States call for bipartisan action on federal toxics law
November 17, 2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Nov. 17, 2011
OLYMPIA – A group of state environmental leaders from California, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Vermont, Washington, and the Environmental Council of the States (ECOS) today praised Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-New Jersey and Sen. James M. Inhofe, R-Oklahoma, for conducting a hearing to help advance legislation that updates the 35-year-old Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).
TSCA is the primary federal environmental law that regulates the safety of the tens of thousands of chemicals used every day in the United States. Over the past several months leaders from industry, government and environmental groups have been working with the Senate to forge a major federal overhaul.
“I believe there has never been such broad agreement that TSCA needs to be fixed,” said Ted Sturdevant, Director of the Washington State Department of Ecology. “States urge Congress to establish a strong federal system that ensures the safety of chemicals in commerce.”
In the absence of an effective federal chemical safety law, states have stepped in to protect people and the environment. During the past eight years, 18 states have passed bipartisan supported legislation ranging from comprehensive chemical safety laws to bans on specific high-risk chemicals. For example, California recently joined 10 other states in banning Bisphenol A (BPA) from baby bottles and sippy cups.
“Federal leadership of chemical regulation policy is essential,” said Debbie Raphael, Director of California’s Department of Toxic Substances Control, part of the California Environmental Protection Agency. “While California is paving the way in terms of seeking alternatives for toxic chemicals in consumer products, we need a strong effort on a national scale, and we applaud this bipartisan effort.”
But most states do not have the capacity or expertise to set up individual chemical management programs to deal with the unintended consequences of problem chemicals in commerce. Of particular concern are the cleanup costs resulting from persistent bioaccumulative toxics, known as PBTs.
“Michigan strongly supports this legislative reform because states do not have the resources to develop 50 individual state chemical management plans across the country,” said Michigan Department of Environmental Quality Director Dan Wyant. “In Michigan, we are working to be leaders in green chemistry – creating new products and economic opportunities that make a difference in people’s lives.”
“The Environmental Council of the States supports TSCA reform and has articulated the points that the states believe need to be addressed in three resolutions adopted by the state environmental agencies’ leaders,” said Tom Burack, ECOS President and Commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services. “We are pleased to see bi-partisan interest in making improvements to this law, and look forward to working with Congress and others to achieve them.”
State legislatures have been active during the 2011 state legislative season. For example, New York is the first state to ban the use of “Chlorinated Tris” or tris(2-chloroethly) phosphate in children’s goods starting in 2013, and Connecticut is the nation’s first state to ban BPA from thermal paper in cash register receipts. State legislatures meeting in 2012 are expected to continue addressing toxic chemical concerns.
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Media Contacts:
Kathy Davis, Ecology media relations, 360-407-6149, kathy.davis@ecy.wa.gov
Ken Zarker, Hazardous Waste and Toxics Reduction, 360-407-6724, ken.zarker@ecy.wa.gov
State Environmental Contacts:
- Ted Sturdevant, Director, Washington State Department of Ecology; 360-407-7001
- Jim Marxen, California Environmental Protection Agency; 916- 324-6544
- Jay Apperson, Maryland Department of Environment; 410-537-3012
- Thomas Burack (Tom), ECOS President, New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services; 603-271-2958
- Dan Wyant, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality; 517-373-7919
- Paul W. Aasen, Commissioner, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency; 651-757-2016
- David Mears, Commissioner, Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation; 802-241-3808
For more information: Ecology’s Chemical Policy website: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/toxics/policy.htm
Ecology’s website: http://www.ecy.wa.gov
Ecology’s social media: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/about/newmedia.html
U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee: archived webcast: http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Hearings.Hearing&Hearing_id=a2714f34-802a-23ad-4b23-3ba5732a0172
SCCP Webinars
November 15, 2011
The November 14, 2011webinar provided a follow up to NPPR’s Safer Chemistry Challenge Program (SCCP) webinar that was presented August 2. Attendees were walked through the SCCP, program documents, and provided an update on the program.
SCCP November 2011 Webinar (PDF)
The August 2, 2011 webinar introduced the Safer Chemistry Challenge Program (SCCP) and provided an overview of the program.
SCCP August 2011 Webinar (PDF)
Success Story Template
November 8, 2011
Success stories are a way for companies to present a brief description of their achievements for recognition. They provide a brief description of tools technologies and techniques used to enhance performance.
Success stories are used to:
- Encourage companies to adopt pollution prevention and safer chemistry by showing real world examples.
