The DOT’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) is proposing to address requirements in the Hazardous Materials Transportation Safety Act of 2012 related to the Department's enhanced inspection, investigation, and enforcement authority. PHMSA is proposing to amend the opening of packages provision to include requirements for perishable hazardous material; add a new notification section; and add a new equipment section to the Department's procedural regulations.
For the mandates to address certain matters related to the Department's enhanced inspection, investigation, and enforcement authority, PHMSA is proposing no additional regulatory changes. The Agency believes that its current rules that were previously established through notice and comment rulemaking and existing policies and operating procedures thoroughly address the hazmat transportation matters identified by Congress. These inspection and enforcement procedures will not change the current inspection procedures for DOT, but will augment DOT's existing enforcement procedures and allow the Department to respond immediately and effectively to conditions or practices that pose serious threats to life, property, or the environment. As this rule affects only agency enforcement procedures, it therefore, results in no additional burden of compliance costs to industry.
New Regulations for Recycling Old Mercury Thermostats
The California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) recently released final regulations for the collection and recycling of used thermostats containing toxic mercury.
“This is the first example of a take-back program with measureable performance goals that will increase the number of mercury thermostats that are collected,” said DTSC Director Deborah Raphael. “I’m very proud of the fact that California is again leading the way, and will be a model for other take-back programs.”
A 2006 state law banned the sale of new mercury-added thermostats. Mercury is a potent neurotoxin that, when released into the environment, can significantly harm human health and the environment. Though no longer sold in California, up to 10 million mercury-added thermostats are still in California homes and businesses.
State law also bans their disposal in solid-waste landfills, and a 2008 law, the Mercury Thermostat Collection Act, requires former producers of such thermostats to operate a collection and recycling program for those that become waste.
Under the new regulations, manufacturers are required to collect and recycle more than 32,500 mercury-containing thermostats in the second half of 2013, or 30% of the estimated total number of mercury thermostats that become waste. Recycling goals will increase annually for the next five years until 2017, when the goal is a 75% collection and recycling rate, or more than 147,000 mercury thermostats.
These goals reflect the legislative mandate for DTSC to establish goals resulting in the collection and recycling of the maximum feasible number of out-of-service mercury-added thermostats. These “extended producer responsibility” regulations focus on setting performance goals that the thermostat industry, rather than state and local government, is responsible for meeting.
The thermostat manufacturing industry currently operates a non-profit corporation, the Thermostat Recycling Corporation (), for the purpose of collecting and properly disposing mercury-containing thermostats. TRC represents 30 manufacturers that historically distributed mercury-containing thermostats in the US.
This national program provides heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) distributors, retailers who sell thermostats, or household hazardous waste programs with mercury thermostat collection and recycling services. The new regulations require manufacturers who formerly sold mercury thermostats to meet these recycling goals either through participation in the TRC or an independently sponsored program.
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How to Implement OSHA’s Globally Harmonized Hazard Communication Standard (GHS)
OSHA has issued a final rule revising its Hazard Communication Standard, aligning it with the United Nations’ globally harmonized system (GHS) for the classification and labeling of hazardous chemicals. This means that virtually every product label, material safety data sheet (now called “safety data sheet” or SDS), and written hazard communication plan must be revised to meet the new standard. Worker training must be updated so that workers can recognize and understand the symbols and pictograms on the new labels as well as the new hazard statements and precautions on SDSs.
Kraft Pulp Mills NSPS
These revised standards include particulate matter emission limits for recovery furnaces, smelt dissolving tanks, and lime kilns, which apply to emission units commencing construction, reconstruction or modification after May 23, 2013, that are different from those required under the existing standards for kraft pulp mills. The exemptions to opacity standards do not apply to the proposed standards for kraft pulp mills. The proposed rule also removes the exemption for periods of startup and shutdown resulting in a standard that applies at all times.
The proposed rule includes additional testing requirements and updated monitoring, record keeping, and reporting requirements for affected sources. These differences are expected to ensure that control systems are properly maintained over time, ensure continuous compliance with standards, and improve data accessibility for the EPA, states, tribal governments, and communities.
