I
105TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 1711
To establish a maximum level of remediation for dry cleaning solvents, and
for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MAY 22, 1997
Mr. BARTON of Texas (for himself, Mr. GREEN, Mrs. CHENOWETH, Mr.
FROST, 
Mr. 
CRAPO, 
Mr. 
SHADEGG, 
Mr. 
CHRISTENSEN, 
Mr.
RADANOVICH, and Mr. SMITH of Texas) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Commerce, and in addition to
the Committees on Transportation and Infrastructure, and Education
and the Workforce, for a period to be subsequently determined by the
Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within
the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To establish a maximum level of remediation for dry cleaning
solvents, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Small Business Reme-
diation Act of 1997’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND INTENT OF CONGRESS.
(a) The Congress declares that the public should be
protected from the risk of waste or spilled solvents and
other chemicals in the soil, surface water, groundwater,
and other environmental media.
(b) The Congress finds that the remediation require-
ments for spilled or waste chemical substances are often
inconsistent, conflicting, and may impose a burden that
bears little relationship to the potential harm to the envi-
ronment and that these requirements pose a special bur-
den on small businesses and landowners.
(c) Congress intends that standards shall be set for
remediation that, with an adequate margin of safety, will
protect public health from significant risk from these
chemicals and below which level remediation will be per-
mitted but not required.
(d) Congress resolves that to implement these conclu-
sions a maximum level of remediation in soil, surface
water, groundwater, and other environmental media shall
be set, initially, for solvents for the dry cleaning industry.
SEC. 3. STANDARD FOR CLEAN-UP.
The maximum level of remediation of dry cleaning
solvents in soil, surface water, groundwater, and other en-
vironmental media that a Federal, State, local agency, or
court may require of a person engaged in dry cleaning or
the owner of land or a facility in which such a person is
conducting dry cleaning shall be one-tenth the equivalent
exposure of the workplace standard for such solvents es-
tablished by the Secretary of Labor under the Occupa-
tional Safety and Health Act of 1970.
SEC. 4. CALCULATION OF EQUIVALENT EXPOSURE.
(a) In consultation with the Administrators of the Oc-
cupational Safety and Health Administration and the En-
vironmental Protection Agency, the National Institute of
Environmental Health Sciences shall, within 6 months of
the date of the enactment of this Act, publish in the Fed-
eral Register its computation, based on realistic scientific
assumptions, of equivalent exposure by ingestion, inhala-
tion, and absorption indices for the general public, for soil,
surface water, groundwater, and other environmental
media in nonoccupational circumstances.
(b) The equivalent exposure shall be calculated from
the workplace standard for dry cleaning solvents which
assures on the basis of the best available evidence that
no employee will suffer material impairment of health or
functional capacity even if such employee has regular ex-
posure for the employee’s entire working lifetime.
SEC. 5. AUTHORIZATION TO REMEDIATE AT A LOWER
LEVEL THAN THE MAXIMUM LEVEL OF REME-
DIATION.
Nothing in this Act—
(1) shall preempt or otherwise prevent a Fed-
eral, State, or local government or private party
from remediating soil, surface water, groundwater,
or other environmental media to a lower level than
the maximum level of remeditation at its own cost
and expense, or
(2) shall alter or affect the Federal drinking
water standards under title XIV of the Public
Health Service Act.
SEC. 6. DEFINITIONS.
For purposes of this Act:
(1) The term ‘‘other environmental media’’
means air and organic and inorganic material.
(2) The term ‘‘equivalent exposure’’ means the
amount of a chemical substance found in air, surface
water, groundwater, and other environmental media
which is equivalent, under general and realistic con-
ditions of human exposure, absorption, and toxicity,
to that of the workplace standard for that substance.
(3) The term ‘‘maximum level of remeditation’’
means one-tenth the equivalent exposure and is
deemed fully protective of human health.
(4) The term ‘‘workplace standard for dry
cleaning solvents’’ means the standard established
by the Secretary of Labor under section 6(b)(5) of