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Public Meetings on Reassessment of PCB Use Authorizations
EPA issued an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking related to potential reassessment of PCB use authorization under the Toxic Substance Control Act. Public comments are due on July 6; EPA will also be holding public meetings. Learn more here…
EPA Proposes Adding 16 Chemicals to the TRI Chemical List
On April 6, 2010, EPA took another important step toward providing communities with additional information about toxic chemicals being released to the environment.
EPA is Providing Communities with Additional Information about the Release of Hydrogen Sulfide into the Environment
The Agency is announcing that it is considering lifting the 1994 Administrative Stay of the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) reporting requirements for hydrogen sulfide. EPA is now presenting its rationale for why the Stay should be lifted, based on an updated evaluation that includes new information on human health and environmental effects of hydrogen sulfide. Learn more here...
We knew for a fact that mining has many adverse effects towards out environment. Many non government sector are condemning this kind of act because it si not just the environment that are at stake but also the lives of the miner. Maybe there is a need to make a collaborative effort from the government private and non government sector to instill to the people that the protection and conservation of mother earth is one our prime social responsibility. Lets support the environment removal mining.
The Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Transportation, and the Federal government are teaming up. They're out to modify how you look at gas mileage, or at least the gas mileage decals for dealers. You can have a look at the two new labels to pick from on the Environmental Protection Agency site, and comment on which you would prefer. Ecological influence is much more prominent on these labels. There is one with a letter grade, and another with more numerical data. The labels are intended to reflect the new concern over emissions.
Thanks a lot for sharing this very informative post. The Community Conversation Toolkit is very efficient for individuals, for them to be more aware on the environment and as well as on public health. Such program can help citizens on discussing their concerns and they will be more eager to take part and act for the environment. Numerous organizations and agencies out there do have also the same objective. So, why not talk it about? Let's be part of the conversation and share your ideas with others.
Please share your comments, reactions, and insights if you were able to particpate in any of these public meetings. Fracking, not unlike coal mining and oil drilling, is a very contentious and complex issue. Check out the movie "Gasland" by Josh Fox http://gaslandthemovie.com.
I have navigated to http://www.epa.gov/triexplorer/ but i am unable to see the explorer button, could you please help me out?
Andrew
The Endeca Information Application Platform (IAP) demonstration will highlight how the technology has already led to one EPA application, Regulations.gov, being recognized as one of the Obama administration’s top-20 “Open Government Initiative” sites (http://www.whitehouse.gov/open/innovations/Regulations-gov-Exchange).
Endeca’s IAP provides the infrastructure for an enterprise to map many different data sources/collections, each with their own formats and types, into the MDEX, a high-performance discovery engine. This MDEX engine exposes the content via query and retrieval APIs including Java, .NET, and customizable Web Services. The MDEX supports much more than just standard data retrieval metaphors like search - users can have a dialog akin to speaking with a knowledgeable librarian or concierge. This dialog helps users precisely find what they are interested in while simultaneously teaching them about relevant and related information, even crossing data boundaries to highlight relationships across different kinds of records.
Endeca specializes in making this dialog require zero training through the use of visual contextual feedback including refinement and related metadata, geospatial criteria, and analytic charts. This cutting-edge usability is easy to deploy and inexpensive to maintain. By removing cost from technology deployment and maintenance, the EPA can spend the time savings on higher-order tasks – for example, tracking user access patterns to further optimize content spotlighting and even suggest what type of data users most want or which chemicals the public might need the EPA to track.
EPA is an agency that regulates environmental protection. They are responsible on protecting the nature against polluters. Today, the agency aims to restore the cleanliness of the water in the Gulf of Mexico where the spill occurred. Our primary concern in this matter is the public health that surely will be affected by this oil spill. EPA is now working on for water restoration. So, let's participate in this environmental action.
Due the the environmental and health crisis from the oil spill, your readers may be interested in participating in the Community Conversation on Public Health and Chemical Exposure. Nancy Swan will lead the Community Conversations at three branches of the Mobile Public Library. You can help promote attendance by listing these events on your community calendar. I am available for interview if news would like to produce a story about the Community Conversation. Upon request, Mrs. Swan can provide photos, authorities, and additional resources.
Saturday morning , June 12, 10:30 a.m. at the Parkway Branch
Tuesday evening, June 15, 6:30 p.m. at the West Regional Branch
Thursday evening, June 17, 6:30 p.m. at the Moorer/Spring Hill Branch
The ATSDR/CDC selected Swan to lead the Community Conversations as a result of her participation in the National Conversation on Public Health and Chemical Exposure last May, her environmental activism in Mobile and on the national level, and her chemical exposure and injuries.