EPA Advises Facility Operators to Minimize Releases During Hazardous Weather Events
This alert is designed to increase awareness among facility operators about their obligation to operate facilities safely and report chemical releases in a timely manner.
The alert specifies operational release minimization requirements and clarifies reporting requirements, including exemptions. Unlike some natural disasters, the onset of a hurricane is predictable and allows for early preparations to lessen its effect on a facility. Before hurricane force winds and associated storm surge flooding damage industrial processes, the alert recommends that operators take preventive action by safely shutting down processes, or otherwise operate safely under emergency procedures.
New Tractor-Trailer Greenhouse Gas Regulation Compliance Tool for Truck Drivers and Shippers Now Available Online
The website will report whether a trailer has been registered with CARB for an extension or an exemption so that they may operate in California without aerodynamic retrofits.
Users will be able to access the website from any internet-enabled device (including computers, mobile phones, or tablets) to search for a trailer by VIN or license plate number. This website will be most helpful for users in the field that need to know whether a trailer currently not equipped with aerodynamic devices may be operated legally in California at a given point in time.
Trailers that are not retrofitted and are not reported on the website may still be compliant with the regulation if the trailer:
- Is traveling empty
- Is being pulled by tractors registered with CARB as short haul or local haul
- Has a pass or is being pulled by a tractor with a pass (a copy will be with the driver or on the trailer)
- Is a 2003-2009 reefer with a 2003 or newer reefer engine
Users seeking compliance information on trailers meeting any of the above criteria will not be able to use the results of this website, and will have to visually confirm a trailer’s compliance status.
Kansas Oil Refiner to Pay $300,000 to Settle Violations of Clean Air Act
Coffeyville Resources Refining & Marketing (CRRM) has agreed to pay a $300,000 civil penalty to settle alleged violations of the Clean Air Act (CAA) at its oil refinery in Coffeyville, Kansas.
Under a consent decree lodged recently in US District Court in Wichita, Kansas, CRRM must also perform a series of audits and reviews of its risk management procedures at the southeast Kansas facility.
The proposed settlement is the third environmental settlement with CRRM since 2012. The first settlement, which became final in April 2012, addressed several CAA violations and resulted in significant reductions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions from the facility.
The second settlement, which became final in March 2013, resolved issues related to a 2007 oil spill into the Verdigris River. The settlement required CRRM to upgrade its facility to help prevent future spills, and pay for cleanup costs associated with the spill.
The proposed settlement lodged recently addresses deficiencies in the Coffeyville refinery’s risk management program, which is intended to prevent and reduce the severity of accidental releases of harmful substances into the air.
“This third settlement with CRRM illustrates the extent of environmental problems the facility needed to fix,” said EPA Region 7 Administrator Karl Brooks. “Together these settlements will result in sustained environmental improvement at the facility, making Coffeyville a safer place to live and CRRM a safer place to work.”
In addition to paying the penalty, the proposed settlement requires CRRM to complete a comprehensive audit of the refinery’s compliance with the CAA Risk Management Program throughout the facility and all vessels containing hazardous toxic or flammable substances. CRRM must also complete an audit to evaluate the alkylation unit, which uses large volumes of highly corrosive hydrofluoric acid, to ensure operations are consistent with industry safety standards.
The consent decree is subject to a 30-day public comment period and approval by the federal court before it becomes final.
Company to Upgrade Treatment of Fracking Wastewater and Pay Penalties after Discharge
EPA recently announced a Clean Water Act settlement with Fluid Recovery Services, LLC (FRS), which operates three wastewater treatment plants in western Pennsylvania. The settlement resolves discharge permit violations associated with the treatment of wastewater generated from oil and gas extraction activities.
Under the settlement, FRS must seek renewal of their Clean Water Act discharge permits from Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP) and request that PADEP include the more stringent discharge limits in Pennsylvania’s wastewater treatment standards. This includes a new standard of 500 milligrams per liter for total dissolved solids in their renewed permits.
