EPAWATCH Regional enforcement activities decrease EPA inspections are down 40% nationwide because of budget cuts, according to EPA enforcement officials. Allocations for enforcement are 13.5% lower than 1995 levels, which has resulted in 1000 fewer inspections than planned in the first quarter of fiscal year 1996, said Dennis Devoe, budget director for the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA). In some regions, inspections have been reduced by more than half. "Our inspections have dropped 70%," said Region IX's Virginia Donohue, who added that budget cuts have effectively crippled the region's enforcement activities. In the first quarter of this fiscal year, the regional office had conducted only 33 inspections; the average per quarter in 1995 was 125, she said. EPA inspections represent a small part of the enforcement picture, however. On average, states conduct 90% of all inspections, said OECA's Peter Rosenberg. Regions have also experienced a reduced role in Superfund settlement negotiations because of a lack of funds for travel, officials from Regions I and IX said. A planned sediment toxicity study for the Merrimack River in Massachusetts and New Hampshire that was to be used to target enforcement activities was postponed indefinitely because of the lack of funding, according to John Palfrey, a Region I spokesperson.
HWIR multipath analysis not scientifically defensible The methodology used in a proposed rule to determine if a waste is hazardous is not scientifically valid, according to a Science Advisory Board subcommittee. The assessment diminishes the credibility of the proposal and makes it vulnerable to legal challenges, according to an Office of Solid Waste (OSW) official.
The Hazardous Waste Identification Rule (HWIR) sets concentration levels at which an industrial waste that contains hazardous compounds is subject to stringent handling requirements of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act's Subtitle C {ES&T, ,an. 1996, p. .1A). The concentrations were established by a multipathway analysis methodology that was faulty, according to Mark Harwell chair of the SAB HWIR subcommittee. The methodology analyzed each pathway individually and did not produce balance he criticized Therefore the method is not scientifically defensible he said Analyzing paths simultaneously, which was Harwell's recommendation, would mean a "substantial change in the way modeling is done," said OSWs Greg Helms. He said OSW would try to incorporate all the SAB's concerns in the rulemaking, but with a court-ordered deadline of February 1997, he said he is unsure whether a new, integrated multipath analysis method could be developed in time.
Cryptosporidium may not be included in ICR Because of disappointing secondround test results, EPA may not include an analytical method for detecting Cryptosporidium in a drinking water monitoring rule, said Office of Water officials. EPA officials must decide whether the tests' results are sufficient to include the analytical method in the Information Collection Rule (ICR), which was due out in April, said agency microbiologist Steve Schaub. Round-robin test results of the indirect immunoflourescent assay method for detecting Cryptosporidium and Giardia last spring were disappointing (ES&T, June 1995, 248A), according to Schaub. So the Office of Water conducted a second round-robin test last summer followed by a multiple-site field test using spiked samples. The office completed analysis of the results in
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February, Schaub said. The method performed at a level significantly below that which the researchers desired. However, its performance was technically good enough to include it in the ICR, which will mandate nationwide monitoring of drinking water for microbes, disinfection byproducts, and other substances (ES&T, Jan. 1995, 20A)) The results may influence Assistant Administrator for Water Robert Perciasepe to keep the method out of the ICR, according to Paul Berger, an Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water official involved in agency deliberations concerning the method. Should Perciasepe decide to withhold it, EPA would likely try to improve the method and, at the same time, develop other methods with the aim of including one in a future rule governing drinking water treatment Schaub said Drinking water experts say the method is the best that is currently available. "We think there are real problems [with the method], but we think EPA should keep it in the [ICR]," said Dan Pedersen of the American Water Works Association. Based on the test results, AWWA would not support including the method in any future rulemaking that would govern treatment of drinking water for Cryptosporidium he said
Increased speed limits will not trigger changes to SIPs States that increase their highway speed limits will not be required to automatically revise their Clean Air Act compliance plans, according to officials and documents from the Office of Air and Radiation (OAR). A study conducted for EPA in the wake of the abolition of the federal speed limit showed that increased speed limits would result in more pollution, but EPA decided not to require new state implementation plans (SIPs) according to an Office of Mobile Sources official A recent study commissioned by the Office of Policy, Planning, and
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