| Montreal, 13/12/1996 – The CEC is issuing an invitation to review and comment on the draft North American Regional Action Plans (NARAPs) on three substances and the "Process for Identifying Candidate Substances for Regional Action under the Sound Management of Chemicals Initiative."
The CEC held a Stakeholder’s Workshop in Mexico City on 29 and 30 October 1996. The purpose of the workshop was to review the draft North American Regional Action Plans on PCBs, DDT, chlordane and mercury, as well as a draft process for identifying candidate substances for regional action. Many workshop participants and others suggested a need for more time for comments, particularly for the NARAPs on DDT, chlordane and mercury, and the proposed criteria for identifying substances for common action.
The comment period is thus being extended until 17 January 1997 for these action plans. After the receipt of comments, the action plans will be revised and forwarded to the North American Working Group on the Sound Management of Chemicals for review and revision before they are presented to the Council of the CEC. In the case of the criteria report, it is now anticipated that the revised draft will be reviewed at a subsequent workshop before it is forwarded to Council.
The consultation drafts of the North American Regional Action Plans on chlordane, DDT and mercury and the "Process for Identifying Substances for Regional Action under the Sound Management of Chemicals Initiative" serve as the reference. These were developed by the North American Working Group on the Sound Management of Chemicals, a body established by the Council of the CEC in October 1995 to implement the resolution on the Sound Management of Chemicals (Council Resolution 95-5). Specifically, the resolution requires the development of regional action plans for four substances in 1996 and the identification of other persistent, toxic substances as the subjects of future annual regional action plans. |
