Page 60 - Plastics News September 2016
P. 60
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
EPA considering Superfund Britain’s pound gets new
status for Saint-Gobain site plastic avatar
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is proposing Britain’s first plastic currency has been in to
to add the Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics Corp. circulation from this month in the hope that
site in the New York village of Hoosick Falls to its list of it is cleaner, safer and stronger than the current
the country’s most hazardous waste sites. The Superfund cottonpaper generation of banknotes. Of the four
denominations - 5, 10, 20 and 50 pounds - the ?rst to
designation would allow federal resources to be used be introduced in polymer form is the ?ver, featuring
to help clean up areas in the village contaminated an iconic image of Winston Churchill on one side and
with chemicals that polluted public and private water that of Queen Elizabeth on the other. The 10 and
supplies. Adding the site to the Superfund list would also 20-pound notes will be issued in 2017 and 2020 - the
mean the federal government could simultaneously seek ?rst featuring novelist Jane Austen and the second,
reimbursement and assistance from any companies found painter JMW Turner. There are currently no plans to
responsible for the pollution. The program operates on replace the 50-pound note with a polymer version,
the principle that polluters should be responsible for the Bank of England said. The new ?ver features
cleanup, not U.S. taxpayers. Churchill’s portrait, captured in Ottawa by Yousuf
“By placing this site on the federal Superfund list, the EPA Karsh. The war-time hero’s famous glower in the
will continue to work hard to address the contamination portrait was prompted by the photographer’s decision
at the source, and hold the polluters accountable to take Churchill’s cigar away from him, the bank said.
for the full cost of cleanup,” said Judith Enck, EPA Behind the portrait is an illustration of the Houses
Regional Administrator, in a Sept. 7 announcement. The
groundwater supply in Hoosick Falls is contaminated of Parliament.The hands on the Big Ben are set to
with per?uorooctanoic acid as well as vinyl chloride and the time on May 13, 1940 when Churchill made his
dichloroethylene. Tests from 2015 found water from the inaugural speech to the House of Commons as PM. His
Hoosick Falls municipal system had levels as high as 600 declaration at the time – “I have nothing to offer but
ppt and groundwater tests from underneath the factory blood, toil, tears and sweat” – is quoted beneath the
itself found levels as high as 17,000 ppt, according to portrait. Bank of England governor Mark Carney said:
lab results. EPA considers PFOA a potential carcinogen. “Polymer marks a major innovation. It is cleaner, safer,
In 2006, it reached agreement with the eight largest U.S. and stronger. It is resistant to dirt and moisture, so the
PFOA makers to phase out the chemical by 2015. The note won’t wear out as quickly as the current ?vers
Superfund designation process begins with a 60-day public but will stay in good condition for longer.”
comment period, which concludes Nov. 10. Comments
can be submitted via mail, email and the EPA website.
A decision is expected on the site’s listing by the end of
the year.
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