PFAS

 

DoD Ignores PFAS Guidance. According to Politico, “A new memo from the Defense Department ignores EPA guidance relating to the cleanup of groundwater contaminated with toxic PFAS chemicals and calls for setting a screening level that is 10 times higher than that recommended by EPA earlier this year. The memo, obtained by Pennsylvania newspaper The Intelligencer, sets a screening level of 400 parts per trillion for the chemicals PFOA and PFOS — far lower than the 40 part per trillion screening level recommended by EPA in draft cleanup guidance issued this spring. The memo calls for the lower level at sites where multiple PFAS are found. Recall: The EPA guidance was stalled for months in interagency review, and was significantly weakened by the Defense Department and White House before it was released. That document has not been finalized and wouldn’t be legally binding even if it was. The new revelations come as the House and Senate remain locked in battle over PFAS provisions in the annual defense bill, many of which are targeted at prodding the DoD into cleaning up the chemicals more fully and aggressively. House Armed Services Chairman Adam Smith said Tuesday that he hasn’t heard back from his Senate counterpart, Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) on the latest offer he made 10 days ago.” [Politico, 11/13/19 (=)]

 

Gillibrand Wants Clean Water Act To Cover PFAS. According to Times Union, “U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is preparing to offer legislation that would place PFAS under control of the federal Clean Water Act. ‘Any company that discharges PFAS should get a Clean Water Act permit,’ Gillibrand said in a telephone conference Tuesday about the pending bill. PFAS, or perfluorinated alkylated substances, include compounds such as PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid). PFOA contamination led to a water crisis in Hoosick Falls three years ago that authorities are still working to clean up. The substances are associated with thyroid illnesses as well as cancers and immune disorders. PFOA was found in Hoosick Falls drinking water due to nearby manufacturing plants that have long operated there. PFOA was used to make non-stick materials such as Teflon and the Hoosick Falls area has even been described as ‘Teflon Valley.’” [Times Union, 11/12/19 (=)]

 

Air Force, Michigan Fight May Set Precedent On PFAS Cleanup Reviews. According to Inside EPA, “The Air Force and Michigan regulators are battling over whether a Superfund five-year review should address per- and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) even though they were not subject to the original cleanup plan, a dispute whose outcome could set precedent for similar cleanup reviews at other sites. Michigan regulators say the Air Force’s refusal to consider PFAS in its five-year review of the cleanup at a facility in Escanaba, MI, contradict the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation & Liability Act (CERCLA) and DOD and Air Force policy, which call for five-year cleanup remedy reviews to determine if a remedy is still protective by including consideration of new data and requirements. But the Air Force appears to be compartmentalizing the contamination at the Escanaba site, arguing it only has to review the protectiveness of the cleanup as it relates to the contaminants that were subject to the original cleanup plan. The site, the Former Defense Fuel Supply Point (DFSP) in Escanaba, MI, may be a test case for the state applying similar requirements at other sites; the state and Air Force have been in a lengthy dispute over PFAS requirements at a separate base, the former Wurtsmith Air Force Base, where the Air Force is resisting application of state standards.” [Inside EPA, 11/12/19 (=)]

 

Down To A Science. According to Politico, “The House Science Committee will hold a hearing this morning on the future of science in EPA rulemaking — a closely watched issue, particularly in light of the agency’s reworking of its science transparency proposal. The hearing comes on the heels of a New York Times report that the Trump administration is broadening its proposed rule governing scientific transparency to prevent EPA from relying on any study unless all of its underlying data has been made publicly available. EPA on Tuesday said the revamped proposal was recently sent to the White House for review and that it intends to finalize the rule in 2020. The agency however disputed some of the Times report, saying the document the newspaper posted is an outdated version of the rule. Still, the issue is likely to come up this morning, as lawmakers hear from Jennifer Orme-Zavaleta, an EPA science adviser and principal deputy assistant administrator for science in the Office of Research and Development, who records released to the Union of Concerned Scientists show was involved in at least some meetings on the overhaul of the rule. A second panel this morning will feature testimony from current and former public health and environmental officials. A number of Democrats on the committee have a vested interest in hot-button issues before Orme-Zavaleta’s office, including PFAS chemicals that are turning up in hundreds of communities’ water supplies and ethylene oxide, a carcinogenic chemical emitted from petrochemical plants and medical sterilizing facilities, and which recent EPA data showed concentrations thousands of times higher than levels EPA says is acceptable.” [Politico, 11/13/19 (=)]

 

Misc. Waterways

 

How The U.S. Betrayed The Marshall Islands, Kindling The Next Nuclear Disaster. According to Los Angeles Times, “Five thousand miles west of Los Angeles and 500 miles north of the equator, on a far-flung spit of white coral sand in the central Pacific, a massive, aging and weathered concrete dome bobs up and down with the tide. Here in the Marshall Islands, Runit Dome holds more than 3.1 million cubic feet — or 35 Olympic-sized swimming pools — of U.S.-produced radioactive soil and debris, including lethal amounts of plutonium. Nowhere else has the United States saddled another country with so much of its nuclear waste, a product of its Cold War atomic testing program. … Now the concrete coffin, which locals call ‘the Tomb,’ is at risk of collapsing from rising seas and other effects of climate change. Tides are creeping up its sides, advancing higher every year as distant glaciers melt and ocean waters rise. Officials in the Marshall Islands have lobbied the U.S. government for help, but American officials have declined, saying the dome is on Marshallese land and therefore the responsibility of the Marshallese government. ‘I’m like, how can it [the dome] be ours?’ Hilda Heine, the president of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, said in an interview in her presidential office in September. ‘We don’t want it. We didn’t build it. The garbage inside is not ours. It’s theirs.’” [Los Angeles Times, 11/12/19 (=)]

 

EPA May Let Oil Waste In Waterways. Is The Public At Risk? According to E&E News, “Within a year, Oklahoma could get approval from EPA to start issuing permits that will allow the oil industry to dispose of briny oil field waste in waterways, alarming environmentalists and making it the first of three Southwestern states to step into a thorny regulatory landscape closely watched by the industry. If it catches on, the plan could help the oil industry cope with a growing waste disposal problem — one exacerbated by industry-linked earthquakes. And it could boost a multibillion-dollar industry that has grown up to manage oil field wastewater. But environmentalists are warning that the industry could wind up polluting waterways by releasing the treated water before it fully understands what’s in the fluid. Once the wastewater is handed off to other users or allowed into surface water, ‘we can’t bring those discharges back,’ said Nicole Saunders, an attorney with the Environmental Defense Fund’s Climate and Energy Program. Historically, the industry has disposed of wastewater, also known as produced water or salt water, in deep injection wells. Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico are exploring the idea of allowing oil companies to recycle the fluid and either transfer it to other users or release it into surface water like streams and rivers.” [E&E News, 11/13/19 (=)]

 

AP | Medical Waste Found On LA's Venice Beach. According to E&E News, “Los Angeles County lifeguards are patrolling Venice Beach for signs of more medical waste after discovering numerous items washed up on the sand during the weekend. The county Fire Department’s Lifeguard Division tweeted that the waste was found south of the Venice Pier around 11:30 a.m. Sunday. Video and photos show the items littered near the water line. Public health authorities were notified, and the area was cordoned off and cleaned up.” [E&E News, 11/12/19 (=)]

 

 

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