Table Of ContentPublished by the
Environmental Management Unit
Logan Office Center
A quarterly environmental newsletter
Issue No. 19, Quarter III - 2004
EPA Considers New Discharge
IN THE NEWS
Guidelines
United Airlines Fined for hazardous
Background
waste violations
The Clean Water Act (CWA) directs the
United Airlines, Inc. in San Francisco, California
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to institute
was fined $850,000 for hazardous waste violations.
limitations guidelines and standards that reflect
Inspectors found the airline had repeatedly violated
pollutant reductions that can be achieved using
the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act rules
specific technologies. Effluent guidelines are
requiring the following:
national regulations for controlling the discharge of
• Lids are placed on hazardous waste containers. pollutants to surface waters and to publicly owned
• Waste be segregated and each container is treatment works (POTWs). The EPA develops
properly labeled. effluent guidelines that are technology based and
specific to an industry. An annual review takes
• Hazardous waste is stored no longer than 90-
place under CWA Section 304(b) and a plan is
days.
established under Section 304(m).
The inspection was conducted by the Environmental
Protection Agency and the California Department of The effluent guidelines program is one of EPA’s
Toxic Substances. most successful environmental protection programs.
The guidelines have helped reverse water quality
From the Environmental Compliance Alert, August 16, 2004.
degradation by reducing the discharge of pollutants
that have serious environmental impacts. Some of
North Andover Company Pays
these impacts include:
Penalties for Idling Violation
• Kill or impair fish and other aquatic organisms
The United States Environmental Protection • Cause human health problems through
Agency (EPA) is seeking penalties totaling contaminated water, fish and shellfish
$109,120 from a North Andover company for • Degrade aquatic ecosystems
violating Massachusetts anti-idling regulations. The
company, Material Installations, Inc. is a distributor To date EPA has issued guidelines for 56 industries
of pre-manufactured office furniture. and estimated that this has prevented the discharge
of more than 690 billion pounds of pollutants
The complaint alleges that furniture trucks illegally annually.
idled their trucks on-site for up to 1,000 minutes
between April 2003 and March 2004. The company Proposed Guidelines
then received another violation notice in June 2004.
The EPA’s 2004 plan includes the results of the
Agency’s annual review, a response to public
The Massachusetts anti-idling regulation prohibits
comments received on the preliminary plan; the
idling the engine of any motor vehicle while the
industrial sectors identified for effluent guidelines
vehicle is stopped in excess of five minutes. This
rulemaking; and a rulemaking schedule.
regulation is part of the states plan to meet federal
air quality standards and it is therefore enforceable
In the 2004 Plan EPA identifies four industries for
by the EPA.
potential effluent guidelines. These are Airport
Deicing Operations, Drinking Water Supply and
FUN FACTS
Treatment, Vinyl Chloride manufacturing, and
As of January 1, 2005 hairspray will contain 55%
Chlor-Alkali manufacturing. Both Airport Deicing
volatile organic compounds as compared to 80%
and Drinking Water Supply and Treatment are not
today. The low-VOC products will still hold hair, but
subject to existing effluent guidelines.
will take longer to dry!
Continued on Page 2
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DID YOU KNOW?
For Your
In Canada they are using a lichen monitoring system to measure air
quality. Lichens are primitive organisms that grow on almost any rough Information
surface. Some species of lichens are sensitive to air pollution such as
Paper or Plastic Bags
sulphur and nitrogen based pollutions, particulate matter and ground
level ozone. Lichen communities change as air quality changes.
Which is better for
Examining the types of lichens on trees can give you a measure of local
air quality. the environment?
THE FACTS
Guidelines continued from page 1
Paper
Airport Deicing Operations
• Generate 70 percent more
In their preliminary plan the EPA noted that there was inadequate data
air and 50 times more water
to determine if discharges were non-trivial and that it would obtain
pollutants than plastic
more data in future planning cycles. The public comments on airport
deicing operations suggested that EPA develop effluent guidelines for • Made from trees, a
this sector because of the potential for facilities to discharge non-trivial renewable resource
amounts of non-conventional and toxic pollutants. • Take up more landfill space
Many comments suggested that airport deicing fluid was not captured,
• It takes four times as much
reused or treated prior to discharge. At the time of the study it was
energy to manufacture paper
estimated that airports discharged approximately 21 million gallons of
bags as it does to
airport deicing fluid. It was estimated that these discharges could be
manufacture plastic
reduced to 4 million gallons with the implementation of effluent
limitation guidelines and standards. • Research shows that 20
percent of paper bags are
Since the preliminary plan the EPA has conducted a review of proposed
recycled
discharge permits for over twenty airports. The review indicated that
while some airports have stringent requirements and have decreased
discharges since the first review, there is still significant disparity
Plastic
among discharge requirements. EPA concluded that it is appropriate to
identify the discharges from airport deicing operations in the final plan • Introduced in 1977 and now
and has committed to taking final action on effluent guidelines by account for four out of five
August 2007 bags in grocery stores
The effluent guidelines for the category would only apply to • Made from polyethylene,
wastewaters from airport deicing operations that are considered point which is made from crude
source discharges. These include those discharges that are required to oil and natural gas,
obtain a permit, such as a permit under the National Pollutant Discharge nonrenewable resources
Elimination System. • One percent of plastic bags
Excerpted from Federal Register: September 2, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 170) are recycled
EnviroQuestion Neither plastic nor paper
degrade at a significant rate in
Question: Which creates more pollution, the average car or the average today’s landfills due to lack of
home? water, light, oxygen and other
Answer in the next issue. important factors in the process.
Quarter II Question: How many bags of grass clippings are produced In New York City, one less
each year by a ½ acre lawn? grocery bag per person per year
would reduce waste by five
Answer: A ½ acre lawn in Massachusetts produces over 3 tons or nearly
million pounds and save
260 bags of grass clippings each year.
$250,000 in disposal costs!
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