[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 62 (Wednesday, April 10, 2019)]
[House]
[Page H3224]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       ETO TESTING IN LAKE COUNTY

  (Mr. SCHNEIDER asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SCHNEIDER. Mr. Speaker, last month, I spoke on the floor about 
the urgent need for EPA ambient air testing at two manufacturing 
facilities in Lake County that use ethylene oxide, a known carcinogen.
  As well, I and my colleagues in the Illinois delegation have written 
to the EPA urging them to undertake ambient air monitoring.
  The neighbors living near these plants, as well as the local 
governments, need to know that the air they breathe is safe. Yet the 
EPA still refuses to conduct any ambient air monitoring, instead 
insisting on using dispersion models based on estimates of smokestack 
emissions.
  Such dispersion monitoring is completely inadequate because it fails 
to account for what are known as fugitive emissions, EtO escaping into 
the environment from locations other than the smokestack.
  Absent EPA leadership, the local municipalities and the Lake County 
Public Health Department have stepped up to pursue monitoring on their 
own.
  Good for them, but it should not have come to this. They are only 
doing so because the EPA has failed to do its job.
  Our communities deserve far better from the EPA. This is about our 
families and the public health. I urge the EPA to do its duty and to 
begin this vital testing immediately.

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