EPAWATCH Mercury test method could lower discharge limits
EPA softens rules for small drinking water systems
Small drinking water systems will be allowed to exceed contaminant standards for An EPA proposal for analyzing the first time under guidance that EPA plans to publish this month. The guidance minute levels of mercury in water is addresses small systems' difficulties in meeting drinking water standards. likely to rein in violators of existing In 1996, more than 90% of the nation's 55,000 community drinking water systems water standards. With this new test were considered "small," serving fewer than 10,000 businesses and residents on a method, many companies and water 24-hour basis, according to EPA's most recent drinking water compliance report. treatment plants that currently do These small systems are "much more likely" to be out of compliance with drinking not detect mercury in their wastewawater regulations, EPA officials said. Approximately one-sixth were out of compliter effluent could be forced to take ance in 1996, according to the report. steps to curb mercury discharges, Prior to passage of the 1996 Safe Drinking Water Act, the needs of small comaccording to EPA officials. munity drinking water systems were largely ignored because they served less than Mercury, a toxic pollutant under 10% of the nation's population. The most important thing about the new guidance the Clean Water Act, is regulated at "is that EPA realizes that small systems need to be treated in a different way," said 12 parts per trillion (ppt), but the Dan Pedersen, with the American Water Works Association, a trade association. lack of an approved detection test The guidance will evaluate at least 20 different treatment technologies for helphas stymied implementation of this ing small system operators cope with 80 regulated drinking water contaminants, standard. The detection limit of the said Jeff Kempic, in the Office of Groundwater and Drinking Water. It lays out the currently approved method is framework for cases where small systems may receive state approval to use "vari200 ppt, meaning that any disance technologies" that are protective of public health, but may not result in comcharges below this level are not conpliance with standards. The guidance is expected to include variance technology trolled. Water treatment plants and a options for five contaminants: antimony, asbestos, di phthalate, lindane, and diverse group of industries required atrazine, Kempic said. to have permits for wastewater discharges may be affected by the proposal. of household trash, and is usually Published May 26, the proposed Tekran, a Toronto, Canada, manufacnot the source of contamination at Method 1631 measures mercury by turer of low-level mercury analyzers. Superfund landfills. The policy purging mercury vapor from a water The proposed method marks a should also reduce litigation and sample onto a gold trap and thersignificant advance for EPA analytitherefore speed cleanups, EPA offimally desorbing the mercury from cal procedures, although it is based cials said. the trap into an atomic fluorescence on proven, accepted techniques spectrometer. It is approximately 200 widely used by marine chemists, acIn a lawsuit filed in May with the times more sensitive than the curcording to Nicolas Bloom, a specialU.S. District Court for the District of rently approved method and can ist in mercury analysis at Frontier Columbia Circuit, the trade groups detect mercury levels of 0.5 ppt, acGeosciences in Seattle, Wash. said the policy, published Feb. 18 cording to the proposal (Federal Reg{Federal Register, 1998, 63(32)2 8197ister, 1998, 63(100), 28,867-28,884). 8201), is unlawful because EPA does Industry sues over The method includes guidance on not have the legal authority to give clean sampling and laboratory techSuperfund liability policy preferential treatment to liable parniques that should be used to help ties. The lawsuit was filed by the An alliance of industry trade groups control contamination Chemical Manufacturers Associais challenging EPA's policy for limittion, the American Automobile Maning the Superfund liability of municThe proposal is likely to be scrutiufacturers Association, the American ipalities involved with landfills. nized carefully because it could afPetroleum Institute, the Electronic fect a wide group of dischargers, acThe trade groups contend the Industries Alliance the National Ascording to those familiar with EPA's agency has no authority to limit musociation of Manufacturers and the detection methods. Contamination nicipalities' liability and that the new U S Chamber of Commerce is one aspect expected to attract "codisposal" policy will unfairly shift comment. Trace levels of mercury the bulk of cleanup costs to the The policy for Superfund "codisare ubiquitous, and the method is so companies that contributed hazardposal" landfills, which accepted sensitive that merely breathing on a ous waste to the landfill. The agency household waste from municipalities tray of samples could contaminate it, argues that waste contributed by and hazardous waste from industry, said Frank Schaedlich, president of municipalities is primarily made up sets forth a formula that limits the 3 5 6 A • AUG. 1, 1998 / ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY / NEWS
0013-936X/98/0932-356AS15.00/0 © 1998 American Chemical Society
Applications sought for PM research centers The Office of Research and Development (0R0) is requesting applications from universities, nonprofit organizations, and state and tribal governments to establish five airborne particulate matter (PM) research centers. Each center should be designed to integrate a range of scientific disciplines and activities for long-term health effects and human exposure research programs focusing on exposure, dosimetry and extrapolation modeling, toxicology, and epidemiology. The centers will support the implementation of EPA's PM 25 standard, which was finalized in July 1997. In its 1998 fiscal year budget, Congress recommended that EPA establish these centers and set aside $8 million for the first year of the program. Congress also suggested that the National Research Council review ORD's PM research strategy. On the basis of recommendations from the resulting I\IRC report, 0RD has developed an integrated research program to include in-house studies, interagency research, and outside research conducted at these centers and by individual scientists. Each center will be funded for five years, according to the grant announcement. The application deadline is Oct. 28. Applications can be obtained on the Web (http://www.epa.gov/ncerqa) or by calling (202) 564-6913.
