The existing Air Emissions Reporting Requirements (AERR) in 40 CFR 51 include a reporting threshold of 5 tons per year for lead (Pb). EPA is planning to propose bring that threshold into line with the requirements of the revised Pb national standards (NAAQS) and its associated monitoring requirements of 0.5 tons per year. This action will also include technical corrections to Appendix A of subpart A of the AERR final rule to make it consistent with the final implementation of the Emission Inventory System (EIS), which is used to collect the data required as part of the AERR. This action will propose requiring state, local, and tribal agencies to collect emissions data from additional Pb sources with lower emissions. It will also reduce confusion that now exists because of current final rule inconsistencies between the technical specifications of EIS and data elements and other features of Appendix A.
The rule will affect state, local, and tribal agencies that are responsible for submitting data to EIS by requiring them to collect and submit data for more Pb sources. The action will also clarify for these data submitters the technical elements of their submissions to the EIS.
Charlotte, North Carolina RCRA and DOT Training
Cary, North Carolina 40-Hour and 24-Hour HAZWOPER Training
Wilmington, Delaware RCRA and DOT Training
Safety Consultant/Trainer
Environmental Resource Center has a new opening for a safety consultant and auditor. We are looking for a former OSHA CSHO, OSHA trainer, or state inspector for this position in our Cary, North Carolina, office. Applicants should have excellent writing and speaking skills and be willing to travel 7–14 days per month. We are looking for an expert in all of the General Industry and Construction standards who is capable of performing audits of industrial facilities as well as conducting on-site training.
Strong consideration will be given to applicants who also have experience providing HAZWOPER, Hazcom, lockout/tagout, confined spaces, and machine guarding training.
The position includes maintenance of training materials (books and presentations), working on consulting projects, development of classes and computer-based training programs, and ensuring customer satisfaction.
How to Author GHS Safety Data Sheets
OSHA is adopting the new Globally Harmonized System (GHS) for the classification and labeling of hazardous chemicals. A cornerstone of GHS is the adoption of a completely revised Safety Data Sheet (SDS).
- December 15, 2011
- January 27, 2012
- February 29, 2012
How to Label Hazardous Chemicals Using OSHA’s New GHS Hazcom Standard
Workplace and supplier hazard communication labels are being reinvented as OSHA adopts the new Globally Harmonized System (GHS) for labeling hazardous chemicals.
- December 16, 2011
- February 3, 2012
- March 1, 2012
PSD and Title V Greenhouse Gas Tailoring Rule Step 3
EPA plans to publish an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking which will further tailor the applicability criteria that determine which stationary sources and modification projects become subject to permitting requirements for greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions under the Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) and title V programs of the Clean Air Act (CAA). In this rule, EPA will establish the third phase of the phase-in approach, which the Agency refers to as Step 3. Step 3 may apply PSD and title V to additional sources, effective July 1, 2013.
SPCC Compliance Date Extended for Farms
The date was amended because a large segment of the continental US was affected by flooding during the spring and summer of 2011, and other areas were impacted by devastating fires and drought conditions. In addition, despite the targeted farm outreach efforts by EPA over the past ten months, the sheer number of farms throughout the US makes it a challenge to reach those owners and operators of farms that may be subject to the SPCC Plan regulations. As a result, the Agency stated it believes that farms need additional time to come into compliance with the requirements to prepare or amend and implement a SPCC Plan.
PSD for Particulate Matter Less Than 2.5 Micrometers
EPA is planning to propose three provisions that were contained in the 2010 final rule promulgating particulate matter (PM) 2.5 increments, Significant Impact Levels, and Significant Monitoring Concentrations for PM2.5. The reason that EPA is re-proposing these three actions is because the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) filed a Petition for Reconsideration to the Administrator challenging several actions contained in the 2010 final rule.
