EPA Report Released: Semiannual Report of UST Performance Measures Mid Fiscal Year 2013 (October 1, 2012 - March 31, 2013)

Recently, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), released a report titled, Semiannual Report of UST Performance Measures Mid Fiscal Year 2013 (October 1, 2012 - March 31, 2013) (2013). This 14-page report available here, authored by the Office of Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response (OSWER) discusses the following,

EPA collects data from states and territories regarding [underground storage tank] UST performance measures. This data includes information such as the number of active and closed tanks, releases reported, cleanups initiated and completed, facilities in compliance with UST requirements, and inspections. The reports below provide data in table format for all states, territories, and Indian country for the reporting period indicated.

Previous reports from October 1987 to the present are available here.

National Academies Book Released: Acute Exposure Guideline Levels for Selected Airborne Chemicals: Volume 14

Recently, the National Academies Press (NAP) released a report produced by the Committee on Acute Exposure Guideline Levels; Committee on Toxicology; Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology; Division on Earth and Life Studies; and the National Research Council titled, Acute Exposure Guideline Levels for Selected Airborne Chemicals: Volume 14 (2013). The 290-page book is available free with a one-time registration. Previous volumes of the text are available here below:

Volume 13 (2013)

Volume 12 (2012)

Volume 11 (2012)

Volume 10 (2011)

Volume 9 (2010)

Volume 8 (2010)

Volume 7 (2009)

Volume 6 (2008)

Volume 5 (2007)

Volume 4 (2004)

Volume 3 (2003)

Volume 2 (2002)

Volume 1 (2000)

GAO Report Released: Toxic Substances: EPA Has Increased Efforts to Assess and Control Chemicals but Could Strengthen Its Approach

Recently, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report, titled Toxic Substances: EPA Has Increased Efforts to Assess and Control Chemicals but Could Strengthen Its Approach GAO-13-249 (Mar. 22, 2013). The details of the 49-page report, available here, are discussed below:

Why GAO Did This Study

In 1976, Congress passed TSCA to provide EPA with the authority to obtain more information on chemicals and to regulate those chemicals that EPA determines pose unreasonable risks of injury to human health or the environment. GAO has reported that EPA has found much of TSCA difficult to implement--hampering the agency's ability to obtain certain chemical data or place limits on chemicals. Of the thousands of chemicals listed for commercial use in the United States, EPA has used its authority to limit or ban five chemicals since TSCA was enacted. In 2009, EPA announced TSCA reform principles to inform ongoing efforts in Congress to strengthen the act. At that time, EPA also initiated a new approach for managing toxic chemicals with the goal of ensuring the safety of chemicals using its existing authorities.

GAO was asked to evaluate EPA's efforts to strengthen its management of chemicals. This report determines the extent to which (1) EPA has made progress implementing its new approach and (2) EPA's new approach positions it to achieve its goal of ensuring the safety of chemicals. GAO examined agency documents and TSCA rulemaking and interviewed agency officials and stakeholders from industry and environmental organizations.

What GAO Recommends

GAO recommends, among other things, that EPA develop strategies that address challenges impeding its ability to ensure chemical safety and identify the resources needed to so. EPA neither agreed nor disagreed with GAO’s recommendations.

20th Annual Toxic Torts & Environmental Law Spring CLE Program: The New Frontier: Science, Technology and the Law in 2011 -- ABA CLE

This ABA CLE includes sessions on:

- THE CHANGING FACE OF THE CANCER DEBATE
- CHILDHOOD ENVIRONMENTAL EXPOSURES
- NANOTECHNOLOGY UPDATE: TOXIC COSMETICS
- MOCK JURY SELECTION IN A TOXIC TORT CASE
- GULF OIL SPILL LITIGATION
- HOT TOPICS IN ENVIRONMENTAL LAW

See Brochure here

Begins: Mar 31, 2011 03:00 PM
Ends: Apr 02, 2011 12:30 PM

Location:
Arizona Biltomore Resort & Spa
2400 E Missouri Ave
Phoenix, AZ, 85016-3197

Trends in Chemicals Law: An EHS Regulatory Perspective -- BNA Webinar

This BNA Webinar discusses the fact that Environmental Law traditionally has been media-specific, focusing on chemicals in air, water, and waste after their useful life has ended. Increasingly, concerns about chemicals in products have emerged as an important focus of environmental law. As such, it is important for practitioners to recognize the interrelationship of chemicals of concern issues across statutes, agencies, countries, and chemicals, and understand how regulatory and policy trends and reforms related to chemicals may impact this practice area.

