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Public Comment Period on Proposed Rule for PCBs in Dredged Material Begins

Release Date: 10/08/2002
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(#02110) New York, N.Y. - The proposed rule for PCBs in dredged material that was signed last week by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Regional Administrator Jane M. Kenny was published today in the Federal Register, officially starting the 30-day public comment period. The proposed PCB rule would make 113 parts per billion (ppb) the bioaccumulation standard used to determine if dredged material is suitable for placement off the New Jersey/New York shoreline. EPA developed the proposed rule at the direction of EPA Administrator Christie Whitman, who moved quickly to protect the ocean following a recent court decision in the U.S. Gypsum case. The judge ruled that the PCB criterion of 113 ppb, adopted by EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in September 2000, should have been issued as a formal rule. Today’s publication of the proposed rule sets the rulemaking process in motion. The proposed rule will only apply to sediments considered for placement at the Historic Area Remediation Site known as the HARS. The rule is being proposed under the Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act. It would establish a HARS-specific PCB value for polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in the tissue of worms exposed to the contaminant in laboratory tanks as a binding criterion for making determinations about whether dredged material is suitable for placement at the HARS. Once promulgated, the new PCB value of 113 ppb would remain in effect until new values are set forth -- based on a joint response by EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to the scientific peer review of a revised approach for evaluating PCBs and other contaminants of concern.