The speed and scope of global warming is now overtaking even the most sobering predictions of the last report of the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change, finds a new report issued by the United Nations Environment Programme, entitled “Climate Change Science Compendium 2009.”

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Energy efficiency investments can provide up to half the greenhouse gas emissions reductions most scientists say are needed between now and the year 2050 to avert the worst effects of climate change, finds a new report from the nonprofit and independent American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, ACEEE.

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PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania, February 23, 2009 (ENS) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today presented a $2 million grant to Philadelphia to help the city address the risk of intentional contamination of its drinking water by diseases, pests, or poisonous agents.

The federal agency says it could make a total of $9.5 million available to the city for this project, contingent upon EPA’s budget over the next three years.

The grant will fund the Philadelphia Water Department to pilot monitoring and surveillance components of an early warning system.

“Philadelphia was selected for this pilot because of its existing water quality protection programs and its commitment to put in place the complex systems needed to increase water security,” said William Wisniewski, the U.S. EPA’s acting administrator for the mid-Atlantic region.

Clean drinking water is an essential resource. (Photo credit unknown)

The project, called the Water Security Initiative, was begun during the Bush administration with the first the first contamination warning system pilot established in 2006 in partnership with the City of Cincinnati at the Greater Cincinnati Water Works.

Similar water security pilot grants were awarded by EPA to New York City, San Francisco, and Dallas. A total of $39 million was divided among the four cities, which are required to contribute a 20 percent cost share to fund the project in their city.

The contamination warning system to be developed and evaluated by Philadelphia involves online real-time drinking water monitoring, public health surveillance, laboratory analysis capabilities, enhanced security monitoring and consumer complaint surveillance. The warning system will be designed for long-term operation.

Coordination is critical to effectively detect or respond to contamination incidents.

To ensure effective communication and response, Philadelphia’s Water Department will collaborate with many city and governmental agencies in this pilot including the Philadelphia Department of Public Health, the Office of Emergency Management and Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection.

The 2,000 men and women who work for the Philadelphia Water Department deliver reliable, high-quality drinking water to more than 1.6 million consumers who live or work in the city of Philadelphia.

This Water Security Initiative developed in Philadelphia and the other pilot cities is expected to serve as a model for all the nation’s drinking water utilities.

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WASHINGTON, DC, February 6, 2009 (ENS) – In accordance with President Barack Obama’s order in January, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will reconsider its decision denying California permission to set standards controlling greenhouse gases from motor vehicles.

The waiver request was made by California on December 21, 2005, to allow the state the right to control greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles. The request was denied by then-EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson on March 6, 2008.

On January 26, less than a week after taking office, President Obama requested that EPA revisit the matter of the denial.

“EPA has now set in motion an impartial review of the California waiver decision,” said EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson. “It is imperative that we get this decision right, and base it on the best available science and a thorough understanding of the law.”

The Clean Air Act gives EPA the authority to allow California to adopt its own emission standards for motor vehicles due to the seriousness of the state’s air pollution challenges.

Tailpipe emissions contain the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. (Photo by Daniel Olinick)

The EPA must approve a waiver, however, before California’s rules may go into effect. There is a long-standing history of EPA granting waivers to the state of California.

EPA believes that there are significant issues regarding the agency’s denial of the waiver. Jackson said, “The denial was a substantial departure from EPA’s longstanding interpretation of the Clean Air Act’s waiver provisions.”

EPA received on January 21, 2009, a letter from California outlining several issues for Administrator Jackson to review and reconsider about the previous denial of the waiver.

Should the EPA grant the waiver, California, and 13 other states will begin a program to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from passenger vehicles 30 percent by 2016.

EPA will take public comment concerning the reconsideration of the waiver for a period of 60 days after publication in the Federal Register. There will also be a public hearing to be held in March in Washington, DC.

“Today’s decision is a return to sanity by an agency whose fairness and balance had been sabotaged by the partisan extremism of the Bush Administration,” said California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr.

“This is but a first step, but it signals that this EPA has a renewed commitment to sound science and to rule of law,” he said.

The regulations in question were developed under California’s 2002 vehicle greenhouse gas emissions reduction law AB 1493 authored by then-Assemblymember Fran Pavley, the first global warming law in the nation.

