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Department of Housing and Community Development Abandons Push for Illegal Pipe Approval

**News Release for Wednesday, January 18, 2005**

SACRAMENTO - In a victory for California health and safety, the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) released a statement on January 11 declaring it would conduct court-ordered environmental and safety tests before approving wide spread use of CPVC (Chlorinated Poly Vinyl Chloride) pipes, a potentially toxic building material.

"After careful consideration, the Department (HCD) has decided to... proceed with an environmental impact report," HCD said in its statement Thursday. The announcement is a reversal of the administration's previous efforts to push through the approval of the pipe without appropriate testing.

"Their new approach is to follow the law. From our perspective, that is a dramatic improvement, and an important victory for the health and safety of California residents and workers," said Tim Frank, a senior policy advisor to the Sierra Club.

The Sierra Club is part of a coalition of environmental, fire safety and consumer groups that share widespread concerns that CPVC pipes allow toxins to leach into drinking water, including chemicals linked to cancer, expose workers to dangerous solvent chemicals and increase fire hazards. Leaching studies commissioned by the State of California and conducted by UC Berkeley laboratories found that CPVC pipes may leach toxic chemicals such as THF, MEK, acetone and organotins (including tributyltin) into drinking water. CPVC also significantly increases air pollution emissions of chemicals that create ozone smog, and exposes plumbers who install the pipes to dangerous toxins. CPVC pipe makes residential fires, plastic incinerators and landfill fires significantly more dangerous. When burned, CPVC pipe often releases dioxin, a carcinogen that is among the most toxic chemicals known to science.

For the past six years, CPVC pipes have been allowed on a very limited, permit-by-permit basis in cases when builders and developers can prove that safer copper pipes can't be used due to water quality and soil conditions. However, recent studies have determined that, where CPVC has been approved on a limited basis, enforcement and implementation of ventilation and glove-use requirements have been virtually non-existent.

Despite the extensive body of scientific evidence pointing to the health hazards and risks associated with CPVC and the widespread lack of safety enforcement, public records requests and court documents show the Schwarzenegger administration and industry lobbyists had spent the last year pushing for its widespread approval.

In November 2004, the California Court of Appeal in Los Angeles ruled that building products, including plastic pipes, must undergo environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act ("CEQA"). Rather than comply with this court order, HCD issued a draft addendum in March 2005, which proposed opening a loophole for the CPVC manufacturers that would effectively override the regulatory requirement now in place limiting CPVC use.

But a public outcry led by a coalition including Communities for a Better Environment, California Professional Firefighters Association, Sierra Club, Consumer Federation of California, Center for Environmental Health, California State Pipe Trades Council and the Planning and Conservation League caused the administration to reverse its previous efforts and announce its intentions to conduct an environmental impact report.

"This environmental impact report will be long overdue," said Ted Reed of the California State Pipe Trades Council. "We hope this marks the beginning of the administration's sincere effort to protect the health and safety of Californians by applying these same safety standards to other potentially hazardous building materials, particularly PEX piping."

PEX (cross-linked polyethylene) pipe shares many of the same hazards as CPVC, such as leaching potentially cancer-causing chemicals into drinking water and increasing the risk of fires. Scientific studies have shown that, in addition to other hazards, PEX plastic pipes allow MTBE and tert-Butyl alcohol compounds to leach into drinking water in amounts that exceed taste, odor and health guidelines set by the State of California. In addition, studies have shown that PEX pipe may prematurely decay and rupture, and may allow fires to spread more rapidly through homes.

In addition to the coalition, the following groups sent letters to the Department of Housing and Community Development opposing the administration's plans to approve PEX and CPVC: Los Angeles and San Francisco City Attorney's Offices; Alan Lowenthal, Chair of Senate Committee on Environmental Quality; Gene Mullin, Chair of Assembly Committee on Housing and Community Development; Fran Pavley, Chair of Assembly Select Committee on Air and Water Quality; Ira Ruskin Chair of Assembly Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials; and Loni Hancock, Chair of Assembly Committee on Natural Resources. Dozens of environmental organizations have also submitted comments opposing the administration's plans, including the Natural Resources Defense Council, San Francisco and Santa Monica BayKeepers and DeltaKeeper.

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