liability of the municipal landfill owners and of the waste generators and transporters. Under the policy, generators and transporters can settle their Superfund liability by paying EPA $5.30 for each ton of waste dumped at the site. Landfill owners can settle by paying 20-35% of cleanup costs. These figures are based on closure costs at a representative municipal solid waste landfill and on previous settlements for codisposal landfills. The lawsuit conforms with the view held by a number of industries that comprehensive reform is the only solution for Superfund, according to CMA spokesman Tom Gilroy. In June, CMA and other major industry groups sent each member of Congress a letter arguing against attempts at "piecemeal" Superfund reform. Legislation to limit liability at brownfield sites, for example, has been suggested as a method to get around the lack of progress on comprehensive Superfund reform bills.
DOE, EPA launch joint technology verification pilot Officials from EPA's Environmental Technology Verification Program (ETV) and the Department of Defense's Environmental Security Technology Certification Program (ESTCP) are planning to conduct at least one verification pilot project together. If all goes well, they will sign a memorandum of understanding this fall regarding future testing efforts.
The first jointly conducted ETVESTCP test will be of a device for site characterization and monitoring, said Jeff Marqusee, ESTCP program director. The goal is to determine whether the agencies can collaborate effectively despite their different approaches to verification testing, said ETV program coordinator Penelope Hansen. "I don't think that there's any doubt that the programs are going to be able to work together," she added. By providing credible and unbiased data about new technologies, these agencies' verifications can benefit both state permitting associations and technology vendors. Some states are already using ETV verifications to speed up their permitting processes. ETV and ESTCP target different sectors of the environmental technology market. ETV divides environmental technologies into 12 "program areas" {ES&T, May y, 1198, p. 217A), most of which are narrowly defined and media-specific. ESTCP focuses on three broad technology areas—pollution prevention, cleanup, and compliance—and takes on an average of 15 new projects 3. year according to Marqusee. By the year 2000, EPA projects that it will be verifying 50 products a year, though it is currently behind schedule. Berg estimates that "many hundreds" of new products enter the marketplace annually. Because only a small percentage can be verified, this raises questions about whether the capacity of both verification programs is sufficient to meet the envi-
ronmental technology market's needs. "It's difficult to make verification work, given the pace of technological evolution in the marketplace," agreed Jeff Smith of the trade association Institute for Clean Air Companies.
Pulp and paper cluster rule under fire Environmental groups filed a lawsuit in May demanding that EPA tighten its rules regulating dioxin discharges from the pulp and paper industry. The groups contend that the closely watched "cluster rule," published April 15 {Federal Register, 1998, 63(72), 18,503-18,510), does not go far enough in reducing the toxic byproducts of Qitj paper bleaching process. The agency ultimately rejected more stringent standards because the added pollution reduction did not justify the added expense, said Troy Swackhammer, a chemical engineer in the Office of Water. Environmentalists pushed hard, however, to have a process known as oxygen delignification included in the regulation. The technology breaks down the lignin holding wood fibers together, making the use of less corrosive bleaching agents possible. It also is the intermediate step to a totally chlorine-free production process, the environmentalist's best-case scenario, said Rick Spencer of the National Wildlife Federation. The rule requires paper mills to cut dioxin discharges by substituting chlorine dioxide for elemental chlorine in the bleaching process, without oxygen delignification as a precursor step. Catherine Marshall, senior director of regulatory affairs for the American Forest & Paper Association, said paper mills will be able to achieve the new levels for dioxin and other chlorinated organic compounds of concern without oxydelignification, a step EPA estimates would cost the industry $1 billion more to implement than the option chosen Swackhammer would not comment on the lawsuit filed by NWF and other groups, but noted that a number of mills are voluntarily leaning toward oxygen delignification, as well as other pollution prevention technologies.
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