The Congressionally-mandated clock is ticking and EPA is hard at work trying to put together a list list of 100 chemicals to test for possible endocrine disrupting effects. The deadline is October, which seems far off until you figure that EPA has agreed (well, sort of agreed) to allow public review of the list. The public review will be informal, that is, it won't be the official kind of proposed comment, respond, final comment process usually required. The idea is to give this informal shot at the list by industry and other interested stakeholders before EPA has to get the list to Congress.
There will, of course, be a formal commenting process when the chemical test orders are prepared. But right now EPA is under the gun. And with the fall elections likely to result in substantial seat-changing, there really isn't any way to delay it further. Why? Because the Congressman Jim Moran inserted language into EPA’s fiscal year 2010 appropriations law requiring the release of a new list of no less than 100 chemicals, including drinking water contaminants, and to issue testing orders for the chemicals under the agency’s existing Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program (EDSP). And just this week Congressman Markey introduced a bill to update the EDSP to mandate the screening of the drinking water contaminants.
All of this means that EPA is going to have to get up to speed on the Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program that has been languishing since it was originally mandated way back in 1996.
More to come.
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