On March 19, 2014, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued an administrative order to Pathway Investment Corp. (Pathway) of Englewood, New Jersey, to stop the sale of plastic food storage containers that are not registered with EPA, in violation of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). According to a press release issued on March 31, 2014, by EPA concerning the stop sale order, the Company’s Kinetic Go Green Premium Food Storage Containers...
On May 23, 2014, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) posted its 2014 Regulatory Agenda, which still includes RIN 2070-AJ54, “Nanoscale Materials; Chemical Substances When Manufactured, Imported, or Processed as Nanoscale Materials; Reporting and Recordkeeping Requirements; Significant New Use Rule.” See http://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/eAgendaViewRule?pubId=201404&RIN=2070-AJ54....
In late March, EPA and Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) proposed a rule that would dramatically revise and expand the reach of the Clean Water Act’s (CWA) jurisdiction. Unquestionably, determining the scope of the CWA’s jurisdiction, particularly over streams and tributaries, has become confusing and complex following several Supreme Court decisions and various EPA interpretations issued in response to these decisions over the years. For nearly a decade, Congress, state and local officials,...
How to address and manage potential risks posed by pesticide “drift” — the unintentional movement of some level of pesticide outside of the intended area of application — has long been a challenging, complex regulatory policy issue. It is difficult to dispute that when applying a pesticide product some small amount may, in some circumstances, move off-site. In other words: “drift happens.” The issue quickly becomes whether, from a risk management perspective, the amount of...
In last week’s Special Report on Scale-up in Industrial Biotechnology, the Digest noted that a consistent lesson shared by leading biotech heavyweights at the BIO World Congress scale-up session is to “avoid an afterthought approach to regulatory compliance.” As luck and good scheduling would have it, after lunch on the same day, savvy conference-goers got up-close-and-personal with two senior U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulators and a seasoned company executive...
May 22, 2014
Lynn L. Bergeson, “Spotlight Shines on Plant Safety,” Chemical Processing, May 22, 2014.
Chemical plant safety is once again in the limelight due to some high profile and very public catastrophes. On January 3, 2014, a federal working group created by the Obama administration’s Executive Order (EO) 13650 issued a set of preliminary options intended to improve chemical plant safety and security. This is a priority topic commanding considerable attention and readers should be aware of and engaged in these developments. This column explains why....
May 20, 2014
Lynn L. Bergeson, “Chemical Safety and Drinking Water Protection Act,” Pollution Engineering, May 20, 2014.
The tragic spill of a chemical into the Elk River in West Virginia that occurred on Jan. 9, 2014, has spurred the development of new legislation. On Jan. 27, 2014, Senators Joe Manchin (D-W.V.), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee, and Jay Rockefeller (D-W.V.) introduced the Chemical Safety and Drinking Water Protection Act of 2014. The regrettable spill and the mismanagement of the spill’s consequences by federal and state regulators...
The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) Biocidal Products Committee (BPC) adopted an opinion on April 10, 2014, concerning HeiQ AGS-20 (AGS-20). See http://echa.europa.eu/documents/10162/21680461/bpc_opinion_heiq_ags-20_en.pdf....
April 22, 2014
Lynn L. Bergeson, “TSCA Reform: Do It Now, Or It May Never Be Done,” ELI Forum, May/June, 2014.
Whatever window of opportunity exists to reform the Toxic Substances Control Act is closing. This is not only because the mid-term elections are fast approaching, or that there are too few legislative days left this session, or even that Congress is polarized and achieving passage of complicated chemical legislation seems intuitively beyond reach. It is also because of the emergence of international and state chemical management frameworks. This article is from the Environmental Law...
April 10, 2014
Lynn L. Bergeson, “Chemical Compliance: California Calls for Changes to Prop 65,” Chemical Processing, April 10, 2014.
On March 7, 2014, the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) released a proposal for a draft regulation amending Proposition 65 regulations. The proposal seeks changes to the warning requirements to include more detailed information, including the names of the chemicals covered by individual warnings, the ways that individuals are exposed to these chemicals, and how individuals can avoid or reduce their exposure to these chemicals. This column explains this proposal...