SAN FRANCISCO –The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced $19.4 million in funding to invest in Nevada for statewide improvement in local water infrastructure and the reduction of water pollution.
Category: News
EPA Proposes Standards to Reduce Mercury Discharges from Dental Offices
Posted: September 29, 2014
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today proposed standards under the Clean Water Act to help cut discharges of dental amalgam to the environment. Amalgam is a mixture of mercury and other metals that dentists use to fill cavities. Mercury is discharged when dentists remove old fillings or remove excess amalgam when placing a new filling.
Studies show about half the mercury that enters Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTWs) comes from dental offices. Mercury from amalgam can then make its way into the environment in a number of ways, including through discharge to water bodies. Contact with some microorganisms can help create methylmercury, a highly toxic form of mercury that builds up in fish, shellfish and fish-eating animals. Fish and shellfish are the main sources of human exposure to methylmercury.
In response, many states and localities have implemented amalgam discharge-cutting programs requiring amalgam separators and other Best Management Practices in dentist offices. The American Dental Association (ADA) also recommends separators and other Best Management Practices for amalgam.
EPA expects compliance with this proposed rule would cut metal discharge to POTWs, half of it from mercury, by at least 8.8 tons a year.
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D.E.A. to Allow Return of Unused Pills to Pharmacies
Posted: September 16, 2014
Source: The New York Times, Health
By CATHERINE SAINT LOUIS
Concerned by rising rates of prescription drug abuse, the Drug Enforcement Administration announced Monday that it would permit consumers to return unused prescription medications like opioid painkillers to pharmacies.
The move is intended to help reduce stockpiles of unneeded medicines in homes, which are often pilfered by teenagers. Under the new regulation, patients and their relatives will also be allowed to mail unused prescription drugs to an authorized collector using packages to be made available at pharmacies and other locations, like libraries and senior centers.
The new regulation, which will go into effect in a month, covers drugs designated as controlled substances. Those include opioid painkillers like OxyContin, stimulants like Adderall and depressants like Ativan.
Until now, these drugs could not legally be returned to pharmacies. The Controlled Substances Act allowed patients only to dispose of the drugs themselves or to surrender them to law enforcement.
“This is big news and long overdue,” said Dr. G. Caleb Alexander, co-director of the Center for Drug Safety and Effectiveness at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “It’s baffling that it’s so easy to get a prescription for opioids and yet so difficult to dispose of these drugs safely.”
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Recycling old car batteries into solar cells: Environmental twofer could recycle lead batteries to make solar cells
Date: August 18, 2014
Source: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
This could be a classic win-win solution: A system proposed by researchers at MIT recycles materials from discarded car batteries — a potential source of lead pollution — into new, long-lasting solar panels that provide emissions-free power.
The system is described in a paper in the journal Energy and Environmental Science, co-authored by professors Angela M. Belcher and Paula T. Hammond, graduate student Po-Yen Chen, and three others. It is based on a recent development in solar cells that makes use of a compound called perovskite — specifically, organolead halide perovskite — a technology that has rapidly progressed from initial experiments to a point where its efficiency is nearly competitive with that of other types of solar cells.
“It went from initial demonstrations to good efficiency in less than two years,” says Belcher, the W.M. Keck Professor of Energy at MIT. Already, perovskite-based photovoltaic cells have achieved power-conversion efficiency of more than 19 percent, which is close to that of many commercial silicon-based solar cells.
Initial descriptions of the perovskite technology identified its use of lead, whose production from raw ores can produce toxic residues, as a drawback. But by using recycled lead from old car batteries, the manufacturing process can instead be used to divert toxic material from landfills and reuse it in photovoltaic panels that could go on producing power for decades.
Amazingly, because the perovskite photovoltaic material takes the form of a thin film just half a micrometer thick, the team’s analysis shows that the lead from a single car battery could produce enough solar panels to provide power for 30 households.
Continue reading Recycling old car batteries into solar cells: Environmental twofer could recycle lead batteries to make solar cells
5 Mistakes that Lead to Hazardous Waste Fines
Posted: August 7, 2014
Source: Environmental Leader.com< by Richard Espinoza is VP of IDR Environmental Services.
Keeping up with federal and state regulations is challenging for many businesses. It takes just one complaint from a neighbor or disgruntled former employee to bring state regulators to your doorstep and begin poking around your business, so you must be prepared to avoid hazardous waste fines and costly legal hassles brought on by an investigation.
Here are 5 silly mistakes that businesses often make that lead to trouble with the DTSC (Department of Toxic Substances).
Mistake #1 – Dumping toxic waste into the municipal sewer system
This should be a no-brainer but many companies either through a lack of understanding of the law, or by having the attitude of “I am too small and won’t get caught” often make this mistake.
Illegal dumping of toxic waste is one of the most common violations and easiest for regulators to investigate. This is the low-hanging fruit for the DTSC, and no business or municipal entity is immune from prosecution.
Management or employees often think, “How will anyone know it was me who dumped the waste and where it was dumped?” What they don’t know is that municipalities now have sophisticated sensors in the sewer systems that can identify all kinds of chemicals. These chemicals can be traced to back to the point of origin and ultimately to your business.
