, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
The European Commission is calling for comments through July 1 on a proposal to restrict in the European Union the presence of the preservative methylisothiazolinone in rinse-off cosmetic products, such as shampoo, to 15 parts per million (ppm), and to ban the substance from leave-on hair products. -
EPA Moves One Step Closer to Managing Risks from TCE
Apr 11, 2016 | Environmental Defense Fund
By Lindsay McCormick
It’s no secret that trichloroethylene (TCE) is a nasty chemical. -
State Offers Free Blood Tests to Check Residents for PFOA Exposure
Apr 11, 2016 | News Channel 5
By Brad Evans
The Vermont Department of Health will offer blood tests for residents who may have been exposed to the toxic chemical PFOA. -
Smoke From Religious Bonfires and Incense Causes a Lot More Pollution Than You Might Think
Apr 11, 2016 | Alternet
By Jay Wexler
What more important natural resource could there be than the air we breathe every minute of every day? -
HBCDD Concentration Limits Added to EU POPs Regulation
Apr 11, 2016 | Chemical Watch
The EU Regulation on persistent organic pollutants (POPs) has been amended to add concentration limits for the brominated flame retardant HBCDD in wastes. -
LNG Industry Welcomes Floating Terminals Amid Growth Spurt
Apr 12, 2016 | E&E - Energywire
By Jenny Mandel
The fast-growing world trade in liquefied natural gas ticked up to reach an all-time high last year with the introduction of three new import markets and two new LNG export plants, and the industry is braced for more expansion to come. -
(ACC Mentioned) Utilities Breathe Easy After Canadian Pacific Drops Rail Takeover Bid
Apr 12, 2016 | E&E - Energywire
By Blake Sobczak
Midwestern coal shippers can breathe a sigh of relief as a proposed rail merger fizzled out yesterday, burying fears about potential costs and delays. -
EPA, States Sign Deal to Address Environmental Hazards
Apr 11, 2016 | E&E News PM
By Amanda Reilly
U.S. EPA and leaders from states around the country today announced a new partnership to address public health impacts of environmental hazards. -
EPA Will Finish Transport Rule This Year: McCabe
Apr 12, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Anthony Adragna
Work on a regulation to further reduce power plant emissions of nitrogen oxides that cross state lines should be completed before the end of President Barack Obama's term, the Environmental Protection Agency's top air official said April 11. -
Appellate Judges Weigh Timing, Extent Of EPA Cost Calculus In CWA Veto
Apr 11, 2016 | InsideEPA
By Bridget DiCosmo
Two appellate judges on a U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit panel are weighing at what stage and to what extent EPA must consider cost in calculating whether a Clean Water Act (CWA) project may have “unacceptable” adverse effects in exercising its so-called veto authority to block disposal sites underlying CWA permits.
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(ACC Mentioned) NTP Advisers Back Examination of Disinfection Byproducts, Cancer
Apr 12, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Pat Rizzuto
Seven disinfection byproducts should be evaluated for their potential to cause cancer, two scientific advisers told the National Toxicology Program April 11.
Another adviser described an NTP evaluation of the disinfection byproducts as of “modest significance but worthy of investigation.”
NTP's Board of Scientific Counselors discussed whether NTP's Office of the Report on Carcinogens should evaluate seven di- and tri-haloacetic acids for inclusion in that congressionally mandated report, which lists known and reasonably presumed human carcinogens.
The toxicology program is considering the seven compounds for evaluation because laboratory animal studies have shown five of them can cause cancer, and because “essentially the entire U.S. population” is exposed to them through drinking water, swimming pools and other means, Gloria Jahnke, an NTP health scientist, told board members.
Mary Ostrowski, director of chlorine issues at the American Chemistry Council , told the board the di- and tri-haloacetic acids and other disinfection byproducts already are well controlled through the Stage 2 Disinfection Byproducts Rules the Environmental Protection Agency issued in 2006. Ostrowski was the only person to speak during the public comment period the board provided.
Four board members, however, offered support for an evaluation saying the number of people potentially exposed—250 million—justified the investigation.
NTP's evaluation could have a significant public health impact, said board member Mary Beth Genter, an environmental health professor at the University of Cincinnati. She and other board members offered their thoughts on the merits of NTP's possible evaluation of the haloacetic acids; the board did not take a formal vote.
Next Steps; Seven Disinfection Byproducts
The NTP director draws upon the board's and public comments to decide which chemicals will be evaluated.
If selected, the next step would be for NTP staff to develop a protocol describing how the program would evaluate the chemicals, followed by a monograph summarizing scientific data concerning them. These documents are peer reviewed and open to public comment.
The seven compounds are among a group of the most commonly detected chemicals that are unintentionally created through water disinfection, NTP said in a background paper prepared for the board's and public review.
Ostrowski said there are about 600 disinfection byproducts “and more are being identified all the time.”
The disinfection byproducts, or DBPs, are formed when plants and other vegetative materials or chemicals react with antimicrobial agents, such as chlorine, which are used to kill bacteria, viruses and protozoa in drinking water as well as swimming pools, spas or other water.
Estimates indicate that about 98 percent of U.S. water treatment systems use some type of chlorine disinfection, Jahnke said.
Haloacetic acids, such as the seven NTP may evaluate, are generally formed at highest levels with chlorine, NTP's background paper said. They also can be formed when chloramines, chlorine dioxide and ozone are used, it said.
