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Significant Developments and Activities Report
LAND AND CHEMICALS DIVISION
Weekly Significant
Developments and Activities Report
June 12, 2009
First Renovation Training Application in Process
Region 5 has completed its technical evaluation of the first of 20 renovation training providers that have now applied for accreditation under EPA's new Lead (Pb) Renovation, Repair and Painting (RRP) Program Rule. A letter of deficiency has been sent to this training organization (the Environmental Management Institute in Indianapolis, IN), consistent with the national program guidance, that requests additional information needed before this trainer can become formally approved. It is currently anticipated that all of the trainers who applied early in this process will be receiving similar deficiency letters, in part because the national program guidance has just recently been revised and expanded. The additional information needed relates primarily to mandatory course notifications to EPA and the information that must appear on the face of the course completion certificates issued by the trainers to the contractors.
Contact: Philip King, (312) 353-9062, Chemicals Management Branch
Region 5 States Fare Well in Draft Pesticide Containment Equivalency Determinations
All six Region 5 States will receive equivalency determinations for state containment regulations according to draft determinations received from EPA Headquarters this week. Five States will receive approval to continue enforcing State containment regulations in lieu of the federal regulations, while the one state (Ohio), the determination is contingent upon the State making several required changes. Those five states will have only "recommended" changes, while the required changes for one State include a number of changes to three of the 18 elements of the containment regulations. Calls to States are under way to discuss the Headquarters findings and to gather any questions or concerns the States may have. Next, the Regions will be asked to review draft letters to States to ensure there will be no surprises when the State receives EPA's final determination.
Contact: Margaret Jones, (312) 353-5790, Chemicals Management Branch
Materials Management Branch Presents Information on the Cathode Ray Tube Rule and the Responsible Recyclers Program at the Illinois Recycling Association Conference
Chris Newman of the Materials Management Branch presented a session on the Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) Rule and the Responsible Recyclers (R2) program to electronics recyclers and local government solid waste officials at the Illinois Recycling Association Conference in Bloomington, Illinois on June 3. This session provided the audience with information about what they need to do to comply with the export requirements of the CRT rule which requires that exporters of CRTs for reuse or recycling notify the Agency of their intent to export. Because Illinois EPA has adopted the CRT rule, the domestic management requirements were also reviewed with the help of IEPA staff in attendance. The R2 portion of the presentation informed the audience about the new program, why it is an improvement upon many of the programs that are now available, and how it can help to increase the environmental performance of the industry. This presentation was complemented by a presentation from a member of the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries that talked about how the group may be a certifying body for the R2 program. These two talks helped attendees learn how they can improve the performance of their business from both an environmental and regulatory perspective.
Contact: Christopher Newman, (312) 353-8402, Materials Management Branch
Chicago Public School Textbook Buy Back/Donation/Recycling Arrangement with Follett Educational Services
MMB staff negotiated an arrangement with Follett Educational Services to provide free pick-up and collection to donate or recycle unwanted textbooks from Chicago Public Schools (CPS) targeted for renovation, consolidation, or closing. MMB staff researched various CPS textbook vendors, and Follett was the only vendor that not only buys back old textbooks for resale, but also sponsors a textbook donation drive and recycling program. Follett is a strong supporter of green initiatives, and recognized an opportunity to conserve textbook resources while gaining back re-sale values by recovering a vast amount of old, re-usable textbooks from CPS. Because of these benefits, Follett agreed to pick up the cost for transporting textbooks they will buy back, donate to Books for Asia and Books for Africa programs, or recycle. This will allow CPS to avoid significant costs in paying for recycling or disposal dumpsters for these unwanted textbooks. MMB staff assessed the volume of unwanted textbooks at Schiller, Carpenter, Ogden, Schneider, and Skinner schools, in order to further determine which schools to prioritize for Follett's services.
Contact: Dolly Tong, (312) 886-1019, Materials Management Branch
PCB National Meeting
Peter Ramanauskas (RRB) and Steve Johnson (RB) attended the annual PCB National Meeting held in Washington, D.C. on June 2-3, 2009. The meeting brought together staff and management from all EPA Regions as well as HQ personnel from OPPT and ORCR. Issues discussed included management of PCB in caulk, natural gas pipelines, explosive waste destruction, emergency debris management, < 50 ppm remediation waste, shredder waste, enforcement topics, disposal approvals and risk assessment issues. Future PCB Program direction topics were also discussed including the development of a strategic direction for the remediation and disposal aspects of PCBs and ACS measures as well as HQ issuing ANPRs to collect information in preparation for potential rule changes. To further address and develop a strategic plan, the Regional PCB Branch Chiefs (BC) and HQ ORCR/OPPT held a meeting on June 4, 2009 to prioritize current PCB issues (e.g. unauthorized uses, sampling issues, etc.) pertinent to the Regions. A strategy outline will be sent to the BCs during the week of June 8, 2009 and a follow-up call will be held on June 25, 2009.
Contact: Peter Ramanauskas, (312) 886-7890, Remediation and Reuse Branch
Public Meeting on the Risk-Based PCB Cleanup at Lockheed Martin Corporation,
Akron Airdock in Akron, Ohio
John Nordine participated in a public meeting on June 1, 2009 to inform the public about the Risk-Based PCB Cleanup at Lockheed Martin Corporation, Akron Airdock, Akron, Ohio. Information was presented to the citizens on the historical background of the site, results of sampling, the next steps, and how the public can be involved in the project. The corrective action activities will focus on removing off-site PCBs from approximately 1 mile of soil/sediment contamination in Haley’s Ditch. The PCB contamination originated from material used on the Airdock’s original roof and siding. Construction of the cleanup work will be completed in one year. Soils/sediments containing PCB concentrations greater than 1 mg/kg will be removed and disposed in an off-site landfill.
