Volume 141, No. 62 covering the 1st Session of the 104th Congress (1995 - 1996) was published by the Congressional Record.
The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“INTRODUCTION OF THE CHLORINE ZERO DISCHARGE ACT OF 1995” mentioning the Environmental Protection Agency was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E773-E774 on April 4, 1995.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
INTRODUCTION OF THE CHLORINE ZERO DISCHARGE ACT OF 1995
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HON. BILL RICHARDSON
of new mexico
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, April 4, 1995
Mr. RICHARDSON. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to introduce the Chlorine Zero Discharge Act of 1995. This legislation, which has already been cosponsored by nearly 30 Members of the House, is identical to H.R. 2898 which I introduced in August 1993. That legislation, although not enacted by the 103d Congress, garnered nearly 60 bipartisan cosponsors.
The Chlorine Zero Discharge Act will, if enacted, result in the elimination within 5 years of the use of chlorine and chlorinated compounds as bleaching agents in the production of pulp and paper. Specifically, the bill would amend the Clean Water Act to require a reduction to absolute zero of the discharge or release into water of any organochlorine compounds, byproducts, or metabolites formed as a result of the use of chlorine or any other chlorinated oxidizing agents in the pulp and paper manufacturing process.
The use of chlorine and chlorine compounds in the pulp and paper industry is the second largest use of chlorine in the United States and Canada. Chlorine and its compounds are used as bleaching agents to remove residual lignins from wood pulp to make the resulting paper white.
The use of chlorine as a bleaching agent in the production of pulp and paper results in the release of an estimated 1,000 organochlorines in the wastewater of pulp and paper mills. The average pulp mill in America releases 35 tons of toxic organochlorines each day. However, only 3 of the 1,000 organochlorines released are currently regulated by the EPA: dioxin, furan, and chloroform. Only the State of Oregon regulates organochlorines as a class of pollutants.
Although dioxin is produced as a byproduct of pulp and paper bleaching in only very small amounts, scientific studies by the Environmental Protection Agency [EPA] and independent scientists have shown that even in minute amounts, organochlorines such as dioxin are persistent and bioaccumulative. This means that they remain in the environment for years and buildup over time reaching levels that have been linked to cancers and development and behavioral disorders in humans and death in animal and plant life. For example, although DDT was banned in the 1970's, trace amounts now linked to animal deaths still persist in the environment more than 20 years after its last known use in this country.
In its recent reassessment of dioxin--ordered by then-EPA Administrator William Reilly in 1991--the EPA determined that even in the smallest amounts, this most toxic of all chemicals has significant health and environmental effects including severe reproductive, immunological, behavioral, and developmental difficulties in humans and animals which have been exposed to it. In fact, the EPA has identified dioxin as the most potent carcinogen ever evaluated by the Agency.
A 1990 EPA analysis revealed that as many as 1 in 10 subsistence and sports fishing individuals could get cancer by eating fish contaminated by releases from certain pulp and paper mills. Additional studies have found that pulp and paper mill workers tend to have higher rates of particular forms of cancer, such as soft-tissue sarcomas and respiratory cancers, than the population as a whole. A 1988 EPA survey of 104 U.S. pulp and paper mills found bleached pulp from nearly every mill to contain the most dangerous forms of dioxins and furans.
A 1992 report issued by the International Joint Commission on the Great Lakes Basin [IJC] concluded that ``the use of chlorine and its compounds should be avoided in the manufacturing process.'' A 1994 report from the same organization reported that ``mounting evidence continues to reinforce concerns about the effect of persistent toxic substances'' including reproductive, metabolical, neurological and behavioral abnormalities, suppression of the immune system and increasing levels of breast and other cancers.
Former IJC and Indiana Republican Party Chair Gordon Durnil has been even more forceful, warning ``the heart of our message is that the integrity of the human species will be increasingly compromised unless we act decisively to bring the growing problem of persistent toxic substances under control. We are convinced that the dangers posed to humans will increase with each passing generation.''