- Identify technologies and techniques that were successful.
- Measure the effectiveness of pollution prevention and safer chemistry projects by quantifying chemical reductions, pollution reduction, money savings, and other benefits.
- Promote environmental performance beyond the industry standard.
Here is a standard template to use in developing your company’s success story. Email the completed success story to saferchemistry@gmail.com for it to be posted with the other SCCP success stories.
Technical Resource Links
November 8, 2011
The links to these technical resources are provided as part SCCP to aid companies in developing and carrying out their work plan.
SCCP Membership
November 7, 2011
The National Pollution Prevention Roundtable’s (NPPR) 2025 Safer Chemistry Challenge Program (SCCP) seeks to motivate, challenge, and reward safer chemistry practices in businesses to reduce the use of chemicals, especially hazardous and toxic chemicals, through source reduction and pollution prevention measures. Applicants should review the information in the program overview and frequently asked questions (FAQs) to understand all membership requirements.
There are two primary types of membership to SCCP:
1. Alliance Membership that is open to academic institutions, state/local/federal government, and environmental/social/advocacy organizations at no cost, when you become a member of NPPR.
2. Organizational Membership that is open to industry, business, healthcare, universities and other organizations. This membership includes a NPPR membership. A fee structure is located in the application form.
Organizational Member Commitment Form
About SCCP
November 3, 2011
The NPPR 2025 Safer Chemistry Challenge Program (SCCP) is designed to motivate, challenge, and reward facilities to reduce the use of chemicals, especially hazardous chemicals, through source reduction measures. These measures include the following approaches:
- Making changes in production processes and adopting new technologies
- Moving toward cleaner processes that avoid the use and generation of toxic chemicals
- Changing raw materials to include benign or low toxicity materials that degrade into innocuous substances in the environment
- Using tools and design options in support of green chemistry
- Selecting and using safe alternatives
As part of this program, companies are encouraged to partner with state and local technical assistance programs. Such programs can help identify ways to reduce waste and emissions and move toward safer substitute chemicals, which can result in reduced costs, improved productivity, and regulatory compliance.
Challenge Program Benefits
By making changes and participating in the Challenge Program, companies can:
- Improve employee health and safety
- Minimize risk and liability Institute supply chain initiatives
- Improve company image with the community
- Reward investments in the design of increasingly safer chemicals and products
- Reduce cost of compliance and employee protection
- Realize that alternatives may have improved performance Improve profitability
Steps to Participating in the Challenge Program
P2 Measurement Tools
November 1, 2011
Pollution Prevention Measurement Tools
RELEVANCE OF POLLUTION PREVENTION MEASURES - THINK CLIMATE CHANGE
Pollution prevention and climate change? You may be sure that pollution prevention can successfully tackle climate change–but can you prove it? Thanks to the U.S. EPA’s new pollution prevention calculators, you now can provide the numbers you need to convincingly make your case.
In our society, measurement is empowerment. From corporate managers to baseball fans, measurement bring credibility to discussions, informs us of where we are allows us to set goals for where we want to be. It allows us to evaluate the status quo, benchmark, and make changes. Whether you are in business, government agencies, and public institutions or at home–numbers inform good decisions. Among environmental solutions, pollution prevention solutions tend to have the strongest track record for delivering environmental benefits while preventing an economic burden on the marketplace. These calculators can empower those marketing pollution prevention solutions and making connections between P2 and positive environmental change for problems like climate change.
Suite of P2 Performance Measures
- Pounds of hazardous materials reduced;
- Gallons of water saved;
- Million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents (greenhouse gas emissions) that are reduced or avoided;
- Dollars saved by businesses and institutions through P2 practices.
Background
The tools were reviewed by a panel from the P2 community and were showcased in national webinars and conferences reaching over 600 participants. Based on panel and webinar-training feedback the U.S. EPA reworked the tools to be more robust, user friendly, with better training elements. All of the P2 tools are in an Excel format and finalized as of November 2011. U.S. EPA will periodically update the tools as new information and data sources become available.
Who should use the tools?
Anyone can use the tools. The U.S. EPA designed them with state and local governments, business facilities, grantees, and project managers in mind.
What is the purpose and benefits of the tools?
They are designed to help calculate GHG emissions and cost savings from P2 activities, and to help convert gallons of hazardous materials into pounds. The tools help to convert standard business units into environmental measurement units, increase transparency of reported data, and make reference sources clear.
