On September 20, 2012, the US Environmental Protection Agency announced that the RI Public Transit Authority was the recipient of the Clean Air Excellence Award along with 11 other organizations across the nation. 

The Free Zoo and Trolley Too! Under the RI Public Transit Authority was the recognized project in Rhode Island.  The program under the RIPTA allowed residents to ride free to the Roger Williams Park Zoo by running hybrid and diesel trolleys to the zoo on the first Saturday of every month.  The new transportation is much cleaner for the air, reduces noise pollution, and is estimated to reduce fuel costs by about 20 percent. 

The program encourages residents in the city of Providence to leave their cars at home and take the new form of transportation.  The state reported that the number of riders doubled on the first day of promotion. 

Cristy Raposo, the marketing coordinator for RIPTA, stated: “While our primary mission is to provide safe and efficient transportation to our riders, we recognize and value the importance of preserving and protecting our environment.  Through programs like this, we will continue to demonstrate our commitment to improving air quality for all Rhode Islanders.”

Other recipients of the award include the following:

· ReNew Air Scrubber Technology, Diversey Incorporated in Racine, Wisconsin for clean air technology

· Frazier Courtyard Homes, Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity in Dallas, Texas for community action

· Electric Vehicle Ecosystem Pilot Project in the city and county of Greenville, South Carolina for community action

· Conservation and Clime Change Challenge in Broward County, Florida for education outreach

· InnerTribal Bear, Spokane Tribal Air Quality Program and KYRS Community Radio in Spokane, Washington for education outreach

· Rapid Response Notification System, Maricopa County Air Quality Department for regulation/policy innovations

· GHG Emissions Reduction Projects, Frito-Lay, Incorporated in Beloit, Wisconsin

· Leadership in Reducing Ocean-going vessel Emissions, Maersk Line/Maersk Agency USA in Charlotte, North Carolina for transportation efficiency innovations

· Climate Initiatives Program, Metropolitan Transportation Commission of San Francisco Bay Area for transportation efficiency innovations

· SC John Global Sustainability Program in Racine, Wisconsin for the Gregg Cooke Visionary Program Award

Source: Environmental Protection Agency

On September 14, 2012, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed adding the Riverside Industrial Park to the Superfund list.  The industrial park is located on the Passaic River in Newark, NJ. 

An oil spill occurred in 2009 from the industrial park.  The EPA found that chemicals like benzene, mercury, chromium and arsenic were all being stored improperly on the site and took immediate action to stop the chemicals from entering the river system.  The chemicals are extremely toxic and, apart from causing cancer, can damage the immune, reproductive, and nervous systems.  PCBs and volatile organic compounds are believed to have contaminated the soil and ground water around the park. 

Judith A. Enck, the EPA Regional Administrator, stated, “We have kept people out of immediate danger from this contaminated industrial park and can now develop long-term solutions to protect the community.” 

In its first attempts to stop contamination, the EPA capped several discharge pipes from surrounding buildings and two tanks that contain the contamination.  Additionally, the EPA found between 12,000 and 15,000 abandoned underground storage takes that still contain hazardous waste.  There is also a large amount of aboveground storage tanks containing harmful chemicals. 

The EPA has proposed to add the site to the Superfund list but needs to respond to public comment before making the final decision.  The EPA created the Superfund to take the burden off of taxpayers and find the parties responsible for the contamination.  The search for responsible parties at the Riverside Industrial Park is still going on. 

If you want to submit comments, you have several options.  You can submit comments online at the following link: https://www.regulations.gov.  You can email comments to superfund.docket@epa.gov, or you can mail comments to the following address:

Docket Coordinator, Headquarters

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

CERCLA Docket Office

1200 Pennsylvania Ave, NW

Washington, DC 20460

Make sure to identify your comments with the following docket number: EPHA-HQ-SFUND-2012-0603

Source: Environmental Protection Agency

On September 26, 2012, the EPA announced the finalized plan for the Evor Phillips Leasing Company Superfund site on the six-acre site in Old Bridge Township, New Jersey.  Industrial activity in the past released volatile organic compounds into groundwater. 

The Evor Phillips site was used from the 1970s until 1986 for industrial waste treatment and operations for metal recovery.  The liquid waste was treated on the site in two different waste disposal areas that neutralized acidic water.  Additionally, the site operated 19 small-scale furnaces that melted photographic film and circuit boards in order to recover silver and other metals. 

