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Date Posted: 05:31:35 12/20/06 Wed
keeps going and going and going.....
EPA's rules on pollution reporting loosened
Some Del. plants can emit 4 times as much in '07 under the radar
Posted Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Piles of scrap metal lay next to Claymont Steel in New Castle County. Under changes approved by the Environmental Protection Agency on Monday, its owner won't have to report most compounds it emits.
Claymont resident Dee Whildin wipes metallic dust from her car. Neighbors of Claymont Steel plant have complained for years of the "sparkly," light-colored dust on their vehicles and homes.
Dee Whildin wants to know more, not less, about pollution from the troubled Claymont Steel plant south of her home.
But under changes to reporting standards approved Monday, the company won't have to report most of the toxic compounds it emits.
Unless they release 2,000 pounds of pollution or more, U.S. plants will not be forced to report pollution under changes to Environmental Protection Agency rules. The amended rules would in some cases let companies release four times as much toxic pollution without filing detailed public reports. The previous threshold was 500 pounds.
The information is made public under the EPA's Toxic Release Inventory program. Officials had been considering a 5,000-pound trigger before announcing the scaled-back number Monday. The changes, which take effect immediately, will affect the 2007 reporting year.
The move is of particular interest in Delaware, where 10.3 million pounds of toxic waste were released into the environment from 72 sites in 2004, according to the inventory. The releases helped New Castle County rank 53 out of more than 3,000 counties for additional cancer risk due to air pollution.
"Clearly, it's the wrong direction," said James D. Werner, air and waste management director for the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control.
Reporting rules also would be eased for companies handling the most-dangerous persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic compounds. Called PBTs, the compounds -- including mercury and long-lived compounds called dioxins -- would not be reported if companies can show they do not reach the environment.
Werner said Monday he was concerned about the PBT changes. "Delaware, I think, has a concern about this class of chemicals. We continue to be bedeviled by the PBT issue, including mercury, on which we recently announced a significant initiative."
State regulators recently ordered tough new controls on mercury emissions for the state's power plants, and also ordered Claymont Steel to curb releases from its scrap steel recycling operation.
EPA officials said the Toxic Release Inventory changes would reduce regulatory burdens on businesses across the country, saving more than $6 million while encouraging companies to better control or recycle toxic chemicals.
"Today's rule makes a good program better," EPA Deputy Administrator Marcus Peacock said.
Whildin was unconvinced.
"I want to know what's coming out of those stacks," at Claymont Steel, she said. "Our community gets hit hard just with all the metallic dust that blows out of there. We don't know enough about that yet, or the mercury they're releasing."
Claymont resident Nora Lossé said residents already know too little about the plant. Claymont Steel manufactures steel plate from scrap and was recently found to be releasing far more mercury than reported in Toxic Release Inventory records.
"Totally against it," Lossé said when asked about the EPA's change. "They shouldn't be putting out half the stuff they're releasing. We want to know about all of it."
The EPA's Toxic Release Inventory program, created in 1986, required companies to track and report each year on emissions of 650 pollutants. The program does not track vehicle emissions, one of the largest sources of air pollution.
The official count of Delaware sites that will not be required to report pollution totals under the changes was unavailable. But based on 2004 numbers, dozens of sites would likely be freed from reporting. Facilities in all three counties would be affected, ranging in size from Valero's Delaware City refinery to the Dow Reichhold Specialty Latex plant north of Dover.
The changes come despite public opposition to reduced reporting requirements, said nonprofit advocacy group OMB Watch. In a report dubbed "Against the Public's Will," the group said 99.97 percent of the more than 120,000 comments it received opposed the plan.
"If the change goes into effect, one out of 10 communities would lose all numerical data on toxic chemicals," said Clayton Northouse, information policy analyst for OMB Watch. "Some states would lose over half of all currently reported information on toxic chemicals."
Jessica Emond, EPA deputy press secretary, said in a statement that the changes "would create incentives for business nationwide to improve environmental performance and reduce the most toxic chemicals at their facilities."
"EPA sets a very high environmental bar for companies to meet and will continue to keep the bar high," she wrote. "The proposed changes in [Toxic Release Inventory] reporting would in no way affect the amount of chemicals facilities are allowed to release under federal, state and local regulations."
An EPA analysis released last year estimated a combined savings of about $7.3 million from the original proposal, spread across more than 7,900 businesses.
The U.S. Small Business Administration spokesman said the changes would help the nation's small businesses stay competitive, easing paperwork costs while still protecting the environment and communities. Small companies spend a larger percentage of their budget complying with federal regulations than their larger counterparts, the administration said.
Werner submitted testimony last year describing the reduction estimates as "incomplete, misleading and inaccurate."
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