National Healthy Schools Day is sponsored by Healthy Schools Network. Swan represent Healthy Schools Network in Mobile and partners with a number of national environmental and health organizations. Her articles on improving environmental quality of our schools and reducing chemical injuries have been published in the Mississippi Sun Herald, the Mobile Press Register and in newspapers and publications nationwide.
If you would like an interview or need more information, contact: Email nancy.swan@gmail.com
Website http://www.toxicjustice.com
This program is very effective and if only people will participate to have a good waste management. The Initiative of Community Engagement specific steps EPA is taking to provide communities with better information and opportunities to understand and influence decisions on environmental cleanups and this makes me very proud of them. I hope everyone of us will participate in this goal, this is for our own good.
The oil spill has made much damaged that to some extent some of it can not be repaired. As of June 1 we are official in hurricane season 2010. Two poor things this year or so are; this is predicted being a very much more severe season than in years past, and also the oil spill to the ocean could trigger much a lot more devastation coupled with a hurricane. There is no very good that can come from hurricanes hitting the oil leak. They can either spread the oil additional or dump chemicals onto nearby cities, both of which are negative. In addition, crews can't function on fixing the oil leak within the middle of a hurricane. The news in the hurricane season finally being here only makes the future outlook for the oil spill resolution a lot more grim.
Date: May 25, 2010
Time: 1-3pm EDT
Registration at www1.gotomeeting.com/register/992299680
Learning Objectives
Once you've completed the registration form you will receive an e-mail confirming your registration for the Webinar from Kelley Lovelace of ECOS, along with the option to add the Webinar information to your Outlook® Calendar.
Agenda, Speaker Biographies, Resources, and Technical Webinar Tips Coming soon! Check this site often for updates!
Additional materials including frequently asked questions and a recording and transcript of the Webinar will be posted on this site soon after the conclusion of Webinar.
Webinar Contacts
Jennifer Major, Ross & Associates (representing ECOS) at jennifer.major@ross-assoc.com
Christine Arcari, U.S. EPA at arcari.christine@epa.gov
...I find it a little difficult to look through/work with because of all the Google Ads. It seems like there is a good amount of information but it is buried by adverts scattered throughout the content. Merely an observation.
Your web site has improve significantly since its release last year. It also contains very important information.
The best way to educate is using Internet in these days because most of the people have internet facility. I think the best way to give the education to children is using internet to give education. because most of the children in these days like to have more freedom to learn. My brother always looking Online Schools to have Online Education because he think that is very easy for him. I think he take a vice decision for his like with out wasting his valuable time.
"The considerations necessary when using TRI data in scientific studies (and suggested approaches for researchers)".
Individuals often discuss individual data limitations, but never as a complete tool kit and seldom with approaches to address the limitations when using TRI data. I have seen where researchers well respected in their fields make common mistakes by making the wrong assumption as to what a specific data element means or how it may have been reported to the EPA. Typically the mistakes become apparent when certain data trends are applied at too fine a scale or an assumed exactness is attributed to the data.
I think this TRI method will actuall suit the Online Degree students who are doing their majors in finance. Its pretty feasible to implement. What students will be looking for is a proper resource book on this.
So far site is not very user friendly. Tried to look at/download a couple of talks, Michael Ash's and my own and either timed out (Firefox) or got an error in Internet Explorer: Security Error Loading Document info: 'Error #2048'.
Kirk Mills
Colorado SARA Program
*comments are of the writers, and not sanctioned by his employer.
** Writer is a past TRI state Contact, also past FOSTA-TRI Member, and past NPPR Board Member
- revisit TRI expansion (phase IV?) which was looking at materials balance, including adding the chemical USE numbers. We've had this data in MA since 1989. for a company to accurately report their emissions, they MUST know how much they used in the first place, it adds value, adds information that can be used for better risk analysis (transport of materials to the facilities has risk (spills, accidents on highways, rail, shipping), and can be cross referenced with TIER II data as well
- add chemicals, a MA draft law has text that say's something like 'commerce has added 80,000 chemicals to production, while MA tracks some 1400'... while TRI tracks some 700 chemicals, this highlights the tremendous lack of information that exists. If the TRI is truly for the "Community Right to Know", how can the "community" possibly know what the chemicals and risks are if over 75,000 chemicals used are NOT being tracked?
