* AFIA is the American Feed Industry Association
On June 13, a House panel urged the Environmental Protection Agency to delay the compliance date for a rule that lowered the Toxics Release Inventory reporting threshold for lead to 100 pounds per year until a review is completed.
The final rule became effective April 17, 2001, and applies to 2001 data, due July 1. The rule lowered the threshold for TRI reporting for lead to 100 pounds per year from 25,000 pounds per year for facilities that manufacture the metal and 10,000 pounds per year for facilities that otherwise use lead or lead compounds.
Under the rule, thousands of small businesses must report releases of lead and lead compounds to the TRI for the first time. Those businesses have not been properly guided on how to comply with the rule, members of the House Small Business Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform and Oversight said at a June 13 hearing.
In 1998, EPA attempted to lower the reporting threshold for lead to as low as 10 pounds. However, AFIA fought for and won a less stringent requirement of 100 pounds, exempting most of the feed industry from the new reporting requirements.
EPA is seeking a review of certain aspects of the rule by its Science Advisory Board, and the panel urged the agency to delay implementation of the new threshold until that review is complete. EPA so far has not expressed any plans to delay the compliance date of the rule, however.
Kim Nelson, EPA’s assistant administrator for environmental information, said at the hearing that the agency is unlikely to take any enforcement actions against businesses during the first year the rule is in effect. EPA recognizes “that in the first year of a program, even in the second year, enforcement actions for a program that’s new tends to be low on the priority list,” Nelson told the panel. Industry, however, expressed concern over Nelson’s statement, saying there is no guarantee that a facility would not be cited.
Congress, science groups, and industry and public advocate organizations have strongly criticized the rule’s scientific basis, in addition to the burden it will have on small businesses. A group of industry organizations, known as the Ad Hoc Metals Coalition, filed a lawsuit in April 2001 seeking withdrawal of the rule.
The coalition, which includes the Lead Industries Association, the National Association of Manufacturers, of which AFIA is a member, the National Mining Association, and others, said the agency’s classification of lead as a persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic (PBT) substance is not scientifically valid for assessing the risks of metals or inorganic metal compounds. The groups and others have said that the PBT methodology for classifying the hazards of substances was developed for organic chemicals, such as pesticides, but not for metals. This PBT classification was EPA’s justification for issuing the lower reporting threshold for lead.
source: http://www.afia.org/Industry_News/AFIA_Top_News_II/Armstrong__Frasch_Assume_Top_AFIA_Posts_During_Expo.html 17jul02
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