Ribbon Cutting Ceremony Opens Water Treatment Facility in Las Cruces

Press release:

Ribbon Cutting Ceremony Opens Water Treatment Facility in Las Cruces

(DALLAS – August 23, 2012) During a ribbon cutting ceremony this morning, officials from the Environmental Protection Agency, City of Las Cruces, Doña Ana County and the New Mexico Environment Department celebrated the opening of a water treatment facility in Las Cruces to remove contaminants from groundwater.

The new facility will remove the chemical perchloroethylene, commonly known as PCE, from groundwater in the area known as the Griggs and Walnut Groundwater Plume Superfund site. PCE is a man-made substance widely used for dry cleaning fabrics and textiles and for metal degreasing operations.

“Many people have worked together over several years to make this milestone possible,” said Sam Coleman, Acting Regional Administrator for EPA Region 6. “Because of their cooperation, creativity and dedication, the people of Las Cruces have a reliable, safe supply of drinking water.”

“This groundwater cleanup project is another example of how the City of Las Cruces is committed to the health and safety of its residents,” said Las Cruces Mayor Ken Miyagishima.

Doña Ana County Commission Chairwoman Karen G. Perez said, “I’m proud of the work that’s been done to bring this project to fruition. It’s been a remarkable collaborative effort on behalf of the many people who rely on safe, clean groundwater here in the City of Las Cruces.”

The Griggs and Walnut Groundwater Plume site is centered near the intersection of Griggs Avenue and Walnut Street within the City of Las Cruces and is approximately 1.8 mile by one-half mile in size. Four municipal drinking water supply wells were impacted by the site but through the city’s blending programs, PCE levels were kept below the maximum contaminant level established by the Safe Drinking Water Act or taken off line. No customer was ever delivered water with PCE amounts that exceeded federal standards. Wells 18 and 27 are being utilized to treat the plume, and the other two wells are used to monitor for PCE and other contaminants.

The water treatment facility will utilize an air stripper to expose contaminated groundwater to oxygen which dissipates the PCE. The cleansed water is then suitable for drinking. The $5.2 million project to date is jointly funded by the City of Las Cruces and Doña Ana County.

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

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EPA to Extend Public Comment Period On Air Permit for Arecibo Waste to Energy Facility Agency Will Hold Five Public Hearing Sessions August 25, 26 and 27

Press release:

EPA to Extend Public Comment Period

On Air Permit for Arecibo Waste to Energy Facility

Agency Will Hold Five Public Hearing Sessions August 25, 26 and 27

Contact: Brenda Reyes (787) 977-5869; reyes.brenda@epa.gov; Mary Mears (212) 637-3673 

(San Juan, P.R. -- August 22, 2012) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has extended to August 31 the public comment period for its proposed action to approve an air permit to construct a waste to energy facility in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. The agency is holding a series of public hearing sessions beginning this Saturday to accept public comments on Energy Answers International, Inc. has proposed to construct a new 77 megawatt facility at the former site of the Global Fibers Paper Mill in Barrio Cambalache, Arecibo, Puerto Rico. The EPA encourages public participation and input in this decision.

The EPA will hold five formal public hearing sessions spread over three days on August 25, 26 and 27, 2012. The sessions will run on Saturday August 25 and Sunday August 26 from 1:00pm to 4:00pm and 6:00pm to 10:00pm. On Monday, August 27, a session will be held from 1:00pm to 4:00pm. The hearing sessions will all be held at the Arecibo Lions Club located at Avenida Ing. Manuel T. Gillan, Sector El Tanque, Arecibo.

The EPA will accept written comments or written presentations at the hearing and will allow each person wishing to give oral testimony for up to 10 minutes. Oral testimony and written comments submitted during the public hearing or anytime during the public comment period will be given equal consideration.

For the first four sessions on August 25 and 26, people who registered ahead of time will be given preference in filling slots to testify in each session. People who register at the door will be accommodated in that session only if there are slots left in that session. If that session is full, the EPA will give that person a choice of sessions and still have open slots. The final session on August 27 will be preserved to accommodate those who signed up to, but were not able to, testify at previous sessions.

The EPA is proposing an air permit for the facility after evaluating the potential impact of the facility on air quality by comparing it to EPA air quality standards which are established to protect public health.

To obtain the EPA permit, Energy Answers was required to demonstrate that the pollution controls on the plant represented the best available pollution control technology. The proposed permit also requires Energy Answers to test the pollution it emits to the atmosphere and demonstrate that it meets the pollution limits the EPA is proposing to establish. The permit requires emissions limits to be measured and reported to the EPA during operation. Failure to meet any of these permit limits would subject the facility to EPA enforcement actions.

The EPA is extending the public comment period. Written comments may be submitted at any time during the comment period, which will now be open until August 31, 2012. EPA's final permit decision will be made only after full consideration of all public comments received.