EPA's Existing, Proposed Regulations
Three of the seven haloacetic acid disinfection byproducts, or DBPs, the National Toxicology Program is considering are regulated through maximum contaminant levels the Environmental Protection Agency set in its Stage 2 Disinfection Byproducts Rules issued in 2006, NTP said.
Those three are:
• dichloroacetic acid;
• dibromoacetic acid; and
• trichloroacetic acid.
The agency proposed monitoring of the remaining four haloacetic acids in 2015 as part of itsproposed Fourth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule. (80 Fed. Reg. 76,897; RIN 2040-AF10).
Those four are:
• bromochloroacetic acid;
• bromodichloroacetic acid;
• dibromochloroacetic acid and
• tribromoacetic acid
“Water disinfection is among the most important and beneficial public health advances of the 20th century,” NTP said.
Yet 19 studies conducted in which laboratory rats and mice were exposed to some of these seven haloacetic acids showed they caused cancer, “which raises concern for their being a human health hazard,” NTP said.
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EU Chemicals Agency Issues Substance Risk Management Update
Apr 12, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Stephen Gardner
The European Chemicals Agency and authorities in European Union member states in 2015 concluded 25 “risk management options analyses” (RMOAs) for hazardous substances and groups of substances, recommending in 20 cases that some form of action should be taken to more strictly control substances, according to a summary report ECHA issued.
In 10 cases completed during 2015, it was recommended that substances be listed under the EU's REACH regulation as “substances of very high concern,” a designation that could result in eventual prohibition, the chemicals agency said.
Other regulatory controls recommended for substances after RMOAs included usage restrictions under REACH, common EU-wide substance classifications or the setting of occupational exposure limits under EU worker safety legislation, according to the summary report, which was issued April 4.
RMOAs are carried out on substances that have been flagged as hazardous, in line with a promise made in 2013 by the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, that the risks of up to 440 substances would be assessed through 2020 to ensure that they were being controlled adequately (25 DEN A-8, 2/6/13).
RMOAs are not required under REACH (Regulation No. 1907/2006 on the registration, evaluation and authorization of chemicals), but make use of information that REACH registrants submit to ECHA in substance registration dossiers.
Broader Scope
During 2015, the types of substances assessed through RMOAs were broadened beyond substances with carcinogenic, mutagenic and reprotoxic properties to include those identified as being persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic, or as endocrine disruptors, according to ECHA.
Cumulatively, by the end of 2015, RMOAs had been carried out for 50 substances, with recommendations for additional controls in 30 cases, including recommendations for SVHC listing for 15 substances, the chemicals agency said. Its previous RMOA progress report was published in March 2015 (58 DEN A-12, 3/26/15).
In a separate process under REACH, substances suspected of being hazardous are listed in the so-called Community Rolling Action Plan (CoRAP) and assigned to EU member state authorities that work to identify information gaps. Binding decisions requesting information then can be sent to substance registrants.
ECHA said in a statement that EU member state authorities were “actively working every year on about 400 substances either under screening, generation and assessment of further data, or risk management option analysis.”
Because of the time required to identify data gaps and generate new substance data, it would “take time before we see new substances entering the REACH regulatory processes,” ECHA said.
Currently, 168 substances have been listed as SVHCs and 31 have been included in Annex XIV of REACH, meaning their use in the EU is banned after a sunset data unless specific continued-use authorizations are granted.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=87011721&vname=dennotallissues&fn=87011721&jd=87011721
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European Commission Seeks Comment on Preservative
Apr 12, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
The European Commission is calling for comments through July 1 on a proposal to restrict in the European Union the presence of the preservative methylisothiazolinone in rinse-off cosmetic products, such as shampoo, to 15 parts per million (ppm), and to ban the substance from leave-on hair products. Methylisothiazolinone is a skin sensitizer that is currently allowed in cosmetics in the EU up to 100 ppm. The commission proposal would amend Annex V of the EU Cosmetics Regulation ((EC) No. 1223/2009) and also would require any products still containing methylisothiazolinone to be labeled as such. Methylisothiazolinone was subject to a commission consultation in July 2015 in relation to cosmetics intended to be left on the skin (147 DEN A-15, 7/31/15). The commission said in a background document that a ban on the substance in leave-on cosmetic products would be adopted this year. Responses to the new consultation should focus on the feasibility of the 15 ppm limit in rinse-off products, and on any competitiveness issues or impacts on companies, the commission said. The consultation on methylisothiazolinone is available at http://bit.ly/1PQEmo9.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=87011729&vname=dennotallissues&fn=87011729&jd=87011729
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EPA Moves One Step Closer to Managing Risks from TCE
Apr 11, 2016 | Environmental Defense Fund
By Lindsay McCormick
It’s no secret that trichloroethylene (TCE) is a nasty chemical. A 2013 review of thousands of scientific studies by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) scientists concluded that TCE is carcinogenic to humans by all routes of exposure and poses additional hazards, including immunotoxicity, neurotoxicity, and adverse effects on the developing heart. TCE’s link to cancer has been confirmed by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), EPA’s Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS), the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), and the National Toxicology Program (NTP).
With such a track record, one would expect that the U.S. government has restricted its use, right? Wrong. The current annual U.S. production of TCE is 250 million pounds – so, not surprisingly, human and environmental exposure is widespread. While most TCE is used in industrial and commercial settings as a chemical intermediate in the production of other chemicals, it’s also commonly used as a metal degreasing agent and spot cleaner in commercial dry cleaning, and can be found in certain consumer products.
