U.S. EPA and State of Illinois announce settlement with H. Kramer; company will spend $3 million to reduce air pollution

EPA Press Release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE      
No. 13-OPA004

U.S. EPA and State of Illinois announce settlement with H. Kramer; company will spend $3 million to reduce air pollution

Chicago (Jan. 31, 2013) -  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the State of Illinois have signed a consent decree with H. Kramer and Co., to resolve violations of the Clean Air Act and state air pollution violations at the firm’s copper smelting foundry in the Pilsen neighborhood on the southwest side of Chicago.  Under the terms of the settlement, H. Kramer will spend $3 million on new state-of-the-art pollution controls for the foundry, pay a $35,000 penalty and provide $40,000 to retrofit diesel school buses operating in the neighborhood and surrounding areas with controls to reduce air emissions.

The settlement resolves the federal government’s allegations that H. Kramer failed to maintain and operate furnaces at the foundry in a manner which controls lead emissions and that the company violated the Illinois State Implementation Plan by causing or allowing releases of lead into the air. The settlement also resolves Illinois’ claims that H. Kramer’s activities at the foundry resulted in lead emissions that caused or contributed to air pollution and created danger to the public and the environment. The consent decree requires H. Kramer to install new filters and other controls on two furnaces to reduce emissions and to continue to limit production of two lead alloys until the new equipment is installed.

“This settlement will protect Pilsen residents from lead emissions from the H. Kramer foundry and prevent future violations of the Clean Air Act,” said EPA Regional Administrator Susan Hedman.  “Exposure to lead can impair the ability of children to learn.”

“This settlement will help to dramatically reduce harmful pollution levels in the Pilsen neighborhood and to improve overall air quality in the surrounding community,” Attorney General Lisa Madigan said.

On Nov. 22, 2011, EPA announced that air quality in part of Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood exceeds the national air quality standard for lead. EPA’s determination was based on data collected from a state air quality monitor located on the roof of the Manuel Perez Jr. Elementary School. The H. Kramer facility is located in the area that violates the lead air quality standard -- which is bounded by Damen Avenue to the west, Roosevelt Road to the north, the Dan Ryan Expressway to the east and the Stevenson Expressway to the south.   

The proposed settlement, lodged today in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, is subject to a 30-day comment period and final court approval.

Documents related to this case are available on EPA’s website:  http://www.epa.gov/reg5oair/enforce/pilsen/.

EPA Teams Up with the NFL and Local Communities to Protect Louisiana’s Wetlands

EPA Press Release:

EPA Teams Up with the NFL and Local Communities to Protect Louisiana’s Wetlands

(DALLAS – January 31, 2013) – Every 60 minutes, the Louisiana coastline loses a football-field sized tract of land. As part of the upcoming Super Bowl XLVII in New Orleans, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will team up with the National Football League and the New Orleans Super Bowl XLVII Host Committee to bring national attention to this local issue and help revitalize wetlands in Louisiana.

As part of New Orleans Super Bowl XLVII Host Committee’s Super Saturday of Service, the NFL will help area youth hold the line on coastal land loss. In conjunction with World Wetlands Day, participants in the second annual Wetlands Youth Summit will help educate and raise awareness about wetlands issues. The Summit participants will plant 3,000 trees in the Bayou Sauvage Wildlife Refuge on Saturday, February 2. The NFL-sponsored project will help revitalize the area. The event is also sponsored by the South Louisiana Wetlands Discovery Center, Future Leaders of America’s Gulf (F.L.A.G.) and the Youth Advisory Committee of Terrebonne Parrish, Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, Louisiana State University’s Coastal Sustainability Studio, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture - Natural Resources Conservation Service.

"As a daughter of New Orleans, I am thrilled to see the NFL and the New Orleans Super Bowl XLVII Host Committee joining the effort to improve coastal resilience," said EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson. "This is another great example of sports programs and organizations across the country taking action to bring about a more sustainable future. At EPA, we know that, as America's most beloved past times, sports events present huge opportunities to for us to reduce our environmental impact and spread the word about simple actions everyone can take to improve the areas where they live, work and play."

“Education is an essential tool in the campaign to protect our wetlands,” said EPA Regional Administrator Ron Curry. “I am excited about our new partnerships, and our hands-on project, today, to do our part in protecting the Louisiana coast.”

