Day: August 29, 2019

Reclassification of Major Sources as Area Sources Under Section 112 of the Clean Air Act

Rule Summary

EPA is proposing a rule to implement the clear language of the Clean Air Act that allows a “major source” of hazardous air pollutants (HAP) to reclassify as an “area source” after acting to limit emissions.

This proposal, which withdraws the “once in, always in” provision of the policy, would relieve reclassified facilities from regulatory requirements intended for much larger emitters. It would also encourage other sources to evaluate their operations and consider changes that would enable them to further reduce HAP emissions and reclassify. 

Rule History

Public Hearing

EPA held a public hearing for this proposed action in Washington, DC, on August 15, 2019. Learn more about the hearing.

Additional Resources

To submit comments on this proposed rulemaking, please visit https://www.regulations.gov EXITand follow the online instructions for submitting comments. Comments must be received on or before September 24, 2019. Please see the Fact Sheet (link below) for more information about submitting comments.

E.P.A. to Roll Back Regulations on Methane, a Potent Greenhouse Gas

Read the full story in the New York Times.

The Trump administration is set to announce on Thursday that it intends to sharply curtail the regulation of methane emissions, a major contributor to climate change, according to an industry official with knowledge of the plan.

The Environmental Protection Agency, in a proposed rule, will aim to eliminate federal requirements that oil and gas companies install technology to inspect for and fix methane leaks from wells, pipelines and storage facilities.

Ancient Amazonian societies managed the forest intensively but sustainably — here’s what we can learn from them

Read the full story at Ensia.

When loggers and cattle ranchers began toppling the rainforest in Brazil’s far western state of Acre, they revealed a mystery: vast ancient earthworks, hidden for centuries under the trees.

These “geoglyphs” took the form of geometric shapes — squares, rectangles and circles — hundreds of meters across, marked out with ditches and raised mounds. Since the 1980s, around 450 geoglyphs have been identified in Acre alone, dating back between 650 and 2,000 years — offering new perspectives on the supposed pristine nature of the Amazon as well as insights into how agriculture and healthy ecosystems might coexist.

The Amazon has long been thought of as an untrammeled ecosystem, a wilderness relatively untouched by humans. Indigenous peoples were presumed to be so few in number, and live so lightly on the land, that they had a negligible impact on the environment.

But recent interdisciplinary research across the Amazon basin is overturning that old story. It’s showing instead that the rainforest’s early inhabitants numbered in the millions, and that they managed the landscape intensively, in complex and sustainable ways — offering lessons for how we manage the Amazon today.  

‘It smells like a decomposing body’: North Carolina’s polluting pig farms

Read the story from the Guardian.

After years of burying neighbours’ complaints about illegal spraying of hog manure, state officials suddenly began posting them online. What changed?

Printers’ National Environmental Assistance Center (PNEAC) publication archive

The Printers’ National Environmental Assistance Center (PNEAC) was a national collaborative of industry, university, state and federal organizations working to help the printing industry work cleaner, more efficiently and to stay ahead of the environmental compliance curve.

An archive of the collaborative’s publications is now available on IDEALS.

EPA Seeks Public Comment on Pesticide Applications Adding Hemp as a New Use Site

Read the full story at JD Supra.

On August 23, 2019, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a Federal Register notice announcing the receipt of 10 applications to amend currently registered pesticide products to add hemp as a new use site.  The 10 application amendments are the result of the 2018 Farm Bill, signed in to law on December 20, 2018, that removed hemp from the Controlled Substances Act and legalized commercial use and production of hemp that contains less than 0.3% tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

SIU is now the highest accredited university arboretum in Illinois

Read the full story from Southern Illinois University.

Southern Illinois University Carbondale has long been known for its beautiful campus but its commitment to nurturing forested areas and incorporating educational components recently earned national recognition.

SIU is the first university in the state to earn Level II Arboretum Accreditation from the ArbNet Arboretum Accreditation Program and SIU is now featured in the Morton Register of Arboreta. This is the only global initiative that officially recognizes arboreta for development, capacity and professionalism.

Urban stormwater could release contaminants to ground, surface waters

Read the full story from the American Chemical Society.

A good rainstorm can make a city feel clean and revitalized. However, the substances that wash off of buildings, streets and sidewalks and down storm drains might not be so refreshing. Now, researchers have analyzed untreated urban stormwater from 50 rainstorms across the US, finding a wide variety of contaminants that could potentially harm aquatic organisms in surface waters and infiltrate ground water.

Q&A with Anna Davies, project lead for the ShareCity project

Read the full story at Shareable.

Commenced in 2015, ShareCity is an innovative, large-scale global project exploring the growing practice of food sharing in cities. Its principal investigator is Anna Davies, Professor of Geography, Environment and Society at Trinity College Dublin. Davies’ Urban Food Sharing: Rules, tools and networks is a fascinating new book about the current food-sharing environment, available via open access.

National Retailer Partners with Third Party to Manage Hazardous Waste

Read the full story at Waste360.

Stericycle provides the data, reporting, training and guidance necessary to ensure Petco remains compliant with hazardous waste regulations.