NEW: La. drops clean-up proposals

The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is overhauling the regulatory system it uses to determine the risk of hazardous wastes in soils and clean-up timelines. Environmentalists and lawyers representing landowners who are suing oil and gas companies claim the proposed changes will threaten hard-won standards aimed at protecting human health and the environment. A DEQ spokesman said the Risk Evaluation/Corrective Action Program (RECAP) regulations, in place since 2003, are overdue for upgrades and those proposed changes will make regulations more in line with recent U.S. Environmental Protection Agency risk assessment studies. A hearing on the RECAP regulations was to have been held today in Baton Rouge. (Source: NOLA.com 02/28/19) UPDATE: 03/10/19 - Proposed changes in the regulatory system used by the state Department of Environmental Quality to determine the risk of hazardous wastes in soils and when and how they should be cleaned up were withdrawn March 8. State officials indicated they needed more time to explain the changes to the public.