ACC PM 22/03/18

Industry and Association News

1. (ACC Mentioned) US Chemical Output Slips in February on Mixed Regional Results

   Mar 22, 2018 | Zacks

   By Anindya Barman
   
   
   U.S. chemical production fell slightly in February with lower output witnessed across all chemical producing regions barring the Northeast that witnessed a modest gain and Mid-Atlantic and West Coast that saw flat production – according to the latest monthly report from the American Chemistry Council ("ACC").

LCSA News

2. (ACC Mentioned) TSCA Could Be Undercut by 'Secret Science' Requirements

   Mar 22, 2018 | Chemical Watch

   By Kelly Franklin
   
   
   NGOs have raised the alarm that a new "secret science" policy at the US EPA could result in suppressing crucial data needed to take action on hazardous chemicals under TSCA.
3. US CPSC Updates Methylene Chloride Labelling Policy

   Mar 22, 2018 | Chemical Watch

   By Kelly Franklin
   
   
   The US Consumer Product Safety Commission expanded its labelling guidance for paint strippers containing methylene chloride to address acute inhalation hazards.
4. US EPA Round-Up

   Mar 22, 2018 | Chemical Watch

   The US EPA has published three draft guidance documents in the Federal Register, outlining how it will share confidential business information (CBI) with governments, environmental and medical professionals, and emergency responders.

Chemical Management News

5. (ACC Mentioned) Basis of Californian 'Priority Product' Listing of Carpeting Questioned

   Mar 22, 2018 | Chemical Watch

   By Julie A. Miller
   
   
   Plans to name carpets and rugs containing perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) as a "priority product" have no scientific basis, industry representatives argued at a hearing in California.
6. Washington Is First State to Ban Fluorinated Chemicals in Food Packaging

   Mar 22, 2018 | Environmental Working Group

   By Sonya Lunder
   
   
   On Wednesday, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed the first state law to ban toxic fluorinated chemicals in food packaging, such as microwave popcorn bags, pizza boxes and fast-food wrappers.
7. US Food Safety Body Issues 'Best Practice' on Chemicals in Packaging

   Mar 22, 2018 | Chemical Watch

   By Clelia Oziel
   
   
   A US-based food safety alliance has published a list of chemicals of concern it says packaging suppliers should either eliminate from materials or minimise the use of.
8. FDA Investigating Reports of Tremolite Asbestos in Makeup

   Mar 22, 2018 | Chemical Watch

   By Tammy Lovell
   
   
   The US Food and Drug Administration is investigating reports of tremolite asbestos contamination in cosmetics products containing talc.
9. Congress Rejects Trump's Plan to Slash EPA Budget

   Mar 22, 2018 | Chemical Watch

   By Julie A. Miller
   
   
   The US Congress is poised to approve a spending agreement for the current fiscal year that soundly rejects the Trump administration's attempt to slash the EPA's budget and maintains funding for programmes related to chemical regulation and research.
10. Comparing Cleaning Products to Smoking is 'Ludicrous'

    Mar 22, 2018 | Chemical Watch

    By Tammy Lovell
    
    
    Industry associations have hit back against a study that says cleaning products may pose a health risk comparable to smoking 20 cigarettes a day.
11. Headway Made On a Post-2020 Global Chemicals Framework

    Mar 22, 2018 | Chemical Watch

    By Leigh Stringer
    
    
    Delegates at a recent international meeting on managing chemicals globally after 2020 have set out their views and ideas for a future ‘vision’, but failed to produce a planned draft text to take forward.
12. Member States Back EU Diglyme Authorisation Application

    Mar 22, 2018 | Chemical Watch

    By Luke Buxton
    
    
    EU member states have voted in favour of an application for a use of bis(2-methoxyethyl)ether (diglyme).
13. Enforcement Pilot to Target EU Chromium VI Authorisations

    Mar 22, 2018 | Chemical Watch

    By Luke Buxton
    
    
    Echa’s Enforcement Forum has agreed on a pilot project on the authorisation of chromium VI compounds and other substances subject to authorisation whose sunset dates will have passed.
14. EU Worker Exposure Limits Recommended for Benzene, Acrylonitrile and Nickel

    Mar 22, 2018 | Chemical Watch

    By Emma Davies
    
    
    Echa's risk assessment committee (Rac) has recommended mandatory, EU-wide occupational exposure limits (OELs) for three genotoxic carcinogens: benzene, acrylonitrile, and nickel, including its compounds.

Energy News

15. Petrochemicals Executives Focus on Challenges Ahead as Industry Booms

    Mar 22, 2018 | Houston Chronicle

    By Katherine Blunt
    
    
    Petrochemicals executives on Wednesday agreed that plastics and other materials will drive demand for oil and gas in the coming decades, but warned that the industry must spend carefully and seek advances in materials that help curb greenhouse gas emissions, reduce waste and improve agricultural productivity to help feed a ballooning population.
16. Emissions Rule Could Be Boon for Big Refiners

    Mar 22, 2018 | Bloomberg (E&E Energywire)

    New maritime emissions standards slated for 2020 are likely to benefit some refineries with complex capabilities but raise questions for simpler facilities.
17. Marcellus-Utica Lobbying Push Comes to Houston

    Mar 22, 2018 | E&E Energywire

    By Nathanial Gronewold
    
    
    Three northeastern states are ramping up their efforts to overtake the Gulf Coast as the go-to destination for natural gas and petrochemicals investments.
18. Cheniere Says No Public Danger from Sabine Pass Leaks

    Mar 22, 2018 | E&E Energywire

    By Edward Klump and Mike Soraghan
    
    
    Cheniere Energy Inc. representatives yesterday said federal pipeline regulators overstated the danger to the public posed by leaks from tanks at its Louisiana natural gas export site.
19. Spending Bill Boosts ARPA-E, Spurns Yucca Mountain

    Mar 22, 2018 | E&E Greenwire

    By Christa Marshall and Sam Mintz
    
    
    The massive spending package unveiled yesterday by Congress ignores President Trump's budget request for steep cuts at the Department of Energy, as well as his attempt to revive the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project.
20. Judges Dubious in Challenge to FERC Fee Funding Mechanism

    Mar 22, 2018 | PoliticoPro - Whiteboard

    By Alex Guillen
    
    
    Three federal judges on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals today expressed doubt that FERC’s use of natural gas pipeline fees has biased the agency to rubber-stamp new pipeline applications.
21. Court Backs FERC, Tosses Challenges to Atlantic Coast Project

    Mar 22, 2018 | E&E Greenwire

    By Ellen M. Gilmer
    
    
    A federal court has dealt a big loss this week to environmental groups opposed to the Atlantic Coast natural gas pipeline.

Chemical Security News

22. Residents Near Harvey-Damaged Chemical Plant Wary of Water

    Mar 22, 2018 | AP (In U.S. News)

    By Alex Stuckey
    
    
    Residents near the Arkema chemical plant northeast of Houston have a 'bitter taste' about the fires, spills and lack of information that followed the onslaught of Hurricane Harvey.
23. In Houston and Beyond, Harvey’s Spills Leave a Toxic Legacy

    Mar 22, 2018 | Houston Chronicle

    By Frank Bajak and Lise Olsen
    
    
    As first responders and residents struggled to save lives and property during the record-shattering deluge of Hurricane Harvey, the toxic onslaught from the nation’s petrochemical hub was largely overshadowed.
24. For Crosby Residents, a ‘Bitter Taste’ About Arkema, and Little Help from Government

    Mar 22, 2018 | Houston Chronicle

    By Alex Stuckey
    
    
    By the morning of Tuesday, Aug. 29, the skeleton crew at Arkema’s chemical plant knew it was time to go.
25. Hurricane Harvey's Toxic Impact Deeper Than Public Told

    Mar 22, 2018 | AP (In The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post)

    A toxic onslaught from the nation's petrochemical hub was largely overshadowed by the record-shattering deluge of Hurricane Harvey as residents and first responders struggled to save lives and property.
26. Human Remains Found at Chemical Plant Explosion Site

    Mar 22, 2018 | Fort Worth Star-Telegram (In E&E Greenwire)

    By Mitch Mitchell
    
    
    Officials have found human remains at the chemical plant in Texas that exploded and caught fire last week.

Transportation and Infrastructure News

27. (ACC Mentioned) Trains, Transit Get Windfall in Omni

    Mar 22, 2018 | Politico - Morning Transportation

    By Lauren Gardner
    
    
    Make It Rain: ... or snow, given meteorological conditions in Washington.
28. FRA Reports on Progress of Positive Train Control System Implementation

    Mar 22, 2018 | Transportation Today

    By Melina Druga
    
    
    The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) recently released an update on the status of the positive train control systems’ (PTC) implementation for the fourth quarter of 2017.

Environment News

29. EPA Gets Budget Reprieve in FY18 But Some Query Whether It Will Last

    Mar 22, 2018 | Inside EPA

    By Doug Obey
    
    
    EPA appears to have largely escaped Trump administration plans to cut its budget by 31 percent in fiscal year 2018 after lawmakers unveiled a spending bill for the remainder of the year that funds the agency at essentially FY17 levels while also increasing funding for key infrastructure programs.
30. Plastic Within the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is ‘Increasing Exponentially,’ Scientists Find

    Mar 22, 2018 | The Washington Post

    By Chris Mooney
    
    
    Seventy-nine thousand tons of plastic debris, in the form of 1.8 trillion pieces, now occupy an area three times the size of France in the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii, a scientific team reported on Thursday.

Industry and Association News

1. (ACC Mentioned) US Chemical Output Slips in February on Mixed Regional Results

   Mar 22, 2018 | Zacks

   By Anindya Barman

   U.S. chemical production fell slightly in February with lower output witnessed across all chemical producing regions barring the Northeast that witnessed a modest gain and Mid-Atlantic and West Coast that saw flat production – according to the latest monthly report from the American Chemistry Council ("ACC").

   The chemical industry trade group said that the U.S. Chemical Production Regional Index ("CPRI") edged down 0.1% in February on a monthly comparison basis. This follows a 0.3% drop a month ago and a 2.3% gain in December. The U.S. CPRI, which is measured using a three-month moving average, was created to track chemical production in seven regions nationwide.

   However, overall chemical production spiked 3.8% on a year over year basis in February with all regions racking up gains. This marks an improvement from a 3.4% growth in January.

   February Data Shows Mixed Picture

   The February reading showed a decline in chemical production on a monthly comparison basis across four regions. Production in the Gulf Coast, where key building block materials are produced, was down 0.3% on a monthly comparison basis in the reported month. Production also fell 0.1% across Midwest, Ohio Valley and Southeast. Northeast was the only chemical producing region to rake in a gain in output with a 0.1% increase. Production was flat across Mid-Atlantic and West Coast.
   

   By segments, chemical production was mixed in February. Gains in basic inorganic chemicals, chlor-alkali, industrial gases, fertilizers, synthetic dyes and pigments, synthetic rubber, coatings and consumer products were neutralized by lower production in pesticides, manufactured fibers, adhesives, organic chemicals and plastic resins.

   U.S. Manufacturing Picks Up

   The manufacturing sector serves as a barometer to gauge the overall health of the U.S. economy and has a major influence on the chemical industry. Manufacturing activity is also a key indicator for chemical production.

   Per the ACC, activity for the U.S. manufacturing sector – the largest consumer of chemical products – rose 0.4% in February, following flat growth a month ago. 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-intensive industries in February including food and beverages, motor vehicles, construction supplies, fabricated metal products, computers and electronics, semiconductors and apparel.
   

   U.S. factory activity picked up pace in February, reaching its highest level since May 2004 on the back of improved sentiment among manufacturers and a strengthening global economy.

   U.S. Chemical Industry Set for Solid Growth

   The U.S. Chemical Industry has clawed its way back from the devastation wrought by Hurricane Harvey and is set to ride high this year despite a few challenges. The ACC envisions national chemical production (excluding pharmaceuticals) to rise 3.7% in 2018.

   The growth is expected to be spurred by higher demand across light vehicles and housing markets, capital investments and improved export markets. Major export markets such as Latin America and Asia are also expected to play a significant role in basic chemical production growth this year and the next. Strengthening export markets and increasing capital spending are also driving chemical demand across key end-use markets such as light vehicles and housing.

   The United States remains an attractive investment hotspot for chemical investment and domestic chemical makers continue to enjoy the advantage of access to abundant and cheaper feedstocks and energy. This is driving investment in chemical production projects.

   Per the ACC, the chemical industry has invested $185 billion in new factories, expansions and restarts of plants across the United States with more than half of these projects presently in the planning stage. New capacity is expected to provide a boost to chemical production as these investments come on stream.

   Chemical Stocks to Consider

   A few stocks that are worth considering in the chemicals space are Kronos Worldwide, Inc. (KRO - Free Report) , Methanex Corporation (MEOH - Free Report) , LyondellBasell Industries N.V. (LYB - Free Report) , Huntsman Corporation (HUN - Free Report) and The Chemours Company (CC - Free Report) .

   While Kronos, Methanex and LyondellBasell sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Huntsman and Chemours carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

   Kronos has an expected long-term earnings growth of 5%. The stock has gained around 57% over a year.

   Methanex has an expected long-term earnings growth of 15%. The stock has gained around 40% over a year.

   LyondellBasell has an expected long-term earnings growth of 9%. The stock has gained around 26% over a year.

   Huntsman has an expected long-term earnings growth of 8.3%. The stock has gained around 38% over a year.

   Chemours has an expected long-term earnings growth of 15.5%. The stock has gained around 48% over a year.

   Zacks Editor-in-Chief Goes "All In" on This Stock

   Full disclosure, Kevin Matras now has more of his own money in one particular stock than in any other. He believes in its short-term profit potential and also in its prospects to more than double by 2019. Today he reveals and explains his surprising move in a new Special Report.

   https://www.zacks.com/stock/news/296619/us-chemical-output-slips-in-february-on-mixed-regional-results
   

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LCSA News

2. (ACC Mentioned) TSCA Could Be Undercut by 'Secret Science' Requirements

   Mar 22, 2018 | Chemical Watch

   By Kelly Franklin

   NGOs have raised the alarm that a new "secret science" policy at the US EPA could result in suppressing crucial data needed to take action on hazardous chemicals under TSCA.

   The concern has come in response to the agency’s signalling its intent to roll out a new science transparency policy that would bar the agency from using studies that are not publicly available to underpin regulatory decisions.

   The EPA announced the development in the unusual form of a news release linked to an exclusive interview with agency Administrator Scott Pruitt (pictured) run by the conservative news outlet The Daily Caller. Further details on the initiative were not immediately available, and the EPA press office did not respond to a request for comment.

   However, reports indicate the new approach will be based on the HONEST Act – a bill that would bar the EPA from taking regulatory actions based on science that is "not transparent and reproducible". Proponents have said it will allow independent scientists to validate studies the agency uses in support of its regulations.

   But among its detractors is NGO the Union of Concerned Scientists which says adoption of such an approach could "radically limit the types of science that the EPA can use in developing public health and environmental protections."TSCA impacts

   Liz Hitchcock, acting director of NGO Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families, told Chemical Watch the new policy could "ultimately take the EPA backward at a time when it could use new authorities under TSCA to really protect the public from toxic chemicals".

   "Efforts to suppress science and discount peer-reviewed studies in EPA's evaluation and regulation of toxic chemicals would add new layers of work to the examination of those chemicals and to identification of public health protections," she said.

   And Richard Denison, lead senior scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund, told Chemical Watch there is a host of information under TSCA that cannot be made public. It might be proprietary, be subject to legal restrictions in terms of the ability to disclose it, or contain data that is private because it relies on access to medical records or other proprietary information.

   "There’s an issue that even if EPA had infinite resources and infinite time, it might not be able to make all information underlying a study public," said Dr Denison. And in those cases, "it would simply have to pretend that study didn’t exist".

   He flagged up similar concern with the potential requirement that studies be replicable. Epidemiological studies and monitoring data in workplaces, for example, may be associated with circumstances that can’t be replicated, he said.

   This policy may well "engender huge arguments and fights over every piece of information that the agency seeks to use," he said. "That does not bode well for efficient and effective implementation of the [TSCA] law."

   The EDF has filed a Freedom of Information Act request in an effort to force the EPA to furnish the documents outlining the details of the new policy and its development.

   The American Chemistry Council (ACC) announced its support of the HONEST Act when it was introduced last year.

   It told Chemical Watch it looks forward to reviewing the EPA’s forthcoming policy, but with a particular interest in "understanding how the agency will properly protect confidential business information, proprietary interests, and competitive intelligence".EPA acting where Congress has not

   According to the Daily Caller article the pending policy "mirrors" Representative Lamar Smith’s  (R–Texas) Honest and Open New EPA Science Treatment Act (HONEST Act) – a bill that has been introduced in some form during several sessions of Congress, but has repeatedly failed to secure passage.

   The bill calls for barring the EPA from proposing, finalising or disseminating regulations, assessments, guidance and other actions, unless all scientific and technical information relied upon to develop them is:the "best available science";specifically identified; andpublicly available in a manner "sufficient for independent analysis [and] substantial reproduction of research results".

   The bill (HR 1430) passed the House last March, but has not been taken up by the Senate.

   A spokesperson for Mr Smith's Science Committee told Chemical Watch: "the chairman has long worked toward a more open and transparent rulemaking process at EPA, and he looks forward to any announcement from Administrator Pruitt that would achieve that goal."'Sidestepping'

   NGOs are complaining that Mr Pruitt's action sidesteps the legislative process – particularly for a bill that has repeatedly failed to make it out of Congress.

   And the HONEST Act, in particular, has attracted concern from House Democrats and public advocates after news reports surfaced that Mr Pruitt deliberately withheld EPA staff concerns from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) early last year. These include an estimate that the bill would cost $250m a year to implement, "while threatening agency know-how and jeopardising personal and confidential business information", according to a leaked memo.

