Significant Developments and Activities Report

LAND AND CHEMICALS DIVISION
Weekly Significant Developments and Activities Report
November 21, 2008

Green Affordable Housing Tour

On October 29, Region 5 Green Building Network took a tour of the City of Highland Park’s fourteen “eco-friendly” townhomes at Hyacinth Place. The units are being sold at 40-60% below the market value, primarily targeting persons living or working within 10 miles of Highland Park. The 3 bedroom/2.5 bath, 1550 square feet townhomes are highly energy-efficient with a geo-thermal heating and cooling system, which will reduce utility costs 50%-75%. Other green features include wind turbine energy generation for common area lighting, attractive courtyard permeable paving stones to reduce storm water runoff, an energy-efficient reflective roof, Energy-Star appliances, energy efficient windows, low-flow plumbing fixtures, low emission paint, bamboo flooring, eco-friendly cabinets, and landscaping that incorporates native plants. The development is located within blocks of the Ft. Sheridan Metra station, bus routes, and bike path.
Contact: Phil Kaplan 312-353-4669

Pre-SFIREG Meeting

Region 5 State Ag Agency and State Extension Service representatives and managers met with Region 5 Pesticides Program staff and CMB managers on November 18 and 19. Staff and management from the Program Services Branch and the Grants Assistance Section also participated. The two-day meeting covered current and future challenges to the States pesticide programs, State grant issues, and enforcement & compliance issues. The States and Region 5 use the pre-SFIREG meeting to identify issues for national meetings (such as the national meetings in December 2008). Specific Issues which may be discussed during the December 2008 national meetings include the misuse of Golden Malrin insecticide to kill nuisance mammals (raccoon, deer), increased use of herbicides on new strains of pesticide-resistant crops, and federal enforcement issues related to internet sale of pesticides.
Contact: Dan Hopkins, 312--886-5994

CRT Strategy Meeting

On November 17, inspectors who will be charged with evaluating compliance with cathode ray tube handlers suspected of exporting CRT's without complying with the export provisions of the CRT rule met with Tamara Carnovsky of ORC and Chris Newman and Mary Setnicar of the Materials Management Branch. The group discussed requirements that apply to handlers of CRT's including state rules, safety concerns, inspection strategies, and legal issues that might arise during these inspections.
Global market conditions for recyclable commodities have driven up demand for exporting CRT's and other electronics. However, as media reports have shown, recycling procedures in some countries expose workers to toxic conditions and expose the populace to significant contamination. One of the purposes of the CRT rule that went into effect January 2007 is to prevent exportation of CRT monitors to places where they will not be managed properly. These scheduled inspections are part of the overall compliance assurance strategy to prevent illegal exports.
Contact: William Damico, 312-353-8207

Landfill Fire Seminar Planned

MMB staff is working with Dr. Timothy Stark of the University of Illinois - Champaign Urbana to develop a short course titled "Detection, Evaluation and Suppression of Waste Fires" in Chicago in January 2009. Due to the increasing occurrences of landfill fires at C&D, industrial, and municipal solid waste landfills throughout the Region over the past several years, MMB is seeking to increase the awareness and capacity of state, local and private industry personnel who may be involved in assessment and response activities. The course will include information on waste fire suppression techniques, slope stability and engineered component impacts, regulatory aspects, gas management, air monitoring, and site safety. This information will hopefully save emergency responders, landfill owner/operators and regulatory official’s time, money and effort on their next response. MMB staff attended an initial offering of the course in October and found it to be very informative and valuable. A general announcement as been distributed and the course is scheduled for January 9, 2009 in the Metcalfe Building conference center.
Contact: Paul Ruesh, 312-886-7898

Region 5’s Lead Safe Work Practices Hardware Store Initiative Goes National

On November 7th, 2008, Maria Doa of OPPTS in Headquarters informed Mardi Klevs that she thought the Region 5's Lead Safe Work Practices Hardware Store Initiative should be adopted as a national project. The purpose of the initiative is to promote lead (Pb) safe work practices (LSWP) by: 1) making information available on LSWP in hardware and paint stores, where painting materials are displayed; 2) providing or arranging for training of hardware store employees, homeowners, contractors, and weatherization workers on LSWP; and 3) making outreach information on LSWP available to paint distributors and window replacement companies.