Members of the public wishing to review the administrative record for the proposed decision, which includes all documents relevant to the EPA’s proposed permit, can make an appointment Monday – Friday between 9:00am and 4:30 pm in the EPA’s Caribbean Environmental Protection Division at City View Plaza III-Suite 7000 in Guaynabo. To make an appointment, contact John Aponte by email at Aponte.john@epa.gov or phone at 787-977-5853. The documents are also available online through the Interamerican University-Arecibo Campus website at http://www.arecibo.inter.edu/reserva/epa/epa.htm#. In addition, the administrative record is also available for viewing in EPA’s New York offices at 290 Broadway in New York City.

Public comments may be mailed or emailed to:

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Region 2

Caribbean Environmental Protection Division

City View Plaza III-Suite 7000

#48 Rd. 165 km 1.2

Guaynabo, PR 00968-8069

Attention: Mr. John Aponte

(787) 977-5853

Aponte.john@epa.gov 

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EPA Awards Over $1.6 Million to the State of Oklahoma to Support Environmental Programs

Press release:

EPA Awards Over $1.6 Million to the State of Oklahoma to Support Environmental Programs

(DALLAS – July 27, 2012) The Environmental Protection Agency has awarded $1,603,137 to the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality to assist with environmental permitting, enforcement and facility inspections. This Performance Partnership Grant will also be used to perform outreach and education, accreditation of training providers and certification of firms and individuals performing lead-based paint abatement activities.

The EPA and states share responsibility for protecting human health and the environment. This unique relationship is the cornerstone of the nation's environmental protection system. Working together, we have made enormous progress in protecting our air, water and land resources. Under traditional environmental program grants, states receive funds to implement the various water, air, waste, pesticides and toxic substances programs.

Additional Information on EPA grants is available at http://www.epa.gov/region6/gandf/index.htm

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

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Logan Airport Oil Storage Facility Operators Fined for Inadequate Oil Spill Training

News Release
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
New England Regional Office
March 28, 2012
Contact: Paula Ballentine, (617) 918-1027

Logan Airport Oil Storage Facility Operators Fined for Inadequate Oil Spill Training

(Boston, Mass. – Mar. 28, 2012) – BOSFuel Corp. and Swissport Fueling, Inc., operators of an oil storage facility at Boston’s Logan Airport, will pay a $90,000 penalty for failing to take adequate precaution to contain oil spills.  The Logan facility is operated by BOSFuel, a consortium of major airlines, and has an oil storage capacity of over seven million gallons. Swissport Fueling operates the facility on a day-to-day basis.

In a Sept. 2011 complaint, EPA asserted that the companies had not properly prepared for possible oil spills at the Logan facility in violation of federal oil pollution prevention regulations issued under the Clean Water Act.  These Facility Response Plan (FRP) regulations require certain facilities, such as the one at Logan, to have a response plan for containing and cleaning up an oil release.


EPA’s action stemmed from a May 2011 unannounced exercise at the facility carried out by EPA, the Massachusetts Dept. of Environmental Protection (Mass DEP) and the U.S. Coast Guard. The objective of this exercise - a simulated oil spill - was to determine whether a facility can successfully respond to an oil release.  As a result of the exercise, EPA determined that the companies were unable to properly implement the facility’s FRP and its personnel were not adequately trained, resulting in an “unsuccessful” overall rating for the exercise. 


Since EPA filed its action, the companies have worked cooperatively with EPA, as well as the USCG and Mass DEP to correct the deficiencies noted during the exercise.

Federal law requires that facilities that have the potential for spills take every step possible to prevent, before they occur, oil discharges to the nation’s rivers, lakes and oceans through implementation of Spill Prevention Control & Countermeasure (SPCC) plans.  Any facility with more than 1,320 gallons of above-ground oil storage capacity and meeting certain other criteria must develop and implement SPCC plans to prevent and contain spills, such as by installing impervious secondary containment around storage tanks and transfer areas.  Facilities also need to know how to react to a spill to minimize environmental damage when one does occur.  The FRP regulations require response planning and spill preparation especially for facilities with more than one million gallons of storage capacity. To ensure that a facility can adequately response to a spill, it must have adequate employee training, spill response equipment, and a contingency plan for containing and cleaning up a release.

While EPA’s action against the Logan Airport oil storage operators is not based on an actual oil release but on the unsuccessful May 2011 unannounced exercise, other facilities should be aware that EPA will continue to pay unannounced visits to conduct simulated spill exercises at facilities throughout New England.


