Yesterday brought us the introduction of the Toxic Chemical Exposure Reduction Act by Senators Clinton, Dole, Boxer, Lautenberg, and Kerry. Here are the main provisions of the 15-page bill:

The Act establishes that the EPA must:

• Publish a health advisory for trichloroethylene that fully protects, with an adequate margin for safety, the health of susceptible populations;


• Propose and impose a national primary drinking water standard that protects sensitive populations and is set as close to the maximum contaminant level goal for trichloroethylene as is feasible;


• Enforce the requirement that all qualified drinking water monitoring systems accommodate the new drinking water standards proposed and imposed above;


• Require monitoring of water supplies currently in the path or proximity of migrating TCE;


• Require that Consumer Confidence Reports include the known health risks of TCE exposure and detail any TCE discovered in the monitored water supplies.

With respect to Vapor Intrusion, the EPA must:

• Publish a health advisory for trichloroethylene that fully protects the health of susceptible populations from vapor intrusion (again , with an adequate margin for safety);


• Establish an integrated risk information system reference concentration of TCE vapor that protects sensitive populations and apply it to potential vapor intrusion-related investigations or actions carried out under CERCLA.

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We have some thoughts to share on several of these provisions, and will be back shortly to do so.

Meantime, we have emailed representatives for Senator Dodd and Senator Lieberman, both from Connecticut, and have asked if the Senators will be able to support the TCE Reduction Act. So far...no reply. But it's only been a day.

We'll keep you posted.