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Which EPA Rules Are Outmoded?

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is seeking public comment on its plan to review regulations.

  • Feb 21, 2011

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is inviting the public to provide input on a plan that will guide EPA’s retrospective reviews of regulations as part of the agency’s response to President Obama’s Jan. 18, 2011 Executive Order (EO) 13563, “Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review.”

EO 13563 directs each federal agency to consider “how best to promote retrospective analysis of rules that may be outmoded, ineffective, insufficient, or excessively burdensome.” Specifically, the EO calls on every agency to develop “a preliminary plan, consistent with law and its resources and regulatory priorities, under which the agency will periodically review its existing significant regulations to determine whether such regulations should be modified, streamlined, expanded or repealed to make the agency’s regulatory program more effective and or less burdensome in achieving its regulatory objectives.”

EPA will solicit public input regarding the design of its plan via the EPA website through March 20. The agency also will provide opportunities for input through a public meeting in Washington, D.C. on March 14, and listening sessions in other parts of the country. These outreach efforts will allow the public to provide EPA with feedback on specific issues, impacts or programs. More information about these meetings will be announced soon.

By late May, EPA will provide the public with its retrospective review plan, as well as the initial list of regulations it plans to review.

Comments

Tue, Mar 1, 2011 Engineer USA

Let's start simple and eliminate the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). Talk about outmoded, ineffective, insufficient, and excessively burdensome.

Tue, Mar 1, 2011 Kelly H. Boston

TSCA is becoming a nightmare for dealing with PCB-impacted building materials. It was clearly never intended to manage caulking or mastic or fluorescent lights. Yet people doing building renovations or demolitions are subject to the incredibly stringent TSCA regulations. Adding TSCA to your renovation work increases the project costs exponentially without any significant benefit to human health or the environment. The process should be managed by states, not the EPA, and in a manner similar to ACM abatement. We ought to be able to manage intact caulking in place too.

Mon, Feb 28, 2011 Straightpath California

There should be "ONE STOP SHOP" for a business to handle all EPA permits. Waste, water, air, wetlands, etc, should all be handled by one contact. In California, we have state agencies duplicating federal efforts, so bewildered businesses need to deal with both state and federal rules. Even experts in the field cant understand all the areas of complexity. EPA needs to drastically SIMPLIFY ALL RULES, and require states to do the same. The burden on businesses is too great.

Fri, Feb 25, 2011 Carl Larrabee Cocoa, FL

The disinfectant by-product rules for chloirinated water did not consider the disinfection by-products formed in the digestive tract of someone drinking free-chlorinated water. The minute quantities measured in the parts per billion pale in comparison to the amount formed in the gullet by drinking chlorinated water with concentrations in the parts per million.

Fri, Feb 25, 2011 bf Florida

I would like to see the Lead and Copper rule reviewed. After 20 years of testing, the utility has demonstrated that lead and copper are not present in the distribution system. At this time we are only checking the plumbing system of the homeowner. If the tap is above the action level we cannot make the homeowner fix the problem. Also sending notices to all test sites even if the action level is not above the MCL is a waste of the ratepayers money.

Thu, Feb 24, 2011 Disappointed Texas

The EPA has lost perspective on the big picture. Their fixation on the bureacratic minutiae and administrivia diverts scarce resources in the field away from the tasks required to solve real pollution problems. In my 38 years of dealing with them, I've never gotten a violation for a real pollution problem, but I've had numerous squabbles with them over reporting issues - dates, signatures, formats, color of ink, etc. They need to apply some common sense to their enforcement activities. A missing date on a report is simply not as improtant as a hex-crhome dump, yet they treat them almost the same. They need more technical people and far fewer attorneys working the issues.

Thu, Feb 24, 2011 john spang PA

As an Environmental Chemist with 20+ years experience, I find the EPA's TCLP procedure to make a hazardous waste determination to be based on a landfill reality that does not exist. Lead containing wastes such as CRT tubes unjustly are designated characteristically hazardous because unlimed materials always require unbuffered acetic acid leaching solution #1. Pollution control dusts and incinerator ashes are limed so as to force the selection of solution #2 which is a buffered acetic acid leach. Consequently these wastes always fall below the leachable haz limit for lead and the other metals. It would be more realistic and fair to allow the use of the SPLP, Method 1312, to determine which wastes are hazardous and concomitantly the list of metals and organics could be expanded to include those items currently not TCLP target analytes.

Wed, Feb 23, 2011 Miguel Rodas Los Angeles

Provisions such as pollutants neither present nor expected in industrial wastestreams deserve more publicity by POTW. This type of streamlining is good for businesses to make savings in regulatory monitoring. Such savings for industries might make a difference in job creation.

Wed, Feb 23, 2011 Ash

In civil societies, laws and regulations when properly administered actually drive technological innovation and create jobs otherwise recall Love Canal disaster with poisons in the ground, and more recently the BP oil fiasco in the Gulf. Cutting budgets of regulatory governments would not only hurt private contractors dependent on federal funding but also state revenues.

Wed, Feb 23, 2011 Robert Moses Calif

I feel it's high time EVERY government agency (Fed, state & local) be looked at very carefully with an eye for streamlining, staffing cuts, regulatory needs, budget cuts, etc. Government controls, taxes and fines just to keep these agencies in business have grown so far out of control and burdensome as to be ridiculous. I applaude the EPAs desire to step up and conduct this level of review.

Tue, Feb 22, 2011 paul k ma

they should repeal get rid of the epa rrp rule lead paint this law is a burden and out dated law

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