The California Air Resources Board adopted the Pavley regulations in 2005.

Pavley, a Democrat, was elected to the California State Senate in November 2008, where she now chairs the Natural Resources and Water Committee.

The reductions achieved by the Pavley regulations constitute an important element of the California’s plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 30 percent by 2020 enacted into law in 2006.

The Air Resources Board approved the Scoping Plan for this effort in December. It is the nation’s first comprehensive approach to address climate change that draws upon every sector of a state’s economy.

“California has led the way on global warming,” said Attorney General Brown, “and the state should be allowed to continue in its leadership role in reducing automobile emissions and addressing global warming.”

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WASHINGTON, DC, January 7, 2008 (ENS) – Nearly 100 coal ash dumps across the United States pose similar or even greater potential dangers than the eastern Tennessee site that spilled a billion gallons of toxic sludge and contaminated water last month, finds a report released today by environmentalists.

The study warns that the Bush administration has turned a blind eye to the risks of coal ash ponds, bowing to industry wishes and leaving the sites free from federal regulation and largely unmonitored.

The December 22, 2008 disaster at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston coal-fired power plant highlighted the “inexcusable lack of regulation of this kind of disposal,” said Eric Schaeffer, director of the Environmental Integrity Project, which produced the new study.

EIP analyzed industry data submitted to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on the presence of six heavy metals – arsenic, chromium, lead, nickel, selenium and thallium – in coal ash ponds similar to the one that ruptured at the Kingston site.

Heavy equipment is dwarfed by the coal ash spill from TVA’s Kingston Fossil power plant. January 4, 2009 (Photo courtesy TVA)

Analysts found nearly 100 sites, including the one in Kingston, where more than a total of 124 million pounds of coal ash containing the six metals have been disposed between 2000 and 2006.

Nearby communities are not just at risk from huge spills like the one in Tennessee, Schaeffer said, but are at perhaps even greater risk from the steady, long-term leaching of toxic metals into drinking water supplies.

The report finds that a total of 13 states have at least three coal ash dumps on the 50-worst toxic chemical lists.

Indiana tops the list with 11 sites, followed by Ohio with eight. Kentucky and Alabama have seven sites, Georgia and North Carolina have six each, while West Virginia and Tennessee have four. Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wyoming each have three sites.

It found the TVA’s Kingston site was in the top 50 for all of the heavy metals except for thallium.

“Our analysis confirms that this problem is truly national in scope and that Tennessee may end up only being a warning sign of much more trouble to come,” Schaeffer said.

EIP’s report recommends the phaseout of all wet storage of toxic coal ash, immediate inspection and monitoring of existing sites and federal regulation of all coal ash storage and disposal by the end of 2009.

“This open pit disposal of toxic waste has got to end,” said Christopher Irwin, a staff attorney with United Mountain Defense, an environmental group located in Knoxville, Tennessee

The report comes as the Tennessee community of Harriman is struggling to come to terms with the devastation left by the spill, which occurred after the retaining wall of a 40-acre coal ash pond ruptured at the Kingston site.

The spill dumped some 5.4 million cubic yards of ashy sludge and contaminated water across 400 acres at the confluence of the Emory and Clinch Rivers, burying 12 homes and other buildings in more than four feet of sludge.

Federal and private analyses have found elevated levels of an array of heavy metals, including arsenic levels of more than 149 times the maximum allowable levels.

A barge-mounted vacuum is used to remove coal ash from the Emory River (Photo courtesy TVA)

TVA officials have suggested that cold weather and heavy rains are to blame for the spill, but there is evidence they knew of structural problems for several years and failed to act.

A coalition of local residents and environmental groups sent notice to TVA on Tuesday that they intend to sue the federal government utility for negligence and will ask a federal court to oversee the cleanup and remediation of the contaminated area.

“This catastrophic spill was a colossal tragedy, and the Tennessee Valley Authority could have avoided this disaster had it taken its responsibilities seriously,” said Bruce Nilles of the Sierra Club, which announced the lawsuit.

“This massive spill reminds us that coal is not clean, and coal is not cheap,” he said.

But cost is a major factor driving decisions on how to store coal ash, as utilities have been largely free to choose how they discard or store the waste. Federal regulators have been considering the issue of coal ash disposal for nearly three decades, but have failed to take serious action or impose regulations on industry.

