Month: November 2020

EPA Defends Asbestos Reporting Loopholes in Court

Courthouse News

by Nicolas Iovino
San Francisco, CA – Despite identifying major gaps in knowledge about asbestos in a recent draft risk report, the Trump administration on Thursday defended lax reporting rules that let companies avoid disclosing how much asbestos is made, imported and put into U.S. products. “The EPA has offered its basis which is rooted in science, and the court should defer to the agency’s discretion,” Justice Department lawyer Brandon Adkins argued in federal court in California. Adkins was defending the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s December 2018 denial of a petition seeking to close loopholes in asbestos reporting requirements for U.S. importers and manufacturers. 

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Lax Lead Paint Rules Endanger Children, Green Groups Say

Bloomberg Law

National – EPA has failed to update the definition of lead-based paint, leaving children at risk of lead poisoning, environmental and community groups will argue before the Ninth Circuit Tuesday. The EPA issued a final rule in July 2019 that included the definition and lowered the level at which dust containing lead is considered a hazard, but those dust-lead hazard standards are still too high to protect the public, the Sierra Club, California Communities Against Toxics, and other environmental groups say in their petition for review in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.  

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ASTM’s Proposed Definition of CREC May Jeopardize Landowner Liability Protections Under CERCLA

JD Supra

by Amy Edwards
International – ASTM has proposed redefining a Controlled Recognized Environmental Condition (CREC). The ASTM’s definition, as drafted, confuses risk-based decision-making with the implementation of institutional controls, undermining 20 years’ worth of other ASTM and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) work on institutional controls. The proposed CREC definition raises significant questions as to when “continuing obligations” will apply and therefore how prospective purchasers can maintain their landowner liability protections (LLPs) under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA).  

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