Environmental Management and Compliance

On July 29, The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) denied 10 petitions challenging its 2009 determination that

• climate change is real,
• it is occurring due to emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities, and
• it threatens human health and the environment.

EPA’s decision rejected claims that climate science cannot be trusted and that collusion (dare we say, a “conspiracy”?) among members of leading research bodies to suppress conflicting data and hide errors or gaps in their own research invalidates the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and the U.S. Global Change Research Program. Having given “months of serious consideration” to the petitions and to the state of climate change science, EPA found no evidence to support these claims. In fact, EPA has determined that climate science is credible, compelling, and growing stronger!

EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson blamed the petitions on “defenders of the status quo [who] will try to slow our efforts to get America running on clean energy,” and called on petitioners “to join the vast majority of the American people who want to see more green jobs, more clean energy innovation and an end to the oil addiction that pollutes our planet and jeopardizes our national security.”

The basic assertions by the petitioners and EPA responses follow.
Continue reading “Scoffing at skeptics…”

The US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has confirmed that employers will be required to notify their workers of all hexavalent chromium exposures, effective June 15, 2010. Previously, OSHA’s Hexavalent Chromium standard required workers be notified only when they experienced exposures exceeding the permissible exposure limit.

Occupational exposures to hexavalent chromium can occur among workers operating chrome plating baths, of course, as well as when handling pigments, spray paints and coatings containing chromates and welding or cutting metals containing chromium (e.g., stainless steel).

More information on protecting workers from exposure to this chemical can be found on OSHA’s Safety and Health Topics page on Hexavalent Chromium.

On May 13, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced its final “GHG Tailoring” rule to address greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from stationary sources. The phased-in approach will initially address large facilities like power plants and oil refineries that emit most of the greenhouse gases from stationary sources. The regulated GHGs include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride.

Starting in January 2011, Clean Air Act permitting requirements for GHGs will apply to large facilities that are already obtaining Clean Air Act permits for other pollutants. Those facilities will be required to include GHGs in their permit if they increase their GHG emissions by 75,000 tons per year (tpy). In July 2011, permitting requirements will expand to cover all new facilities with GHG emissions of at least 100,000 tpy and modifications at existing facilities that would increase GHG emissions by at least 75,000 tpy. The permits must demonstrate the use of best available control technologies to minimize GHG emission increases when facilities are constructed or significantly modified. EPA estimates approximately 900 additional permitting actions covering new sources and modifications to existing sources would be subject to review each year. In addition, 550 sources will need to obtain operating permits for the first time because of their GHG emissions.

Permitting requirements for smaller sources will await the findings of a 5-year study of the effects of GHG permitting of these sources, slated for completion in 2015.

According to the EPA press release announcing the final rule, the agency received about 450,000 (!) comments within the 60-day public comment period that followed issuance of the proposed rule in October 2009.

More information on the GHG Tailoring Rule and its implementation schedule can be found at http://www.epa.gov/nsr/actions.html.

What do you think? Has EPA struck the proper balance between regulating a significant threat to health and the environment and providing relief to small businesses and farms?

On April 29, 2010, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed three rules to regulate hazardous air emissions from commercial, institutional and industrial boilers, process heaters and incinerators at major and area sources.

One of the proposed rules addresses boilers at area sources – facilities that potentially emit less than 10 tons per year (tpy) of any single hazardous air pollutant or 25 tpy of combined air toxics. The rule will apply to facilities with boilers that burn coal, oil or biomass (i.e., wood), but not waste materials. New boilers that burn coal would need to meet emission standards for mercury, particulates and carbon monoxide. New boilers burning oil or biomass will need to meet emission limits for particulates and carbon monoxide. Existing large boilers (heat input of 10 million Btu/hr or greater) that burn coal will be required to meet emission limits for mercury and carbon monoxide; existing large boilers that are oil or biomass-fired will have an emission limit for carbon monoxide, only. The rule requires that all facilities with large boilers conduct an energy assessment to identify practicable conservation measures. Facilities with small boilers will be required only to conduct a boiler tune-up at least once every two years.

The second rule applies to boilers and process heaters at major source facilities. The rule will apply to boilers that burn natural gas, fuel oil, coal, biomass or other gas, but not waste, and to process heaters (which heat raw or intermediate materials in an industrial process).
Continue reading “Air pollutant emission standards for boilers and process heaters”

Toxic Chemical Release Inventory (TRI) Form R or Form A reports are due by July 1! If your facility:

• has 10 or more employees;
• is included among certain covered industrial categories, including manufacturers that correspond to SIC Codes 20 through 39; some mining operations; utilities that burn coal or oil for commercial electrical generation; chemical wholesalers; petroleum bulk storage terminals; and waste treatment, disposal and recovery facilities; and
• manufactured, imported, processed or otherwise used listed toxic chemicals above threshold reporting quantities,

Then you are likely required to report your releases and off-site transfers of the toxic chemicals.  More information on these requirements is linked at www.tcozzie.com/guidance/tri/.  You can visit the Environmental Protection Agency’s TRI reporting materials page by clicking on the image at right.

Does your facility need to comply? Are you ready to meet this requirement? As always, feel free to contact T. Cozzie Consulting for further information or assistance.

The Environmental Protection Agency has published its template Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure (SPCC) Plan for use by qualified Tier 1 facilities.  To use the template SPCC Plan, a facility can store no more than 10,000 gallons of oil in aboveground storage with no single storage container or tank larger than 5,000 gallons, and cannot have had within the past three years either one spill or release of more than 1,000 gallons or two spills that each exceeded 42 gallons within a 12-month period.

You can download a fill-in PDF version of the SPCC Plan template by clicking (or right click to save) the PDF icon to the right.

Other versions of the SPCC Plan template (MS Word and Wordperfect) can be found on the EPA website.

Remember, the deadline to amend or prepare and implement an SPCC Plan meeting the latest requirements is November 10, 2010.  Visit our spill prevention page for additional information and guidance on compliance with SPCC Plan requirements. Or contact T. Cozzie Consulting if you have further questions about how the SPCC rule applies to your facility, or desire assistance with your SPCC Plan.