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Climate Change and Worker Health—Rising Risks Employers in the United States have long been governed by laws and regulations designed to provide a safe and healthy environment for workers. But climate change presents a new set of worker risks that are just beginning to be understood. Although many of the actual risks are the same […]
Record of Noncompliance with CWA Ends in Hefty Penalty for Oil Company In April 2008, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) performed an inspection at an oil storage facility in Ingleside, Texas, that included review of the facility’s physical condition, the Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure (SPCC) Plan and its Facility Response Plan (FRP). Following the […]
How Two Schools Integrated Indoor Air Quality and Energy Efficiency In 2006 the Blue Valley School District (BVSD) in Overland Park, Kansas, was the first school district in the nation to receive the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) IAQ Tool for Schools National Model of Sustained Excellence Award for its efforts to improve IAQ and energy […]
Impacts of Indoor Air Quality in Schools As older school buildings are replaced, renovated, or retrofitted with new equipment, there is the opportunity to make changes that will both improve IAQ for students and teachers and increase energy efficiency. Taken together, these improvements can have substantial benefits from a health and business perspective. In the […]
Chemical Safety Key in EPA Settlement In 2012, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) inspected a Fall River, Massachusetts, chemical facility and found numerous “dangerous conditions” related to the company’s use, storage and handling of ammonia and chlorine. Although the chemicals are manufactured for beneficial use in disinfecting drinking water, wastewater, and swimming pools, they can […]
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 […]
E3 Green Suppliers Network—How It Works The GSN was first established in 2003 by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology Manufacturing Extension Partnership (NIST MEP). In 2010, the two agencies signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Department of Commerce (DOC), Department of Energy […]
Shipyard CWA Settlement an Educational Experience for Many Following an inspection in 2012, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) determined that up until the summer of 2011, a Gloucester, Massachusetts, shipyard had directly discharged process waters from its boat-washing operations into Smith Cove, which opens into Gloucester Harbor. The discharges contained mixed wastes, including paint […]
Settlement Will Substantially Slash Sulfuric Acid Emissions from Fertilizer Production Plants In a recent settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ), three subsidiaries of the world’s largest fertilizer manufacturer will spend an estimated $50 million to reduce sulfuric acid (SO2) emissions at eight plants in Louisiana, […]
EPA Levies Second Largest Civil Penalty for Alleged CWA Violations In a joint enforcement action announced in September 2014, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Justice (DOJ), and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) settled with a West Virginia-based oil and natural gas company for multiple violations of the CWA. […]