But over the past few years, EPA has taken steps towards managing the risks posed by TCE. In 2014, EPA finalized a risk assessment on TCE – the first risk assessment the Agency had completed under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) in 28 years. The assessment focused on just some uses of TCE, but found those uses pose significant risks: to occupational workers through use of aerosol and vapor degreasers and dry cleaning spotting agents, as well as to consumers through use of TCE-containing arts and craft spray fixative products.
The findings of EPA’s risk assessment spurred PLZ Aeroscience Corporation to work with EPA to reach an agreement to remove TCE from its consumer spray fixative products by September 2015. (Kudos to PLZ!) In part because PLZ Aeroscience Corporation’s products were the only TCE-containing spray fixatives on the market, EPA has since been able to pursue a significant new use rule (SNUR) – one of the few regulatory tools that EPA has to seek to restrict the use of chemicals under TSCA – for certain uses of TCE in consumer products.
Last week, EPA finalized this SNUR, which is a significant step forward. The rule locks in PLZ Aeroscience Corporation’s phase-out of TCE in consumer spray fixative products and ensures that similar new consumer products cannot enter the market without prior EPA review.
However, a SNUR cannot, by definition, address ongoing uses of a chemical – of which there are a good number for TCE. EPA estimates that about 84% of TCE is used as a chemical intermediate in closed systems for manufacturing refrigerant chemicals, 15% as a solvent for metals decreasing, and the remaining ~1% for all other uses (including its use in consumer products).
With these ongoing uses in mind, EDF submitted comments on the proposed TCE SNUR in October, 2015, fully supporting the proposed SNUR but strongly urging EPA to promptly promulgate a TSCA section 6 rule to address ongoing uses of TCE. The last time EPA attempted to utilize its authority under TSCA section 6 to ban or restrict chemicals was in 1989, when it issued its regulation to ban asbestos. Two years later, that regulation was vacated by the courts because they found EPA had not met its high burden of proof of harm under TSCA.
Happily, EPA is trying again: EPA is working on a section 6 proposed rule for TCE (as well as for two other chemicals). EPA intends to restrict TCE’s ongoing uses as a spotting agent in dry cleaning and in commercial and consumer aerosol spray degreasers.
Meanwhile, the European Union, which classified TCE as a Substance of Very High Concern under REACH in 2010, has since banned most uses (with a sunset date of April 21, 2016). Successfully promulgating a TSCA section 6 rule would be a huge feat for EPA, given the limits on its authority under TSCA, but EDF believes the targeted uses of TCE are strong candidates for TSCA section 6 regulation given their clear risks.
So, EPA deserves a hearty pat on the back for taking this initial step to restrict TCE’s use – but the journey has just begun.
http://blogs.edf.org/health/2016/04/11/epa-moves-one-step-closer-to-managing-risks-from-tce/
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State Offers Free Blood Tests to Check Residents for PFOA Exposure
Apr 11, 2016 | News Channel 5
By Brad Evans
The Vermont Department of Health will offer blood tests for residents who may have been exposed to the toxic chemical PFOA.
The state said it will offer the tests to residents of North Bennington and Bennington beginning later this month.
The blood tests will measure the level of PFOA in a person’s body. The results will be compared to levels measured by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Private wells in the area of the former Chemfab and Saint-Gobain plants have tested positive for PFOA, ranging from the state minimum of 20 parts per trillion to nearly 3,000 ppt.
"The higher the concentration of PFOA in drinking water, the higher the level of PFOA will likely be in your blood. The test cannot tell if your exposure to PFOA will cause health problems for you in the future, or if a health problem you have was caused by PFOA, but it may help inform discussions about your health between you and your doctor,” Vermont Health Commissioner Dr. Harry Chen said in a press release.
Residents will be eligible for the blood tests only if the state has confirmed that a private well was contaminated, if they worked at or lived near the former plant or if they currently live nearby.
Residents who want to receive a blood test should register online by April 30.
The state said it would contact eligible participants to schedule testing appointments. Residents who want the blood test must first complete a health and exposure questionnaire regarding water consumption, diet, health and medical history and other factors.
The tests will be conducted April 29 and 30 and May 4, 5, 11 and 12 at the Bennington Health Department.
The tests and analysis will be free to eligible residents. The results will take several months, the state said.
The Department of Health said it takes two to four years for PFOA blood levels to reduce by half, and there is no medical treatment to remove PFOA from the body.
The state continues to provide bottled water and in-home water filtration systems to affected residents.
Residents of Pownal, where PFOA was also detected in the municipal water supply, were so far not eligible for blood testing. Testing areas were also expanded to communities in Chittenden and Grand Isle counties last week.
http://www.wptz.com/news/state-offers-free-blood-tests-to-check-residents-for-pfoa-exposure/38970466
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Smoke From Religious Bonfires and Incense Causes a Lot More Pollution Than You Might Think
Apr 11, 2016 | Alternet
By Jay Wexler
What more important natural resource could there be than the air we breathe every minute of every day? And yet, air pollution remains rampant throughout the world. The World Health Organization has estimated that air pollution causes seven million deaths per year from problems such as heart disease, respiratory ailments, and cancer. Major sources of air pollution include mobile sources like cars and trucks and stationary sources like factories and power plants. Relatively minor sources range from cigarettes and hairspray to volcanoes and cow farts.
