An Allegory about NIMBYism

Remove contaminated soil.
Restore the aquifer to drinking water quality.
Replace air strippers that vent to the atmosphere with carbon filters.
Redevelop properties to bring in new tenants and raise property values.

What do these objectives have in common?
Throughout the history of a particular Silicon Valley Superfund site, these goals have been supported by the community, responsible parties, and regulators.  And at face value, they each appear to be protective of human health and the environment and benefit the neighboring community.

Only more recently has the concept of sustainable remediation been used to look at cleanup programs from a holistic viewpoint, and examine the collateral damage that some remedial decisions can cause, even those that appear to be protective.

In the 2008 Optimization Evaluation reports prepared by Northgate, Geosyntec, Weiss, and Schlumberger, we found that annual carbon (CO2) emissions related to the operation of five treatment systems at the Silicon Valley Superfund site ranged from 42 to 281 metric tons. For comparison, the EPA estimates that the annual CO2 emissions from a typical passenger vehicle are approximately 5 metric tons.

In a 2010 economic analysis of 25 San Francisco Bay Area Superfund sites, Northgate staff, Maile Smith and Scott McLaughlin found that although concentrations of groundwater pollutants had been greatly reduced, contaminant removal rates were insufficient to reach cleanup goals.  Furthermore, we found that the benefits of groundwater cleanup were reduced by the cross-media (e.g., water to air) pollution impacts of the remediation programs. The study indicated that the collective pollution reduction achieved by the cleanup programs at these sites is less than the pollution generated by the production of goods and services required to operate and maintain the cleanup programs themselves.

And this week the Center for Investigative Reporting published an article on the journey of the groundwater pollutants from that particular Silicon Valley Superfund site, illustrating the pathway that pollution takes after it is pumped from the ground and filtered through those carbon vessels.

“There’s really no such thing as throwing something away,” said Environmental Protection Agency spokesman Rusty Harris-Bishop. “You’re always throwing it somewhere.”

It's an interesting tale, and certainly highlights the potential collateral damage that can occur when we collectively decide, "not in my backyard."

Read the complete article here:  http://cironline.org/reports/cleanup-silicon-valley-superfund-site-takes-environmental-toll-6149

Trees Capture Particulate Matter From Road Exhaust

Naomi Lubick, Chemical and Engineering News, November 22, 2013

Trees planted along a city street screen residents from sun and noise—and from tiny particles that pollute urban air. A new study shows that tree leaves can capture more than 50% of the particulate matter that’s a prime component of urban pollution and a trigger for disease (Environmental Science and Technology).

In urban settings, particulates come primarily from car exhaust, brake pad wear, and road dust and can contain metals, such as iron and lead. The Environmental Protection Agency classifies particulates in three size ranges: less than 1 μm (PM1), up to 2.5 μm (PM2.5), and up to 10 μm (PM10) in diameter. These particles are tiny enough for people to inhale and can exacerbate heart disease, asthma, and other health conditions.

By examining silver birch leaves with a scanning electron microscope, researchers confirmed that the hairy surfaces of the leaves trapped metallic particles. Like the particles measured inside homes, these metallic particles are most likely the product of combustion and brake wear from vehicles passing by. Previous work has indicated a strong correlation between the amount of material identified by magnetic remanence and benzo(a)pyrene, a carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon found in particulates.

Read more here.

EPA Recognizes Seven Communities for Smart Growth Achievement (including one in the Bay Area and one in LA County)

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recognized seven communities with its 2012 National Award for Smart Growth Achievement. The Smart Growth awards are given for creative, sustainable initiatives that better protect the health and the environment of our communities while also strengthening local economies.

The 2012 award winners are being recognized in four categories: Overall Excellence in Smart Growth, Equitable Development, Main Street or Corridor Revitalization, and Programs and Policies. This year’s winners and honorable mentions were selected from 47 applicants from 25 states. The winning entries were chosen based on their effectiveness in creating sustainable communities; fostering equitable development among public, private, and nonprofit stakeholders; and serving as national models for environmentally and economically sustainable development.  Specific initiatives include improving transportation choices, developing green, energy-efficient buildings and communities, and providing community members with access to job training, health and wellness education, and other services.

The 2012 winners are:

Overall Excellence - Winner
BLVD Transformation Project, Lancaster, California
The redesign of Lancaster Boulevard helped transform downtown Lancaster into a thriving residential and commercial district through investments in new streetscape design, public facilities, affordable homes, and local businesses. Completed after eight months of construction, the project demonstrates how redesigning a corridor guided by a strategic vision can spark new life in a community. The project has generated almost $300 million in economic output and nearly 2,000 jobs.

