LANSING – After more than three years of discussion and debate, the Department of Environmental Quality formally began the process Thursday of a rules change that would remove hundreds of chemicals from the list of toxics the DEQ automatically regulates in air emissions.

Now at about 1,200, the number of regulated chemicals would drop to 756; a move that DEQ officials said would allow its staff to focus on those chemicals known to be harmful. The chemicals removed from the list are those with low toxicity or whose toxicity is unknown. Instead of an open-ended list of toxics, the list would now be defined.

The department would retain the authority for the DEQ to review toxics not on the list based on public health concerns on a case-by-case basis.

“This change better focuses our permitting process on the pollutants of most concern,” said DEQ Air Quality Division Chief Lynn Fiedler in a statement. “Our mission as an agency continues to be protecting public health while encouraging economic development.”

Environmental groups criticized the change, saying it would weaken the state’s ability to protect public health.

The changes to the air toxics list have been long in the making and the subject of two workgroups and subject to years of discussion. DEQ spokesperson Karen Tommasulo said the department took so much time on formally initiating rules because it wanted to get it right.

“We had to find that balance and figure out what we could do with the rules that would make us more competitive as a state while still ensuring public health,” she said.

Sean Hammond, deputy policy director of the Michigan Environmental Council, said the rules would mean the state shifting from presuming chemicals with unknown toxicity are unsafe to assuming they are safe.

“It takes away that certainty – on being able to say that we know for sure that the public health is protected from any toxic chemicals,” he said.

Anne Woiwode, conservation director of the Michigan chapter of the Sierra Club, said the proposed rules would devalue environmental protection in the state.

“The state has been a leader in the past in addressing air toxics issues,” she said. “While it’s complicated, there is a value in the state protecting public health against a whole range of pollution, particularly air toxics. This is a very disappointing direction for this administration to go in.”

But Tommasulo said the state list remains much larger than the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s, which is 187, and noted the DEQ could still investigate a substance no longer on the list if it determined that was necessary.

“We can look at that at any time, so there’s a backstop to this as well,” she said.

Among the other rules changes unveiled:

Any future changes to the Toxic Air Contaminant list or health-based screening levels would include a public comment component;

Engines burning “cleaner fuels” like natural gas, diesel and biodiesel and meeting other requirements would be exempt from the regulations for toxic air contaminants after the DEQ determined that emissions from these fuels pose no public health or environmental risk; and

Existing permitted facilities proposing modifications involving “insignificant changes” in toxic air contaminant emissions will be exempt from toxic air contaminant regulations if a specific evaluation method shows the change would not be meaningful.

The proposed rules now go to the Office of Regulatory Reinvention. There will be a public comment period as well before the rules are finalized and sent to the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules for review.

This story was published by Gongwer News Service. To subscribe, click on www.gongwer.com

Author: Staff Writer
Source: Gongwer Ndws Service
Date: 7/16/2015