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A newly published User’s Manual is now available.

Standard 189.1-2009, Standard for the Design of High-Performance, Green Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings, was published earlier this year by ASHRAE in conjunction with the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IES) and the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). The standard provides a long-needed green building foundation for those who strive to design, build and operate green buildings.
For complete information on the standard, including a readable copy, visit www.ashrae.org/greenstandard.

Read the complete story at Sustainable Facility

December 16, 2010

Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced the Department of Energy’s intent to fund up to $50 million to test and demonstrate innovative technologies that will lead to cost-competitive solar energy technologies. The demonstration program will be a critical link between the Department of Energy’s advanced technology development programs and full-scale commercialization efforts. The Nevada National Security Site will serve as a proving ground for cutting-edge solar technologies, such as concentrating solar thermal power and concentrating photovoltaic energy, which can be used for utility applications in the Southwestern United States where there is an abundance of solar energy.

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Agency completes analysis on chemical disposal and release

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is releasing its annual national analysis of the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), providing all Americans vital information about their communities. The TRI program publishes information on toxic chemical disposals and releases into the air, land and water, as well as information on waste management and pollution prevention activities in neighborhoods across the country. In 2009, 3.37 billion pounds of toxic chemicals were released into the environment, a 12 percent decrease from 2008. TRI was recently recognized by the Aspen Institute as one of the 10 major ways that EPA has strengthened America.

“The Toxics Release Inventory is an important way to inform American communities about their local environmental conditions. It plays a critical role in EPA’s efforts to hold polluters accountable and to acknowledge good corporate neighbors who put pollution prevention efforts in place,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. “We will continue to make every effort to put accessible, meaningful information in the hands of the American people. Widespread public access to environmental information is fundamental to the work EPA does every day.”

This year, EPA is offering additional information to make the TRI data more meaningful and accessible to all communities.  The TRI analysis now highlights toxic disposals and releases to large aquatic ecosystems, selected urban communities, and tribal lands. In addition, portions of the analysis are available in Spanish for the first time.

The analysis, which includes data on approximately 650 chemicals from more than 20,000 facilities, found that total releases to air decreased 20 percent since 2008, while releases to surface water decreased 18 percent.  Releases to land decreased 4 percent since 2008.

The analysis shows decreases in the releases of persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic chemicals including lead, dioxin, and mercury. Total disposal or other releases of mercury decreased 3 percent since 2008, while total disposal or other releases of both dioxin and lead decreased by 18 percent. The analysis also shows a 7 percent decrease in the number of facilities reporting to TRI from the previous year, continuing a trend from the past few years. Some of this decline may be attributed to the economic downturn; however, EPA plans to investigate why some facilities reported in 2008 but not 2009.

EPA added 16 chemicals to the TRI list of reportable chemicals in November. These chemicals are reasonably anticipated to be human carcinogens, and represent the largest chemical expansion of the program in a decade. Data on the new TRI chemicals will be reported by facilities on July 1, 2012.

Facilities must report their chemical disposals and releases by July 1 of each year. This year, EPA made the 2009 preliminary TRI dataset available in July, the same month as the data were collected. This is the earliest release of TRI data to the public ever.

TRI was established in 1986 by the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) and later modified by the Pollution Prevention Act of 1990. Together, these laws require facilities in certain industries to report annually on releases, disposal and other waste management activities related to these chemicals. TRI data are submitted annually to EPA and states by multiple industry sectors including manufacturing, metal mining, electric utilities, and commercial hazardous waste facilities.

More information on the 2009 TRI analysis:  http://www.epa.gov/tri

For Nevada specific information, please visit: http://bit.ly/exoIhj

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has removed saccharin, a common artificial sweetener, and its salts from the agency’s list of hazardous substances. Saccharin is no longer considered a potential hazard to human health.

Saccharin is a white crystalline powder that is found in diet soft drinks, chewing gum and juice. Saccharin was labeled a potentially cancer-causing substance in the 1980s. In the late 1990s, the National Toxicology Program and the International Agency for Research on Cancer re-evaluated the available scientific information on saccharin and its salts and concluded that it is not a potential human carcinogen. Because the scientific basis for remaining on EPA’s lists no longer applies, the agency has removed saccharin and its salts from its lists.

EPA proposed the removal of saccharin and its salts from the lists on April 22, 2010 and did not receive any comments opposing the proposal.

More information is available at: http://www.epa.gov/waste/hazard/wastetypes/wasteid/saccharin/index.htm

The Obama administration is retreating on long-delayed environmental regulations — new rules governing smog and toxic emissions from industrial boilers — as it adjusts to a changed political dynamic in Washington with a more muscular Republican opposition.

The move to delay the rules, announced this week by the Environmental Protection Agency, will leave in place policies set by President George W. Bush. President Obama ran for office promising tougher standards, and the new rules were set to take effect over the next several weeks.

Now, the agency says, it needs until July 2011 to further analyze scientific and health studies of the smog rules and until April 2012 on the boiler regulation. Mr. Obama, having just cut a painful deal with Republicans intended to stimulate the economy, can ill afford to be seen as simultaneously throttling the fragile recovery by imposing a sheaf of expensive new environmental regulations that critics say will cost jobs.

The delays represent a marked departure from the first two years of the Obama presidency, when the E.P.A. moved quickly to reverse one Bush environmental policy after another. Administration officials now face the question of whether in their zeal to undo the Bush agenda they reached too far and provoked an unmanageable political backlash.

Environmental advocates are furious. They fear a similar delay on the approaching start of one of the most far-reaching regulatory programs in American environmental history, the effort to curb emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

Read the complete story at the NY Times

This holiday season, gifts abound that cut energy bills and greenhouse gas emissions, helping to fight climate change. Energy Star labeled choices can be found on nearly all home entertainment products from TVs and Blu-ray disc players to home-theater-in-a-box. Energy Star labeled home office products are plentiful as well as video game controls, digital cameras, shavers, and other items that use Energy Star qualified batteries.

For more information, go to http://www.energystar.gov/products

Find Energy Star labeled stores at http://www.energystar.gov/labeledstores

The EPA-sponsored WaterSense program that offers simple ways to use less water and energy while saving money on utility bills, has built four WaterSense certified new homes in Roseville, Cal. that will help save an average of 10,000 gallons of water and at least $100 on utility costs yearly per family. These homes include WaterSense labeled plumbing fixtures, efficient hot water delivery systems, a water-efficient landscape design and use about 20 percent less water than a typical new home.

For more information, go to http://www.epa.gov/watersense