WASHINGTON, D.C. – The United States Chamber of Commerce, under an Information Quality Act petition, requested a correction of serious data inconsistencies in EPA's listing of chemical properties in its databases. 

 

"The inconsistencies of chemical properties in EPA's databases lead to misguided rulemaking which in turn cost businesses tens of millions of dollars," said William Kovacs, Chamber vice president of environmental affairs.  "EPA must correct these problems to create more certainty in the information they use to regulate companies."

 

EPA's chemical property databases contain seriously flawed data, according to the Chamber. 

Depending on which EPA database is consulted, widely contradictory numerical values for chemical properties—differing in some instances by a factor upward of 10 billion—are assigned to the same chemical. There are even multiple instances in which a chemical is listed twice in the same database with the two entries specifying completely different numerical values.

 

"This is analogous to consulting two different tables for the boiling point of water, only to find two entirely different numerical values.  It makes no sense at all," Kovacs explained.

 

Erroneous information leads to varying, unreliable, and ambiguous determinations of risks to human health and contaminant cleanup goals, such as for removing PCBs in sediment.  Such erroneous information can translate into the imposition of many tens of millions of dollars in unnecessary cleanup costs, said the Chamber. 

 

The Chamber has identified examples of errors within EPA's databases and requested simple correction of all the errors according to the requirements by EPA's information quality guidelines. 

 

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the world's largest business federation representing more than three million businesses and organizations of every size, sector and region.

 

 

Chamber Submits Request for Correction of Erroneous Information Contained in EPA Databases - May 26, 2004 (PDF)