EPA News: EPA Approves Virginia Plan to Improve Water Quality

EPA Press Release:

EPA Approves Virginia Plan to Improve Water Quality

PHILADELPHIA (October 2, 2019) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced it has approved and helped fund a $100 million plan by Virginia to implement key water infrastructure projects, including upgraded wastewater treatment plants to better serve residents, increase efficiency and reduce pollution.

Virginia’s Intended Use Plan includes a $32.5 million grant from EPA’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF), $6.5 million state matching funds, repayments from prior CWSRF loans, and interest earnings.

“The revolving fund program is essential to providing all Americans the clean and safe water they deserve,” said EPA Mid-Atlantic Regional Administrator Cosmo Servidio. “EPA is proud to support Virginia’s plan and remains committed to helping communities with infrastructure improvements that protect their water resources”

Some of the projects targeted for funding in the state’s CWSRF plan include:

• $5.7 million to the City of Covington for a storage tank and equipment that will help the wastewater treatment plant during wet weather events. Wet weather events can contribute to flows that exceed the capacity of the plant and thus lead to potential discharge violations. These improvements will help ensure there are no overflows to the Jackson River and improve the capacity and operations at the treatment plant.
• $10.6 million to the Town of Tazewell to rehabilitate one of the town’s wastewater treatment plants that has operated beyond its expected service life. This improvement will allow the plant to treat two million gallons of wastewater a day.
• $37.5 million to the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Regional Sewer Authority for upgrades to its system that will allow for wastewater treatment facilities to improve operation during wet weather events.
• $20.1 million to The Nature Conservancy to purchase a conservation easement on property in the Clinch River Watershed. The easement will protect tens of thousands of acres of working forests and hundreds of miles of streams and rivers, as well as significant habitats, scenic views, and historic features.
• $2.7 million to James City County for a shoreline stabilization project at Chickahominy Waterfront Park and James City County Marina. The project will create a living shoreline to counter riverbank erosion and ultimately improve the water quality of downstream waterways.

A full list of CWSRF projects to be funded can be found at: https://www.deq.virginia.gov/Programs/Water/CleanWaterFinancingAssistance.aspx

The CWSRF program provides low interest loans for the construction of wastewater treatment facilities and other projects vital to protecting and improving water quality in rivers, lakes and streams for drinking water, recreation and natural habitat. The loans help communities keep water and sewer rates more affordable while addressing local water quality problems.

For more information about EPA’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund Program: https://www.epa.gov/cwsrf 

EPA News: EPA Approves Maryland Plan to Improve Water Quality

EPA Press Release:

EPA Approves Maryland Plan to Improve Water Quality

PHILADELPHIA (October 2, 2019) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced it has approved and helped fund a $297 million plan by Maryland to implement key water infrastructure projects, including upgraded wastewater treatment plants and stormwater control measures to better serve residents, increase efficiency and reduce pollution.

Maryland’s Intended Use Plan includes a $38.4 million grant from EPA’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF), $7.7 million state matching funds, repayments from prior CWSRF loans, and interest earnings.

“The revolving fund program is essential to providing all Americans the clean and safe water they deserve,” said EPA Mid-Atlantic Regional Administrator Cosmo Servidio. “EPA is proud to support Maryland’s plan and remains committed to helping communities with infrastructure improvements that protect their water resources”

Some of the projects targeted for funding in the state’s CWSRF plan include:

• $11.7 million to Talbot County for a sewer line extension project to serve more than 600 properties, including many that are currently served by failing septic systems that lead to wastewater discharges into waterways that flow into the Chesapeake Bay. This project will help prevent tens of thousands of pounds of pollution from entering the Bay.
• $1.7 million to the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission to repair and replace sewer lines in Prince George’s County to help minimize and eliminate sewage overflows.
• $35.9 million to Baltimore City and $50.5 million to Baltimore County for upgrades to the Back River Wastewater Treatment Plant. Funding will support electrical improvements and replacement of five substations. The upgraded power capabilities will protect the plant’s treatment processes from wet weather flows, helping to ensure untreated flows go into storage tanks, rather than into local waterways.
• $35 million to the Urban Stormwater Retrofit Program Public-Private Partnership in Prince George’s County. This project involves the planning, design and construction of multiple projects to store or treat stormwater runoff to reduce pollutants from entering local waterways and the Chesapeake Bay. Projects range from installing small rain gardens to large urban retrofit solutions, such as pond retrofits and green streets.

