Category: Special Topics in Environmental Management

UST Resources

These premium and free underground storage tank resources will help you to stay in compliance. Read on for helpful whitepapers, guidance documents, blog posts, and more. Premium Resources from Enviro.BLR.com Comparison of 1988 and 2015 UST Regulations This guidance chart offers a side-by-side comparison of the 1988 underground storage tank regulations and the newly revised […]

More on Used Oil Generator Requirements

Used Oil Handler Activities A generator’s used oil activities may subject the generator to the responsibilities of one or more other used oil handler categories. These requirements would be in addition to those required of generators. Other handler categories and the activities that would subject the generator to these additional requirements are: Transporters. Generators who […]

The golden rules for construction stormwater management

Sediment is usually the main pollutant of concern; according to the EPA, sediment runoff rates from construction sites are typically 10 to 20 times greater than the rates from agricultural lands, and 1,000 to 2,000 times greater than those of forest lands. In fact, during a short period of time, construction sites can contribute more […]

Are You a Used Oil Generator?

Storage Requirements The rules state that generators must not store used oil in units other than tanks, containers, or units regulated under 40 CFR 264 or 40 CFR 265 (40 CFR 279.22(a)). (Tanks include both aboveground storage tanks (ASTs) and underground storage tanks (USTs)). According to EPA, this does not mean that the ASTs or […]

SO2 NAAQS: What’s Next?

By Timothy P. Fagan, BLR Air Expert tfagan@blr.com How were nonattainment designations determined? Once the NAAQS was set in 2010, EPA and state agencies worked together using monitoring data to determine what areas should be designated nonattainment and establish the area’s boundaries.  The newly designated nonattainment areas were designated as such because each had air […]

$25,000 for Failing to Report Oil Spill

MassDEP received a telephone report from an environmental cleanup contractor on behalf of the building owner that a release estimated to be 260 gal of diesel fuel had occurred 6 days earlier during the transfer of oil from a basement tank to a rooftop generator when a pump had failed to cycle off. The oil […]

EPA/Corps’ U.S. Waters Guidance Still on Hold

As used in rulemaking, the phrase “waters of the United States” most often refers to waters subject to CWA Section 404 dredge and fill permitting as implemented by the Corps and subject to EPA approval.  But in the draft guidance, the agencies make it clear that the phrase extends to other major programs administered under […]

LPG Odorants in Rail Tank Cars

But in what appears to be a regulatory lapse, the federal odorant standards overseen by the Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) apply only to LPG rail shipments in cargo and portable tank containers; there is no comparable regulation for LPG transported in railroad tank cars.  In a safety advisory issued April 2012, the […]