Although some of the residues of coal ash are used to make industrial products such as cement and wallboard, most of it is disposed of in landfills or mixed with water and stored in ponds or surface impoundments.

Wet storage of coal ash is attractive to industry as it is relatively cheap and often eliminates the need to transport the waste off-site. But the method is far from secure and many of these sites are not lined to protect toxic metals from leaching into water supplies.

“These sites leak all the time,” Schaeffer told reporters on a telephone press briefing.

There is also “no effort to go out and inspect” these sites, said Linda Evans, an attorney with Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental law firm.

Driven by such concerns, environmentalists and public health advocates have pressed for the federal government to require coal ash be treated as hazardous waste and deposited into properly lined landfills.

In 2000, the EPA indicated it was ready to follow that advice and warned that many wet storage sites posed serious risks to public health and the environment.

But industry protested loudly, raising concerns about cost and suggesting that defining coal ash as hazardous waste could undermine efforts to recycle more of the material for industrial uses.

The EPA subsequently abandoned the effort and left regulation to the states.

“Most states have fallen down miserably on the job,” Evans told reporters.

After touring the TVA spill site last week, Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen said state inspectors would visit all coal-fired facilities in the state.

Environmentalists say the costs of safer storage pale in comparison to costs of cleanup and see the argument that stricter regulation would impede reuse of the material as a red herring.

Schaeffer said, “We can no longer afford to ignore this problem and we certainly can’t be content to just sit around and wait for the next Tennessee-style disaster to happen.”

The EIP report can be found here [www.environmentalintegrity.org].

By J.R. Pegg

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DETROIT, Michigan, December 30, 2008 (ENS) – In long-running case that affects the scope of federal jurisdiction over wetlands and other waters, developer John Rapanos and related defendants agreed Monday to resolve violations of the Clean Water Act at three sites in Midland and Bay counties, Michigan.

Rapanos has agreed to pay a $150,000 civil penalty and will spend an estimated $750,000 to mitigate for 54 acres of wetlands that were filled without authorization under the Clean Water Act, according to a joint statement by the Justice Department and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

While Rapanos did not admit doing anything wrong, he has agreed to preserve an additional 134 acres of wetlands that were unaffected by the unauthorized activity. Under the agreement, the preservation of these areas will be enforced through a conservation easement held by the state of Michigan.

“After litigating this case for a number of years, we are pleased to reach a settlement that so strongly benefits the environment and serves the public interest,” said Ronald Tenpas, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.

“This longstanding case demonstrates that EPA continues to vigorously pursue violations of the Clean Water Act that adversely affect wetlands,” said EPA Regional Administrator Lynn Buhl.

“The settlement will benefit the environment in Bay County by preserving a substantial amount of wetlands that play a vital role in water quality, flood control and fisheries,” she said.

In the late 1980s, Rapanos filled 54 acres of wetland that he owned with sand in preparation for the construction of a mall and residences without filing for a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He dug an extensive network of ditches to dry out the sites, which resulted in excavated dirt being sidecast into wetlands.

A Michigan wetland, not the Rapanos property (Photo by
Dawn Ulmer)

Rapanos argued that the land was not a wetland and that he was not breaking the law, but his own consultant and state employees disagreed.

The original enforcement action was filed against Rapanos in 1994. Rapanos was convicted of two felonies for filling wetlands in violation of law in 1995. The conviction was overturned and restored several times but, in the end, he was forced to serve three years of probation and pay $5,000 in fines.

Eventually, Rapanos appealed the civil case against him, which included millions of dollars of fines, to the Supreme Court of the United States.

Rapanos challenged the EPA’s findings that the filled wetlands were under federal jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act.

The case turned on the legality of the federal regulations that define waters of the United States. The focus was on regulation of wetlands adjacent to non-navigable tributaries of traditional navigable waters and regulation of wetlands separated from such tributaries by a berm.

Rapanos’ land is 20 miles from the nearest navigable waterway, a Lake Huron tributary river. However, the term “navigable waterway” has been broadly interpreted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to include areas connected to or linked to waters via tributaries or other similar means.

