EPA Approves ASTM E1527-13 to satisfy AAI Rule

Effective December 30, 2013, parties may use the 2013 Phase I Environmental Site Assessment standard ASTM E1527-13 to satisfy the All Appropriate Inquiries Rule, according to the EPA. And while the agency has not yet removed references to the 2005 standard in the final rule, 78 Fed. Reg. 79319 (Dec. 30, 2013), EPA clarified that it intends to issue a proposed rule to remove the references to the 2005 standard.

As stated at 78 Fed. Reg. 79320-79321, “Although today's action will not remove the current reference in the All Appropriate Inquiries Rule to the ASTM E1527-05 standard, EPA agrees with commenters that the revised ASTM E1527-13 standard includes improvements to the previous standard and its use will result in greater clarity for prospective purchases with regard to potential contamination at a property. Therefore, EPA recommends that environmental professionals and prospective purchasers use the ASTM E1527-13 standard. In the near future, EPA intends to publish a proposed rulemaking to remove the reference to the ASTM E1527-05 standard in the All Appropriate Inquiries Rule. By taking such action the Agency's intent will be to promote the use of the current industry standard and reduce confusion associated with the regulatory reference to a standard no longer recognized as current by ASTM International and no longer marketed by the standards development organization as reflecting its current consensus-based standard.”

Additional differences between the 2005 and 2013 Phase I ESA standard are discussed in the final rule preamble and EPA’s “Summary of Updates and Revisions to ASTM E1527 Standard Practice for Environmental Site Assessments: Phase I Environmental Site Assessment Process: How E1527-13 Differs from E1527-05” posted in EPA Docket ID No.  EPA-HQ-SFUND-2013-0513.

Livable Communities Assistance in KY, AL, TN, and MS

The Appalachian communities of Corbin, Kentucky; Anniston, Alabama; Pikeville, Tennessee; and Aberdeen, Mississippi have been selected by EPA, the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to receive technical assistance and implementation support through the $250,000 Livable Communities program.

• Corbin, Kentucky will expand its seasonal outdoor market in downtown into a year-round local food network hub.
  
• Anniston, Alabama will develop a system of community and neighborhood gardens tied to neighborhood and downtown revitalization efforts.
  
• Pikeville, Tennessee will build a farmers’ market on vacant land in the heart of downtown and establish a community kitchen to help feed the needy.
  
• Aberdeen, Mississippi will establish a farmers’ market and neighborhood nutrition education center in a revitalized and refurbished former railroad building.

Support from the three agencies will help these communities promote economic development, preserve rural lands, and increase access to locally grown food. The 2013 Livable Communities program focuses on developing local food systems as a means of revitalizing traditional downtowns and promoting economic diversification.

These types of programs may be good "leveraged" resources for a Brownfield Grant for these communities.

EPA Adds Nine Hazardous Waste Sites to Superfund’s National Priorities List

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is adding nine hazardous waste sites that pose risks to people’s health and the environment to the National Priorities List (NPL) of Superfund sites. EPA is also proposing to add another eight sites to the list. Superfund is the federal program that investigates and cleans up the most complex, uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous waste sites in the country to protect people’s health and the environment.

“Superfund cleanups protect the health of nearby communities and ecosystems from harmful contaminants,” said Mathy Stanislaus, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response. “They can also provide positive economic outcomes for communities including job creation, increased property values, enhanced local tax bases and improved quality of life.”

The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), the law establishing the Superfund program, requires EPA to update the NPL at least annually and clean up hazardous waste sites to protect human health with the goal of returning them to communities for productive use. A site’s listing neither imposes a financial obligation on EPA nor assigns liability to any party. Updates to the NPL do, however, provide policymakers with a list of high priority sites, serving to identify the size and nature of the nation’s cleanup challenges.

The Superfund program has provided important benefits for people and the environment since Congress established the program in 1980.Those benefits are both direct and indirect, and include reduction of threats to human health and ecological systems in the vicinity of Superfund sites, improvement of the economic conditions and quality of life in communities affected by hazardous waste sites, prevention of future releases of hazardous substances, and advances in science and technology.  

By eliminating or reducing real and perceived health risks and environmental contamination associated with hazardous waste sites, Superfund actions frequently convert contaminated land into productive local resources and increase local property values. A study conducted by researchers at Duke and Pittsburgh Universities concluded that, while a site’s proposal to the NPL reduces property values slightly, making a site final on the NPL begins to increase property values surrounding Superfund sites. Furthermore, the study found that, once a site has all cleanup remedies in place, surrounding properties have a significant increase in property values as compared to pre-NPL proposal values.

Since 1983, EPA has listed 1,694 sites on the NPL. At 1,147 or 68 percent of NPL sites, all cleanup remedies are in place. Approximately 645 or 38 percent of NPL sites have all necessary long-term protections in place, which means EPA considers the sites protective for redevelopment or reuse.

