The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the new ban with area contractors.
But the meeting seemed to be hijacked by the coal tar sealer industry’s representative, Anne LeHuray. Also present was the president of GemSeal, the company which tried but couldn’t even get the pro-business State of Texas to overturn Austin’s ban.
The Pavement Coatings Technology Council made the same “deeply flawed junk science” complaint about the USGS research to the USEPA. Did they mention that the EPA had rendered a decision on the use of the USGS data? Of course not.
It is unfortunate that wild claims made by industry were printed in the local paper with no challenge or fact finding.
In January 2016, the US EPA agreed that the USGS research “quality, objectivity, and transparency is sufficient for their intended uses. EPA is therefore retaining the references to the studies in its publications.” EPA response also reiterated that it “conducted its own research on this topic, and a study that was a set subject to the Agency’s peer and administrative review found that coal tar seal coat releases 100 to 1000 times more PAH’s than other types of surfaces.”
A link to the letter is below.
This is just one of dozens of points where the VBT ban is based on sound science. The industry agents’ role is not clarification but simply to function as “merchants of doubt.”
If the key point of their arguments has already been dismissed by the USEPA, then I would suggest telling them to go peddle that nonsense somewhere else.