The 2006 Supreme Court litigation determined that Rapanos did fill wetlands under federal jurisdiction. But the Supreme Court sent the case back to the federal district court in Detroit, saying regulators might have exceeded their authority in preventing Rapanos and another landowner from developing their properties.

That ruling eventually led to Monday’s settlement.

But the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision left the law on federal jurisdiction over waters of the United States and adjacent wetlands unclear.

The plurality opinion, authored by Justice Antonin Scalia, joined by Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts, interpreted “waters” under the Clean Water Act to be limited to “only those relatively permanent, standing or continuously flowing bodies of water ‘forming geographic features’ that are described in ordinary parlance as ’streams … oceans, rivers [and] lakes.’”

This definition does not include channels through which water flows intermittently, or channels that periodically provide drainage for rainfall.

Regarding “adjacent” wetlands, the plurality argued that “only those wetlands with a continuous surface connection to bodies that are ‘waters of the United States’ in their own right, so that there is no clear demarcation between ‘waters’ and wetlands ‘adjacent to’ such waters, are covered by the Clean Water Act.”

Chief Justice Roberts, in a concurring opinion, suggested that lower courts and regulated entities would have to “feel their way on a case-by-case basis.”

Justice John Stevens wrote a dissenting opinion in the case, joined by Justices David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer. The dissenting justices argued that the Supreme Court had previously upheld the regulation of wetlands adjacent to tributaries of navigable waters and that the court should defer to the agencies’ regulation of wetlands adjacent to non-navigable tributaries.

The Supreme Court’s deciding vote was cast by Justice Anthony Kennedy, who in a separate opinion steered a middle course between the opposing sides. Kennedy found that water draining from the Rapanos property does, in fact, flow into a stream and then into a navigable lake 20 miles away. But Kennedy said that just because water drains into a distant navigable lake is not in itself enough to trigger the wetlands protections under the Clean Water Act.

Exactly what would be sufficient remained unclear in his opinion.

Following the Supreme Court’s divided ruling in the Rapanos case, confusion has reigned among the agencies, the regulated community, and the courts over the definition of which waters are covered by the Clean Water Act.

Nevertheless, the consent decree to settle the Rapanos civil complaint was lodged Monday in the U.S. District Court in Detroit. It is subject to a 30-day comment period and final court approval. A copy of the proposed consent decree is available on the Justice Department website at www.usdoj.gov/enrd/Consent_Decrees.html.

There is a parallel criminal matter that is still pending and is not affected by the settlement under this agreement.

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WASHINGTON, DC, December 19, 2008 (ENS) – A new general permit will reduce releases of 26 types of discharges from vessels operating in U.S. waters, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Beginning today, some 61,000 domestically flagged commercial vessels and 8,000 foreign flagged vessels will need to comply with the discharge permit.

As a result of a 2006 court ruling, vessel owners and operators who have previously been exempt from Clean Water Act requirements for the last 35 years will now require a permit.

“EPA met the deadline and delivered a protective and practical permit to protect the nation’s waterways from ship-borne pollution and to avoid an environmental and economic shipwreck,” said EPA Assistant Administrator for Water Benjamin Grumbles.

Without this permit, all commercial shipping within U.S. waters could come to a halt because of liability risks, he said.

On March 30, 2005, the federal district court in Northern California, in a case brought by environmental groups, ruled that the EPA regulation excluding discharges incidental to the normal operation of a vessel from NPDES permitting exceeded the agency’s authority under the Clean Water Act.

On September 18, 2006, the court issued an order revoking this regulation as of September 30, 2008.

The EPA appealed the district court’s decision, and on July 23, 2008, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the decision, leaving the September 30, 2008 vacatur date in effect.

In response to this court order, the EPA developed two proposed permits to regulate discharges from vessels. The district court later extended the date of vacatur to December 19, 2008.

The permit covers non-recreational vessels 79 feet in length or longer, such as cruise ships or oil and cargo tankers, but it excludes fishing vessels of any length, unless they discharge ballast water.

The new permit incorporates the U.S. Coast Guard’s mandatory ballast water management and exchange standards, and provides what Grumbles calls “technology-based and water-quality-based effluent limits” for other types of discharges, including deck runoff from rain or cleaning, ballast water used to stabilize ships and gray water from showers, sinks and laundry machines.