More information:
FRP Requirements (http://www.epa.gov/emergencies/content/frps/index.htm )
SPCC Requirements (http://www.epa.gov/emergencies/content/spcc/index.htm)

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New Jersey Composter Taps Food Waste Opportunities :: BioCycle, Advancing Composting, Organics Recycling & Renewable Energy

New Jersey Composter Taps Food Waste Opportunities :: BioCycle, Advancing Composting, Organics Recycling & Renewable Energy

AG Choice Organics Recycling in Sussex County, New Jersey, grew out of a sawmill business that Jay Fischer started with his parents back in 1997. The Fischers had been selling sawdust to area horse farms for bedding and noticed many had an issue with stockpiled manure (an average horse can produce 9 tons a year). “We don’t have a lot of large farms around here,” explains Jay Fischer. “They are mostly smaller farmettes with two or three horses — and they don’t have the acreage to land apply the manure.” So the Fischers began hauling it back to their facility to compost — their first foray into organics recycling.

In 2005, Jay and his wife, Jill, incorporated Ag Choice as a full-fledged business and soon started taking in food waste from four ShopRite grocery stores, providing them with sealed 15 cubic yard (cy) lockable roll-off containers and utilizing their own trucks for hauling. Feedstock sources now include six ShopRites, two Costcos, the New Jersey Food Bank, a wholesale fruit and vegetable distributor, the occasional tractor trailer load full of spoiled bananas or sweet potatoes, and industrial organics from manufacturers arriving in packaging or containers ranging from individual packets to 55-gallon drums.

For more, click the link below:

New Jersey Composter Taps Food Waste Opportunities :: BioCycle, Advancing Composting, Organics Recycling & Renewable Energy

Utility to Purchase Low-Carbon Power from Innovative Clean Coal Plant

Blog post from the U.S. Dept of Energy web site.  The photo doesn't seem to go with the story, except that the photo depicts a coal gasification facility.

Utility to Purchase Low-Carbon Power from Innovative Clean Coal Plant

January 19, 2012 

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory demonstrated coal gasification in large-scale field experiments at the Rocky Mountain Test Facility (above) near Hanna, Wyoming. Coal gasification and sequestration of the carbon dioxide produced are among the technologies being used in the Texas Clean Energy Project. | Photo courtesy of llnlphotos.

Michael Hess

New Media Specialist, Office of Public Affairs

Carbon emissions for this plant will be...

• less than 10 percent of a conventional coal plant of similar output.
• less than 25 percent of an high-efficiency natural gas-powered power plant.

The Department of Energy is working with industry to keep the United States at the forefront of carbon capture, utilization, and storage technologies. An innovative clean coal demonstration project in Texas, supported by the Department’s Office of Fossil Energy, recently took a big step forward.  

The Energy Department announced that CPS Energy of San Antonio will purchase approximately 200 megawatts of power annually from the Texas Clean Energy Project (TCEP) when the facility is complete in 2015. The $2.4 billion plant will receive $450 million in funding from the Department’s Clean Coal Power Initiative; of this, $211 million comes from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
This is the first purchase in the United States of low-carbon power from a power plant that uses carbon capture technology.

When operational, the 400-MW facility located just west of Midland-Odessa, Texas, will be the cleanest coal-fueled power plant in the world. Using a state-of-the-art process known as integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC), the total amount of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere from this plant will be less than 10 percent of a conventional coal plant with similar energy output, and less than 25 percent of a high-efficiency natural gas-powered power plant.

It will also be capable of capturing 90 percent of the carbon dioxide (CO₂) it produces, as well as 99 percent of sulfur dioxide, 90 percent of nitrogen oxide, and 99 percent of mercury.

In the gasification process, coal is not burned as if you were shoveling coal into a furnace or a steam locomotive boiler. Instead, the coal is sealed in a gasifier -- an airtight chamber that allows only controlled amounts of oxygen to enter. Starved for oxygen, the coal bakes rather than ignites and creates enough heat and pressure in the chamber to squeeze hydrogen and carbon monoxide out of the coal. The gases squeezed from the coal are then processed into synthetic gas, or syngas.

Next, water vapor is added to the syngas, which chemically reacts with the carbon monoxide to create additional hydrogen and also carbon dioxide. The gas is then cleaned of impurities, and separated into pure streams of hydrogen and carbon dioxide. The hydrogen powers an advanced turbine to generate electricity and its carbon-free exhaust heats water to generate steam that’s fed to a turbine to produce even more electricity.

Of the nearly 2.9 million metric tons of carbon dioxide to be captured annually at the Texas plant, 83 percent will be used in the West Texas Permian Basin for enhanced oil recovery -- a technique where carbon dioxide is pumped into a known reservoir where it expands and forces the oil out of the well. The rest of the captured carbon dioxide will go to producing urea -- a valuable compound with many industrial applications.

Today, approximately 80 percent of the energy consumed in the United States comes from coal, petroleum, and natural gas, with coal-fired power plants accounting for approximately half of the electricity generated. The implementation of clean, state-of-the-art coal-based technologies will help ensure America’s energy security while mitigating the environmental impacts of fossil fuel use.