Equitable Development - Winner
Mariposa District, Denver, Colorado
The redevelopment of Denver’s historic and ethnically diverse La Alma/Lincoln Park neighborhood is turning an economically challenged area into a vibrant, transit-accessible, district. The community’s master plan preserves affordable housing while adding energy-efficient middle-income and market-rate homes. Because of extensive community engagement, development will include actions to improve the health of residents, reduce pollution, and control stormwater runoff.

Main Street or Corridor Revitalization - Winner
The Cooperative Building, Brattleboro, Vermont
The Brattleboro Food Co-op, the town’s only downtown food store, made a commitment to remain at its downtown location by constructing an innovative, four-story green building on Main Street with a grocery store, commercial space, offices, and affordable apartments. The Main Street location provides healthy food, new jobs, and housing within walkable distances of downtown businesses and public transit.

Programs and Policies - Winner
Destination Portsmouth, Portsmouth, Virginia
The city of Portsmouth revised its comprehensive plan and undertook a broad review of its development and land use regulations. As a result, Destination Portsmouth prepared a package of new plans, zoning ordinances, and other development policies in collaboration with community stakeholders. The overhaul of the city’s codes encourages development in targeted growth areas and helps businesses to locate in the city while also protecting the character of Portsmouth’s historic neighborhoods.

Equitable Development - Honorable Mention
Northwest Gardens, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Through safer streets, job training and education programs, and high-quality, affordable homes, the once struggling Northwest Gardens neighborhood is rapidly becoming a model for economic, environmental, and social sustainability. The redesigned neighborhood offers a range of energy-efficient, affordable housing choices and is one of the first communities in the nation to receive LEED for Neighborhood Development certification. A local housing authority program also provides disadvantaged youths with construction training as they complete their GEDs.

Main Street or Corridor Revitalization - Honorable Mention
Larkin District, Buffalo, New York
Community organizations and a local developer partnered with the University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning to help revitalize the Larkin District, an old manufacturing district located one mile from downtown Buffalo. Architectural students worked with the developer and the city to create a master plan for an urban village that now features new office space, restaurants, apartments, parks, and plazas. New sidewalks, lighting, crosswalks, bicycle lanes, and bus shelters reduce pollution from vehicles by making walking, biking, and public transit more appealing.

Programs and Policies - Honorable Mention
Bay Area Transit-Oriented Affordable Housing Fund, San Francisco, California
The Bay Area Transit-Oriented Affordable Housing Fund is providing loans for developers to build affordable homes near public transportation. At this point, the fund has provided loans for a 153-unit high-rise for low-income families located two blocks from a major transit station, and for a 64-unit building for seniors close to a light rail station that will provide free transit passes for all residents.

More information: http://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/awards.htm

The Social Cost of Carbon

Joanna M. Foster, NY Times, September 18, 2012

In 2010, 12 government agencies working in conjunction with economists, lawyers, and scientists, agreed to develop a common standard for the social cost of carbon. The reason was that, in calculating the costs and benefits of pending policies and regulations, the Department of Transportation was assuming that a ton of emitted carbon dioxide imposed a $2 cost on society while the Environmental Protection Agency plugged 10 times that amount into its equations.

Instead, they decided that all agencies would use the same baseline of $21 per ton as the standard in monetizing the social costs of the seven-plus billion tons of carbon generated by US power plants, vehicles, and factories each year.

But a new paper published in the Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences concludes that the costs of carbon pollution and related climate change are vastly greater — possibly two to 12 times as much. The authors argue that the federal government is not adequately taking into account the impacts of climate change on future generations.

At the heart of this debate is a disagreement about how to apply an economic concept known as the discount rate. Simply put, the discount rate is based on how much it is worth to us now to prevent that future damage. The governmental agency group looked at discount rates of 2.5, 3, and 5 percent, ultimately settling on 3 percent and putting the cost of one ton of carbon at $21. But the new study opts for discount rates of 1, 1.5, and 2 percent, ultimately putting the cost of one ton of carbon at anywhere from $55 to $266.

Read the complete article here.

EPA Posts Emissions Data from Industry

Yesterday, the EPA took the bold step of releasing on line comprehensive greenhouse gas data reported directly from facilities in nine industry groups that directly emit large amounts of GHG.  The data was also posted for suppliers of certain fossil fuels. The information can now be found online at the EPA's Reporting Program Data and Data Publication Tool.