But environmental groups such as Friends of the Earth say the new permit allows cruise ships to dump unlimited quantities of untreated graywater, which they call “a harmful pollutant” into the ocean one nautical mile from U.S. shores, if they are travelling at speeds above six knots.

The Queen Elizabeth 2, a cruise ship of the Cunard
Line (Photo courtesy Cunard Line)

“The Bush EPA is ignoring its own scientific findings by issuing this permit, which will allow harmful pollution near U.S. shores,” said Marcie Keever, clean vessels campaign director at Friends of the Earth. “The Environmental Protection Agency knows that pollution from cruise ships and other vessels is out of control and getting worse. This permit will not protect the health of our oceans or the people who use them.

The permit requires cruise ships to monitor their graywater discharges once every three months. Keever says that requirement leaves them free to ignore malfunctioning systems the other 361 days of the year.

Cruise ship graywater contains contaminants such as oil and grease, metals, pesticides, viruses, fecal coliform bacteria from human sewage, medical and dental waste, detergents, and cleaners.

A large cruise ship on a one week voyage can generate one million gallons of graywater.

Keever points out that the EPA finds in an assessment report to be finalized this month that untreated graywater from cruise ships is above safe levels.

“Despite this finding, the permit issued today continues to allow cruise ships to discharge such graywater. Significantly, the EPA has also found that it would cost cruise ships only $7.09 per passenger to treat graywater using the best water treatment technology, and yet the permit fails to require treatment of polluted discharges beyond one nautical mile,” she said.

The new permit does not apply to recreation vessels. Earlier this year, Congress responded to the court ruling in part by enacting a law to exempt recreational vessels from the permitting requirement and requiring further analysis and action by the EPA and the Coast Guard.

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PAOLI, Pennsylvania, December 18, 2008 (ENS) – That thermostat on the wall that allows residents to control the temperature of their rooms contains the deadly neurotoxin mercury. But fewer Pennsylvanians will face mercury exposure now that Pennsylvania’s new Mercury-Free Thermostat Law is in place, say state environmental regulators.

“This law is another means of protecting the health and welfare of our most vulnerable citizens – our children,” said Tom Fidler, the Department of Environmental Protection’s deputy secretary for waste, air and radiation management. “Mercury is a potent neurotoxin that poses the greatest risk of nerve and brain damage to pregnant women, women of childbearing age, and young children.”

At The Hardware Center in Paoli, Fidler today unveiled a statewide recycling program that will allow people to safely dispose of out-of-service thermostats containing mercury.

“In Pennsylvania, we are working to protect our citizens from all sources of mercury. From enacting the Clean Air Mercury Rule for power plants to making thermostat recycling more convenient, we are going to take all reasonable measures to protect Pennsylvania’s children,” he said.

Mercury can pose a long-term danger as it accumulates in the environment and remains active for up to 10,000 years. Waterways throughout Pennsylvania have been placed under fish consumption advisories due to high mercury contamination levels.

Inside of an old thermostat showing mercury
in glass tube (Photo by Bob)

Mercury thermostats contain the largest amount of mercury found in ordinary household products. A single mercury thermostat contains between three and five grams of mercury.

According to estimates by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, each year six to eight tons of mercury from discarded thermostats ends up in solid waste facilities and between one and two tons are released into the air.

“Protecting our citizens and environment from mercury can be accomplished in partnership with industry,” Fidler said. “Governor [Ed] Rendell’s administration worked with thermostat manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers and installers, and the legislature to craft a cost-effective program that shares the responsibility for protecting the environment.”

The Mercury-Free Thermostat Law, effective December 8, 2009, bans the sale, installation and disposal of mercury thermostats.

The law requires that thermostat manufacturers establish and maintain a collection and recycling program for out-of-service mercury thermostats;

Wholesalers who sell thermostats must participate as a collection site for mercury thermostats.

Thermostat retailers or contractors must participate as a collection point or provide notice to customers that recycling of mercury thermostats is required under Pennsylvania law and identify locations of nearby collection points.

Manufacturers and the DEP are required to provide education and outreach on the proper management of mercury thermostats and other products containing mercury, including maintaining a list of approved collection sites.

