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 From the ChairLiz McMeekin,
Chair
Beginning anew... Hello and Happy New Year! Let me just say that I am thrilled and excited to be your new A&WMA Allegheny Mountain Section (AMS) Chair for the 2009 calendar year. I look forward to serving you and thank the Section membership for the opportunity to chair the organization in the coming year. As we “change the guard”, I would like to personally thank all the Officers, Directors and Committee Chairs who have served so diligently this past year and acknowledge the members whose terms expired. First, my thanks go to Scott Golla for his dedication and hard work over the last year as the Section Chair. Leading a volunteer organization can often seem like “herding cats”, and Scott did it with great equanimity. My hat is off to you, Scott, and I can only hope to be as successful. My very sincere thanks go to Ed Moretti who, after 4 years as Treasurer of the Section, had to bow out of active office due to the demands of his real (and paying) job. Thank you, Ed, for your tireless and diligent years of service to the organization. And last, but not least, our thanks to Shawn Mendt whose 3-year term on the Board of Directors expired the end of December. In spite of the challenges of moving to a new job and location in the Erie area this past April, Shawn continued to actively provide his services to the organization. Thanks, Shawn! We look forward to your continued involvement via our NW PA Chapter! I also want to welcome the new and returning members of the Board. After completing a 3-year term as Director, Brad Waldron has been elected as AMS’ new Vice Chair. Congrats, Brad! And once again, our incumbent Secretary, Meghan Blaney, was re-elected for another term. Thank-you, Meghan, for your continued service to the organization! Please join me in extending a hearty welcome to Peter Kroll, our new Treasurer, who will be picking up the reins from Ed Moretti. We also have two newly-elected Board members joining us – Eric Perl and Natalie Durica; along with one re-elected Board Member – Mike Winek. Welcome, or welcome back as the case may be, to all! Finally, I want to thank, and welcome back, the returning Board of Directors, committee chairs and volunteers for their diligent service to the organization. It is their unwavering support, ideas and energy that keeps the engine of this organization running and humming! Please check the back page of the Zephyr for the names of all these hard-working folks. Feel free to contact any of us with your thoughts and ideas for continuing to make A&WMA your go-to place for environmental information, education, networking, and professional development. I think everyone will agree, 2009 is shaping up to be an interesting, exciting and challenging year, both professionally and personally. The economic situation obviously is presenting some challenges, not only to our businesses, and possibly our own pocketbooks, but also to non-profit organizations such as ours. Our out-going Treasurer (Ed Moretti) has already warned us that we will need to “sharpen our pencils” and aim for a balanced budget in 2009, given the dwindling size of AMS’ reserves. On the other hand, for a professional environmental organization, the upcoming year should be exciting and full of opportunities to provide invaluable services to our members. We have a new U.S. President, with a new cabinet and (I think we all will agree) a slightly different environmental agenda than our outgoing President. Energy and the environment are top issues on President-elect Obama’s agenda along with economic-stimulus issues. He believes, and I am optimistically hopeful, that succeeding on all these fronts is not a mutually exclusive proposition. We already know we will be seeing “something” out of EPA and Congress on greenhouse gases and climate change. Energy efficiency, renewable energy, clean energy and environmental sustainability are all expected to be significant initiatives in the coming years. Exciting times, these are. And, with your help, I see great opportunities for A&WMA-AMS to provide the forum for debate, discussion, and education on these issues. Please consider getting involved and feel free to contact me at emcmeekin@ppg.com or (412) 492-5597 with your ideas, questions, or comments.