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection stopped the liquid waste treatment in 1975 after it failed to meet state requirements, and all operation were shutdown in 1986. 

The site was added to the EPA Superfund list in 1983, but the cleanup process required three different phases.  The first phase required the removal of about 40 buried drums of industrial waste.  Also, the New Jersey DEP ordered several companies that were responsible for the contamination to construct a water treatment system that prevent contaminated ground water from exiting the site. 

The EPA will begin the second phase of the cleanup this fall which requires the removal of contaminated soil.  After the soil is removed, the EPA will begin the newly approved third phase.  The final phase requires the contaminated ground water to go through a process called chemical oxidation.  The process uses certain chemicals to break down the harmful chemicals in the soil and ground—only leaving behind water and carbon dioxide.  The ground water will be monitored for several years before the EPA declares decontamination. 

The EPA Regional Administrator, Judith A. Enck, stated, “The chemical in the ground water at the Evor Phillips Superfund site pose health risks.  Removing and treating them is the best way to protect the health of people who live and work in the area.”

Source: Environmental Protection Agency

On October 2, 2012, the Environmental Protection Agency announced that New York State will receive $1.4 million to combat invasive species.  The grants are a part of 21 grants offered the EPA’s Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.  

The grants are listed below:

1. Paul Smith’s College of Arts and Sciences will receive $399,891 for the Lake Ontario Headwaters Watercraft Inspection Program.  The project will help to prevent the spread of invasive species by allowing the College to conduct inspections on watercraft entering the western part of Adirondack Park.  

2. Central Michigan University, NY, will receive $356,154 in order to assess the risk of invasive species in the Erie Canal Corridor.  The project will catalog non-native species throughout the Mohawk-Hudson River and Lake Champlain basins.  By conducting the study, the project will try to find pathways for the invasive species.  

3. The Nature Conservancy will receive $315,059 to develop models that can forecast the spread of invasive species like Hydrilla verticillata in New York, northwestern Pennsylvania, and eastern Ohio.  

4. Cornell University will receive $277,484 in order to work with government and nongovernmental agencies to raise awareness among anglers and boaters about the dangers of invasive species.  

5. SUNY-Buffalo State College will receive $99,756 to access the potential dangers of the invasive Ponto-Caspian fish from European shipping ports.  The data will be used to develop early detection techniques for the invasive fish that is capable of adapting to the waters in the Great Lakes.  

EPA Regional Administrator Judith A. Enck stated, “Invasive species is a very serious problem facing the Great Lakes.  These EPA grants will help prevent larger costs and damage to the environment in the future and will help ensure the continued revitalization of western New York’s economy.”

Source: Environmental Protection Agency

Countries from all over the world are currently meeting in Doha, the capital city of oil-rich Qatar, to develop a treaty to reduce the progression of global warming.  The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has already indicted drastic and immediate changes are needed in developed and developing countries to meet 2020 emissions goals. 

The current Kyoto protocol, the only international emissions treaty, received pledges from developed countries around the world to dramatically reduce emissions by 2015 in order to meet 2020 goals.

Members of countries’ negotiating teams, especially those of the United States, were mostly optimistic about steps being taken for 2020 goals, but a recent study states developing countries like the United States and Canada will unlikely meet their pledges. 

The results of the study were published by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (NEAA). 

According to the study, climate policies in the United States currently fail to reduce emissions reductions pledged to the UNFCCC—which is 17 percent below 2005 emissions levels by 2020. 

The US emission projections are lower than estimates in the past because the economic crisis and development in the energy sector.  Energy demand is shifting from coal to natural gas and helping to heat homes more than electricity generated from coal.  The recession has reduced consuming and ultimately emissions from consumption, but the United States still fails to meet 2020 pledges because it continues to build inefficient cars and coal-fired power stations.  

With current trends and policies, emissions will range from 6.3 to 6.5 gigatons (not including forestry emissions).  The United States has pledged 6.0 Gt or less by 2020. 

Furthermore, the study predicts that the “New Performance Standard” will have no effect on emissions in the future.  The Standard regulates emission levels at new power plants.  The study sites an impact analysis by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). 

The same goes for Canada.  The NEAA predicts Canada’s current climate policies will not meet pledges by 2020.  Canada has pledged an emissions target of 610 Megatons by 2020, but current estimates show the emissions ranging from 730 to 780 Mt (excluding forestry emissions). 

