WHEE: Recent News Articles

On April 17, 2003 the USEPA published a final rule (68 FR 18,890) extending the deadlines for SPCC Plan revision and implementation. For compliance with the new requirements of Spill Prevention control and Countermeasure (SPCC) regulations issued by the USEPA in July 2002, applicable facilities will have until August 17, 2004, to amend their SPCC Plans and have until February 18, 2005 to implement the amended plan. Facilities which store more than 1,320 applicable fuel and oil products onsite are subject to SPCC requirements under the Clean Water Act.

A new website was launched on January 23, 2003 which will allow the public to find, review and comment on federal rulemaking, including USEPA’s environmental regulations, OSHA’s Health and Safety regulations, DOT and others.

The website is: www.regulations.gov

This is the first of a three part initiative. The second phase will include an electronic docket to provide more access to the rulemaking process. The final phase will be an electronic desktop for federal employees which will allow them to use the available information more efficiently and conduct a more thorough regulatory analysis during rulemaking.

The USEPA has proposed to withdraw the July 2000 total maximum daily load (TMDL) program under the Clean Water Act (CWA). The proposal to withdraw the rule, titled "Revisions to the Water Quality Planning and Management Regulation and Revisions to the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Program in Support of Revisions to the Water Quality Planning and Management Regulation" was published in the Federal Register on December 27, 2002 (67 FR 79020).

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The USEPA has announced that they will extend the comment period (until March 31, 2003) for their new Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO) database program. ECHO provides users with online detailed facility reports, which include:

• Federal and State compliance inspections
• Environmental violations
• Recent formal enforcement actions taken
• Demographic profile of surrounding area

The USEPA has reported environmental compliance records are available on 800,000 regulated facilities nationwide on the ECHO database. Information on the extension of the comment period can be found at:

http://www.epa.gov/echo/info/federal_register_notice_1_30_2003.pdf

The ECHO database can be accessed at:

http://www.epa.gov/echo/

And additional information on the ECHO database can be found at:

http://www.epa.gov/echo/info/index.html

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) made public an online enforcement database designed to increase public awareness about environmental compliance at more than 800,000 industrial facilities nationwide. The website, called Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO, available at www.epa.gov/echo), contains searchable, facility-specific information about facilities' current and recent compliance status under the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, as well as detailed Toxic Release Inventory data and a demographic profile of the area surrounding the facility.

EPA's goal is to provide a convenient method for obtaining a "snapshot" of a facility's environmental compliance status. For each listed facility, the website shows permit information, dates and types of violations, and the state or EPA's enforcement response.

Under the policy, facilities would implement technologies enabling them to meet discharge goals of 3 milligrams per liter of nitrogen and 0.3 mg/l of phosphorus.
Nitrogen loads from wastewater treatment plants in Maryland would be reduced 40 percent under the policy, according to a statement from Glendening.

However, the Chesapeake Bay Commission issued a report in May on the budget problems facing Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, the primary states in the watershed. Maryland and Pennsylvania both face deficits pushing $1 billion while Virginia's is about $3.8 billion over three years.

(extracted from an article by the 2002 Bureau of National Affairs, Inc.- Vol. 33, No. 46)

Final rule published Nov. 19 (67 Federal Register 69,952)...
Increased costs identified for changes to test procedures for measuring the toxicity of effluents and of the receiving waters.

1) the requirement that test results be reveiwed for concentration-response relationships to ensure they are interpreted appropriately;

2) an increase in the minimum number of replicates in certain WET tests from three to four.

2 tests are withdrawn and 10 adopted - The two tests being withdrawn in the rule are the Champia parvula reproduction test and the Holmesimysis costata acute test.

The WET test methods that are ratified in the final rule are the Ceriodaphnia dubia Acute Test; Fathead Minnow Acute Test; Sheepshead Minnow Acute Test; Inland Silverside Acute Test; Ceriodaphnia dubia Survival and Reproduction Test; Fathead Minnow Larval Survival and Growth Test; Selenastrum capricornuthum Growth Test; Sheepshead Minnow Larval Survival and Growth Test; Inland Silverside Larval Survival and Growth Test; and Mysidopsis bahia Survival Growth and Fecundity Test.