When it comes to our air, the biggest hazard posed by religion is that religious people really like burning stuff. Whether they are burning incense or firecrackers or logs or paper or pieces of cardboard put together to resemble a small house, religious believers around the globe can’t seem to get enough of using fire to celebrate their traditions.
Consider Lag B’Omer. This is a relatively minor Jewish holiday that young people celebrate all over Israel by lighting enormous bonfires to commemorate the death of a famous rabbi and the end of a plague that was killing a different rabbi’s students. Even though I was raised Jewish, I had never heard of the holiday until my colleague Jack Beermann told me about it. Jack, who was nice enough to hire me when he chaired the Appointments Committee at my law school fourteen years ago, despite the fact that I misspelled his name in my cover letter, visits Israel often. “When I was there on Lag B’Omer, the whole country smelled like a bonfire that night and the next day,” he said to me one day when I was explaining my book project to him. “Also, my clothes smelled like a bonfire, of course, so it must require lots of extra laundering.”
According to news reports, there are so many bonfires lit on Lag B’Omer that satellite images reveal a smoky haze hovering over Israel during the holiday. Scientific research has shown that visits to emergency rooms for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) occurrences go way up because of the smoke, which is hardly surprising since the concentration of particulate matter on the evening of the holiday can spike to as much as ten times the normal level. Government officials in Israel are well aware of the problem. A study authorized by the Knesset showed that the bonfires contribute to the problem of global warming, and that body has recommended (though not required) that people refrain from lighting them. The message has not been well received in most quarters. When an influential local mayor launched a campaign to convince residents to find alternative methods of celebrating the holiday, the people became outraged. As one journalist wrote: “In an instant, the popular mayor became the local killjoy, the Grinch who was trying to steal Lag B’Omer. The local press and town Internet forum erupted with residents blasting [the mayor] for his attempt to extinguish the flames. ‘Next thing you know he’ll be ordering us not to light Hanukkah candles,’ one angry resident wrote.” In fact, Hanukkah candles do contain hazardous substances like toluene, benzene, and formaldehyde, so it wouldn’t be entirely shocking if somebody did try to ban them.
Beyond bonfires, the burning of incense is a fairly long-standing and ubiquitous religious practice found in all sorts of traditions, including Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism. Although incense can be sweet-smelling and pleasant, it is also really dangerous. For whatever reason (the smell, the context, the different treatment by the media, the extreme irrationality of all human beings), people who would go miles out of their way to avoid breathing in the smoke from a single cigarette often have no problem hanging out for hours at a temple or church where the air is filled with billowing plumes of hazardous incense smoke.
When I was visiting Hong Kong, I spent an hour or so at the School of Public Health at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, talking to a research scientist named Kin-Fai Ho, whose work focuses on the effects of toxic air pollutants on human health. Professor Ho was part of a team of scientists who were granted rare access inside of two temples in Hong Kong so they could study the effects of incense burning on the air quality. The team found that during peak times, when incense was being burnt in high quantities, the air was far more polluted than during nonpeak times. At one of the temples, for instance, the peak carbon-monoxide level was three times the nonpeak level, and the average benzene concentration was almost eight times more than the government’s recommendation for public places. When I asked Dr. Ho how incense smoke compares with cigarette smoke, he said the two were comparable with respect to particulate matter, carbon monoxide, and polycyclic hydrocarbons.
Temples and the people visiting them have several alternatives that can help reduce the risk from incense smoke. In their paper, Ho and his coauthors write that “visitors may decrease the number of incense sticks burned and period of stay at temples.” In my travels, I did visit temples that tried to suggest limits on how many incense sticks people should burn. Some temples have tried to deal with this problem by extinguishing incense sticks after they have been burning for a while. Particularly in Hong Kong, I sometimes saw large buckets of water standing near places where large amounts of incense were being burnt, and every once in a while, a temple worker would grab a bunch of sticks and douse them in the water. There is one suggested possible solution, however, that Dr. Ho was not very optimistic about. So-called environmentally friendly incense, which is marketed in some places as a way of reducing the environmental and health impacts of incense burning, turns out, according to a new study that Ho was working on, to have slightly fewer particulate matter emissions but little effect on the amount of toxic pollutants emitted. On my way out of the interview, looking in that journalistic way for the bottom line, I asked Dr. Ho whether he thought incense-smoke inhalation was a problem. He looked at me and responded calmly, “Yeah, it’s a big problem.”
Another problem is fireworks. As someone who has always hated fireworks and would rather stay inside with my head under a pillow than endure a loud, smoky Fourth of July celebration with ten thousand people staring at the sky and going “ooooh” and “ahhh” over and over for half an hour, I find it hard to understand the appeal. But still, people love watching fireworks! Every celebration these days, from the biggest national holiday to the most insignificant home-run hit by a last-place baseball team down 14–0 in the bottom of the eighth inning, seems to be marked by a blast of colorful explosions. Religious celebrations are no exception. Chinese New Year celebrations, which for some take on a religious meaning (many believe the fireworks ward off evil spirits); the Muslim holiday of Eid, which marks the end of the Ramadan fasting period; the Hindu festival of lights known as Diwali; and many other religious holidays and festivals around the world are celebrated with the abundant lighting of firecrackers and fireworks.