“Coastal erosion is one of the most serious challenges our communities face,” said Patty Riddlebarger, director of corporate social responsibility for Entergy Corporation and environmental committee chair for the New Orleans Super Bowl XLVII Host Committee. “This project represents an excellent opportunity to educate and engage young people in the effort to save our coast and save our communities.”

February 2, 1997, marked the first World Wetlands Day. Each year, governments and citizen groups work to raise awareness of the economic, recreational, and ecological benefits of wetlands, such as water quality protection, flood prevention, and fish and wildlife habitation. Louisiana’s coastal wetlands are especially vital for preventing storm surges and land erosion, and in the state’s commercial fish and shellfish harvest.

More about activities in EPA Region 6 is available at http://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/region6.html

More on the Green Sports Alliance: http://greensportsalliance.org/

# # #

St. Landry Parish Landfill Project Recognized for Transforming Waste into a Green Community Asset

EPA Press Release:

St. Landry Parish Landfill Project Recognized for Transforming Waste into a Green Community Asset

DALLAS -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recognized St. Landry Parish Landfill for generating renewable energy from a local source while protecting the climate, providing energy savings and strengthening the economy.

Located in Washington, La., the St. Landry Parish Landfill is now home to a compressed natural gas project developed by the St. Landry Parish Solid Waste District. This project helps fuel several sheriff’s department vehicles and turns 50 cubic feet per minute of landfill gas into 250 gallons of gasoline equivalent, resulting in significant benefits in local air quality. The Parish uses the project to educate local residents and students about the environment.

In total, eight landfill methane utilization projects and partners from across the U.S. will be recognized at the 16th Annual Landfill Methane Outreach Program Conference in Baltimore, Md. on January 30, 2013. This year's eight winning projects and partners will avoid the emissions equal to the annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from more than 52,000 passenger vehicles. The seven electricity-generating projects total approximately 50 megawatts of generation capacity, and the direct-use project uses 50 standard cubic feet per minute of landfill gas.

The remaining seven awardees include: Gundersen Health System and La Crosse County Landfill Combined Heat and Power Project (Wis.), Landfill Energy Systems (Mich.), Lycoming County Landfill Dual Cogeneration and Electricity Project (Pa.), Millersville Landfill Electricity Project (Md.), Olinda Alpha Landfill Combined Cycle Project (Calif.), Watauga County Landfill Small Electricity Project (N.C.), and Coca-Cola and Hickory Ridge Landfill Combined Heat and Power Project (Ga.).

EPA’s Landfill Methane Outreach Program is a voluntary assistance and partnership program that reduces GHG emissions by supporting landfill gas energy project development. The program has assisted with more than 560 landfill gas energy projects over the past 18 years, transforming waste into a green community asset. The U.S. currently has about 600 operational landfill gas energy projects.

More information: http://www.epa.gov/lmop

# # #

EPA Brownfields Funding Helps Remove Environmental Barriers for Construction of All Care Health Center in Council Bluffs, Iowa

EPA Press Release:

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 7

11201 Renner Boulevard, Lenexa, KS 66219

Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Nine Tribal Nations

EPA Brownfields Funding Helps Remove Environmental Barriers for Construction of All Care Health Center in Council Bluffs, Iowa

Contact Information: Belinda Young, 913-551-7463, young.belinda@epa.gov

Environmental News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Lenexa, Kan., Jan. 30, 2013) - U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin and other dignitaries are scheduled to attend a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday, January 31, for the All Care Health Center (ACHC), a new $5.6 million community health clinic in Council Bluffs, Iowa. The facility stands on a former railroad and residential area that was cleared for redevelopment in 2006 after the City of Council Bluffs used funds from a $400,000 EPA Brownfields grant to assess the property.

Located at 900 South 6^th Street in Council Bluffs, the construction site was assessed for potential hazardous substance and petroleum contamination. EPA Brownfields funding helped remove environmental barriers on the property, allowing construction to proceed.

As a result, the All Care Health Center (formerly the Council Bluffs Community Health Center) will have a new 18,015-square-foot facility that includes medical and dental exam rooms, a pharmacy, surface parking, and space for additional behavioral health providers. The All Care Health Center expects to serve nearly 8,000 patients.

