Update on Methyl Bromide Rule

This is just a quick update on the methyl bromide rule from the EPA that I have been following over the last 9 months or so. On Friday the Office of Management and Budget approved the Final Rule. This means that the polished version may be published later this week or next in the Federal Register. Actually the just published EPA Regulatory Agenda for the Spring of 2010 shows the final rule being issued this month; which means this week. From an environmental view point this only means that the phase out continues to be stretched well beyond the original 2005 target. Actually there isn’t any real end in site because of the lack of an adequate substitute in certain agricultural applications. The uses and inventories will continue to get smaller, but it looks like these annual regulations will continue for some time. From a chemical facility security point of view, it continues to point out the flaw in the reasoning of DHS when they excluded both methyl bromide and chloropicrin from Appendix A when that was adopted in 2007. I’m not faulting the DHS regulation writers; they were just taking the EPA information at face value. At this point I think that DHS just needs to bite the bullet and add these two chemicals to the release-toxic hazard list in Appendix A.