EPA proposes banning cancer-causing chemical TCE used in automotive care and other products

Associated Press – October 23

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Monday proposed banning the cancer-causing chemical trichloroethylene (TCE), which can be found in consumer products including automobile brake cleaners, furniture care, and arts and crafts spray coating. The move would end a nearly four-decade battle to ban the chemical, which can cause sudden death or kidney cancer after high levels of exposure, and other neurological harm even at lower levels of exposure over long periods. The American Chemistry Council says the proposed rule “is inconsistent with the underlying science” and is calling on EPA to avoid unnecessarily restricting valuable industrial uses for the chemical, which has important uses in packaging and in formulating products.

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EPA tightens reporting requirements for PFAS releases, closing controversial loophole

The Hill – October 20

EPA has finalized a rule that will tighten the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) reporting requirements for facilities that use or release certain types of toxic perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) compounds. With the rule’s implementation, EPA is now reclassifying 189 compounds from the PFAS group of chemicals — of which there are thousands — as “chemicals of special concern.” TRI data must be reported to the EPA annually by facilities in industrial sectors, such as manufacturing, metal mining, electric power generation, chemical production, and hazardous waste treatment. EPA explained that the new rule will eliminate an existing loophole that enabled facilities to avoid reporting data about PFAS to EPA’s TRI when using these compounds in very low concentrations.

Federal officials say plan for water cuts from 3 Western states is enough to protect Colorado River

PBS – October 25

Officials with the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) on Wednesday said that Colorado River conditions have improved to the point that a plan by California, Arizona, and Nevada to voluntarily reduce water use should help keep the river basin on stable footing for the next few years. DOI said that the risk of reaching critically low water elevations at Lake Powell and Lake Mead, the river’s two key reservoirs, has gone down substantially. Earlier this year, the Biden administration released two options that would have forced cuts on Arizona, California, and Nevada either proportionally or based on the existing water priority system, which most benefits California. The threat of those two options forced the three states to reach their own voluntary plan for how to reduce their use of the river’s water.

Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board tightens rules for testing water discharged from Santa Susana Field Lab site

Los Angeles Daily News – October 25

Officials with the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board have voted to require Boeing to better monitor water discharged from Santa Susana Field Lab, located in the hills between San Fernando and Simi valleys. The board last week unanimously approved a new five-year permit that requires Boeing, which owns the site with the federal government, to perform a more precise level of testing of water discharged from the area following claims by a public interest group that state agencies had failed to monitor the decades-long migration of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, and PFAS leaking from the Santa Susana facility.

State ZEV truck sales goals are two years ahead of schedule according to new CARB data

California Globe – October 24

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) and Governor Gavin Newsom’s office announced on Monday that the state’s zero-emissions vehicle (ZEV) goal for trucks was two years ahead of schedule, with 7.5% of all new trucks sold in California in 2022 being ZEV. State mandates to increase ZEVs have been in place in California since 2020 when Governor Newsom signed an executive order, later backed by CARB, to ban the sale of new gas-powered passenger vehicles by 2035. Shortly thereafter, CARB announced a new “advanced clean trucks” rule that would have 40% of tractor trailers, 55% of pickup trucks, 75% of delivery vans, and all government-owned trucks be ZEV by 2035.

Federal government bans new mining in critical zone for rare Southern California flowers

Courthouse News Service – October 20

More than 2,800 acres of land where endangered and unique endemic plants grow in California’s San Bernardino National Forest will be spared from the harms of mining, the Bureau of Land Management announced last Friday, placing a 50-year ban on new mining in the area. Four endangered plant species exist only within the national forest thanks to deposits of particularly rich and pure calcium carbonate — the same material that is mined for construction and building material, cement, and agricultural lime.