In response to the TCEQ petition, EPA agreed to reconsider, by re-proposing, the following three provisions: 1) The revised definition of baseline area that includes a new significance level for PM2.5, which is used for determining whether a particular attainment or unclassifiable area should be included in the baseline area for the PM2.5 increments; 2) The requirement that PM2.5 precursor emissions be included in the significant impact analysis; and 3) The level selected for the Significant Monitoring Concentration for PM2.5. In each case, the TCEQ claimed that EPA did not provide an opportunity for public comment prior to issuing the provisions as part of the 2010 final rule
Revised Regulation for Environmental Radiation Protection Standard for Nuclear Power Operations
EPA’s Office of Radiation Programs issued “Environmental Radiation Protection Standards for Nuclear Power Operations” in 1977. Since issuance of the standards, the understanding of radiation risk and dose to humans has advanced and new methods have been developed to calculate radiation doses. In view of the developments over the past decades, EPA is evaluating how to update the Environmental Radiation Protection Standards for Nuclear Power Operations in 40 CFR 190. EPA will issue an ANPRM to solicit public input on general questions and approaches on what aspects of the rule should be updated. The ANPRM is expected within the next year.
DOT Bans Hand-Held Cell Phone Use by Drivers of Buses and Large Trucks
The joint rule from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) is the latest action by the US Department of Transportation (DOT) to end distracted driving.
“When drivers of large trucks, buses and hazardous materials take their eyes off the road for even a few seconds, the outcome can be deadly,” said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. “I hope that this rule will save lives by helping commercial drivers stay laser-focused on safety at all times while behind the wheel.”
The final rule prohibits commercial drivers from using a hand-held mobile telephone while operating a commercial truck or bus. Drivers who violate the restriction will face federal civil penalties of up to $2,750 for each offense and disqualification from operating a commercial motor vehicle for multiple offenses. Additionally, states will suspend a driver’s commercial driver’s license (CDL) after two or more serious traffic violations. Commercial truck and bus companies that allow their drivers to use hand-held cell phones while driving will face a maximum penalty of $11,000. Approximately four million commercial drivers would be affected by this final rule.
“This final rule represents a giant leap for safety,” said FMCSA Administrator Anne S. Ferro. “It’s just too dangerous for drivers to use a hand-held cell phone while operating a commercial vehicle. Drivers must keep their eyes on the road, hands on the wheel and head in the game when operating on our roads. Lives are at stake.”
While driver distraction studies have produced mixed results, FMCSA research shows that using a hand-held cell phone while driving requires a commercial driver to take several risky steps beyond what is required for using a hands-free mobile phone, including searching and reaching for the phone. Commercial drivers reaching for an object, such as a cell phone, are three times more likely to be involved in a crash or other safety-critical event. Dialing a hand-held cell phone makes it six times more likely that commercial drivers will be involved in a crash or other safety-critical event.
In September 2010, FMCSA issued a regulation banning text messaging while operating a commercial truck or bus and PHMSA followed with a companion regulation in February 2011, banning texting by intrastate hazardous materials drivers.
“Needless injuries and deaths happen when people are distracted behind the wheel,” said PHMSA Administrator Cynthia Quarterman. “Our final rule would improve safety and reduce risks of hazmat in transportation.”
Nearly 5474 people died and half a million were injured in crashes involving a distracted driver in 2009. Distraction-related fatalities represented 16% of overall traffic fatalities in 2009, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) research.
Many of the largest truck and bus companies, such as UPS, Covenant Transport, Wal-Mart, Peter Pan, and Greyhound already have company policies in place banning their drivers from using hand-held phones.
Misael Cabrera Selected to Become New Deputy Director at ADEQ
Misael Cabrera has been selected deputy director of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, (ADEQ), the agency’s director, Henry Darwin, has announced. The 41-year-old Cabrera, a registered professional engineer, has almost two decades of experience including business leadership, regulatory negotiations, contract management, site characterization and remediation, permitting, design, and construction management.
