This column is the third of a series designed to inform, report, comment, and challenge, even agitate. If you’re a U.S. citizen, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is your environmental protection agency. If you don’t like the regulations it produces, do something about it.

In the February column, we covered how the EPA produces these regulations and how citizens can interact with that process. In the March column, we covered the dual-action scientific and regulatory basis by which EPA now regulates volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in two different ways: by exemption for mass-based emissions and by individual reactivity without exemptions.

HOW CAN THIS BE?
I believe there are two broad-based reasons for this dual position, which on the surface might appear to violate the Federal Administrative ProceduresRule requiring a consistent basis for regulation.

EPA has been regulating VOC emissions since 1971, and the easy reductions of mass flow have already been achieved. So another approach is being tried: reducing the atmospheric reactivity of the emission. This is known as solvent substitution,a policy I have long advocated.

Confidence in and acceptance of atmospheric science has expanded in the last decade. Scientists now believe they can model atmospheric events and “almost” predictthe outcome of environmental policy on ozone formation.

In other words, we are on the threshold of substantial change in the environmental management of chemicals. EPA wants to combat ozone formation with a second weapon: regulation by reactivity, or solvent substitution. EPA has said theywill also continue to use their existing weapon — targeted VOC exemptions.

DEALER’S CHOICE
Today, EPA regulates chemical emissions with both an exemption policy (based on reactivity), AND a reactivity policy. EPA will choose which policy toapply in every situation. Obviously, this is a judgment call.

EPA says the basis for making that choice are cost of regulation, expected gains from implementing the traditional mass-based regulation, consistency with existing state regulations (such as California’s aerosol coatingregulation), and industry needs/support.

YOUR CHOICE
If your business is impacted by these choices of the EPA, you need to be informed and express your views. You need to know just which regulations are under consideration now, who is responsible for the regulations, what their needs are for industry data, when the scheduled periods for comment are — and to have read the February column, where this topic was covered in greaterdetail.

Here are some specific actions you can take, none of which require hiring a lobbyist:

Use the internet to alert you to forthcoming actions. Both Google and Yahoo, the LISTSERV of the Federal Register (listserv.access.gpo.gov), some environmental activist associations, and national newspapers offer free news alerts sent to email addresses. Choose keywords with care, set alerts for multiple keyword combinations, and you’ll be among the first to know when information you need is announced.

Be familiar with the calendar of proposed EPA regulation activities. On January 2, EPA opened a new web site (www.epa.gov/lawsregs/) from which one can track forthcoming regulations. One reason this is critical is that the comment period for a new regulation is usually only one month, and EPA doesn’t have to respond to comments received after the comment period.

Call or e-mail the persons managing regulations where you have concern (see the February 2007 column). Introduce yourself and share the interests and needs of your industry. In my experience, EPA staff do listen.

Become familiar with the mass-based and reactivity-based approaches to managing emissions pertinent to your industry so you can comment constructively.

And most importantly, as the EPA begins to change its approach, users and industries must also prepare to do so as well. To succeed in gaining the most value from a solvent substitution program, users will need information about alternatives and their consequences.

Over the next half-decade, change is coming!

John Durkee is the author of the book Management of Industrial Cleaning Technology and Processes, published by Elsevier (ISBN 0-0804-48887). He is the author of the forthcoming book Solvent Cleaning for the 21st Century, also to be published by Elsevier, and is an independent consultant specializing in critical cleaning. You can contact him at PO Box 847, Hunt, TX 78024 or 122 Ridge Road West, Hunt, TX 78024; 830-238-7610; Fax: 612-677-3170; or jdurkee@precisioncleaning.com.