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Friday, April 29, 2005

Funny Numbers at EPA
Just how much did EPA downplay the benefits of controlling mercury? The Wall Street Journal (subscription only) said today that internal EPA analysis found that cutting mercury pollution could produce benefits of more than $2 billion for the Southeast alone. This number stands in stark contrast to the number EPA projected publicly: $50 million in benefits for the entire nation. From WSJ:

The report on Southeast benefits, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, looked at reducing mercury concentrations in marine fish and shellfish.
It did not estimate the cost of achieving this reduction but said reducing national mercury emissions by 30% to 100% would produce Southeast benefits of between $600 million to more than $2 billion.
This report also found a mercury "hot spot" -deposits of the toxic metal stretching across 50,000 square miles in the South Atlantic, from North Carolina to South Florida.
The existence of such a large mercury concentration raises questions about public assertions by EPA officials that their new rule would prevent such hot spots.

Also excluded from EPA's final analysis was a study from the Harvard Center for Risk-Analysis which found annual benefits of up to $5 billion by cutting mercury pollution from power plants by 62.5 percent.

Posted by Genevieve Smith, 02:12:27 PM

Monday, April 25, 2005

Bush's Climate Change Politics Program
It's no secret that the White House has been hostile to policy proposals addressing the problem of climate change, but in a letter to Sen. John McCain and John Kerry, GAO stated it found the program established by the Bush administration to study climate change has missed important deadlines and has failed to address how climate change will impact the environment and human health, information that is critical for the development of sound policy.

In 1990, Congress passed the Global Change Research Act of 1990, which, among other things, required the President to prepare a scientific assessment of climate change every four years. In 2002, Bush created the Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) to carry out the provisions of the act. Rather than producing a four-year assessment in November 2004, as required by law, CCSP announced last July that it would produce 21 shorter reports between 2005 and 2007, delaying the full report to Congress by three years. None of the 21 reports to be issued address natural resources, the environment or human health and welfare. Rather, all 21 reports focus on the scientific uncertainties of climate change, thus denying lawmakers and the American public critical information about a serious public health threat.

Read the letter.

Read the New York Times article.

Posted by Genevieve Smith, 03:54:18 PM

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

OIRA Meets with Industry Over Safe Drinking-Water Rules
OIRA met with representatives from the American Water Works Association on April 14 regarding three safe drinking-water rules: the Groundwater Rule, the Long-Term Surface Treatment Rule, Phase 2 and the Disinfection Byproducts Rule Stage 2. All three rules were listed in EPA's 2004 Regulatory Plan as high priorities for the agency. According to the agency:

Long Term 2 Enhanced Surface Water Treatment Rule (LT2ESWTR) "would reduce risks from microbial pathogens, especially Cryptosporidium, in public water systems that use surface water sources. LT2ESWTR provisions would target systems where current standards do not provide sufficient protection, including both filtered systems with elevated source water pathogen levels and unfiltered systems."
Ground Water Rule "addresses fecal contamination in public water systems served by ground water sources."
Stage 2 Disinfectants and Disinfection Byproducts Rule would "control exposure to disinfection byproducts beyond the requirements of the Stage 1 Disinfectants and Disinfection Byproducts Rule. This rule will respond to new data the Agency has received on: disinfection byproduct occurrence; bladder, colon, and rectal cancer; and possible reproductive and developmental health effects."

EPA is scheduled to finalize all three of these rules this year.

Posted by Genevieve Smith, 10:59:59 AM

OIRA Meets with Environmental Group Over Regional Haze
OIRA met with representatives from Environmental Defense on April 13 regarding the regional haze rule. Under a consent agreement with Environmental Defense, EPA was required to promulgate a rule providing guidance for reducing emissions that affect visibility in national parks by April 15. The rule would cut emissions from 25 source categories, including power plants. EPA asked for a two-month extension, which Environmental Defense granted. Read more about regional haze.

Posted by Genevieve Smith, 10:12:58 AM