This page provides access to a listing of some of the recent additions and new materials made available on the EPA Web site within the past six weeks.
October 10, 2008
October 9, 2008
October 7, 2008
October 6, 2008
October 3, 2008
Pre-publication of the October 2008 Preliminary Regulatory Determination for Perchlorate posted - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency conducted extensive review of scientific data related to the health effects of exposure to perchlorate from drinking water and other sources and found that in over 99% of public drinking water systems, perchlorate was not at levels of public health concern (Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water).
Notice: IRIS Toxicological Review of Ethylene Glycol Mono-Butyl Ether (EGBE): Listening Session Announcement - EPA is announcing a listening session to be held on Friday, October 10, 2008, for the external review draft document entitled, "Toxicological Review of Ethylene Glycol Mono Butyl Ether (EGBE): In Support of Summaiy Information on the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS)" (Integrated Risk Information System Program).
Publication: BASINS 4.0 Climate Assessment Tool (CAT): Supporting Documentation and Users Manual - EPA is releasing the external review draft report titled, “BASINS 4.0 Climate Assessment Tool (CAT): Supporting Documentation and Users Manual” for a 30-day public review and comment period. The deadline for comments is November 3, 2008 (National Center for Environmental Assessment).
New from the Office of Wetlands, Oceans and Watersheds:
Cover Memo: Elements of Mercury TMDLs Where Mercury Loadings are Predominantly from Air Deposition (PDF) - The document (also referred to as a “checklist”) includes considerations when addressing TMDL elements on different geographic scales, such as waterbody, regional, and multi-state. A 2 pp, 13K Adobe Acrobat PDF document.
September 30, 2008
New from the Office of Inspector General:
Report: A Region 5 Penalty Reduction Was Unjustified and Undocumented (PDF) - We conducted this review in response to a complaint alleging that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Region 5 Regional Counsel arbitrarily reduced a civil penalty against Minnesota Metal Finishing,Inc. (MMF), without justification. A 30 pp, 243K Adobe Acrobat PDF document.
A new Summary for Propionaldehyde and accompanying Toxicological Review (PDF) (78 pp, 496K) have been added to the IRIS Web site (Integrated Risk Information System Program).
September 29, 2008
EPA Has Initiated Strategic Planning for Priority Enforcement Areas, but Key Elements Still Needed (PDF) - We undertook this review to determine how well the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) planned to ensure success in its enforcement priority areas. We reviewed current priority area strategies for air toxics, combined sewer overflow, and mineral processing. A 40 pp, 403K Adobe Acrobat PDF document from the Office of Inspector General.
September 24, 2008
New from the Office of Inspector General:
Report: Management of EPA Headquarters Internet Protocol Addresses Needs Improvement (PDF) - The Office of Inspector General contracted with Williams, Adley & Company, LLP to conduct the annual audit of the U.S. Environ-mental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) compliance with the Federal Information Security Management Act. Williams, Adley & Company, LLP conducted network vulnerability testing of the Agency’s local area network located at the EPA’s Head-quarters in Washington, DC. A 1 pp, 56K Adobe Acrobat PDF document.
EPA begins rolling out nearly $50 million in funding for clean diesel projects, starting with $3.4 million in grants to help small trucking firms lower fuel costs and carbon footprints (Office of Transportation and Air Quality).
Pesticide Registration Improvement Renewal Act (PRIA 2) of 2009 & 2010 - This web page provides information on updated fees for pesticide registration applications (Office of Pesticide Programs).
September 17, 2008
EPA Should Continue Efforts to Reduce Unliquidated Obligations in Brownfields Pilot Grants (PDF) - We sought to determine whether the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been using funds in a timely manner for brownfields pilot projects, and whether funds were available for deobligation. An 18 pp, 311K Adobe Acrobat PDF document from the Office of Inspector General.
September 16, 2008
Publication: Integrated Science Assessment for Sulfur Oxides – Health Criteria (Final Report) - EPA is announcing the release of the final report entitled,Integrated Science Assessment (ISA) for Sulfur Oxides – Health Criteria and the Annexes. This ISA represents a concise synthesis and evaluation of the most policy-relevant science and will ultimately provide the scientific bases for EPA’s decision regarding whether the current standard for SO2 sufficiently protects public health (National Center for Environmental Assessment).
Fuel Waiver: Multistate - On September 11, EPA issued an emergency waiver through September 15 of the Reid Vapor Pressure (RVP) and ethanol requirements for gasoline in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, and of the RVP, ethanol and reformulated gasoline requirements for Texas through September 30 (Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance).
New from the National Exposure Research Laboratory:
Upcoming Presentations by EPA’s Exposure Researchers - September to December, 2008.
September 10, 2008
Notice for the Toxicological Review of Carbon Tetrachloride: External Peer Review Meeting - EPA announces an independent External Peer Review Meeting to be hosted on October 14, 2008, for the draft document entitled, "Toxicological Review of Carbon Tetrachloride: In Support of Summary Information on the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS)" (Integrated Risk Information System Program).