FRS will invest as much as $30 million to upgrade the facilities to comply with the new more stringent discharge limits. Meeting the more stringent discharge limits will enable the facilities to be eligible to treat wastewater from unconventional oil and gas extraction activities, such as hydrofracking.
The agreement prohibits FRS from discharging wastewater from hydrofracking or other unconventional oil and gas extraction activities until after the facilities have achieved full compliance with the more stringent discharge permit limits.
The facilities, which discharge to the Allegheny River watershed, have not been discharging such wastewater since September 2011 following the issuance of an order to each facility by EPA and a request from PADEP in April of 2011 that asked oil and gas producers not to send their wastewater to treatment facilities that could not meet the more stringent discharge limits.
The former operators of the facilities, Hart Resources Technology, Inc., (Hart) and Pennsylvania Brine Treatment, Inc. (PBT), recently merged to form FRS. As part of the proposed penalty settlements, Hart and PBT neither admitted nor denied responsibility for the violations.
Louisiana Phosphoric Acid Manufacturing Agrees to Reduce Hydrogen Fluoride Air Emissions
“Reducing pollution from mining and mineral processing operations is one of EPA’s national enforcement initiatives because these facilities release more toxic chemicals than any other sector,” said Cynthia Giles, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. “This settlement will reduce millions of pounds of hazardous air pollutants, ensuring that the residents of Geismar Louisiana have cleaner air.”
Under the settlement, PCS will prevent the release of 15 million lb of hydrogen fluoride, a hazardous air pollutant annually and will pay a civil penalty of $198,825.30. PCS has already implemented the pollution controls sought in the settlement.
Mining and mineral processing facilities generate more toxic and hazardous waste than any other industrial sector, based on EPA’s Toxic Release Inventory. Examples include a 65 million gallon release of acidic wastewaters from the Mosaic Riverview facility into Tampa Bay, which led to a massive local fish kill and a 2007 incident at the Agrifos phosphoric acid facility in Houston that released 50 million gallons of acidic wastewaters into the Houston Ship Channel. Since 2003, EPA has investigated a total of twenty phosphoric acid facilities in seven states.
California Lists Clomiphene Citrate as a Carcinogen
The listing of clomiphene citrate is based on a formal requirement by a state or federal agency that the chemical be identified or labeled as causing cancer or reproductive toxicity pursuant to an administrative listing mechanism2 provided under the Act. Clomiphene citrate has been identified or labeled to communicate a risk of cancer in accordance with formal requirements by the US Food and Drug Administration. Regulations governing the listing of chemicals under the “formally required to be labeled or identified” mechanism are published in Title 27, California Code of Regulations, section 25902.
Please note that the CAS number for clomiphene citrate, CAS No. 911-45-5, cited in the Notice of Intent to List A Chemical by the “Formally Required to Be Labeled or Identified” Mechanism: Clomiphene Citrate, is incorrect. The correct CAS number is 50-41-9.
Maryland Department of Environment Issues Enforcement Actions
The Maryland Department of the Environment recently announced major enforcement actions in recent months for alleged violations of State and federal environmental laws to protect public health and our land, air, water and wetlands resources.
“The Maryland Department of the Environment's top priority is to protect public health and our environment. A consistent baseline of enforcement action prevents further pollution and risks to public health,” said MDE Secretary Robert M. Summers. “The majority of Maryland businesses comply with environmental laws. A strong and fair enforcement program protects our investment in the environment as well as the health and quality of life of all Maryland residents.”
Hyland Orchard of Sturbridge Assessed $18,110 Penalty
The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) has assessed an $18,110 penalty on Eugene W. and Sarah L. Damon, as individuals and as officers of Hyland Orchard, Inc., located at 199 Arnold Road in Sturbridge, for violating Industrial Wastewater regulations.
During an inspection conducted by MassDEP personnel last July, it was determined that the owners allowed an on-site commercial beer brewing operation and a small commercial bakery to discharge industrial wastewater to both ground and surface waters near the site.
