SKIP TO CONTENT
On August 13, 2010, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed its Inventory Update Reporting (IUR) Modifications Rule. 75 Fed. Reg. 49655. As highlighted below, the proposal includes important changes to the IUR reporting obligations that will have a significant impact on industry. These include, among others, requiring process and use information for substances over 25,000 pounds, requiring electronic submission of IUR reports; replacing the “readily obtainable”...
On August 5, 2010, Senators Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), Chair of the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, and Ranking Member Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) introduced legislation that would amend the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) to clarify that Clean Water Act (CWA) permits are not required for pesticide application in accordance with FIFRA (S. 3735). The Senate legislation is prompted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) June 4, 2010, notice...
The Massachusetts Office of Technical Assistance (MOTA) will post this week a Technology Guidance Document entitled “Nanotechnology — Considerations for Safe Development,” which includes recommendations intended to enhance the safety of nanotechnology. According to MOTA, it is providing the Guidance for “the express purpose of assisting in the development of this technology, as failure to prevent exposures or releases will not just risk harm to health or the environment...
July 30, 2010
Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection Convenes a Legislative Hearing on TCSA
On Thursday, July 29, 2010, at 10:00 a.m. (EDT), the Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection held a legislative hearing on H.R. 5820, the Toxic Chemicals Safety Act of 2010 (TCSA). Witnesses at the hearing were (in order of testimony): Subcommittee Chairman Bobby Rush (D-IL) provided opening remarks. He referred to the stakeholder discussion that was conducted prior to the bill being introduced on July 22, 2010. He acknowledged that the bill was not...
July 28, 2010
House Introduces TSCA Reform Legislation: Summary and Comparison of House and Senate Bills and House Discussion Draft
On July 22, 2010, Representatives Bobby Rush (D-IL), Chair of the Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection, and Henry Waxman (D-CA), Chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee, introduced the Toxic Chemicals Safety Act of 2010 (H.R. 5820) (TCSA), which is intended to strengthen the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). On July 27, 2010, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce issued a briefing memo announcing a Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection...
Last evening, Representatives Bobby Rush (D-IL), Chair of the Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection, and Henry Waxman (D-CA), Chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee, introduced the Toxic Chemicals Safety Act of 2010 (H.R. 5820) (TCSA), which is intended to strengthen the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). The bill is different in key respects from the House Discussion Draft circulated by Representatives Rush and Waxman on April 15, 2010 — better in some...
On July 16, 2010, a three judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued a unanimous decision in Reckitt Benckiser v. EPA (No. 09-1314), finding that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) May 28, 2008, threat to implement its final risk mitigation decision for ten rodenticides (RMD) by enforcement actions for “misbranding” is “sufficiently final agency action ripe for review.” The court states that the U.S....
In the July 13, 2010, Federal Register, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provides guidance on various reporting options that states and local agencies may choose in implementing Sections 311 and 312 of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act of 1986 (EPCRA). In addition, EPA also provides some new interpretations and revises some existing ones “to help facilities comply with certain of the requirements under EPCRA.” The effective date of the guidance...
On Wednesday, June 23, 2010, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) held a public hearing on the draft National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Pesticides General Permit (PGP). This hearing, along with three previous public meetings, was held during the 45-day public comment period (through July 19, 2010) on the draft PGP for point source discharges from the application of pesticides to waters of the U.S. EPA proposed the PGP in response to the 2009...