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New EPA to Review Bush Administration Midnight Regulations on Toxic Waste
Case Updates:
May 13, 2009
Under pressure from Sierra Club and its allies, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced that it will reconsider two controversial rules regarding hazardous waste disposal: the Definition of Solid Waste (DSW) rule and the Emissions Comparable Fuels (ECF) rule. The two rules have raised concerns amongst environmental groups because they encourage poor management of hazardous waste, and endanger the health of communities and the environment.
With respect to the DSW rule, Sierra Club filed a petition in January 2009, urging the EPA to undo the Bush Administration’s last minute change to the definition of solid waste that would allow over a million tons of toxic waste to evade stringent transportation, storage, and disposal requirements under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. Shortly after, in March 2009, Sierra Club and its allies filed a federal lawsuit challenging the Bush Administration’s last-minute ECF rule, which reclassified over 100,000 tons of hazardous waste as “fuel” and allowed it to be burned in unregulated industrial boilers on-site, and exempted the waste from stringent disposal requirements. In response, the EPA is planning to hold a meeting on the DSW rule in late June to receive public input on a likely revision. The EPA is also planning to propose a rule to withdraw the ECF rule and will request comments from the public after its concerns about the rule are published in the Federal Register in November of 2009.
Sierra Club applauds EPA's actions and is eager to work with the Agency to ensure that hazardous waste is properly and safely managed.
February 2, 2009
Sierra Club will not let the Bush Administration’s parting shots endanger the health of children and communities. On January 28, 2009, Sierra Club filed a federal lawsuit challenging the Bush administration’s last-minute change to the definition of “solid waste” under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. The change would give an exemption to over a million tons of toxic waste from chemical and pharmaceutical factories and other industrial sources. If allowed to stand, the toxic waste would escape regulation under the Law’s stringent requirements for safe transportation, storage, treatment and disposal. The exemption would encourage poor management of harmful wastes, and endanger both human and environmental health.
On January 29, 2009, Sierra Club also petitioned the new administration to undo the Bush Administration’s last minute rule change. To read the petition sent to Lisa Jackson, new administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, click here.
To read Sierra Club’s press release, click here.
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