   Nor would this represent the first time Mr Pruitt has taken a failed legislative action into his own hands. Last year, he issued a Directive barring researchers receiving US EPA grants from advisory panels – a key provision in the stalled EPA Science Advisory Board Reform Act of 2017 (HR 1431).NGOs and researched have since filed a suit against that Directive.

   https://chemicalwatch.com//65290/tsca-could-be-undercut-by-secret-science-requirements?q=%22american+chemistry+council%22
   

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3. US CPSC Updates Methylene Chloride Labelling Policy

   Mar 22, 2018 | Chemical Watch

   By Kelly Franklin

   The US Consumer Product Safety Commission expanded its labelling guidance for paint strippers containing methylene chloride to address acute inhalation hazards.

   The change updates the CPSC's existing 1987 policy statement. It now outlines minimum recommendations for how the acute and chronic health risks of the solvent – also known as  DCM – should be conveyed.

   The change came at the request of the Halogenated Solvents Industry Alliance (HSIA). The industry group petitioned the CPSC in July 2016, calling on it to recognise the acute hazard posed by household products containing methylene chloride in enclosed spaces with inadequate ventilation. The alliance’s call came after more than a dozen deaths were associated with asphyxiation during bathtub refinishing.

   The commission voted unanimously last June to grant the petition.

   Caffey Norman, an attorney at Squire Patton Boggs who represents HSIA, told Chemical Watch the trade group welcomes publication of the policy statement, as it will make clear to all formulators that the new label is fully compliant with Federal Hazardous Substances Act (FHSA) requirements.

   But NGO the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) said the guidance "falls short of what is needed" because it:is non-binding;is applicable only to consumer uses, whereas workers are the population "most often harmed"; andonly includes a labelling provision, which provides "limited efficacy in controlling exposure".Replacing TSCA action?

   The US EPA proposed a rule in the final days of the Obama administration to prohibit the use of methylene chloride in paint stripping applications, including both consumer and occupational exposures.

   The action was noteworthy, as the EPA had not acted to impose a risk management rule under section 6 of TSCA for nearly 30 years. But the current regulatory agenda indicates that the current administration may be shelving the rule.

   In the CPSC’s guidance, published in the Federal Register, the commission says it does not "suggest that labelling will address all hazards EPA identified in its proposed rulemaking".

   But it says the amended policy statement would "provide more immediate guidance and clarity to industry and consumers regarding the acute hazards associated with using DCM-containing paint strippers while those products remain on the market".

   Nevertheless, in its comments on the proposed section 6 ban, the HSIA said the EPA should "pay special attention" to the CPSC’s action in its rulemaking.

   "A [TSCA section 6] rule consistent with CPSC efforts with respect to labelling would provide a practical and rational approach to enhancing user awareness and risk avoidance techniques while meeting the amended TSCA standard that EPA select and implement by regulation risk mitigation measures only to the extent necessary so that the targeted chemical substance or mixture no longer presents such risk," it said.

   The HSIA has urged the agency to put aside the rulemaking until it has completed its risk evaluation of the substance – one of the first ten being evaluated under the new TSCA.States, retailers act

   As EPA action on the products remains stalled, states and retailers have taken up the cause.

   California's Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) has proposed naming paint and varnish strippers containing methylene chloride a "priority product" under the Safer Consumer Products (SCP) programme. This would trigger requirements that manufacturers undertake alternatives analyses, and could eventually lead to the products’ being restricted or banned in the state.

   Meanwhile, the Maryland legislature is considering a bill that would ban the sale of paint strippers containing methylene chloride or N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP).

   And the Mind the Store NGO campaign named methylene chloride among the substances it would be pressuring retailers to phase out the use of during 2018.

   https://chemicalwatch.com/65262/us-cpsc-updates-methylene-chloride-labelling-policy
   

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4. US EPA Round-Up

   Mar 22, 2018 | Chemical Watch

   CBI guidance published

   The US EPA has published three draft guidance documents in the Federal Register, outlining how it will share confidential business information (CBI) with governments, environmental and medical professionals, and emergency responders.

   Comments on the proposals will be accepted until 16 April.

   Access to CBI
   

   The agency has authorised a contractor to access information submitted under TSCA, including some that has been claimed as CBI.

   Accelera Solutions, Inc, of Fairfax, Virginia has been granted access to the data until 12 February 2022. This is to assist the Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT) in a project dealing with the Confidential Business Information Local Area Network (CBI LAN).

   https://chemicalwatch.com/65308/us-epa-round-up
   

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Chemical Management News

5. (ACC Mentioned) Basis of Californian 'Priority Product' Listing of Carpeting Questioned

   Mar 22, 2018 | Chemical Watch

   By Julie A. Miller

   Plans to name carpets and rugs containing perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) as a "priority product" have no scientific basis, industry representatives argued at a hearing in California.

   At a 20 March meeting called by the state’s Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC), they said research does not show PFAS chemicals used in carpets today pose health and environmental risks.

   The DTSC published a "product-chemical profile" in February setting out its rationale for listing PFAS-containing carpets. The latest meeting was called to get comments on the profile.

   A priority product listing under the Safer Consumer Products (SCP) programme requires manufacturers to register with the DTSC and either stop using the targeted chemicals, or begin an alternatives analysis to determine if a safer alternative exists. The process, which is relatively new, could lead to products being restricted or banned in California.Industry objections

   However, Jessica Bowman, executive director of ACC subsidiary the FluoroCouncil said the DTSC’s documentation is "fundamentally flawed". Its conclusions about toxicity and exposure are based "almost wholly" on studies of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), which are no longer used in carpet manufactured in the US, she said. FluorCouncil fielded three witnesses.

   Warren Lehrenbaum, a lawyer representing chemical manufacturers, said PFASs are a "broad class of chemistry" with "widely differing chemical properties and different toxicological profiles".

   "It would be inappropriate, scientifically incorrect and ultimately an arbitrary decision" to address them as a single class, he said.

   Fluoropolymers, for example, "are very large molecules that are chemically inert and not bioavailable," Mr Lehrenbaum said.

   "A large and growing body of scientific data also supports the conclusion that short-chain, side-chain chlorinated polymers currently on the market in the US do not present any significant risks."

   He said those are the PFAS chemicals used in carpeting, with perfluoropolyether being "the only other alternative we are aware of".Imports

   Ms Bowman said PFOA and PFOS are still manufactured outside the US and can be imported legally. The US EPA does not regulate them, instead working with industry to phase out their use under a stewardship programme.

   "If the department does in fact have concerns about these substances," she said, "then we would encourage you to take a look at other applications where they continue to be used today, rather than an industry that more than ten years ago switched away from long chains".

   Joe Yarbrough, president of the Carpet and Rug Institute, said there is no adequate alternative to PFASs, which are used as stain repellents. He said raising concerns about the entire class could make it impossible to recycle carpet.Environmentalist argument

   Environmental advocates argued there is sufficient evidence that newer PFAS chemicals are likely to raise similar concerns to PFOA and PFOS.

   "We should not be waiting for the effects we have seen in these other compounds to show up in epidemiological studies," said Miriam Rotkin-Ellman, a senior scientist at the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC). "The scientific community is joining together to indicate the evidence that these chemicals may operate in similar fashion is sufficient to address them all regulatorily."

   Policy experts predict PFASs will be a major chemical regulation issue in 2018.

   The carpets would be California's fourth "priority product." Children's sleeping items containing the flame retardants TDCPP or TCEP became the first in July 2017. Spray polyurethane foam (SPF) containing MDI and paint strippers containing methylene chloride are next in the pipeline.

   https://chemicalwatch.com/65261/basis-of-californian-priority-product-listing-of-carpeting-questioned
   

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6. Washington Is First State to Ban Fluorinated Chemicals in Food Packaging

   Mar 22, 2018 | Environmental Working Group

   By Sonya Lunder

   On Wednesday, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed the first state law to ban toxic fluorinated chemicals in food packaging, such as microwave popcorn bags, pizza boxes and fast-food wrappers. The ban – conditioned on the state identifying a safer alternative – is a major defeat for the chemical and packaging industries, which have quashed similar proposed bans in other states.

   The chemicals, known as PFASs or PFCs, have been linked to cancer, thyroid disease, reduced effectiveness of childhood vaccines and other serious health problems. PFAS chemicals are a family of greaseproof, waterproof and nonstick industrial compounds used in hundreds of consumer products including Teflon, Scotchgard and Gore-Tex.

   As early as 2008, tests by the Food and Drug Administration found that PFAS chemicals could migrate out of food wrappers to contaminate food. In 2007, tests by the Environmental Protection Agency detected PFASs in the air released from just-heated popcorn bags, suggesting people might also inhale these chemicals when eating microwave popcorn.

   In 2017, EWG collaborated with several national environmental organizations and academic scientists to test fast food wrappers. The tests identified fluorinated chemicals in 40 percent of the 327 wrappers, including packaging for sandwiches, pizza, fried chicken and pastries. Recent tests by the Center for Environmental Health found fluorinated chemicals in every microwave popcorn bag tested as well as in many types of takeout food containers, including those marked as compostable.

   For decades, chemical companies covered up the mounting evidence that PFAS chemicals were harmful to human health and the environment. Under pressure from the EPA, some PFASs were phased out, but the replacement chemicals, including those used in food packaging, are very similar in structure and may be no safer. A recent analysis by the Environmental Defense Fund shows the FDA has rubber-stamped several dozens of PFAS chemicals for use in food packaging.

   The public scrutiny on PFASs puts pressure on food companies and restaurant chains to use non-fluorinated wrappers. In the absence of federal regulations, states are leading the way.

   The Washington ban takes effect in 2022 if the state’s Department of Ecology has identified viable safer replacements for food packaging by 2020.  It marks an important shift away from regulating one chemical at a time, to removing a whole class of fluorinated chemicals in food packaging.

   EWG urges consumers who want to reduce their exposure to PFASs to tell the FDA to ban these chemicals in food packaging, and ask restaurants and food companies to stop using products with PFASs. You should support legislative efforts in your city or state, and groups working for PFAS bans, such as Toxic-Free Future, which – along with other Washington state advocates – was instrumental in passing the groundbreaking law.

   In the meantime, pop your own popcorn on the stovetop, and eat less packaged food and fast foods. If you purchase disposable products that touch food for a cafe, restaurant or cafeteria, check out the Center for Environmental Health’s report, which identifies PFAS-free products for commercial and institutional purchasers.

   https://www.ewg.org/news-and-analysis/2018/03/washington-first-state-ban-fluorinated-chemicals-food-packaging#.WrPZNYNubIU
   

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7. US Food Safety Body Issues 'Best Practice' on Chemicals in Packaging

   Mar 22, 2018 | Chemical Watch

   By Clelia Oziel

   A US-based food safety alliance has published a list of chemicals of concern it says packaging suppliers should either eliminate from materials or minimise the use of.

   The Food Safety Alliance for Packaging (FSAP) says its proposal goes beyond regulatory requirements and suppliers could use it as a best practice to formulate food packaging products for consumers.

   The document lists 15 different packaging parts and components, with the names of chemicals or groups of chemicals contained in them. For each one, there is a description, details of existing international controls and a recommendation to either replace with an alternative or minimise use.

   The substances it recommends not using intentionally, where suitable alternatives exist, include:phthalates – used in any packaging component;REACH substances of very high concern (SVHCs) – used in any packaging component;bisphenol A (BPA) – used in can coatings and plastic resins;perfluoroalkyl and perfluoroalkyl compounds (PFASs), such as PFOA and related substances – used in grease-proof coated paper and board; andstyrene – used in polystyrene films and rigid structures.

   On others, such as polystyrene and residual printing solvents, the guideline recommends packagers minimise use.

   FSAP selected the substances using criteria based on national and international regulations. There were other considerations, such as consumer safety, environmental protection as well as "negative impact on product quality and consumer and retailer interest".

   Several major food and packaging brands also contributed to the list, which it will review and update "periodically", it says.

   FSAP is the technical committee of the US Institute of Packaging Professionals (IOPP). It includes representatives from food companies and the food packaging supply chain.

   https://chemicalwatch.com/65317/us-food-safety-body-issues-best-practice-on-chemicals-in-packaging
   

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8. FDA Investigating Reports of Tremolite Asbestos in Makeup

   Mar 22, 2018 | Chemical Watch

   By Tammy Lovell

   The US Food and Drug Administration is investigating reports of tremolite asbestos contamination in cosmetics products containing talc.

   Asbestos is a known carcinogen which can occur naturally in talc. To prevent contamination, talc mining sites are selected carefully and steps are taken to purify the ore.

   An FDA spokesperson told Chemical Watch that the agency is looking into reports of asbestos contamination in certain cosmetic products from Claire’s Stores Inc. Tests carried out by the US Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) on 15 makeup products containing talc, claimed to have found asbestos in three sold at children and teenagers’ retail chain, Claire’s Accessories.

   Dev Gowda, director of the Campaign for Toxic-Free Products with US PIRG Education Fund said: "Claire’s should immediately recall the three makeup products and investigate how such high levels of asbestos were found in these products."

   The US PIRG is calling on policymakers to require makeup companies to test products for asbestos prior to selling them – especially those containing talc.

   Last month, Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce wrote to the FDA calling for an investigation "into the presence of asbestos and other hazardous impurities in children’s cosmetics".  'Unreliable testing'

   The products claimed to have asbestos in are Claire’s contour palette, shadow and highlight finishing kit and compact powder. Testing was carried out by STAT Analysis Corporation, an independent laboratory that is accredited for asbestos testing.

   Claire's issued a statement on its website saying that STAT’s testing is inaccurate, calling the results "obselete and unreliable". It also said that its products are "safe and asbestos-free"

   It said that its own "extensive testing conducted by four separate laboratories" has found no evidence of asbestos and that its products use Merck certified asbestos-free talc, "which is the same talc used in other well-known cosmetic brands".

   In December last year, Claire’s issued a recall of nine makeup products after tests carried out by Sean Fitzgerald, director of research and analytical services of the Scientific Analytical Institute (SAI).

   The tests were on behalf of Deaton Law Firm, which specialises in legal issues surrounding mesothelioma and asbestos-related diseases.

   However, after the recall, Claire’s issued a statement saying it had carried out testing in two independent laboratories, which showed its makeup did not contain asbestos and disputed the test methods used by SAI.

   Kristiana Warner, operations manager at Deaton Law Firm, told Chemical Watch: "We have been as transparent as possible, releasing the name of the lab, the testing method and the results. Claire’s has not released a single document to support their claims."

   Fellow children’s chain store, Justice Retail, recalled its Just Shine shimmer powder in June last year, after tests by Mr Fitzgerald claimed to have found asbestos. The company immediately claimed that its own tests had found no asbestos in the product.

   However, in February 2018, it recalled a further seven products in the Just Shine range after carrying out further tests. A statement on its website says this is due to "an abundance of caution".

   "During our testing process, one set of laboratory tests showed no evidence of asbestos. A second round of testing revealed trace amounts of asbestos."

   The FDA would not confirm whether it is also investigating Justice Retail or other companies.

   https://chemicalwatch.com/65260/fda-investigating-reports-of-tremolite-asbestos-in-makeup
   

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9. Congress Rejects Trump's Plan to Slash EPA Budget

   Mar 22, 2018 | Chemical Watch

   By Julie A. Miller

   The US Congress is poised to approve a spending agreement for the current fiscal year that soundly rejects the Trump administration's attempt to slash the EPA's budget and maintains funding for programmes related to chemical regulation and research.

   The legislation allocates the same $8.05bn for fiscal 2018 that the agency had for 2017. This is significantly more than the $5.65bn proposed by Trump and more than would have been provided by the spending plans advanced earlier in the process by the House and the Senate Appropriations Committee.

   The lawmakers explicitly rejected the administration’s reorganisation plans, refusing to provide $10m to facilitate personnel reductions, and stopping it from closing offices or laboratories.

   The EPA budget is part of a huge spending agreement released on 21 March. If Congress fails to approve it by 23 March, it will have to enact another stopgap funding bill to avoid a government shutdown. The EPA has been operating on a slightly reduced $8bn budget since the fiscal year began in October 2017.TSCA administration

   The appropriations bill would provide the same $92.5m for the "toxics risk review and prevention" funding category as in fiscal 2017.

   Under that heading, it sets aside $10m to administer the new initiative to collect fees from industry to support chemical reviews under the amended TSCA. It provides that the first $10m would reduce appropriations by the same amount, but if the EPA collects more than $10m, the extra funds will add to its budget for administering TSCA.

   However the EPA does not expect to begin collection until fiscal year 2019. The agency anticipates collecting $20.05m annually.

   The bill also mandates that the agency spend at least $58.7m for "chemical risk review and reduction" in the current year, slightly more than in fiscal 2017.

   The report accompanying the bill instructs the EPA to "maintain funding" for lead risk reduction and the pollution prevention programme, both of which the administration’s budget would have eliminated. The PPP includes Safer Choice, an initiative that encourages the development of consumer products using safer chemical alternatives.Chemical research

   The agreement provides $126.9m, the same as last year, for "chemical safety and sustainability research." The Trump administration had proposed slashing this to $84m.

   The report says the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) programme is to be funded at 2017 levels and continue under the Office of Research and Development. IRIS assessments often underpin regulatory action, but industry has been arguing for many years about their scientific validity and the transparency with which they are conducted.

   The Senate spending plan would have axed IRIS and moved some of its functions to the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP), potentially giving control of chemical research to political appointees who run the regulatory agenda.

   The bill also rejects the administration’s proposal to cut funding for research on endocrine disruptors and computational toxicology.

   And it mandates that the EPA’s efforts to develop a plan for implementing alternative testing strategies include equal input from:the Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT);the National Toxicology Program (NTP); andthe National Center for Environmental Assessment (NCEA).

   The committees asked the EPA to provide a status report by 30 September.

   https://chemicalwatch.com/65275/congress-rejects-trumps-plan-to-slash-epa-budget
   

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10. Comparing Cleaning Products to Smoking is 'Ludicrous'

    Mar 22, 2018 | Chemical Watch

    By Tammy Lovell

    Industry associations have hit back against a study that says cleaning products may pose a health risk comparable to smoking 20 cigarettes a day.

    The research, led by Øistein Svanes at the University of Bergen in Norway, found that lung function declined more rapidly in women responsible for cleaning at home and for occupational cleaners, compared with women not engaged in cleaning, over a 20-year time span.

    The study authors say this suggests that exposures related to cleaning activities may constitute a risk to long-term respiratory health.

