Audit, Compliance and Risk Blog

EPA’s New Chemical Review Priorities Should Encourage User Reviews Too

Posted by Jon Elliott on Tue, Apr 09, 2019

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has just proposed to assign chemical review priorities for 40 chemicals, as required by the 2016 Amendments to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA; the “Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act”). As required by the 2016 Amendments, the proposal identifies 20 high priority chemicals for evaluation within three years, and 20 low priority chemicals that do not require further evaluation. Once each evaluation is completed, EPA is to determine appropriate regulatory requirements. Organizations that manufacture, process or use any of these chemicals should follow the rulemaking and evaluation process(es), and consider possible substitutes in order to reduce hazards and possible regulatory changes after completion of each relevant evaluation.

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Tags: Environmental risks, Environmental, EPA, Hazcom, tsca

EPA Reaffirms National Sulfur Oxide Standard

Posted by Jon Elliott on Tue, Apr 02, 2019

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has completed a long review, and reaffirmed the primary National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for oxides of sulfur (SOX; usually measured as sulfur dioxide (SO2)). This is the first review of the primary SOX NAAQs since 2010 (primary standard – EPA did not review the secondary SOX NAAQS established in 2012).

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Tags: Environmental risks, Environmental, EPA, Greenhouse Gas, ghg, SOX, CAA

EPA Massively Updates National Chemical TSCA Inventory Database

Posted by Jon Elliott on Tue, Mar 26, 2019

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has just made massive updates to the largest national data base of chemical information, the TSCA Inventory. Since 1976, the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) has provided EPA with broad authorities to collect information about chemical substances in commerce in the U.S., including new chemicals that manufacturers and importers hope to bring into commerce. Information about all these substances is collected in the TSCA Inventory.

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Tags: Environmental risks, Environmental, EPA, Hazcom, tsca

Administration Again Proposes Massive Cuts To EPA

Posted by Jon Elliott on Tue, Mar 19, 2019

On March 11, the Trump Administration issued its budget proposal for federal Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 (October 1, 2019 through September 30, 2020), entitled “A Budget for a Better America: Promises Kept. Taxpayers First.” The proposal includes a 31% cut in the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) budget, from $8.28 billion in FY 2019 (under a Continuing Budget Resolutions rather than a fully-new federal budget), to $6.07 billion for FY 2020, with corresponding personnel cuts from 14,376 full-time-equivalent employees (FTE) to 12,415. (these are numbers for EPA in the government-wide budget from the Office of Management and Budget (OMBB) summary of the entire budget proposal, and EPA provides additional details on its own website).

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Tags: Business & Legal, Environmental risks, Environmental, EPA

EPA Adopts Pharmaceutical Waste Management Requirements

Posted by Jon Elliott on Tue, Mar 12, 2019

After a long rulemaking, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has just promulgated rules defining certain waste pharmaceuticals as “hazardous wastes” under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), and establishing standards for their management by selected healthcare and “reverse distribution” waste management facilities. These regulations replace general RCRA generator and treatment requirements otherwise applicable to hazardous wastes.

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Tags: Health & Safety, EPA, Hazcom, RCRA, pharmaceuticals

Clarity in Online Gambling Regulation? Don’t Bet On It

Posted by Eric Robinson on Tue, Mar 05, 2019

With casinos and other forms of legal gambling proliferating in the United States, you would think that there would be emerging clarity in the laws and regulations regarding gambling online. You’d be wrong. Instead, the law governs Internet gambling in the United States that is still a confusing morass of state and federal laws. Making this even more problematic is that both the federal government and state governments have prosecuted Internet gambling companies, making navigation of the confusing and contradictory rules a dire journey in which a misstep can have major consequences.

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Tags: Business & Legal, Internet

Another Round of EPA and Corps of Engineers Proposals to Redefine “Waters of the United States”

Posted by Jon Elliott on Tue, Feb 26, 2019

On December 11, 2018 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) jointly proposed to revise their regulatory definitions of “waters of the United States”, applying authority under the Clean Water Act (CWA). CWA does not define this term clearly, so after decades of rulemakings and litigation, it remains in dispute. Generally, Democratic presidents and the judges they appoint tend to support geographically and semantically broad applications, while with Republican presidents and the judges they appoint tend to take narrower views. The latest proposal would narrow the definition, reversing Obama-era rules adopted in June 2015, and presently in effect in 22 states based on the present status of ongoing judicial appeals (I summarized the 2015 rules, and the litigation leading up to them here and the Trump-era EPA’s 2017 proposal to roll back the 2015 revisions here). The agencies characterize this narrowing as an increase in certainty for stakeholders, accomplished by eliminating some of the site-specific discretion that the 2015 rules provided to permit writers. Because of the government shutdown, this latest proposal was not published in the Federal Register until February 14, 2019.

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Tags: Environmental risks, Environmental, EPA, effluent, clean water

If You Want Everyone To Know You’re A Transparent and Sustainable Company, Delaware Can Help

Posted by Jon Elliott on Tue, Feb 19, 2019

When companies claim they’re reducing their environmental impacts, how does anyone distinguish actual improvements from greenwashing? A growing number of national and international nonprofits and industry trade associations offer benchmarks and standards that companies can subscribe to, and third parties offer their services to evaluate and validate claims. Effective October 1, 2018 the state of Delaware has added a governmental layer, which Delaware companies can use to submit information and claims under penalty of perjury in order to gain formal state acknowledgement. The state claims this is the first such law.

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Tags: Business & Legal, Environmental, sustainability, corporate social responsibility, directors, directors & officers

Keeping Safe in Winter Weather

Posted by Jon Elliott on Tue, Feb 05, 2019

Even if the latest polar vortex has ended by the time you read this, employers in most parts of the continent should be worrying about protecting workers against winter weather. Occupational safety and health regulators include “environmental” hazards as those that may require employers to provide their employees with personal protective equipment (PPE), and employers also bear a “general duty” to protect workers against recognized hazards. These requirements cover potential harm from extreme temperatures including cold, as well as slippery surfaces and other hazards from frozen and melting snow or other precipitation.

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Tags: Employer Best Practices, Health & Safety, OSHA, Employee Rights, climate change

Is Your Workplace Injury and Illness Log Ready for Compliance with OSHA Requirements?

Posted by Jon Elliott on Thu, Jan 31, 2019

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires employers to prepare and maintain records of occupational injuries and illnesses (I&I Logs) as they occur. OSHA also requires employers to post an annual I&I Summary in each “establishment” within their workplace by February 1, summarizing that workplace’s I&Is during the previous calendar year. In states that administer federal standards within state-run programs, employers follow the comparable state requirements. Establishments with 250 or more workers must file electronic summaries by March 2.

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Tags: Business & Legal, Health & Safety, OSHA, Workplace violence