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Great Lakes Binational Toxics Strategy

Stakeholder Forum - 1998

IMPLEMENTING THE BINATIONAL TOXICS STRATEGY
Implementation

Stakeholders Minutes
March 23, 1998 - Chicago, Illinois

Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCB) Meeting Minutes

Workgroup Leaders:
Environment Canada: Hamish St. Rose
U.S. EPA: Tony Martig

Facilitator:
Abra Bennett, Ross & Associates

Discussion of goals and work plan for workgroup:

The meeting got underway at approximately 11:00 a.m. and the workgroup members identified their goals for the PCB workgroup. A list of the goals was recorded and is attached on the Record of Flip Charts. The goals varied, but the following summary attempts to capture and consolidate the goals discussed during the meeting.

Step 1 - Discussion of status of chemical (i.e., inventory, emissions sources, etc.):

Environment Canada (presented by Larry Talbot, EC contractor)

The Canadian challenge is to decommission 90% of the high-level PCBs (>1%) in-service and to accelerate destruction of stored high level waste by the year 2000. Information gathered in support of the challenge comes from: 

Under the 1994 Canada - Ontario Agreement (COA), achievements to the end of 1996 are:

Under COA 2.2, achievements to the end of 1996 are:

EC maintains a database to track both PCBs in-use (federal and non-federal) and PCBs in-storage (federal) as waste. The Ontario Ministry of the Environment maintains an inventory of non-federal PCBs in-storage as waste. Information regarding PCBs in-use is collected for the database on a voluntary basis, while information regarding PCBs in-storage must be reported per EC regulations. EC is working with the Ontario Ministry of the Environment to increase the databases' capacity.

Under a Canada-Ontario Agreement Initiative, information on PCB storage has been mailed to almost 1,750 members of the regulated community. Information is being collected and shared under the following efforts:

As part of the Small Quantity Owner Outreach Program, EC held 8 workshops in the Province of Ontario to educate and exchange information with PCB owners. More workshops are scheduled in Ontario for Spring, 1998.  

United States (presented by Tony Martig, U.S. EPA)

The U.S. challenge is to seek a 90% reduction nationally of high level PCBs (>500 ppm) used in electrical equipment and ensure that all PCBs retired are properly managed and disposed. The baseline information came from 1994 estimates of PCB electrical equipment still in use. Information used to track the reductions of PCBs in electrical equipment and environmental media will come from various programs, including:

After these presentations, several issues were raised as noted below:  

Action items to the above issues include:

Step 2 - Discussion of current and upcoming regulatory status: 

Environment Canada (presented by Larry Talbot, EC contractor)

PCBs are regulated in Canada under various federal and provincial acts, including the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA), the Ontario Environmental Protection Act (OEPA), the Transportation of Dangerous Goods Act (TDGA) and the Fisheries Act.

The federal regulations promulgated under these acts ban the manufacture, sale and import of PCBs, control releases, and stipulate storage, treatment and disposal requirements. They also regulate the transportation and export of PCBs. The renewal of CEPA will focus on pollution prevention and getting PCBs out of the environment.

The Ontario Provincial Regulations, promulgated under OEPA, regulate the transportation, storage and mobile destruction of PCBs and are under revision to encourage consolidation/treatment/destruction of PCB waste.

United States (presented by Tony Martig, U.S. EPA)
 
In the United States, PCBs are regulated under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the Clean Water Act (CWA), the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), the Comprehensive Environmental Resources and Compensation Liability Act (CERCLA) and the Clean Air Act (CAA). PCBs are also regulated under state environmental agencies, and other federal and state agencies such as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Department of Transportation (DOT).
 
The Federal PCB regulations, promulgated under TSCA and found at Title 40, Part 761 of the Code of Federal Regulations, ban the manufacture of PCBs, prohibit or regulate their use, include requirements for storage and disposal of PCB waste, and also include requirements for spill cleanup, decontamination, waste tracking and record keeping. These regulations specifically authorize the continued use of high-level PCBs in electrical equipment.

Amendments to the federal PCB regulations are forthcoming and may help achieve the PCB challenge by streamlining disposal options and requiring owners of PCB transformers to register their PCB transformers with EPA. The amendments will also recognize additional methods to dispose of PCB waste and will authorize additional procedures to reclassify transformers from a high level (>500 ppm).  

Step 3 - Discussion of cost effective options for reduction:

In addition to regulatory support by federal, state and provincial governments, non-regulatory efforts are being carried out to achieve PCB reductions. These efforts include, Lake-wide Management Plans (LaMPs), Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), Regional Action Plans (RAPs), U.S. EPA=s Persistent Bioaccumulative & Toxics Initiative ( PBTI), the PCB Phasedown Program and PCB Clean Sweeps.

After these presentations, several issues were raised as noted below:

Step 4 - Recommendations and Implementation of Actions

Based on the discussion of effective options, the action items noted below were identified for the workgroup. Until the electronic discussion forum for the Strategy is completely functional, information for a respective action items should be submitted to the person who volunteered to lead the effort for the action item.

Discussion of the need to identify and recruit additional members:
 
The session was attended by representatives of industry, both users of PCB equipment and waste handlers, several trade associations and non-governmental organizations, and federal and state government representatives. A roster of participants is attached.
 
It was suggested that the workgroup needs to be more diversified, balanced by representatives from different sectors and include more owners of PCBs. Specifically, attempts will be made to recruit representatives of:

The National Oil Recyclers Association (NORA) has started distributing BNS information to their members and will continue these efforts. U.S. EPA will attempt to recruit representatives of the U.S. manufacturers of PCBs and electrical equipment. A letter inviting participation from Canadian PCB stakeholders will be mailed by EC. Due 5/15/98  

Issues identified for referral to Integration Group:

There were differing views on how the workgroup should address PCBs in sediment. Some objected to having the workgroup address sediments because PCBs in sediment were not part of the specific PCB challenge, addressing sediments may be beyond the scope of the workgroup and may involve additional workgroups, sediment are a separate challenge under the Strategy, and because there already are ongoing efforts to address PCBs in sediments. Some supported having the workgroup address sediments because PCBs could be "released" from sediments into the lakes and because it was more of a risk than PCBs in electrical equipment.  

Discussion of any upcoming events or activities pertaining to the workgroup (i.e, next conference call, meeting, with specific dates if any):

Attachments:

 

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