A full list of CWSRF projects to be funded can be found at: https://mde.maryland.gov/programs/water/WQFA/Pages/index.aspx

The CWSRF program provides low interest loans for the construction of wastewater treatment facilities and other projects vital to protecting and improving water quality in rivers, lakes and streams for drinking water, recreation and natural habitat. The loans help communities keep water and sewer rates more affordable while addressing local water quality problems.

For more information about EPA’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund Program: https://www.epa.gov/cwsrf

EPA approves Arkansas’ five-year report for regional haze

EPA Press Release:

EPA approves Arkansas’ five-year report for regional haze

Media contacts: Joe Hubbard or Jennah Durant at r6press@epa.gov or 214 665-2200

DALLAS – (Oct.1, 2019) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently approved Arkansas’ Regional Haze five-year report that found that the state is making reasonable progress towards preventing future visibility impairment caused by air pollution in the Upper Buffalo and Caney Creek Wilderness areas.  

“Arkansas’s efforts to reduce emissions that cause regional haze are paying off,” said EPA Regional Administrator Ken McQueen. “This report shows that Arkansas continues to take the lead in improving visibility in these areas of natural beauty.”

Under the Clean Air act, states are required to develop State Implementation Plans (SIPs) that ensure reasonable progress towards the national goal of addressing visibility impairment in designated Class I areas, like national parks and wilderness areas. Five years after submittal of the initial SIP, states are required to submit a report in the form of a SIP revision that evaluates progress towards visibility improvement in the Class I area. Arkansas’ Class I areas are in Newton and Polk Counties.  

On March 28, 2019, EPA proposed to approve the state’s regional haze five-year progress report. EPA did not receive any relevant adverse comments on the proposed action and moved forward with approval.

EPA believes that states are best suited to run their clean air programs. EPA will continue to work with its state partners to ensure that the Clean Air Act standards are met in Arkansas and across the country.

To view the rule, please visit: https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=EPA_FRDOC_0001-24571

Connect with EPA Region 6:

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eparegion6 

On Twitter: https://twitter.com/EPAregion6

Activities in EPA Region 6: http://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/region6.htm 

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EPA awards $9.7 million for air quality projects in Utah

EPA Press Release:

EPA awards $9.7 million for air quality projects in Utah

Targeted Airshed Grants to Utah DEQ to reduce emissions from passenger vehicles and oil and gas equipment

Salt Lake City (October 2, 2019) -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is providing the Utah Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) $9.7 million for projects to improve air quality in the Salt Lake City area and the Uinta Basin. The EPA grants, part of the agency’s Targeted Airshed Grants program, support state and locally-led efforts to reduce emissions in areas facing air quality challenges associated with ground-level ozone and fine particulate matter (PM2.5), commonly known as smog and soot.

“Utah DEQ has demonstrated consistent leadership in working with local interests to make progress on air quality challenges and enhance public health,” said EPA Regional Administrator Gregory Sopkin. “These grants will help our partners in Utah continue to improve air quality in communities affected by air pollution.” 

“We are grateful for these airshed grants that demonstrate our continued partnership in funding programs that will improve air quality and public health," said Utah Department of Environmental Quality Executive Director Scott Baird. "We're looking forward to putting this funding to use in helping those areas and people most in need."   

