Category: EPA

EPA Offices, Washington DC
Clean Air Act / EPA
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Big Wheel Keep on Turnin’, EPA Keep on Churnin’ Out Regulations

Stationary combustion turbines, often referred to as gas turbines, are used to generate high volumes of electricity at power stations, dams, and industrial centers. Despite their size, noise, and prodigious output, these engines are simple, with a design that dates, at least in concept, all the way back to 150 BC when a Greek inventor named “Hero” designed a ‘toy’ sitting on top of heated water, the gases of which caused the toy to spin.

This concept, compressing air and then injecting fuel and heat …

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Ecological catastrophe
Emissions / EPA
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EPA Finalizes New Rule Requiring More Than 200 Chemical Plants to Reduce Toxic Emissions

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced April 9 a set of final rules under sections 111 and 112 of the Clean Air Act (CAA) to significantly reduce toxic air pollution from more than 200 chemical plants in the United States.

The plants affected make products such as synthetic organic chemicals, plastics, paints, synthetic fabrics, pesticides, petrochemical products, and various polymers and resins, including neoprene. The new rules strengthen protections for communities living near these industrial facilities, especially along the Gulf Coast, and it is anticipated …

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Emerging Issues / Emissions / EPA
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EPA Issues Final Emission Standards

The Environmental Protection Agency announced March 20 final national pollution standards applicable to cars, light-duty trucks, and medium-duty vehicles. These standards apply to vehicles manufactured beginning in 2027. The new standards will be phased in on vehicles manufactured until 2032. 

The EPA estimates the new standards will avoid more than 7 million tons of carbon emissions. The standards also are estimated to provide over $100 billion in net benefits to society – including $62 billion in reduced fuel costs and $13 billion in public health …

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EPA Offices, Washington DC
EPA / PFAS
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Fifth Circuit Tells EPA 40-Year-Old Fluorination Process isn’t ‘New’

Inhance Technologies is a company that has been fluorinating plastic containers using the same process since 1983. The fluorination process creates a barrier that keeps dangerous substances from leaching out of their containers, and keeps outside substances from permeating in. The U.S. EPA began investigating Inhance after the presence of perfluoroalkyls (PFAS) was detected in an insecticide that was stored in a container fluorinated by Inhance.

After confirming that Inhance’s fluorination process resulted in the creation of PFAS, the EPA issued Inhance a Notice of Violation …

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Close-up of exhaust fan on factory roof
EPA
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EPA’s Final EtO Rule Finally Finalized

The Environmental Protection Agency on March 14 announced final amendments to the National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) applicable to 90 large commercial sterilization facilities that use ethylene oxide (EtO), a chemical to which long-term exposure can cause cancer or other serious injury.

The EtO rulemaking process has engendered some criticism – most dramatically in lawsuits filed against the EPA by advocates representing neighbors of EtO facilities who claim the rulemaking process was too little too late (covered by ELM here). But …

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Smoke stacks at a power plant.
EPA
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SCOTUS Poised to ‘Shove Thy Neighbor’ on EPA Law

In March 2023, the EPA issued its final Good Neighbor Plan, the last in a series of legislations designed to reduce emissions of ozone-forming nitrogen oxide (NO2) which cross state borders. Specifically, the Plan was intended to assist 23 identified states to maintain the EPA’s 2015 National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for smog (ground-level ozone) production into downwind states, by reducing NO2 from electric generating units and industrial plants. Smog, of course, has been identified for decades as a cause for whole gamut of respiratory …

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A large construction excavator removes contaminated soil from an urban brownfield development site.
EPA / Regulations
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Leading with Lead: EPA to Implement Strategy for Lead in 2024

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency kicked off the New Year by strengthening its guidance for investigating and cleaning up lead-contaminated soil at residential properties, especially in areas where children live and play. Toward this end, the EPA lowered the recommended screening levels for lead in residential soil, from 400 parts per million to 200 ppm, for the first time in 30 years. 

While screening levels are not cleanup standard, this change is expected to assist the EPA in making site-specific cleanup decisions, which may include …

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A man's hand in a blue glove takes a close-up of water into a test tube to measure water pollution. Background
Clean Water Act / EPA
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Did the 9th Circuit Just Let the EPA ‘Fudge’ the Numbers on Water Pollution?

Ever since the Clean Water Act of 1972 dramatically overhauled the way in which America, through the EPA, monitors and protects its waterways, there has been the struggle between the literal life-and-death need for clean water, and the cold, hard reality that people can, will, and sometimes-have-to release pollutants into the water as part of American life.

The balancing mechanism, however, is built right into the act itself in the form of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit program.

As the program dictates, …

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Sterile storage of medical and surgical instruments in the dentist's office. View from above. Closeup shoot.
Emerging Issues / EPA
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FDA Finally Recognizes EtO Sterilizing Alternative as the World Becomes a Force Majeure Pile-Up

Perhaps nothing has proven the indispensable value of commercial sterilizers more than the devastating worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. Without the highly effective and efficient commercial sterilizer ethylene oxide (EtO), we would not have been able to rely on lifesaving sterilized medical equipment and supplies – such as cotton swabs for nasal-swab testing, masks, ventilators, and thermometers – to get us through the past four years. Moreover, maintaining basic hospital functionality and everyday healthcare needs outside of the pandemic requires sterile equipment and supplies simply for civilization …

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The toxic symbol on chemical products, dangerous chemicals in industry
EPA / PFAS
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EPA Adds Seven More PFAS To Toxic Release Inventory List

As our blog has reported a number of times, the Environmental Protection Agency announced an ambitious national strategy to address per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Dubbed a “roadmap,” the EPA says that it is centered on three guiding strategies focused on research, restrictions, and remediation. Specifically: “Increase investments in research, leverage authorities to take action now to restrict PFAS chemicals from being released into the environment and accelerate the cleanup of PFAS contamination.”

As part of this plan, the EPA last week announced the …

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