EPA WATCH
Reassessment of automotive emission standards due A reassessment of auto emissions standards is due this month. EPA must determine whether, for air quality purposes, there is a need to tighten controls on hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides (NOJ, and particulates. The study may also call for further regulating the sulfur content of gasoline. The current standards, known as "Tier 1," were implemented in the 1994 model year and regulate the same combustion byproducts. The upcoming "Tier 2" study would affect passenger cars and light-duty trucks such as sport utility vehicles. This reassessment was originally slated for release in June 1997, a delay that prompted a lawsuit on behalf of die Sierra Club. The recommendations would take effect no earlier than 2004. The report will review the availability of technologies that could further reduce emissions, and their potential cost. The agency is also evaluating whether die same air quality improvements could be achieved through additional controls on other air-polluting sectors of the economy such as factories and transportation, according to Jane Armstrong, director of EPA's Vehicle Program and Compliance Division. "It's important to keep this study on track, because it's a prerequisite to getting the Tier 2 standards out," said James Pew of the Eartiijustice Legal Defense Fund, which is representing the Sierra Club. "Of course, cars can be much, much cleaner. To see that, you need look no further than California." He also said that the organization hopes that "EPA will close the loophole for light trucks and sport utility vehicles." That loophole allows U.S.-made sport utility vehicles used for routine transportation to benefit from older, lenient emissions standards originally intended for the smaller trucks used in farming and construction
Agency-wide plan to reduce mercury releases An evaluation of control technologies, particularly for coal-fired utility boilers, and encouraging, in international groups, the cooperative use of relevant scientific information are two steps EPA plans to take as part of an agency-wide strategy to reduce mercury releases into the environment. The strategy follows the release in December of the long-awaited Report to Congress on Mercury. In that teport, EPA esttmated that coal-fired utility boilers are the largest source of mercury emissions, contributing 33% of total national emissions, or 52 tons per year. Municipal waste incinerators are the second largest source, emitting 18.7%. Federal regulations to control mercury emissions from municipal and medical waste incinerators were put in place in 1995 and 1997, respectively, and rules for hazardous waste burners are expected to be finalized late this year. However, several sources of mercury pollution need to be addressed. For example, rules to control mercury from utility plants have not been developed. Among the steps the agency plans to take is development of an improved model to estimate stack-emitted concentrations in air, water, and soil. Vice President Al Gore's Clean Water Action plan, expected for release soon, will include better source control and improved remediation of bioaccumulative pollutants such as mercury. The waste office is also looking into ways to dispose of mercury without allowing it to leach back into the environment. One technology, which mixes mercury wastes with other metals to create a hard substance, is being studied. The Report to Congressso Mercury is avaiiable at http://www.epa.gov/airprogm/oar/mercury.htmll
"It's pretty clear that there is costeffective technology that's cleaner than Tier 1," agreed EPA's Armstrong. "We're trying to look at a very broad range of technologies that are being used, or will soon be used, in automotive products." For example, die big three U.S. automakers committed to producing lower emission vehicles in 1999. She also cited the California Low-Emission Vehicle program as an example of available technology. That program contains five levels of progressively more stringent vehicle emission standards.
Lawsuit stalls Internet toxic release database Controversy continues over the proposed Internet database containing toxic release information. In January, the project was stalled by a lawsuit. A major industry sector also refused to verify its data. The lawsuit alleges that EPA improperly modified the toxic release
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data it hopes to publish on the Internet. Filed by Jim Tozzi of Multinational Business Services, Washington, D.C., the lawsuit centers on "toxicity weighting factors" EPA is presenting in tandem with the release data. Their purpose is to indicate the relative hazard associated with each industrial release. The lawsuit cites the 1995 Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, which stipulates that federal agencies must obtain approval from the White House Office of Management and Budget before making a "substantive or material modification" to data. The purpose of the database is to make information from the Toxics Release Inventory, as well as inspection and enforcement data, electronically available, togetiier with an indication of each release chemical's relative toxicity. The debut of the database, known as the Sector Facility Indexing Project, has already been delayed twice to assuage concerns from the states and industry
MARCH 1, 1998/ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY / NEWS • 1 2 1 A
