Significant Developments and Activities Report

LAND AND CHEMICALS DIVISION
Weekly Significant Developments and Activities Report
October 10, 2008

Akron City Health Department Sponsored its Annual Baby Faire

Akron City Health Department sponsored its annual Baby Faire Saturday October 11, 2008 at the John S. Knight Conference Center Akron Ohio. The Faire attracted expectant mothers and families living in Akron and the surrounding area. Attractions included a number of fun oriented activities including baby races, toddler fashion shows and daddy diapering contests. Over thirty exhibitors, representing a wide variety of products and services, were present. US EPA Region 5 included a display featuring Healthy Homes which was maintained jointly by the Cleveland Ohio office and the Region 5 Lead Team. During the Faire over 200 attendees stopped at the display to ask questions or, to pick up materials.
Contacts: Lyn Luttner, 440-250-1711; John Wsol, 312-353-8513

City of Chicago's Blue Cart Recycling Program Expands

On October 9th, Julie Gevrenov participated in an advisory committee meeting hosted by the City of Chicago. The City has been systematically rolling out its new “Blue Cart” recycling program to residences across the City. This source-separated, single stream recycling program formally replaces a blue bag program in which bagged recyclables were sorted from refuse post-collection. 92,000 households were added to the program during 2008, resulting in an overall Blue Cart recycling rate of 14.23% for the year, a significant improvement over the blue bag program. All City-serviced residences will be brought online by the end of 2011. Blue Cart collection has generated over $1 million in revenue for the City this year through August.
Contact: Julie Gevrenov, 312-886-6832

Combined Complaint and Consent Agreement and Final Order

On October 6, 2008, Region 5 filed a Combined Consent Agreement Final Order (CAFO) that simultaneously commenced and concluded a Section 1018 enforcement matter. The CAFO resolves alleged violations of Section 16(a) of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), 15 U.S.C. §2615(a), and the Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act of 1992, 42 U.S.C. § 4851, et seq., against Bonita L. Sisto (Respondent), of Superior, Wisconsin, concerning the sale of residential rental property in Superior, Wisconsin. In consideration of the cooperation displayed by the Respondent, her immediate efforts to comply with the Disclosure Rule, ability to pay a penalty and the manner in which the Parties reached settlement in this matter, U.S. EPA agreed to mitigate the penalty from $43,238 to $2,700.
Contact: Estrella Calvo, 312-353-8931

Renovation, Remodeling and Painting (RRP) Rule Presentation

Milwaukee Lead & Asbestos Information center, Inc., hosted a symposium providing attendees information on Lead and Molds at the Clarion Hotel, Milwaukee WI Tuesday, October 7, 2008. The afternoon session, which was devoted to Lead Poisoning, included a presentation on the new Renovation, Remodeling and Painting Rule (RRP) which was
introduced in June 2008. The session included a presentation on the RRP by John Wsol, a member of the Region 5 Lead Team. The audience included contractors, landlords, and members of a variety of state and municipalities; health departments and other agencies.
Contact: John Wsol, 312-353-5685

Chevron Corrective Action Cleanup – Meeting and Site Visit

The sampling of vapors in a residential area of Hooven, Ohio, by the Superfund Division was conducted in April and August. Two more rounds of sampling are to be completed later this year. None of the concentrations in the April samples exceeded the screening criteria. The August sample results showed three locations where the concentrations of one or two contaminants exceeded screening levels for the indoor air, but those same contaminants were not found in the corresponding sub-slab samples at those locations. The next rounds of quarterly sampling will have to be conducted before any potential risks can be assessed. These results will be discussed with the individual residents on Thursday, October 9th. U.S. EPA representatives of both the Superfund and RCRA programs will be present, and the Ohio Department of Health’s Health Assessment Section will take the lead in communicating the results.
Contacts: Christopher Black, 312-886-1451; Rafael Gonzalez, 312-886-0269

Clean Harbors (Cleveland) Uniform Environmental Covenant

A Uniform Environmental Covenant for the Clean Harbors facility in Cleveland was recently signed by USEPA and Clean Harbors. The soil contamination at the site was below screening levels for industrial land use, and so our Final Decision and Response to Comments called for an institutional control to require the use of the property to remain industrial.
Contact: Jill Groboski, 312-886-3890

Joint Hispanic Heritage Month and Children’s Health Month Event: Green and Healthy Schools

On Wednesday, October 8, the Hispanic Special Emphasis Program and the Children's Health Program sponsored a panel discussion on green and healthy schools.

