EPA Witholds Approval of State's Waste Program Revisions

by Steff Kessler

In the last issue of Frontline,we reported that WOC had filed formal objections with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regarding the impacts of the legislature’s rogue brownfields bill, SF 147. We raised these concerns during a public comment opportunity on a routine revision of the state’s hazardous waste program.

The agency agreed that our concerns merited consideration and so withheld automatic approval of the state’s proposed revisions of its federally authorized hazardous waste program. The EPA then reopened the comment period, and held a public hearing on the issue in Casper. WOC helped organize that hearing and there was a great turnout. A majority of those who testified opposed EPA approval of the revision package.

As a result of the objections expressed by WOC and concerned Casper citizens, the EPA has decided to continue to withhold its approval of Wyoming’s hazardous waste program revisions. The agency will wait until after the next legislative session in 2000 to see if Wyoming can craft an improved brownfields law that does not conflict with current federal laws (as the original SF 147 does).

This is an important victory! The State of Wyoming needs to start realizing that there are consequences to passing laws which do not comply with federal law. EPA’s action sends an important message to Wyoming regarding the brownfields debate: shape up, or you may lose authority to run the program.