The All Care Health Center’s Open House and Ribbon Cutting Ceremony is scheduled from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, January 31.

EPA’s Brownfields program provides funding to assist with the assessment and redevelopment of environmentally contaminated properties. Brownfield sites can include residential, commercial and industrial properties. It is estimated that there are more than 450,000 brownfields in the U.S. Cleaning up and reinvesting in these properties increases local tax bases, facilitates job growth, utilizes existing infrastructure, and takes development pressures off undeveloped, open land while improving and protecting the environment.

# # #

EPA Moves to Ban 12 D-Con Mouse and Rat Control Products

EPA Press Release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 30, 2013

EPA Moves to Ban 12 D-Con Mouse and Rat Control Products

Action Will Prevent Thousands of Accidental Exposures Among Children Each Year

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is moving to ban the sale of 12 D-Con mouse and rat poison products produced by Reckitt Benckiser Inc. because these products fail to comply with current EPA safety standards. Approximately 10,000 children a year are accidentally exposed to mouse and rat baits; EPA has worked cooperatively with companies to ensure that products are both safe to use around children and effective for consumers. Reckitt Benckiser Inc., maker of D-Con brand products, is the only rodenticide producer that has refused to adopt EPA’s safety standards for all of its consumer use products.

"Moving forward to ban these products will prevent completely avoidable risks to children, said James Jones, acting assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention. "With this action, EPA is ensuring that the products on the market are both safe and effective for consumers."

The agency has worked with a number of companies during the last five years to develop safer rodent control products that are effective, affordable, and widely available to meet the needs of consumers. Examples of products meeting EPA safety standards include Bell Laboratories’ Tomcat products, PM Resources’ Assault brand products and Chemsico’s products.

The EPA requires rodenticide products for consumer use to be contained in protective tamper-resistant bait stations and prohibits pellets and other bait forms that cannot be secured in bait stations. In addition, the EPA prohibits the sale to residential consumers of products containing brodifacoum, bromadiolone, difethialone, and difenacoum because of their toxicity to wildlife.

For companies that have complied with the new standards in 2011, EPA has received no reports of children being exposed to bait contained in bait stations. EPA expects to see a substantial reduction in exposures to children when the 12 D-Con products that do not comply with current standards are removed from the consumer market as millions of households use these products each year.

For a complete list of the homeowner use rat and mouse products that meet the EPA’s safety standards, visit: http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/mice-and-rats/rodent-bait-station.html.

For a complete list of Reckitt Benckiser Inc.’s non-compliant products, visit: http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/mice-and-rats/cancellation-process.html#cancellation.

The EPA’s final Notice of Intent to Cancel will be available in the EPA docket EPA-HQ-OPP-2013-0049 at www.regulations.gov. After Federal Register publication of the Notice of Intent to Cancel, Reckitt Benckiser will have 30 days to request a hearing before an EPA Administrative Law Judge. If a hearing is not requested, the cancellations become final and effective.

Information on Rodenticide products and EPA’s review is available at: http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/reregistration/rodenticides/

More information on preventing and controlling rodents is available at: http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/controlling/rodents.htm

Honeywell Welcomes Implementation Of European MAC Directive Aimed At Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Press Release:

Press Releases   Subscribe
Back to Index
Text Size:
1/15/2013
Honeywell Welcomes Implementation Of European MAC Directive Aimed At Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Company fully prepared to support automakers with safe, effective HFO-1234yf refrigerant, which reduces greenhouse gas impact by 99.7 percent compared with current refrigerant HFC-134a  MORRIS TOWNSHIP, N.J., Jan. 15, 2013 – Honeywell (NYSE: HON) today said it welcomed implementation of the European Union’s Mobile Air Conditioning (MAC) Directive, aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions by requiring use of automotive refrigerants with significantly lower global warming impact. The directive came into force on Jan. 1, 2013, and the company said it is fully prepared to supply automakers with HFO-1234yf, a new lower-global-warming-potential refrigerant that has been proven to be a safe and effective replacement for HFC-134a and is already in use by the auto industry. Compared with HFC-134a, HFO-1234yf offers a 99.7 percent improvement in global warming potential. “Honeywell has been preparing to assist automakers meet this milestone directive, investing in research to develop HFO-1234yf, which is the alternative refrigerant that best meets the requirements for safety, effectiveness and energy efficiency,” said Dr. Ian Shankland, chief technology officer for Honeywell Performance Materials and Technologies. “HFO-1234yf is a near drop-in replacement for HFC-134a, making it easy and cost-effective for automakers to comply with the MAC Directive.” The European Union’s F-Gas Regulation (842/2006), passed in July 2006 and enforced through the MAC Directive, aims to reduce emissions of specific fluorinated greenhouse gases in the air-conditioning systems in passenger cars and light commercial vehicles. The directive requires that refrigerants in all new type vehicles sold in Europe after Jan. 1, 2013, have a global-warming potential (GWP) below 150 and that all cars sold after 2017 meet the lower GWP requirement. HFC-134a has a GWP of 1,430, while HFO-1234yf has a GWP of 4, far exceeding the MAC Directive requirement. According to a third-party study, if all cars in Western Europe today were converted from HFC-134a to HFO-1234yf, it would result in a reduction of an equivalent 8 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year ‒ or removing 4 million cars from the road. The European Commission, at a December 2012 meeting of its Technical Committee – Motor Vehicles (TCMV), reconfirmed that the MAC directive would be fully enforced starting on Jan. 1. HFO-1234yf has been exhaustively and extensively evaluated by respected global testing agencies, including SAE International, which concluded after a three-year evaluation of the refrigerant involving 15 global automakers, 17 top automotive suppliers and 18 international, independent research institutes that the refrigerant is safe and effective in automotive applications. SAE International, formerly known as the Society of Automotive Engineers, is an independent, global association of more than 133,000 engineers and related technical experts in the aerospace, automotive and commercial-vehicle industries. For more information on HFO 1234yf visit www.1234facts.com/resources orwww.1234fakten.de/ressourcen. Honeywell (www.honeywell.com) is a Fortune 100 diversified technology and manufacturing leader, serving customers worldwide with aerospace products and services; control technologies for buildings, homes and industry; turbochargers; and performance materials. Based in Morris Township, N.J., Honeywell's shares are traded on the New York, London, and Chicago Stock Exchanges. For more news and information on Honeywell, please visitwww.honeywellnow.com.

EPA and Caribbean Coral Reef Protection Group to Host Public Listening Session on St. Thomas on February 25

EPA Press Release:

EPA and Caribbean Coral Reef Protection Group to Host

Public Listening Session on St. Thomas on February 25

Public Encouraged to Participate in Person or from Live Videoconference Locations in

San Juan, Puerto Rico and St. Croix, USVI

Contact: John Martin, (212) 637-3662, martin.johnj@epa.gov 

(New York, N.Y. – January 29, 2013) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and its government partners will hold a public listening session on February 25, 2013 from 1:00 pmto 3:30 pm at the University of the Virgin Islands in St. Thomas. The sessions will be broadcast via video to locations in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands and San Juan, Puerto Rico.The Caribbean Coral Reef Protection Group, led by EPA Region 2, was recently formed to facilitate a closer working relationship among its member agencies to coordinate government strategies in protecting coral reefs. During the February 25 listening session and at the accompanying broadcast locations, members of the Caribbean Coral Reef Protection Group will solicit input from the public regarding the state of coral reefs throughout Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands and how best to protect them.

There are three locations to participate from. 1. The listening session will take place in the 1st Floor Conference Room at the Administration and Conference Center (ACC) at the University of the Virgin Islands in St. Thomas. 2. The public session will be broadcasted live for the public at the EPA’s offices at City View Plaza II – Suite 7000, #48 Rd. 165 km 1.2, Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. 3. The public session will also be broadcasted live for the public at the Great Hall at the University of the Virgin Islands in St. Croix.

Coral reef ecosystems throughout the Caribbean are being damaged by a growing number of problems such as overfishing, sediment runoff, pollution, disease and climate change, which causes the water to become warmer and more acidic. By implementing measures to reduce those stresses that can be addressed locally, coral health can be improved and reefs can become more resilient.

In addition to the EPA, the Caribbean Coral Reef Protection Group includes the following governmental agencies: The Virgin Islands Department of Planning and Natural Resources, the Puerto Rico Environmental Quality Board, the Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, the National Park Service, U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Coast Guard.