    But industry groups are questioning the validity of the research methods, which used self-reported data from the European Community Respiratory Health Survey, between 1992 and 2012.

    And the American Cleaning Institute (ACI) has called the comparison with smoking "ludicrous".

    ACI’s vice president of sustainability initiatives, Brian Sansoni, told Chemical Watch the trade group "caution[s] against over-interpreting" research based primarily on self-reported survey data, rather than on exposure data.

    And Mohamed Temsamani, of the European soap and detergents trade body Aise, said that self-reported claims by respondents are "notoriously prone to bias because these respondents are not trained physicians and people tend to give the response they believe is wanted."

    The head of external affairs told Chemical Watch that the study’s results were "not based on a proper scientific assessment".

    And Mr Sansoni added there are "major questions that have to be asked on the apparent difference in gender response reported", because the study found cleaning was not significantly associated with lung function decline in men.Lifestyle factors

    The UK Cleaning Products Industry Association (UKCPI) said in a  statement the study does not account for exposures during cleaning to other irritants, such as dust or mould, nor to "lifestyle differences between cleaners and non-cleaners".

    "The control group of 197 women (less than 10% of the total women), who say they do no cleaning, may simply contain more better off people who have healthier lifestyles – their slower decline of lung function may be linked to other lifestyle factors rather than the fact that they don’t do much cleaning," said the trade body.

    It also points out that the study did not have any control for cleaning without products, such as vacuuming, dusting or using microfibre cloths.Use as instructed

    The UKCPI statement says that using cleaning products in the home, as instructed, does not lead to respiratory illness.

    And Aise’s Mr Temsamani agreed: "It is simply not the case that household use of consumer formulations could give rise to respiratory concerns if the products are used as the on pack instructions."

    Ingredients and components of cleaning products, he said, are "thoroughly assessed for their individual effects".

    "When necessary, the appropriate safety management measures and usage restrictions are taken to ensure safe use of the products," he added.

    But Sarah MacFadyen, head of policy at the British Lung Foundation, commented that it’s "not surprising that the harsh chemicals in cleaning products can be harmful to our lungs". She noted measures can be taken to protect against exposures.

    A US study from the University of Colorado recently raised concerns about volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions, caused by household chemical products. Industry associations responded that such emissions are decreasing overall.

    https://chemicalwatch.com/65286/comparing-cleaning-products-to-smoking-is-ludicrous
    

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11. Headway Made On a Post-2020 Global Chemicals Framework

    Mar 22, 2018 | Chemical Watch

    By Leigh Stringer

    Delegates at a recent international meeting on managing chemicals globally after 2020 have set out their views and ideas for a future ‘vision’, but failed to produce a planned draft text to take forward.

    The four day meeting of officials from around the globe was the second in a series of discussions – known as the intersessional process – on whether the UN’s Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (Saicm) should continue beyond its 2020 mandate, or be replaced with an alternative framework. The first meeting was held in Brazil in February 2017.

    While progress was made in a number of areas, last week’s meeting in Stockholm was unable to produce a draft text on a future framework ready for negotiating and finalising at the final meeting of the process next February.

    Joe Digangi, senior scientific advisor at international NGO Ipen, who attended the talks, told Chemical Watch the meeting performed "another round of collecting ideas – after doing the same thing at a round of regional meetings preceding it".

    "This was a missed opportunity and impeded development of actual text for negotiation at [the next meeting]."

    David Azoulay, environmental health programme director at the Centre for International Environmental Law (Ciel), who also attended, said the meeting was "well organised and useful" but it was "one year too late".

    "Considering the amount of time we have left to agree a framework, the real question is how do we move from this – which is nowhere near having something to negotiate – to a final agreed text?" he said.

    An official from the Swedish government, which hosted the meeting, said good progress was made on the framework vision, while "comprehensive discussions" were achieved on objectives. But the official added that more work is needed on a "comprehensive document" in the run up to the final meeting.

    The leaders of the group discussions, along with the the Saicm secretariat and bureau, will now put together a draft text that will be disseminated to delegates of the intersessional process. This will then be negotiated at next year's meeting.Meeting outcomes

    Instead of a draft text, a paper was produced summarising group discussions on the following topics:vision;policy principles;objectives and milestones;implementation; andgovernance.

    This paper, which will be the basis for the draft text, outlines a number of areas where consensus was achieved, as well as where disagreement remains.

    Areas such as whether existing policy principles should remain and new ones added were still undecided. A long list of additional principles were put forward, including on the circular economy, green and sustainable chemistry and gender equity.

    Existing principles – as listed on Saicm’s Overarching Policy Strategy – include risk reduction, knowledge and information, governance and capacity building.

    However, it was more broadly agreed that clear, concise objectives and milestones should be set, and that these could take on the model of the UN’s Aichi biodiversity plan, which includes 20 time-bound, measurable targets to be met by 2020.

    Mr Azoulay warned that the Aichi model "took two years just to discuss the targets in the context of an agreement that already existed".

    "Here we have less than two years, much less money and the framework yet to be agreed."Governance

    With objectives and milestones in mind, it was agreed that until these are confirmed the governance structure on the future framework could not be effectively negotiated.

    However, like some NGOs, Sweden said it wants to discuss the possibilities of applying legally binding measures to "restrict substances with global impact, without hindering trade". It has proposed a similar framework to the Paris climate change agreement.
    
    According to the European chemicals industry association’s (Cefic) director general, Marco Mensink, there is a broad consensus to stick to a voluntary approach. However, he said, several stakeholders would like to see some elements linking the framework to some binding conventions. "Therefore, we can’t exclude at this point that some elements in the final agreement may be linked to legally-binding instruments."

    The global chemical industry’s focus, said Mr Mensink, remains to establish the basic capacity to manage chemicals safely globally and assist developing countries and countries in transition in implementing the sound management of chemicals.

    In an opening speech, a UN Environment official outlined why the meetings were so important: "The adverse effects of poor management of some chemicals are innumerable."

    For example, they said, lead poisoning in children alone costs an estimated $977bn per year – equivalent to 1.2% of the world’s GDP.

    "We are now at a crossroads, in the starting blocks of a new phase, a moment in time when we need to seize the opportunities we have and make the most of them."

    https://chemicalwatch.com/65284/headway-made-on-a-post-2020-global-chemicals-framework
    

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12. Member States Back EU Diglyme Authorisation Application

    Mar 22, 2018 | Chemical Watch

    By Luke Buxton

    EU member states have voted in favour of an application for a use of bis(2-methoxyethyl)ether (diglyme).

    Germany-based Merck was granted conditional use of the substance, which is listed as an SVHC under REACH Annex XIV, at the REACH Committee meeting on 19-20 March.

    The application is for industrial use of the chemical as a solvent in the manufacturing process of cryptand intermediates, for further conversion into cryptand 221 and 222. The recommended review period is 12 years.

    In its Opinion, Echa's Risk Assessment Committee (Rac) concluded that the risk to human health is "adequately controlled" for the use.

    However, it recommended additional occupational measurements for the review report. This is in order to strengthen the level of certainty on workers' exposure, since the assessment was based on modelling with a small measured data set used to corroborate the results.

    Diglyme is listed on Annex XIV because it has properties that are toxic for reproduction. The sunset date – when the placing on the market and use of a substance is no longer permitted – was 22 August last year.

    According to a 2012 Echa background document, the chemical has been used in:extraction, distillation and purification processes;production of plastic and rubber products;production of binding agents;sealed batteries as solvent of electrolytes;poly tetrafluoro ethylene (PTFE); andfilling and packaging for scientific research and development.

    In June last year, 12 SVHCs were added to Annex XIV, which now contains 43 substances.Authorisation under fire

    In February, the European Commission’s delayed second REACH Review report set out 16 actions to improve the Regulation, including simplification of the authorisation process.

    NGOs criticised these as "vague" and earlier this month ChemSec and ClientEarth made a series of recommendations.

    In a joint report, they said that granting of an application to use an SVHC, even where a suitable alternative exists, not only "violates REACH", but also "rewards the laggards and frustrates the frontrunners".

    https://chemicalwatch.com/65278/member-states-back-eu-diglyme-authorisation-application
    

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13. Enforcement Pilot to Target EU Chromium VI Authorisations

    Mar 22, 2018 | Chemical Watch

    By Luke Buxton

    Echa’s Enforcement Forum has agreed on a pilot project on the authorisation of chromium VI compounds and other substances subject to authorisation whose sunset dates will have passed. These will be decided at the November Forum meeting.

    The work is planned for 2019. Its precise timeline, which was agreed at the Forum meeting from 13-15 March, will be set by the end of 2018.

    It is the Forum’s third pilot on authorisation and will check whether the selected substances are placed on the market and/or used according to a valid authorisation. Inspectors will also check downstream user notifications.

    At its meeting, the Forum also discussed the results of its pilot project on CLP, which focused on the control of internet sales of chemicals. EU national enforcement authorities checked whether adverts for mixtures classified as hazardous, or as containing such substances, mentioned the hazards in accordance with the product label.

    A total of 1,314 desktop inspections were conducted last year, and draft results show high levels of non-compliance, Forum vice chair Sinead McMickan (pictured) said in an interview with Chemical Watch. The final report is expected next month.Substances in articles

    The Forum decided to extend the pilot project checking compliance of the notification and communication obligations of substances in articles in REACH. It is specifically targeting seven substances, or groups of substances, including flame retardants and phthalates.

    The project was expected to run from October 2017 to June 2018 with a report slated for November 2018. Inspections will now continue until the end of the year and the report made available in mid-2019.

    Ms McMickan said the delay was due to "some member states needing more time to coordinate activities and train inspectors".Deficient SDSs

    Ms McMickan also provided an update on a joint initiative between the Forum and its accredited stakeholder organisations (ASOs) – trade bodies and NGOs – to improve the quality of safety data sheets (SDSs).

    A Forum working group has started to plan activities and is looking at how to collect data on shortcomings in SDSs. "Some member states and some ASOs will provide feedback to the working group on the deficiencies they see," Ms McMickan said. "The working group will analyse the data that comes back and then the aim is to implement solutions amongst the Echa ASOs."

    She expects that by September the data will be collected and then discussed at the Forum meeting in November. "In 2019 the real work will begin with industry raising awareness," she added.

    There are a number of ASOs involved in the project including:Cefic;European Association of Chemical Distributors (Fecc);the European Automotive Industry Association (Acea);the European Consensus-Platform for Alternatives (Ecopa);Aerospace and Defence Industries Association of Europe (ASD);the Only Representative Organisation (ORO);the European Engineering Industries Association (Orgalime);European Crop Protection Association (Ecpa); andFertilizers Europe.

    The next Forum meeting is due to take place on 18-21 June.

    https://chemicalwatch.com/65272/enforcement-pilot-to-target-eu-chromium-vi-authorisations
    

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14. EU Worker Exposure Limits Recommended for Benzene, Acrylonitrile and Nickel

    Mar 22, 2018 | Chemical Watch

    By Emma Davies

    Echa's risk assessment committee (Rac) has recommended mandatory, EU-wide occupational exposure limits (OELs) for three genotoxic carcinogens: benzene, acrylonitrile, and nickel, including its compounds.

    Traditionally, the risk assessment community has addressed genotoxic carcinogens with the assumption that they follow simple linear dose–response relationships and lack defined toxicity thresholds. But the Rac has decided on mode-of-action (MOA) based thresholds for all three.

    The European Commission asked the Rac to provide scientific opinions on OELs in March 2017, as part of its work to modernise Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) legislation and amend the carcinogens and mutagens Directive (CMD).

    A joint task force from the Rac and the European Commission's Scientific Committee on Occupathional Exposure Limit (Scoel) has compared the approaches with setting derived no-effect levels (Dnels) under REACH and OELs for OSH, finding many differences.

    In June 2017,the Rac adopted scientific opinions on occupational exposure for two carcinogens: MOCA, and arsenic and its inorganic salts.

    The European Commission is ultimately replacing Scoel with the Rac, to avoid duplication of work, according to a staff working document accompanying the second REACH review.

    A longer version of this article is available on Chemical Risk Manager.

    https://chemicalwatch.com/65306/eu-worker-exposure-limits-recommended-for-benzene-acrylonitrile-and-nickel
    

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Energy News

15. Petrochemicals Executives Focus on Challenges Ahead as Industry Booms

    Mar 22, 2018 | Houston Chronicle

    By Katherine Blunt

    Petrochemicals executives on Wednesday agreed that plastics and other materials will drive demand for oil and gas in the coming decades, but warned that the industry must spend carefully and seek advances in materials that help curb greenhouse gas emissions, reduce waste and improve agricultural productivity to help feed a ballooning population.

    Speaking at the World Petrochemical Conference by IHS Markit, leaders from companies with major Houston-area operations outlined plans to invest more heavily in producing lightweight, durable plastics while emphasizing the need to hold down the costs of building and operating plants to remain competitive if the costs of natural gas and petroleum feedstocks rise.

    The panelists each addressed the overarching question of how to preserve the rapid growth of the petrochemicals industry during a boom in U.S. shale production that has generated a steady flow of inexpensive natural gas liquids to turn into feedstocks for plastics, building materials and consumer products. The surge has fueled a wave of multi-billion-dollar investments in chemicals manufacturing plants along the Gulf Coast.

    Chevron Phillips Chemical, for example, last week completed its first new ethane cracker in decades at its Cedar Bayou complex in Baytown. The company, a joint venture of the oil company Chevron and Houston refiner Phillips 66, built the cracker to process the natural gas liquid ethane into ethylene, a the building block of most plastic. The new plant has the capacity to produce 1.5 million tons of ethlyene a year to feed the production of advanced polyethylene resins at two new facilities in Old Ocean.

    Chevron Phillips Chemical chief executive Mark Lashier said the company had no problem finding labor to construct the cracker, but underestimated the cost of training construction crews to adhere to a high level of safety and productivity. He added that reducing the cost to complete a new wave of petrochemicals projects will be critical to remain competitive as the industry expands along the Gulf Coast to meet burgeoning demand for plastics and consumer goods in emerging markets in China, India and elsewhere.

    “Shale is here to stay,” he said. “The key issue is to addess is rising capital costs.”

    Thomas Casparie, vice president of the Americas for Shell Chemicals, agreed that the industry must maintain financial discipline in the coming years, particularly if the cost of natural gas increases from its current lows.

    “Advantaged feedstock,” he said. “We have been overly focused on this as the savior of everything.”

    He emphasized that global efforts to address climate change have even greater significance for an industry in flux. He said his company is focused on petrochemical products for use in renewables, such as solar panels, as well as lighter-weight materials that can help reduce emissions from automobiles and airplanes by reducing their weight.

    “Petrochemicals is a growing business and can be a force for good,” he said, “but we need all of us in the industry to act on that.”

    Nick Clausi, senior vice president of polymers for Exxon Mobil Chemical Company, said his company is also focused on producing advanced materials for the auto industry as well as new polyethlyene products that can help improve agricultural yields to feed a growing population. But he noted that reducing waste will also be critical to address environmental concerns as new middle-class consumers use more plastics and packaging.

    “The plastic waste we see in the streets and the landfills is not an acceptable outcome,” he said. “We have to do more.”

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16. Emissions Rule Could Be Boon for Big Refiners

    Mar 22, 2018 | Bloomberg (E&E Energywire)

    New maritime emissions standards slated for 2020 are likely to benefit some refineries with complex capabilities but raise questions for simpler facilities.

    Established by the International Maritime Organization in 2016, the standards will require ships to either buy fuel with a lower sulfur content or get outfitted with emissions-curbing equipment.

    Few are likely to choose the latter, with ship owners pointing to refineries as the responsible party for the mandates' success.

    That means marine gasoil — a distillate produced by complex plants that include Gulf Coast, European and Asian operations — will come into increasing demand.

    Simpler refineries, like Mexico's national refineries along the coast, may become less sustainable.

    But refineries that already produce a relatively high proportion of those distillates, and especially those with flexibility about the types of crude they handle, will be able to take advantage, said Eugene Lindell, a senior analyst at JBC Energy GmbH.

    "Crude feedstock costs will be lower, allowing for an exceptionally high-margin environment," he said. "They will have a field day." 

    https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2018/03/22/stories/1060076987
    

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17. Marcellus-Utica Lobbying Push Comes to Houston

    Mar 22, 2018 | E&E Energywire

    By Nathanial Gronewold

    Three northeastern states are ramping up their efforts to overtake the Gulf Coast as the go-to destination for natural gas and petrochemicals investments.

    Officials from Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania yesterday dropped in on the World Petrochemical Conference 2018 underway here. Their message: Our states offer more promising investment returns on petrochemical manufacturing than Texas or Louisiana.

    The lobbying blitz followed the release of a report that highlights the cost benefits of building petrochemical manufacturing in the current heart of the shale gas surge, the Marcellus and Utica shales (Energywire, March 21).

    The team sent to woo investment dollars away from the Gulf of Mexico shoreline included Dennis Davin, secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development; Ohio's assistant director of environment and energy policy, Mike Fraizer; and West Virginia Department of Commerce Deputy Secretary Josh Jarrell.

    Tens of billions of dollars is being spent on new petrochemical manufacturing capacity along the Gulf Coast, including on ethane crackers and expanded polyethylene production, a precursor for plastics manufacturing. By comparison, only one major facility is being built in Pennsylvania, by Royal Dutch Shell PLC.

    At the WPC 2018 event, the northeastern delegates came armed with letters from the states' governors pledging to do all they can to lure investment dollars away from the corridor between Houston and Lake Charles.

    "Today, Governor Kasich announced a three-year extension of an agreement initiated in 2015 with West Virginia and Pennsylvania to continue efforts to maximize growth in the shale gas region and collaborate on areas critical to the success of the growing industry," says the communication circulated by the office of Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R).

    In a letter, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice (R) says the three states are committed to cooperating as a single Appalachia region in their bid to entice the downstream oil and gas sector, expecting broad benefits from new business and shale gas activity on either sides of their shared borders.