In making the announcement, Gina McCarthy, assistant administrator for EPA's Office of Air and Radiation, stated:  "Thanks to strong collaboration and feedback from industry, states and other organizations, today we have a transparent, powerful data resource available to the public.  The GHG Reporting Program data provides a critical tool for businesses and other innovators to find cost - and fuel-saving efficiencies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and foster technologies to protect public health and the environment."

The online tool allows the public to view the data in a variety of ways, including by location, facility type and GHG type emitted.

It will be interesting to see if the transparency of this data will result in a reduction of emissions by these industries.  Indeed, this may prove to give meaning to the phrase: "We are watching you"!

The full press release may be viewed here.

EPA Releases Formerly Confidential Chemical Information

In November of this year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) made available the results of hundreds of studies of chemicals that had formerly been kept secret on the basis that they represented confidential business information for the manufacturers who used them.  The information is available via the EPA’s Chemical Data Access Tool, which some are calling a rather unwieldy search engine, undoubtedly created without the public as end-user in mind.

More on the topic here.

EPA Acknowledges Link Between Hydraulic Frac­tur­ing And Ground­wa­ter Contamination

EPA Blames Fracking for Wyoming Groundwater Contamination
Susan Phillips, StateImpact/NPR, December 8, 2011

For the first time, the US EPA has directly implicated the con­tro­ver­sial drilling prac­tice known as hydraulic frac­tur­ing (commonly known as fracking) as the source of groundwater contamination in Pavillion, a small community in central Wyoming. The EPA began investigating water quality concerns in private drinking water wells three years ago at the request of Pavillion residents.

The investigation results (read the draft report here) link­ing frack­ing and ground­wa­ter pol­lu­tion could have wide­spread reper­cus­sions. Sev­eral states, includ­ing New York and Penn­syl­va­nia, are in the midst of cre­at­ing new gas-drilling reg­u­la­tions. But indus­try rep­re­sen­ta­tives insist, along with the head of Pennsylvania’s Depart­ment of Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion (DEP), that no per­sua­sive or direct evi­dence exists to link frack­ing to water qual­ity impacts. DEP Sec­re­tary Michael Krancer recently tes­ti­fied in Con­gress that the idea that frack­ing pol­lutes ground­wa­ter is “bogus.”

However, the EPA reports that it found high con­cen­tra­tions of ben­zene, xylene, gaso­line and diesel fuel in shal­low ground­wa­ter aquifers that they linked to waste­water pits. The report also documents a num­ber of frack­ing chem­i­cals in much deeper monitoring wells, where several synthetic chemicals consistent with gas production and hydraulic fracturing fluids, such as glycols and alcohols, were detected, along with high methane levels and benzene concentrations well above Safe Drinking Water Act standards. Given the area’s complex geology and the proximity of drinking water wells to the groundwater contamination, the EPA is concerned about the movement of contaminants within the aquifer and the safety of drinking water wells over time.

Alberta-based Encana, which owns the Pavil­lion gas field, told the Associated Press that it has con­cerns about the study. Encana spokesman Doug Hock said that the com­pounds EPA said could be asso­ci­ated with frack­ing could have had other ori­gins not related to gas development. “Those could just have likely been brought about by con­t­a­m­i­na­tion in their sam­pling process or con­struc­tion of their well,” Hock said.

As a follow-up question, the reporter asked the EPA about the health risks of drink­ing the water.  Click here for the EPA's response.

Judge Orders Columbus Steel to pay for Violating Clean Air Act

Columbus Steel Castings, Inc., of Columbus, Ohio was sentenced to pay $825,000 in fines and install additional devices to prevent air pollution. Columbus Steel pled guilty on July 28, 2011 to six counts of violating the Clean Air Act. The violations include failing to operate air pollution controls, failing to report violations, failing to perform required monitoring, and failing to conduct stack testing to demonstrate compliance with the Clean Air Act.

In announcing the sentence, Cynthia Giles, assistant administrator for EPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance, made clear that "EPA is committed to protecting communities from illegal air pollution that threatens people's health. Today's sentence will benefit the local community and shows that companies that fail to operate the necessary air pollution controls will be held accountable."

The company admitted that between 2004 and 2007 it failed to operate air pollution controls for four different sources at the plant for varying periods of time. The company also failed to report malfunctions of air pollution control equipment. Daily visual emission checks, designed to determine if the plant was emitting excess dust or smoke, were not conducted on weekends while the facility was operating. Stack tests, which are necessary to ensure compliance with the Clean Air Act, were not conducted as required by the company's air permit. The Company also failed to submit accurate annual compliance certifications.