In a recently finalized settlement, the owners agreed to put in and maintain collection systems to properly manage their wastewater discharges. The company must pay just $4,527 of the assessed penalty, provided that the owners do not have any additional violations for a one-year period.
"Hyland Orchard knowingly allowed the unpermitted discharge of industrial wastewater to its property, which created several environmental and public health issues," said Lee Dillard Adams, director of MassDEP's Central Regional Office in Worcester. "MassDEP's coordination with the Sturbridge Board of Health has resulted in a comprehensive review of this company's operation and establishment of enforceable schedules to correct a wide range of environmental issues."
MassDEP is responsible for ensuring clean air and water, safe management and recycling of solid and hazardous wastes, timely cleanup of hazardous waste sites and spills, and the preservation of wetlands and coastal resources.
Pan Am Railways and Boston & Maine Corp. Fined $60,000 for Abandoning Thousands of Railroad Ties
The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) has issued a $59,746.50 penalty to the Boston & Maine Corporation and its parent company, Pan Am Railways, Inc. (Pan Am/B&M Corp.), resolving violations of the Massachusetts Solid Waste Management regulations.
The violations occurred between 2004 and 2007 and involved the disposal of large quantities of old railroad ties along rail lines in the towns of West Boylston, Sterling, Deerfield, and Charlemont. The ties abandoned in West Boylston and Sterling numbered in the thousands and extended over 7.5 miles of track in the watershed for the Wachusett Reservoir. The ties abandoned in Deerfield exposed first-responders to additional safety and health risks when they became involved in a brush fire that engulfed the abandoned rail ties.
These violations led MassDEP to issue a Unilateral Order and a Notice of Intent to Assess a Civil Administrative Penalty in May of 2007. These actions were appealed by Pan Am/B&M Corp. With the assistance of the Office of the Attorney General, MassDEP recently resolved the appeal and the underlying violations through a settlement agreement.
"It is critical that Massachusetts businesses manage their wastes in a manner that is environmentally responsible, compliant with the existing regulations, and does not present an increased risk to public safety," said MassDEP Commissioner Kenneth L. Kimmell. "Protection of public water supplies and their watersheds is of the highest priority to MassDEP and illegally disposing of solid wastes in these sensitive locations will not be tolerated."
The settlement provides that Pan Am/B&M Corp. immediately cease any further disposal of railroad ties and manage used ties in strict conformance with protocols established as part of the company's Environmental Management System. These protocols allow for the temporary staging of used ties along the tracks under certain conditions and for set time periods. These protocols will ensure that used ties that can be recycled will get reused, and that ties that have no future use are removed from the side of the rail lines for appropriate disposal.
As part of the settlement, Pan Am/B&M Corp. will pay a penalty of $49,746.50, with the remaining $10,000 suspended pending the companies' compliance with the terms of the settlement.
Pilot Travel Centers LLC Assessed Penalty for Drinking Water Violations
Pilot Travel Centers, LLC, of Knoxville, Tennessee, has been assessed a $6,900 penalty by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) to resolve violations of the Massachusetts Drinking Water regulations. The violations occurred at the company's registered public water system (PWS), which is located at the Pilot Travel Center on 400 Haynes Street (Route 15), in Sturbridge.
In response to a water treatment chemical overfeed incident at the Pilot Travel Centers PWS in December of 2011, which followed a power failure, MassDEP conducted an inspection of the facility and identified several operational and maintenance deficiencies that violate the Drinking Water regulations.
As a result of negotiations with MassDEP, Pilot Travel Centers has agreed to correct the violations, including upgrades to the treatment system and the distribution system infrastructure. The company also must install a remote notification auto-dailer to notify the PWS operator of an alarm condition within the facility, and update its emergency response plan.
"Maintaining the infrastructure of a public water system is essential in order to provide for proper operation of the facility," said Lee Dillard Adams, director of MassDEP's Central Regional Office in Worcester. "Ensuring proper operation of permitted facilities is an important component of MassDEP's mission to provide safe and pure water for the protection of public health and safety."
