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.

Oakland City Council to Discuss Climate Action Plan

The Oakland City Council is holding a public meeting on Oakland's Energy and Climate Action Plan on Tuesday, March 30, from 5:30-8:30 at City Hall.

Click here for an overview of the ECAP development process.

Click here for a council meeting schedule.

Oakland Hills Canyon Saved for Open Space

Neighbors' work to save Butters Canyon pays off
Carolyn Jones, San Francisco Chronicle, March 5, 2010

Last week, a group of Oakland neighbors purchased the last of 13 parcels in Butters Canyon, capping a 9-year effort to preserve the 1/2-mile open space in perpetuity.

They did it entirely on their own, raising nearly $800,000 through yard sales, grants, loans and donations.

The Butters Canyon Conservancy, a nonprofit formed by a few dozen neighbors, will maintain the canyon and keep it accessible to bicyclists, hikers, dog-walkers and those just seeking relief from city life.

The effort started in 2001, when a developer planned to build a home in the secluded, steep canyon just south of Joaquin Miller Road. Afraid they'd lose their green oasis, which is also the headwaters of Peralta Creek, neighbors started raising money to usurp development plans.

Most of the funding came through Measure DD, a $200 million bond that Oakland voters passed in 2002. With help from city Councilwoman Jean Quan's office, the conservancy obtained more than $500,000 to purchase four of the properties. Three lots were donated, three were secured through conservation easements and remaining parcels already have homes on far corners.

Oakland has taken advantage of the slumping real estate market to save four other canyons, as well. The city has purchased Castle Canyon, 10 acres near Joaquin Miller Park, 5-acre Beaconsfield Canyon off Ascot Drive, and Dunsmuir Heights Canyon, 62 acres behind the Dunsmuir House.

Read the complete story here.

Santa Clara Valley Aims to Recycle More Water

Expanded use of recycled water on tap for Santa Clara County
Paul Rogers, San Jose Mercury News, February 22, 2009

The Santa Clara Valley Water District (SCVWD) will vote on a plan today to build a new $52 million recycled water facility at the San Jose-Santa Clara Water Pollution Control Plant in Alviso that will convert sewage water to high-quality water, producing up to 8 million gallons a day.

The water will be suitable for a wide variety of industrial and irrigation uses, such as watering golf course greens, or redwood trees, which can be sensitive to recycled water's higher salinity, and pure enough under state health laws to recharge aquifers used for drinking water supplies. But that use is not being considered at today's meeting.

"We're not in a hurry to do it. We want to make sure it's what the community wants. We'd need five to 10 years of study," said Keith Whitman, water supply manager for the SCVWD. "And we'll certainly learn from what Orange County did."

Two years ago, the Orange County Water District opened a $485 million recycled water facility using the same treatment method that the SCVWD is now pursuing. The largest such plant in the world, it turns sewage water into 70 million gallons a day of recycled water that is blended with Orange County's aquifers.

To address public squeamishness, the Orange County agency conducted nine years of public meetings and outreach, and got a long list of medical leaders to endorse the project. Other places, however, like San Diego, have seen such projects stall over public opposition.

Read the complete story here: http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_14450902

Top Ten List: Sustainable CEOs

Triple Pundit created and published a (non-scientific) survey on their readership's Top Ten Sustainable CEOs.

The list:

1. Yvon Chouinard, Patagonia (Owner/Founder)
2. George Siemon, Organic Valley Company
3. Mick Bremans, Ecover
4. Jeffrey Hollender (Former CEO), Seventh Generation
5. Jan Blittersdorf, NRG Systems
6. BethAnn Lederer, Working Wonders
7. John Mackey, Whole Foods
8. Jeff Lebesch and Kim Jordan, New Belgium Brewery
9. Eric Schmidt, Google
10. Ray Anderson (Former CEO), Interface Carpet

The results in themselves spark several questions:
Does the perception of sustainability match the reality?
What do the results say about the consumership of the survey respondents?
How did the respondents balance the CEO's positive contributions to people, planet, and prosperity?

California State Parks and Wildlife Conservation Trust Fund Act

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has recently proposed to tie California state parks funding to proceeds from offshore oil drilling. This is a tradeoff that many, including the California State Parks Foundation, find unacceptable.

When a previous gubernatorial budget proposal aimed to eliminate half of state parks’ General Fund in 2009, then take the remaining half in 2010, California faced the likely closure of more than 80% of the entire parks system. Full closures were avoided only because parks users mobilized last summer under California State Parks Foundation's Save Our State Parks campaign.

