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Press Advisory: (1) EPA Reminds Pesticide Retailers Diazinon 'Stop-Sale' Date Approaching; (2) DuPont PFOA Case Proceeds Before EPA Administrative Law Judge; (3) EPA to Recognize Winners of Laboratories for the 21st Century Student Design Competition; (4) Ship's Captain and Engineers Arrested on Ocean Dumping Charges; (5) Idaho Man Sentenced in Paint Waste CasePress Advisory - EPA's latest developments EPA has issued a notice to remind retailers of a Dec. 31, 2004, stop-sale date for all outdoor diazinon home, lawn and garden products. It will be unlawful to sell diazinon outdoor non-agricultural use products in the United States after the end of this year. This is part of an agreement between EPA and diazinon registrants to phase out and eliminate all residential uses of the insecticide diazinon. Discontinuing diazinon use in home, lawn and garden care is part of EPA's ongoing effort under the 1996 Food Quality Protection Act to reduce the risk of pesticides, especially to children. Diazinon registrants are offering a "buy back" program to assist with removing these products from the market and preventing further sale. The registrants will repurchase any unopened, unused outdoor residential products from retailers or formulators. Retailers should make all possible efforts to sell their diazinon products back to the manufacturers by March 31, 2005. Consumers may continue to use diazinon residential products according to label directions and precautions. If consumers choose to discontinue use, they should contact their state or local hazardous waste disposal program or local solid waste collection service for information on proper disposal. Consumers are advised not to dispose of pesticides in sinks, toilets, storm drains, or any body of water. The local government may recommend that consumers take diazinon products to a household hazardous waste collection site. The organophosphate pesticide, diazinon, has been one of the most widely used insecticides in the United States for household lawn and garden pest control, as well as for indoor residential treatments. All indoor use product registrations have been cancelled and retail sale ended on Dec. 31, 2002. More information on diazinon is available at: http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/op/diazinon.htm . (2) DuPont PFOA Case Proceeds Before EPA Administrative Law Judge Contact: John Millett 202-564-7842 / millett.john@epa.gov EPA's Office of Administrative Law Judges has established a schedule to proceed with the agency's complaint against E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (DuPont). In July, EPA filed three counts against DuPont for failing to report information concerning a substantial risk to public health or the environment from a synthetic chemical used in the manufacture of certain Teflon products. In September, DuPont filed a motion for an accelerated decision from the judge on counts two and three, and requested oral arguments on its motion. Count one -- and depending on the decision following oral arguments on counts two and three -- will be taken up at a later hearing, which has not yet been scheduled. Oral arguments on DuPont's motion have been scheduled for Oct. 28. To attend the oral arguments, contact the Clerk of the Board by Oct. 14 by calling 202-233-0122. Copies of the prehearing order and other public documents relating to the case are available upon request by calling 202-564-9942. (3) EPA to Recognize Winners of Laboratories for the 21st Century Student Design Competition Contact: Enesta P. Jones 202-564-7873 / jones.enesta@epa.gov EPA will recognize the student winners of the first-ever Laboratories for the 21st Century (Labs21) Student Design Competition on Oct. 5 at the Labs21 2004 Annual Conference in St. Louis, Mo. The competition challenged architecture students from the United States and Canada to design a sustainable, low-energy laboratory similar to the architecture of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. The student winners are: First Place - Bernhard Kutzer, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University; Second Place - Etienne Boudreault-Sauvageau and Pascal Gobeil, Université Laval Green; Third Place - Mathieu Lemieux Blanchard and Marie Bourdeau, McGill University. The honorable mentions are: Zenin Adrian and Jin-Yi Pao, University of Toronto; Dominic Grecki and Kevin Leslie, Lawrence Technological University; David Minke and Jason Nelson, University of Toronto; Veronique Proteau and Marie-Helene Verdier, Université Laval; and Rabindra Ramcharan, Syracuse University. In order to submit a design, each student dedicated an entire semester of the school year to the project, working closely with a faculty sponsor. The winners were chosen from among 200 submissions. The competition was sponsored by EPA and the U.S. Department of Energy, with support from Public Works and Government Services Canada and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture. The Labs21 2004 Annual Conference is a three-day event in St. Louis, Mo., which will bring together the world's leading laboratory designers and engineers to discuss opportunities for sustainable laboratory design, operation, and management. This one-of-a-kind conference features tours of some of the region's state-of-the-art R&D facilities, which now total more than 17 million square feet; more than 75 technical sessions and smaller working meetings covering new strategies in lab design and management; and a technology fair featuring some of the most innovative products on the market. For more information on Labs21, as well as the conference and Student Design Competition, go to: http://www.labs21century.gov . Enforcement Wrap-up Contact: John Millett 202-564-7842/ millett.john@epa.gov (4) Ship's Captain and Engineers Arrested on Ocean Dumping Charges Loannis Kallikis of Greece, captain of the M/V Katerina; Elgardo Guinto of the Philippines, the ship's chief engineer; and Rolan Sullesta of the Philippines, the ship's second engineer were all arrested in the Los Angeles area on Sept. 21 on charges that they had allegedly been involved in the dumping of oil-contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean. When the Katerina berthed in the Port of Long Beach on Sept. 14, crew members contacted dock workers and reported that they had been directed to throw trash and discharge sewage and oil into the Pacific Ocean. The Coast Guard inspected the ship on Sept. 14 and 15. During these inspections, they discovered that the ship's oil-water separator was not being used and that a bypass had been constructed around the separator. All three defendants are charged with failing to properly maintain the Katerina's Oil Record Book, making false statements to Coast Guard investigators and obstructing justice by falsifying records. Kallikis faces an additional obstruction of justice charge for allegedly instructing Guinto not to answer questions from Coast Guard investigators. The case was investigated by the U.S. Coast Guard Marine Safety Office, the Coast Guard's Investigative Service and the Los Angeles office of EPA's Criminal Investigation Division. It is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles. (5) Idaho Man Sentenced in Paint Waste Case Dennis D. Ellis of Boise, Idaho, former director and corporation secretary for Ponderosa Paint Company in Boise, was sentenced on Sept. 16 to pay a $50,000 fine, pay an additional $40,000 in restitution for clean up costs incurred by the U.S. EPA, spend 30 days in home confinement and serve six months supervised release by the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho in Boise. Ellis has pleaded guilty to a charge of being an accessory after-the-fact to transportation of hazardous waste without a manifest in violation of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. In January 2000, Ellis negotiated the sale of Ponderosa Paint to Kelly Moore Paints for $14 million. A condition of the sale was that Ellis would be responsible for disposing of approximately 20,000 gallons of waste oil-based paint that had accumulated at the Ponderosa facility between 1995 and 2000. Instead of paying a licensed hazardous waste disposal company approximately $150,000 to dispose of the wastes, Ellis offered individuals $1 per gallon to dispose of the waste paint. Some of the paint waste was illegally transported to private property in Wilder, Idaho, and burned in a pit. The case was investigated by the Portland Area Office of EPA's Criminal Investigation Division and the FBI with the assistance of the Idaho State Police, the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, the Canyon County Sheriff's Office, the EPA Idaho Operations Office, and EPA's National Enforcement Investigations Center. It is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Boise. R185 ### Release date:09/30/2004 Receive our News Releases Automatically by Email
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