To RSVP and to sign up to speak at the February 25 listening session in St. Thomas, or at the public broadcast in St. Croix, contact Keshema Webbe at 340-714-2333 orwebbe.keshema@epa.gov. To RSVP and to sign up to speak at the public broadcast in San Juan, contact David Cuevas at 787-977-5856 or cuevas.david@epa.gov.

For more information on the Caribbean Coral Reef Protection Group, visit:http://epa.gov/region2/coralreefs.

Follow EPA Region 2 on Twitter at http://twitter.com/eparegion2 and visit our Facebook page,http://www.facebook.com/eparegion2.

13-011                                                             # # #

EPA Helps Missouri Comply with Water Quality Standards

EPA Press Release:

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 7

11201 Renner Boulevard, Lenexa, KS 66219

Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Nine Tribal Nations

EPA Helps Missouri Comply with Water Quality Standards

Contact Information: Kris Lancaster, 913-551-7557, lancaster.kris@epa.gov

Environmental News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Lenexa, Kan., Jan. 28, 2013) - EPA Region 7 has approved Missouri's change to state water quality standards rules to provide greater flexibility in Missouri's National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit program.

The Missouri Department of Natural Resources submitted rule changes to EPA on Dec. 11, 2012, for review and approval. The Clean Water Act (CWA) requires EPA to review the state's rule changes to determine if they comply with the law.

The state's regulations previously allowed no more than three years for a permittee, such as municipal sewage treatment plants and industrial facilities, to come into compliance with its NPDES permit. Due to the limits of current technology for controlling some pollutants, full compliance is not always possible within a three-year period. Missouri's new regulation now allows for a longer compliance period, in accordance with federal regulations.

“EPA appreciates Missouri's continuing efforts to protect and restore water quality,” said Karl Brooks, EPA regional administrator. “Missouri facilities are developing new approaches and technologies that require some flexibility in the permit program, so this new rule will encourage both innovation and compliance.”

As authorized by the Clean Water Act, the state-administered NPDES permit program controls water pollution by regulating point sources that discharge pollutants into waters of the United States. Point sources include pipes or man-made ditches. Individual homes that are connected to a municipal system, use a septic system, or do not have a surface discharge do not need an NPDES permit. However, industrial, municipal, and other facilities must obtain permits if their discharges go directly to surface waters.

EPA's Jan. 25, 2013, decision letter provides a more detailed description of EPA's review and the basis for this action. The decision letter is available at www.epa.gov/region7/newsevents/legal.

# # #

U.S. EPA Resolves Air Violations with Thermal Energy Development Partnership in Tracy, California for $145,000

EPA News Release:

For Immediate Release: January 28, 2013

EPA Contact: Michael Ardito, 415-972-3081, ardito.michael@epa.gov                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

U.S. EPA Resolves Air Violations with Thermal Energy Development Partnership in Tracy, California for $145,000

SAN FRANCISCO – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced a $145,000 settlement with Thermal Energy Development Partnership, a biomass electric power plant in Tracy, Calif., for Clean Air Act violations for failure to properly operate and maintain emission monitoring equipment.

“EPA will continue to rigorously enforce against facilities located in the San Joaquin Valley, a geographic focus for our regional Strategic Plan. The message is simple: facilities must comply with the requirements to monitor their pollutants,” said Jared Blumenfeld, EPA’s Regional Administrator for the Pacific Southwest. “With some of the poorest air quality in the nation, the Valley cannot afford to risk any further deterioration.”

The permits required the facility to properly maintain and operate a continuous emission monitoring system. Thermal Energy’s monitoring equipment failed to monitor sulfur dioxide for 30 months, nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide for 27 months, and opacity for 9 months. There were no known emission violations.

The Clean Air Act violations by Thermal Energy were under the federal New Source Performance Standard which applies to steam generators constructed after June 19, 1984 and have a heat input capacity from combusted fuels greater than 100 million BTUs (British thermal units) per hour. Also considered in the settlement were the federally enforceable San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District permit conditions.

Company failure to operate emissions monitors properly can result in illegal releases of pollutants into the atmosphere. Facilities are required to properly maintain and operate emissions monitoring equipment to measure the release of pollutants and help protect human health. For more information on the Clean Air Act, please visit the EPA’s web site at:

www.epa.gov/air/caa .