In a major effort to secure a long-term sustainable funding mechanism, the foundation supports the California State Parks and Wildlife Conservation Trust Fund Act of 2010, which is in circulation to qualify for the November 2010 ballot. This funding, when approved by the voters, will provide a stable, reliable, and adequate funding source for the state park system, for wildlife conservation, and for increased and equitable access to those resources for all.

Teaching "Green"

New York City schools put stronger focus on environmentalism
Mireya Navarro and Sindya N. Bhanoo, New York Times, January 10, 2010

Rather than simply covering predictable topics like recycling and tree planting, the Green School alerts students to problems like sooty air and negative media representations of their neighborhoods.

"Green is not just the environment,” Jennifer said. “It's politics, government, social justice."

"We do a lot of things other schools are not doing," said Jose, 15. "I feel like we’re doing something important."

The Green School is a progressive alternative high school in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York that focuses on sustainability, the environment, science, social justice, experiential learning, and career planning. The students are encouraged to delve into local issues that may affect them and their families, like contamination in waterways like the Gowanus Canal, water quality, or the razing of low-scale housing.

"You can't have a kid in a violent neighborhood and say, 'Let's talk about the polar bear,' " said Karali Pitzele, one of the school's two co-directors.

Across the nation, the range of green schools form a fledgling network, finding eager partners in groups like the Sierra Club and the National Wildlife Federation, which provide lesson plans or money for field trips, and in private and government agencies that are making concerted environmental efforts in communities and cities.

Read the complete article here.

One person's trash is another person's treasure

Did you know that there are a multitude of alternatives to the disposal of materials or wastes, which help conserve energy, resources, and landfill space?

Service providers directly connect one-time or regular generators of traditional or even difficult-to-recycle materials with parties that can use those materials. Instead of paying for hauling and disposal, the generator gets revenue and the recipient gets a resource they need, typically at a lower cost or even for free. A handful of the many opportunities for direct recycling, reuse, and repurposing are listed below.

• The mission of Califorma Materials Exchange (CalMAX) is to build reuse markets for materials from businesses, organizations, industry, schools, and individuals, and to find markets for nonhazardous materials that may otherwise be discarded. And, CalMAX is free.

• Pensylvania Material Trader is a free online service established in 2004 by the Pennsylvania Small Business Development Centers' Environmental Management Assistance Program. This service is intended to help businesses find users for materials they have traditionally discarded.

• NY WasteMatch is a free service, created and funded by the NYC Department of Sanitation, which facilitates the exchange of used and surplus goods and equipment from organizations that no longer need them to other entities that do.

• Acting as an information clearinghouse, directory, and marketing facilitator for reusable industrial materials, the Illinois Industrial Material Exchange Service (IMES) deals with waste by-products, off-spec items, hazardous and nonhazardous materials, overstock, and damaged or unwanted materials.

• The Industrial Materials Exchange (IMEX) matches up business industrial waste generators with waste users in the Pacific Northwest.

• RecycleMatch is an online market for transforming commercial waste into value. RecycleMatch charges a percentage fee for each match that it makes based on the cost savings and revenue produced from each material match.

• Biomass Trader is a free network of regional marketplaces (currently Florida, New York, and Pennsylvania) for buyers and sellers, as well as givers and takers, of biomass and biomass-derived products.

• The British Columbia Electronics Materials Exchange (BC-EMEX) is a program from the Electronics Product Stewardship Association of B.C., Canada, that promotes the exchange (or sale) of electronic items priced from $0 to $99.

• For more directly useable and commercial materials (for example, unused construction materials), Freecycle might be worth checking out. The Freecycle Network™ is a non-profit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free, made up of 4,873 groups with 6,877,000 members across the globe. Membership is free.

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.

Grace Period for Port of Oakland Truckers

Air board, Port truckers agree on upgrade
Kelly Zito, San Francisco Chronicle, January 5, 2010

A last-minute deal between California Air Resources Board (ARB) and Port of Oakland truckers will allow hundreds of big rigs to operate at the port for two weeks while they work to meet stricter requirements on diesel emissions that officially took effect on January 1st.

Regulations passed in 2007 prohibit large diesel trucks made before 1994 from operating at the state's ports and rail yards and require pricey filters on trucks made between 1994 and 2003.

The ARB said it has located an additional $11 million to aid the truckers. However, last week's showdown between policymakers and the trucking industry will probably play out again in different parts of the state over the next year, when similar rules affecting the rest of the trucking fleet in California - about 1 million trucks - start going into effect.

Read the complete article here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/05/BAML1BDGHJ.DTL