This is not the first time that Columbus Steel has been fined for exceeding air pollution standards. In 2009, EPA successfully took legal action against the foundry, which makes parts for rail cars, for violations of the Act, which included excessive smoke and dust.

For more information, click here.

Federal Agencies Partner to Revitalize Urban Waterways

A new federal partnership aims to stimulate regional and local economies, create local jobs, improve quality of life, and protect Americans’ health by revitalizing urban waterways in under-served communities across the country.

Urban waters impact large populations in the adjacent, upstream, and downstream communities. Reconnecting people with urban waterways results in economic, environmental and social benefits to communities. Healthy and accessible urban waters have the potential to be treasured centerpieces of urban revival, help grow local businesses and enhance educational, recreational, and social opportunities in the communities through which they pass. Many urban waters provide drinking water to cities and towns, but because they may receive pollution from sources like parking lot and roadway runoff, they become vital to protecting the public and environmental health of those communities.

The Urban Waters Federal Partnership (UWFP), an innovative federal union comprised of 11 agencies, will focus its initial efforts on seven pilot locations.  UWFP is committed to working with local communities to restore waterways and reconnect people in underserved communities with their rivers, lakes, wetlands, aquifers, estuaries, bays, and oceans.  Specifically, UWFP aims to:

• Break down federal program silos to promote more efficient and effective use of federal resources through better coordination and targeting of federal investments.
• Recognize and build on local efforts and leadership, by engaging and serving community partners.
• Work with local officials and effective community-based organizations to leverage area resources and stimulate local economies to create local jobs.
• Learn from early and visible victories to fuel long-term action.
• This partnership aligns with President Obama’s America’s Great Outdoors initiative, which calls on agencies to support innovative community efforts to provide safe, healthy and accessible outdoor spaces.

Read the fact sheet here and the press release here.

National Standards for Mercury, Arsenic and Other Toxic Air Pollution

EPA Proposes New Emission Standards for Power Plants
John M. Broder and John Collins Rudolf, NY Times, March 16, 2011

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed the first national standard for emissions of mercury and other pollutants from coal-burning power plants.

The rule, which would likely lead to the early closing of a number of older plants, is certain to be challenged by the some utilities and Republicans in Congress.

EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson pointedly included the head of the American Lung Association and two prominent doctors in her announcement of the rule to highlight that the regulations were designed to protect public health and not to penalize the utility industry.

The EPA estimates the total annual cost of compliance at about $10 billion, in line with some industry estimates (although some are much higher), and the health and environmental benefits at more than $100 billion a year. Ms. Jackson said that households could expect to see their electric bills rise by $3 to $4 a month when the regulation was fully in force after 2015.

The Electric Reliability Coordinating Council, a group of utilities, questioned Ms. Jackson's assertion that the technology needed to reduce emissions of mercury, lead, arsenic, chromium and other airborne pollutants was readily available and reasonably inexpensive. The need to retrofit scores of plants in the same short period of time will tax resources and lead to delays, it said.

One utility executive said compliance would not be unduly burdensome. "We know from experience that constructing this technology can be done in a reasonable time frame, especially with good advance planning," said Paul Allen, senior vice president and chief environmental officer of Constellation Energy. "And there is meaningful job creation associated with the projects."

The new rules bring to a close a bitter legal and regulatory battle dating back to the passage of the 1970 Clean Air Act, which first directed the EPA to identify and control major industrial sources of hazardous emissions. The long delay has meant that emissions of some major pollutants have grown in recent years. The EPA's most recent data shows that from 1999 to 2005, mercury emissions from power plants increased more than 8 percent, to 53 tons from 49 tons. Arsenic emissions grew even more, rising 31 percent, to 210 tons from 160 tons.

Read the complete NY Times article here.

EPA Sets Stronger National Air Quality Standard for Sulfur Dioxide

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is issuing a final new health standard for sulfur dioxide (SO2). This one-hour health standard will protect millions of Americans from short-term exposure to SO2, which is primarily emitted from power plants and other industrial facilities. Exposure to SO2 can aggravate asthma and cause other respiratory difficulties.

The EPA is setting the one-hour SO2 health standard at 75 parts per billion (ppb), a level designed to protect against short-term exposures ranging from five minutes to 24 hours, revoking the current 24-hour and annual SO2 health standards in the process.

