Environmental Protection Agency November 20, 2019 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

On December 10, 2019, EPA's Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP) will hold a public meeting to engage with interested stakeholders on the implementation of EPA's TSCA New Chemicals program, including: (1) An overview of EPA's updated ``Working Approach'' document that builds upon EPA's November 2017 ``New Chemicals Decision-Making Framework: Working Approach to Making Determinations under section 5 of TSCA''; (2) a demonstration of how EPA uses key concepts in the Working Approach to reach certain conclusions and/or make determinations under TSCA section 5(a)(3) using specific case examples; (3) an update on confidential business information (CBI) process improvements and clarifications; and (4) a discussion of EPA's ongoing efforts and progress to increase transparency. Interested stakeholders will have the opportunity at the meeting to provide their views on these topics, in addition to providing written feedback in the docket. Later in December 2019, EPA expects to announce the availability of the updated ``Working Approach'' document and provide opportunity for written public comment on the document. Feedback from the public meeting and comments received will help inform the Agency's ongoing efforts to improve policy and processes relating to the review of new chemicals under TSCA.

Notice is hereby given that a reissuance of an exemption to the Land Disposal Restrictions, under the 1984 Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, has been granted to ExxonMobil for two Class I hazardous waste injection wells located at their Pasadena, Texas facility. The company has adequately demonstrated to the satisfaction of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by the petition reissuance application and supporting documentation that, to a reasonable degree of certainty, there will be no migration of hazardous constituents from the injection zone for as long as the waste remains hazardous. This final decision allows the underground injection by ExxonMobil of the specific restricted hazardous wastes identified in this exemption reissuance request, into Class I hazardous waste injection wells WDW-397 and 398 until December 31, 2040, unless the EPA moves to terminate this exemption. Additional conditions included in this final decision may be reviewed by contacting the EPA Region 6 Ground Water/UIC Section. There were two public comment periods for this decision because the newspaper failed to publish the first notice. They were 6/12-7/29/19 and 8/21-10/ 7/19 and no comments were received. This decision constitutes final Agency action and there is no Administrative appeal.