Showing posts with label assessment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label assessment. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Final Health Assessment for Perc
News release from EPA:
The toxicity values reported in the perc IRIS assessment will be considered in:
· Establishing cleanup levels at the hundreds of Superfund sites where perc is a contaminant
· Revising EPA’s Maximum Contaminant Level for perc as part of the carcinogenic volatile organic compounds group in drinking water, as described in the agency’s drinking water strategy
· Evaluating whether to propose additional limits on the emissions of perc into the atmosphere, since perc is considered a hazardous air pollutant under the Clean Air Act
The assessment replaces the 1988 IRIS assessment for perc and for the first time includes a hazard characterization for cancer effects. This assessment has undergone several levels of rigorous, independent peer review including: agency review, interagency review, public comment, and external peer review by the National Research Council. All major review comments have been addressed.
CONTACT:
Latisha Petteway (News Media Only)
202-564-3191
202-564-4355
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 10, 2012
EPA Releases Final Health Assessment for Tetrachloroethylene (Perc)
Public health protections remain in place
WASHINGTON – Today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) posted the final health assessment for tetrachloroethylene – also known as perchloroethylene, or perc – to EPA’s Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) database. Perc is a chemical solvent widely used in the dry cleaning industry. It is also used in the cleaning of metal machinery and to manufacture some consumer products and other chemicals. Confirming longstanding scientific understanding and research, the final assessment characterizes perc as a “likely human carcinogen.” The assessment provides estimates for both cancer and non-cancer effects associated with exposure to perc over a lifetime.
WASHINGTON – Today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) posted the final health assessment for tetrachloroethylene – also known as perchloroethylene, or perc – to EPA’s Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) database. Perc is a chemical solvent widely used in the dry cleaning industry. It is also used in the cleaning of metal machinery and to manufacture some consumer products and other chemicals. Confirming longstanding scientific understanding and research, the final assessment characterizes perc as a “likely human carcinogen.” The assessment provides estimates for both cancer and non-cancer effects associated with exposure to perc over a lifetime.
EPA does not believe that wearing clothes dry cleaned with perc will result in exposures which pose a risk of concern. EPA has already taken several significant actions to reduce exposure to perc. EPA has clean air standards for dry cleaners that use perc, including requirements that will phase-out the use of perc by dry cleaners in residential buildings by December 21, 2020. EPA also set limits for the amount of perc allowed in drinking water and levels for cleaning up perc at Superfund sites throughout the country, which will be updated in light of the IRIS assessment.
“The perc health assessment released today will provide valuable information to help protect people and communities from exposure to perc in soil, water and air,” said Paul Anastas, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Research and Development. “This assessment emphasizes the value of the IRIS database in providing strong science to support government officials as they make decisions to protect the health of the American people.”
The toxicity values reported in the perc IRIS assessment will be considered in:
· Revising EPA’s Maximum Contaminant Level for perc as part of the carcinogenic volatile organic compounds group in drinking water, as described in the agency’s drinking water strategy
· Evaluating whether to propose additional limits on the emissions of perc into the atmosphere, since perc is considered a hazardous air pollutant under the Clean Air Act
The assessment replaces the 1988 IRIS assessment for perc and for the first time includes a hazard characterization for cancer effects. This assessment has undergone several levels of rigorous, independent peer review including: agency review, interagency review, public comment, and external peer review by the National Research Council. All major review comments have been addressed.
EPA continues to strengthen IRIS as part of an ongoing effort to ensure the best possible science is used to protect human health and the environment. In May 2009, EPA streamlined the IRIS process to increase transparency, ensure the timely publication of assessments, and reinforce independent review. In July 2011, EPA announced further changes to strengthen the IRIS program in response to recommendations from the National Academy of Sciences. EPA’s peer review process is designed to elicit the strongest possible critique to ensure that each final IRIS assessment reflects sound, rigorous science.
