EPA's Progress in Regulating Hazardous Air Pollutants

Testimony was given on a GAO report on the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) procedures and problems in listing and regulating hazardous air pollutants under the Clean Air Act. Since the passage of the act in 1970, EPA has identified only seven substances as hazardous air pollutants and has established emission standards for only four of them. GAO found that various policy shifts and uncertainty over the type and amount of scientific data needed to support regulatory action were contributing factors to delays in identification and regulation. EPA has identified 37 potentially hazardous air pollutants and plans to conduct exposure and health assessments on them to determine which should be considered for possible regulation. GAO believes that EPA needs to direct its efforts toward the most potentially hazardous chemicals and develop a plan to conduct assessments in accordance with substances' priority ranking. GAO also found that the EPA Science Advisory Board (SAB) review procedure delays health assessment documents. SAB and EPA have disagreed over the sufficiency of data and the best method to characterize a substance's potential adverse health effects. GAO believes that EPA and SAB need to review the current process and reach a mutual agreement on ways to accelerate the review process and the closure of health assessment documents. Further, GAO found that there have been significant delays in setting standards after SAB review. Finally, GAO found that, when establishing standards, EPA has considered economic and technological factors in adopting a regulatory control strategy as well as considering health risks. GAO believes that Congress intended that EPA establish standards to eliminate public health risks and did not intend economic factors or technological feasibility to be relevant considerations in setting standards.