EΡA WATCH Laboratory accreditation program update
Ozone precursors trading guidance proposed
Environmental laboratories, labora tory accreditators, industry, and others can now formally advise EPA on its effort to establish a National Environmental Laboratory Accredi tation Program (NELAP). In August, EPA established the Environmental Laboratory Advisory Board (ELAB) under the Federal Advisory Com mittee Act, the same law that cre ated EPA's Science Advisory Board and other federal advisory commit tees. ELAB's advice is expected to in fluence the deliberations of the Na tional Environmental Laboratory Ad visory Conference (NELAC), the body that will decide on accredita tion standards and procedures. Al though anyone can speak at NELAC meetings, only representatives of federal and state agencies can vote. This restriction upset many nonvot ing participants at the inaugural NELAC meeting in February, and the new ELAB should help ease those tensions, observers said. According to Jeanne Hankins Mourrain, NELAC's executive secre tary, ELAB's membership will consist of 10 individuals chosen to represent laboratory accreditators, laboratory organizations, industry, academia, city and local governments, and en vironmental public interest groups. An EPA representative will serve as chair. Mourrain said that Deputy Ad ministrator Fred Hansen would make the final choices from a list of 14 candidates sent to him in August. Mourrain also reported that EPA's Environmental Monitoring Manage ment Council recommended placing the accreditation program within the Office of Research and Development (ORD). However, no action is ex pected before Congress approves the ORD budget for next fiscal year, she said. Information on NELAC is avail able on EPA's Technology Transfer Network bulletin board (919-5415742; 9600 baud; N,8,l).
EPA has proposed new guidance {Federal Register, 1995, 60, 39668-94) that would allow states to get nearimmediate Agency approval to es tablish open-market trading for pre cursors of ground-level ozone—vola tile organic compounds (VOCs) and nitrogen oxides. If adopted by states, the EPA guidelines will make it pos sible to begin market trading with out requiring revisions to state im plementation plans (SIPs). States also have the option of modifying the guidelines for their own pro grams, and EPA will speed up that approval review process, said an EPA official. The trading program will have little impact on EPA's approval of SIPs, required by the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendment, said Scott Mathias, with the Office of Air and Radiation. The program would not require lengthy SIP revisions, nor would it substitute for other SIP elements, he said. The model program allows interpollutant trading; credits for reduc tion of one type of VOC can be used to compensate for other types, ex cept for toxic VOCs that cannot be traded, Mathias said. It also allows for intersector trading, so that the process of buying and selling credits is not limited to one industry. Trad ing is kept within regions, and all interstate trading requires an EPAapproved trade agreement between states. Also, the proposed guidance would require pollution generators that have purchased credits to notify the agency of the intent to use them, which would serve to alert the pub lic of the action, Mathias said. In dustries are big supporters of these trading options and have pressed for the EPA guidance {ES&T, Aug. 1995, p. 355A). However, the guidance still is flawed, according to Paul Billings, director of state government rela tions for the American Lung Associ-
ation. Billings criticized the model for lacking a cap or emissions ceil ing, which he said takes away any real reduction. He also questioned the awarding of salable credits for pollution reductions: "If [a polluter] can get emissions down below the standards, shouldn't that be re quired?" But, according to Mathias, an economist, the trading rule is in tended to help polluters cut the costs of reducing emissions. "This is meant to be a cost-reduction strat egy rather than an attainment strate gy," he explained.
Proposed SW-846 methods The Office of Solid Waste (OSW) pro posed 61 new methods for solid waste analysis in July. Labeled as up date III of EPA's SW-846 list of meth ods, it also recommended revising 37 methods and eliminating 16 older methods {Federal Register, 1995, 60, 37974). Many of the revised and new methods are designed to reduce sol vent emissions, according to Barry Lesnik, OSW organic methods pro gram manager. The new methods feature several sophisticated analyt ical techniques, including the longawaited supercritical fluid extrac tion methods for total petroleum hydrocarbons and polynuclear aromatics, an accelerated solvent ex traction method, 10 immunoassay screening procedures, high-perfor mance liquid chromatography anal ysis for nonvolatile compounds with particle beam/mass spectrom etry detection, gas chromatography with Fourier transform infrared de tection, and microwave-assisted acid digestion. The deleted methods included 14 packed-column gas chromato graphic methods, which have been replaced by capillary column tech niques, according to OSW. A fourth update to SW-846 was expected to be proposed next year, said Lesnik, but because of antici pated congressional cuts in EPA's budget the actual date is uncertain.
VOL. 29, NO. 10, 1995 / ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY • 4 4 5 A