EPA will provide Utah DEQ with grants for the following projects:

•          Salt Lake City area – $4.7 million to repair and replace passenger vehicles that fail emissions tests. Utah DEQ will work with the Davis County Health Department, the Salt Lake City Health Department and the Weber-Morgan Health Department to implement the project which will focus on assisting low-income individuals with vehicles that have failed emissions inspections.

•          Uinta Basin– $5 million to replace natural gas engines used in energy production equipment in the Uinta Basin with new, cleaner-burning engines.  Utah DEQ will work directly with the Ute Tribe and oil and gas companies operating in the Uinta Basin to identify applicants and eligible equipment. 

These projects will reduce emissions of nitrogen oxide and volatile organic compounds, which contribute to ground-level ozone formation, and fine particulates. EPA’s Targeted Airshed Grant program offers competitive grants to reduce air pollution in areas working to meet national air quality standards for ozone and fine particulates.

For more information, visit: https://www.epa.gov/grants/2018-targeted-airshed-grant-program-closed-announcement-fy-2019

U.S. EPA settles with six companies over California trucking rules

EPA Press Release:

U.S. EPA settles with six companies over California trucking rules

SAN FRANCISCO – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced recent settlements with six companies totaling over $450,000 in penalties for violating the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) Truck and Bus Regulation and Drayage Truck Regulation. The companies either failed to install particulate filters on their own heavy-duty diesel trucks, failed to verify that trucks they hired for use in California complied with the state rules, or failed to maintain required records. As part of one of the settlements, $90,000 will be spent on an air filtration system at one or more schools in the South Coast Air Basin.

“Heavy-duty trucks can emit drastically higher levels of pollution when not equipped with required emissions controls,” said EPA Pacific Southwest Regional Administrator Mike Stoker. “Transport companies must comply with California’s rule to improve air quality and protect adjacent communities from breathing these toxic pollutants.”

Diesel emissions from trucks are one of the state’s largest sources of fine particle pollution, or soot, which is linked to a variety of health issues, including asthma, impaired lung development in children, and cardiovascular effects in adults. About 625,000 trucks are registered outside of the state but operate in California and are subject to the rule. Many of these vehicles are older models and emit high amounts of particulate matter and nitrogen oxides.

Today’s announcement highlights separate administrative settlement agreements with the following companies:

The Coca-Cola Company failed to verify that 63 of the carriers it hired in California from 2015 to 2017 complied with the Truck and Bus rule. In addition, the company dispatched drayage trucks that did not meet emission standards and failed to verify that their contracted truck owners were registered with the CARB’s Drayage Truck Registry. The company, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, agreed to pay a $145,000 penalty.

Mercer Transportation Company Inc. failed to verify that their contracted truck owners were registered with the CARB’s Drayage Truck Registry and failed to maintain records. The company, headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, failed to comply with CARB’s regulation governing drayage moves destined to or from California ports from 2015 to 2017. Mercer Transportation Company agreed to pay a $46,787 civil penalty.

Liquid Transport LLC and Liquid Transport Corp. operated heavy-duty diesel trucks in California from 2014 to 2017 without the required diesel particulate filters. The companies also failed to verify that 122 of the carriers it hired to transport goods in California complied with the Truck and Bus rule. In addition, the firms owned and dispatched 22 drayage trucks that did not meet emission standards and were not registered with CARB’s Drayage Truck Registry. The companies, headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, agreed to pay a $150,000 penalty.

Dean Foods Company operated 14 heavy-duty diesel trucks from 2014 to 2017 without the required diesel particulate filters and failed to maintain records for 40 vehicles. The company, headquartered in Dallas, Texas, agreed to pay a $30,000 civil penalty and will spend $90,000 on a supplemental environmental project to install an air filtration system to reduce harmful air pollutants in classrooms in one or more schools in the South Coast Air Basin, which includes Orange County and parts of Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

D&E Transport LLC operated 26 heavy-duty diesel trucks in California from 2014 to 2017 without the required diesel particulate filters. The company also failed to verify that 104 of the carriers it hired to transport goods in California complied with the Truck and Bus rule. The company, headquartered in Clearwater, Minnesota, agreed to pay a $55,000 civil penalty.