More information on perc: http://epa.gov/oppt/existingchemicals/pubs/perchloroethylene_fact_sheet.html
More information on IRIS: http://www.epa.gov/IRIS
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Comment Period Extended; West Butte Wind Project
News release from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service:
Notice of the extension to February 17, 2012, published in today’s Federal Register. The previous deadline was February 2, 2012.
“Take” means to kill, harass or disturb the birds, their nests or their eggs. The Service will consider take permits when commitments are made for conservation measures that benefit eagle populations.
This is the first application the Service has received from a proposed wind project for a take permit under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act (BGEPA). Regulations adopted in 2009 enabled the agency to authorize, for the first time, take of eagles for activities that are otherwise lawful but that result in either disturbance or mortality. Since then, guidelines for issuing the permits to wind projects have been developed. Permits are only issuable under circumstances that ultimately guarantee the conservation of eagle populations.
“The new deadline will give people additional time to submit comments,” said Chris McKay, Assistant Regional Director for Migratory Birds and State Programs in the Service’s Pacific Region. The agency decided to extend the deadline after receiving several requests to do so.
The West Butte permit, if issued, would allow the take of up to three golden eagles over a period of five years as long as the company fulfills its conservation commitments. In cooperation with the Service, the company developed an avian and bat conservation plan and an eagle conservation plan that describe actions that have been taken to initially avoid and minimize and then mitigate for any remaining adverse effects to eagles. If the permit is granted, there must be no net loss to breeding populations of golden eagles. The proposed wind project, consisting of up to 52 turbines about 30 miles east of Bend, is in an area of low use by golden eagles.
West Butte Wind Power’s eagle conservation plan outlines advanced conservation practices and measures to avoid and minimize impacts, assesses risk, makes commitments for mitigating eagle mortalities, and makes commitments for monitoring bird mortality after the project is built. If the permit is granted, these conservation commitments would become conditions of the permit.
The Service would review the permit every five years to ensure the project was complying with the conditions.
The full text of the draft EA can be downloaded at http://www.fws.gov/pacific/migratorybirds/nepa.html.
Comments can be submitted by:
Comment Period Extended on Permit Request For West Butte Wind Project
The deadline is being extended for people to comment on a draft Environmental Assessment (EA) of a request from West Butte Wind Power, LLC, for a permit that would allow for the “take” of golden eagles at the company’s proposed wind project in central Oregon, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced today.Notice of the extension to February 17, 2012, published in today’s Federal Register. The previous deadline was February 2, 2012.
“Take” means to kill, harass or disturb the birds, their nests or their eggs. The Service will consider take permits when commitments are made for conservation measures that benefit eagle populations.
This is the first application the Service has received from a proposed wind project for a take permit under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act (BGEPA). Regulations adopted in 2009 enabled the agency to authorize, for the first time, take of eagles for activities that are otherwise lawful but that result in either disturbance or mortality. Since then, guidelines for issuing the permits to wind projects have been developed. Permits are only issuable under circumstances that ultimately guarantee the conservation of eagle populations.
“The new deadline will give people additional time to submit comments,” said Chris McKay, Assistant Regional Director for Migratory Birds and State Programs in the Service’s Pacific Region. The agency decided to extend the deadline after receiving several requests to do so.
The West Butte permit, if issued, would allow the take of up to three golden eagles over a period of five years as long as the company fulfills its conservation commitments. In cooperation with the Service, the company developed an avian and bat conservation plan and an eagle conservation plan that describe actions that have been taken to initially avoid and minimize and then mitigate for any remaining adverse effects to eagles. If the permit is granted, there must be no net loss to breeding populations of golden eagles. The proposed wind project, consisting of up to 52 turbines about 30 miles east of Bend, is in an area of low use by golden eagles.
West Butte Wind Power’s eagle conservation plan outlines advanced conservation practices and measures to avoid and minimize impacts, assesses risk, makes commitments for mitigating eagle mortalities, and makes commitments for monitoring bird mortality after the project is built. If the permit is granted, these conservation commitments would become conditions of the permit.