“This has been a long, difficult search to find someone who has the right technical background and experience to bring a fresh set of eyes on our permitting and remedial action approval processes,” Darwin said. “I feel fortunate to have found these characteristics in Misael.” Cabrera has worked most recently as a senior client leader and senior engineer for Haley & Aldrich’s Industrial Environmental practice based in Phoenix. Prior to that, Cabrera was environmental unit manager for AMEC in Tempe, where he supervised a team working on industrial and regulatory compliance, air quality, documentation under the National Environmental Policy Act, and asbestos and lead assessment. Cabrera’s team also worked on site characterization and remediation under the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act program and the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act, EPA’s superfund program.
Cabrera also worked for CH2M HILL in Tempe, where he was business group leader for the environmental business line in Arizona and served as a project delivery leader for a major federal program in the Southwest and Southeast. Cabrera also worked at CH2M HILL’s office in Milano, Italy, for six months. In addition to English, he also is fluent in Spanish and conversant in Italian. Cabrera, who has lived in Arizona since 1984, received his B. S. degree in civil engineering from the University of Arizona. He also has taken upper division courses on water treatment and remediation at Arizona State University.
Michigan DEQ Program Helps 1,000th Company
Michigan’s unique state program, the Retired Engineer Technical Assistance Program (RETAP), which provides voluntary pollution prevention and energy assistance to small businesses, recently helped its 1,000th company. RETAP has provided over 1,400 assessments in the past 13 years, helping small businesses save thousands of dollars.
Established in 1998 under the Clean Michigan Initiative, the RETAP utilizes the services of retired engineers and other professionals with years of experience and business expertise to assist local businesses. Data shows that a company using the RETAP services can save an average of $40,000 or more per assessment. Most companies implement, or make plans to implement more than 70% of the recommendations within two years of receiving their assessment report.
Data also indicates the retired engineers identify more than $10 in savings for every $1 operating the program.
More than 75% of the assessments conducted by the RETAP were for manufacturing companies, a critical business sector for Michigan’s economy and environment.
“This is the kind of program our small and medium-sized manufacturers need,” said Andy Such, director of Environmental and Regulatory Policy for the Michigan Manufacturers Association. “With the RETAP Program, Michigan manufacturers have a valuable pool of experienced people to help with complex pollution prevention and energy issues.”
The RETAP has secured funding from several federal agencies. Most recently, the RETAP received $1 million from the US Department of Energy, to provide energy assessments to Michigan small businesses.
UN Wildlife Meeting Pushes to Make Power Lines Safer for Birds
Two new international reports on the impact of power lines on migratory birds in the African-Eurasian region were presented to delegates at a UN wildlife conference held November 20–25, 2011 in Bergen, Norway.
Power lines constitute one of the major causes of unnatural death for birds both through electrocution and fatal collisions. At end of 2010 there were 70.5 million kilometers of power lines throughout the world, constructed with minimal consideration of their environmental impact. This is expected to increase to 76.2 million kilometers by the end of 2015.
The review shows that in the African-Eurasian region alone, hundreds of thousands of birds die annually from electrocution and tens of millions of birds from collision with power lines. In general, large birds seem to be more effected.
For some large, slow reproducing bird species which migrate across this region, such as pelicans, storks, flamingos, birds of prey, cranes, bustards, and owls, the death toll could possibly lead to population declines or local or regional extinction.
In South Africa, for example, 12% of Blue Cranes, South Africa’s national bird, and 11–15% of Ludwig’s Bustards are dying annually in collisions with a growing number of power lines.
According to the review, hotspots for electrocution are especially found in open habitats lacking natural perches or nesting trees for the birds, such as steppes, deserts, and wetlands.
Bird collisions, on the other hand, occur in every habitat type in the region, with hotspots located in areas where large numbers of birds congregate, such as near water bodies or in migration corridors.