“The Mercury-Free Thermostat Law gives every citizen and every contractor convenient access to outlets for recycling of out-of-service mercury thermostats,” Fidler said. “They can drop off thermostats at retail and wholesale collection points in their communities virtually every day of the week.

“Retailers, such as The Hardware Center here in Paoli, will be key to this effort for homeowners who can now recycle their old thermostat when they go to purchase a mercury-free thermostat.”

Thermostat retailers are not required to meet their responsibilities under the law for another year, but a number of wholesalers statewide already are providing collections to the public and to contractors through a program created by the Thermostat Recycling Corp.

This nonprofit group was founded in the late 1990s by three major thermostat manufacturers to facilitate the nationwide collection of all brands of used, wall-mounted mercury-switch thermostats so that the mercury can be purified for re-use.

Wholesalers may meet their obligations under the new state law by joining the existing program. To find a participating wholesaler, call the Thermostat Recycling Corp. toll-free, at 800-238-8192.

The Mercury-Free Thermostat Law is the latest of Pennsylvania’s efforts to reduce mercury releases into the environment.

The Clean Air Mercury Rule will result in an 80 percent cut in mercury emissions from all Pennsylvania coal-fired power plants by 2010, and a 90 percent reduction by 2015.

The state is involved in a Great Lakes regional strategy for reducing mercury from industrial and nonindustrial sources and it also participates in the National Vehicle Mercury Switch Recovery Program to recover mercury switches used in automobile convenience lighting.

In addition, Pennsylvania’s Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards require that 18 percent of electricity sold in the state will come from renewable and alternative sources by 2021, leading to a significant reduction in mercury emitted from traditional power plants.

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WASHINGTON, DC, December 18, 2008 (ENS) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency should examine whether combined exposures to chemicals known as phthalates could cause adverse health effects in humans, particularly to the male reproductive system, says a new report from the National Research Council.

This analysis, called a cumulative risk assessment, is warranted, said the committee of scientists that wrote the report, if humans are exposed to multiple phthalates at any given time, and if sufficient evidence exists linking exposures to similar adverse health effects.

The committee established that recent studies have shown widespread human exposure to multiple phthalates, including in utero exposure.

Phthalates are esters of phthalic acid and are added to plastics such as polyvinyl chloride, PVC, to increase their flexibility.

Phthalates are used in a wide variety of consumer products, such as cosmetics and personal care products, medical devices such as blood IV bags and tubing, children’s toys, and building materials.

Soft plastic toys may contain phthalates
(Photo credit unknown)

In view of public concerns, the European Union and the United States have passed legislation that restricts the concentrations of several phthalates in children’s toys, and the European Union also has banned several phthalates from cosmetics.

The National Research Council report came in answer to an EPA request for a recommendation on whether the agency should conduct a cumulative risk assessment for phthalates, and if so, how it should be framed. The National Research Council report is only a recommendation in favor of an assessment, not a comprehensive profile on the health effects of phthalates.

The committee recommends that the cumulative risk assessment should consider other chemicals that could potentially cause the same health effects as phthalates, instead of focusing on chemicals that are similar in physical structure, which is EPA’s current practice.

Furthermore, wrote the committee, EPA should consider using the recommended approach for future cumulative risk assessments on other kinds of chemicals.

For instance, EPA could evaluate the risk of combined exposures to lead, methylmercury, and polychlorinated biphenyls because all contribute to cognitive deficits consistent with IQ reduction in children.

Chaired by Deborah Cory-Slechta, a professor in the Department of Environmental Medicine at the University of Rochester School of Medicine, the committee found that recent animal studies have increased understanding of the potential risks from phthalates, although few human studies on the health effects of phthalates are available.

The committee reviewed animal research and found that exposure of male lab rats to various phthalates produced infertility, undescended testes, malformation of the penis, and other reproductive tract malformations.

The severity of effects differs among phthalates – some exhibit less severe or no effects. The age of the animals at the time of exposure is critical to the severity of the effects. The fetus is most sensitive.

The animal studies also indicated that some phthalates reduce testosterone concentrations. Depending on when this drop occurs, it can cause a variety of effects in animals that are critical for male reproductive development.

Other chemicals known as antiandrogens, which prevent or inhibit male hormones from working, can produce similar effects in lab animals.