The EPA is also changing the monitoring requirements for SO2. Any new monitors required by this rule must begin operating no later than January 1, 2013, and modeling as well as monitoring will determine compliance with the new standard.

EPA estimates that the health benefits associated with this rule range between $13 billion and $33 billion annually. These benefits include preventing 2,300 to 5,900 premature deaths and 54,000 asthma attacks a year. The estimated cost in 2020 to fully implement this standard is approximately $1.5 billion.

Read the full press release.

Another Reason to Buy Organic Strawberries?

(besides that they typically taste better)

The State of California has proposed approving the strawberry fumigant methyl iodide. The state would require further, stringent regulations on the use of the soil fumigant, going beyond the federal rules that allow for its use in other states. But the stricter measures have done little to quell the fears of opponents.

Methyl iodide is a replacement for methyl bromide, a pesticide that is known to contribute to depletion of the ozone layer and is being phased out under the Montreal Protocol on ozone-depleting substances. Methyl iodide is an effective pesticide and ozone-friendly, but it is a known mutagen, and it could cause cancer, nerve damage or fetal-development problems among workers and people living near fumigated fields.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved the fumigant in October 2007, finding it safe for use. But a report by the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) concluded in 2009 that the compound posed "significant health risks". The DPR commissioned an independent review, which stated amongst its findings that "adequate control of human exposure would be difficult, if not impossible". Nevertheless, the DPR decided on 30 April that further restrictions would make methyl iodide safe enough for use.

Read more here, in Nature News.

Business Leaders needed for the reform of the Toxic Substances Control Act

As a part of its efforts with the American Sustainable Business Council (ASBC), the Green Chamber of Commerce urges you to support the creation of legislation that fundamentally reforms the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).

The main federal law that is supposed to ensure the safety of chemicals has not changed in 34 years. According to ASBC, more than 80,000 different chemicals have been produced and used in the US. The EPA has required testing on just 200 of these. Only 5 chemicals have been restricted.

Designing new chemicals to be inherently safer from the outset reduces the costs of regulation, hazardous waste storage and disposal, worker protection, and future liabilities.

Click here to learn more: The Business Case for Comprehensive TSCA Reform

For more information and to get more involved contact David Levine of the ASBC.

EPA Moves to Revise Drinking Water Standards

The United Nations General Assembly designated March 22nd of each year as the World Day for Water, an initiative that grew out of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro.

Perhaps it was coincidental that yesterday the Environmental Protection Agency announced that it is taking steps to overhaul US drinking water regulations.

EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson announced to the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies (AMWA) that the agency is developing a broad new set of strategies to strengthen public health protection from contaminants in drinking water. Specifically, this shift in drinking water strategy is organized around four key principles:

• Address contaminants as a group rather than one at a time so that enhancement of drinking water protection can be achieved cost-effectively.
• Foster development of new drinking water treatment technologies to address health risks posed by a broad array of contaminants.
• Use the authority of multiple statutes to help protect drinking water.
• Partner with states to share more complete data from monitoring at public water systems.

The EPA also aims to revise the drinking water standards for four carcinogenic chemicals: tetrachloroethylene (PCE), trichloroethylene (TCE), acrylamide, and epichlorohydrin.

There are ongoing efforts on 14 other drinking water standards, including potential revisions to the lead and copper rule, health risk assessments or information gathering for chromium, fluoride, arsenic, and atrazine, and ongoing consideration regarding the regulation of perchlorate.

Green Remediation BMPs

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Principles for Greener Cleanups outline the Agency’s policy for evaluating and minimizing the environmental "footprint" of activities undertaken when cleaning up a contaminated site. Use of the best management practices (BMPs) recommended in EPA's series of green remediation fact sheets can help project managers and other stakeholders apply the principles on a routine basis, while maintaining the cleanup objectives, ensuring protectiveness of a remedy, and improving its environmental outcome.

The first of the BMP fact sheets were recently released:

• Site Investigation
• Pump and Treat Technologies

Links to the BMP fact sheets are available under "EPA Documents and Guidance" on the SURF Links page.

Greenhouse Gases Threaten Human and Environmental Health

The EPA today formally determined that greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution endangers human health and the environment. Under a Supreme Court ruling, the endangerment finding is needed before the EPA can regulate carbon dioxide and five other GHGs released from automobiles, power plants, and factories under the federal Clean Air Act. This finding sets the stage for EPA to finalize the GHG standards proposed earlier this year for new light-duty vehicles as part of the joint rulemaking with the Department of Transportation. It also allows EPA to move forward with its "tailoring rule", which will require major sources of GHGs to take steps to limit emissions from new facilities by using Best Available Control Technology (BACT).