 Section NewsNews about and of interest to members of the Allegheny Mountain Section Editor-in-Chief: Arijit Pakrasi, 412/858-3921, e-mail:Arijit.Pakrasi @ shawgrp.com ___________________________________
The Allegheny Mountain Section of the Air and Waste Management Association Celebrates its 40th Anniversary!Serving Environmental Professionals in Western Pennsylvania and West Virginia for 40 YearsSubmitted by Randy York Pop Quiz: What do the following folks have in common: Art Black; Bob Banks; Bob McLaren; E A Zawadski; Ed Moretti; J H Field; John Caine; John Frohlinger; Klemens Baczewski; Mrs. Robert Nickeson; Nick Pompelia; Paul Fredette; Ron Huffman; Stan Penkala; William Malaxos and William Wilson.? If you guessed that these are all of the Treasurers of the Allegheny Mountain Section from 1969 to 2008, you would be right. To celebrate the 40 Years of the Allegheny Mountain Section, we have assembled a listing of all of the section officers from the Section’s inaugural year in 1969 to today. (Special thanks to Eric Perl for his efforts to pull this together.) During 2009, we will be asking members for their memories from the early days of the Section. Back in those early days, we were the Western Pennsylvania Section of the Air Pollution Control Association. I invite you to take a look at the Leadership History page which is now posted on the section website and to send me your thoughts and recollections from “back in the olden days”. If you have any information about the Board Members from the missing years, send that along, too! We will feature this information this year in the upcoming Zephyrs. Congratulations to the newly elected officers and Board members!Vice-ChairBrad Waldron TreasurerPete Kroll SecretaryMeghan Blaney 2009-2009 Board Seat (1)Mike Winek 2009-2011 Board Seat (2)Natalie Durica Eric Perl Return to the top of the page
 Internet Site ReviewInternet Sites of
Interest to Environmental Professionals You can contact me at kimberly.walker@ erm.com ___________________________________ Living on Earth Living on Earth with Steve Curwood is the weekly environmental news and information program distributed by Public Radio International. Every week approximately 300 Public Radio stations broadcast Living on Earth's news, features, interviews and commentary on a broad range of ecological issues. The Living on Earth website is set up to provide quick links to environmental hot topics being discussed in the week’s radio show. Interested in reading about today’s hot issues, quick links to summary articles are easily accessible. Interested in learning more, there are links to mp3 downloads to hear the week’s broadcast.
 A Word on WaterThe Latest News on Water, Wastewater ___________________________________
New Guidance on Drinking Water Contamination Warning Systems EPA and the Department of the Army have issued a revised guidance document to ensure America’s wetlands, streams, and other waters are better protected under the Clean Water Act (CWA). The guidance clarifies the geographic scope of jurisdiction under the CWA. A question-and-answer summary document is also available. The summary document outlines the changes presented in the full guidance document. EPA and the Corps have revised the Rapanos Guidance in consideration of public comments received and consistent with the agencies’ experience implementing the guidance over the past 18 months. Specifically, the revised guidance:
“We are providing improved guidance today to ensure the information is in place to fully protect the nation’s streams and wetlands under the Clean Water Act,” said Benjamin H. Grumbles, EPA’s assistant administrator for water. “The guidance builds upon our experiences and provides consistent direction to our staff and the public.” “We are committed to protecting America’s aquatic resources as required by the Clean Water Act and in accordance with the Supreme Court decision,” said John Paul Woodley Jr., Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civil Works). “This revised interagency guidance will enable the agencies to make clear, consistent, and predictable jurisdictional determinations within the scope of the Clean Water Act.” The revised guidance replaces previous policy issued in June 2007 and clarifies a June 2006 Supreme Court decision in Rapanos v. U.S. regarding the scope of the agencies’ jurisdiction under the CWA. The guidance follows the agencies’ evaluation of more than 18,000 jurisdictional determinations and review of more than 66,000 comments. For decades, the Clean Water Act was understood to encompass almost all bodies of water in the United States. However, the Rapanos decision redefined the Act’s jurisdiction much more narrowly. A large amount of EPA’s available budget will now need to be dedicated to determining jurisdiction over waters. The result is that