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Trump named Peter Wright as assistant administrator for the
Office of Land and Emergency Management (OLEM). Wright served as
Dow's managing counsel for environmental health and safety and
provided the company legal support for Superfund and other
remediation sites, according to the EPA.
"He has the expertise and experience necessary to implement our
ambitious goals for cleaning up the nation’s contaminated lands
quickly and thoroughly," EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said in
a press release.
Pruitt has said that cleaning up Superfund sites would be a
priority for the agency.
As head of OLEM, Wright would oversee the development of
guidelines for the land disposal of hazardous waste and
underground storage tanks and respond to abandoned and active
hazardous waste sites, as well as accidental chemical releases
through the Superfund program.
Dow Chemicals facilities are involved in dozens of Superfund
projects.
Dow had accrued $219 million in accrued obligations for
remediating Superfund sites, according to the company's fourth
quarter 2017 10-K filing.
Overall, Dow had accrued $1.3 billion in "probable environmental
remediation and restoration costs," according to the 10-K.
The EPA's relationship with Dow had been under scrutiny after
Pruitt last year announced the agency would decline to ban the
pesticide chlorpyrifos, a chemical that EPA scientists and the
American Academy of Pediatrics wanted to ban because of the risk
it said it posed to children and farm workers.
Chlorpyrifos, produced by a variety of manufacturers, including
a subsidiary of Dow Chemical.
(Reporting By Valerie Volcovici; editing by Grant McCool)
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