Great Lakes Binational Toxics Strategy

Stakeholder Forum - 1998

IMPLEMENTING THE BINATIONAL TOXICS STRATEGY
Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) Workgroup

Draft Options Paper: Virtual Elimination of PCBs

In September 1994, as part of the Virtual Elimination Project, EPA hosted a meeting for stakeholders where the Agency shared its initial findings on mercury and PCBs and offered participants an opportunity to make recommendations on ways to reduce the use and release of each chemical.  An options paper on mercury was drafted first and released for public comment in 1995. 

This options paper discusses several reduction opportunities for PCBs, based on the suggestions of meeting participants. Section II reviews the overall approach of the Virtual Elimination Project, followed by a brief overview of PCB sources and regulations, in order to provide some background for new readers, and a discussion of trends in PCB disposal. Section III discusses specific options to reduce PCB contamination and accelerate disposal. A separate matrix includes a full menu of these recommendations. Section IV identifies a proposed framework to help stimulate additional reductions of PCBs.

As an "options" paper, this document does not recommend a specific path of action for EPA. Rather, it is designed to catalogue different ways to achieve virtual elimination goals, recognizing that EPA will still need to evaluate where its involvement could be most effective, and make strategic investments where appropriate. EPA has recently modified the PCB rules to help increase the pace of PCB disposal in the United States. The modifications, issued June 29, 1998, make major changes to the types of disposal options available and the items that fall under regulatory control.

This Page created November 10, 1998