Panelists included Guillermo Gomez, Healthy Schools Campaign, Kate Tomford, State of Illinois, Office of the Lieutenant Governor and Francisco Acevedo, USEPA, Region 5, Air and Radiation Division. Each panelist provided insights on various issues of great importance to creating both green and healthy schools including reducing environmental asthma triggers, use of green cleaning practices and products and reduction of school bus diesel emissions.

The event also included the closing ceremony for Hispanic Heritage Month and a dance presentation by a Puerto Rican folkloric ensemble. Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated September 15 through October 15 and Children's Health Month is celebrated throughout October.
Contacts: Maryann Suero, 312-886-9077; Noel Vargas (WD), 312-353-3575

Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Indians – First Tribe to Join the National Partnership for Environmental Priorities

Janet Haff and Burdell Chapman of the Materials Management Branch met with the first tribe nation-wide to join the National Partnership for Environmental Priorities (NPEP). Mille Lacs agreed to collecting and recycling mercury throughout their reservation. They will also be recycling any mercury containing devices from their employees at the casino.

There were also discussions with two other tribes on also joining the NPEP program. The other potential partners include the Fond Du Lac Band of Chippewa and the Shakopee Mdewabanton Sioux Community, both in Minnesota. These tribes would also be considering mercury reduction goals.
Contact: Janet Haff, 312-353-7923

MMB Participates in BMRA DECON ’09 Planning Meeting

On October 8th, Julie Gevrenov and a small group of local deconstruction and building materials reuse stakeholders participated in the first planning meeting for the Building Materials Reuse Association’s national deconstruction conference, DECON. DECON ’09 will be held in Chicago on the University of Illinois Chicago campus from April 27th-29th. A call for abstracts will be released shortly. On May 1st, full-day training courses in deconstruction and C&D recycling will be offered by the BMRA and WasteCap Wisconsin, respectively.
Contact: Julie Gevrenov, 312-886-6832

Public Meetings Held on Mallard Lake MSW Landfill Corrective Action

On Wednesday, October 1, 2008, public meetings concerning the Mallard Lake Landfill were held at the Hanover Park municipal building. A total of approximately 70 people attended the meetings, the goal of which was to convey information to interested residents and local government officials on the corrective action planned for the removal of the subsurface methane gas plume located under a residential neighborhood and a county forest preserve. This is all pursuant to a RCRA 7003 enforcement action on-going at the site.

Additional information conveyed at the meeting was an update on the operation and maintenance of the gas collection system, gas management plant and back-up flare system, and the removal of methane through the emergency action. Extraction wells installed under the emergency measures have successfully removed subsurface methane closest to the landfill.

Other issues discussed at the meeting included an update on a newly identified exceedance of subsurface methane near the landfill, which is currently being further assessed to determine the nature and extent of contamination at this location (close to a school). Also, information on sub-surface fires identified on the landfill site was conveyed.

Many questions were asked by the audience and were answered by USEPA staff, the USEPA contractor (Weston) and Illinois EPA staff. While concerns were raised regarding many of problems at the landfill, the public seemed to generally accept the proposed corrective action.

Contacts: Donna Twickler (LCD), 312-886-6184; Steve Faryan (SF), 312-353-9351; Walter Nied (SF), 312-886-4466; Thomas Krueger (ORC), 312-886-0562; Richard Wagner (ORC), 312-886-7947; Mike Joyce (OPA/SF), 312-353-5546

U.S. EPA Pesticide Outreach Partners with Illinois Department o Human Services at Job/Health Fair 2008

On October 2, 2008 the Region 5 pesticide outreach coordinator, Steve Morgan, provided pesticide safety and other EPA public health literature through a tabletop display during a daylong Annual Community Job/Health Fair held at the Mt. Vernon Community Center. This dual church/community center is located on the Westside of Chicago at 2622 West Jackson. Over three hundred people from the Chicago area attended the Fair. There were over forty other public health organizations, businesses, vendors, and social service agencies on hand to provide service to the general public.
Contact: Steven Morgan, 312-353-1524

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