The committee recommended that phthalates and other chemicals that affect male reproductive development in animals, including antiandrogens, be considered in the cumulative risk assessment.

“A focus solely on phthalates to the exclusion of other chemicals would be artificial and could seriously underestimate risk,” the committee emphasized.

Given that multiple human exposures to phthalates occur and that research shows exposure to different phthalates leads to similar outcomes in lab animals, the committee recommended a cumulative risk assessment.

Chris Bryant, managing director of the Chemical Products & Technology Division of the American Chemistry Council, an industry association, said of the report, “Congress has asked the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to conduct a cumulative risk assessment on phthalates and there is a question as to whether a simultaneous EPA study would be redundant.”

Some hospitals, consumer product companies, and government purchasers have taken the first steps to replace PVC plastics containing phthalates with safer alternatives. The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics says Revlon, L’Oreal and other cosmetic companies are phasing out phthalates in nail polish, and 300 cosmetic companies have pledged to eliminate phthalates in their products in response to consumer demands.

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WASHINGTON, DC, December 17, 2008 (ENS) – ExxonMobil has agreed to pay nearly $6.1 million in civil penalties for violating the terms of a 2005 court-approved Clean Air Act agreement, the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced today.

“The Department of Justice will not tolerate violation of our consent decrees,” said Assistant Attorney General Ronald Tenpas of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “The significant penalty in this case shows that non-compliance with settlement requirements will have serious consequences.”

The agreement penalizes ExxonMobil for failing to comply with the 2005 settlement at four refineries in Beaumont and Baytown, Texas; Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Torrance, California.[ig=/UPLOADS/blog/ecommunity_news/blogpost_data/08_12_15/20081217_093_baytown.jpg]ExxonMobil’s Baytown refinery is the largest in
the country. (Photo courtesy Center for Land
Use Interpretation)[/img]

The Baytown Refinery, 20 miles east of Houston, is the largest oil refinery in the United States, with a crude capacity of approximately 567,000 barrels per day.

The Baton Rouge Refinery is the second-largest oil refinery in the United States, with a crude capacity of approximately 503,000 barrels per day.

Most of the penalties are for failure to monitor and control the sulfur content in certain fuel gas streams burned in refinery furnaces, as required by the 2005 settlement and EPA regulations.

Between 2005 and 2007, ExxonMobil did not monitor the sulfur content in some fuel gas streams and subsequent testing revealed sulfur content in excess of EPA limits. The burning of sulfur-containing gases emits sulfur dioxide, which can cause serious respiratory problems and is a major component of acid rain.

The 2005 settlement required ExxonMobil to pay a $7.7 million civil penalty, perform an additional $6.7 million in supplemental environmental projects in communities around the company’s refineries, and install pollution controls at six of its refineries.

“The 2005 settlement has already resulted in major reductions in air emissions from the company’s refineries, but we need full compliance to realize all the benefits of the settlement,” said Granta Nakayama, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. “EPA will continue to enforce against companies that fail to comply with the terms of court-approved settlements.”

The 2005 settlement and today’s penalty settlement with ExxonMobil were reached as part of a broader EPA initiative to reduce air pollution from ExxonMobil refineries nationwide.

In late 2005, the United States concluded a settlement with ExxonMobil covering all of its North American refineries. The settlement required ExxonMobil to spend more than $570 million to install and implement innovative emission control technologies at its refineries. ExxonMobil paid an $8.7 million civil penalty and committed to spend more than $9.7 million on environmentally beneficial projects to further reduce emissions.

In a separate action today, the two federal agencies are proposing amendments to the 2005 settlement that include minor technical changes and new deadlines for some required activities at ExxonMobil’s Beaumont and Baytown, Texas refineries and two others covered by the original settlement in Joliet, Illinois and Billings, Montana.

The proposed amendments, filed today with the U.S. District Court in Chicago, are subject to a 30-day public comment period.

For more information on the Exxon Mobil Petroleum Refinery Settlement amendments and agreements, click here.

Since March 2000, the EPA has entered into 22 settlements with U.S. companies that have nearly 87 percent of the nation’s petroleum refining capacity. These settlements cover 96 refineries in 28 states and on full implementation will result in annual emissions reductions on more than 86,000 tons of nitrogen oxides and more than 245,000 tons of sulfur dioxide, the agency says.

