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LEAN Suing EPA Over Comparable Fuels Rule |
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Companies can burn toxic waste without complying with hazardous waste laws
WASHINGTON,
DC - March 18, 2009 - Environmental groups are suing the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency over a Bush administration rule that
will allow more than 100,000 tons a year of hazardous waste to be
burned without regard to regulations that monitor such toxins. This
last-minute rule from the Bush Administration redefines the hazardous
waste as "fuel," allowing facilities that generate, store and transport
it to avoid federal requirements for preventing leaks, spills and toxic
emissions.
Earthjustice is representing the Louisiana Environmental Action Network and the Sierra Club in their lawsuit.
"Here
in Louisiana, we know all about the devastating health effects that
result from exposure to hazardous chemicals," said Marylee Orr,
Executive Director of Louisiana
Environmental Action Network. "The whole point of regulating hazardous
waste is to provide communities like ours with some protection against
these poisons, and it is absolutely outrageous that the Bush
administration would deprive us of that protection just to enrich the
oil and chemical companies that generate this waste."
The rule will not only allow facilities that store and transport the
exempted waste to avoid the tracking, permitting, closure and financial
assurance requirements in the Resource
Conservation and Recovery Act. It also will allow the waste to be
burned in ordinary boilers and process heaters instead of facilities
designed and permitted to burn hazardous waste safely.
"This rule is wrongheaded," said Marti Sinclair, chair of the Sierra
Club's Clean Air Team. "Americans are counting on cleaner, greener
fuels, efficiency and alternative fuels to improve our health,
environment and economy. This Bush-era rule fails on all counts by
allowing sloppy handling and disposal of dirty dangerous wastes. This lawsuit
seeks to put an end to this dead-end gambit."
Hazardous
waste often contains extremely dangerous levels of toxic chemicals,
exposure to which can cause cancer, heart and lung disease, and other
serious health impacts. This rule allows waste that contains highly
toxic chemicals such as benzene and toluene, both potent carcinogens,
to be stored, transported and burned as fuel without the stringent
safeguards imposed on hazardous waste.
"I urge the Obama
administration to agree with us that this rule is unlawful," said James
Pew, Earthjustice attorney. "It was irresponsible for the previous
administration to pretend that it could make hazardous waste any less
hazardous just by giving it another name."
The Bush
administration signed the controversial rule into law on Dec. 19, 2008,
despite the protests of members of Congress and environmental groups
who called on EPA to require further study and allow additional comment
on the environmental records of the facilities that would handle and
burn hazardous waste.
This rule is the third of three midnight
regulations from the Bush administration that exempt various hazardous
wastes from regulation.
Earthjustice and Sierra Club are also
challenging EPA's redefinition of solid waste, and Earthjustice is
representing both Sierra Club and LEAN in their challenge of the
hazardous waste gasification rule. Through these three rules the EPA
has exempted nearly two million tons of hazardous waste annually from
regulation, increasing human exposure to hundreds of toxins and
carcinogens.
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