many previously protected waters and wetlands are now vulnerable to dredging and filling, with cumulative and long-term consequences for the quality of our nation’s ecosystems. “Rapanos was an impractical and overreaching decision,” said Mary Kelly, vice president of Rivers and Deltas for Environmental Defense Fund. “EPA’s unfortunate new guidelines will harm vital wetlands and waste federal resources. Environmental Defense Fund urges Congress to enact legislation quickly so we can fix this problem in an environmentally responsible way.” New Sampling Guidance Document for Unknown Contaminants in Drinking Water EPA has released a new document to help drinking water utilities address unknown contaminants in drinking water. Although the document is intended primarily for drinking water utilities, it also may be a useful reference for emergency response personnel. < a href="http://www.epa.gov/safewater/watersecurity/pubs/guide_watersecurity_samplingforunknown.pdf">The Sampling Guidance for Unknown Contaminants in Drinking Water provides comprehensive guidance that integrates pathogen, toxin, chemical, and radiochemical sample collection, preservation, and transport procedures to support multiple analytical approaches for the detection and identification of potential contaminants in drinking water. The document is intended to support sampling for routine and baseline monitoring to determine background concentrations of naturally occurring pathogens, sampling in response to a triggered event, and sampling in support of remediation or decontamination efforts. EPA Publishes Draft TMDLs to Stormwater Permits Handbook EPA’s Office of Wetlands, Oceans and Watersheds (OWOW) and Office of Wastewater Management (OWM) have jointly issued a Draft “TMDLs to Stormwater Handbook,” which is now available for public comment. “Stormwater runoff is a major threat to water quality in urban and coastal watersheds across the country,” Assistant Administrator for Water Benjamin H. Grumbles said. “This Draft Handbook is an important new tool to connect key regulatory and monitoring programs under the Clean Water Act and reduce impairments. We look forward to strengthening this draft with input from interested stakeholders who share our goal of protecting and restoring the nation’s waters.” Currently, there are thousands of Clean Water Act Section 303(d) waters listed as impaired for stormwater-source pollutants, such as pathogens, nutrients, sediments, and metals. This Draft Handbook provides a technical reference for TMDL practitioners and permit writers on current methods being used to develop more detailed stormwater-source TMDL allocations, TMDL implementation plans including best management practices, and methods for translating TMDL allocations into National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) stormwater permit requirements. The handbook also provides background information on the components of these programs, but it assumes that the reader has a working knowledge of both TMDLs and NPDES stormwater permits. More information can be found at www.epa.gov/owow/tmdl/stormwater/. Agreement to Help Improve Groundwater Water Quality Wastewater treatment systems serving 25 million homes across the country will be improved, thanks to an agreement among EPA and 14 national organizations. The organizations will work together to improve the management of septic wastewater systems by exchanging information and providing technical assistance to their members, states, and local municipalities. Nearly one-quarter of the nation’s housing and commercial development depend on on-site and septic wastewater treatment systems. When properly sited, designed, and maintained, these systems perform at a high level. However, between 10% and 20% fail each year, posing a great threat to surface and groundwater. Malfunctioning systems are the second greatest threat to groundwater quality in the United States. Template for Developing SWPPPs for the New Multi-Sector General Permit Any industrial facility that is eligible for coverage under EPA’s 2008 Multi-Sector General Permit (MSGP) must first develop a stormwater pollution prevention plan (SWPPP) before submitting its Notice of Intent (NOI) for coverage under the 2008 MSGP. To assist industrial facilities in developing their SWPPPs, EPA is providing a template for facilities to use. The template provides step-by-step instructions for developing a SWPPP, which complies with the 2008 MSGP requirements. The template was created as a Microsoft Word document so that users can customize information to meet their specific needs, including any sector-specific permit requirements. Copies of the new MSGP SWPPP Template, in addition to other materials pertaining to the 2008 MSGP, can be found on EPA’s MSGP webpage at http://cfpub.epa.gov/npdes/stormwater/msgp.cfm.