NEAA argues that the most important environmental policies in Canada are the standards set for small vehicles and coal-fire power generating plants.  However, Canada is unlikely to meet 2020 levels because existing power plants are allowed to operate for 50 more years under the new standards. 

Source: Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency

On November 21, 2012, the Energy Information Agency (EIA) announced the wind energy production tax credit (PTC) may expire by the end of the year unless legislation extends the tax credits.  The PTC is one of the main contributing factors to wind energy growth within the United States in the last decade because it allows more financial return on wind energy investment and allows companies to competitively price their generation. 

The PTC was enacted in the 1992 Energy Policy Act and replaced former incentives for wind investment and generation in the Energy Tax Act of 1978.  The first tax credit amount was 1.5 cents per kilowatthour (in 1992 dollars), and the credit is now valued at 2.2 cents per kilowatthour. 

The PTC contributed to an explosion of wind investment and wind generation over the last 20 years.  In 1992, the United States only generated 1.5 gigawatts (GW) of wind power.  At the start of 2012, the United States was generating 45 GW from wind.  State incentives—like the mandate in Minnesota to produce 425 megawatts of power from wind by 2003—have helped increase wind energy production in the last decade as well, but the PTC has pushed for the most wind energy production overall. 

There is hope legislation may extend the PTC though.  Congress let the PTC expire a total of three times from 1999 to 2004.  During these periods, there is usually a large amount of construction on wind energy projects during the year before expiration of the PTC, followed by a year of lower production as the tax credit is discussed and reinstated. 

The PTC has not expired since the Working Families Tax Relief Act was passed in 2004, and substantial year-to-year growth has occurred from 2005 to 2010.  New generation fell again in 2010 as natural gas prices became competitive, but new wind generation picked back up in 2011. 

Some recent projects have taken advantage of an investment tax credit known as the 1603 Grant.  Projects that began construction before 2011 receive a cash grant in lieu of the investment tax credit by electing the 1603 Grant. 

2012 saw a continuing increase in the generation of new wind production.  In the months up to October, 6 GW of new installations have occurred.  The PTC will expire at the end of this year unless legislation extends the credit, and projects that started construction before the end of 2011 are still eligible for the 1603 Grant. 

Source: Energy Information Agency

On November 15, 2012, the Sierra Club announced that Patriot Coal Corporation will immediately begin to phase out large scale surface mining throughout Appalachia. Patriot is one of the largest mountaintop coal removal companies in Appalachia. 

Patriot Coal filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy on July 9, 2012.  A court order and settlement within certain groups persuaded Patriot to reach an agreement with the Sierra Club, and the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy.  Attorneys with Appalachian Mountain Advocates required Patriot to install new pollution controls, but Patriot agreed to cease mountaintop removal mining if granted an extension on the time allowed to install the new controls. 

Michael Brune, the Executive Director of the Sierra Club, stated: “This is an historic moment for people hardest hit by mountaintop removal coal mining.  Tens of thousands of people have worked tirelessly to put an end to this destructive process, and today’s agreement is a major step towards ending this abhorrent form of mining and repairing the damage done to communities and ecosystems across the region.”

Patriot is granted additional time on installing selenium treatment at designated mines if it goes through its plan to stop mountaintop removal mining.  The dragline at the Catenary mine complex will stop immediately, and Patriot will retire the dragline at the Hobet mine complex by 2015. 

As part of the agreement, Patriot is also required to withdraw applications for Clean Water Act section 404 valley fill permits.  The permits—currently under review by the Army Corps of Engineers—allow companies to dump mountaintop removal waste into valleys.  The waste can bury streams and headwaters. 

Additionally, Patriot will not apply for new large-scale surface mine permits and will not open any new stand-alone surface mines.  Patriot is still allowed to continue with the opening of a new metallurgical coal mine under its pending 404 permit application, but groups have the right to challenge the pending application. 

The court order for selenium controls by Patriot at the Hobet mine has been extended 15 months.  The installation of selenium controls at 42 other mines is extended 12 months. 

Cindy Rank with the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy stated, “We've been saying for many years that if companies had to pay the real costs of mountaintop removal, it would not be economically feasible.  Hopefully, it’s now become clear that when coal companies are required to prevent illegal selenium pollution and pay the costs for cleanup themselves it’s simply doesn’t make economic sense to continue this destructive form of mining.”

Source: Sierra Club