MassDEP is responsible for ensuring clean air and water, safe management and recycling of solid and hazardous wastes, timely cleanup of hazardous waste sites and spills, and the preservation of wetlands and coastal resources.
MPCA is Beginning Water Quality Monitoring Field Work Throughout Minnesota
Monitoring crews from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) are beginning the sixth year of a 10-year effort to assess the condition of rivers, streams, and lakes in Minnesota. This work is being funded by the Clean Water Fund from the constitutional amendment passed by voters in 2008.
The majority of the monitoring activities will focus on specific watersheds. There are 81 major watersheds in Minnesota. Each watershed is comprised of a network of interconnected streams, lakes, and wetlands. The intent of this monitoring is to develop a complete picture of the conditions of the water body types in each watershed.
Biological monitoring in rivers and streams will be carried out by two biological monitoring units, divided into a north team in Brainerd and a south team in St. Paul. This summer, the north team will work in the Mississippi River-Headwaters, Lake Superior North, Two Rivers, and Snake River (Red River Basin) watersheds. The south team will work in the Rum River, Minnesota River-Mankato, and Watonwan River watersheds.
Other MPCA monitoring teams working with the Department of Natural Resources and local water resource managers will track water quality trends on the state’s largest rivers and on major tributary rivers at the outlets of most major watersheds in Minnesota.
The stream monitoring is designed to measure and evaluate the condition of rivers and streams by studying the biology, including fish, aquatic invertebrates, and plant life as well as habitat, flow and water chemistry. Examples of aquatic invertebrates include insect larvae, crayfish, snails, small clams, worms and leeches. Stream water chemistry is monitored to provide information about the quality of the water in which these fish and invertebrates live.
Lake-monitoring crews will sample the larger lakes in the same watersheds. The MPCA is committed to monitoring all lakes greater than 500 acres in surface area, and as many lakes over 100 acres as possible. The lake-monitoring teams will focus on water clarity, nutrient concentrations, and other water chemistry parameters to assess the lakes’ ability to support recreational uses.
Wetland monitoring crews will sample five to 10 wetlands in the headwaters of tributaries to Lake Superior and 20 marsh wetlands across southwestern and northwestern Minnesota.
The MPCA relies on a large contingent of volunteers and local partners to collect water quality data on lakes and streams. Several groups have received funds through Surface Water Assessment Grants to collect water quality data in these watersheds in 2013.
There are certain expectations for what the biology and water chemistry should look like at a given sampling location. If samples do not meet those expectations, the sampling location could be considered impaired. If that happens, the MPCA would look more closely at what could be causing impairments and find ways to correct the problems.
New York Joins Petition Urging NNRC To Fix Gaps In Evaluation Of Long-term Storage Of Radioactive Waste
New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced recently that he has joined a coalition of states petitioning the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to fix critical omissions in the proposed scope of its review of the hazards of allowing the long-term storage of nuclear waste to linger in communities that are home to nuclear power plants. The petition also calls on the Commission to make necessary changes to its regulations to ensure states and other affected parties are able to raise site-specific concerns about long-term nuclear waste storage at particular plant sites, such as the unique setting of the Indian Point nuclear facilities in Westchester County.
“We are petitioning the NRC to order staff to comply with the court's order and federal law by fixing critical omissions in the scope of its review of on-site storage of nuclear waste,” said Attorney General Schneiderman. “NRC staff is continuing to ignore serious public health, safety and environmental risks related to long-term, on-site storage. The communities that serve as de facto long-term radioactive waste repositories deserve a full and detailed accounting of the risks.”
In response to a lawsuit brought by Attorney General Schneiderman, a federal circuit court last year ordered the NRC to complete a full review of the public health, safety and environmental hazards before allowing the long-term storage of radioactive waste at the nation’s nuclear power plants and deciding that such storage is safe and has no adverse environmental impacts. This landmark decision means that the Commission cannot license or re-license any nuclear power plant, including the Indian Point facilities, until it fully examines the dangers and consequences of long-term, on-site storage of nuclear waste.