The American Public Health Association [APHA], a nationwide membership association of over 30,000 health professionals, passed a resolution in October 1993 ``calling for measurable and progressive reduction toward the elimination of the use of chlorine-based bleaches in the paper and pulp industry and of ozone-depleting chlorinated organic chemicals.'' In February 1994, APHA endorsed the Chlorine Zero Discharge Act.
Despite repeated claims to the contrary, alternatives to the use of chlorine and chlorinated compounds do exist. Totally chlorine-free
[TCF] alternatives such as hydrogen peroxide and ozone are in use today in mills around the world, especially in Europe. Unfortunately, although these alternatives are increasingly relied upon by our competitors in Sweden, France, Portugal, Spain, Denmark, and Germany, American industry has steadfastly refused to adapt to the changing market conditions affecting the worldwide paper market. Only one mill in North America, the Louisiana-Pacific pulp mill in Samoa, CA, has made the switch to TCF production.
Such intransigence in the face of changing world-wide market demands for white paper that does not destroy the environment and threaten human health could spell disaster for the American pulp and paper industry. Failure to begin to make the switch now to TCF production processes could mean that our industry, and the thousands of jobs that go with it, will be unprepared to meet the challenges of the future. The increased production and use of chlorine-free paper by our European competitors--now approaching 20 percent of the market in some European countries--is decreasing the American share of the world paper market and could seriously threaten the American market in the future as American consumers begin to demand chlorine-free paper.
The links between the use of chlorinated compounds in a wide variety of applications from pesticide use to pulp and paper bleaching and cancers and other health effects have received widespread media coverage since I first introduced this bill in 1993. In the past 18 months, stories have appeared in Time, Newsweek, National Journal, Scientific American, The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, the Atlanta Constitution, the Portland Press Herald and countless other newspapers from coast to coast. CNN has aired several reports on the use of chlorine in the pulp and paper industry and ABC News' Prime Time Live is currently planning a similar story for airing in the near future. The public is clearly getting the message. Now it is time for American industry to pay attention to the public outcry for paper production processes that do not harm the environment or threaten public health.
By eliminating the use of chlorine and chlorinated compounds in the pulp and paper bleaching process, the Chlorine Zero Discharge Act provides a responsible, effective solution to the environmental and economic degradation of chlorine use in the pulp and paper industry. Federal intervention to ensure that the use of these unnecessary, dangerous chemicals is eliminated is necessary to protect the public from potential life-threatening health and environmental impacts.
I am pleased to introduce this bill today along with the support of my colleagues Jerrold Nadler, Neil Abercrombie, Gary Ackerman, Howard Berman, David Bonior, George Brown, Anna Eshoo, Lane Evans, Eni Faleomavaega, Sam Farr, Bob Filner, Maurice Hinchey, Matthew Martinez, Jim McDermott, Cynthia McKinney, Frank Pallone, Nancy Pelosi, Carlos Romero-Barcelo, Lucille Roybal-Allard, Martin Sabo, Patricia Schroeder, Jose Serrano, Esteban Torres, Nydia Velasquez, Bruce Vento, Henry Waxman, Lynn Woolsey, and Sidney Yates.
I urge the my other colleagues to join me in supporting this important health and environmental protection legislation.
The full text of the bill follows:
H.R. --
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Chlorine Zero Discharge Act of 1995''.
SEC. 2. ZERO DISCHARGE OF TOXIC PERSISTENT AND
BIOACCUMULATIVE SUBSTANCES.