Region 5 has started implementing the initiative in 5 locations in Region 5 and will discuss the initiative with the other Region's during the next Regional Lead Coordinators conference call scheduled for November 25th.
Contact: Tammy Moore, 312-886-6181

American Farmland Trust Grant Meeting

On Monday, November 17, 2008, an on-site visit was made to the American Farmland Trust (AFT) in DeKalb, Illinois with Ethel Crisp, Project Officer; Bruce Wilkinson, Technical Contact; and Seth Dibblee, Strategic Agricultural Initiative (SAI) Coordinator, to conduct a detailed evaluation and an overview of the project and project expenditures for their three-year agreement with Region 5 to manage the SAI small grants program, FY 2007 to FY 2010. The meeting was held with Dr. Alice Sorensen, Assistant Vice President for Research; Anita Zurbrugg, Esquire, Assistant Director for the Center for Agriculture in the Environment; Teresa Bullock, Office Manager, and Kai Jackson, Budget Analyst with AFT Headquarters Office in Washington, D.C., via conference call. The American Farmland Trust is a non-profit conservation advocacy organization that protects productive farmland and encourages healthy farming practices.

The purpose of this visit was to obtain information relating to the post-award management activities as identified in their workplan; to hear how the organization helps to implement the Food Quality Protection Act; to discuss the project work by sub-grantees to determine economic and environmental impacts, and to assess whether the grantee met all of their programmatic reporting and financial requirements. There were 5 projects funded with this grant that are administered by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; University of Minnesota; Michigan State University; Department of Entomology, University of Wisconsin, and the Food Alliance Midwest/Cooperative Development Service, in which all are on target in completing the work identified in AFT’s workplan. Overall, the meeting went very well whereby kudos were extended to the AFT staff for their FY 2008 overall work and goals achieved on their grant.
Contact: Ethel Crisp, 312-353-1442

EPA Signs Administrative Order on Consent with TDY Industries, Inc.

On November 5, 2008, Region 5 signed an Administrative Order on Consent with TDY Industries, Inc. to complete corrective action work at the Former Teledyne Monarch Rubber Plant 1 in Hartville, Ohio. The consent order requires TDY Industries, Inc. to implement institutional controls; construct and operate a high vacuum dual phase extraction system with air stripper to collect and treat volatile organic compound (VOC) contaminated groundwater; implement enhanced bioremediation through use of enhanced reductive dechlorination; and pave/and or cap and maintain two areas of contaminated surface soils.
Contact: John Nordine, 312-353-1243

Midwest States Fiscal Year 2008 End-of-the-Year Meetings for RCRA Program

During the months of October and November, staff from the Land and Chemicals Division and the Midwest State Agencies (Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Illinois EPA), Indiana Department of Environmental Management, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources held their year-end meetings by videoconference or conference calls to review the end-of-year accomplishments under the Fiscal Year (FY) 2008 RCRA Subtitle C Cooperative Agreement between the Region and each State.

The meeting agenda, facilitated by Project Officers Ethel Crisp, Denise Reape or Joel Morbito for their respective states, addressed authorization, corrective action, permitting and closures, RCRAInfo, enforcement, FY 2009 budget, financial assurance, waste minimization, environmental justice, PCB transition, and the Government Performance and Results Act goals for the end of FY 2008. Also in some States, underground storage tanks were discussed as a final wrap-up to end the old funding process for this program.

In addition, a summary of the year-end accomplishments and goals of the LUST program with Illinois EPA were addressed that covered corrective action, the State Fund, and the LUST Template and Energy Policy Act conditions and requirements.

