Spring 1993
Update on Environmental Regulations for Photochemical Machining
Government regulations affecting PCMI members continue to
increase. The increase is not so much from the enactment of new
legislation but from broader interpretation of existing legislation
by the regulatory agencies and by stricter enforcement of current
laws.
This is occurring because the regulatory agencies have now had
the time to better understand the laws and have had time to learn
the ways of industry more than in the past.
For example, in the past, regulatory agencies had no idea how
chemical precipitation is used in aqueous treatment. Now some
government inspectors can advise industrial plant operators that
perhaps their filter press cloths need changing or that an end-ofpipe
sand filter might be a good idea to meet their discharge limits.
Now an inspector, who five years ago had never been in a circuit
shop or PCM plant, has seen many and is able to identify the
different machines and chemicals used in a plant. As a result, he
can spot violations that may have gone unnoticed in the past.
Philip Edelstein, C.P. Chemicals
