Hanford
Environmental
Report
Dedicated to the Goal of 100% Environmental Compliance

Volume 21, Number 1 - January 8, 1999

From Washington D.C.:

EPA ISSUES NATIONAL RECOMMENDED WATER QUALITY CRITERIA

On December 10, EPA published in the Federal Register (63 FR 68354) a list of its national recommended water quality criteria for 157 pollutants under section 304(a) of the Clean Water Act (CWA). Section 304(a) requires EPA to develop, publish or revise their water quality criteria in order to reflect the latest scientific knowledge. These criteria are used by States and Tribes as guidance when they adopt water quality standards used for controlling discharges or releases of pollutants to waters of the United States. EPA also used the criteria as guidance in promulgating water quality standards regulations under section 303(c) of the CWA. These standards are used in implementing a number of environmental programs including establishing discharge limits in the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits. Once the new or revised criteria are published, EPA expects States and Tribes to adopt new or revised numeric water quality criteria into their standards within five years.

Also in this federal register, EPA describes changes it is making to the process it uses to derive new or revise existing 304(a) criteria. The purpose of making changes to the process is to provide the public with more opportunity for input and to make the process more efficient. Comments on this publication may be sent to EPA now or anytime while the process is being implemented. For more information, email or call Jay_J_Kapadia@rl.gov of Fluor Daniel Hanford, Inc. at (509) 373-4932.

From Olympia:

ECOLOGY RELEASES DRAFT MODEL TOXICS CONTROL ACT (MTCA) RULE AMENDMENTS

On December 16, Ecology released its draft amendments to the MTCA rule to give the public an opportunity to review and comment on them prior to publishing a proposed rule in the Washington State Register. This draft rule is intended to address recommendations of the Policy Advisory Committee that was created by the legislature to look at amending MTCA and the Governor's executive order on regulatory reform. The rule also reflects concerns that were raised during the course of two years of meetings with Ecology's External Advisory Committee. This External Advisory Committee is composed of representatives from the business, environmental, local government and other interested organizations and was convened to assist Ecology in revising MTCA. Some of the changes Ecology is proposing include:

Ecology will hold two public workshops to advise citizens of the rule changes. These workshops will be held in Seattle on January 5 and in Spokane on January 6, 1999. Ecology anticipates filing the rule amendments with the Code Reviser in March, 1999. Comments on the draft rule must be received in Ecology by January 25, 1999. For more information, email or call Marsha A_Beery@rl.gov of Fluor Daniel Hanford, Inc.'s Regulatory Interface at (360) 709-0664.

BRIEFLY

EPA has filed an appeal of a recent district court ruling that struck down EPA's authority to overfile state enforcement cases (Harmon Industries v. Browner, 8th Circuit, appeal 10/21/98). In this court case, the district court ruled that RCRA does not give EPA authority to "overfile" state enforcement cases. EPA has filed this appeal as it uses the authority of various environmental statutes in enforcement cases where the state did not seek a sufficient penalty, when the state interpretation of the law is in question or a significant environmental benefit can be obtained.

EPA and the states have recently developed a new policy to define violations of the Clean Air Act that are the most significant and deserving of enforcement action. The guidance contains both a list of criteria and a matrix of factors that state and local agencies can use to determine whether a violation should be considered a high priority. Once a violation is determined to be a high priority, it will be subject to additional policies on when the violation must be remedied and what types of penalties apply. The guidance is not binding on EPA and does not add to or remove the responsibilities states have under the air act to enforce air pollution regulations. The new policy will be phased in over the next few years and will replace the existing guidance.

DOE has reached a settlement with 39 environmental organizations to develop new tools that will enable the public to participate in decisions on cleaning up former nuclear weapons sites (Natural Resources Defense Council v. Richardson, D.D.C., Civ. No. 97-936 (SS) (AK), 12/14/98). DOE has agreed to increase public input through database resources and funding commitments. The settlement requires DOE to: establish a central information database that will be available to the public through the Internet; establish a $6.25 million fund to assist citizens groups and Indian tribes in conducting technical and scientific reviews of environmental management activities a DOE sites; and prepare and invite public comment on a study on long-term stewardship which involves surveillance and maintenance activities that will occur at DOE sites following cleanup.