    "Shale gas presents an opportunity to spur economic growth beyond the wellhead," Justice said. "We are working to attract investors and downstream partners. We are encouraging chemicals and plastics manufacturers to come here, stay here and grow here with us in the Appalachian region."

    https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2018/03/22/stories/1060077091
    

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18. Cheniere Says No Public Danger from Sabine Pass Leaks

    Mar 22, 2018 | E&E Energywire

    By Edward Klump and Mike Soraghan

    Cheniere Energy Inc. representatives yesterday said federal pipeline regulators overstated the danger to the public posed by leaks from tanks at its Louisiana natural gas export site.

    Officials with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration had cited potential hazards to "life, property and the environment" when it ordered fixes last month to two tanks at the company's Sabine Pass facility.

    But in a hearing here yesterday, Cheniere's attorney said the leaks posed no threat to the public. Even a worst-case scenario, he said, wouldn't endanger people off-site.

    There's "not a threat that extends beyond the facility," said attorney Kevin Ewing. The agency's order, he said, was "not warranted."

    But PHMSA officials defended their safety order, seeing more potential danger from leaks and fires. They said they aimed to protect the hundreds of workers at the site, in addition to people off-site.

    "For us, if there's an incident, we're concerned no matter which life is imperiled," said PHMSA attorney Adam Phillips.

    The back-and-forth fit a theme of uncertainty yesterday that regulators sought to hammer home during the hearing before Kristin Baldwin, PHMSA's presiding officer for the hearing.

    But a larger theme looming over the hearing was the safety of the country's drive to become a natural gas exporter.

    Sabine Pass, on the Texas border about 100 miles east of Houston, is the first of a new wave of LNG export facilities springing up as a result of the country's shale gas boom. The plant, which started shipping gas in 2016, has factored heavily in a reshaping of global gas markets around new market players. Last month, Cheniere announced a long-term LNG supply agreement with the China National Petroleum Corp.

    Earlier this month, Maryland's Cove Point became the second major terminal for LNG exports. Four more U.S. export plants are under construction, and another three have been approved.

    The leak incident occurred just as natural gas exports head into overdrive, raising questions about the ability of operators and regulators to ensure safety around the giant sites brimming with super-cooled methane. And PHMSA's investigation revealed that Sabine Pass personnel have been grappling with a series of storage tank issues dating back to 2008, when the site opened as an LNG import facility.

    Cheniere requested yesterday's hearing when it challenged PHMSA's Feb. 8 "corrective action order." It required the company to shut down two tanks that leaked at Sabine Pass. And it called for a thorough assessment before the company can ask to open them. The agency allowed Cheniere to keep using three other tanks at the site to continue exporting LNG.

    It allowed the company to continue importing and exporting gas and to use three other LNG storage tanks at the site. But it required Cheniere to complete a thorough assessment of the problems before it could ask to resume use of the tanks.

    Baldwin is to make a recommendation within a handful of business days to Alan Mayberry, PHMSA's associate administrator for pipeline safety, on the agency's enforcement action against Cheniere. No decision was announced during yesterday's hearing at the agency's Houston regional headquarters. But possible outcomes could include keeping the order, amending it, withdrawing it or converting it to something else.Opening the hearing

    Another theme yesterday in the hearing room of PHMSA's Houston regional office was a desire that the safety problems not be aired publicly.

    PHMSA initially said last week that the press and public would not be allowed to attend the hearing. That has been the agency's practice for years.

    It was opened after E&E News, with the help of lawyers for the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, formally requested access to the hearing and then threatened legal action (Greenwire, March 21). At least two reporters from other organizations were among the 30 or so people in attendance at times.

    But the hearing wound up being closed about as much as it was open.

    Ewing, a lawyer with Bracewell LLP, made clear his desire to talk "freely" in addressing certain topics. During a discussion of whether people in the back of the hearing room needed to see an aerial map of the plant on a screen, Ewing seemed to bristle at the focus on people from outside. "My goal, really," he said, "is to present to the participants."

    Baldwin said early in the hearing that the public could be required to leave during discussions of confidential commercial information or topics raising security concerns.

    Baldwin closed the hearing before noon, after about 2 ½ hours, over an objection raised by an E&E News reporter. The hearing stayed shut well into the afternoon before reporters were allowed to return for attorneys' closing statements.

    During that time, Cheniere's experts talked about how they believe the situation occurred, Linda Daugherty, deputy associate administrator for pipeline safety, said in an interview. And there was discussion between PHMSA, Cheniere and the presiding officer. They discussed information, she said, that was labeled confidential and business-sensitive.

    Natural gas is highly flammable and, under certain conditions, explosive. LNG is natural gas that is cooled to a liquid at minus 260 degrees Fahrenheit. Its volume is then reduced six-hundredfold. When super-cooled LNG encounters ambient air temperatures, it quickly expands and turns back into a gas. Each of the tanks can store up to 3.4 billion cubic feet of natural gas.The leak

    The leak incident, which occurred Jan. 22, did not result in any reported injuries, fires or explosions.

    When they investigated, agency inspectors discovered that LNG had been leaking into a containment ditch around a storage tank. Further inspection revealed that natural gas vapors were leaking from 14 points around the base of a second LNG storage tank (Energywire, Feb. 12). They also reported that Cheniere had been unable to determine the cause of the leaks.

    PHMSA issued the "corrective action order" a little more than two weeks after the leaks.

    Ewing said the public was never in danger from those leaks. The system in place is designed to handle mishaps, and he said the problems didn't exceed the system's capabilities.

    He used visual aids and a discussion with a consultant to explain that, in a worst-case scenario, earthen dikes surrounding the LNG tanks can hold the full volume of each tank, or more.

    The system is designed so that, even if there were a fire, it would be contained to Cheniere's site and not threaten the surrounding area, they said. But PHMSA said that a dike full of LNG and gas could burn for days or months.

    The leaks PHMSA investigated in January were far smaller. Ewing said there isn't and hasn't been an "imminent safety threat" to the public. And, he said, Cheniere takes steps to ensure the safety of workers at the site. He added later that there was nothing close to a factual basis presented for concern of "some kind of pool fire" or catastrophic loss.

    The standard for PHMSA to issue a corrective order, he said, should be the likelihood of serious harm to the public. The leak problem in January, he said, didn't rise to that level.

    Ewing also described the situation as more of an operational issue, not a structural one. He stressed that PHMSA has other tools available besides a corrective action order. And he said "condition informs hazard," so misunderstanding the former could lead to misunderstanding the other.

    PHMSA officials said the decision to issue a corrective action order is not one the agency takes lightly.

    Julie Halliday, a senior accident investigator with PHMSA, said in the hearing that she had struggled with Cheniere to get information "timely and in enough detail."

    And Halliday said she was concerned that greater failures could occur. She said she came away from her visit to the site wondering, "Can those cracks continue to propagate?"

    Reports of past problems at the site were incorporated into the decision on whether an imminent hazard existed, said Phillips, the PHMSA attorney. He stressed the importance of protecting life and safety, and the order noted that roughly 500 workers are associated with the Sabine Pass site. Phillips said there was still uncertainty as to the exact cause of the incident.

    As the agency learned more about the situation during the leak investigation, he said, agency officials felt "we needed to do something."

    In an interview after the hearing, Phillips acknowledged a "tension" between having a good relationship with Cheniere and not seeing the company act fast enough in this case.

    "We have to cooperate and work along with people in industry, and they have to cooperate and work along with us," he said. "So that's part of what makes it work."

    https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2018/03/22/stories/1060077135
    

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19. Spending Bill Boosts ARPA-E, Spurns Yucca Mountain

    Mar 22, 2018 | E&E Greenwire

    By Christa Marshall and Sam Mintz

    The massive spending package unveiled yesterday by Congress ignores President Trump's budget request for steep cuts at the Department of Energy, as well as his attempt to revive the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project.

    Instead of eliminating the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, DOE's innovation arm, the package increases funding to a record level of $353 million. The Weatherization Assistance Program, which Trump also wanted to kill, would get a more than $20 million boost to $248 million. The deal keeps state energy grants and the Title 17 Innovative Technology Loan Guarantee Program intact.

    It also would increase funding for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, which Trump wanted to slash by more than half.

    "The amount of funding we provided this year demonstrates Congress' commitment to basic energy research, building and maintaining our nation's water infrastructure, and strengthening our national security by maintaining our nuclear weapons stockpile," said Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn), chairman of the Senate Appropriations committee with jurisdiction over energy and water.Yucca

    The bill denies the administration's request for funding at DOE and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to resume licensing for Yucca Mountain, a contentious proposed nuclear waste repository in Nevada.

    The omission, while not unexpected, is a big win for the state's congressional delegation, which has fought the project tooth and nail for decades.

    It is a particularly important victory for Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.), who is facing a tough re-election campaign and has touted a lack of progress on Yucca Mountain as a major achievement. The House has been more inclined to approve funding and authorization for the project, but Heller's influence with the Republican majority in the Senate has meant the project has met more resistance in that chamber.

    "I worked to ensure that funding to revive the Yucca Mountain project was excluded from this spending bill, and I'm pleased that Nevada's message was heard," Heller said in a statement.

    A Washington Post roundup called Heller one of the top winners in the bill and suggested he could use it as a talking point approaching November. "The ads write themselves," the Postwrote.

    For DOE, which has pledged to resume licensing on the project after it was halted during the Obama administration, there is not much it can do now to advance other than wait for the fight to start all over again in consideration of the fiscal 2019 budget, which is already underway on Capitol Hill.

    The bill also includes funding for cleanup at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Ohio, a key provision that will allow DOE to suspend its uranium sales program, which in turn could free up President Trump's nominee to lead the agency's Office of Environmental Management (E&E News PM, March 20).Applied office boost

    The package would increase EERE's funding from $2.1 billion to $2.3 billion, with a boost for nearly every EERE program. The Trump administration had called for EERE's budget to be reduced to less than $700 million, with a focus on early-stage research.

    Under the plan, solar energy would rise from $207 million to $241 million, while the geothermal and water power offices would see increases of more than $10 million each.

    An accompanying budget report directs DOE to fully fund Energy Star at U.S. EPA, which sets voluntary standards for various products. It calls for DOE to do a joint review with U.S. EPA on the 2009 memorandum of understanding on Energy Star, to analyze "whether the expected efficiencies for home appliance products have been achieved."

    The House Energy and Commerce Committee has been weighing changes to Energy Star as part of a broader reauthorization of DOE (E&E Daily, Nov. 8, 2017).

    Like EERE, the Office of Nuclear Energy would see its funding increased by nearly 20 percent under the bill's levels. DOE's fossil energy programs would see a 9 percent jump.

    Fossil energy research and development would rise from $668 million to $726 million. Within that, carbon storage research would rise from $95 million to about $98 million.

    At the Office of Science, which oversees the majority of the national labs, funding would rise by more than $800 million to a record $6.3 billion. That includes a $163 million increase for advanced scientific computing research, a priority of the Trump administration.

    Congress called for $122 million to be spent on the United States' contribution to the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or ITER, a multinational project under construction in France to demonstrate fusion at scale. In his most recent budget plan, Trump asked for $75 million.

    The package was a big win for a range of environmental and clean energy groups that had slammed Trump's request as detrimental for climate change and U.S. competitiveness.

    In a statement, Ben Evans, vice president of government affairs and communications for the Alliance to Save Energy, thanked senators on the group's board of advisers — including Sens. Alexander, Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) — for pushing for funding.

    "It's been a long time coming, but Congress got it right with this bill," said Evans.

    The American Energy Innovation Council, which includes Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates and other CEOs, said "members of Congress of both parties clearly recognize that energy technology breakthroughs are critical to the US gaining a bigger share of the $6 trillion global energy market, and indeed to American economic competitiveness more broadly."

    But conservative groups such as the Heritage Foundation that had supported many of the proposed cuts said the package would shift DOE further from its core missions.

    "It's extremely disappointing that our elected officials show about as much restraint to spend taxpayers' money as Garfield does when it comes to eating lasagna," said Nick Loris, an analyst at the Heritage Foundation. "Let's stop pretending the energy dominance begins at the Department of Energy."

    https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2018/03/22/stories/1060077183
    

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20. Judges Dubious in Challenge to FERC Fee Funding Mechanism

    Mar 22, 2018 | PoliticoPro - Whiteboard

    By Alex Guillen

    Three federal judges on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals today expressed doubt that FERC’s use of natural gas pipeline fees has biased the agency to rubber-stamp new pipeline applications.

    Delaware Riverkeeper Network argued that FERC would want to approve new pipelines to help fund the agency because older pipelines necessarily go offline and stop contributing to FERC’s budget.

    But the judges appeared skeptical as they questioned whether FERC commissioners or career staff would have that kind of long-term bias toward pipeline approvals because of the agency’s funding structure.

    “What is the draw for the agency” to deferentially approve pipelines, asked Judge Harry T. Edwards, a Carter appointee. “I’m just not getting it.”

    Government attorneys noted that the fees collected by FERC go to the Treasury’s General Fund, and Congress then appropriates money to FERC for its natural gas program, severing the direct causal link.

    “The prospect of Congress letting pipeline regulation go out of business for lack of funding seems implausible,” said Judge Gregory Katsas, a Trump appointee.

    The judges also noted that FERC has operated this way for decades and that more than two dozen other federal agencies rely on similar fee funding systems. Such historical and common usage of that scheme “cuts against you,” Katsas told Riverkeeper’s attorney.

    A lower court judge previously ruled in favor of FERC.

    WHAT’S NEXT: The court will issue its ruling in the coming months.

    https://www.politicopro.com/energy/whiteboard
    

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21. Court Backs FERC, Tosses Challenges to Atlantic Coast Project

    Mar 22, 2018 | E&E Greenwire

    By Ellen M. Gilmer

    A federal court has dealt a big loss this week to environmental groups opposed to the Atlantic Coast natural gas pipeline.

    The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday dismissed consolidated appeals from a large coalition of groups fighting the project, which runs 600 miles from West Virginia to North Carolina.

    The court did not hear oral arguments in the case or issue an opinion with its decision. In a short order, a panel of judges agreed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and pipeline backer that the court lacked jurisdiction to resolve the issue.

    FERC had argued that the challenges cannot be filed until the agency processes rehearing requests from various challengers. Those requests remain pending.

    "Upon consideration of respondent's motion to dismiss and intervenor's motion to dismiss, the court grants the motions and dismisses this appeal for lack of jurisdiction," the order said.

    Environmentalists had asked the court two weeks ago to freeze project construction until the case was resolved (Greenwire, March 9).

    The court denied the request and dismissed the appeal altogether. On the panel were Judges Diana Gribbon Motz and William Byrd Traxler Jr., both Clinton appointees, and Judge James Wynn Jr., an Obama appointee.

    The Atlantic Coast pipeline — backed by Dominion Resources Inc., Duke Energy Corp., Piedmont Natural Gas Co. Inc. and Southern Company Gas — is one of the most contentious of a cluster of gas infrastructure projects proposed for the East Coast (Energywire, Nov. 27, 2017). FERC Commissioner Cheryl LaFleur dissented from the agency's approval of the project, finding it not in the public interest.

    In addition to the litigation against FERC, opponents have challenged state-level permits, eminent domain processes, right of way approvals across National Park Service land and more.

    https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2018/03/22/stories/1060077187
    

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Chemical Security News

22. Residents Near Harvey-Damaged Chemical Plant Wary of Water

    Mar 22, 2018 | AP (In U.S. News)

    By Alex Stuckey

    Residents near the Arkema chemical plant northeast of Houston have a 'bitter taste' about the fires, spills and lack of information that followed the onslaught of Hurricane Harvey.

    They say the company failed to give them sufficient warning before the plant exploded, and say later assurances by environmental officials that the air and water were safe were based on inadequate testing.

    Flooding from Hurricane Harvey knocked out power to the plant, spilling thousands of gallons of chemical-laden water into Harvey's floods. The company's stores of volatile organic peroxides produced fires so noxious that first responders were overcome at the scene.

    A joint investigation by the Houston Chronicle and The Associated Press shows the activity of the company and government regulators surrounding the Arkema disaster fits a pattern that's emerged more than a half-year after the storm.

    https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/texas/articles/2018-03-22/residents-near-harvey-damaged-chemical-plant-wary-of-water
    

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23. In Houston and Beyond, Harvey’s Spills Leave a Toxic Legacy

    Mar 22, 2018 | Houston Chronicle

    By Frank Bajak and Lise Olsen

    First of two parts

    As first responders and residents struggled to save lives and property during the record-shattering deluge of Hurricane Harvey, the toxic onslaught from the nation’s petrochemical hub was largely overshadowed.

    But nearly seven months after floodwaters swamped Houston, the extent of the environmental assault is beginning to surface, while questions about the long-term consequences for human health remain unanswered.

    County, state and federal records pieced together by the Associated Press and the Houston Chronicle reveal a far more widespread toxic impact than authorities publicly reported after the storm slammed into the Texas coast in late August, then stalled over the Houston area.

    Nearly half a billion gallons of industrial wastewater mixed with stormwater surged out of just one chemical plant in Baytown, east of Houston on the upper shores of Galveston Bay.

    Silent Spills Part 1: Harvey’s spills leave a toxic legacy

    Part 2: For Crosby residents, a ‘bitter taste’ about Arkema

    Benzene, vinyl chloride, butadiene and other known human carcinogens were among the dozens of tons of industrial toxins released throughout Houston’s petrochemical corridor and surrounding neighborhoods and waterways following Harvey’s torrential rains.

    In all, reporters cataloged more than 100 Harvey-related toxic releases — on land, in water and air. Most were never publicized, and in the case of two of the biggest releases, Arkema and Magellan, the extent or potential toxicity was initially understated.

    Only a handful of the industrial spills have been investigated by federal regulators, the news organizations found. Texas regulators say they have investigated 89 incidents, but they have yet to announce any enforcement action. Testing by state and federal regulators of soil and water for contaminants was largely limited to Superfund toxic waste sites.

    Based on widespread air monitoring, including flyovers, officials repeatedly assured the public that post-Harvey air pollution posed no health threat. But the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency official in charge now says these general assessments did not necessarily reflect local “hotspots” with potential risk to people.

    Regulators alerted the public to dangers from just two, well-publicized toxic disasters: the Arkema chemical plant northeast of Houston that exploded and burned for days, and a nearby dioxin-laden federal Superfund site whose protective cap was damaged by the raging San Jacinto River.

