EPA Proposal on Shipment of Wastes Assailed

San Diego County officials have sent a letter to federal Environmental Protection Agency officials in Washington sharply criticizing proposed rules that purport to tighten regulation of shipments of hazardous wastes across the border.

Formally endorsed Tuesday by the Board of Supervisors, the letter accuses the EPA of placing an unreasonable burden on countries like Mexico to monitor the problem, and abdicating responsibility for U.S. wastes once they cross the border.

“Not only will they be of little value in resolving what appears to be an escalating problem with respect to Mexico,” the letter states of the regulations, it also suggests they were “drafted with an eye toward countries with a rather sophisticated regulatory program.”

The regulations, to go into effect in November, would for the first time require a foreign recipient of hazardous wastes to confirm that the wastes were delivered and to describe any apparent discrepancies.

The letter, signed by chief administrative officer Norman Hickey, suggests that Mexico’s current economic crisis makes it unreasonable to expect that Mexico would have the resources to regulate fly-by-night firms set up for illegal dumping.

It also accuses the EPA of ignoring the fact that Mexican rules bar U.S haulers from driving in Mexico, requiring instead that drivers pass their loads to Mexican drivers.