EPA response to Children's Health Protection Advisory Committee

[ttweed@wildrockies.org (Tony Tweedale)]

For those interested in the chlor-alkalie industry &/or in mercury, I've
included the 1st of the discussions on the 5 proposed rulemaking areas to
be acted on.
---

[Federal Register: February 3, 1999 (Volume 64, Number 22)]
[Notices]
[Page 5277-5284]
>From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr03fe99-49]

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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[FRL-6228-7]


Response to Recommendations from the Children's Health Protection
Advisory Committee Regarding Evaluation of Existing Environmental
Standards

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: EPA asked the federal Children's Health Protection Advisory
Committee (CHPAC) to recommend five existing standards that may merit
reevaluation in order to further protect children's environmental
health. This document includes EPA's response to the CHPAC
recommendations. EPA will reevaluate the chloralkali National Emission
Standard for Hazardous Air Pollutants (mercury); the implementation and
enforcement of the (Farm) Worker Protection Standards; pesticide
tolerances for organophosphates (chlorpyrifos, dimethoate, methyl
parathion); atrazine pesticide tolerances and Maximum Contaminant Level
in drinking water; and will review indoor and ambient air quality as
they relate to asthma. EPA's decision to reevaluate is based in large
part on recommendations from the Children's Health Protection Advisory
Committee and public comments in response to a Federal Register
document of October 3, 1997.
    In September 1996, EPA issued a report on Environmental Health
Threats to Children (EPA 175-F-96-001) that described how and why
children are affected by an array of complex environmental threats to
their health. The report included a National Agenda to Protect
Children's Health from Environmental Threats in which EPA called for a
national commitment to ensure a healthy future for our children. We
called on national, state and local policy makers--as well as each
community and family--to learn about the environmental threats our
children face; to participate in an informed national policy debate on
how together we can best reduce health risks for children; and to take
action to protect our Nations's future by protecting our children.
    The first element of the National Agenda committed the
Administration to ``. . . ensure, as a matter of national policy, that
all standards EPA sets are protective enough to address the potentially
heightened risks faced by children--so as to prevent environmental
health threats wherever possible--and that the most significant current
standards be reevaluated as we learn more.'' We further state that `` .
. . EPA will select--with public input and scientific peer review--five
of its most significant public health and environmental standards to
reissue on an expedited basis under this new policy.''

Background

    In order to meet our commitment to public input, EPA sought advice
through two channels: formal notice and comment, and the formation of a
Federal Advisory Committee composed of individuals representing diverse
viewpoints. On October 3, 1997, EPA issued a document and request for
comments from the public as to existing EPA standards that, if revised
as a result of review and evaluation, would strengthen and increase
children's environmental health protection. EPA received comments from
18 individuals and organizations. (Attachment A to this document
includes the list of submitters, a summary of the comments, and EPA's
response to the public comments.) Further, on September 9, 1997, EPA
issued a document in the Federal Register that it had established a
Children's Health Protection Advisory Committee (CHPAC) under the
Federal Advisory Committee Act, Public Law 92-463, to advise the
Administrator on various issues of children's environmental health
protection.
    One of the first actions undertaken by the CHPAC, at the request of
EPA, was to develop a set of recommendations to the Administrator
concerning which existing rules EPA should reevaluate. They started by
reviewing the public comments that were submitted in response to the
October 3, 1997, Federal Register document. Based on extensive
deliberations the CHPAC submitted their recommendations in a consensus
report dated May 28, 1998. (See Attachment B for the selection criteria
used by the CHPAC in their deliberations.) The following section lists
the CHPAC recommendations, excerpts the discussion that accompanied the
recommendations in the report (in italics), and outlines EPA's
response.
    We congratulate the Children's Health Protection Advisory Committee
for their success in deliberating and recommending actions to improve
EPA's regulations. We believe that EPA's response to these
recommendations advances our goal to better protect our Nation's
children.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: If you have a need for further
information you may write to Meg Kelly, Office of Children's Health
Protection, USEPA (MS1107), 401 M Street, SW, Washington, D.C. 20460;
(kelly.margaret@epa.gov).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

CHPAC Recommendation: Reevaluate the National Emission Standard for
Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) for Chloralkali Plants

    CHPAC Report Discussion: ``The CHPAC recommends that EPA take a
holistic approach to evaluate all sources of mercury emissions. Mercury
is a relevant issue to more than one media (air, water), which
contributes to its entry into the environment, for example, by
electricity (coal-burning) generation, incineration and discharge into
water sources. Human exposure occurs primarily through fish
consumption. Mercury exposure is associated with adverse health effects
in humans. Depending on dose, the effects can range from severe to less
severe, most notably, neurological, developmental, and reproductive
effects.
    By the end of 1998, EPA is scheduled to complete a multimedia
strategy addressing mercury. We support EPA's multimedia approach and
schedule for the issuance of this strategy.
    We encourage EPA to proceed diligently with implementation to
protect children from mercury emissions, including those from
municipal, medical, and hazardous waste combustion.
    Although the CHPAC selected the National Emission Standard for

[[Page 5278]]

Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) for chloralkali plants for
reevaluation, EPA resources should not be diverted from the evaluation
of other larger sources of mercury emission. Important criteria for its
selection are that the standard has not been re-evaluated or revised
since its promulgation in 1973, children's health was not considered in
the original development of the standard, and new information and data
based on peer reviewed science suggest that risks to children and the
persistent and bioaccumulative nature of mercury were not considered
during the setting of the standard.
    The CHPAC recognizes the Water Quality Criteria Standard as one
means by which the EPA can regulate the prevention of contaminated fish
by mercury and ensure children's protection from hazardous levels of
mercury. The CHPAC recommends that EPA address the largest sources of
mercury emissions expeditiously and prevent further contamination of
fish by revising the Water Quality Criteria Standard. Studies have
shown that once mercury enters water, either directly or through air
deposition, it can bioaccumulate in fish and animal tissue at the top
of the food chain in concentrations much greater than those found in
water.
    Another specific concern is the emission of mercury from electric
(coal-burning) utility boilers (regulatory determination by the EPA is
due in November 1998). Important criteria for its selection are that
there is currently no regulation of hazardous air pollutant emissions,
such as mercury, from electric utility boilers, and electric utility
boilers are the largest contributor of overall anthropogenic sources of
mercury emissions in the United States (EPA Mercury Report to Congress
1997).''
    EPA's Response: EPA agrees with the CHPAC recommendation that the
NESHAP for chloralkali plants be revisited and has begun a process to
revise this standard. A proposed rule will include emissions limits
based on control technology and on management practices. EPA projects a
proposal date of November 1999, and expects to issue a final standard
in November 2000. In order to ensure protection of children, the Office
of Air and Radiation (OAR) will analyze the risk from chloralkali
plants to support the rule making--an unusual step for a technology-
based standard. However, OAR believes the risk assessment will provide
us with information on potential children's risks that is important to
determining the appropriate level of the standard. Results of the risk
analysis may be used to justify setting a standard more stringent than
the maximum achievable control technology (MACT) floor, but any
standard set will be no less stringent than the floor.
    Discussion: On November 16, 1998, EPA issued a draft Multimedia
Strategy for Priority Persistent, Bioaccumulative, and Toxic Pollutants
(http://www.EPA.gov/pbt/strategy.htm). This strategy includes a
multifaceted draft Action Plan for Mercury. EPA believes that this
action plan addresses the concerns expressed by the CHPAC in their
report. It recognizes the multimedia threat posed by methyl mercury--
the compound to which mercury is transformed through natural
environmental processes--and the need to control human exposure to
methyl mercury, through multiple concerted approaches targeted at air,
water, sediment and land. Further, EPA is proposing additional
reporting of mercury releases under the Toxic Release Inventory to
improve citizens' right to know about releases in their environment.
    EPA has taken several important steps to reduce the levels of
mercury, including reducing emissions from municipal waste combustors
and medical waste incinerators. These combined actions, once fully
implemented (December 2000 for municipal waste combustors; September
2002 for medical waste incinerators) will reduce mercury emissions
caused by human activities by 50% from 1990 levels. EPA also entered
into a partnership with the American Hospital Association whose goal is
to virtually eliminate hospital mercury waste by the year 2005.
    Further, final regulations for hazardous waste combustion
facilities (incinerators, cement kilns, lightweight aggregate kilns)
are expected to be promulgated in February 1999. The EPA is responding
to extensive public comment including new emissions data and comments
on the methodology used to estimate mercury emissions from these
facilities. The final rule is expected to achieve a substantial overall
reduction in mercury emissions from these hazardous waste combustion
facilities.
    The CHPAC highlighted their concern that EPA resources not be
diverted from the evaluation of other larger sources of mercury
emission. EPA assures the CHPAC that the Mercury Action Plan addresses
all known important sources of mercury. For example, EPA is also
developing regulations to limit emissions of hazardous air pollutants,
including mercury, from five additional source categories--industrial,
commercial, other nonhazardous solid waste combustors, gas turbines,
and stationary internal combustion engines. Proposed regulations are
due by the end of the year 2000. In addition, EPA will consider the
impacts to children's health along with many other factors (e.g.,
controllability and costs) as part of the regulatory determination for
coal-fired electric utility power plants.
    EPA agrees with the CHPAC that we should revise water quality
criteria that are used by states and tribes to establish enforceable
water quality standards. EPA's Office of Water (OW) is accelerating
development of a revised water quality human health criterion for
mercury which will reflect two major departures from past approaches:
    <bullet> A revised human health methodology will provide for use of
bioaccumulation factors to estimate the build up of mercury in fish-
tissue rather than using bioconcentration factors. This means that
water quality criteria will now be based on biomagnification in the
food chain. An improved means to estimate fish consumption is also
included. A draft revised Water Quality Criteria Methodology for Human
Health was published in August 1998. Although not regulations, these
criteria do propose fish intake and body weights that more accurately
reflect actual characteristics of women of childbearing age and
children. OW is taking public comment on the proposal. A final human
health criteria methodology is projected to be available by the end of
1999.
    <bullet> An updated human health risk assessment will result from
an interagency review of recent human data on methyl mercury. This
review will concentrate on levels of exposure to mercury associated
with subtle neurological endpoints and is aimed at achieving consensus
among Federal agencies on estimates of human risk. A workshop was
conducted in November 1998. In addition, Congress required, in the
report that accompanied EPA's 1999 appropriation, a 18-month National
Academy of Sciences study and recommendation on the reference dose for
methyl mercury. This study will begin in January 1999. A peer review of
application of the new methodology to methyl mercury is projected for
completion by mid 2000.
    Finally, the CHPAC report indicated concerns about emissions of
mercury from electric (coal-burning) utility boilers. In order to
support a regulatory determination (now required by December 15, 2000)
and potential future regulatory action, EPA will gather high quality
emissions data about coal-fired electric generating plants to address

[[Page 5279]]

current uncertainties about mercury emissions. To accomplish this, we
are requiring all coal-fired power plants above 25 megawatts (MW) to
provide the results of analysis to determine the mercury content of the
coal they are burning. In addition, a sample of plants will be required
to perform stack testing for quantity and species of mercury emissions.
The information obtained from this effort will allow EPA to calculate
the amount and species of mercury emitted by each coal-fired plant
above 25 MW. This information will be available to the public.

CHPAC Recommendation: Reevaluate the (Farm) Worker Protection
Standards

[SNIP]