Chlorinated biphenyls issue still unresolved: EPA claims MCBs are the same as PCBs despite Dow contention that they differ chemically; next big move up to Administrator Gorsuch

Despite more than two years of argument, the Environmental Protection Agency still has not resolved the fight it is having with Dow Chemical on whether monochlorinated biphenyls (MCBs) are the same as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). The latest action in this affair—the filing of yet another brief by EPA lawyers late last month—leaves the next big move up to EPA Administrator Anne M. Gorsuch. From a number of points, the case has been bizarre. Technically it began in August 1979, when EPA charged Dow with having knowingly violated the Toxic Substances Control Act from July 1978 onward by selling a product that contained PCBs and that was labeled improperly and without the proper filing of information with EPA. The product, Dowtherm G, is a heat transfer fluid used in industrial processes and contains only MCBs. Dow claims it did not know that EPA considered MCBs and PCBs to be the same under the law until it ...