Negotiations are continuing with other refiners representing an additional six percent of domestic refining capacity and investigations are underway on others.

For more on the Petroleum Refinery Initiative, click here.

On Tuesday, ExxonMobil Refining & Supply announced it will invest more than $1 billion in three refineries to increase the supply of cleaner burning low sulfur diesel by about six million gallons per day. The company will construct new units and modify existing facilities at its Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Baytown, Texas; and Antwerp, Belgium refineries.

“This underscores the company’s ongoing commitment to meeting the growing needs of the marketplace, while, at the same time, providing cleaner burning fuels to consumers. Our increase in diesel production at these three sites will be equal to the diesel produced from about four average-size refineries,” said Sherman Glass, president of Refining & Supply.

“In combination with cleaner-burning engines and the latest vehicle emissions control technologies, this low sulfur diesel reduces emissions in both on-road transportation, and off-road industrial sectors,” said Glass.

This investment is the latest phase in ExxonMobil’s efforts to increase supplies and reduce the sulfur content of both motor gasoline and diesel. In 2000, the company began to convert and modify refineries, terminals and pipelines to provide ultra low sulfur fuel products.

By 2010, the refineries’ modifications and expansions are expected to be completed, increasing production of diesel with sulfur levels of 15 parts per million or less.

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WASHINGTON, DC, December 10, 2008 (ENS) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is taking a page from the book of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and is now posting pictures and descriptions of fugitive environmental lawbreakers or those accused of environmental crimes on a new website.

The EPA’s Most Wanted site opened today at: http://www.epa.gov/fugitives with 23 fugitives featured.

The alleged violations include smuggling of ozone-depleting substances, illegally disposing of hazardous waste, discharging pollutants into the air and water, laundering money and making criminally false statements.

“Putting this information on the EPA’s website will increase the number of eyes looking for environmental fugitives,” said Granta Nakayama, head of the EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. “Two EPA fugitives were captured this year, and this website could help us find more fugitives in the future.”

The website includes photos of the accused, summaries of their alleged environmental violations, and information on each fugitive’s last known whereabouts.

One of the featured fugitives is Mauro Valenzuela,
39, a former mechanic for Sabertech. Valenzuela
is alleged to have illegally transported hazardous
materials on a commercial aircraft.

In 1996, Valenzuela allegedly transported waste oxygen generators onboard ValuJet flight 592 without proper markings and other safety measures.

The flight crashed into the Everglades shortly after take-off from Miami International Airport killing all 110 passengers and crew onboard. Valenzuela fled the country soon after his arraignment nine years ago.

Another fugitive featured on the new site is Raul Chavez-Beltran, president of EnCon Environmental Services, Inc. Chavez-Beltran was charged in the Western District of Texas – El Paso Division with illegal transportation, storage and disposal of mercury contaminated soil, conspiracy and mail fraud. He is believed to be living and working in Mexico.

The website also lists EPA’s captured fugitives such as the two men the agency found on the run earlier this year. David Allen Phillips escaped prison four years ago after being convicted of Clean Water Act crimes in Montana.

He fled to Mexico, was turned over to authorities by the Mexican government last March, and awaits further sentencing.

David Ortiz fled after the appeal of his conviction for Clean Water Act crimes in 2004. He remained at large for almost four years until his capture last March in Colorado and is currently in prison.

The EPA is advising anyone who encounters a fugitive to notify the agency by submitting the “Report a Fugitive” form on the website. The information will be electronically sent to EPA’s national criminal investigation office in Washington, DC.

Members of the public may also choose to report the information to their local police department or, if outside the United States, to the nearest U.S. Embassy.

Some fugitives may be armed and dangerous, and EPA warns members of the public against trying to apprehend them.

Many of the alleged violators listed on the website have fled the country. EPA depends on cooperation with Interpol and other international law enforcement agencies to locate them.

The FBI, the U.S. Secret Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms also maintain websites featuring fugitives from the law, but EPA is the first federal law enforcement agency to feature an environmental crimes fugitive website.

Criminal charges are allegations of misconduct. Individuals charged with environmental crimes are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

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