Browner vis-a-vis Jackson

[GEORGE CICOTTE <GEORGE_CICOTTE@health.ohio.gov>]

     Brian Rees pointed out a political issue that is still relevant, but 
     anyone on RADSAFE who is familiar with CERCLA please clarify (I used 
     to have a copy of the whole thing, and took a course in environmental 
     law, and what I recall from that is that CERCLA specifically exempts 
     byproduct material and related activities.  It is not the purview of 
     the EPA to make law - only regulation.  Ms. Browner does not appear, 
     from the letter posted, to have actually read CERCLA's exclusions.  
     Otherwise, she could not have honestly made the statement concerning 
     revising "its [EPA's] policy of exempting NRC sites from the NPL . . 
     ."
     
     The problem with this is that it makes Ms. Browner appear illiterate, 
     and ends up making hundreds or thousands of people at EPA look 
     foolish, which they don't deserve.  The only people at EPA I've ever 
     met who didn't understand what CERCLA says were college interns who 
     hadn't yet read it.
     
     I recommend we all take a good look at the law and fight such 
     disinformation campaigns, by all honest means available to us.
     
     V/R
     George Cicotte
     george_cicotte@health.ohio.gov
     
     From Brian Ree's post:
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     . . . In regards to the letter from Administrator Browner to 
     Commisioner Jackson (2/7 /97) . . . NRC's regulations are an attempt 
     to consider risk and reality as a basis for a regulatory foundation, 
     while the EPA continues to use political posturing as its basis. . . 
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     From Mark Winslow's post of the letter from Browner (EPA) to Jackson 
     (NRC):
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      . . . If in fact our understanding is correct, then EPA would also 
     consider NRC's rule to be not protective under CERCLA and not 
     consistent with this and previous Administrations' Ground
     Water Policy.  EPA has the authority to choose not to respond to 
     certain types of releases under CERCLA because existing regulatory or
     other authority under other Federal statutes provides for an 
     appropriate response.  EPA has previously chosen not to list on its 
     National Priorities List (NPL) for CERCLA releases of source,
     by-product, or special nuclear material from any facility with a 
     current license issued by the NRC.  This decision was made on the 
     grounds that the NRC has full authority to require cleanup of releases 
     from such facilities.
          
          If NRC were to promulgate its rule with the above-referenced 
     changes, EPA would be forced to reconsider its policy of exempting NRC 
     sites from the NPL. . . .
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