Unfortunately, for those of us who need to breathe air in order to live, the smoke produced by fireworks can be quite dangerous. According to one academic paper that showed the effects of fireworks on air pollution during Diwali in India, “fireworks contain harmful chemicals such as potassium nitrate, carbon and sulphur apart from an array of chemicals such as strontium, barium, sodium, titanium, zirconium, magnesium alloys, copper and aluminum powder to create the colourful effects. On burning they release gases such as carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide.” The study concluded that fireworks contributed to excessive ozone pollution spikes during the holiday, and that “high ozone levels combined with pollution due to fireworks might be critical for elderly people and children with heart and respiratory ailments.” Another Indian expert similarly concluded, “Gaseous air pollutants along with other toxic gases emitted due to burning of firecrackers aggravates the chance of attack among asthma patients. The patients with heart disease, chronic bronchitis and low immune system are also at high risk.”
The realization that fireworks significantly raise air pollution levels has led officials in Beijing to call for a reduction in the use of pyrotechnics during the Chinese New Year period, and it’s one reason, among others, that Abu Dhabi police have warned Eid celebrants not to use illegal fireworks in the United Arab Emirates. Even in the United States, some critics have called for the federal government to regulate fireworks, rather than exempting them from the ambit of the Clean Air Act. The EPA has refused, claiming that “Congress did not intend to require EPA to consider air-quality violations associated with such cultural traditions in regulatory determinations.”
Although most people probably conjure up images of a dark and smoggy sky when they think about air pollution, in fact indoor air pollution may be nearly as dangerous as outdoor pollution, particularly in developing countries where people routinely burn coal and biomass fuel for cooking and heating their homes. Indoor air pollution also provides the context for one of the most bizarre examples of a religious practice that has created environmental problems in the United States.
Mercury is an element that people generally do not want to mess with. Touching it, eating it, or, most dangerously, breathing in the vapors that it releases can be extremely dangerous, potentially causing respiratory problems and damage to the nervous system. Given the perils of inhaling mercury vapors, it might be surprising to learn that some religious believers actually sprinkle the silver liquid metal inside their homes to ward off evil spirits. The practice puts not only current residents at risk but also future ones, as mercury can remain in fabrics and carpets for up to a decade, releasing dangerous vapors the entire time.
Back in 1989, a middle school chemistry teacher in Brooklyn named Arnold Wendroff was teaching his students about the periodic table. When he asked his students if they knew what mercury was used for, he fully expected someone to mention thermometers. Instead, one of his students answered that his mother, a Santeria practitioner originally from Puerto Rico, liked to sprinkle it around their apartment to fend off witches. Witches? Concerned and curious, Wendroff soon became a one-man watchdog of the ritualistic use of mercury. He learned that many practitioners of Caribbean religions like Santeria, Palo, and Voodoo believe that mercury can bring good luck and keep evil spirits at bay. In large US cities with substantial populations of these believers, practitioners purchase capsules containing a small amount of liquid mercury from so-called botanicas, which are essentially stores that sell religious paraphernalia.
The practitioners then do things like sprinkle the mercury on floors, furniture, or car interiors, or mop the floor with it, or burn it in candles, or mix it with perfume, or even swallow it. Because mercury vapors are so dangerous to inhale and because the mercury remains in the environment for so long, Wendroff concluded that the ritualistic use of mercury posed a significant health hazard that the government needed to address.
Through Wendroff’s efforts, the EPA became aware of the problem in the early 1990s and started considering whether to do anything about it. The agency has several statutes that it could have used to regulate the ritual use of mercury inside homes, most importantly the Toxic Substances Control Act, or TSCA, which allows the agency to take a wide variety of regulatory actions against substances that pose an unreasonable risk to the environment or public health. To look into the issue, the EPA established a task force that conducted research and interviewed interested parties. Ultimately, though, the agency decided against using the TSCA, opting instead to work together with states and municipalities to spread the word about the dangers of mercury through education and community outreach.
In the wake of the task force’s decision, Wendroff continued to call for further efforts to address the indoor religious mercury problem, talking to the media, writing papers in scientific journals, and interacting with various governmental units. In 2005, he asked the Office of the Inspector General at EPA to “determine whether EPA had adequately investigated whether [indoor religious mercury] contamination poses an environmental health threat and, if so, had EPA substantively acted to address its dangers.” Unsurprisingly, the OIG concluded that EPA had acted properly and recommended no further action. On the other hand, the office did release a report on its investigation “to further emphasize that the ritual use of mercury poses a health risk.” This final conclusion does seem to be accurate. A 2011 article in the New York Times, for instance, reported on the case of a three-year-old who suffered mercury poisoning when her family moved into a Rhode Island apartment that had been the site of ritual mercury use by a former tenant many years earlier.
http://www.alternet.org/belief/smoke-religious-bonfires-and-incense-causes-lot-more-pollution-you-might-think
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HBCDD Concentration Limits Added to EU POPs Regulation
Apr 11, 2016 | Chemical Watch
The EU Regulation on persistent organic pollutants (POPs) has been amended to add concentration limits for the brominated flame retardant HBCDD in wastes.
Parties to the Stockholm Convention agreed to add HBCDD to its list of prohibited substances in 2013. It had an exemption for its use in expanded and extruded polystyrene in buildings and the production of HBCDD for that purpose. The amendment entered into force in November 2014.
Because of this amendment of the Convention it is necessary to amend Annexes IV and V of the EU POPs Regulation, adding the substance to the annexes and indicating the corresponding concentration limits. This is to ensure that wastes containing HBCDD are managed in accordance with the Convention.
The European Commission will review the concentration limit in Annex IV within three years of the date of entry into force of the Regulation (20 April) with a view to lowering the threshold.
