All hazardous wastes are not created equal. The basic model is that:
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Tags: Business & Legal, Employer Best Practices, Health & Safety, Environmental risks, Environmental, EHS, EPA, RCRA
If government provided a unified approach to chemical regulation, then each chemical might be subject to a single set of requirements, which ideally would be tailored to reflect chemical-specific hazards throughout its life cycle. Instead, each chemical is subject to its own loosely connected (some would say haphazard) collection of environmental, health and safety (EH&S) requirements. Some are federal, some are state (or provincial if you’re in Canada), and others are regional and even local. You may need to refer to agencies at all three levels (federal, state and local) to identify your regulators and their requirements – although many organizations only deal with the agency responsible for permitting and inspecting day-to-day activities.
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Tags: Audit Standards, Environmental risks, Environmental, EHS, EPA, Hazcom, MSDS, mact
Partisan divides in Washington are preventing legislative action to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and climate change, but President Obama recently announced administrative initiatives to advance these efforts even without Congressional action. His new Climate Action Plan reaffirms domestic initiatives led by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and international GHG emission reduction and climate change efforts. The Plan has the following three main “pillars”:
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Tags: Environmental risks, Environmental, EPA, Greenhouse Gas, ghg, climate change
Traditionally, industrial facilities have used fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas as their main source of energy. Over the years, however, facilities have sought to replace some or all of their fossil fuel with less expensive and more efficient alternative fuels from secondary materials. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has regulated the combustion of such wastes under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). Under RCRA, some of these secondary materials are classified as ''hazardous wastes,'' while others are referred to as ''non-hazardous secondary materials.'' Facilities that combust ''solid waste'' as defined by EPA under RCRA must be regulated by emission standards issued by EPA under section 129 of the Clean Air Act (CAA).
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Tags: Business & Legal, Health & Safety, EPA, RCRA, CAA
PSD Rules Rescinded In Part
Recent court decisions rescind portions of EPA Clean Air Act rules governing Prevention of Serious Deterioration (PSD) and renewable fuels. For example, in October 2010, EPA adopted rules allowing for significant impact levels (SILs) and significant monitoring concentrations (SMCs) for sources of PM-2.5. However, in January of this year the D.C. Circuit upheld most elements of the 2012 standards, but vacated and remanded provisions establishing and applying projections of cellulosic biofuel use. American Petroleum Institute v. EPA, ___ F.3d ___ (D.C. Cir. 2013).
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Tags: Health & Safety, OSHA, Environmental risks, Environmental, EPA, ghg
Organizations with a well-established ISO 14001 Environmental Management System (EMS) are discovering a new advantage as the issue of “social responsibility” becomes more widespread throughout business communities. EMS managers are finding that techniques and methodology from their EMS can be used to identify and prioritize social responsibility issues and efficiently integrate them into their organization. Furthermore, managers building an EMS system are able to develop it in concert with social responsibility initiatives.
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Tags: Corporate Governance, Business & Legal, Employer Best Practices, Environmental, EHS, EPA
On May 28 Walmart bundled guilty pleas in a number of pending federal cases alleging environmental compliance violations at some of the company’s 4600+ stores in the U.S. These arose because Walmart had not implemented a corporate hazardous waste management program until January 2006, leaving locations to manage—or mismanage—such wastes.
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Tags: Corporate Governance, Business & Legal, California Legislation, Environmental risks, Environmental, EPA, Hazcom
Ensure Your Facility Meets Final EPA New Source Performance Standards for CISWI Units
On February 7, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a final rule (78 FR 9112) amending the new source performance standards for commercial and industrial solid waste incineration units. This action sets forth the agency’s final decision on a number of issues for which it granted reconsideration of the final rule titled “Standards of Performance for New Stationary Sources and Emissions Guidelines for Existing Sources: Commercial and Industrial Solid Waste Incineration Units” (CISWI rule) that was issued in March 2011. The final rule establishes effective dates for the standards and makes various technical corrections to clarify definitions, references, applicability, and compliance issues.
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Tags: Business & Legal, Health & Safety, Training, EPA, Greenhouse Gas
The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer provides the international framework for protecting the earth’s stratospheric ozone layer, by identifying and minimizing emissions of ozone depleting substances (ODSs). The original Montreal Protocol was initialed in September 1987. The U.S. was an original signatory, ratified in 1988, and became subject to agreed-upon provisions on January 1, 1989. Title VI of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments incorporates these international commitments into U.S. law, and assigns the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to fine-tune and enforce domestic requirements.
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Tags: Business & Legal, California Legislation, Environmental risks, Environmental, EPA, Greenhouse Gas, climate change
Various changes were made to environmental legislation during 2012, both in the US and internationally. Here follows a summary of some of the headlines.
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Tags: International, California Legislation, Environmental, EPA, Greenhouse Gas, ghg, Stormwater