National Pollution Prevention Week - One of the most important ways to protect the environment is by reducing pollution before it ever gets to the environment. National Pollution Prevention Week is September 15-21, and this year's theme "Pollution Prevention - Where Sustainable Practices Begins" reminds us that preventing pollution is at the heart of sustainability (Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics).
September 5, 2008
September 4, 2008
Border 2012 Program Needs to Improve Program Management to Ensure Results (PDF) - We initiated this review to examine the impact of Border 2012’s program management and organization on its ability to meet the program’s mission: to protect the environment and public health in the U.S.-Mexico border region. Specifically, we evaluated whether the program management and organizational structure of Border 2012 impact program outcomes. A 42 pp, 572K Adobe Acrobat PDF document from the Office of Inspector General.
EPA finalizes emission standards for new nonroad spark-ignition engines, equipment, and boats - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is adopting new exhaust emission standards for marine spark-ignition engines and small land-based nonroad engines. EPA is also adopting evaporative emission standards for equipment and vessels using these engines. These standards apply only to newly manufactured products. The standards will reduce the harmful health effects of ozone and carbon monoxide from these engines, equipment, and vessels (Office of Transportation and Air Quality).
New from the Office of Pesticide Programs:
Index of Cleared Science Reviews for Trichloromelamine (Pc Code 077101) - Science reviews previously released under FOIA have been posted.
September 2, 2008
External Peer Review Panel Meeting Comments posted on the IRIS Toxicological Review Document of Propionaldehyde - On May 29, 2008, an external peer review panel workshop was hosted by an independent contractor on the Toxicological Review of Propionaldehyde (External Review Draft). Completing this review, a final report of the comments from the workshop were collected and are now available (Integrated Risk Information System Program).
Lead Test Kit Evaluation - EPA is evaluating the effectiveness of lead test kits by asking vendors to submit test kits for review to ensure fewer false negatives (Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics).
August 29, 2008
Agreed-Upon Procedures on EPA's Fiscal Year 2008 Second Quarter Financial Statements (PDF) - We performed agreed-upon procedures on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Fiscal Year (FY) 2008 second quarter Financial Statements. We did so to assist EPA in evaluating whether its quarterly Financial Statements were compiled consistent with the Treasury Standard General Ledger Crosswalk, and to identify significant fluctuations in financial line item balances from the previous year. A 21 pp, 310K Adobe Acrobat PDF document from the Office of Inspector General.
Updated Pharmaceutical and Personal Care Products (PPCP) literature references - Listing of literature references to Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products in the environment (National Exposure Research Laboratory).
August 28, 2008
Flubendiamide Chemical Documents - Fact sheet and document information for the Flubendiamide new active ingredient (Office of Pesticide Programs).
New from the Office of Brownfields & Land Revitalization - The Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act (“Brownfields Law”, P.L. 107-118) requires the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to publish guidance to assist applicants in preparing proposals for grants to assess and clean up brownfield sites. EPA’s Brownfields Program provides funds to empower states, communities, tribes, and nonprofits to prevent, inventory, assess, clean up, and reuse brownfield sites. EPA provides brownfields funding for three types of grants: (1) Brownfields Assessment Grants - provides funds to inventory, characterize, assess, and conduct planning (including cleanup planning) and community involvement related to brownfield sites; (2) Brownfields Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) Grants – provides funds for a grant recipient to capitalize a revolving fund and to make loans and provide subgrants to carry out cleanup activities at brownfield sites and: (3) Brownfields Cleanup Grants - provides funds to carry out cleanup activities at a specific brownfield site owned by the applicant. The deadline for proposals is November 14, 2008.
August 27, 2008
Report: Follow-up on Audit of Undistributed Site Costs Finds Corrective Actions Not Complete (PDF) - Audit follow-up is essential to good management and improving the efficiency and effectiveness of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) programs and operations. EPA has audit follow-up procedures and designated officials who manage this process. EPA Manual 2750 requires EPA to form a corrective action plan and complete the actions by the agreed upon milestone dates. In our prior report, we noted that EPA did not timely redistribute Superfund payments from a general site identifier to specific sites. A 30 pp, 448K Adobe Acrobat PDF document from the Office of Inspector General.
Publication: A Review of the Impact of Climate Variability and Change on Aeroallergens and their Associated Effects (Final Report) - EPA is announcing the release of a final report titled, "A Review of the Impact of Climate Variability and Change on Aeroallergens and their Associated Effects." This report was prepared by the National Center for Environmental Assessment's Global Climate Research Staff (National Center for Environmental Assessment).
The new Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Import-Export Web site pulls together into one site a comprehensive presentation of information on TSCA import and export requirements that may apply to various chemicals and circumstances under, among others, TSCA Sections 4, 5, 6, 8, 12 and 13 (Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics).
New from the Office of Pesticide Programs:
Index of Cleared Science Reviews for Cyphenothrin (Pc Code 129013) - Science reviews previously released under FOIA have been posted.
Index of Cleared Science Reviews for Iodomethane (Pc Code 000011) - Science reviews previously released under FOIA have been posted.