The concentration limits will not apply until 30 September. This is to give companies and competent authorities time to adapt to the new requirements.
Last month a separate amendment to the EU POPs Regulation was published in the EU Official Journal. Thisadded HBCDD to the Regulation’s list of prohibited substances.
The substance – sometimes called HBCD – is also on the REACH authorisation list, with only authorised uses permitted since August 2015. Applications are being considered for its use in expanded polystyrene for building insulation. The Commission has proposed granting authorisation, but with a very short review period because an alternative has been identified.
Since no authorisation application was submitted for using HBCDD in extruded polystyrene, this use will be banned in the EU from 30 September.
https://chemicalwatch.com/46414/hbcdd-concentration-limits-added-to-eu-pops-regulation
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LNG Industry Welcomes Floating Terminals Amid Growth Spurt
Apr 12, 2016 | E&E - Energywire
By Jenny Mandel
The fast-growing world trade in liquefied natural gas ticked up to reach an all-time high last year with the introduction of three new import markets and two new LNG export plants, and the industry is braced for more expansion to come.
Global LNG trade grew by 2.5 percent in 2015 to reach 245 million tons for the year, according to new data from the International Group of Liquefied Natural Gas Importers, as two new plants in Australia and Indonesia came online with the capacity to produce 14.4 million tons of LNG per year.
But 2015 was a year of watchful waiting for many in the industry as it prepares for a surge in liquefaction capacity expected in 2016.
"In a global context of lower energy prices and sluggish economic growth, the LNG industry is holding its breath for the impact of an export wave from the United States," the Paris-based importers group said in its annual assessment.
About 42 million tons per year of new liquefaction capacity is expected to come online in 2016, more than half of it from Australia. Qatar is currently the world's top producer of LNG, but Australia is expected to take that distinction by 2018, with the United States potentially surpassing it by the end of this decade.
That surge in world supply has markets looking for a new balance.
The world LNG demand picture has changed dramatically over the past decade. In 2005, there were just 15 LNG-importing countries, compared with 34 at the end of last year, according to the group's data. Much of that new LNG import capacity is accounted for by floating regasification facilities known as FSRUs, which today account for 77 million tons per year of demand, or more than Qatar's total supply output.
Floating and fixed import plants have brought new, relatively small-scale players into the LNG import market. Last year saw Egypt, Jordan and Pakistan entering the LNG buyers club with a combined 5.5 million tons per year of demand.
On the demand side, the two top buyers have long been Japan and South Korea, and analysts have pointed to emerging demand in fast-growing China and India. But last year saw demand in Japan fall by about 5 percent to 85 million tons, while Korean sales fell by 13 percent to 33 million tons.
Demand growth from China offset some of that decline with a 5 percent growth rate, amid fears that the super-charged Asian economy is cooling, while LNG demand from India remained flat.
Still, the importers group was upbeat on the industry's outlook and highlighted a potential new entrant with massive natural gas reserves.
"In the longer term, the future of LNG imports looks positive. A number of emerging economies are considering [floating] projects and all eyes are on China and India, expected to require large volumes over the next decade," the group said. "[Floating] solutions will make it possible to unlock reserves in otherwise stranded areas, and Iran could soon be in the limelight as an LNG exporter."
http://www.eenews.net/energywire/2016/04/12/stories/1060035421
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(ACC Mentioned) Utilities Breathe Easy After Canadian Pacific Drops Rail Takeover Bid
Apr 12, 2016 | E&E - Energywire
By Blake Sobczak
Midwestern coal shippers can breathe a sigh of relief as a proposed rail merger fizzled out yesterday, burying fears about potential costs and delays.
Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. announced it would end its monthslong pursuit of rival Norfolk Southern Corp., whose track network connects mines and coal-fired power plants across West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana, among other states.
On Friday, several Norfolk Southern customers had raised concerns about an arrangement that would have seen CP CEO E. Hunter Harrison take over as CEO of Norfolk Southern while putting his former company's stock in a trust.
Critics of the move argued that it would amount to a de-facto merger before regulators at the Surface Transportation Board or antitrust enforcers could properly consider the deal between two of North America's largest freight railroads.
Ohio-based electricity giant FirstEnergy Corp. said Canadian Pacific's plan could have affected the millions of tons of coal it ships annually to its power plants via Norfolk Southern, according to a regulatory filing.
FirstEnergy's comments to the Surface Transportation Board harked back to "serious and, in some instances, persistent" service problems associated with past mergers of major railroads, such as Union Pacific's acquisition of the Chicago and North Western Transportation Co. in the mid-1990s.
The energy company, which controls a generating capacity of some 17,000 megawatts, added that Harrison could have raised shipping rates and slashed train crews "to justify the premium CP intends to pay to purchase NS's stock."
For its part, Canadian Pacific claimed it could have eased freight congestion by streamlining operations at a "true end-to-end railroad." Its track network crosses New York and North Dakota's Bakken Shale play, and extends to Canada's western coast.
"We have long recognized that consolidation is necessary for the North American rail industry to meet the demands of a growing economy, but with no clear path to a friendly merger at this time, we will turn all of our focus and energy to serving our customers and creating long term value for CP shareholders," Harrison said in a statement yesterday that effectively closed the door on the company's overtures to other Class I railroads.
Norfolk Southern said in a statement that it would continue to focus on productivity savings, adding that it is "confident the continued execution of our plan will deliver superior value to all of the company's stakeholders."