Particle pollution can cause serious health problems ranging from aggravated asthma to premature death in people with heart and lung disease. Exposure to high concentrations of sulfur dioxide can have serious impacts on breathing, respiratory illness, alterations in pulmonary defenses, and aggravation of existing cardiovascular disease.

The San Joaquin Valley, with an economy driven by agriculture, suffers from high rates of poverty and unemployment. Its unique topography and wind patterns have also resulted in severe impacts to the public health. Poor air quality, due in part to high-volume truck traffic, has resulted in some of the highest rates of childhood asthma in California. We are working together with our federal, state, and local partners to improve the quality of life for the 4 million residents in the Valley. The EPA Pacific Southwest Region’s 2011-2014 Strategic Plan for the San Joaquin Valley may be found at: www.epa.gov/region9/strategicplan/sanjoaquin.html .

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       ###

EPA Exhibit Pays Tribute to Women Pioneers in Science and Engineering

EPA News Release:

EPA Exhibit Pays Tribute to Women Pioneers in Science and Engineering

 (PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 28, 2013) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s mid-Atlantic Regional Office unveiled at its center city office today a new exhibit honoring the contributions of women scientists and engineers. Located in EPA’s Public Information Center at 1650 Arch Street, the exhibit features a photo gallery and biographies of famous women pioneers in science and engineering, along with Victorian dresses and historic artifacts. This current EPA exhibit is open to the public on week days through June 2013.

“This exhibit, by EPA Region III’s Women in Science and Engineering or WISE committee, increases the awareness of contributions by women who have positively shaped our society and the environment through their pioneering work in what were non-traditional careers,” said EPA mid-Atlantic Regional Administrator Shawn M. Garvin. “Our hope is that visitors, especially students, will be better informed and inspired to pursue careers in science and engineering."

EPA’s exhibit pays tribute to an ethnically and socially diverse group of 29 historical and modern-day women who have made significant achievements in a variety of scientific fields. Among those featured are Rachel Carson, whose 1962 book Silent Spring is credited as being the catalyst for the modern environmental movement, Ellen Swallow Richards, who in 1892 taught at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is so-called the ‘mother of the science of ecology,’ and Olga D. Gonzalez-Sanabria, Director of Engineering at NASA.

EPA’s WISE program works to increase women's representation and success in science and engineering fields.

For more information about visiting EPA’s Public Information Center http://www.epa.gov/region03/ee/pic.htm.

To hear an EPA podcast about the exhibit http://www.epa.gov/region03/multimedia/index.html.  

EPA resolves violations with four Guam companies for hazardous materials reporting failures

EPA Press Release:

For Immediate Release: January 28, 2013
Contact: Dean Higuchi, 808-541-2711, higuchi.dean@epa.gov

EPA resolves violations with four Guam companies for hazardous materials reporting failures

HONOLULU – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency resolved violations with four Guam companies for their failure to report to emergency planners the amount of diesel fuel and other hazardous chemicals stored at their facilities, a violation of the federal Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act (EPCRA).

Each of the four companies paid $2,000 each and corrected their violations by submitting reports to Guam EPA listing the quantities of hazardous chemicals stored pursuant to the Act's Section 312 Tier II reporting requirements. The companies are:

* Goodwind Development Corp. (Dededo, Guam)
* Guam Waterworks Authority (for the Ugum Surface Water Treatment Plant)
* Pepsi Cola Bottling Co. of Guam (Tamuning, Guam)
* The Westin Resort of Guam (Tumon, Guam)

EPCRA allows EPA to impose significantly higher penalties for failure to make required submissions of Tier II reports, and future violators in Guam could face higher penalties than the four being announced today.

"Companies must be diligent in providing this important chemical storage information," said Jared Blumenfeld, EPA's Regional Administrator for the Pacific Southwest. "It allows local emergency planners and fire departments to be aware of the hazardous materials used or stored in their communities."

