Senate Panel Adopts Chemical-Related Bills

The Senate Environment & Public Works Committee in late July approved several bills that would affect the regulation of chemicals. Two of the bills address perchlorate, a contaminant in some drinking water supplies that is linked to developmental effects. S. 24 would direct utilities to monitor drinking water for perchlorate contamination and S. 150 would require EPA to set a nationwide limit on the amount of perchlorate allowed in drinking water. The Senate committee also approved S. 1911, legislation that would require EPA to tighten the national drinking water standard for trichloroethylene, a widely used solvent. Another measure adopted by the panel, S. 906, would ban U.S. exports of elemental mercury and is similar to a bill, H.R. 1534, that the House of Representatives passed in November 2007 (C&EN, Nov. 19, 2007, page 36). In addition, the Senate committee approved legislation, S. 3109, authorizing the use of electronic manifests to track shipments of hazardous waste and a bill, S. 2994, to reduce contaminated sediments in the Great Lakes.