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- Path: sparky!uunet!spool.mu.edu!agate!naughty-peahen
- From: ACTIV-L via Jym Dyer <jym@mica.berkeley.edu>
- Newsgroups: talk.environment
- Subject: INFO & ACTIVISM: EPA Works to Weaken the Clean Air Act
- Date: 9 Jan 1993 06:11:18 GMT
- Organization: The Naughty Peahen Party Line
- Lines: 55
- Distribution: usa
- Message-ID: <ACTIV-L.8Jan1993.2211@naughty-peahen>
- References: <1992Dec20.000601.22237@mont.cs.missouri.edu>
- NNTP-Posting-Host: remarque.berkeley.edu
- Keywords: environment
-
- [Also Posted to misc.activism.progressive (by Somebody Else)]
-
- ================================================================
- => From: jcm@plex-1.ann-arbor.mi.us (John Martin)
- => Subject: EPA works to weaken the Clean Air Act
-
- EPA WORKS TO WEAKEN THE CLEAN AIR ACT
-
- The EPA is proposing to rescind the new 1990 Clean Air
- Act air emission standards for all NRC licensed non-reactor
- facilities on the grounds that the less stringent NRC
- regulations may provide an "ample margin of safety." These
- facilities include uranium fuel cycle plants, uranium mills,
- hospitals, medical research facilities, radiopharmaceutical
- manufacturers, laboratories, universities, and industrial
- facilities (over 6,000 facilities). Many who live near such
- non-reactor facilities are concerned that the NRC's traditional
- coddling of the nuclear industry and its poor past regard for
- public safety puts local communities at risk.
-
- Comments concerning the proposed rescinding of the rule
- must be received by the EPA on or before January 14, 1993.
- A public hearing concerning this proposal will be held in
- Washington, DC at 10 am on January 14, 1993 if a request is
- made. Contact the EPA, Fran Jonesi at 202/233-9229.
-
- The NESHAP rule (40 CFR Part 6, Subpart I) would limit
- radionuclide emissions to any member of the public in any
- given year to 10 millirems and to no more than 3 mrems from
- radioiodines. The current NRC standard is 100 mrem for the
- general public. The proposed rule would force facilities
- to use control systems, to maintain effluent monitoring data,
- and to report monthly if out of compliance. The new NESHAP
- rule gives citizens the right to take legal action to compel
- compliance.
-
- These NESHAP rules were originally written to include
- both nuclear reactors and NRC-licensed non-reactor facilities,
- but in 1991, the EPA suspended the NESHAP rules for reactors.
- Recently, however, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit
- Court ruled the EPA's action to be illegal. Temporarily, at
- least, these reactor facilities must meet the stricter air
- standards of the new Clean Air Act rather than the less
- stringent NRC standards. The January hearing will decide
- if the EPA can do for local nonreactor facilities what they
- did for reactor facilities in 1991.
-
- For more information regarding this hearing, contact
- Dora St. Martin, Citizens for Safe Waste Disposal, Ann Arbor,
- Michigan. 313/996-0649.
-
- ======
- --
- John Martin
- jcm@plex-1.ann-arbor.mi.us
-