An activist organization last week sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in hopes of obtaining internal comments used in preparing a draft guide that could relax requirements for decontaminating sites affected by radiological incidents such as a "dirty bomb" attack, Environment and Energy Daily reported last week (see GSN, Jan. 28).
The lawsuit, filed by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, seeks background analyses used by the Bush administration to formulate the draft Protective Action Guidance for Radiological Incidents. The organization submitted a Freedom on Information Act request last June for all discussion of the draft at the Environmental Protection Agency and other government offices, arguing that the material would help determine "whether EPA is meeting its mission of protecting the environment and public health with respect to radiation releases."
Representative Edward Markey (D-Mass.) expressed concern about the draft guide last week in a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson.
"These guidelines actually allow for levels of radioactivity that are thousands of times higher than the requirements found in traditional toxic cleanup guidance," the letter states. "Additionally, long-term cleanup standards are proposed that are so remarkably high that they could result in a cancer risk that EPA itself estimates at a breathtaking one in four" (Sara Goodman, Environment and Energy Daily, Oct. 29).