Significant Developments and Activities

LAND AND CHEMICALS DIVISION
Weekly Significant Developments and Activities Report
February 6, 2009

Scotts Stop Sale Order

On January 29, 2009, U.S. EPA Region 5's Chemicals Management Branch issued a Stop Sale, Use and Removal Order to The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company and The Scotts Company for five registered pesticide products. The products are:

Halts, EPA Reg. No 538-192;
Starter Fertilizer Plus Crabgrass Control, EPA Reg. No. 538-60;
Super Turf Builder with Plus 2 Weed Control, EPA Reg. 538-280;
Crabgrass Preventer Plus Lawn Fertilizer, EPA Reg. No. 539-202; and
Talstar 0.086 Lawn Granular Insecticide with Fertilizer, EPA Reg. No. 279-3203-538.

This Stop Sale Order allows Scotts to re-label and/or reformulate violative product to comply with labeling and formulation requirements and continue sale and distribution. As an alternative, Scotts may dispose of violative product. The Stop Sale Order also requires Scotts to reserve 5 unaltered packages of each violative product and release them to U.S. EPA upon request, and to keep records of disposal.

Contact: Terry Bonace, Chemicals Management Branch, 312-886-3387

Region 5 Provides Environmental Healthy Homes Training at the Fort Wayne/Allen County Health Department

On January 29, 2009, Edward Master ( LCD), Lara Lasky (ARD) and Jack Barnette (ARD) provided a one-day Environmental Healthy Homes training course at the Fort Wayne/Allen County Health Department in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Approximately 35 participants attended the training, representing three local health departments in Northeastern Indiana, the local chapter of the American Lung Association, and the local asthma coalition. Edward provided training on Children’s Environmental Health, Pesticides and Integrated Pesticide Management in the home, Lead Poisoning Prevention, and Issues in Client and Cross Cultural communication in Healthy Homes. Jack and Lara provided training on Indoor Air Quality, the Home as an Integrated System and on asthma triggers. Local representatives also spoke about efforts in the Fort Wayne area. This activity is an outgrowth of Region 5’s current Northeast Indiana initiative and represents ongoing collaboration between ARD and LCD.

Contact: Edward Masters, Chemicals Management Branch, 312-353-5830

Minnesota Department of Agriculture Inspector Training

On February 4, 2009, U.S. EPA Region 5 employees Nidhi O'Meara and Terence Bonace will conduct a day-long training on the inspection and case development process for Minnesota Department of Agriculture inspectors in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Contact: Terry Bonace, Chemicals Management Branch, 312-886-3387

The First Endangered Species Protection Bulletins are On-Line

The first Endangered Species Protection Bulletins have been posted to the EPA web (http://www.epa.gov/oppfead1/endanger/bulletins.htm) The Bulletins will be used to protect Karner blue butterfly while using an insecticide, methoxyfenozide on various crops in Wisconsin and Michigan.

Contact: Margaret Jones, Chemicals Management Branch, 312-353-5790

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Update on Review of State Pesticide Containment Regulations

The Pesticides Section has completed four in a series of six meetings with the Headquarters Office of Pesticide Programs, Enforcement and Compliance Assurance and General Counsel, Region 5 staff and Region 5 States to discuss State containment rules. Meetings with Minnesota, Ohio, Indiana and Michigan have now been completed. The purpose is to determine whether the States can continue to enforce State containment rules in lieu of the Federal rules, which became effective on August 16, 2006 [Federal Register: August 16, 2006 (Vol. 71, No. 158), (Rules and Regulations) pages 47329-47378]. Enforcement of the containment provisions of the rule is due to begin on August 17, 2009.

In order to continue enforcing State containment regulations, a State must demonstrate that the State regulations provide environmental protection equivalent to that provided by the federal regulations. The series of meetings with States and Headquarters are critical to this determination. It is expected that the discussions with all Region 5 States will be completed by February and that final decisions by EPA Headquarters will be made by March 2009.

Contact: Margaret Jones, Chemicals Management Branch, 312-353-5790

R5 Corrective Action Strategy for Achieving 2020 Goals Submitted to ORCR-HQ

The updated Region 5 Strategic Approach to Addressing the 2020 Corrective Action Universe was sent to Headquarters on January 30, 2009. The original strategy was issued in October, 2007 and included a number of actions and steps for the years 2009 though 2011 to put the Region in a position to achieve the 2020 goal of 95% of all sites with completed remedy construction.

The updated plan includes updates on progress and the inclusion of information on workloads and resources required to achieve the 95% goal. The most significant part of the strategy perhaps is the illustration of the huge workload that would be required in the final 6 years of the time span from now to 2020, if the goal were to be achieved. The Region will need more resources if those goals are to be met.

Contact: Jose Cisneros, Remediation and Reuse Branch, 312-886-6945

Getting to Yes: Strategies for Meeting the 2020 Vision Training

The Region will host a 3-day training on the subject of RCRA Corrective Action program implementation from February 10-12, 2009. The training was developed by The Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response (OSWER) to train federal, state and industry project managers in the latest information and techniques for achieving characterization and clean-up at RCRSA regulated Corrective Action sites. The class will involve over 80 project managers from the Region 5 corrective action staff, at least three state programs and various environmental contractors and regulated companies.

Contact: Jose Cisneros, Remediation and Reuse Branch, 312-886-6945

GreenScapes and WasteWise Promoted to Chicago Area Municipalities

MMB staff developed presentation materials, including a script, outline and a package of voluntary program materials for delivery to Clean Air Counts members at their January 29th meeting. Clean Air Counts is a voluntary program focused on reducing air emissions within the Chicago region. The members are city officials representing Chicago Department of Environment and suburban municipalities. The MMB materials promoted GreenScapes, WasteWise, the Conservation and Native Landscaping Awards Program, and additional Region 5 native plant resources. MMB staff made the connection between participating in GreenScapes and WasteWise and Climate Change calculation tools, which can be used to quantify activities taken within the programs into greenhouse gas reductions. The information was included in a larger presentation by ARD staff, promoting Climate Change voluntary programs at the meeting.

Contact: Donna Twickler, Materials Management Branch, 312-886-6184

Results of Milwaukee's Recycling Education Project

The final report of the City of Milwaukee's 2007 RCC grant to evaluate recycling education strategies was submitted to Region 5. The Project's objectives were to evaluate three educational strategies that involved direct personal contact: (a) neighborhood school education; (b) door to door outreach by a community group; and (c) block captains. Each strategy was implemented in areas with low recycling participation and compared to similar control areas. While the block captain strategy did not work effectively, the other two strategies led to a more than 60% increase in the amounts of recyclables collected during the education program. Increases between 30-50% were seen 3 months after the education program ended. Overall, this project diverted more than 47,000 pounds of waste from disposal in the targeted areas. Using EPA's Waste Reduction Model, this can be translated to a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions of 19 MTCE which is equivalent to the emissions from over 1900 gallons of gasoline. Milwaukee will be incorporating these strategies into a city-wide recycling campaign in 2009. The results of this project will be presented at the annual meeting of the Associated Recyclers of Wisconsin (AROW) in March 2009. The final results report will be available on Region 5's website.

Contact: Susan Mooney, Materials Management Branch, 312-886-3585