Category: News

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released interim guidance that would provide greater transparency in the agency’s chemical safety inspections process.  Under the interim guidance, EPA inspectors will offer employees and employee representatives the opportunity to participate in chemical safety inspections.  In addition, EPA will request that state and local agencies adopt similar procedures under the Risk Management Program.  EPA believes that close involvement of employees and employee representatives in inspections is effective and better protects workers and the adjacent communities. 

The interim guidance pertains to inspections conducted by EPA under the agency’s Risk Management Program (RMP).  Through this program, EPA seeks to reduce the risks to surrounding communities that arise from the management, use or storage of certain hazardous chemicals.  Owners and operators of covered facilities must develop a risk management plan, which includes facility plans for the prevention and response to chemical accidents.  Under the Clean Air Act, the Chemical Accident Prevention Provisions require facilities that produce, handle, process, distribute, or store certain chemicals to develop a Risk Management Program, prepare a risk management plan, and submit the plan to EPA.

EPA expects to issue final guidance on participation of employees and employee representative in RMP inspections later this year.

More information on EPA’s interim guidance and RMP

More information on the Chemical Accident Prevention Provisions:

Due to pressure from home builders and some members of Congress, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will postpone the enforcement of a new lead-paint regulation to give home improvement contractors more time to meet the new federal requirements, reports the Wall Street Journal.

The Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting regulation, aimed at reducing the amount of lead dust created during home renovation and repair, took effect in April and requires contractors who work in older homes to become certified by a government-approved trainer and follow specific safety precautions, reports the Wall Street Journal.

Click Here to read the Environmental Leader article.

The EPA is supporting a reinstatement of the Superfund “polluter pays” tax, according to an agency press release. Superfund is the federal government’s program that investigates and cleans up uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous waste sites.

According to the agency, the provision would provide a stable, dedicated source of revenue for the program and increase the pace of Superfund cleanup. The tax was allowed to lapse in 1995. According to a Bloomberg report, Congress has provided $1.2 billion a year since then to fund cleanup of the sites, though costs usually run to $3 billion.

The administration is proposing to reinstate the taxes as they were last in effect on crude oil, imported petroleum products, hazardous chemicals, and imported substances that use hazardous chemicals as a feedstock, and on corporate modified alternative minimum taxable income. Under the administration’s proposal, the excise taxes and corporate environmental taxes would be reinstated for a period of 10 years beginning in January 2011.

Click Here to read the Environmental Leader article.

Click Here to read the EPA Press Release.

By Matthew Wheeland

When it comes to fast ways to make a big dent in both your greenhouse gas emissions as well as your energy bill, PC power management is one of the easiest actions your company can make. Unfortunately, it’s also one of the most overlooked practices: Forrester recently released a study that found only 13 percent of companies have implemented organization wide power management.

PC power management at its most simple level is activating and managing the sleep settings on your fleet of desktops, laptops and monitors (some power management tools can also be used on other electronics, but for simplicity’s sake we’ll focus solely on computers).

If your firm hasn’t yet started a PC power management project, or if you have and haven’t yet seen big savings, then the following 10 tips, in no particular order, will get you on the right track.

Read the complete story at GreenBiz Greener Computing

By Barbara Bennet, EPA Chief Financial Officer

Last November I was confirmed as EPA’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO). For many people, I imagine my title conjures images of number crunching and spreadsheets (which are all certainly part of what I do). However, my experience in finance has taught me that numbers always tell a story.

In my role as EPA’s CFO, the numbers I look at every day help paint a picture of how EPA accomplishes its mission and goals throughout the year. One way we are able to tell a story here at EPA is through the Agency’s five-year Strategic Plan. This Plan is our way of communicating the framework for our environmental programs, the plans for our budget resources, and the progress we have made on our priorities to the U.S. public.

I am delighted to announce that the Draft FY 2011-2015 Strategic Plan is now available for your review and comment, and I invite you to engage and share your thoughts and ideas with us from now through July 30:

• Read, review, comment, and review other comments on the Plan at www.regulations.gov (click on this docket number EPA-HQ-OA-2010-0486).
• Read the FY 2011-2015 EPA Strategic Plan here

The Draft Plan presents measurable environmental and human health goals that EPA will work to achieve over the next five years. The Draft Plan also includes five Cross-Cutting Fundamental Strategies, which are integral in guiding how EPA will work to accomplish our goals, and which also foster a renewed commitment to accountability, openness, and inclusion.

I look forward to reading your ideas on the Draft Strategic Plan and how we can fundamentally change the way EPA works to protect our environment and human health in our communities, our nation, and beyond.

As sustainability increasingly moves from fringe to mainstream, getting into the green game has become a corporate imperative. Because most established companies were founded before sustainability was truly a management concern, they lack a green heritage and competencies in managing environmental challenges – and opportunities. To respond to this reality, most companies need to take two tracks. The first is developing internal know-how and organizational structures for identifying, evaluating and managing the sustainability issues surrounding the company and its operations. The second is formulating strategies to develop new green product offerings suited to their market space. In this month’s Harvard Business Review my colleague Richard Ettenson and I lay out three broad strategies companies can use to get into the green product game.

Read the complete story at the Environmental LEADER:

Learn to use eco-friendly landscaping methods to save time, money and help the environment. EPA’s tips can help homeowners create beautiful, easy to maintain, environmentally friendly yards. The basic principles include: selecting regionally native plants, reducing the use of turf, pesticides, and powered landscape equipment, and adapting soil and water conservation. For more information on healthy yards and greenscaping, visit  http://www.epa.gov/reg3esd1/garden/index.htm. 

For beneficial landscaping, go to http://www.epa.gov/reg3esd1/garden/benefits.htm.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to revise a national primary drinking water regulation to achieve greater public health protection against waterborne pathogens in the distribution systems of public water systems.  Waterborne pathogens can cause a variety of illnesses with symptoms such as acute abdominal discomfort or in more extreme cases, kidney failure, hepatitis or chronic concerns.

EPA is proposing to revise the 1989 Total Coliform Rule to incorporate improvements recommended by a federal advisory committee that included representatives from a broad range of stakeholder groups, including public health and public interest groups, environmental groups, state drinking water agencies and drinking water utilities.  EPA used a transparent, collaborative process with stakeholders to help make this regulation more effective.  

The revised rule will better protect people from potential exposure to dangerous microbes because it requires water systems to take action when monitoring results indicate that contamination or a pathway to contamination may be present.  Water utilities are required to regularly monitor for microbial contamination in the distribution system. Although microbes detected in monitoring are not necessarily pathogens themselves, the detection can indicate that there is a pathway that would allow pathogens to enter the system, such as a water main break or an opening in a storage tank.  Under the proposed rule, when monitoring results are positive, systems must find and fix any pathways leading to microbial risk.  

The proposal also provides incentives for better system operation by improving the criteria for public water systems to qualify for and stay on reduced monitoring, which provides an opportunity to reduce system burden.  In addition, the proposed rule updates conditions that will trigger public notices to better represent the relative health threat identified. It also makes the wording required in these public notices more clear.  These changes increase consumer confidence in the safety of their water and understanding of the risks when contamination occurs.

EPA is seeking public comment on this proposed rule for 60 days following publication in the Federal Register.

Click on this link for additional information: Total Coliform Rule Revisions