The coalition's petition identifies key gaps in the proposed scope of the review prepared by NRC staff. The petition calls on the NRC to require staff to assess how public health, safety and environmental hazards in communities would be affected if nuclear power plants were not authorized to generate additional radioactive wastes until a permanent national repository (along the lines of the canceled Yucca Mountain facility in Nevada) is available. In addition, the petition calls on the Commission to require an assessment of how these hazards would be affected by speeding the transfer of nuclear waste from densely-packed storage pools to more stable dry cast storage. Although, currently, waste at nuclear power plants is typically stored in pools, the pools require a constant supply of water and electric power to cool the waste and to prevent it from overheating and releasing radioactive elements into the surrounding communities.
The petition also calls on the NRC to modify its regulations to allow states and other affected parties to raise significant site-specific environmental impact issues regarding long-term nuclear waste storage at particular plant sites. The Commission has stated that it will address “generic” waste storage issues in this environmental impact statement, but has not made clear how or whether it will allow plant-specific issues to be raised in licensing or relicensing proceedings. To implement that decision, the NRC needs to modify its current regulations.
In addition to New York, the states joining in the petition filed recently are Vermont, Connecticut, and Massachusetts.
Mississippi Laboratory Operator Found Guilty of Falsifying Records on Industrial Wastewater
The owner and sole operator of an environmental laboratory was found guilty yesterday in US District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi of all counts of a federal indictment charging falsification of records and obstructing a federal criminal investigation, announced Assistant Attorney General Ignacia S. Moreno of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division and the US Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi Gregory K. Davis.
Tennie White, owner, operator and manager of Mississippi Environmental Analytical Laboratories, Inc., was charged in a three-count felony indictment with two false statements counts and one count of obstructing proceedings. The jury found the White guilty of all counts after an eight day trial before US District Judge Henry T. Wingate at the federal courthouse in Jackson, Miss.
“Our environmental regulatory system depends on the self-reporting of accurate information, including what is being released into the environment. When laboratories who are paid to test and report samples of what is being discharged into our nation’s waters fabricate results and lie to investigators, they will be prosecuted,” said US Attorney Davis.
“Americans expect their public water supply to be clean and safe to use,” said Maureen O’Mara, Special Agent in Charge of EPA’s criminal enforcement program in Mississippi. “In order to safeguard public health it is absolutely essential that governments receive accurate test results and measurements. Violators who submit false reports undermine our efforts to protect the public and the environment. Today’s guilty verdict by a jury demonstrates that the American people will not tolerate laboratories and their managers who place the public at risk by knowingly falsifying test results.”
As describe in the indictment, White was hired to perform laboratory testing of a manufacturer’s industrial process wastewater samples and then to use those results to complete monthly discharge monitoring reports for submission to the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality. The indictment further alleged that White created a fictitious laboratory report and presented it to her client for use in preparing another DMR for January 2009. The indictment also alleged that White made false statements to a federal agent during a subsequent criminal investigation.
Sentencing has been scheduled for August 8, 2013, in federal court in Jackson. For the false statements charges, the defendant is facing a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine per count. The obstructing proceedings charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
New NOAA Report Examines National Oil Pollution Threat from Shipwrecks
NOAA presented to the US Coast Guard a new report that finds that 36 sunken vessels scattered across the US seafloor could pose an oil pollution threat to the nation’s coastal marine resources. Of those, 17 were recommended for further assessment and potential removal of both fuel oil and oil cargo.
The sunken vessels are a legacy of more than a century of US commerce and warfare. They include a barge lost in rough seas in 1936; two motor-powered ships that sank in separate collisions in 1947 and 1952; and a tanker that exploded and sank in 1984. The remaining sites are 13 merchant marine ships lost during World War II, primarily along the Atlantic Seaboard and Gulf of Mexico.
