EPA's Failure To Update Manganese Risk Assessment Stymies Key Rules

摘要

EPA's failure to update its 20-year-old assessment of the toxicity of manganese is creating challenges for state and federal air regulators, who are hoping to use a new assessment to craft air toxics rules for ferroalloy producers, as well as EPA's drinking water office, which is considering again placing the element on its list of substances eligible for regulation. The delay in updating the assessment is one reason the agency is struggling to complete its national emissions standard for hazardous air pollutants (NESHAP) for ferroalloy producers, which it recently delayed by another year. Michigan regulators, however, say they are tired of waiting on the agency and developed their own risk values, which they released last month.