Fighting Toxics by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781597268844
Publisher: Island Press
Published: 2013-03-22T05:00:00+00:00

GUIDELINES FOR ACTION

Monitor and participate in negotiations between government and responsible parties at Superfund sites. Use the deadlines under the Superfund law’s settlement process in dealing with negotiations between EPA and responsible parties. The law blocks the EPA from taking certain actions for a designated period of time after giving notice to responsible parties of its intention to negotiate. The EPA cannot commence a remedial investigation or feasibility study for ninety days after giving responsible parties notice and cannot commence remedial action for six months after giving such notice. While the law does not strictly block the agency from negotiating longer than that, your group can create a public demand that these deadlines be viewed as the time by which negotiations must end. Moreover, responsible parties have sixty days after receiving a notice of negotiation from the EPA to propose to undertake or finance a solution (for a remedial investigation and feasibility study or for remedial action).4 The EPA has discretion to accept or reject the proposal. If no proposal is made by the sixty-day deadline, or no agreement is reached within these ninety-day or six-month time frames, then the EPA has waited long enough. The passing of one of these deadlines is an appropriate occasion to call for immediate EPA action—to call on the EPA to begin spending Superfund money to correct the problem. This would leave the responsible parties with liability to repay the agency possibly three times the costs incurred by EPA.

Consider calling for local health studies funded under Superfund. Use the law’s requirements for the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registries (ATSDR) to monitor health effects in the community from toxic exposure. At every National Priority List site, ATSDR is required to assess the potential health impacts of exposure. It can recommend exposure reduction measures, such as relocation of residents, and can also recommend and fund data gathering, studies, and periodical medical screening of local populations for disease risks created by exposure.

Petition to get the site reviewed and listed on the NPL. The amended Superfund law gives citizens the right to petition for assessment of a site. You can file a petition with the EPA for site assessment. If the release of chemicals noted was not previously reviewed, EPA’s assessment must be completed within one year of the petition and, if appropriate, an evaluation must be conducted for NPL listing. Usually a site is placed on the NPL according to its score on the Hazard Ranking System (HRS), which incorporates data on population, quality and quantity of waste, evidence of contamination of soil and water, and other parameters. Your group can examine the scoring sheets for omissions of important data (such as failure to monitor air quality) or errors in analyzing them (such as choosing a substance that is not the most toxic material present). Even if the site does not qualify under the HRS, your group can exert pressure on the EPA, via your state governor’s office or members of Congress, to use its power to place the site on the list.

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