(extracted from an article by the 2002 Bureau of National Affairs, Inc.- Vol. 33, No. 46)

The Environmental Protection Agency announced Nov. 26 the addition of 23 area source categories of hazardous air pollutants to lists previously developed under the Integrated Urban Air Toxics Strategy (67 Fed. Reg. 70,427).
With the addition of these 23 categories, EPA has fulfilled its requirement to identify and list area source categories representing at least 90 percent of the emissions of 30 identified hazardous air pollutants subject to Clean Air Act standards, the agency said.
The new final additions as source categories are:

• brick and structural clay products manufacturing;
• carbon black production;
• chemical manufacturing-chromium compounds;
• chemical preparations;
• clay ceramics manufacturing;
• industrial machinery and equipment-finishing operations;
• copper foundries;
• electrical and electronic equipment; finishing operations;
• ferroalloys productions-ferromanganese and silicomanganese;
• fabricated metal products manufacturing; not elsewhere classified;
• fabricated plate work (boiler shops);
• fabricated structural metal manufacturing;
• heating equipment manufacturing, except electric;
• inorganic pigments manufacturing;
• iron and steel forging;
• nonferrous foundries;
• paints and allied products manufacturing;
• plastics parts and products (surface coating);
• prepared feeds manufacturing;
• primary copper smelters;
• primary metals products manufacturing; and
• valves and pipe fittings manufacturing.

Panel Supports Listing Nine Chemicals. The nine members of NTP's board agreed that the following substances should all be listed in the report as reasonably anticipated human carcinogens:

1, amino-2, 4-dibromoanthraquinone (CAS No. 81-49-2), a dye used in the textile industry (unanimous vote in favor of listing);

2-amino-3,4-dimethylimidazo [4,5-f]quinoline (MeIQ; CAS No. 77094-11-2), a heterocyclic amine formed during heating or cooking and found in cooked meat and fish (eight votes for listing; one abstention);

2-amino-3,8-dimethylimidazo [4,5-f]quinoxaline (MeIQx; CAS No. 77500-04-0), another heterocyclic amine formed during heating or cooking and found in cooked meat and fish (unanimous for listing);

2-amino-1-methyl-6-phenylimidazo [4,5-b]pyridine (PhIP; CAS No. 105650-23-5), another heterocyclic amine formed during heating or cooking and found in cooked meat and fish (unanimous for listing);

cobalt sulfate (CAS No. 10124-43-3), a chemical used in the electroplating and electrochemical industries, and also as a coloring agent for ceramics, a drying agent in inks, paints, varnishes, and linoleum, and as a mineral supplement in animal feed (eight votes for listing; one opposed);

naphthalene (CAS No. 91-20-3), an intermediate in the synthesis of many industrial chemicals, an ingredient in some moth repellents and toilet bowl deodorants, an antiseptic for irrigating animal wounds, and a substance that controls lic on livestock and poultry (unanimous for listing);

nitrobenzene (CAS No. 98-95-3), a chemical used to produce aniline, which is used to produce dyes (unanimous for listing);

nitromethane (CAS No. 75-52-5), a chemical used in specialized fuels, explosives, pharmaceuticals, agricultural soil fumigants, and industrial antimicrobials (unanimous for listing);

4,4'-thiodianiline (CAS No. 139-65-1), a chemical that has been used to make dyes but is no longer produced and possibly no longer used in the United States (five votes for listing; two votes against listing; two abstentions).

The panel recommended on an 8-1 vote that diethanolamine (CEA; CAS No. 111-42-2) not be listed in the report. The chemical has many uses including as an ingredient in liquid laundry soap, dishwashing detergents, cosmetics, shampoos, hair conditioners, and metal working fluids. DEA also serves as an anticorrosion agent and is used in textile processing and industrial gas purification.

In December 2002, EPA revised the Clean Water Act regulation for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs). If you own or operate a chicken or turkey CAFO, you must apply for a permit.

No matter what size your operation is, if it is an AFO, it can be designated a CAFO. If your permitting authority inspects your operation and finds that it's adding pollutants to surface waters, your operation might need a CAFO permit.

Your CAFO permit will require you to meet certain conditions for your production and land application areas. The specific requirements of your permit will depend on whether your operation is a Large, Medium, or designated CAFO.

All chicken and turkey CAFOs permits require you to:

Implement a nutrient management plan;

Submit annual reports to your permitting authority;

Keep your permit current until you completely close your operation and remove all manure;

Keep records of your nutrient management practices for at least 5 years.

You may find addtional information and brochures at the following websites:

www.epa.gov/npdes/caforule

www.epa.gov/agriculture

www.usda.gov

A spokesperson for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection recently indicated that USEPA's new Enforcement and Compliance History online web (ECHO) system includes a significant number of errors, incorrect information, and/or incomplete information on regulated facilities. The ECHO project is a new online regulatory compliance reporting system being trialed by the USEPA.