With all NPL sites, EPA first works to identify companies or people responsible for the contamination at a site, and requires them to conduct or pay for the cleanup. For the newly listed sites without viable potentially responsible parties, EPA will investigate the full extent of the contamination before starting significant cleanup at the site. Therefore, it may be several years before significant EPA clean up funding is required for these sites.
The following nine sites have been added to the NPL:
• Beck’s Lake (former automotive and hazardous waste dump) in South Bend, Ind.;
• Garden City Ground Water Plume (ground water plume) in Garden City, Ind.;
• Keystone Corridor Ground Water Contamination (ground water plume) in Indianapolis, Ind;
• Cristex Drum (former fabric mill) in Oxford, N.C.;
• Hemphill Road TCE (former chemical drum recycling) in Gastonia, N.C.;
• Collins & Aikman Plant (Former) (former automotive rubber manufacturer) in Farmington, N.H.;
• Jackpile-Paguate Uranium Mine (former uranium mine) in Laguna Pueblo, N.M.;
• Wilcox Oil Company (former oil refinery) in Bristow, Okla.; and
• Makah Reservation Warmhouse Beach Dump (municipal and hazardous waste dump) in Neah             Bay, Wash.
The following eight sites have been proposed for addition to the NPL:
• Macmillan Ring Free Oil (former oil refinery) in Norphlet, Ark.;
• Keddy Mill (former sawmill, grist and wool carding mill) in Windham, Maine;
• PCE Southeast Contamination (ground water plume) in York, Neb.;
• PCE/TCE Northeast Contamination (ground water plume) in York, Neb.;
• Troy Chem Corp Inc (chemical manufacturer) in Newark, N.J.;
• Unimatic Manufacturing Corporation (former chemical manufacturer) in Fairfield, N.J.;
• Wolff-Alport Chemical Company (former metal extraction facility) in Ridgewood, N.Y.; and
• Walker Machine Products, Inc. (former machine screw products manufacturer) in Collierville, Tenn.     
In the proposed rule, EPA is also soliciting additional comments on the Smurfit-Stone Mill site based on additional references to the Hazard Ranking System documentation record being made available to the public for review.
EPA is also changing the name of the B.F. Goodrich site in Rialto, Calif., which EPA added to the NPL on September 23, 2009 (74 FR 48412). The site’s new name, Rockets, Fireworks, and Flares (RFF), informs the public of activities that are believed to have contributed to contamination at the site.

Federal Register notices and supporting documents for the final and proposed sites: http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/npl/current.htm
Information about how a site is listed on the NPL:
http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/npl/npl_hrs.htm
Superfund sites in local communities:
http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/index.htm
More information about the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), the law establishing the Superfund program, can be found at: 
http://epa.gov/superfund/policy/cercla.htm

RESCHEDULED Brownfield Grant Webinars

The US EPA will host two webinars to assist applicants with applying for the FY14 Assessment, Revolving Loan Fund, and Cleanup grants. Webinar 1 will review the TABEZ tool which can be used to build an assessment or cleanup proposal. Webinar 2 was rescheduled due to inclement weather and will assist applicants in understanding what information is necessary to apply for the Assessment, Revolving Loan Fund and/or Cleanup grants.

Slides will be available via the brownfields website once these webinars have been completed, they will be posted on the newsroom page.  Should you have any questions please contact Jeanette Mendes at (202) 566-1887 or mendes.jeanette@epa.gov.

Webinar 1:

Name:                  Using the TABEZ Tool

Date:                    Friday, December 13, 2013

Time:                    12:30 pm to 2:00 pm EST

Adobe Link:         https://epa.connectsolutions.com/fy14arctabez/

Webinar 2:

* Rescheduled from December 10th

Name:                  FY14 National Outreach Webinar

Date:                    Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Time:                    12:30 pm to 2:00 pm EST

Adobe Link:         https://epa.connectsolutions.com/fy14_arc/

EPA Announces Job Training Grant Guidelines

FY14 Environmental Workforce Development and Job Training Grant Guidelines
RFP# EPA-OSWER-OBLR-14-01 - Closing Date: February 13, 2014.

EPA has announced the availability of funds and is soliciting proposals from eligible entities, including nonprofit organizations, to deliver environmental workforce development and  job training programs that recruit, train, and place local, unemployed and under-employed residents with the skills needed to secure full-time employment in the environmental field, with a focus on solid and hazardous waste remediation, environmental health and safety, and wastewater-related training.

For more information, go to: http://www.epa.gov/oswer/docs/grants/epa-oswer-oblr-14-01.pdf

EPA Brownfield Grant Webinars

If you are applying for an EPA Brownfields Assessment, Revolving Loan Fund, or Cleanup grant, you may be interested in the webinars below.

The US EPA will host two webinars to assist applicants with applying for the FY14 Assessment, Revolving Loan Fund, and Cleanup grants. Webinar 1 will assist applicants in understanding what information is necessary to apply for the Assessment, Revolving Loan Fund and/or Cleanup grants. Webinar 2 will review the TABEZ tool which can be used to build an assessment or cleanup proposal.

Webinar 1:

Name: FY14 National Outreach Webinar

Date: Tuesday, December 10, 2014

Time: 12:30 pm to 2:00 pm EST

Adobe Link: https://epa.connectsolutions.com/fy14_arc/

Webinar 2:

Name: Using the TABEZ Tool

Date: Friday, December 13, 2014

Time: 12:30 pm to 2:00 pm EST

Adobe Link: https://epa.connectsolutions.com/fy14arctabez/

Should you have any questions please contact Jeanette Mendes at (202) 566-1887 or mendes.jeanette@epa.gov.

Funding Available: Our Town Initiative From the National Endowment for the Arts

Application Due: January 13, 2014

Eligible Entities: All applications must involve two primary partners: a local government entity and a nonprofit organization. Local governments include counties, parishes, cities, towns, villages, or federally recognized tribal governments. Local arts agencies or other departments, agencies, or entities within an eligible local government may submit the application on behalf of that local government.

The National Endowment for the Arts will provide a limited number of grants, ranging from $25,000 to $200,000, for creative placemaking projects that contribute toward the livability of communities and help transform them into lively, beautiful, and sustainable places with the arts at their core. The Our Town initiative will invest in creative and innovative projects in which communities, together with their arts and design organizations and artists, seek to improve their quality of life, foster stronger community identity and a sense of place, and revitalize economic development.

For more information, visit the grant opportunity webpage.