    Samuel Coleman, who was EPA’s acting regional administrator during Harvey, said the priority in the hurricane’s immediate aftermath was “addressing any environmental harms as quickly as possible as opposed to making announcements about what the problem was.” In hindsight, he added, it might not have been a bad idea to inform the public about the worst of “dozens of spills.”

    Local officials say the state’s industry-friendly approach, in particular, has weakened efforts by the city of Houston and surrounding Harris County to build cases against and force cleanup by the companies, many of them repeat environmental offenders.

    “The public will probably never know the extent of what happened to the environment after Harvey,” said Rock Owens, supervising environmental attorney for Harris County. “But the individual companies of course know.”

    The chairman of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Bryan Shaw, declined when asked by lawmakers in January to identify the worst spills and their locations. He told a legislative subcommittee hearing he could not publicly discuss spills until his staff completed a review.

    The amount of government testing after Harvey stands in contrast to what happened following two other major Gulf Coast hurricanes. After Hurricane Ike hit Texas in 2008, state regulators collected 85 sediment samples to measure the contamination, according to a state review. More than a dozen violations were identified, it said, and cleanups were carried out.

    In Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina’s floodwaters ravaged New Orleans in 2005, the EPA and Louisiana officials examined about 1,800 soil samples over 10 months, EPA records showed.

    “Now the response is completely different,” said Scott Frickel, an environmental sociologist formerly at Tulane University in New Orleans.

    Frickel, now at Brown University, called the Harvey response “unconscionable” given Houston’s massive industrial footprint. Some 500 chemical plants, 10 refineries and more than 6,670 miles of intertwined oil, gas and chemical pipelines line the nation’s largest energy corridor.

    Reporters covered some environmental crises as they occurred, such as AP’s exclusive on the flooding of toxic waste sites and the Chronicle’s Arkema warnings before fires broke out. But the sheer quantity of spills was impossible to document in real time.

    Academic researchers now are trying to fill in the gaps in environmental monitoring, helped by grants from the National Science Foundation and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. One project, a Harvey-related public health registry for Houston, was funded just this month but is not yet under way.

    “People are left in a state of limbo of not knowing if they were exposed or not — or if they were, what the implications are for their health,” said Dr. Nicole Lurie, who while at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services oversaw federal public health responses to the Superstorm Sandy and Deepwater Horizon disasters.

    Scientists say the paucity of data also has the potential to hurt efforts to prepare for and mitigate damage in the future violent weather events that climatologists predict.

    Spills listed do not necessarily include all toxic releases from the named plant but more notable spills by chemical compound, size and toxicity.

    The "Act of God" designation comes from companies as allowed under Gov. Greg Abbott's emergency declaration.

    Sources: Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Texas General Land Office, Railroad Commission of Texas and Harris County Pollution Control Services Department, U.S. Coast Guard

    Graphic by Jordan Rubio

    ‘Nothing short of catastrophic’

    When it meets moisture, hydrogen chloride gas becomes hydrochloric acid, which can burn, suffocate and kill.

    Between lulls in Harvey’s pounding torrents on Aug. 28, an 18-inch pipeline leak at Williams Midstream Services Inc. unleashed a plume of the chemical near the intersection of two major highways in La Porte, southeast of Houston where the San Jacinto River meets the 50-mile ship channel, the petrochemical corridor’s main artery that flows into Galveston Bay.

    A toxic cloud spread about a quarter-mile in an industrial sector as firefighters and police rushed to shut down roads, blared neighborhood sirens and robo-dispatched phone and text messages warning residents to stay in their homes.

    Two hours ticked by before a county hazardous materials response unit — lucky to find a road not under water — arrived and ended the danger with the help of a crew from a nearby plant.

    The spill was among dozens barely noticed at the time, records show. A county pollution control inspector, Johnathan Martin, wrote in his report that he could not safely monitor the toxic plume but believed it did not reach homes nearly a mile away. There were no reports of injuries.

    On land, the deluge — 5 feet of rain in some spots — appears to have had a scouring effect on topsoil, according to separate testing efforts by scientists from Texas A&M and Rice universities.

    The Texas A&M collection of 24 samples was taken in September from lawns mainly in a neighborhood near Valero Energy Corp.’s refinery. It turned up only low traces of petroleum and petrochemical-related compounds.

    “As expected, the rains washed most things out,” said Texas A&M research leader Anthony Knap.

    Rice researchers tested soil at a school and park in Baytown, east across Upper Galveston Bay, where residents said floodwaters invaded from the 3,400-acre ExxonMobil refinery and chemical plant. They also sampled in Galena Park, a community of 11,000 hemmed in by heavy industry just east of downtown along the ship channel.

    However, only one of the nine samples collected by Rice researchers showed elevated levels of petroleum-related toxins, according to an independent chemical analysis funded by the AP-Chronicle collaboration. Collected in Galena Park, it showed the presence of benzo(a)pyrene, a known carcinogen, at levels just above what the EPA deems a cancer risk.

    Jessica Chastain lives a block away.

    During Harvey’s three-day downpour, a nearby creek swallowed Chastain’s home, forcing the 36-year-old mother and four of her children to swim across the street to the safety of her parents’ two-story house.

    The water from Panther Creek was a slimy brownish-black and smelled like a “rotten sewer,” Chastain said. “It had a coat of film over it. I’m not sure what it was. It was probably oil.”

    Her children — 15, 11, 9 and 6 — all developed skin infections and strep throat, she said.

    Her youngest still “cries when it rains hard,” she said. “ ‘Is it going to flood?’ he asks.”

    The creek, which flows into the nearby ship channel, had backed up from flooded chemical plants and tank farms.

    A number of Harvey-related spills occurred near Chastain’s home, including the 460,000-gallon gasoline spill at a Magellan Midstream Partners’ tank farm and nearly 52,000 pounds of crude oil from a Seaway Crude Pipeline Inc. tank.

    Jessica Chastain talks about the flooding and chemical spills in her Galena Park neighborhood that happened during and after Hurricane Harvey. The Houston neighborhood is a block away from chemical plants.

    Samples taken in October at Houston’s Mason Park, upstream of the ship channel in the city’s east end, showed elevated levels of dioxins, PCBs and hazardous chemicals typically created in the burning of oil, coal and gas, said Jennifer Horney, an A&M professor of epidemiology who conducted testing for the city.

    Benzo(a)pyrene was among the chemicals found in sediment on the banks of Brays Bayou at the park, a popular recreation site with baseball diamonds, soccer pitches and bicycle pathways.

    “It’s coal tar and it’s a known carcinogen, and mostly you find it in industrial settings,” Horney said. “We know the ship channel — or the bayou — was (up) in that park.”

    While worrisome, the levels at Mason Park were not high enough to trigger a cleanup under EPA standards, she said. Neither Houston nor Texas A&M officials have released those test results, which the city health department’s chief environmental science officer, Loren Raun, said showed “nothing of concern for human health risk.”

    The surface soil scrubbing that scientists believe occurred during Harvey means contaminants likely migrated downstream, said Hanadi Rifai, head of the University of Houston’s environmental engineering program. She has been studying pollution in the watershed for more than two decades.

    “That soil ended up somewhere,” Rifai said. “The net result on Galveston Bay is going to be nothing short of catastrophic.”

    Galena Park is hemmed in by heavy industry just east of downtown Houston along the ship channel.

    Residents of the tidy, mostly Latino neighborhood off Old Industrial Road in Galena Park are accustomed to the foul odors that wind shifts can bring.

    But no one told them about the gasoline spill at the Magellan terminal a mile away, one of more than a dozen Harvey-related releases in a 2-mile radius. The release was initially reported to the Coast Guard at 42,000 gallons — and residents would learn of it a week later only through news reports. Not until 11 days after the spill did Magellan report that it was actually more than 10 times larger.

    Asked about the discrepancy, Magellan spokesman Bruce Heine said floodwaters prevented the company from accessing the ruptured tanks until Sept. 5. He said the company later removed 15 dump trucks full of tainted soil.

    The spill was reported to the Coast Guard at 11:35 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 31, six days after Harvey made landfall. It’s not clear exactly when it began.

    An explosion risk prompted workers to evacuate upwind as the nearly half-million gallons of gasoline gushed out of failed storage tanks, state environmental and Coast Guard records show. The spill ranked as Texas’ largest reported Harvey-related venting of air pollutants at 1,143 tons.

    The local fire department put down foam to suppress the fumes, records revealed, and a police call report described “a vapor cloud.”

    Claudia Mendez, a 42-year-old housewife, said she later saw foam by the side of the road and wondered about its origin.

    The fumes were so strong, Mendez said, “I thought my husband had brought the lawnmower gas can inside.”

    Magellan has been cited for 11 environmental violations since 2002 by Texas regulators and fined more than $190,000, more than half in August 2012 for a single violation of air quality standards.

    Its spill is among at least three post-Harvey incidents that Harris County officials have declined to provide information about or to discuss, saying they remain under investigation.

    The second involves W&P Development Corp., owner of an industrial park where as much as 100,000 gallons of oily wastewater were reported to have spilled into the San Jacinto River between Aug. 29-31. The site was formerly Champion Paper Mill, and a landfill there received wastes including turpentine- and lead-contaminated soil and mercury until 2008. For most of 2015-16, the property was in violation of federal anti-pollution laws, EPA records show.

    A spokesman for W&P Development, Dennis Winkler, said the company has estimated that a smaller amount — 30,000 gallons — had escaped from a water treatment plant after the river flowed over a berm.

    The third site is Channel Biorefinery & Terminals, where about 80,000 gallons of methanol spilled from a tank rupture into Greens Bayou, which enters the ship channel just downstream of the Magellan terminal. Highly flammable and explosive, methanol can cause brain lesions and other disorders.

    The property, once the site of the nation’s largest biofuels refinery, was in violation of federal hazardous waste-management rules for the first half of 2017. Texas cited the property’s owners for failing to prove they could manage licensed wastes, including oily sludge and petroleum distillates, records show.

    Dennis Frost, the on-site manager for Gulf Coast Energy, the tenant of Channel Biorefinery, said he and co-workers did their best to prevent the spills.

    “They were impossible to contain,” he said. “The water here down by our facility was up over 20 feet.”

    In Galena Park, a community of 11,000 people, a soil sample collected by Rice University researchers after flooding subsided showed the presence of benzo(a)pyrene. The chemical is a known carcinogen and was found at levels just above what the EPA deems a cancer risk.

    Companies are required under federal law to report spills to the state and federal government but not to the county, the first line of defense against industrial pollution.

    Harris County pollution control investigators queried more than 150 plants on Harvey-related spills, but many did not provide estimates.

    “Spill information is provided as a courtesy,” said Latrice Babin, deputy director of the county’s pollution control office. “Likewise, there is no requirement of notification of evacuation.”

    The largest spill, by far, was at ExxonMobil Corp.’s Olefins Plant in Baytown, east of the ship channel. Two days after Harvey hit, roughly 457 million gallons of stormwater mixed with untreated wastewater, including oil and grease, surged into an adjacent creek.

    The spill was not reported to the public. In a water quality report filed with the county and obtained through a records request, ExxonMobil said “available information does not indicate any potential danger to human health or safety or the environment.”

    It did not include results of third-party water testing that the company said had been done. The plant has a history of federal air pollution violations and reported emitting 228 tons of airborne pollutants during Harvey.

    Other large spills found in official records include:

     More than 3,000 pounds of benzene from Shell Oil Company’s Deer Park refinery and chemical plant on the ship channel’s south bank. Initially, the company reported a half ton of phenol, which can burn skin and be potentially fatal, was spilled but revised that downward to 2 pounds.

     About 34,000 pounds of sodium hydroxide, or lye, which can cause severe chemical burns, and unpermitted airborne emissions, including 28,000 pounds of benzene, from the Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. chemical plant in Baytown. A spokesman, Bryce Hallowell, said a containment pond kept about 38 percent of the lye from escaping the facility. Thousands of residents live near the plant along Cedar Bayou.

     About 60,000 tons of what Dow Chemical Co. called “non-hazardous biosolids” at the company’s plant in Deer Park. The company now says that roughly 50 tons of that consisted of biosolids and the rest was “primarily” stormwater.

    Yvette Arellano of the advocacy group Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services surveyed the area by helicopter on Sept. 4.

    She reported seeing flooded tank farms, fluorescent liquid streaming from Exxon’s outfalls, and refineries and chemical plants flaring gas intensely like giant candles.

    “The entire skyscape looked like a birthday cake,” Arellano said.

    Benzene emissions post-Harvey

    Hot spots on the map were detected by Entanglement for the Environmental Defense Fund. The dots show facilities that reported benzene emissions and/or spills to authorities.

    ‘Evacuate the residents?’

    As Harvey bore down on Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott’s administration decreed that storm-related pollution could be forgiven if it resulted from an “act of God” or other catastrophe. Days later, he suspended many environmental regulations.

    On Sept. 1, just as residents in some areas of Houston started dragging soggy belongings to the curb, the city experienced Texas’ worst ozone pollution of the year, state records show.

    A top city health official emailed the EPA on Sept. 1 with a request marked “urgent,” asking for help in determining whether spills and leaks at industrial and Superfund sites threatened the public. The city had received dozens of calls to its 311 help line from residents in Manchester about a strong gasoline smell.

    Three days later, after getting no response, she emailed again, records show.

    “We are finding alarming levels of benzene in the neighborhood next to Valero. … Should EPA evacuate the residents?”

    There was no record of an EPA email response, though the agency did send a mobile air-monitoring van on Sept. 5.

    By then, Houston had done its own air monitoring, recording a high benzene level of 324 parts per billion in Manchester — more than three times the level at which federal worker safety guidelines recommend special breathing equipment. The city was aided by the nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund, which dispatched a mobile van from California to track the toxic benzene plume.

    On Sept. 7, state investigators took air samples near Valero and reported suffering headaches and dizziness, though they said they found pollutants “below levels of short-term health and/or welfare concern,” according to a state report.

    The EPA said it also conducted 28 flights over 12 days beginning Aug. 31 using a plane equipped to evaluate “unreported or undetected” chemical releases. It flew over nearly 700 industrial sites, municipal wastewater treatment plants and other facilities, and EPA said it found no pollution exceeding state-permitted levels.

    In at least seven status reports the EPA and TCEQ posted online from Sept. 3 and Oct. 6, they said all measurements “were well below levels of health concern.”

    Coleman, who retired in January after 29 years with EPA, said he was comfortable with the advisories, saying they were general assessments.

    “Were there hotspots? Absolutely,” he said in a recent interview. “But on any given day, within some isolated area, there could be a problem.”

    AP and Chronicle reporters asked the EPA and state regulators for a detailed accounting of any soil and water testing they did after Harvey, along with any investigations or sanctions.

    The responses mostly cited online bulletins, in which the EPA said it had assessed all 43 Superfund cleanup sites in the hurricane-affected area and cleared all but one — the San Jacinto River Waste Pits — which was leaking dioxins. An examination of the 17 state Superfund sites found “no major issues,” regulators said.

    State officials said they didn’t test any sediment that may have been deposited elsewhere by floodwaters. The EPA tested water at an unspecified number of industrial sites but did not disclose results.

    Without elaborating, the state said it had a number of open investigations. The EPA refused to discuss whom it might be investigating, beyond Valero and Arkema.

    With a few exceptions, companies with spills did not call local emergency responders, meaning the public was not informed in real time. Instead, the companies handled the spills in-house, the Chronicle and AP found in surveying local and county fire officials.

    The Harris County Sheriff’s Office, which handles countywide emergency response and routinely dispatches a special investigator to major spills, said it was not alerted to 22 of 23 spills that reporters asked about based on size and potential toxicity.

    The Arkema plant was the exception. Impossible to go unnoticed, its containers of liquid organic peroxides exploded after floodwaters disabled backup generators. Sickened first responders have filed suit, as have Harris and Liberty counties, which contend that the company violated numerous environmental and safety regulations.

    Bob Royall, emergency operations chief for the Harris County Fire Marshal’s office, said his agency was alerted to Arkema and the Williams’ hydrochloric acid leak but no one informed it at the time of the nearly half-million-gallon Magellan spill.

    Like spills on land, unpermitted releases of air toxins are self-reported in Texas, a state that has long been friendly to heavy industry. As attorney general, prior to being elected governor, Abbott had sued the federal government more than a dozen times to challenge environmental regulations that he deemed over-reaching.

    The governor’s Harvey disaster declaration suspended environmental reporting and record-keeping rules as well as liability for unauthorized emissions for the duration of the disaster declaration, an order most recently renewed on March 16. A spokesman for the state environmental agency said the suspensions apply only when rules would hinder disaster response.

    An attorney for the nonprofit Austin-based Environmental Integrity Project said that while federal environmental laws remained in effect, the governor’s action essentially put state regulators on the sidelines and made it more difficult to hold polluters accountable.

    “The state tied its own hands before it knew the scope or the magnitude or any of the effects of the storm,” said attorney Ilan Levin.

    The TCEQ itself has a long track record of industry tolerance. State auditors in 2003 found it was late in ordering and collecting fines, giving polluters $25 million a year in discounts. A study by Levin’s group found the agency penalized only 3 percent of air pollution incidents reported by all companies statewide from 2011 to 2016.

    Two Texas laws enacted since mid-2015 have weakened counties’ ability to police polluters. The first caps at $2.15 million what they can collect from polluters in lawsuits. The rest must go to the state. The second law took effect Sept. 1. It obliges counties to give the state right of first refusal on any pollution enforcement cases, which local officials say could mean less punitive action.

    “Every time we’ve been able to make something — you get a large judgment against one of these companies, get some significant process-changing injunctive relief — they come back around behind us to the Legislature,” said Owens. “And they have clipped our wings.”

    To read the second part of this series, go here.

    https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/In-Houston-and-beyond-Harvey-s-spills-leave-a-12771237.php
    

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24. For Crosby Residents, a ‘Bitter Taste’ About Arkema, and Little Help from Government

    Mar 22, 2018 | Houston Chronicle

    By Alex Stuckey

    Last of two parts

    By the morning of Tuesday, Aug. 29, the skeleton crew at Arkema’s chemical plant knew it was time to go.