This 90-minute webinar, featuring Mark N. Duvall, a principal with Beveridge & Diamond, P.C. in Washington, D.C., is designed to help you:

• Understand federal law and policy on chemicals in products spanning various agencies, including the Consumer Product Safety Commission, Environmental Protection Agency, and Food and Drug Administration, among others

• Gain insight about chemicals regulation under the Toxic Substances Control Act and the implications of significant efforts under way for TSCA legislation to make it a more streamlined, effective tool for regulating chemicals

• Learn about chemicals management on the state level, such as California’s Green Chemistry Initiative as well as efforts in other states to address chemicals in products on a more comprehensive basis

• Analyze the current approach to regulating chemicals through a case study on bisphenol A and consider how TSCA legislation and state green chemistry programs might impact future chemicals legal practice

Date: Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Time: 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM (ET)

Toxics Release Inventory: 2009 TRI Preliminary Dataset

The TRI Basic Plus data files include the following:
Type 1: Facility, Chemical, Releases and Other Waste Management Summary Information
Type 2:
a: Detailed Source Reduction Activities and Methods
b: Detailed On-Site Waste Treatment Methods and Efficiency
Type 3:
a: Details of Transfers Off-site
b: Details of Transfers to Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTW)
Type 4: Details of Facility Information
Type 5: Additional Information on Source Reduction, Recycling and Pollution Control

Chemical Products and Toxic Torts at a Crossroads: New Developments, Significant Trends, and a View into the Future

This ABA Regional CLE Workshop is an interactive seminar involving nationally known plaintiffs’ lawyers, members of the judiciary, in-house counsel and defense-oriented trial lawyers who will discuss new developments and significant trends in toxic and mass torts involving chemicals and industrial products, including a look at the impact of a post-Bush, recessionary world on pending and future litigation, the use of biomonitoring and toxicogenomics to determine medical causation, the evolution of environmental justice and nuisance theories, and the next wave of litigation involving household products.

September 11, 2009
8:00 AM – 3:30 PM

at: Exxon Mobil Corporation, Houston, TX
Registration Deadline: September 7, 2009

2002 National-Scale Air Toxics Assessment

The EPA has just released the results of its 2002 national-scale assessment of air toxics emissions (NATA). The purpose of the national-scale assessment is to identify and prioritize air toxics, emission source types and locations which are of greatest potential concern in terms of contributing to population risk. EPA uses the results of these assessments in many ways, including: working with communities in designing their own local-scale assessments, setting priorities for improving data in emissions inventories, and helping direct priorities for expanding and improving the network of air toxics monitoring.

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR): Problems in the Past, Potential for the Future

This Report by the Majority Staff of the Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight of the Committee on Science and Technology U.S. House of Representatives
to Subcommittee Chairman Brad Miller dated March 10, 2009 finds that Protecting the public’s health from potential exposures to toxic substances is not an easy task. It can be scientifically challenging, time consuming and resource intensive. The Subcommittee staff suggests that legislative fixes may be necessary to address longstanding structural, procedural and technical issues that appear to have hampered
ATSDR’s effectiveness and harmed the communities it is supposed to protect.

ACToR: Aggregated Computational Toxicology Resource

ACToR (Aggregated Computational Toxicology Resource) is a collection of databases collated or developed by the US EPA National Center for Computational Toxicology (NCCT). More than 200 sources of publicly available data on environmental chemicals have been brought together and made searchable by chemical name and other identifiers, and by chemical structure. Data includes chemical structure, physico-chemical values, in vitro assay data and in vivo toxicology data. Chemicals include, but are not limited to, high and medium production volume industrial chemicals, pesticides (active and inert ingredients), and potential ground and drinking water contaminants.