Read Administrator Lisa P. Jackson's comments on the endangerment finding here.

Read the Associated Press article about the finding here.

Stimulus Funding for Brownfields in San Francisco

$1.8 M in Stimulus Goes to Brownfields Jobs
Environmental Protection Online, October 19, 2009

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) recently announced $5 million in grants and low-interest loans that will help bring hundreds of jobs to the San Francisco Bay Area and turn contaminated property into land for apartments, retail shops, day care centers, and a park.

Funds for the revitalization work will come from the $1.8 million in federal stimulus money DTSC received from EPA over the summer, along with money from the DTSC’s Revolving Loan Fund Program, which offers low-interest loans and grants to clean up brownfields. The Revolving Loan Fund, launched three years ago with a $3 million grant from EPA, is overseen by DTSC in partnership with the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency and the city of Los Angeles. The partnership is expected to approve additional grants and loans in the near future.

Read the complete story here.

Brownfields 2009 - November 16-18, New Orleans

The National Brownfields Conference is the largest, most comprehensive conference in the nation focused on environmental revitalization and economic redevelopment. Brownfields 2009 offers over 150 educational sessions, including lively panel discussions, dynamic roundtables, outstanding plenary sessions, special trainings, and film screenings.

Major conference themes for 2009 include:

• Community & Economic Development
• Environmental Assessment & Cleanup
• Financing & Financial Risk Management
• Green Building & Sustainability
• Information Technologies
• International Planning & Design Approaches
• Public Health & Worker Safety
• Public Policy, Law, & Regulation
• Real Estate & Dealmaking
• Redevelopment Strategies & End Uses
• Stakeholder Involvement & Environmental Justice

Plenary speakers include Lisa P. Jackson, EPA Administrator; Majora Carter, President of Majora Carter Group LLC, former Executive Director of Sustainable South Bronx, and MacArthur Genius Award winner; and the Honorable C. Ray Nagin, Mayor of City of New Orleans.

There is no registration fee to attend the conference. The conference is underwritten with support from the EPA.

EPA Pumps $26M Green Stimulus into Southern California

Funding aimed at air quality improvements
Pat Brennan, Green OC, October 1, 2009

Yesterday at the Port of Long Beach, US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson announced more than $26 million in federal stimulus funding, including millions to retrofit trucks and school buses in the South Coast Air Basin.

Much of the funding, authorized under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, is aimed at cutting diesel pollution in the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles. Diesel pollution results in more than 2,000 hospitalizations and 50,000 cases of asthma and respiratory illness across the state each year, EPA says.

The funding includes:

• $4 million for research on technology to create cleaner-burning heavy duty trucks for the air district
• more than $4 million to replace or retrofit diesel engines for 112 pieces of cargo-handling equipment at the Port of Long Beach
• $1.9 million to replace or retrofit 27 such pieces of equipment at the Port of Los Angeles
• $8.8 million to “repower” at least eight switch-yard locomotives in Southern California
• $1.7 million to the state Air Resources Board to retrofit school buses in the region, awarded in April
• nearly $1 million to cut emissions from a variety of types of construction equipment, including tractors, excavators and forklifts

Read the complete story here.

Final Rule on Mandatory GHG Reporting

On September 22, 2009, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a final rule for mandatory reporting of greenhouse gases (GHGs) from large GHG emissions sources in the United States.

This reporting rule will provide a better understanding of where GHGs are coming from and will guide development of the best possible policies and programs to reduce emissions.

This national reporting requirement will provide EPA with GHG emissions data from facilities that emit 25,000 metric tons or more of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year, including suppliers of fossil fuels or industrial greenhouse gases, and manufacturers of vehicles and engines.

This action includes final reporting requirements for 31 of the 42 emission sources listed in the proposal. EPA continues to consider comments and options for the remaining source categories.

The following source and supply categories are not required to report at this time:

• Electronics manufacturing
• Ethanol production
• Fluorinated GHG production
• Food processing
• Industrial landfills
• Magnesium production
• Oil and natural gas systems
• SF6 from electrical equipment
• Underground coal mines
• Wastewater treatment
• Suppliers of coal

Detailed information and text of the final rule is available on the EPA's website.

Previously on the Northgate Sustainability Forum: A Mandatory GHG Registry for the US?