    Flooding from Hurricane Harvey had caused the plant to lose power. Thousands of gallons of chemical-laden water had spilled into the floodwaters. Soon, the company’s stash of volatile organic peroxides would warm enough to produce fires so noxious that first responders vomited at the scene. The last of Arkema’s workers evacuated, floating over a 6-foot chain-link fence in a small boat.

    A half-mile to the northwest, Diane and Nolan Glover knew none of this. Then the National Guard showed up on Tuesday afternoon, ordering them to evacuate.

    The retired couple, both in their 60s, were busy trying to protect their belongings from more than three feet of floodwater and didn’t think to turn on the radio. Though they had power, the storm had knocked out their satellite TV reception.Silent Spills Part 1: Harvey’s spills leave a toxic legacy Part 2: For Crosby residents, a ‘bitter taste’ about Arkema

    Many of their neighbors also were unaware of the danger that lurked. Their desperate pleas for information were posted beneath vague Facebook updates from the company. Interviews with about 10 residents also show that they didn’t receive emergency robocalls from Arkema that were ordered by a Harris County judge after a release of sulfuric acid more than 20 years ago.

    Today, they are still angry about all they did not know until the knock on the door Aug. 29. And six months later, they say they still know very little about any potential health effects from the flood and the fires. They don’t know what chemicals they’ve been exposed to — or about any threat they face from the air they breathe or the water they continue to drink.

    They say that the company failed them before the accident, and that the state and the federal government have failed them afterward.

    “I have a bitter taste in my mouth about Arkema,” Diane Glover said. “I feel like they should have reached out to everyone.”

    Diane and Nolan Glover on their property on Sunday, March 18, 2018, in Crosby, Texas. The couple's home, which was close to the Arkema plant, was destroyed by Hurricane Harvey.

    The activity of the company and government regulators since the Arkema disaster falls into the pattern that has emerged nearly seven months after the storm, a Houston Chronicle/Associated Press review of county, state and federal records shows. The extent of the environmental assault is starting to emerge, and Gov. Greg Abbott’s emergency declaration suspending state environmental rules remains in effect, making it more difficult for local authorities to press their case against companies that lost control of their petroleum and chemical products.

    During the height of the chaos, Environmental Protection Agency officials, along with Arkema, repeatedly assured residents that the air and water were not dangerous. Contractors for the company and federal regulators conducted some sampling of air and water as well as solid ash produced by the fires in the aftermath of the storm, but homeowners, lawyers and environmental experts say it was done in a haphazard, patchwork way that was inadequate to establish whether there is a threat to public health.

    Arkema, for example, tested the wells of 37 homes; there are roughly 350 homes within 1.5 miles of the plant, though it’s unclear how many get their water from private wells.

    “I don’t think they did enough analyses,” said Hussain Abdulla, an assistant professor of chemistry at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, who examined the test results at the request of the news organizations. He referred both to the company and to regulators.

    EPA test results show peroxide in the air near Arkema at the time of the accident. And testing of some private wells at the homes near the plant showed elevated levels of some metals that the company says are not byproducts of their production. The tests also found acetone, a chemical used by Arkema that can cause headaches, nausea, dizziness and confusion. It is the primary ingredient in nail polish remover.

    Federal officials have declined to answer reporters’ questions, directing them instead to information on the EPA website.

    Texas state environmental authorities did not conduct any tests of sediment, groundwater or air around the plant site either during or after the storm, records show. Officials with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality declined to be interviewed, citing a pending investigation into the incident.

    The EPA and the Harris County District Attorney’s Office are also investigating. Harris and Liberty counties are suing the company.

    Records previously obtained by the Houston Chronicle show that the company’s emergency response plan had little direction on how to handle a major flood. Its power transformers and backup generators were not high enough off the ground, and it had a tank of an extremely dangerous chemical, isobutylene, located about 40 yards from six trailers loaded with organic peroxides that had been relocated during the storm.

    Arkema spokeswoman Janet Smith said company officials have taken a number of steps to help those who live near the plant.

    “We’re extremely sorry that our incident caused an evacuation at a time when our neighbors were already reeling from a historic storm,” Smith said. “We care about our community, and we demonstrated this in Crosby before, during and after Hurricane Harvey.”

    The company is the North American branch of the Colombes, France-based chemicals manufacturer that specializes in vinyl products including PVC, cholorochemicals and compounds. It has two dozen facilities in the United States, including plants in Crosby, Bayport, Clear Lake and Beaumont. The Crosby facility has had a history of regulatory problems related to the improper storage of organic peroxides and the mishandling of hazardous materials.

    Rock Owens, Harris County’s environmental attorney, said officials want to make sure the August incident isn’t repeated.

    “Our primary mission (now) is when the plant reopens — maybe in the spring sometime — that it’s in the condition where this cannot happen again,” Owens said. “What we found so far was just a lack of preparation for this kind of event. We think that plant could upgrade — and they probably need to move some of this material off site.”The after effects of the Arkema accident

    When it became clear that the chemicals stored at Arkema’s Crosby plant were going to catch fire, emergency personnel evacuated residents within a 1.5 mile radius of the site. Despite this evacuation, chemicals were released into the air and the water during the accident.

    After a 5-year-old girl was severely burned during a 1994 sulfuric acid release at the Crosby plant, a Harris County judge ordered in 1996 that the company alert residents within a mile of its property when potential dangers arise.

    Residents who live within that boundary estimate those emergency calls came more than 10 times during the past 10 years.

    But the Glovers, along with their neighbors Margaret and Tom Lewis, say that call never came when Harvey bore down on the area.

    The order requires plant officials to “activate the system in the event of any release of pollutants with potentially adverse health or safety impacts.” The list of active phone numbers must be updated “to the maximum extent practicable every six months,” it states.

    Owens said the company appears to have failed to activate the call system. He said that had raised questions for the county, adding that having to evacuate people without notice means they likely “suffered hardship, difficulty and damages.”

    Emergency personnel began evacuating residents within a 1.5-mile radius of the plant Aug. 29. An analysis of Harris County property records and U.S. Census Bureau data shows there are 350 homes in that area.

    Harris County has filed suit against the company. Separately, several first responders and about 660 local residents have also sued Arkema. Neither the Glovers nor the Lewises’ are involved in the residents’ lawsuit.

    Janet Smith, an Arkema spokeswoman, said the question of whether the company issued robocalls as required is “part of pending litigation.”

    Diane Glover walks where the entrance was on her home before Hurricane Harvey struck in Crosby, Texas. Glover and her husband, Nolan, are living in a trailer on the property waiting for their new home.

    However, she said Arkema communicated with local residents through media statements and news releases, as well as Twitter and Facebook posts. The company also posted updates on its website, created a 24/7 phone hotline and placed messages on an industry-run cell phone application called “Community Awareness Emergency Response” (CAER) for informing the public about potentially hazardous incidents.

    A review of posts on Arkema’s Facebook page shows that the company posted ambiguous messages more than 10 times between Aug. 29 and when the evacuation order was lifted Sept. 4, redirecting concerned residents to the company’s website. The company posted more detailed information there.

    Before Arkema posted its first update on Aug. 29, the plant completely lost electrical power, forcing the skeleton crew still there to move highly volatile organic peroxides into refrigeration trailers to keep them cool. They can explode if they get too hot.

    And those trailers already had started to fail.

    Arkema’s first website update at 8 a.m. on Aug. 29 told residents that they didn’t need to worry: “Arkema does not believe that the situation presents a risk to the community or the ride-out crew, due to the distance between the refrigerated cars and any people.” By that time, the workers had been given the OK to leave, and one already had.

    About six hours later, Arkema posted another Facebook update at 2:30 p.m., saying the situation had become “serious.”

    The potential for a fire or explosion on site due to the compromised trailers was “real,” company officials wrote, but still they felt there was no “imminent danger.” Arkema officials posted an update again at 5:50 p.m., with little new information.

    At the time, Arkema officials did not inform residents of a wastewater spill earlier that day into the floodwaters that had inundated the plant.

    State records show that Arkema reported the accidental release of up to 18,000 gallons of stormwater laced with mineral oil and residual organics. That spill, which mingled with floodwaters in the plant and ran downstream toward Cedar Bayou, also caused a release of chemicals into the air including ethylbenzene, which is linked to cancer but can also cause inner ear and kidney damage, as well as vertigo; trimethylbenzene, which can cause chemical pneumonia and chronic bronchitis; and tert-butyl alcohol, which can affect the kidneys and thyroid.

    “We reported this inundation of our wastewater system to TCEQ, which is a public agency,” Smith said. “Consistent with other industry in the area, we broadly notified the community about issues that we believed presented a potential threat to community members.”

    With each new Facebook post, frightened local residents and their family members posted questions, at points demanding information about how they might be affected. Company officials did not respond publicly to those questions on their Facebook page.

    The Glovers did not see any of these updates. The couple does not use social media. Neither do the Lewises.

    On Aug. 30, Arkema said on its website that the organic peroxide in the refrigerated containers likely would catch fire. It listed “key health effects” related to smoke exposure from an organic peroxide fire, which included eye, skin and respiratory irritation, as well as dizziness, drowsiness and nausea.

    The update also noted that there was “a small possibility” that the chemicals could be released into floodwaters — without saying anything about the spill that had occurred the previous day.

    “While it is possible that you may see an oil sheen or smell a slight odor, we anticipate the break down products would dissipate in the water or evaporate,” the update stated.

    The first trailer caught fire Thursday, Aug. 31, and Arkema later reported that it had released acetone, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and 2-ethylhexanol, among other chemicals, according to the county lawsuit. Two more trailers burned in the days that followed, leading to a controlled burn of the remaining trailers on Sept. 3.

    Volatile organic compounds were detected in the air between 2.5 and 3 miles northwest of the plant, accompanied by a laundry detergent-like odor, smoke and falling ash, according to Harris County’s lawsuit.

    No state testing

    Bret Simmons cried out in pain as he pushed his motorcycle through the floodwaters near Arkema on Aug. 29, his legs burning more with each staggered step through the water, he contends in a lawsuit.

    Once he and his wife, Phyllis, made it safely to higher ground, they stopped to examine his legs. They were covered in blisters, lesions and burns. Phyllis was safe from the floodwaters, the residents’ lawsuit states, because she was seated on the motorcycle with her legs out of the water. Bret sought medical treatment.

    On the same day, state officials had been told by Arkema that chemicals were spilled into the floodwaters around the plant. Additionally, state records show that several days later, on Sept. 1, Arkema told the state environmental agency that material stored in a container on site was decomposing and mixing with stormwater, which caused a threat to Cedar Bayou.

    “… it is unsafe to be in the vicinity, due to floodwaters,” the records stated, adding that Arkema was performing tests around the facility.

    On Sept. 1, the EPA collected six surface water runoff samples from four locations outside the evacuation zone near residential homes, according to a Sept. 8 news release.

    The results were lower than what would warrant an investigation, according to the release, and no volatile or semi-volatile organic chemicals were detected.

    The next day, Sept. 2, emails show agency officials discussing a yellow “discharge” oozing from some of the trailers full of chemicals on the site in the days after Harvey made landfall.

    Multiple aerial photos taken by federal officials capture the spread of this substance, which officials said in an email “appears to be heating.”

    The Houston Police Department’s bomb squad began setting fire to the remaining containers on site on Sept. 3.

    The contractors hired by Arkema waited until Sept. 6 to test the stormwater, taking samples from 41 drainage and containment ditches in and around the facility, according to a state environmental document produced in October. The results of 13 of those samples were made available to the state as of Oct. 9.

    All 13 samples showed elevated levels of acetone, a chemical found in the company’s inventory, and methane. Benzene, a known carcinogen, also was detected in one of the areas tested, according to results published on the state environmental agency’s website.

    The contractors did not test any stormwater near homes surrounding the plant.

    A&M Corpus Christi’s Abdulla said he was concerned about the “approaches and analysis” of the testing.

    For example, he noted the apparent lack of testing for dioxins, which could have been released when the refrigerated trailers full of organic peroxides burned.

    “There were no analyses conducted for these compounds in the air, soil and the water around the accident area,” he said. “In addition, there is no information about the materials that made these refrigerated trailers, as some older models could contain asbestos.”

    Drinking the water

    The Glovers wake up each morning hoping that their well is free of toxic chemicals.

    They treated the well with bleach numerous times in an attempt to cleanse their drinking water, but they lacked the funds to have it tested. Lab-certified well water testing can cost $25 to $400, depending on what toxins are being screened, according to Wisconsin-based Clean Water Testing Certified Lab and Services.

    That cost seemed overwhelming to the couple. Their home of three decades was so damaged in Harvey they had to bulldoze it and start over with a double-wide trailer.

    “It comes to a point where you have to say, ‘We’re just going to take our chances,’ ” Diane Glover said. “We don’t have the money to do that, and I wish Arkema would do that for us.”

    A history of problems

    The sulfuric acid release of the 1990s isn't the only time Arkema has found itself in hot water with regulatory agencies.

    In 2006, the state cited the plant for a fire caused by improperly stored organic peroxides.

    Five years later, the state cited the plant again, this time for failing to maintain proper temperatures of its thermal oxidizer.

    And in 2016, the federal government took notice. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined Arkema $91,724 after finding 10 violations at the Crosby site, many involving the mishandling of hazardous materials.

    "Process safety management prevents the unexpected release of toxic, reactive or flammable liquids and gases in processes involving highly hazardous chemicals," said David Doucet, director of OSHA's Houston North Area Office. "It's vital that Arkema ensure that safeguards are in place to protect the safety of workers at this facility."

    Arkema's CEO Richard Rowe said last fall that the company spent millions of dollars on upgrades after the fines and believed all issues cited in the inspections had been addressed.

    Arkema, however, could be in more regulatory trouble after the various agencies complete their investigations into the August accident.

    Arkema did conduct tests for some residents. A contractor hired by the company conducted private well testing at the request of residents, said Smith, the company spokeswoman.

    The Glovers said they did not know they could ask Arkema to test their water.

    The company’s contractor tested 37 wells around the site, Smith said, and “none of the wells we tested showed levels of our chemicals that exceeded residential limits established by the State of Texas.”

    The results of those tests show that many wells had elevated levels of barium, a heavy metal never found in nature as a free element, while others showed elevated levels of lead, acetone, and bis(2-Chloroethyl)ether, used to make pesticides as well as paint and varnish. Smith said that barium and lead would not be related to the plant and it’s not clear if any of the other chemicals are from the August accident.

    Those test results were provided to the individual well owners, the state’s website stated. In Texas, there is no regulatory oversight to ensure water quality for owners of private wells, according to the Texas Groundwater Protection Committee.

    In looking at the test results, Abdulla said these “single snapshot” measures couldn’t reveal the true environmental impact of the accident. However, he said some of the results of the drinking water analyses were “alarming.”

    For example, Abdulla said the testing results of one well showed elevated levels of bromodichloromethane — known to cause kidney and liver problems in animals — and chloroform, “which could be a byproduct of chlorine disinfection or some leaks of the organic solvents that (are) used to synthesize organic peroxides.”

    The company does not plan on testing any more wells, Smith said.

    “We have done a substantial amount of testing as requested by our neighbors in Crosby, and we don’t believe additional well-water testing is warranted because none of our testing has shown levels of our chemicals that exceed residential limits established by the State of Texas for drinking water wells,” she said.

    Kevin Thompson, a West Virginia-based attorney representing Bret and Phyllis Simmons and about 660 other Crosby residents, said initial testing results conducted on behalf of his firm show that water in and around the plant is toxic. Arkema and the EPA, he said, were not testing for all the appropriate chemicals.

    Testing paid for by Thompson’s firm showed levels of cyanide and bromodichloromethane in private water wells that exceeded the state and federal screening standards. Surface water samples taken show levels of arsenic that exceed the human health risk-based exposure limits for humans and fish.

    To read the first part of this series, go here.

    https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/For-Crosby-residents-a-bitter-taste-about-12771298.php
    

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25. Hurricane Harvey's Toxic Impact Deeper Than Public Told

    Mar 22, 2018 | AP (In The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post)

    A toxic onslaught from the nation's petrochemical hub was largely overshadowed by the record-shattering deluge of Hurricane Harvey as residents and first responders struggled to save lives and property.

    More than a half-year after floodwaters swamped America's fourth-largest city, the extent of this environmental assault is beginning to surface, while questions about the long-term consequences for human health remain unanswered.

    County, state and federal records pieced together by The Associated Press and The Houston Chronicle reveal a far more widespread toxic impact than authorities publicly reported after the storm slammed into the Texas coast in late August and then stalled over the Houston area.

    Some 500 chemical plants, 10 refineries and more than 6,670 miles of intertwined oil, gas and chemical pipelines line the nation's largest energy corridor.

    Nearly half a billion gallons of industrial wastewater mixed with storm water surged out of just one chemical plant in Baytown, east of Houston on the upper shores of Galveston Bay.

    Benzene, vinyl chloride, butadiene and other known human carcinogens were among the dozens of tons of industrial toxins released into surrounding neighborhoods and waterways following Harvey's torrential rains.

    In all, reporters catalogued more than 100 Harvey-related toxic releases — on land, in water and in the air. Most were never publicized, and in the case of two of the biggest ones, the extent or potential toxicity of the releases was initially understated.

    Only a handful of the industrial spills have been investigated by federal regulators, reporters found.

    Texas regulators say they have investigated 89 incidents, but have yet to announce any enforcement actions.

    Testing by state and federal regulators of soil and water for contaminants was largely limited to Superfund toxic waste sites.

    Based on widespread air monitoring, including flyovers, officials repeatedly assured the public that post-Harvey air pollution posed no health threat. But the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency official in charge now says these general assessments did not necessarily reflect local "hotspots" with potential risk to people.

    Regulators alerted the public to dangers from just two, well-publicized toxic disasters: the Arkema chemical plant northeast of Houston that exploded and burned for days, and a nearby dioxin-laden federal Superfund site whose protective cap was damaged by the raging San Jacinto River.

    Samuel Coleman, who was the EPA's acting regional administrator during Harvey, said the priority in the immediate aftermath was "addressing any environmental harms as quickly as possible as opposed to making announcements about what the problem was."

    In hindsight, he said, it might not have been a bad idea to inform the public about the worst of "dozens of spills."

