Waste Office Works To Advance Bush Priorities During Final Weeks

摘要

EPA's waste office is working to advance during the Bush administration's final weeks several regulatory priorities - including a final rule relaxing storage and record-keeping requirements for university research laboratories and a proposal to ease pharmaceutical waste regulations - agency officials say. "We're still doing a fair amount of regulatory work," Matt Hale, director of EPA's Office of Solid Waste, told state regulators Oct. 24 during a round table session at the Association of State & Territorial Solid Waste Management Officials annual meeting in Baltimore, MD. He identified the final lab waste rule and the proposed pharmaceutical waste rule as two priorities the office aims to complete before Bush leaves office. The White House Office of Management & Budget (OMB) completed its review of the final lab rule Oct. 24. One EPA official told the state officials at the meeting that the agency recently had "somewhat of a break through" regarding the final academic lab waste rule, which has been the subject of an ongoing dispute over whether the agency should expand the rule to also ease requirements from some industrial facilities. Hale instructed the EPA official not to elaborate on the details of the internal discussions regarding the rule, but said he was optimistic the agency would be able to finalize it in the coming weeks. Hale said he did not expect the rule to be controversial, but also said the rule will not be more stringent than state requirements, and therefore "states don't have to pick it up" if they don't want to.