- add nano materials as a 'category'. While the quantity manufactured and used may be well below the current 'high' thresholds, use the PBT case to expand to gather nano material information. Explore the legal situation to see if the FTE count in this unique instance can be lowered as well. Apply the precautionary principle to make this 'happen' (little is known, compounds are in commerce, and there is little to nothing known about the short term impacts/risks, and less known about the long-term impacts/risks. if a nano material is used in a consumer product, what happens to it 1-100 years after it's intended use, and then what happens when it is 'thrown away (recycled, burned, land filled) ?
- add additional SIC/NAICS codes. Again, MA has added additional codes and we have gathered additional information from facilities such as commercial laundries, waste-to-energy plants. Add feed lots (corporate farming), the environmental impact of these facilities is often much greater than any 'factory'.
- remove some chemical exclusion (i.e.: ammonia is currently reportable only if it is fuming. Is it not dangerous if it is liquid? )
- remove some USE exclusions (i.e.: the exclusion that allows beef (meat?) processing facilities to be exempt from reporting the levels of DIOXIN that are in the meat that they are processing)?
- add GHG chemicals to the mix
- make use on the forms the FRS ID#, if implemented this could greatly add to the transparency (to use a popular term) of corporate responsibility.
- Or, use FIEN# (with FRS ID#?)
- merge Tier II reporting (storage on-site) with TRI
- 'mine' the various databases @ EPA and other sources to find potential inconsistencies and non-filers
Finally, stop supporting 2 systems for transmitting TRI data to the states (EPA web site & CDX). Since CDX data retrieval is expensive & complex, and 'only' 22 (?) states are forecast to use it, leaving the rest of the states without access, build the EPA web site for TRI to a point where a state (or anyone) can download the data (all), allow them the same (or better) 'front end' interface so that they can build reports, make comparisons and massage the data any way needed - and download/import the result.
This is a good paper on what we have seen throught the years. I think it can take on further step by adding some political, regulatory and economical issues that could affet the data. For example in 1993 NAFTA was signed..is there any effect on the number of manufacturers from this? CAA is mentioned for 1995 but there are MACT standards that affected certain types of industry like pharmaceutical ..so maybe if the article focuses on 1 or 2 sectors that would enhance it ..
I thought this conference was well balanced and focused on new things that we need to do in the program. Location was great. I know it is heard to come up with subjects and speakers for the sessions but I think ECOS did a great job to balance the Agenda from industry perspectives to environmental perspectives.
I suggest the ECOS website on RTK include Environ's slides on RESEI presented 3/31.
This was only my second trip to the National Conference. I do confess that my EPCRA knowledge was very limited in '08 but with more than a year's experience "under my belt", '09's session was that much more enjoyable. Many thanks for the scholarship...without it, I would not have been able to attend this outstanding forum. I do agree with entertaining the idea of making this an every-other-year event to allow more time for topics/issues to develop along with the opportunity for EPA Regions to collaborate with their state counterparts on ways to enhance the TRI program.
And finally, I was very pleased to hear more discussion on the quality of TRI data. In SC, we participate in the SDX program. So when a facility electronically reports to EPA, they automatically meet the reporting requirements of my state and no additional quality checks are performed upon their air emissions data. However, if problems with the data are detected (i.e., we typically discover that facilities over-report their air emissions to TRI by one or more orders of magnitude when compared to our state emissions inventory), we promptly notify the EPA Regional office of our findings.
It goes without saying that accurate TRI data is crucial to the success of EPCRA, NEI, NATA, and RSEI. Communities base manpower and resources on these data sources to address issues of human and environmental health. It is hoped that as future TRI submissions come in, less discrepancies in the data are detected.
EPA encourages the use of RSEI to help communities identify areas for further investigation. However, it's vitally important to accomplish this goal with quality TRI data. Facilities are over-reporting their air emissions out of fear of EPA backlash for under-reporting. As a result, models such as RSEI will predict relative risk scores for chemicals, industry, demographics, etc., that are not representative of actual release conditions possibly resulting in erroneous, unnecessary, and costly reaction on behalf of stakeholders.
The discussion concerning industry segments not currently included in TRI reporting came up. My state (SC) has a municipal waste incinerator that emits > 25 lbs of Hg on an annual basis. Although it meets the EPCRA reporting criteria under Section 313, it is exempt from doing such via CERCLA.