The international review presents the existing research and corrective measures undertaken by some countries and electricity power companies in the region to avoid bird mortality from collisions and electrocutions by power lines.
The guidelines contain a set of concrete recommendations for governments, electric power companies, and conservation organizations on how to avoid and reduce the impact of electricity power grids on birds.
“The international guidelines present a number of appropriate legislative and policy actions and some creative technical measures on how to mitigate and reduce the vast number of unnatural bird mortalities caused by electricity power grids,” said CMS Executive Secretary Elizabeth Maruma Mrema.
While the scope of the study was to review the situation across Europe, parts of Asia, the Middle East and Africa, the measures highlighted in the guidelines can be applied globally.
In northern Europe, for example, all low and medium voltage distribution lines have been placed underground in the Netherlands and similar measures are also being carried out in parts of Belgium, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Germany, and Norway.
“Our experience from Norway is that there are various measures that can reduce the risks of collision and electrocution, such as the use of underground cables, removal of the top line and route selection, and that they are working,” said Erik Solheim, Minister of the Environment and International Development of Norway.
Other less expensive measures include the insulation of dangerous electric parts of the lines, the installation of bird-friendly perching and nesting devices as well as the installation of markers or bird flight diverters in overhead wires.
“The relative lack of electrical infrastructure across the African continent to date provides an opportunity to avoid the mistakes made elsewhere when new infrastructure is constructed. In this respect, the guidelines are very timely and can make a significant conservation impact,” said Jon Smallie from the Endangered Wildlife Trust of South Africa, one of the authors of the guidelines report.
“National authorities, electricity companies and organizations involved in bird conservation and research should use these guidelines as a first step to address the serious problem of bird mortality caused by electrocution and collision and work together to also better plan the locations of future power lines and jointly identify critical locations where existing power lines should be made safer for birds,” said Marco Barbieri, Acting Executive Secretary of the African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbird Agreement (AEWA), a specialized treaty concluded under CMS.
“In the coming year, the Norwegian Government will spend 30 million kroner to reduce the overall threat on the highly endangered Eurasian Eagle Owl. Power lines pose a significant threat to the owl in Norway,” added Mr. Solheim.
According to the review, electrocution is considered to be the most important mortality factor for the Eagle Owl and possibly the main reason for the decline of the population.
“This may also help to avoid electrocution of other species. We have a high focus on this topic in Norway and our experience is that these measures work but still there is a lot more to do,” said Mr. Solheim.
“Electrocution of birds is not just a conservation issue. It also has economic and financial consequences, as power interruptions and the resulting need for reparations from outages are often caused by bird electrocutions,” said Ms. Mrema.
“The Convention on Migratory Species along with its specialized treaties dedicated to the conservation of birds, such as AEWA and the Raptors’ agreement have an important role to play in bringing the different actors and perspectives together. As the international review and the guidelines show, there are already some lessons learned. But there is also a lot more we can do to address this growing conflict between power lines and birds,” added Ms. Mrema.
The review and guidelines were commissioned by the UNEP/AEWA Secretariat to an international research consortium consisting of Bureau Waardenburg, Boere Conservation Consultancy (both from the Netherlands), the Endangered Wildlife Trust (South-Africa), and STRIX from Portugal.
The international review and the guidelines were made possible through the support from AEWA’s cooperation partner RWE Rhein-Ruhr Netzservice, a company of the German energy supplier RWE. The company has developed a method of fitting preventive “bird-diverters” to high-voltage power lines in Germany and other European countries using a helicopter as a way to try to reduce the collision of large birds with power lines.
$23,900 Penalty for Hazardous Waste Violations at Salvage Goods Facility
Eldo W.R.M.S., Inc., a commercial goods salvage wholesale and retail business, has agreed to pay a $23,900 civil penalty to the US to settle a series of hazardous waste violations at its facility in Grandview, Missouri.