    Local officials say the state's industry-friendly approach has weakened efforts by the city of Houston and surrounding Harris County to build cases against and force cleanup by the companies, many of them repeat environmental offenders.

    "The public will probably never know the extent of what happened to the environment after Harvey. But the individual companies of course know," said Rock Owens, supervising environmental attorney for Harris County, home to Houston and 4.7 million residents.

    The chairman of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Bryan Shaw, declined when asked by lawmakers in January to identify the worst spills and their locations. He told a legislative subcommittee hearing he could not publicly discuss spills until his staff completed a review.

    The amount of post-Harvey government testing contrasts sharply with what happened after two other major Gulf Coast hurricanes. After Hurricane Ike hit Texas in 2008, state regulators collected 85 sediment samples to measure the contamination; more than a dozen violations were identified and cleanups were carried out, according to a state review.

    In Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters ravaged New Orleans in 2005, the EPA and Louisiana officials examined about 1,800 soil samples over 10 months, EPA records showed.

    "Now the response is completely different," said Scott Frickel, an environmental sociologist formerly at Tulane University in New Orleans.

    Frickel, now at Brown University, called the Harvey response "unconscionable" given Houston's exponentially larger industrial footprint.

    Reporters covered some environmental crises as they happened, such as AP's exclusive on the flooding of toxic waste sites and the Chronicle's Arkema warnings before fires broke out. But the sheer quantity of spills was impossible to document in real time.

    Academic researchers are now trying to fill in the gaps in environmental monitoring, helped by grants from the National Science Foundation and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. One project, a Harvey-related public health registry for Houston, was funded just this month but is not yet underway.

    "People are left in a state of limbo of not knowing if they were exposed or not — or if they were, what the implications are for their health," said Dr. Nicole Lurie, who oversaw federal public health responses to the Superstorm Sandy and Deepwater Horizon disasters while at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

    Scientists say the paucity of data also could hamstring efforts to prepare for and mitigate damage from future violent weather events that climatologists predict will happen with increasing frequency.

    ___

    'NOTHING SHORT OF CATASTROPHIC'

    When it meets moisture, hydrogen chloride gas becomes hydrochloric acid, which can burn, suffocate and kill.

    Between lulls in Harvey's pounding torrents on Aug. 28, an 18-inch pipeline leak at Williams Midstream Services Inc. unleashed a plume of the chemical near the intersection of two major highways in La Porte, southeast of Houston, where the San Jacinto River meets the 50-mile ship channel. It's the petrochemical corridor's main artery that empties into Galveston Bay.

    A toxic cloud spread about a quarter-mile in an industrial sector as firefighters and police rushed to shut down roads, blared neighborhood sirens and robo-dispatched phone and text messages warning people to stay indoors.

    Two hours ticked by before a county hazardous materials response unit — lucky to find a road not under water — arrived and ended the danger with the help of a crew from a nearby plant.

    The spill was among dozens barely noticed at the time, records show. A county pollution control inspector, Johnathan Martin, wrote in his report that he could not safely monitor the toxic plume but believed it did not reach homes less than a mile away. There were no reports of injuries.

    On land, the deluge — five feet of rain in some spots — appears to have scoured the top soil, according to separate testing efforts by scientists from Texas A&M and Rice universities.

    The Texas A&M collection of 24 samples — taken in September from lawns mainly in a neighborhood near Valero Energy Corp.'s refinery — turned up only low traces of petroleum and petrochemical-related compounds.

    "As expected the rains washed most things out," said Texas A&M research leader Anthony Knap.

    Rice researchers tested soil at a school and park in Baytown, east across Upper Galveston Bay, where residents said floodwaters rushed in from the 3,400-acre ExxonMobil refinery and chemical plant. They also sampled in Galena Park, a community of 11,000 hemmed in by heavy industry along the ship channel, just east of downtown.

    Only one of the nine samples collected by Rice researchers showed elevated levels of petroleum-related toxins, according to an independent chemical analysis funded by the AP-Chronicle collaboration. Collected in Galena Park, it showed the presence of benzo(a)pyrene, a known carcinogen, at levels just above what the EPA deems a cancer risk.

    Jessica Chastain lives a block away.

    During Harvey's three-day downpour, the nearby Panther Creek swallowed Chastain's home, forcing the 36-year-old mother and four of her children to swim across the street to the safety of her parents' two-story house, through slimy brownish-black water that smelled like a "rotten sewer," said Chastain. "It had a coat of film over it. I'm not sure what it was. It was probably oil."

    Her children — 15, 11, 9 and 6 — all developed skin infections and strep throat, she said.

    Her youngest still "cries when it rains hard," she said. "'Is it going to flood?' he asks."

    The creek, which empties into the nearby ship channel, had backed up from flooded chemical plants and tank farms.

    A number of Harvey-related spills occurred near Chastain's home, including the 460,000-gallon gasoline spill at a Magellan Midstream Partners tank farm and nearly 52,000 pounds of crude oil from a Seaway Crude Pipeline Inc. tank.

    Samples taken in October at a Houston park upstream of the ship channel showed elevated levels of dioxins, PCBs and hazardous chemicals typically created in the burning of oil, coal and gas, said Jennifer Horney, an A&M epidemiology professor who conducted testing for the city.

    Benzo(a)pyrene was among the chemicals found in sediment on the banks of Brays Bayou at the park, a popular recreation site with baseball diamonds, soccer pitches and bicycle pathways.

    "It's coal tar and it's a known carcinogen and mostly you find it in industrial settings," said Horney. "We know the ship channel — or the bayou — was (up) in that park."

    While worrisome, the levels at the park were not high enough to trigger a cleanup under EPA standards, she said. Neither Houston nor Texas A&M officials have publicly released those test results, which the city health department's chief environmental science officer, Loren Raun, said showed "nothing of concern for human health risk."

    The surface soil scrubbing that scientists believe occurred during Harvey means contaminants likely migrated downstream, said Hanadi Rifai. The head of the University of Houston's environmental engineering program, she has been studying pollution in the watershed for more than two decades.

    "That soil ended up somewhere," Rifai said. "The net result on Galveston Bay is going to be nothing short of catastrophic."

    _

    VAPOR CLOUD

    Residents of the tidy, mostly Latino neighborhood off Old Industrial Road in Galena Park are accustomed to the foul odors that wind shifts can bring.

    But no one told them about the gasoline spill at the Magellan terminal a mile away — one of more than a dozen Harvey-related releases in a two-mile radius. The release was initially reported to the Coast Guard at 42,000 gallons — and residents would only learn of it a week later through news reports. Not until 11 days after the spill did Magellan report that it was actually more than 10 times bigger.

    Asked about the discrepancy, Magellan spokesman Bruce Heine said floodwaters prevented the company from accessing the ruptured tanks until Sept. 5. He said the company later removed 15 dump trucks of tainted soil.

    The spill was reported to the Coast Guard on Thursday, Aug. 31 at 11:35 p.m. — six days after Harvey made landfall.

    An explosion risk prompted workers to evacuate upwind as the nearly half-million gallons of gasoline gushed out failed storage tanks, state environmental and Coast Guard records show. The spill ranked as Texas' largest reported Harvey-related venting of air pollutants, at 1,143 tons.Newsletter Sign UpContinue reading the main storyCalifornia Today

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    The local fire department put down foam to suppress the fumes, records revealed, and a police report described "a vapor cloud."

    Claudia Mendez, a 42-year-old housewife, said she later saw foam by the side of the road and wondered about its origin.

    The fumes were so strong, Mendez said, "I thought my husband had brought the lawnmower gas can inside."

    Magellan has been cited for 11 environmental violations since 2002 by Texas regulators and fined more than $190,000, more than half in August 2012 for a single violation of air quality standards.

    Its spill is among at least three post-Harvey releases about which Harris County officials have withheld information, saying they remain under investigation.

    The second involves W&P Development Corp., owner of an industrial park where about 100,000 gallons of oily wastewater were reported to have spilled into the San Jacinto from Aug. 29 to Aug. 31. The site was formerly Champion Paper Mill and a landfill there received wastes including turpentine- and lead-contaminated soil and mercury until 2008. For most of 2015 and 2016, the property was in violation of federal anti-pollution laws, EPA records show.

    A spokesman for W&P Development, Dennis Winkler, said the company later determined that a smaller amount — 30,000 gallons — had escaped from a water treatment plant when the river overtopped a berm.

    The third site is Channel Biorefinery & Terminals, where some 80,000 gallons of methanol spilled from a tank rupture into Greens Bayou, which enters the ship channel just downstream of the Magellan terminal. Highly flammable and explosive, methanol can cause brain lesions and other disorders.

    The property, once the site of the nation's largest biofuels refinery, was in violation of federal hazardous waste-management rules the first half of 2017. Texas cited the property's owners for failing to prove they could manage licensed wastes, including oily sludge and petroleum distillates, records show.

    Dennis Frost, the on-site manager for Gulf Coast Energy, the tenant of Channel Biorefinery, said he and co-workers did their best to prevent the spills.

    "They were impossible to contain," he said. "The water here down by our facility was up over 20 feet."

    ___

    INDUSTRY: NO DANGER

    Companies are required under federal law to report spills to the state and federal government but not to counties, which are the first line of defense against industrial pollution.

    Harris County pollution control investigators queried more than 150 plants on Harvey-related spills, but many did not provide estimates.

    "Spill information is provided as a courtesy," said Latrice Babin, deputy director of the county's pollution control office. "Likewise, there is no requirement of notification of evacuation."

    The largest spill, by far, was at ExxonMobil Corp.'s Olefins Plant in Baytown, east of the ship channel. Two days after Harvey hit, some 457 million gallons of stormwater mixed with untreated wastewater, including oil and grease, surged into an adjacent creek.

    The spill was not reported to the public. In a water quality report filed with the county and obtained through an open records request, ExxonMobil said "available information does not indicate any potential danger to human health or safety or the environment."

    It did not include results of third-party water testing that the company said had been done. The plant has a history of federal air pollution violations and reported emitting 228 tons of airborne pollutants during Harvey.

    Other large spills found in official records include:

    — More than 3,000 pounds of benzene from Royal Dutch Shell PLC's Deer Park complex on the ship channel's south bank. Initially, the company reported a half ton of phenol, which can burn skin and be potentially fatal, was spilled. It later revised that downward to just two pounds.

    —About 34,000 pounds of sodium hydroxide, or lye, which can cause severe chemical burns, and unpermitted airborne emissions, including 28,000 pounds of benzene, from the Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. plant in Baytown, near where thousands of residents live along Cedar Bayou. A spokesman, Bryce Hallowell, said a containment pond kept about 38 percent of the lye from escaping the facility.

    — About 60,000 tons of what Dow Chemical Co. called "non-hazardous biosolids" at the company's plant in Deer Park. The company now says that roughly 50 tons of that consisted of biosolids and that the rest was "primarily" stormwater.

    Yvette Arellano of the advocacy group Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services surveyed the area by helicopter on Sept. 4.

    She reported seeing flooded tank farms, fluorescent liquid streaming from Exxon's outfalls, and refineries and chemical plants flaring gas intensely like giant candles.

    "The entire skyscape looked like a birthday cake," Arellano said.

    ___

    "HOT SPOTS"

    As Harvey bore down on Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott's administration decreed that storm-related pollution would be forgiven as "acts of God." Days later, he suspended many environmental regulations.

    On Sept. 1, just as residents in some areas of Houston started dragging soggy belongings to the curb, the city experienced Texas' worst ozone pollution of the year.

    A top city health official emailed the EPA on Sept. 1 with a request marked "urgent," asking for help in determining whether spills and leaks at industrial and Superfund sites threatened the public. Three days later, after getting no response, she emailed again, records obtained in a public information act request show.

    "We are finding alarming levels of benzene in the neighborhood next to Valero . Should EPA evacuate the residents?"

    There was no record of an EPA email response, though the agency did send a mobile air-monitoring van on Sept. 5.

    By then, Houston had done its own air monitoring, recording a high benzene level of 324 parts per billion — more than three times the level at which federal worker safety guidelines recommend special breathing equipment. The city was aided by the nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund, which dispatched a mobile van from California to track the toxic benzene plume.

    On Sept. 7, state investigators took air samples near Valero and reported suffering headaches and dizziness, though they said they found pollutants "below levels of short-term health and/or welfare concern," according to a state report.

    The EPA said it also conducted 28 flights over 12 days beginning Aug. 31 using a plane equipped to evaluate "unreported or undetected" chemical releases. It flew over nearly 700 industrial sites, municipal wastewater treatment plants and other facilities, and EPA said it found no pollution exceeding state-permitted levels.

    In at least seven "status reports" the EPA and TCEQ posted online from Sept. 3 and Oct. 6, they said all measurements "were well below levels of health concern."

    Coleman, who retired in January after 29 years with EPA, said he was comfortable with the advisories, saying they were general assessments. "Were there hotspots? Absolutely," he said in a recent interview. "But on any given day, within some isolated area, there could be a problem."

    AP and Chronicle reporters asked the EPA and state regulators for a detailed accounting of any soil and water testing they did after Harvey, along with any investigations or sanctions.

    The responses mostly cited online bulletins, in which the EPA said it had assessed all 43 Superfund cleanup sites in the hurricane-affected area and cleared all but one — the San Jacinto River Waste Pits, which was leaking dioxins. An examination of the 17 state Superfund sites found "no major issues," regulators said.

    State officials said they didn't test any sediment that may have been deposited elsewhere by floodwaters. The EPA tested water at an unspecified number of industrial sites but did not disclose results.

    Without elaborating, the state said it had a number of open investigations. The EPA refused to discuss whom it might be investigating, beyond Valero and Arkema.

    With a few exceptions, companies with spills did not call local emergency responders, meaning the public was not informed in real time. Instead, the companies handled the spills in-house, the Chronicle and AP found in surveying local and county fire officials.

    The Harris County Sheriff's Office, which handles countywide emergency response and routinely dispatches a special investigator to major spills, said it was not alerted to 22 of 23 spills that reporters asked about, based on size and potential toxicity.

    The Arkema plant was the exception. Impossible to go unnoticed, its containers of liquid organic peroxides exploded after floodwaters disabled backup generators. Sickened first responders have filed suit, as have Harris and Liberty counties, which claim the company violated numerous environmental and safety regulations.

    Bob Royall, emergency operations chief for the county's Fire Marshal office, said his agency was alerted to Arkema and the Williams' hydrochloric acid leak but no one informed it at the time of the nearly half-million-gallon Magellan spill.

    Like spills on land, unpermitted releases of air toxins are self-reported in Texas — a state that has long been friendly to heavy industry. As attorney general, prior to being elected governor, Abbott had sued the federal government more than a dozen times to challenge environmental regulations that he deemed over-reaching.

    The governor's Harvey disaster declaration suspended environmental reporting and record-keeping rules as well as liability for unauthorized emissions for the duration of the disaster declaration, which was most recently renewed on March 16. A spokesman for the state environmental agency said the suspensions only apply when rules would hinder disaster response.

    An attorney for the nonprofit Austin-based Environmental Integrity Project said that while federal environmental laws remained in effect, the governor's action essentially put state regulators on the sidelines and made it more difficult to hold polluters accountable. "The state tied its own hands before it knew the scope or the magnitude or any of the effects of the storm," said attorney Ilan Levin.

    The TCEQ itself has a long track record of industry tolerance. State auditors in 2003 found it was late in ordering and collecting fines, giving polluters $25 million a year in discounts. A study by Levin's group found the agency penalized only 3 percent of air pollution incidents reported by all companies statewide from 2011 to 2016.

    Two Texas laws enacted since mid-2015 have weakened counties' ability to police polluters. The first caps at $2.15 million what they can collect from polluters in lawsuits. The rest must go to the state. The second law took effect Sept. 1. It obliges counties to give the state right of first refusal on any pollution enforcement cases, which local officials say could mean less punitive action.

    "Every time we've been able to make something — you get a large judgment against one of these companies, get some significant process-changing injunctive relief — they come back around behind us to the legislature," said Owens. "And they have clipped our wings."

    https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/03/22/us/ap-us-harvey-silent-spills.html
    

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26. Human Remains Found at Chemical Plant Explosion Site

    Mar 22, 2018 | Fort Worth Star-Telegram (In E&E Greenwire)

    By Mitch Mitchell

    Officials have found human remains at the chemical plant in Texas that exploded and caught fire last week.

    The remains are believed to belong to the only worker who has remained missing since the incident, Dylan Mitchell.

    They were taken to a medical examiner's office in Fort Worth for identification.

    Investigators have said another worker may have sparked the explosion at the Tri-Chem Industries plant in Cresson by dragging his foot on the floor (Greenwire, March 16).

    Workers are still cleaning up chemical residue from the explosion and fire that seeped into the ground, according to a Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman.

    https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2018/03/22/stories/1060077163
    

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Transportation and Infrastructure News

27. (ACC Mentioned) Trains, Transit Get Windfall in Omni

    Mar 22, 2018 | Politico - Morning Transportation

    By Lauren Gardner

    Make It Rain: ... or snow, given meteorological conditions in Washington. Either way, that’s what federal rail and transit programs are saying on the heels of the omnibus rollout, which finally happened Thursday night. The deal would funnel billions of dollars to rail and transit, thanks in no small part to the extra billions for infrastructure wrapped into the recent two-year budget deal. DOT’s top-line discretionary figure came in at $27.3 billion, an $8.7 billion jump from current spending. Here’s a quick breakdown of items in the bill that don’t rhyme with “late May” (doesn’t that kind of weather sound great right about now?):

    — The TIGER grant program would triple in size to $1.5 billion;
    — Amtrak would receive $1.9 billion, with $650 million going toward capital projects along the Northeast Corridor;
    — $250 million would be dedicated for the federal-state partnership for state of good repair grants (a FAST Act program); 
    — $250 million would be funneled to positive train control implementation grants; and
    — More than $2.6 billion would be available for FTA’s Capital Investment Grants program.

    The bill also directs DOT to cover the credit risk premiums for Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing loans, a change promoted in the Trump administration's infrastructure plan to help broaden the prospective pool of applicants. One provision that didn't make it into the bill? An increase to the passenger facility charge cap, a move Senate appropriators had embraced.