The report, part of NOAA’s Remediation of Underwater Legacy Environmental Threats (RULET) project, identifies the location and nature of potential sources of oil pollution from sunken vessels. Knowing where these vessels are helps oil response planning efforts and may help in the investigation of reported mystery spills—sightings of oil where a source is not immediately known or suspected.
“This report is the most comprehensive assessment to date of the potential oil pollution threats from shipwrecks in US waters,” said Lisa Symons, resource protection coordinator for NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries. “Now that we have analyzed this data, the Coast Guard will be able to evaluate NOAA’s recommendations and determine the most appropriate response to potential threats.”
“The Coast Guard is pleased to receive these risk assessments from our partner agency NOAA and looks forward to our continued coordination on the matter of potential pollution associated with sunken vessels in US waters,” said Capt. John Caplis, the Coast Guard’s chief of marine environmental response. “Coast Guard federal on-scene coordinators receiving the risk assessments will carefully review the data and incorporate it into their area contingency plans.”
In 2010, Congress appropriated $1 million for NOAA to develop a list of the most significant potentially polluting wrecks in US waters, including the Great Lakes, specifically addressing ecological and socio-economic resources at risk. Those funds were not intended for oil or vessel removal.
NOAA maintains the internal Resources and UnderSea Threats (RUST) database of approximately 30,000 sites of sunken material, of which 20,000 are shipwrecks. The remaining items are munitions dumpsites, navigational obstructions, underwater archaeological sites, and other underwater resources.
Initial screening of these shipwrecks revealed 573 that could pose substantial pollution risks, based on the vessel’s age, type, and size. This includes vessels built after 1891, when US vessels began using fuel oil; vessels built of steel; vessels over 1,000 gross tons, and any tank vessel.
Additional research about the circumstances of each vessel’s loss narrowed that number to 107 shipwrecks. Of those, some were deemed navigational hazards and demolished, and others were salvaged. Most of the 107 wrecks have not been directly surveyed for pollution potential, and in some cases little is known about their current condition.
To prioritize and determine which vessels are candidates for further evaluation, NOAA used a series of risk factors to assess the likelihood of substantial amounts of oil remaining onboard, and the potential ecological and environmental effects if that oil spills. Risk factors include the total oil volume onboard as cargo or fuel, the type of oil, and the nature of the sinking event. For example, a vessel that was struck by multiple torpedoes would likely contain less oil than a vessel that sank in bad weather.
After this third level of screening, 87 wrecks remained on the list developed for the Coast Guard’s area contingency plans. Among this group, NOAA determined that 36 shipwrecks are candidates for a “Worst Case” discharge event in which the shipwreck’s entire fuel oil and oil cargo would be released simultaneously, and recommended that 17 of these wrecks be considered for further assessment and feasibility of oil removal.
Six wrecks are potential candidates for a “Most Probable” discharge event, where a shipwreck could lose approximately 10% of its fuel oil or oil cargo. To date, known oil discharges from shipwrecks are typically in the “Most Probable” category or smaller.
The report, including 87 risk assessments, is not intended to direct Coast Guard activities, but rather provide the Coast Guard with NOAA’s scientific and technical assessment and guidance as a natural resource and cultural heritage trustee.
The Coast Guard, as the federal On-scene Coordinator for mitigating oil spills in the coastal marine environment, the Regional Response Teams, and local Area Committees, as established under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, will review and incorporate the assessments into regional and area marine environmental response contingency plans. The individual risk assessments not only highlight concerns about potential ecological and socio-economic impacts, but also characterize most of the vessels as historically significant and many of them as gravesites, both civilian and military.
Funding for any assessment or recovery operations determined to be necessary is dependent upon the unique circumstances of the wreck. If a wreck still has an identifiable owner, that owner is responsible for the cost of cleanup. Coast Guard officials say that if no responsible party exists, the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund would likely be accessed.
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Trivia Question of the Week
By what percentage did bicycle commuting increase in the US between 2000 and 2010?
a. 5%
b. 15%
c. 43%
d. 73%