All States were commended for their excellent efforts and commitment in carrying out their FY 2008 program objectives and for successfully meeting their year-end targets and goals. There were some action items from each of the meetings which will be highlighted in each of the end-of-year narrative reports.
Contact: Ethel Crisp, 312-353-1442

Notice of Violation for Purdue University

On November 14, 2008, a Notice of Violation was sent to Purdue University (Purdue), located in West Lafayette, Indiana. Based on findings from an August 12, 2008 Compliance Evaluation Inspection, Purdue was in non compliance with the following requirements; 1) several satellite accumulation area containers were not closed when waste was not being added to or removed from the containers; and 2) Purdue was storing several fluorescent light bulbs in an opened container.
Contact: Jamie Paulin, 312-886-1771

Public Meeting for EPA’s Proposed Plan to Close Gary’s Ralston Street Lagoon Held

On November 18, 2008, a public meeting on EPA's recent proposal to select a plan for closure of Gary's Ralston Street Lagoon was held at the Gary Sanitary District offices in Gary, IN. About 30 interested parties attended, including the Honorable Rudolph Clay, Mayor of Gary, Board President Richard Comer, Director Luci Horton, Board Commissioners Currie and Jackson, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Wayne Ault. Mike Mikulka, Senior Environmental Engineer of EPA Region 5's Land & Chemicals Division, presented background information about the lagoon and the Consent Decree which requires its closure under the Toxic Substances Control Act, and then presented the alternatives considered and the alternative tentatively selected as EPA's Proposed Plan, Alternative 8, Filling the Lagoon.

That alternative includes dike improvements, a soil-bentonite slurry wall, adding dry material to the lagoon to bulk the sludge, then additives to stabilize and solidify the sludge into a hard cement, capping, deed restrictions, groundwater monitoring and cap maintenance. Also attending for EPA were community involvement coordinator Rafael P. Gonzalez, public affairs specialists Karen Thompson and Jessica McIntyre, attorney Mark Koller, and ORD staff scientist Terry Lyons. The public comment period closes on December 5, 2008, after which time EPA will make a final decision and advise Gary and the public. A number of questions on the proposed plan were received and answered at the meeting.
Contact: Michael Mikulka, 312-886-6760

Science Fair at Decatur Classical School, Chicago, IL

On November 6, Bob Harris gave a quick “Recycle Loop” presentation to the students at Decatur Classical School. He then was given a student guide and served as a panel judge for the 2008 Science Fair for sixth grade students. All of the students presented good displays which were evident by their research, hypotheses, data collection and conclusions. Scientific methodologies were correctly implemented and students seemed to have increased their scientific skills. Exhibitors received a cup made from U.S. currency or an EPA reusable shopping bag with pencils and pens made from post-consumer recycled content materials.

Bob judged eight exhibits, and some noteworthy exhibits included a project hypothesizing that people could remember things better using sound than they could by using pictures. The hypothesis was incorrect. It took 21 seconds to recall something associated with sound, and 18 seconds with a picture. Another exhibit: “Decay is NOT Okay” identified various beverages affect on teeth. A sixth-grade student tested the PH level of several beverages (Cola, Diet Cola, Orange Juice, Sports Drink, or Clear Lemon Lime Soda) on limestone tiles and discovered that orange juice was most likely to cause damage due to the natural sugars and citric acid.
Contact: Robert Harris, 312-886-7577

TRI Compliance Assistance to Automotive Component

The Toxic Release Inventory Report for reporting year (RY) 2007 filed by a Michigan based manufacturer of automotive components was reviewed because of reported large releases of sulfuric acid aerosol. The reported acid aerosol releases implied that the facility was one of the top 10 facilities in their industrial sector with the largest increases in acid total releases from RY 2006 to RY 2007. A compliance assistance contact with the facility confirmed an error in their reported data and indicated that the acid aerosol is treated on-site by a scrubber absorption / neutralization process rather than being released on-site untreated. The facility acknowledged the error and indicated they will promptly file a corrected Report.
Contact: Frank Gabrielow, 312-886-0404

U.S. EPA Hosts Information Booth on America Recycles Day

On November 14, 2008, LCD staff held an information booth on the second floor of the Ralph Metcalfe Federal Building for “America Recycles Day”. There were approximately 250 citizens, who enjoyed a trip through the “recycle loop”, (curb to factory to store shelf). The products shown were all made from recycled materials (glass, plastic, paper, re-refined oil, baby diapers and more). Re-use information and energy information were provided along with rulers, pens and pencils made from recycled content materials. In addition, educational materials, coloring books, posters and other publications were available.

America Recycles Day, Earth Day and other public outreach venues promote education and encourage daily recycling and buying products made from recycled materials.
Contact: Robert Harris, 312-886-7577

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