But the company had also been skeptical that the deal would pass muster with the Justice Department. A statement last week from Assistant Attorney General Bill Baer of the Antitrust Division seemed to confirm those suspicions.
"Canadian Pacific's voting trust proposal would compromise Norfolk Southern's independence and effectively combine the two railroads prior to completion of the STB's review," Baer said. "That makes no sense."'Legitimately concerned'
FirstEnergy, Norfolk Southern and the Justice Department weren't the only ones to raise doubts about the merger. The American Chemistry Council, Freight Rail Customer Alliance and National Industrial Transportation League were among the long list of organizations to weigh in with STB.
Coal and natural gas producer Consol Energy Inc. said in its filing that Canadian Pacific's effort "seriously threatens shipper interests."
"As a [Norfolk Southern] shipper, CONSOL is legitimately concerned about the effects of an acquisition of NS by CP on service, safety, investment levels, rates, and a host of other transportation factors," noted Stephanie Gill, vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary at Consol.
A Consol spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment on Canadian Pacific's decision yesterday to abandon the merger.
The Pennsylvania-based firm joins a long list of energy producers, oil refiners and power utilities to have taken their rail service issues to regulators at STB in recent years. A harsh winter that snarled rail traffic two years ago stoked concerns about coal deliveries in particular, as many utilities neared the end of their stockpiles.
In FirstEnergy's filing, senior attorney Rick Giannantonio suggested the decision to approach STB on Friday was not made lightly, a sign of his industry's antipathy toward the merger.
"[FirstEnergy] has not always seen eye-to-eye with the railroads transporting coal for it, but FE has generally resolved its disputes with the railroads through commercial means, rather than in regulatory proceedings at the STB," he said. "Even when FE, like so many other rail shippers, was having substantial rail service issues with various railroads in 2013-15, it did not resort to the STB for relief, relying instead on commercial means to deal with those issues."
A FirstEnergy spokesman declined to comment on Canadian Pacific's decision yesterday beyond what was contained in its filing.
http://www.eenews.net/energywire/stories/1060035436/search?keyword=American+Chemistry+Council
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EPA, States Sign Deal to Address Environmental Hazards
Apr 11, 2016 | E&E News PM
By Amanda Reilly
U.S. EPA and leaders from states around the country today announced a new partnership to address public health impacts of environmental hazards.
EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy and the presidents of the Environmental Council of the States and the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials today signed a memorandum of agreement to focus on public health.
"By working together -- not just with state environmental commissioners at ECOS, but with health officials at ASTHO -- we can do more to prevent environmental exposure and keep people healthy," McCarthy today wrote in a blog post.
The memorandum says the different government entities have a "mutually shared mission" of protecting public health from environmental threats and hazards.
It compels EPA and state agencies to share resources and develop tools, reports, workshops and other initiatives to address public health.
Parties have agreed to identify short- and long-term goals to reduce public health impacts of environmental risks within four months.
McCarthy wrote that the water contamination issues in Flint, Mich., highlighted a need for all levels of government to be more responsive and innovative in addressing environmental threats that disproportionately affect low-income and minority communities.
"We'll look at how states and EPA are tapping into each other's expertise," McCarthy wrote, "whether we have the technologies, tools, and investments necessary to protect people -- and how to best focus on under-served communities that are too often left behind, so we can meet the challenges of the future."
The EPA administrator last week told reporters that her agency would generally spend more time talking about public health and reaching out to the public health field in the Obama administration's last year in office.
Last week, the White House released a report finding that climate change would have wide-reaching effects that threaten the well-being of every American (Greenwire, April 4).
EPA and the state agencies plan to report their accomplishments every year under the agreement announced today. The agreement is voluntary and not legally enforceable.
"Under the [memorandum], we will identify projects that leverage our strengths and resources, ultimately benefiting all Americans," said ECOS President Martha Rudolph, director of environmental programs in the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, in a statement.
http://www.eenews.net/eenewspm/2016/04/11/stories/1060035408
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EPA Will Finish Transport Rule This Year: McCabe
Apr 12, 2016 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Anthony Adragna
Work on a regulation to further reduce power plant emissions of nitrogen oxides that cross state lines should be completed before the end of President Barack Obama's term, the Environmental Protection Agency's top air official said April 11.
“We will not stop moving forward on the transport rule,” Janet McCabe, EPA acting assistant administrator for air and radiation, told the Environmental Council of the States spring meeting in Nashville, Tenn. “We are open to every good idea, every collaborative effort that you guys want to put forward.”
As proposed in November 2015, the regulation (RIN 2060-AS05) would set new emissions budgets for 23 states to cap nitrogen oxides emissions—an ozone precursor—from the power sector.
Those budgets help fulfill the Clean Air Act's “good neighbor” provision, which forces upwind states to control emissions that prevent downwind areas from attaining or maintaining national air standards for ozone and other pollutants.
Petition Tied to Rule
Caught up in the agency's work on the transport rule is the fate of a petition from a group of Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states, originally filed in December 2013, that seeks to add Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia to the Ozone Transport Region.
Doing so would require those states take steps to curb interstate transport of air pollution that contributes to violations of the EPA's national ambient air quality standards in the downwind states.
“The technical information that underlies our analysis of that request is the very same technical information that underlies the development of the transport rule,” McCabe said. “We are thinking about what is the best way to respond to that particular request.”
McCabe said the agency still needs to “think about the policy and legal implications” of granting the petition, which the environmental commissioners from Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont made under Section 176A of the Clean Air Act.
