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EPA and USACE Implement More Stringent PCB Guideline for HARS

Release Date: 09/28/2000
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(#00174) New York, New York – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) today tightened the guideline for PCBs in dredged material placed in the ocean off New Jersey. They signed an agreement that lays out a process for reviewing and revising, where necessary, guidelines the agencies use for determining what material may be used to cap and isolate contaminants dumped in the Historic Area Remediation Site (HARS). The HARS is an area, including the former Mud Dump site, where historic ocean dumping has taken place over the last hundred years. Under the agreement, EPA and the USACE have put into place the more stringent HARS-specific guideline for determining acceptable levels of PCBs in remediation material. EPA, in late October, will release the scientific basis to be used to evaluate PCBs and all other chemicals to a restructured HARS criteria workgroup, to be renamed the Remediation Materials Workgroup (RMW). In addition, the Agency will make these documents available to the general public. Working with the RMW, the agencies will complete the review of current guidelines used to assess what material can be placed at the HARS and, as necessary, propose changes to guidelines for some 60 other chemicals. Any proposed changes will be subject to additional public and scientific peer review. The goal of the process is to obtain responses from the peer reviewers by July 15, 2001 and to release EPA’s proposed revisions to the guidelines for full public review in October 2001. The new interim guideline value for PCBs is 113 parts per billion in worm tissue, down from 400 parts per billion. The level in clams will remain at 100 parts per billion. "We’ve decided to apply the revised PCB guideline now because PCBs were identified as a chemical of concern in the HARS designation," said Jeanne M. Fox, EPA Regional Administrator. "While there has been much debate about dredged material and the remediation of the HARS, this agreement shows that we all have the same goals in mind – the continued protection of the ocean environment and the continued health of the port. Working with the Remediation Materials Workgroup and doing an additional scientific peer review will assure the public that we are using sound science to determine what material is suitable to remediate the wide area where historical ocean dumping, including of materials now unacceptable for the ocean floor, occurred over the past century." Dredged material from projects that have already received permits or authorization for placement at the HARS will be allowed to go forward, while all others will be assessed using the existing guidelines, including the revised more stringent PCB number. Proposed new guidelines for the other chemicals, which will be released in the months leading up to the scientific peer review in mid January 2001, will not be applied to dredged material proposed for the HARS until they are peer-reviewed and have gone through public review and comment. "This agreement is an example of good government in action," said Brig. Gen. M. Stephen Rhoades, Commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers North Atlantic Division. "It took a great deal of effort on the part of many stakeholders, but demonstrates our commitment to serving the American public by applying good science to balance complex environmental and economic needs." EPA Region 2 has been reviewing its guidelines and framework for assessing the potential impacts of dredged material on marine life and the food chain to ensure they are based on the most current science. Tests to assess the impacts on the food chain are called bioaccumulation. There has been debate on what levels of bioaccumulation – contaminants moving up the food chain -- are acceptable at the HARS. Between October 2000 and January 2001, EPA and USACE will convene the Remediation Materials Workgroup, made up of state, business and citizen stakeholders, which was originally formed as the Criteria Workgroup under the NY/NJ Harbor Estuary Program to work with EPA and USACE on guidelines used to assess dredged material for the HARS. This workgroup will have the opportunity to review EPA’s proposals as the Agency continues to develop them. EPA and USACE intend to complete its work with the Remediation Materials Workgroup in order to have proposed new guidelines ready for full peer review by mid January 2001. After the receipt of the peer review comments in July, the agencies will incorporate input from the scientific peer reviewers and will release the proposed revisions to the guidelines to the public for their review and comment in October 2001. The new, stricter guideline will result in improvements to the quality of material going to the ocean while ensuring that the Port of New York and New Jersey remains an engine of the regional and national economy.