A chemical blamed for destroying salmon populations in the Northwest will be under the Senate’s microscope later this week.
An Environment and Public Works subcommittee will hold a hearing on the potential environmental impacts of 6PPD, used to make tires and rubbers last longer, and its toxic byproduct, 6PPD-quinone.
For more than two decades, scientists couldn’t explain why most — if not all — coho salmon in Washington’s Puget Sound area would suddenly go belly-up during their annual migration upstream from the ocean.
In 2020, researchers traced the deaths to 6PPD-q, which, even in small doses, can kill 40 to 90 percent of coho salmon within hours of exposure. They estimated the chemical made its way from roads or tire-crumb playgrounds to rainwater runoff.
House lawmakers held a hearing a few months after that study was released. It featured Democrats and Republicans bickering over the study’s validity.
In November, EPA granted a petition from tribes asking the agency to regulate 6PPD. EPA affirmed the study’s findings, launched initiatives to gather more data and set a tentative goal to finalize rulemaking by 2025.
The Biden administration aims to begin collecting information about a forthcoming proposed rule this December, according to the spring Unified Agenda.
A week after the agency agreed to regulate the chemical, fishing groups sued 13 tire companies in a federal district court for continued use of 6PPD.
Sen. Jeff Merkley, chair of the Chemical Safety, Waste Management, Environmental Justice and Regulatory Oversight Subcommittee, will oversee Thursday’s hearing.
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