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An overview of the Barton Bill

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How the bill protects drycleaners

The text of the Barton Bill

Barton Bill Backers Seek Re-introduction

Planning meeting sets strategy for congressional action

Work is in progress to get Congress to pass legislation that addresses the drycleaning industry's problems with current standards for cleaning up soil and groundwater contaminated by perc.

An ad hoc group of cleaners and trade association representatives met in Dallas in late January to begin hashing out a strategy for getting legislation introduced and gaining broad-based industry support to help get it passed. The effort centers on reintroduction of what has become known as the Barton Bill, so named for Joe Barton, the Texas Representative who introduced it in the 104th Congress in October, 1995.

That bill, officially titled The Small Business Remediation Act, would limit cleanup standards for perc to situations in which the actual exposure exceeded one-tenth of OSHA's eight-hour time-weight average for workplace exposure, currently 100 parts per million.

As its stands now, there are no set standards for soil and groundwater cleanup, so EPA's drinking water standard of 5 parts per billion is generally adopted, a standard that makes cleanup difficult and expensive. It is also a standard that industry leaders say is beyond anything necessary to protect public health and the environment.

One concern is that OSHA has announced plans to review the workplace exposure standard for perc. In 1989, the agency proposed a 25 ppm maximum but that was eventually rejected by the Court of Appeals. A new try by OSHA to lower the level would likely go to at least 25 ppm and probably lower.

The Barton Bill grew out of efforts by a group of Texas drycleaners and in particular by the Martinizing Environmental Group and Comet Franchises working with the Baise & Miller law firm in Washington, DC. A year ago, the International Fabricare Institute formally endorsed the bill.

Although the bill never made it out of committee in the last Congress, Rep. Barton held a "problem" hearing last fall on drycleaners' troubles with the current cleanup standards.

Representatives of Martinizing, Comet, and IFI were among about 20 people at the Dallas meeting in January, as were Gary Baise and Marshall Miller of the Baise & Miller firm, Bill Seitz of the Neighborhood Cleaners Association International and Manfred Wentz of the Fabricare Legislative and Regulatory Education council and vice president for research and development and environmental affairs for R. R. Street and Co. Inc.

In a statement issued after the meeting, IFI said that issues addressed included the possibility of opposition "if the Barton language is seen as too precedent setting."

Another concern, IFI said, is the fact that the bill does not specifically address liability .

"Indirectly, the Barton Bill does eliminate liability particularly for shopping center owners and lenders," IFI said. "The Barton Bill would limit federal and local remediation requirements for perc, but not if there is drinking water source contamination."

Baise and Miller, in their statement after the meeting, said "the proposed legislation would help resolve most of the drycleaners' environmental problems linked to perchloroethyene."

The firm also said that briefing data on the scientific, economic and other factors involving perc should be compiled for use in congressional hearings.

The need for such data was stressed at the meeting by Manfred Wentz, who urged a complete study of the problem, including the legal, political, economic and technological aspects. The study should involve not only industry people but also interested parties from government and academia and experts on remediation. This, he said, would "give decision-makers a tool that is useful and acceptable economically and politically."

The legislation is always subject to change based on input from industry and from Congress, Baise and Miller noted. Or as NCAI's Seitz put it, "It can be improved, modified or corrected."

Seitz said NCAI will assist in effort to gather support, both financial and political, to move the legislatio in congress.

But regardless of what disagreements one might have with the specifics, Seitz said "it's the only game in town and it should be supported by the industry."