Toxic Air Pollution Control Act of 1987

Toxic Air Pollution Control Act of 1987 - Amends the Clean Air Act to revise the national emission standards for hazardous air pollutants. Expands the scope of hazardous air pollutants to include air pollutants which may have adverse environmental as well as human health effects. Requires the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) list of such pollutants to include categories of the source emitting such pollutants in more than de minimis amounts. Grants the Administrator two years within which to assess air pollutants or classes of pollutants for addition to such list. Requires that decisions to list or not to list a pollutant be subject to public comment. Requires a final determination within three years of an initial determination that insufficient information exists to judge a pollutant as hazardous or nonhazardous. Requires the emitters of such pollutant to finance the research to determine its status. Requires the Administrator to promulgate emission standards for listed pollutants within three years of their inclusion (current law requires promulgation within 360 days). Requires such standards to protect human health with an ample safety margin unless a more stringent standard is required to protect the environment. Prohibits consideration of cost and technological feasibility when setting such standards. Grants existing sources up to two years to meet applicable standards (current law allows 90 days). Permits an exemption for up to ten years for a source emitting a pollutant for which there is no health effects threshold where the owners or operators would experience extraordinary economic hardship. Requires such sources to comply with an alternative emission limitation resulting from the application of the best available technology. Prohibits the consideration of cost when design, equipment, work practice, or operation standards are applied. Establishes a list of toxic air pollutants which shall include each substance subject to the requirements of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act of 1986. Requires the Administrator to review and revise such list at least every three years. Permits others to petition for additions to or deletions from such list. Requires the presentation of adequate data to show adverse health or environmental effects, or the lack thereof, respectively. Requires the Administrator to establish an emission limitation for removed pollutants adequate to protect human health and the environment. Directs the Administrator to list categories of sources emitting listed toxic pollutants. Requires emission standards for such pollutants from such sources to be at least equivalent to that achievable by the application of the best available control technology. Requires the Administrator to identify such technology for classes of pollutants when establishing such standards. Requires the Administrator to review such standards at least every five years. Requires new sources to comply with such standards. Grants existing major sources up to three years with a possible waiver for an additional two years to meet such standards. Directs the Administrator to list toxic pollutant sources within one year and establish emissions standards within three years, five years, or ten years, based on the quantity of the toxic pollutant and the risks of exposure. Requires the Administrator to list all categories of area sources which emit listed toxic pollutants, including an estimate of such emissions during 1988. Directs the Administrator to establish emission standards, utilizing the authorities of other Federal environmental legislation, to reduce 1988 level emissions by 25 percent within four years, continuing reductions of ten percent on a biennial basis for the following six years. Requires the Administrator to list extremely hazardous substances which could be suddenly released in dangerous concentrations as air pollutants. Directs the Administrator to update such list at least every five years. Requires owners or operators of facilities with listed substances to conduct a hazard assessment within one year of such substance's being listed (or within 18 months of this Act's enactment). Requires such assessment to include an identification of potential release sources and exposures. Requires the biennial updating of such assessments which shall be made available to the Administrator, the Chemical Safety and Hazards Investigations Board, the State, and the local emergency planning authorities. Directs the Administrator to publish guidance for such assessments within one year. Establishes within EPA the Chemical Safety and Hazards Investigation Board, an independent safety board to investigate and report on chemical accidents, evaluate hazard assessment techniques, and make recommendations to the Administrator on the safety of chemical production, handling, and storage. Requires the Administrator to explain any refusal to implement such a recommendation. Authorizes the Board to hold hearings, secure data and written reports from any person handling chemicals, and conduct inspections where extremely hazardous substances are produced, handled, or stored. Grants the Board an independent budget. Requires that Board-collected information, other than trade secrets, be made available to the public. Requires the Board to report annually to the President and the Congress on accidents, recommendations, and priorities for research and investigations. Authorizes appropriations for FY 1988 through 1992. Directs the Administrator to promulgate release prevention, detection, and correction requirements for extemely hazardous air pollutant facilities. Includes monitoring, recordkeeping, and other design, equipment, and operational practices. Authorizes the Administrator to secure injunctive or other relief when an extremely hazardous air pollutant from a facility poses an imminent and substantial endangerment to the public health or welfare or the environment. Establishes per day civil penalties for violations of such orders. Directs the Administrator to publish guidance for the coordination of such authority with the relevant authorities under other Federal environmental laws. Requires the Administrator to list extremely hazardous substances which may cause acute or chronic adverse human health effects as a result of non-sudden or episodic events. Requires owners or operators of facilities or devices where such releases might take place to carry out annual audits and safety inspections of such facility or device. Directs the Administrator to promulgate leak prevention, detection, and correction requirements for devices and systems at such a facility. Establishes per pound penalties for releases of extremely hazardous air pollutants. Increases penalties according to cumulative releases. Authorizes States to develop and submit to the Administrator for approval programs for control of emissions of toxic and hazardous air pollutants from stationary sources or for the prevention and mitigation of releases of extremely hazardous air pollutants from facilities in such State. Authorizes States to assume the Administrator's authorities to control such pollutants, either in whole or in part. Directs the Administrator to publish guidance for such programs within one year. Includes procedures and standards for emissions control as well as registration of all facilities handling any listed extremely hazardous air pollutant. Directs the Administrator to establish an air toxic clearinghouse to provide information and assistance to States. Authorizes the Administrator to make grants to States to assist in program development. Offers States an opportunity to modify unapproved programs. Requires the Administrator to withdraw approval of any State program which is not administering or enforcing its program. Authorizes the Administrator to require owners or operators of facilities emitting hazardous or toxic air pollutants or producing or handling extremely hazardous listed air pollutants to monitor emissions from the source and in the vicinity, maintaining records of the results. Directs the Administrator to conduct a research program on the sources, effects, and control of toxic and hazardous air pollutants. Authorizes the Administrator to make grants to air pollution control agencies where a State program is approved. Authorizes appropriations for FY 1988 through 1992. States that emission standards already promulgated for a hazardous air pollutant remain unaffected by this Act.

Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in Senate" stage on June 17, 1987. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.

Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.