The Service would review the permit every five years to ensure the project was complying with the conditions.
The full text of the draft EA can be downloaded at http://www.fws.gov/pacific/migratorybirds/nepa.html.
Comments can be submitted by:
- Email: pacific_birds@fws.gov. Include “DEA for the West Butte Wind Project” in the subject line of the message.
- U.S. Mail: Please address written comments to Michael Green, Acting Chief, Division of Migratory Birds and Habitat Programs, Pacific Region, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 911 NE 11th Ave, Portland, OR 97232. Attn.: DEA for the West Butte Wind Project.
- Fax: Michael Green, Acting Chief, Division of Migratory Birds and Habitat Programs, 503-231-2019, Attn.: DEA for the West Butte Wind Project.
Tenth Technology Readiness Assessment
From the U.S. Dept. of Energy, Office of Environmental Management:
EM Performs Tenth Technology Readiness Assessment
WASHINGTON, D.C. – EM recently completed its tenth Technology Readiness Assessment (TRA) since piloting the TRA process in 2006.
A TRA is an intensive peer review process through which the maturity of a technology is evaluated. A TRA utilizes the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) scale pioneered by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and adopted by the United States Air Force and other government organizations, including EM. The project uses the results of the TRA to develop a Technology Maturation Plan (TMP), which details the steps necessary to mature the technology to the level at which it can be deployed.
The EM TRAs to date have focused primarily on technologies to accomplish one of EM’s most pressing concerns: treatment of radioactive waste in aging waste tanks at the Savannah River, Hanford and Idaho sites.
The most recent TRA evaluated Small Column Ion Exchange (SCIX), which is a sorbent column system being developed at the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina to remove cesium, strontium and select actinides from radioactive salt solutions in waste tanks. With a capacity to process 2.5 million gallons of salt waste annually, SCIX may supplement operations at the Salt Waste Processing Facility under construction at SRS, markedly shortening the life cycle and reducing the risk and cost of tank waste processing.
Employees with Savannah River Remediation, the SRS liquid waste contractor, review mock-ups of the SCIX technology at the Savannah River National Laboratory.
This technology development work at SRS may be used to support treatment operations at other sites.
A TRA team consists of experts in appropriate disciplines who are not involved in development of the technology being evaluated or in the project in which the technology may be deployed.
Hoyt Johnson, EM TRA lead, pointed out that the TRA has evolved from an audit-like process to a more effective collaborative effort in which both the TRA and site teams identify solutions to eliminate gaps in the technology’s development.
“Part of the success of the TRA is the ability of the site team to understand TRA and implement it as a self-assessment. This was exemplified by the SCIX site team’s use of the External Technical Review process at inception, followed by site-level assessment of the technology maturity, resulting in a mature SCIX Technology Maturation Plan available for review when the EM TRA team arrived.” Johnson said. “Sites have become tuned in and more knowledgeable.”
Funding constraints in 2012 have resulted in SCIX development activities being placed on hold. In preparation for resumed funding, the TRA team developed a list of prioritized recommendations for maturing the technologies so that the most effectual and expeditious use of funding is made as it is released, whether incrementally or all at once.
TRAs and TMPs have proven to be effective management tools for reducing technical risk and minimizing potential cost increases and schedule delays. In addition to the TRAs of technologies for tank waste treatment, EM hopes to complete assessments for technologies used in other work, such as decontamination and demolition and soil and groundwater remediation.
EM issued the U.S. DOE Office of Environmental Management TRA/TMP Process Guide in 2008. A revised guide, scheduled to be issued in March, incorporates lessons learned from implementing the TRA process, recognizes the use of the process for areas in addition to tank waste and is more user friendly for site and headquarters review teams.
Complete details concerning all of EM’s TRAs, including summaries and final reports, can be found here.
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