There have been several cases reported on where illegal dumping into the sewer system has led to fines including the City of San Luis Obispo, and last year big box retailers like Lowes and Wal-Mart paid multi-million-dollar fines for this violation.
Bottom line: don’t dump your waste down the drain; you will be caught and you will be fined.
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Water Resources Fact Sheet
Posted: August 6, 2014
Source: Earth Policy Institute
Water scarcity may be the most underrated resource issue the world is facing today.
Seventy percent of world water use is for irrigation.
Each day we drink nearly 4 liters of water, but it takes some 2,000 liters of water—500 times as much—to produce the food we consume.
1,000 tons of water is used to produce 1 ton of grain.
Between 1950 and 2000, the world’s irrigated area tripled to roughly 700 million acres. After several decades of rapid increase, however, the growth has slowed dramatically, expanding only 9 percent from 2000 to 2009. Given that governments are much more likely to report increases than decreases, the recent net growth may be even smaller.
The dramatic loss of momentum in irrigation expansion coupled with the depletion of underground water resources suggests that peak water may now be on our doorstep.
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***SBA Environmental Roundtable Meeting***
Thursday, August 7, 2014 1-3 p.m. PST, 10-noon, Hawaii time
TO: Interested Small Business Stakeholders
FROM: Kia Dennis, Assistant Chief Counsel
Yvonne Lee, Regional Advocate
SUBJECT: Waters of the United States Regional Roundtable Meeting
The U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Advocacy will hold a regional Environmental Roundtable to discuss the following topic, from 1-3 p.m. PST. The meeting will be held in Los Angeles, California at the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California Building, 700 North Alameda Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90012. All interested persons planning to attend in person or participate via conference call must RSVP to Yvonne Lee at Yvonne.lee@sba.gov or 415-744-8493 before August 5, 2014.
Draft Agenda
1:00 p.m.-1:05 p.m. Welcome and Introductions
Yvonne Lee, Regional Advocate, SBA Office of Advocacy
Kia Dennis, Assistant Chief Counsel, SBA Office of Advocacy
1:05 p.m. – 1:20 p.m. Presentation of the Water of the United States Rule by EPA
John Kemmerer, Associate Director, Water Division, EPA Region IX
Jason Brush, Manager , Office of Wetlands Services, EPA Region IX
1:30 p.m.-3:00 p.m. Discussion and Questions
Roundtable meetings are open to all interested persons, with the exception of the press, in order to facilitate open and frank discussion about the impacts of Federal regulatory activities on small entities. Agendas and presentations are available to all, including the press. Anyone who wants to receive roundtable agendas or presentations, or to be included in the distribution list, should forward such requests to kia.dennis@sba.gov. The purpose of these Roundtable meetings is to exchange opinions, facts and information and to obtain the attendees’ individual views and opinions regarding small business concerns. The meetings are not intended to achieve or communicate any consensus positions of the attendees.
Small Business Environmental Roundtable
Issue for Discussion
August 7, 2014
On April 21, 2014, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have proposed a rule defining the scope of waters protected under the Clean Water Act (CWA). Decisions regarding whether or not a waterbody is subject to the CWA will affect small entities who need to determine whether or not their activities require authorization and/or permits under CWA.
Under the proposed rule, for purposes of all sections of the Clean Water Act and the regulations thereunder the term “waters of the United States” would mean:
(1) All waters which are currently used, were used in the past, or may be susceptible to use in interstate or foreign commerce, including all waters which are subject to the ebb and flow of the tide;
(2) All interstate waters, including interstate wetlands;
(3) The territorial seas;
(4) All impoundments of waters identified in paragraphs (1) through (3) and (5) of this section;
(5) All tributaries of waters identified in paragraphs (1) through (4) of this section;
(6) All waters, including wetlands, adjacent to a water identified in paragraphs (1) through (5) of this section; and
(7) On a case-specific basis, other waters, including wetlands, provided that those waters alone, or in combination with other similarly situated waters, including wetlands, located in the same region, have a significant nexus to a water identified in paragraphs (1) through (3) of this section.
Waters that do not meet this definition are not subject to the CWA. There are several programs under the CWA that would be affected by this proposed rule including but not limited to Section 311- oil spill prevention programs; Section 402 – requires permits for pollutant discharges; and Section 404 – permits for the placement of dredged or fill material in waters of the United States.
The comment period closes on October 20, 2014.
Visit http://www2.epa.gov/uswaters to learn more about the proposed rule.
Efficiency Retrofits Save $4.3M Over 1 Year
Posted: July 21, 2014
Source: Environmental Leader.com
Efficiency retrofits of 236 properties showed a combined water and energy savings of $4.3 million over a one-year period, according to research by Bright Power and the Stewards of Affordable Housing.
Although retrofitting commercial buildings has previously been shown to be profitable, convincing affected parties of the value of multifamily retrofits has been difficult.
The research focused on two programs – HUD’s nationwide Green Retrofit Program and the Energy Savers program offered by Illinois’ Elevate Energy and the Community Investment Corporation. One year of pre- and post-retrofit utility bills were collected for 236 properties and analyzed.
Both programs showed significant water, energy and cost savings.
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