EPA has created a new Information Management Office. The purpose of this office is to centralize the data collection and analysis that is currently scattered throughout the agency such as the toxic release information, single facility identification, one-stop reporting, specific watershed information and environmental statistics. There will be other information functions included in this new office overtime. EPA intends to have the new office operational by the summer of 1999.


FEDERAL/STATE
REGISTER REVIEW
63 FR 66018
On December 1, OSHA published its final rule amendments on permit-required confined spaces under 29 CFR 1910. The final rule provides enhanced employee participation in the employer's permit space program, provides authorized permit space entrants or their authorized representative with the opportunity to observe any testing or monitoring of permit spaces and strengthens the criteria employers must satisfy when preparing for the timely rescue of incapacitated permit space entrants. The final rule becomes effective February 1, 1999.
63 FR 66101
On December 1, EPA published a partial withdrawal of its proposed Hazardous Remediation Waste Management Requirements (HWIR-media) published in the federal register on November 30, 1998 and the Phase IV Land Disposal Restrictions final rule published on May 26, 1998. The action withdraws all portions of the HWIR-media proposed rule except those that were finalized in the May 26, and November 30, 1998 federal register publications or actions which were expressly deferred in these rules.
63 FR 68285
On December 10, EPA published a notice soliciting public comment on the Integrated Risk Information System 1999 program. The IRIS is an EPA database that contains EPA scientific consensus positions on potential human health effects from environmental contaminants. EPA is currently preparing a new set of chemical health assessments for this database. The notice describes EPA's plans for 1999 and solicits scientific data evaluations for consideration. Comments must be received by EPA by Febraury 12, 1999.
63 FR 68262
On December 10, DOE's response to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board recommendation 98-1, Integrated Safety Management and the DOE facilities, was published in the Federal Register. DOE is accepting the DNFSB's recommendation which is to improve its program to resolve the findings of the independent internal safety oversight organization. Comments on the response must be received to the DNFSB by January 11, 1999.
63 FR 68354
On December 10, EPA published a compilation of its national recommended water quality criteria for 157 pollutants, developed pursuant to section 304(a) of the Clean Water Act (see article, this edition). Comments on this document may be sent to EPA now or anytime while the process is being implemented.
63 FR 68441
On December 10, DOE published its Final Planning Guidance that has been issued to its field organizations which are responsible for planning and implementing contractor work force restructuring at defense nuclear facilities and other DOE facilities. The Final Planning Guidance supercedes interim guidance published for comment in the Federal Register on March 5, 1996. The changes made in this Final Planning Guidance will become effective January 11, 1999.
63 FR 68624
On December 11, DOT published a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) in response to President Clinton's mandate to make communications with the public more understandable. DOT is issuing the NPRM in which it proposes to revise and clarify the hazardous materials safety rulemaking and program procedures. Comments on the NPRM must be received in DOT by February 9, 1999.
63 FR 69390
On December 16, EPA published its final rule finalizing maximum residual disinfectant goals and maximum contaminant level goals for certain compounds used for disinfectants. The final rule also includes monitoring, reporting and public notification requirements for these compounds. The final rule becomes effective February 16, 1999.
63 FR 69624
On December 17, EPA published a notice announcing that it has designated four new reference methods for the determination of ambient concentrations of particulate matter measured as PM10. The notice also announces that EPA has received three new applications for reference method determinations for PM2.5 and PM10.
WSR 98-24-062
On December 16, Ecology published its commercial low-level radioactive waste site use permit fees for the period from March 1999 to February 29, 2000. The annual base fee for <50 cubic feet , factor 1x, is $400.

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Last Updated: January 7, 1999