Flat Creek Transportation LLC operated 24 heavy-duty diesel trucks in California from 2014 to 2018 without the required diesel particulate filters and failed to maintain records for 63 vehicles. The company, headquartered in Kinston, Alabama, agreed to pay a $71,250 penalty.

The California Truck and Bus Regulation has been an essential part of the state’s federally enforceable plan to attain cleaner air since 2012. The rule requires trucking companies to upgrade vehicles they own to meet specific NOx and particulate matter performance standards and to verify compliance of vehicles they hire or dispatch. Heavy-duty diesel trucks in California must meet 2010 engine emissions standards or use diesel particulate filters that can reduce the emissions of diesel particulates into the atmosphere by 85% or more.

The California Drayage Truck Regulation was also adopted into federal Clean Air Act plan requirements in 2012 and applies to owners and operators of drayage trucks operating in California, motor carriers that dispatch such vehicles, marine or port terminals, and intermodal rail yards. In particular, the Drayage Truck Regulation requires owners and operators of drayage trucks operating in California to meet specific emissions standards and register such trucks with the Drayage Truck Registry administered by the California Air Resources Board.

For more information on California’s Truck and Bus rule, please visit: ww2.arb.ca.gov/our-work/programs/truck-and-bus-regulation.

For more information California’s Drayage Truck Rule, please visit: ww2.arb.ca.gov/our-work/programs/drayage-trucks-seaports-railyards.

For more information on the Clean Air Act, please visit: www.epa.gov/clean-air-act-overview.  

Learn more about EPA’s Pacific Southwest Region. Connect with us on Facebook and on Twitter.

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EPA Launches Agriculture Smart Sectors Program to Achieve Better Environmental Outcomes

EPA Press Release:

For Immediate Release: October 2, 2019

EPA Launches Agriculture Smart Sectors Program in Pacific Southwest to Achieve Better Environmental Outcomes

SAN FRANCISCO – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 9 office is announcing the launch of an agriculture focus in its Smart Sectors Pacific Southwest program, a partnership initiative between the agency and regulated business sectors that is aimed at achieving better environmental outcomes. Based on the national Smart Sectors program, this approach provides a significant opportunity for EPA to consider more forward-thinking ways to protect the environment through collaboration and dialogue with key sectors of the economy in Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Pacific Islands, as well as with 148 tribes in the region.

EPA Regional Administrator Mike Stoker was joined Tuesday by farmers, association members, and EPA and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) senior management at a roundtable discussion at the USDA office in Davis, Calif.

“We are very pleased to work with farmers, ranchers and others who are naturally stewards of our air, land, and water,” said Pacific Southwest Regional Administrator Mike Stoker. “Through our Smart Sectors dialogue, we can better understand the issues and challenges faced by farmers and ranchers and work together for the benefit of all.”

“Today’s launch builds on the success of our national Smart Sectors program,” said EPA Associate Administrator for Policy Brittany Bolen. “We’re excited to expand the program in Region 9, marking the fourth regional program to focus on the agriculture community, while EPA continues to improve regulatory certainty for this and other sectors.”

“I appreciate the time EPA is taking to bring people together to think about common-sense approaches to environmental regulation,” said Paul Wenger of Wenger Ranch.

“This kind of dialogue is something that is long overdue between working groups and EPA,” said Paco Ollerton of Tierra Verde Farms.

“We appreciate being included an any discussion with EPA. As fourth and fifth generation farmers we can’t do it alone, and we can’t be overregulated,” said Dierdre Lefty of Auburn Ravine Ranch.

In the Pacific Southwest, EPA initially began with a focus on the oil and gas sector in April of this year and plans to expand to other sectors in addition to agriculture in coming months. Nationally, Smart Sectors engages with 13 sectors of the economy. EPA focuses on best practices, convening workshops to facilitate communication, raising public awareness and information sharing, and enhancing knowledge of federal environmental programs.