Haley’s Ditch will be restored and three wetland areas totaling 0.83 acres will be enhanced as part of the project.
Contact: John Nordine, (312) 353-1243, Remediation and Reuse Branch
RCRA Corrective Action Managers Meeting
Managers of the RCRA corrective action program from all six state agencies met with Region 5's managers in Chicago on June 2-3, 2009. They projected that the 2011 goals will be met, and they also discussed several issues that affect the ability to meet the 2020 goals. Cuts in resources due to tight state budgets were discussed, as well as the financial problems of the companies that are responsible for doing the cleanup work. The recent bankruptcy filings of GM and Chrysler were mentioned as examples. These issues could slow the pace of corrective action work in Region 5.
Contact: Jose Cisneros, (312) 886-6945, Remediation and Reuse Branch
Coal Ash Surface Impoundments Assessments
EPA initiated a program to assess the structural integrity of coal ash surface impoundments in the aftermath of the failure of the impoundment at a TVA Tennessee facility in December 2008. While the assessments were to be conducted by selected qualified contractors, EPA sought assistance from engineers in LCD/Superfund Divisions to oversee the work and to ensure that the SOW was complied with.
To this end, Nate Nemani volunteered to visit and conduct this oversight at the facility from
June 1-3, 2009 for the James Gavin Power plant in Cheshire, Ohio, a 2.4 gigawatt coal-fired power plant. The consultant, CHA, a subcontractor to Lockheed Martin was selected to implement this task. Inspections were conducted on the bottom ash and fly ash impoundments and related structures. Notes and photographs were taken and a report, to be issued by the contractor, will be reviewed by the Region.
Contact: Nate Nemani, (312) 886-3224, Remediation and Reuse Branch
Final RCRA Permit Reissued to Gopher Resource Corporation Eagan, MN
The final federal RCRA permit was reissued to Gopher Resource Corporation on June 9, 2009. Gopher owns and operates a manufacturing plant that produces refined alloys through the secondary smelting and refining of lead-acid batteries and other lead-bearing materials. Since the State of Minnesota has not yet authorized for Containment Building (40 CFR Part 264, Subpart DD) and Air Emission Standards (40 CFR Part 264, Subpart CC), the federal permit contains site-specific conditions (e.g., maximum floor loadings, etc.) for storage and operations of the facility.
Contacts: Wen Huang, (312) 886-6191 and Jim Blough, (312) 886-2967, RCRA Branch
2009 ASTSWMO UST Compliance and Prevention Workshop
On June 2-3, 2009, Arturo Cisneros and Estelle Patterson of Region 5’s Underground Storage Tank (UST) program traveled to Denver, Colorado to attend the Association of State and Territorial Solid Waste Management Officials (ASTSWMO) UST Compliance and Prevention workshop. The workshop focused on State implementation of operator training (as mandated by the Energy Policy Act), discussion of EPA’s revision of the 280 & 281 Federal regulations, and State efforts in conducting inspections, delivery prohibition and streamlining enforcement. Fifteen states attended this workshop. Some of the key issues discussed for the Operator Training module included: whether a trained Class A or B person should always be on site because of their compliance responsibility role, verification for the person taking the training, and retraining requirement for
noncompliance facilities. The Revision of the Federal regulations module focused on changes to Release Prevention issues (i.e., repairs, ball floats, incentive), Release Detection issues (i.e., catastrophic monitoring, high throughput facilities), and Deferral issues (i.e., emergency generators, airport hydrant systems, field constructed tanks, etc.). Key issues discussed included: elimination of groundwater or vapor monitoring systems, and whether interstitial systems can be used as a “stand alone” methods.
Contact: Arturo Cisneros, (312) 886-7447, RCRA Branch
Law Enforcement Officials Assist USEPA-UST Inspector
On June 4, 2009, USEPA-UST Section, MDEQ-UST Section, MDEQ-Office of Criminal Investigation, Michigan State Police and other law enforcement officials assisted a USEPA-UST inspector in issuing a Field Citation for UST violations in Centreville, Michigan. The owner/operator has been negligent in correcting UST violations since 2003. MDEQ referred the site to USEPA in March 2009. The site is under investigation.
Contact: Sandra Siler, (312) 886-0429, RCRA Branch
EPA Region 5 Commences and Concludes an Enforcement Action Against Lockhart Chemical Company, Flint, Michigan
On June 10, 2009, Region 5 filed a combined Complaint / Consent Agreement and Final Order (CAFO), commencing and concluding an administrative penalty action against Lockhart Chemical Company (Lockhart) for allegedly violating Section 3008(a) of the Solid Waste Disposal Act. EPA alleged that Lockhart failed to meet conditions for a hazardous waste storage license exemption by failing to obtain a written assessment for their tank systems and failing to meet tank system requirements. EPA also alleged that Lockhart failed to inspect air control systems, properly label tanks of hazardous waste, and use proper Department of Transportation shipping descriptions on manifests. Lockhart accumulated hazardous waste methanol and butanol in their hazardous waste tank systems which exhibited the characteristic of ignitability (EPA hazardous waste number D001). Following the inspection, Lockhart modified their production process, ceased using tanks to accumulate hazardous waste and notified as a small quantity generator of hazardous waste. EPA calculated a penalty of $101,900 based on the potential for harm to human health and the environment posed by the violation, the extent of deviation from the regulation, as well as the other factors listed in EPA’s RCRA Civil Penalty Policy. Lockhart has agreed to pay this penalty.
Contact: Paul Atkociunas, (312) 886-7502, RCRA Branch