According to an administrative consent agreement filed by EPA Region 7 in Kansas City, Missouri, an EPA representative conducted a compliance evaluation inspection at the company’s Grandview facility in February 2010, and noted several violations of the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), which regulates hazardous waste.
Those violations included failure to perform hazardous waste determinations on multiple waste streams, storing hazardous wastes without a RCRA permit, and offering hazardous waste for transport without a hazardous waste manifest.
More specifically, the violations involved the storage of at least seven types of waste pharmaceuticals and several containers, pails, and drums of paint, adhesives, ink, and printing chemicals. The facility was storing approximately 17,750 lb of hazardous wastes, not including the waste pharmaceuticals, at the time of EPA’s inspection.
The EPA inspection also noted that the facility had on multiple occasions shipped hazardous waste pharmaceuticals to a medical waste incinerator for disposal, without using a required hazardous waste manifest.
By agreeing to the settlement with EPA, Eldo W.R.M.S., Inc., has certified that it is now in compliance with all requirements of the RCRA regulations.
EPA Settles Clean Water Act Violations with Koehler-Bright Star Inc.
EPA announced a settlement of a Clean Water Act (CWA) case against Koehler-Bright Star Inc., (KBS), a battery manufacturer in Hanover Township, Pennsylvania. EPA alleged that the company exceeded the limits of pollutants the facility is allowed to discharge to the Wyoming Valley Sanitary Sewer Authority (WVSSA), also in Hanover. According to EPA, KBS violated CWA requirements on the pretreatment of wastewater sent to WVSSA.
The settlement requires the company to pay a civil penalty of $60,000, with $30,000 going to the US and $30,000 going to WVSSA.
EPA’s complaint alleged that from 2005 through 2010 KBS exceeded its pretreatment permit discharge limits for lead and copper for at least 52 months, including 84 monthly average violations, and six violations of daily maximum limits.
KBS took a series of steps to mitigate the effluent limit violations, as they occurred, but was unable to achieve compliance. Due to a process change, separate from this action, the facility no longer discharges an industrial wastestream to WVSSA.
Under the CWA companies discharging certain types of pollutants to publicly owned wastewater treatment plants (POTWs) maybe required to obtain a pretreatment permit from the POTW limiting the amount of pollution that may be discharged to the plant. This often requires some type of pretreatment by the discharging facility before the wastestream is released to the POTW.
Pretreatment permit limits for pollutants are established in order to prevent impairment of waterways, either as a result of pollutants passing through the POTW—or by interfering with the functioning of the plant.
Douglas Products and Packaging to Pay $6,237 Civil Penalty for Failure to File Notice of Imported Pesticide
Douglas Products and Packaging LLC, an agrichemical company in Liberty, Missouri, has agreed to pay a $6,237 civil penalty to the US for failing to provide EPA with a required notice that it had imported a nearly 25-ton shipment of pesticide from China.
According to an administrative consent agreement filed by EPA Region 7 in Kansas City, Kansas, the Agency was notified on May 19, 2011, that a 49,537 lb shipment of Drex-PH3 Aluminum Phosphide Fumigant Pellets was being held at the US Customs Port of Entry at Kansas City, Missouri, because Douglas Products and Packaging had not filed a Notice of Arrival (NOA) with EPA prior to its importation.
Under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), importers of pesticides must file NOAs with EPA prior to importation of pesticides. Violation of the FIFRA regulation impacts EPA’s ability to track potentially hazardous and toxic pesticide products.
The pesticide involved in this case, aluminum phosphide, is highly toxic. It is commonly used as a fumigant for stored grains.
As part of its settlement with EPA, Douglas Products and Packaging has certified that it is presently in compliance with FIFRA and its regulations.
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Trivia Question of the Week
The average person takes how long and uses how much water to take a shower?
a. 5 minutes, 10 gallons
b. 8 minutes, 16 gallons
c. 9 minutes, 22 gallons
d. 12 minutes, 45 gallons