The nine Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states asked EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy to immediately act on their petition in a April 6 letter .
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=87011746&vname=dennotallissues&fn=87011746&jd=87011746
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Appellate Judges Weigh Timing, Extent Of EPA Cost Calculus In CWA Veto
Apr 11, 2016 | InsideEPA
By Bridget DiCosmo
Two appellate judges on a U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit panel are weighing at what stage and to what extent EPA must consider cost in calculating whether a Clean Water Act (CWA) project may have “unacceptable” adverse effects in exercising its so-called veto authority to block disposal sites underlying CWA permits.
“I don't see how you can determine something is unacceptable without looking at the universe of consequences,” Judge Brett Kavanaugh said during April 11 arguments in Mingo Logan Coal Company v. EPA, suggesting that something that costs a “billion dollars” in one case might be deemed unacceptable but not in a case where the cost was minimal.
Kavanaugh added that in Michigan v. EPA, the “Supreme Court said you at least take a pass at it,” citing the high court's 5-4 decision last June, which faulted the agency for not weighing costs before deciding it was "appropriate and necessary" to craft a utility maximum achievable control technology air toxics rule under the Clean Air Act.
And Judge Sri Srinivasan asked Justice Department (DOJ) attorney Matthew Littleton, arguing on behalf of EPA, to clarify the agency's position on whether it is statutorily barred from considering cost when determining whether an “effect” may be “unacceptable,” asking, “are you saying that's something the agency can't do?”
Littleton in response cited the statutory language in CWA section 404(c), saying the administration is authorized to act under section 404(c) “whenever” it determines that discharge into sites would have an “unacceptable adverse effect” on wildlife and other environmental considerations.
Mingo is asking the D.C. Circuit to overturn a September 2014 decision where U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Amy Berman Jackson said EPA was within its CWA section 404(c) authority to block disposal sites vital to operating the company's West Virginia mine -- even though it had previously allowed the facility's dredge-and-fill permit, administered by the Army Corps of Engineers, to proceed.
Although section 404 generally authorizes the Corps to issue dredge-and-fill permits, EPA under section 404(c) can block disposal sites “whenever” a permit would have "unacceptable adverse effects,” and a previous D.C. Circuit decision in the ongoing Mingo litigation said there are no temporal restrictions on when the agency can exercise its 404(c) authority.
Mingo Logan attorney Paul Clement said during the April 11 arguments that while it concedes that EPA may exercise its 404(c) authority even after the Corps issues a final permit, EPA must consider a “number of factors” that are relevant post-permit and not before, including subsequent legal changes, new information, reliance issues and the compliance record of the permittee.
DOJ's Littleton, however, argued that EPA has broad discretion in applying its 404(c) authority and that neitherMichigan nor the statute requires the agency to take into account factors beyond the four environmental issues listed in the statute: wildlife; municipal water supplies; shellfish beds and fishery areas; and recreational areas.
Littleton cited Whitman v. American Trucking Association, a 2001 Supreme Court ruling that held that EPA must act within an “adequate margin of safety” and also argued that the agency may consider downstream impacts to water quality regardless of whether state water quality regulations are in place.
Reliance Costs
While the judges appear to be considering Mingo Logan's argument that some level of “heightened scrutiny” is appropriate given that the Corps had already issued a final permit, Srinivasan at least raised questions casting doubt on whether the company has fully preserved its argument that it incurred reliance costs from the permit.
“It seems to me not just enough to say, 'there's reliance,' it seems incumbent on the part of the company” to clarify or “quantify” the extent to which reliance on a final permit resulted in costs, Srinivasan said, saying “otherwise, what is agency supposed to do, they can't define that.” Reliance refers to the degree to which the company incurred financial costs related to relying on the final permit, because it did not know at the time that the agency would veto the sites underlying 88 percent of the permit.
Srinivasan asked whether the company had “any other documentation of how reliance interests congealed in terms of investments and expenditures,” saying that he saw in the briefing only a brief reference to reliance. “What did the company put before the agency?” Srinivasan asked, saying that the court is bound by the amount of information before the agency at the time of its action.
On rebuttal, Clement said that the company did not fully present cost analysis to EPA because it was “crystal clear” that the agency would not consider cost, and that early on in the 404 permitting process, when EPA first suggested that the Corps formally revoke the permit, the company laid out its reliance expenditures. But after the agency began initiating the 404(c) proceedings, the company “had no reason to think reliance would be taken into account,” though it did build its infrastructure based on believing that 100 percent of the disposal sites could be used, rather than the 12 percent left after EPA's action, Clement said.
But Srinivasan said that “I don't think that absolves the company from putting it into the record.”
And Kavanaugh pointed out, “reliance is the reason you want heightened justification from EPA.”
“My clients would rather live in a world where permits take an extra six months” due to increased EPA scrutiny during the 404 permitting process “than live in a world where the permit is not worth the paper it's printed on,” Clement said.
But Kavanaugh also seemed to respond to Clement's argument that “unacceptable” necessitates some level of cost consideration, saying, “The word 'unacceptable' is capacious; its a word of value judgment.” And later in the arguments, he said, “It really comes back to the nature of the word 'unacceptable.'”
The panel hearing the case also includes Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson. She was not present at the April 11 hearing, but Kavanaugh said she would be reviewing the arguments.
http://insideepa.com/daily-news/appellate-judges-weigh-timing-extent-epa-cost-calculus-cwa-veto
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