On March 19th, 2001, D.M. Farms of Sampson County was issued the first federal water quality permit covering an animal operation in the state of North Carolina. This particular permit, an individual National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit, should result in more oversight and accountability than existing state permits. D.M. Farms was forced to seek this federal permit after being sued by the American Canoe Association. The federal district court ordered the NPDES permit as a result of the association’s suit after the EPA joined them. The state is working in conjunction with the federal EPA to develop a general permit that would be applied to the bulk of the remaining hog farms and other animal operations in the state. As part of the agreement to issue the permits D.M. Farms agreed to have three independent engineers conduct a study of the farm’s waste disposal methods over a three-year period. The engineers will recommend the best approach for determining flow rate and volume of land-applies waste, which the farm will have 60 days to implement. They will also be required to monitor drinking water wells on their property as well as adjacent properties on a quarterly basis.

On March 2, 2001, an executive at Central Industries was sentenced to house arrest, probation, and a $300,000 fine for violating the Clean Water Act. This was the fifth-largest water case penalty in the history of the United States. Central Industries, a poultry rendering plant that turns slaughterhouse waste into pet food and other products, was fined $14 million for dumping poorly treated waste water into a creek that feeds into the Pearl River. The Environmental Protection Agency in Mississippi hopes that this will send “a message to corporate officials that they should take notice of the seriousness of the environmental criminal laws.”

On March 2, 2001, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled that the Virginia Water Control Board couldn’t enforce action against Smithfield Foods for violations from alleged illegal discharges of pollutants into the Pagan River. Since the Environmental Protection Agency previously prosecuted the company for similar violations under the Clean Water Act the court ruled the state actions (Virginia Water Control Board), were “in privity”, meaning the same party, in enforcing the terms of Smithfield’s discharge permits. The court said, “the touchstone of privity… is that a party’s interest is so identical with another that representation by one party is representation of the other’s legal right.” Smithfield’s attorney stated that this ruling will force state and federal enforcement officials to better coordinate their actions against parties alleged to have violated both state and federal requirements.

On December 15, 2000 the USEPA announced the release of proposed new, strict regulations to reduce water pollution from large, industrial feedlot operations.The specific regulatory changes proposed are related to changes in the effluent limitation guidelines (ELGs) for concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) program.

USEPA has estimated that these new regulations will apply to 39,000 (CAFOs) across the country. The proposed rules will require issuance of an NPDES type permit for applicable CAFOs and the imposition of new pollution control measures for regulated farms. The proposed regulatory changes also significantly lower the animal units (AU) threshold for designation of a facility as a CAFO. Certain dry litter poultry operations, which are generally exempt under the current NPDES CAFO regulations, are defined as CAFOs under the proposed regulations. See CAFO Brochure and Proposed Rule for additional details.

In December 2000 the USEPA published recommended water quality criteria to reduce problems associated with excess nutrients in water bodies in specific areas of the country. The criteria are intended for use by state regulatory agencies and Indian tribes to develop and adopt regional-specific water quality criteria for nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, etc.) in lakes, reservoirs, rivers, streams and wetlands in seventeen ecoregions. USEPA expects states and tribes to develop a plan defining and adopting nutrient criteria into state or tribal water quality standards within one year of the publication of these recommendations and to adopt or revise numeric criteria into state and tribal water quality standards by 2004. New water quality standards for nutrients will likely impact both point and non-point discharges from industrial, municipal and commercial sources. See Fact Sheet and Notice for additional details.

The USEPA recently unveiled the latest version of its TRI Explorer tool for improved searches of its Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) information database posted on the World Wide Web by the agency. Under TRI rules, regulated facilities are required to submit annual reports to the USEPA and state regulatory agencies on the types and amounts of toxic chemicals manufactured, processed, and/or otherwise used. TRI reports must also include detailed information on the releases of these toxic chemicals to environment, waste management operations, etc. See TRI Explorer for additional details.

A food processing plant in Delaware has obtained higher limitations for nutrients (i.e., nitrogen and phosphorus) in it's NPDES permit for treated process water discharges in exchange for committing to reduce nutrients in non-point source discharges from property under its control.

On January 8, 2001 the USEPA announced a new, lower reporting threshold of 100 pounds for lead and lead compounds under the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) reporting program. Applicable facilities will be required to report lead emissions/release of 100 pounds and above for the 2001 reporting year, and TRI reports on those emissions must be submitted to the USEPA and applicable state regulatory agencies by July 1, 2002. The TRI reporting threshold for lead and lead compounds was reduced due to classification of lead as a persistent, bioaccumulative, toxic (PBT) chemical. See Lead Outreach for additional details.