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EPA sets 10-ppb arsenic standard
EPA is setting the maximum allowable amount of arsenic in drinking water at 10 ppb, Administrator Christine Todd Whitman announced last week. This is the same level set in a Clinton Administration rule issued in January that was withdrawn for further review and analysis by the Bush Administration in March. EPA planned to set a new arsenic standard in February 2002, but Congress last week was poised to include a provision in an appropriations bill to mandate a level of 10 ppb or lower. In response, Whitman announced the new standard. Drinking water systems must comply with the new standard in 2006, the same time the January regulation would have taken effect. Rep. Sherwood L. Boehlert (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House Science Committee, says, "The 10-ppb standard is a dramatic improvement over the current 50-ppb standard." But the Natural Resources Defense Council argues that, given the newest scientific data, the standard should be 3 ppb.
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Coalition wants nuclear waste fund protected
A coalition of utilities, state officials, and others have urged the Bush Administration to keep the nuclear waste fund separate from the general treasury funds. The $11 billion fund is currently mixed with general federal dollars and is being used to balance the federal budget, the coalition says in a letter to the Office of Management & Budget. They charge that the commingling of funds has led to Congress' unwillingness to adequately fund the civilian nuclear waste program. The group wants full funding supplied to speed development of the Yucca Mountain repository and interim storage facilities in Nevada. Concerns over adequacy of the fund are likely to grow as the Department of Energy moves nearer to a final resolution of the repository.
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Leshner chosen to lead AAAS
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Leshner
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A new CEO has been chosen for the American Association for the Advancement of Science--Alan I. Leshner, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) at the National Institutes of Health. When Leshner, 57, begins his new job on Dec. 3, he will replace Richard S. Nicholson, who is retiring. Leshner, who received a Ph.D. degree in physiological psychology from Rutgers University, has been at the helm of NIDA since 1994. Under his leadership, the institute, which supports more than 85% of all research on the health aspects of drug abuse and addiction, has increasingly explored the impact of drug addiction on the brain and sought new ways to treat drug addiction.
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Deal on chemical burners set
EPA, the American Chemistry Council (ACC), the Sierra Club, and other litigants have reached an agreement on a plan and process to allow EPA to rewrite air pollution regulations for on-site incinerators, which burn more than 3 million tons of hazardous waste a year. Late last July, a federal appeals court overturned a final incinerator regulation, agreeing with the Sierra Club that EPA's technique to set the emissions limits was flawed and resulted in weak standards (C&EN, Aug. 6, page 7). The regulation covers some 170 incinerators, many of which are run by chemical companies. The agreement will allow EPA to promulgate interim air emissions regulations by early next year, while continuing to develop new emissions standards, which are due in June 2005.
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Children's environmental health centers
Four new children's environmental health research centers will focus on conditions such as autism and attention deficit disorder, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and EPA have announced. Each of the four centers will receive approximately $1 million annually for five years. Two of the centers, at the University of California, Davis, and the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School at the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey, will study environmental factors that may be related to autism. A center at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, will examine the impact of mercury and polychlorinated biphenyls exposure among Asian Americans. The fourth center, at Children's Hospital of Cincinnati, will assess the impact of reducing pollutants in the home and neighborhood on youngsters' hearing, behavior, and test scores.
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NSF is giving the Institute for Genomic Research in Rockville, Md., an emergency award of $200,000 to complete the company's project to map the genome of the strain of anthrax found on the letters used in the recent mail attacks. NSF Director Rita R. Colwell called it "basic research in the national interest." She said such an effort could help federal officials by determining, for example, whether the anthrax had been genetically altered to enhance its virulence. About two years ago, the company began making a generic DNA reference map of the Ames strain of Bacillus anthracis with funding from the Pentagon, the Department of Energy, and NIH. Using DNA fingerprinting, government scientists have identified Ames as the strain used in attacks in Florida, New York City, and Washington, D.C. Some scientists, including some who helped identify the Ames strain, have questioned whether full sequencing of the anthrax genome is worthwhile at this time. In a related matter, EPA has suggested fumigating the anthrax-contaminated Hart Senate Office Building with chlorine dioxide as an effective and rapid means of ridding the building of the deadly spores.
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GOVERNMENT & POLICY ROUNDUP
- President Bush convened the first meeting of the newly created Homeland Security Council last week. The council is chaired by Tom Ridge, director of the Office of Homeland Security.
- J. Paul Gilman, director of research integration and policy planning at Celera Genomics in Rockville, Md., is President Bush's pick to head EPA's Office of Research & Development.
Chemical & Engineering News
Copyright © 2001 American Chemical Society
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