Background

A sector-based approach can provide benefits such as increased long-term certainty and predictability, creative solutions based on sound data, and more sensible policies to improve environmental protection. Staff conduct educational site visits, host roundtables with EPA leadership, analyze data and advise about options for environmental improvement, and maintain open dialogue with business partners and their environmental committees.

Announced nationally in October 2017 and since launched in four regions of the country – EPA Regions 1: New England; 2: New York, New Jersey, and the Caribbean; 8: Mountains and Plains; and 9: Pacific Southwest – the Smart Sectors program provides a platform to collaborate with regulated sectors and develop sensible approaches that better protect the environment and public health.

Additionally, the program is releasing a series of interactive sector snapshots that provide historical environmental and economic data for industries participating in the program. Each snapshot is designed to help the general public, EPA, and sector partners gain a common understanding of sector performance to inform environmental improvement strategies going forward.

More information about EPA’s Smart Sectors program: https://www.epa.gov/smartsectors

More information about the sector snapshots: https://www.epa.gov/smartsectors/sector-snapshots 

U.S. EPA settles with Growers Ice Company to improve chemical safety at Salinas facility

EPA Press Release:

For Immediate Release: October 1, 2019

Media Contact: Denise Adamic, adamic.denise@epa.gov, 415-972-3061

U.S. EPA settles with Growers Ice Company to improve chemical safety at Salinas, California, facility

SALINAS, Calif. – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a settlement with Growers Ice Company for violations of federal chemical release prevention and reporting requirements at its fresh produce storage and distribution facility located in Salinas. The company will pay a $30,000 civil penalty and spend approximately $105,000 to further reduce the risk of chemical accidents and provide environmental benefits at its facility.

In 2017, EPA inspectors found violations of the Clean Air Act’s Risk Management Plan regulations at the Salinas facility. The violations included deficiencies in the plant’s process safety requirements, pipe labeling, operating procedures, mechanical integrity program, documentation of personnel training, and follow-up on compliance audit findings.

“Companies using large quantities of chemicals must take steps to prevent, prepare for, and respond to emergencies,” said EPA Pacific Southwest Regional Administrator Mike Stoker. “We are pleased that the company will upgrade equipment and controls, beyond what is required by law, to protect the health and safety of plant workers and the community.”

Thousands of facilities nationwide, many of which are in disproportionately affected communities, make, use and store extremely hazardous substances. Catastrophic accidents at these facilities—historically about 150 each year—result in fatalities and serious injuries, evacuations, and other harm to human health and the environment. This case is part of EPA’s National Compliance Initiative to reduce risks of accidental releases at anhydrous ammonia refrigeration facilities. Growers Ice Company’s industrial refrigeration system uses large quantities of anhydrous ammonia, a toxic chemical highly corrosive to skin, eyes and lungs.

Growers Ice Company has addressed the identified violations. As part of the settlement, the company agreed to complete a supplemental environmental project valued at $105,000 to enhance safety equipment and procedures at the Salinas facility. The project includes installing new pumps and a new control system, which would allow an operator or emergency responder to remotely shut down the ammonia refrigeration systems, including in an emergency situation.

The Clean Air Act’s Risk Management Program requires facilities with regulated hazardous substances to document hazard assessments detailing the potential effects of an accidental release and a prevention program that includes safety precautions and maintenance, monitoring, and employee training measures. When properly implemented, risk management plans help prevent chemical accidents and minimize their impact should they occur.

For more information on the Risk Management Plan requirements under the Clean Air Act, visit:  https://www.epa.gov/rmp

For more information on EPA’s National Compliance Initiative related to reducing risks of accidental releases at ammonia refrigeration facilities, visit: https://www.epa.gov/enforcement/national-compliance-initiative-reducing-accidental-releases-industrial-and-chemical

Learn more about EPA’s Pacific Southwest Region. Connect with us on Facebook and on Twitter.

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