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  4. House Democrats Criticize EPA Waiver to Import PCBs from Mexico

House Democrats Criticize EPA Waiver to Import PCBs from Mexico

Date: July 22, 2008

Source: News Room

House Energy and Commerce Committee leaders criticized U.S. EPA's decision to grant a waiver allowing Veolia ES Technical Solutions to import polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, from Mexico into its Port Arthur incinerator. Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-Mich.), Environment and Hazardous Materials Subcommittee Chairman Gene Green (D-Texas) and Hilda Solis (D-Calif.) said EPA's decision breaks a decades-old U.S. ban by creating an open border for PCB waste from Mexico. Under the exemption, Veolia would be able to import up to 20,000 tons of PCB waste from Mexico.

The EPA says that most of the PCBs come from an electric company owned by the Mexican government. Veolia is also granted the authority to dispose of the waste at an alternate facility should the Port Arthur facility shut down for some reason.

Studies have shown that PCBs cause cancer, immune system suppression and liver damage. They are banned from import under the Toxic Substances Control Act, but EPA has the right to grant waivers on a case-by-case basis if it finds a waiver would not result in unreasonable risk to health or the environment and there have been good-faith efforts to create an alternative chemical substance that does not pose the same health risks.

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