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The EPA recently announced that it will review site cleanups and remedies at 20 Superfund Sites and oversee reviews at 4 federal facilities across New England this year. This got us to thinking about the relationship between the Agency’s efforts in encouraging the redevelopment of these sites and liability under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, […]
Record Settlement Will Pump Billions into Cleanup Activities January 20, 2015, marked the last day for any appeals in the historic settlement with a Woodlands, Texas, energy company to address deadly uranium and other wastes. However, because no appeals were submitted, the $5.5 billion in payments are now secure. In the announcement, the EPA noted […]
Green Infrastructure Collaborative—The Resources As we saw yesterday, members of the Green Infrastructure Collaborative have made significant commitments to providing a range of practical support and resources designed to advance the implementation of green infrastructure. While many of these commitments involve future actions, several Collaborative members already provide helpful tools, studies, reports, and other valuable […]
Green Infrastructure Collaborative—The Commitment In early October 2014, the Green Infrastructure Collaborative was announced “as a network to help communities more easily implement green infrastructure.” The members of the Collaborative include seven federal agencies, as well as 20 nongovernmental organizations and private sector groups, all of which have a stake in improving infrastructure to protect […]
Spent Foundry Sands Assessment Is Good News Finding ways to safely reuse wastes generated by industry is key to reducing the need for virgin materials and for disposing of the wastes in landfills or other disposal facilities. One such waste is spent foundry sands, which the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), now says can be reused […]
Green Power Purchasing—The Options In the “Guide to Purchasing Green Power,” green power is defined broadly by the EPA and DOE as “environmentally preferable energy and energy technologies, both electric and thermal.” Specifically, green power includes “electricity generated by solar, wind, geothermal, biogas, biomass, and low impact hydroelectric sources.” For most of us who are […]
Simple Steps for Minimizing Stormwater Pollution Stormwater runoff is the major contributor to the ongoing degradation of our nation’s surface and groundwater. Although we cannot control precipitation, there are plenty of ways to control its impact through measures that are both common sense and required by law. Here are some of EPA’s recommended measures for […]
FAQs About the Definition of Solid Waste (DSW) Rule—Part 1 Q: What was the impetus for the DSW final rule? A: According to the EPA, the 2014 DSW final rule addresses “significant regulatory gaps in the 2008 rule” that could result in negative impacts on “communities adjacent to third-party recyclers, including disproportionately impacting minority and […]
2014 EPCRA Enforcement Roundup What do a wood door manufacturer, an organic food company, a wire manufacturer, a cheese manufacturer, and an oil sands crude refinery have in common? On the surface, it would appear they are pretty different, but when it comes to compliance with EPCRA, all reached settlements with the EPA during […]
E3 Green Suppliers Network—How It’s Working In 2006, Sermatech, in Connecticut, a provider of high-performance coatings to the aerospace industry, decided to partner with the GSN to address both lean and green manufacturing. An assessment was performed on the company’s surface coating process line that sprayed helicopter hubs, and it found that because the parts […]