    Taking FAA-light: The package also includes a six-month FAA extension, giving Congress until the end of fiscal 2018 to work out a long-term solution.

    BUILD A TUNNEL AND GET THROUGH IT? We can workshop that idiom later, but both sides of the Gateway morass were claiming victory yesterday over the omnibus deal. What’s crystal clear is that it contains money that could go to the project, but it’s nowhere near the $30 billion total (not that we were expecting that ...) and — here's the key — much of it would likely still be subject to some level of approval by DOT. The bill text confirmed figures your MT host reported hours before the legislation finally dropped, along with the fact that it contains no explicit Gateway mentions.

    Po-tay-toe, po-tah-toe: A senior DOT official chalked that up as a win Wednesday, saying the department gets “to maintain all of our flexibility in allocating funding.” Meanwhile, a senior Democratic aide maintained that as much as $541 million would be available for Gateway in fiscal 2018 — without any DOT approval. According to the aide, Amtrak estimates it could funnel at least $388 million "directly to Gateway projects," while New York and New Jersey would be awarded $153 million in FTA formula funds that could be used for related expenses. But the DOT official cautioned that FRA still has an oversight role in how Amtrak spends its capital funds, since the railroad must submit its plans to the department for sign-off. “You can imagine that, if FRA or FTA doesn’t believe a project’s ready in one program, why would it be ready in another?” he said. Two projects under the Gateway umbrella were recently downgraded in the CIG pipeline.

    IT’S THURSDAY: Thanks for tuning in to POLITICO’s Morning Transportation, your daily tipsheet on all things trains, planes, automobiles and ports. Lauren’s driving the snowmobile today on this second full day of spring (LOL!), so send your scoops, tips and song requests here: lgardner@politico.com or @Gardner_LM. Listen, Barkley’s not happy about the weather, either.

    “The race is on / From the bush to the pond / And back where the judges feel you’ve won your seal / For the snowmobile”

    LISTEN HERE: Follow MT’s playlist on Spotify. What better way to start your day than with songs (picked by us and readers) about roads, rails and runways?

    POLITICO Space is our new, free weekly briefing on the policies and personalities shaping the second space age in Washington and beyond. Sign up today to start receiving the newsletter right at launch on April 6. Presented by Boeing.

    TWO ROADS DIVERGED IN A WOOD: Lawmakers decided to go their own way on TSA funding in the omnibus. President Donald Trump had proposed eliminating a reimbursement program for airports that hire local law enforcement, but Congress tacked on an additional $45 million for it. And instead of following Trump’s advice to reduce the number of VIPR teams, the bill includes $43 million that would allow TSA to maintain all 31 teams. The bill also would dedicate $64 million to expediting TSA’s adoption of new 3D computed tomography scanners. Also included was a $2 billion boost for Customs and Border Protection above its current funding levels that, among other things, would enable the agency to fill Customs vacancies at ports of entry — an issue that Trump hadn’t mentioned.

    Let’s cruise: Congress also responded to the Coast Guard’s plea for additional funding for its shipbuilding efforts with a funding boost. The service would receive $12.1 billion overall under the bill, including $150 million for a heavy polar icebreaker that Coast Guard leadership has said is desperately needed. The service would get $2.7 billion overall for its fleet modernization efforts. Stephanie has more details here.

    NEVER-ENDING NOR’EASTERS: Airlines have canceled more than 16,700 flights so far this month, much of which is linked to major storms that have barreled up the East Coast in March, according to flight tracking company FlightAware. Carriers had nixed more than 4,400 flights in the U.S. Wednesday as the fourth Nor’easter in the last three weeks dumped snow over much of the Mid-Atlantic.

    ** A message from the Partnership for Open and Fair Skies: The UAE and Qatar have funneled billions of dollars in government subsidies to their state-owned airline carriers, threatening 1.2 million American jobs and our entire aviation industry. More than 310 members of Congress agree that it’s time to enforce our agreements and protect American jobs. http://www.openandfairskies.com/ **

    WASN’T ME: While Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s administration has tried to distance itself from the pedestrian bridge project that collapsed last week, documents show the state’s DOT was directly involved. Scott called the structure “an FIU project” at a press conference after it fell, but, as POLITICO Florida’s Matt Dixon reports: “As recently as September 2016, though, more than 10 months after the selection of the firms to design and build the project, his transportation agency was reviewing all construction-related material.”

    Meanwhile: NTSB investigators continued work at the scene Thursday and announced they’d confirmed that bridge workers “were adjusting tension on the two tensioning rods located in the diagonal member at the north end of the span when the bridge collapsed.” “They had done this same work earlier at the south end, moved to the north side, and had adjusted one rod,” the board said in a statement. “They were working on the second rod when the span failed and collapsed.” Watch for this detail to crop up again as the investigation continues.

    OPTIONS FOR EXTRA CREDIT? Amtrak gave two freight railroads “F” grades this week in its first-ever “report card” assessing host railroads’ performance in preventing delays to passenger trains, your MT host writes. Norfolk Southern and Canadian National took home the failing grades, while CSX earned a “C.” Note that all three railroads are the subjects of Surface Transportation Board investigations into substandard on-time performance along some of Amtrak's long-distance and state-supported routes.

    IN MEMORIAM: Amtrak announced Wednesday that it’s renaming the station in Rochester, N.Y., in honor of Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.), who died last week. The station opened in October 2017 and was funded in part through a $15 million TIGER grant for which she’d advocated.

    MR. ROBOTO TRAIN: FRA is seeking comment on “the future of automation in the railroad industry,” per a request for information set to publish today in the Federal Register. The agency is interested in how the industry envisions embracing automation and what effects it could have on safety and the workforce, among other issues.

    MT INFLUENCE: Capitol Hill Policy Group’s Todd Bertoson is lobbying for theAcademy of Model Aeronautics on the reauthorization of the FAA and drone regulations. Bertoson, a former Senate Commerce Committee staff director, is also lobbying for the American Chemistry Council on “transportation, infrastructure and security” issues. Meanwhile, ALPA hired Polaris Government Relations to lobby on the FAA reauthorization.

    SHIFTING GEARS: Tyler Houlton is now officially press secretary/deputy assistant secretary for public affairs at DHS (h/t POLITICO Playbook). He was previously acting press secretary.

    THE AUTOBAHN:

    — “Is your E-ZPass the key to congestion pricing?” The New York Times.

    — "To manage storms, airlines try to keep passengers away from airports." The Wall Street Journal.

    — “Immigrant advocates urge bus company to block federal agents.” The Associated Press.

    — “Falling transit ridership poses an ‘emergency’ for cities, experts fear.” The Washington Post.

    — "Transporting pets doesn't even make United that much money. Here's why they bother to do it." CNBC.

    — "Tempe PD releases video of moments before self-driving Uber hit, killed pedestrian." KOLD-TV.

    THE COUNTDOWN: DOT appropriations run out in 2 days. The FAA reauthorization expires in 10 days. Highway and transit policy is up for renewal in 924 days.

    ** A message from the Partnership for Open and Fair Skies: The UAE and Qatar have sent more than $50 billion in government subsidies to their state-owned airlines - Emirates, Etihad Airways, Qatar Airways. We applaud the Trump administration for reaching an historic agreement with Qatar to enforce our Open Skies agreement and stand up for American jobs. Now it’s time for the UAE to play by the rules and bring an end to their subsidy-fueled expansion campaign. The future of the U.S. airline industry and 1.2 million American workers depends on it. http://www.openandfairskies.com/ **

    https://www.politico.com/newsletters/morning-transportation/2018/03/22/trains-transit-get-windfall-in-omni-146642
    

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28. FRA Reports on Progress of Positive Train Control System Implementation

    Mar 22, 2018 | Transportation Today

    By Melina Druga

    The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) recently released an update on the status of the positive train control systems’ (PTC) implementation for the fourth quarter of 2017.

    PTC systems prevent incursions into established work-zone limits, over-speed derailments, certain train-to-train collisions, and trains going to the wrong tracks because a switch was left in the wrong position.

    “It is the railroads’ responsibility to meet the congressionally mandated PTC requirements,” FRA Administrator Ronald L. Batory said. “The FRA is committed to doing its part to ensure railroads and suppliers are working together to implement PTC systems.”

    FRA met the 41 railroads subject to the statutory mandate between Jan. 2 and Feb. 14, to evaluate PTC status and discover the remaining steps to have PTC fully implemented.

    Based on feedback from the meetings, FRA is now conferring with PTC suppliers to see if they can meet the high demand in a timely manner.

    The deadline for implementation is Dec. 31 under the Positive Train Control Enforcement and Implementation Act of 2015. Railroads, however, can gain FRA’s approval to extend the deadline beyond Dec. 31, 2018, but no later than Dec. 31, 2020.

    The extensions apply to certain nonhardware, operational aspects, and railroads must meet mandatory criteria.

    https://transportationtodaynews.com/news/8762-fra-reports-progress-positive-train-control-system-implementation/
    

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Environment News

29. EPA Gets Budget Reprieve in FY18 But Some Query Whether It Will Last

    Mar 22, 2018 | Inside EPA

    By Doug Obey

    EPA appears to have largely escaped Trump administration plans to cut its budget by 31 percent in fiscal year 2018 after lawmakers unveiled a spending bill for the remainder of the year that funds the agency at essentially FY17 levels while also increasing funding for key infrastructure programs.

    And in a victory for Democrats, environmentalists and their allies, the bill also drops most policy riders and also omits funds requested by the Trump administration for staff buyouts that many feared would have quietly gutted the agency.

    Former Obama EPA Region 2 Administrator Judith Enck called the bill “the best environmental news since President Trump was elected” and argued that it also “calls into question [EPA Administrator Scott] Pruitt's early buyout of hundreds of senior EPA career staff who left the agency last year.”

    But the spending deal still awaits final Hill approval, and it remains to be seen whether the FY18 package is more than a temporary reprieve from attacks on the agency budget in FY19, with the Trump administration having already pledged to unveil more details of its federal reorganization plans in coming months.

    “There are many fights to come,” Environmental Defense Fund Action said in a March 22 press release, calling the FY18 bill a victory for now but citing Trump administration “attacks” on EPA and the agency's critics in Congress.

    The massive omnibus spending bill provides a total of $8.058 billion -- essentially flat funding for most EPA accounts, according to an explanatory statement accompanying the bill text.

    But additional infrastructure-related spending brings agency funding up to about $8.8 billion -- with $703 million more for water infrastructure and $63 million more for Superfund cleanups in addition to base funding levels, according to a summary released by Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM), the ranking Democrat on the Appropriations interior subcommittee.

     Accordingly, Udall says, the bill “protects key investments in environmental programs and grants within the EPA budget that were targeted for crippling budget cuts by the Trump administration as well as the House and Senate Republican proposals.”

    The funding levels -- and the omission of several controversial proposed policy riders -- underscore the impact of a recent two-year budget deal that boosted allowable domestic spending, as well as the political reality that Hill Republicans need the vote of EPA's Democratic defenders to approve the FY18 spending package.

    And the spending measure is also an indicator of Hill Republican impatience at the most drastic proposals for paring back the agency.

    The bill's explanatory statement notes that the spending package “does not include any of the requested funds for workforce reshaping” -- a reference to proposed buyouts -- in a notable contrast to prior draft versions of spending bill language that included as much as $79 million for that purpose.

    In addition, the statement says Congress “does not support reductions proposed in the [Trump administration's EPA] budget request unless explicitly noted,” according to the text. And it notes that Hill spending committees do not expect the Agency to consolidate or close any regional offices in FY18.

    Program Spending

    EPA's environmental programs and management (EPM) account, which funds the bulk of the agency's regulatory work, was among those that escaped steep proposed cuts, receiving level funding of $2.597 billion. That includes a $12 million boost from FY17 enacted levels for EPA's popular geographic programs that fund protections in areas like the Chesapeake Bay, Great Lakes and Puget Sound.

    The bill also includes level funding for EPM enforcement activities of $240.6 million as well as flat funding for EPA's science and technology account of $706 million, taking into account a budget rescission.

    Udall in his summary says the funding levels “protects all EPA staff, including all scientists, experts and support personnel, and rejects funding for large scale agency wide buyouts. “

    Udall also touts preservation of existing funding for EPA's Integrated Risk Information System -- and language to ensure it remains in EPA's research office -- full funding for EPA state and regional grants with increases for programs such as diesel engine retrofits.

    The bill with respect to water infrastructure includes total funding for EPA's programs of $2.97 billion, including $2.857 billion for Clean Water and Drinking Water Funds -- an increase of $600 million from FY17.
    Other specific water provisions include funding for both the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act program, and new funding for programs authorized in the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act to support lead testing in schools and child care centers, specifically $20 million for lead testing in schools and child care centers, $20 million for lead reduction in rural areas and $10 million to help communities comply with the Safe Drinking Water Act.

    EPA's Office of Inspector General also receives level funding of $41.4 million for audits, evaluations and investigations.

    The final spending package also omits the most controversial policy riders that would formally restrict EPA activities, riders that Republican appropriators recently suggested were not needed given the Trump administration's plans to ease regulations.

    The omitted proposals include language that would have: barred EPA from enforcing a methane rule on oil and gas facilities; delayed submission of state implementation plans to control ozone; blocked federal payment of legal fees related to suits under the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act and Endangered Species Act; denied funds to implement the social cost of carbon; blocked enforcement of Total Maximum Daily Load limits for the Chesapeake Bay; and expedited withdrawal of the Waters of the U.S. rule without public comment.

    However, the spending package does retain a number of previously adopted riders, including language prodding EPA to treat biomass as carbon neutral and barring EPA from requiring Clean Water Act permits for some agriculture practices, and a prohibition on use of funds to regulate lead ammunition. 

    https://insideepa.com/daily-news/epa-gets-budget-reprieve-fy18-some-query-whether-it-will-last
    

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30. Plastic Within the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is ‘Increasing Exponentially,’ Scientists Find

    Mar 22, 2018 | The Washington Post

    By Chris Mooney

    Seventy-nine thousand tons of plastic debris, in the form of 1.8 trillion pieces, now occupy an area three times the size of France in the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii, a scientific team reported on Thursday.

    The amount of plastic found in this area, known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, is “increasing exponentially,” according to the surveyors, who used two planes and 18 boats to assess the ocean pollution.

    “We wanted to have a clear, precise picture of what the patch looked like,” said Laurent Lebreton, the lead oceanographer for the Ocean Cleanup Foundation and the lead author of the study.

    The Garbage Patch has been described before. But this new survey estimates that the mass of plastic contained there is four to 16 times larger than previously supposed, and it is continuing to accumulate because of ocean currents and careless humans both onshore and offshore.

    The “patch” is not an island or a single mass, leading some scientists to object to the name (which the current study uses). Instead, it’s a large area with high volumes of plastics, one in which concentrations increase markedly as you move toward its center. The debris ranges from tiny flecks to enormous discarded fishing nets, which make up 46 percent of the material, the study found.

    The study was led by the Ocean Cleanup Foundation and researchers at institutions in New Zealand, the United States, Britain, France, Germany and Denmark, who published the findings in the journal Scientific Reports.

    There’s a key distinction between the mass of plastic within the patch increasing — which it is — and the overall size of the patch, which does not seem to be changing. Rather, it’s just that trash within the patch seems to be accumulating, or growing more dense.

    The plastic is probably mostly coming from Pacific countries, Lebreton said. But it could be coming from anywhere since plastic now travels across the entirety of the ocean and has even shown up in Arctic waters, where very few humans live. That suggests the plastic traveled there from elsewhere, riding the ocean currents.

    Some of the debris probably also came from the 2011 tsunami that devastated Japan and washed large amounts of waste back out to sea, the study said.

    The location of the patch is in a zone of slack currents where debris arrives and then lingers, increasing in the calm waters.

    The study finds that, based on prior examinations dating back to the 1970s, the amount of plastic in the patch is steadily growing as more flows in than flows out — saying that plastic levels are “increasing exponentially.”

    “We think there’s more and more plastic basically accumulating in this area,” Lebreton said.

    The most striking aspect of the findings — and perhaps the most damaging — was the large volume of fishing nets or “ghostnets,” said Chelsea Rochman, an assistant professor at the University of Toronto who studies marine plastic but was not part of the current study.

    “This suggests we might be underestimating how much fishing debris is floating in the oceans,” she said in an emailed comment. “Entanglement and smothering from nets is one of the most detrimental observed effects we see in nature.” 1:57What is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch?

    The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is not a floating island of trash, like a garbage dump or a landfill. Here's what you need to know about it. (National Ocean Service)

    The fact that the plastic content of the Patch is increasing is consistent with research that has been conducted on land, showing that waste volumes entering the ocean are large and increasing, said Jenna Jambeck, an environmental engineer at the University of Georgia who has studied plastic waste processes.

    In a 2015 study, Jambeck found that humans are filling the oceans with an estimated 8 million tons of plastic every year, and that is expected to increase 22 percent by 2025.

    That matches what is now being seen in the ocean, in the form of an ever-accumulating garbage patch in the Pacific, though Jambeck also noted that much plastic sinks to the ocean bottom, and the fishing nets are being tossed in from boats, rather than dumped from the shore.

    “The logic plays out that if we projected it to be increasing, every year in terms of input, that you would see some potential increase in the ocean,” Jambeck said. She also was not involved in the new study.

    Jambeck and the research team both agree that there is far less plastic accumulating in the Pacific patch than is going in the ocean — and the study itself says that in light of how much plastic is being dumped, they would have expected volumes to be even higher.

    Clearly, much plastic is sinking and doing its damage at the seafloor, or in lower depths of the ocean.

    In this sense, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is, in the end, merely the most dramatic outward symptom of a far deeper problem of enormous volumes of human waste reaching places where it was never intended to be.

    “The results are alarming; it really shows the urgency of this situation,” Lebreton said.

    Read more at Energy & Environment:

    The pristine Arctic has become a garbage trap for 300 billion pieces of plastic

    Humans are putting 8 million tons of plastic into the oceans — annually

    Ocean trash isn’t just bad for the environment – it’s bad for your state of mind

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2018/03/22/plastic-within-the-great-pacific-garbage-patch-is-increasing-exponentially-scientists-find/?utm_term=.40ab41007f14
    

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