Certain uses of two notorious chemical pollutants widely used as dry cleaning solvents will soon be banned or phased out, marking major new milestones for the nation’s premier toxics law.
EPA announced Monday it finalized a rule banning all uses of trichloroethylene as well as another rule that bans perchloroethylene in some uses.
The agency largely stuck to its proposals from last year, which included far more stringent measures for TCE, while extending certain phase-out timelines for certain “essential” uses of each chemical, such as aircraft manufacturing or in other defense technologies. Both TCE and PCE will be phased out of dry cleaning, with the latter chemical subject to a 10-year phase-out timeline.
The cancer-causing solvents TCE and PCE for decades contaminated the drinking water supply of service members stationed at the North Carolina Marine Corps base Camp Lejeune.