Under EPCRA regulations facilities that maintain Material Safety Data Sheets for chemicals used or stored in the workplace must submit a Tier II report for any hazardous chemical in excess of 10,000. For certain "Extremely Hazardous Substances" the reporting trigger is 500 pounds, or that substance's "Threshold Planning Quantity," whichever is less. For example, diesel fuel and propane must be reported if on-site at 10,000 pounds (equivalent to approximately 1400 gal. and 2350 gal., respectively) or more, whereas the quantities for chlorine and anhydrous ammonia, both Hazardous Substances, are 100 and 500 pounds, respectively.

On Guam, Tier II reports are required to be submitted to Guam EPA. Facilities must submit their annual Tier II chemical inventories by March 1 of the following year. Thus Tier II reports for calendar year 2012 are due to be submitted to Guam EPA by March 1, 2013. Guam EPA requests that Tier II reports be submitted electronically using EPA's Tier2 Submit software.

For more on EPCRA's Tier II reporting requirements please visit:
www.epa.gov/oem/content/epcra/epcra_storage.htm

For more information on EPA's Tier2 Submit software please visit:
www.epa.gov/oem/content/epcra/tier2.htm

For information on submitting Tier II reports to Guam EPA please contact:
Walter Leon Guerrero, 671-475-1644, or walter.leonguerrero@epa.guam.gov
### 

New Research Will Help Shed Light on Role of Amazon Forests in Global Carbon Cycle

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Press Release:

JANUARY 28, 2013

Julie Chao (510) 486-6491  JHChao@lbl.gov

 0 

 

 

    

News Release

The Earth’s forests perform a well-known service to the planet, absorbing a great deal of the carbon dioxide pollution emitted into the atmosphere from human activities. But when trees are killed by natural disturbances, such as fire, drought or wind, their decay also releases carbon back into the atmosphere, making it critical to quantify tree mortality in order to understand the role of forests in the global climate system. Tropical old-growth forests may play a large role in this absorption service, yet tree mortality patterns for these forests are not well understood.
Now scientist Jeffrey Chambers and colleagues at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have devised an analytical method that combines satellite images, simulation modeling and painstaking fieldwork to help researchers detect forest mortality patterns and trends. This new tool will enhance understanding of the role of forests in carbon sequestration and the impact of climate change on such disturbances.
“One quarter of CO₂ emissions are going to terrestrial ecosystems, but the details of those processes and how they will respond to a changing climate are inadequately understood, particularly for tropical forests,” Chambers said. “It’s important we get a better understanding of the terrestrial sink because if it weakens, more of our emissions will end up in the atmosphere, increasing the rate of climate warming. To develop a better estimate of the contribution of forests, we need to have a better understanding of forest tree mortality.”

Berkeley Lab scientist Jeffrey Chambers in the Amazon forest instrumenting the upper canopy from a 30-meter tower with micro-meteorological sensors. (Photos courtesy Jeffrey Chambers)

Chambers, in close collaboration with Robinson Negron-Juarez at Tulane University, Brazil’s National Institute for Amazon Research (Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia [INPA]) and other colleagues, studied a section of the Central Amazon spanning over a thousand square miles near Manaus, Brazil. By linking data from Landsat satellite images over a 20-year period with observations on the ground, they found that 9.1 to 16.9 percent of tree mortality was missing from more conventional plot-based analyses of forests. That equates to more than half a million dead trees each year that had previously been unaccounted for in studies of this region, and which need to be included in forest carbon budgets.
Their findings were published online this week in a paper titled, “The steady-state mosaic of disturbance and succession across an old-growth Central Amazon forest landscape,” in theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
“If these results hold for most tropical forests, then it would indicate that because we missed some of the mortality, then the contribution of these forests to the net sink might be less than previous studies have suggested,” Chambers said. “An old-growth forest has a mosaic of patches all doing different things. So if you want to understand the average behavior of that system you need to sample at a much larger spatial scale over larger time intervals than was previously appreciated. You don’t see this mosaic if you walk through the forest or study only one patch. You really need to look at the forest at the landscape scale.”
Trees and other living organisms are key players in the global carbon cycle, a complex biogeochemical process in which carbon is exchanged among the atmosphere, the ocean, the biosphere and Earth’s crust. Fewer trees mean not only a weakening of the forest’s ability to absorb carbon, but the decay of dead trees will also release carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere. Large-scale tree mortality in tropical ecosystems could thus act as a positive feedback mechanism, accelerating the global warming effect.
The Amazon forest is hit periodically by fierce thunderstorms that may bring violent winds with concentrated bursts believed to be as high as 170 miles per hour. The storms can blow down many acres of the forest; however, Chambers and his team were able to paint a much more nuanced picture of how storms affected the forest.