(a) Findings.--The Congress finds that--
(1) substances that persist and/or bioaccumulate in the environment, build to higher and higher concentration over time, reaching their greatest levels in the tissues of species high on the food chain, including humans;
(2) toxic substances that persist and/or bioaccumulate in the environment are biologically active in infinitesimal quantities,
[[Page E774]] causing reproductive failure, birth defects, developmental impairment, hormonal disruption, behavioral disorders, immune suppression, and cancer at low doses, and mixtures of these substances may cause these effects at even lower doses;
(3) regulatory approaches that permit even limited production and discharge of toxic substances that persist and/or bioaccumulate result in the accumulation of these substances in the environment and food chain over time and subsequent damage to the health of humans and other species;
(4) the most favored method of preventing the continued contamination of the environment from persistent or bioaccumulative toxic substances is to phaseout their production and/or use over time and replace these substances or the processes that produce them, or both, with safer alternatives;
(5) among the persistent and/or bioaccumulative toxic substances of greatest concern are organochlorines discharged in the production of pulp and paper as a result of the use of chlorine or any other chlorinated oxidizing agents in the pulp and paper manufacturing process;
(6) the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement between the United States and Canada concludes that ``the discharge of toxic substances in toxic amounts be prohibited and the discharge of any or all persistent toxic substances be virtually eliminated''; and
(7) in the Sixth Biennial Report on Great Lakes Water Quality, the International Joint Commission on Great Lakes Water Quality concluded that ``the concepts of virtual elimination and zero discharge are consistent and a clear statement or direction to take to achieve the Agreement's purpose. The overall strategy or aim regarding persistent toxic substances is virtual elimination, and the tactic or method to be used to achieve the aim is through zero input or discharge of those substances created as a result of human activity.
(b) Zero Discharge of Organochlorine Compounds, Byproducts, or Metabolites.--Title III of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act is amended by redesignating section 519 as section 520 and by inserting the following after section 518:
``SEC. 519. DISCHARGE OF ORGANOCHLORINE COMPOUNDS,
BYPRODUCTS, OR METABOLITES.
``(a) Zero Discharge.--(1) Effective 5 years after the enactment of this section, each pulp and paper manufacturing facility shall achieve zero discharge into water of organochlorine compounds, byproducts, or metabolites formulated as a result of the use of chlorine or any other chlorinated oxidizing agent in the pulp and paper manufacturing process.
``(2) Effective 5 years after enactment of this section, all existing and new permits under this Act for paper and pulp mills which use chlorine or any other chlorinated oxidizing agent shall require compliance with the zero discharge requirement set forth in paragraph (1).
``(b) Safe Alternatives Assistance.--Within one year after the enactment of this section, the Administrator shall evaluate alternatives to the use of organochlorines in the manufacturing of pulp and paper, and shall publish a report on the transfer of technology in the pulp and paper industry from organochlorine to chlorine-free technology as a model for pollution prevention. Within 18 months after the enactment of this section, the Agency shall begin providing technical information and support to assist permit applicants in the use of alternatives to organochlorine compounds in the production of pulp and paper.
``(c) Report to Congress on Organochlorine Zero Discharge Candidates.--Within 18 months after the enactment of this section, the Administrator shall complete a report to Congress on nonpoint sources and industrial discharges of organochlorine compounds and their byproducts and metabolites into water. The report shall include a listing of all types or categories of nonpoint sources and industrial organochlorine discharges into water and their byproducts and metabolites. The report shall also include a listing of the annual quantities of each organochlorine compound discharged into water nationally and by permitted facility, together with a list of each permitted facility's location and quantities of combined organochlorine compound discharges into water. The report shall contain recommendations for achieving a zero discharge policy for important categories of organochlorine pollution sources. In order to develop such recommendations, the Administrator shall convene an advisory panel. The advisory panel shall conduct public hearings and solicit public and expert comment. The panel shall consist of 15 members, including at least 1 independent expert in each of the fields of public health, occupational health, technology change, toxics use reduction, and ecology, 2 affected citizens, and technical and policy experts from industry, labor, public interest groups, and State environmental agencies.
``(d) Definition.--For the purposes of this section, the term `zero discharge' means absolutely no output or release, including nonpoint source output or release, into water. The term `zero discharge' does not mean a less than detectable output or release.''.
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