Rachel’s News #65, February 22, 1988
The size of the hazardous waste problem in the U.S. remains unknown because EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) has failed to maintain a proper list, according to a study released Jan. 15, 1988, by the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress.
Under the federal Superfund law, EPA is supposed to maintain an inventory of all sites where hazardous materials are being stored, treated, or disposed of, or where such materials have been released in the past.
According to GAO, as of August, 1987, the EPA had only 27,200 sites on the list but GAO says information from EPA and other federal agencies indicates that the list should include somewhere between 130,340 and 425,480 sites.
GAO published a similar evaluation of EPA’s efforts to identify hazardous waste sites back in 1985. At that time, GAO found EPA’s list was missing somewhere between 130,000 and 378,000 sites.
The EPA list is known as CERCLIS (Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Information System); it is named for the Superfund law, which is formally known as the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA).
The 1988 GAO report strongly criticized EPA for failing to provide states with adequate funding or technical assistance to identify sites themselves. EPA did provide $10 million to states to find sites in 1983, but has not provided funding since then, even though the 1984 amendments to RCRA (Resource Conservation and Recovery Act) specifically gave EPA funds for that purpose.
“CERCLIS is becoming more a reflection of the amount of money EPA has allocated to site assessment” than an “accurate picture of the hazardous waste problem” in the U.S., GAO said.
Without a complete inventory of the nation’s potential hazardous waste sites, the GAO report concludes, Congress cannot be “fully informed about the amount of work facing EPA and the states” and thus cannot accurately determine the “level of resources that should be allocated to the Superfund program.”
The report criticized EPA for failing to establish criteria by which EPA’s regional offices, and the states, should use to determine whether a site belongs on the CERCLIS list or not.
The GAO report, entitled, “Superfund: Extent of the Nation’s Potential Hazardous Waste Problem Still Unknown [GAO/RCED88-44],” is free from: GAO, Box 6015 Gaithersburg, MD 20877; phone (202) 2756241. –Peter Montague
STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS TRY TO FORCE CAREFUL CHEMICAL USE
Connecticut is putting indirect pressure on users of hazardous materials, to make them be more careful. Connecticut’s Industrial Transfer Law requires any business selling property to notify the buyer and the state Environmental Protection Department (EPD) in Hartford about any wastes that are, or were, stored on-site, or, if the site is contaminated, to clean up the site on a EPD-approved schedule. Failure to notify the seller or the EPD about on-site wastes, or providing false information about contamination at the site, makes the seller liable for cleanup costs and for a penalty of up to $100,000. The Connecticut law covers all sellers who generate, transport or dispose of over 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of hazardous materials per month. The Connecticut law was passed in 1985 and was amended, effective October 1, 1987, to apply to any sites where hazardous materials have been used at any time since April 30, 1967.
New Jersey has an even more comprehensive property transfer law called ECRA (Environmental Cleanup Responsibility Act) which says industrial property cannot be sold until it has been inspected and certified clean by the NJ Department of Environmental Protection. Failure to comply with ECRA invalidates a sale. The ECRA law is unpopular among industrialists in NJ because the state has not been able to inspect properties in a timely fashion, thus causing many delays in property transfers. The law is being amended, some fear gutted, now in the state legislature.
Ocean County, New Jersey, has passed a local version of ECRA to cover residential property. As a result of groundwater contamination by Ciba-Geigy and other polluters in Ocean County, the county government now requires any residential property to have its water supply tested before it can be sold.
For further information on the Connecticut law, contact Jack Gelting, Connecticut Environmental Protection Department, 165 Capitol Ave., Hartford, CT 06106; phone (203) 566-5473. For a copy of NJ’s ECRA law, contact the Secretary of State, 125 West State St., Trenton, NJ 08625; phone (609) 984-1900. The Ocean County law is available from County Clerk, Ocean County Administration Building, CN 2191, Toms River, NJ 08754; phone (201) 244-2121; ask for the law requiring water testing prior to sale of residential properties. –Peter Montague
WHISTLEBLOWING: SOME DO, SOME DON’T; THOSE WHO DO ARE FIRED
Two health physicists who complained to authorities about the safety of a nuclear reactor at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta) have been fired. The day they were fired, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued the second of two reports saying current management of the reactor is improper and may pose a threat to workers and the public. A reactor operator contaminated himself and the reactor building with radioactive cadmium Aug. 18, 1988. [NY TIMES Feb. 14, 1988, pg. 28.]
A former research scientist for Liggett & Myers (L&M) testified in federal court in mid-February that the cigarette manufacturer told him in the mid-1950s and early 60s not to publish results showing a link between smoking and lung cancer.
Dr. Mold, who was assistant research director for L&M when he left the firm in 1984, also testified that the company had developed cigarettes in the ’70s that eliminated many cancer-causing substances, but didn’t market the product. Dr. Jeffrey Harris testified that L&M didn’t market the safer cigarette because the company feared it would be an admission that it had already sold millions of dangerous cigarettes. [NY TIMES Feb. 14, 1988, pg. 43.] –Peter Montague
Descriptor terms: regulation; ct; nj; remedial action; ecra; epa; sara; siting; monitoring; gao; inventories; comprehensive environmental response compensation and liability information system; investigations; cercla; rcra; risk assessment; congress; whistle blowing; nuclear power; radiation; nuclear regulatory commission; occupational safety and health; ligett & meyers; tobacco; cancer; lung cancer; jeffery harris;
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Rachel’s News was published by Environmental Research Foundation (E.R.F.) from 1986 to 2009. All together, 1000 issues appeared. Unless otherwise noted, they were written by Peter Montague.
Over the years the name of the publication changed slightly, starting as “Hazardous Waste News,” then “Rachel’s Hazardous Waste News,” then “Rachel’s Environment & Health News” and finally “Rachel’s Democracy & Health News.” In this archive, we have simply used “Rachel’s News.”
E.R.F. changed its location over the years from Princeton, N.J., to Washington, D.C. to Annapolis, Md. and finally to New Brunswick, N.J.
To contact E.R.F. or Peter Montague, send email to pm8525@gmail.com.