A mortality map of the Amazon near Manaus, Brazil based on Landsat satellite images shows the spatial pattern of tree mortality.

By looking at satellite images before and after a storm, the scientists discerned changes in the reflectivity of the forest, which they assumed was due to damage to the canopy and thus tree loss. Researchers were then sent into the field at some of the blowdown areas to count the number of trees felled by the storm. Looking at the satellite images pixel by pixel (with each pixel representing 900 square meters, or about one-tenth of a football field) and matching them with on-the-ground observations, they were able to draw a detailed mortality map for the entire landscape, which had never been done before.
Essentially they found that tree mortality is clustered in both time and space. “It’s not blowdown or no blowdown—it’s a gradient, with everything in between,” he said. “Some areas have 80 percent of trees down, some have 15 percent.”

This image taken from a helicopter shows the same blowdown region a few years after the event that is imaged on the Landsat mortality map. The regrowing vegetation has covered up most of the downed trees, but some tree stems are still visible.

In one particularly violent storm in 2005, a squall line more than 1,000 miles long and 150 miles wide crossed the entire Amazon basin. The researchers estimated that hundreds of millions trees were potentially destroyed, equivalent to a significant fraction of the estimated mean annual carbon accumulation for the Amazon forest. This finding was published in 2010 in Geophysical Research Letters. Intense 100-year droughts also caused widespread tree mortality in the Amazon basin in 2005 and 2010.
As climatic warming is expected to bring more intense droughts and stronger storms, understanding their effect on tropical and forest ecosystems becomes ever more important. “We need to establish a baseline so we can say how these forests functioned before we changed the climate,” Chambers said.
This new tool can be used to assess tree mortality in other types of forests as well. Chambers and colleagues reported in the journal Science in 2007 that Hurricane Katrina killed or severely damaged about 320 million trees. The carbon in those trees, which would eventually be released into the atmosphere as CO₂ as the trees decompose, was about equal to the net amount of carbon absorbed by all U.S. forests in a year.
Disturbances such as Superstorm Sandy and Hurricane Katrina cause large impacts to the terrestrial carbon cycle, forest tree mortality and CO₂ emissions from decomposition, in addition to significant economic impacts. However, these processes are currently not well represented in global climate models. “A better understanding of tree mortality provides a path forward towards improving coupled earth system models,” Chambers said.

From the same region as the images above, a tree felled by a storm.

Besides understanding how forests affect carbon cycling, the new technique could also play a vital role in understanding how climate change will affect forests. Although the atmospheric CO₂ concentration has been rising for decades, we are now only just starting to feel the effects of a warming climate, such as melting glaciers, stronger heat waves and more violent storms.
“But these climate change signals will start popping out of the noise faster and faster as the years go on,” Chambers said. “So, what’s going to happen to old-growth tropical forests? On one hand they are being fertilized by some unknown extent by the rising CO₂concentration, and on the other hand a warming climate will likely accelerate tree mortality. So which of these processes will win out in the long-term: growth or death? Our study provides the tools to continue to make these critical observations and answer this question as climate change processes fully kicks in over the coming years.”
Chambers’ co-authors on the PNAS paper were Alan Di Vittorio of Berkeley Lab and Robinson Negron-Juarez, Daniel Marra, Joerg Tews, Dar Roberts, Gabriel Ribeiro, Susan Trumbore and Niro Higuchi of other institutions, including INPA, Brazil; Tulane University, USA; Noreca Consulting Inc, Canada; the University of California at Santa Barbara, USA; and the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Germany.
This study was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

# # #

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory addresses the world’s most urgent scientific challenges by advancing sustainable energy, protecting human health, creating new materials, and revealing the origin and fate of the universe. Founded in 1931, Berkeley Lab’s scientific expertise has been recognized with 13 Nobel prizes. The University of California manages Berkeley Lab for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. For more, visit www.lbl.gov.
DOE’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov.

TAGS: carbon cycle, climate change, greenhouse gas emissions