 In the AirNews of Air Pollution
Control You can contact them at schooley @ air-comp.com ___________________________________
EPA Required to Consider BACT for CO2 Emissions On November 13, 2008, EPA’s Environmental Appeals Board (EAB) decided to require EPA to consider whether Best Available Control Technology (BACT) for CO2 emissions should be included in a Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) permit issued for the construction of a new coal-fired power plant in Utah (In re: Deseret Power Electric Cooperative, PSD Appeal No. 07-03). The appeal to the EAB was filed by the Sierra Club. The EAB’s decision appears to be contrary to EPA’s position that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, including CO2, should not be regulated under the Clean Air Act (CAA). In April 2007, the US Supreme Court, in Massachusetts vs. EPA, found that EPA had the authority to regulate GHG emissions as a pollutant under the CAA, but only if EPA finds that the emissions endanger health or the environment through an endangerment finding. In July 2008, instead of making an endangerment finding, EPA issued the Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR), which concludes that Congress should be addressing the control of GHG emissions through new legislation, not the EPA. EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson stated in the preface of the ANPR that the CAA is “ill-suited” for regulation of GHG emissions, and regulating GHG emissions through the CAA would result in a “very complicated, time-consuming, and likely, convoluted set of regulations”. The ANPR details the significant challenges EPA would face if GHG were regulated under the CAA. The EAB’s decision did not require EPA to impose BACT for CO2, nor did it state whether the CAA should include regulations for GHG emissions, but it does require EPA to consider whether CO2 is a pollutant subject to regulation under the CAA, and hence whether CO2 BACT is required in permitting decisions. The EAB also instructed EPA to consider the nationwide implications of their decision. The implications could be huge, considering that even small combustion units can emit CO2 above the major source level. Renewable Fuel Standard for 2009 EPA is required annually to determine a renewable fuel standard (RFS) which is applicable to refiners, importers, and certain blenders of gasoline. Based on this standard, each obligated party determines the volume of renewable fuel that it must ensure is consumed as motor vehicle fuel. This standard is calculated as a percentage by dividing the amount of renewable fuel that is required to be used in a given year by the amount of gasoline expected to be used during that same year. There may also be some adjustments in the calculation as allowed by the Clean Air Act. In 2009, the EPA will require an RFS of 10.21%. For comparison, the requirement in 2008 was 7.76%. This value reflects that 11.1 billion gallons of renewable fuel will be consumed in 2009. EPA expects that the 11.1 billion gallons of renewable fuel in 2009 to include approximately 0.5 billion gallons of biodiesel and renewable diesel. More information can be found at http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/pdf/E8-27613.pdf. Formaldehyde Emissions From Pressed Wood Products EPA has issued an Advanced Notice of Public Rulemaking (ANPR) for potentially regulating the emissions of formaldehyde from pressed wood products (December 3, 2008; 73 FR 73620). The ANPR can be found at http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/pdf/E8-28585.pdf. EPA is requesting comment, information, and data related to formaldehyde emissions from pressed wood products. This effort is based on a Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) petition from 25 organizations and approximately 5,000 individuals concerned about the risks to human health and the environment from exposure to formaldehyde in composite wood products. Targeted are hardwood plywood, particleboard, and medium density fiberboard. The petition points to a recently-promulgated California regulation that targets these same products. The California Air Resources Board adopted an Airborne Toxics Control Measure (ATCM) for formaldehyde emissions in these three products if manufactured within the state. In addition, the ATCM requires that compliant products be used in finished goods sold, offered for sale, supplied or manufactured for sale in California. The new emission standards will take effect on January 1, 2009 in California. The petitioners are requesting that EPA adopt the same standards nationwide and that EPA extend the regulation to include composite wood products used in manufactured homes, which was not a requirement of the California rule. EPA is soliciting information and data from stakeholders and plans to hold five public meetings in January 2009 in Research Triangle Park; Portland, OR; Chicago; Dallas; and Washington, DC. PADEP Plans to Revise List of Exemptions for Permits PADEP published its intent to revise the list of plan approval and operating permit exemptions found in Technical Guidance Document No. 275-2101-003. The thirty-day public comment period ended on December 22, 2008. Proposed changes include the requirement for submittal of RFD forms for several sources that have been previously exempted from any permitting, including site-wide internal combustion engines (excluding peak shaving generators) that have site-wide combined NOx emissions of greater than 100 lb/hr, greater than 1000 lb/day and greater than 2.75 tons per ozone season. Also new on the list that require RFD forms are certain research and development activities, certain powder metal sintering furnaces, bulk material storage bins, and remediation of gasoline/fuel oil contaminated soil, groundwater or surface water. PADEP Proposes General Permits for Hot Mix Asphalt Plants On November 22, 2008, PADEP proposed to issue the General Plan Approval and/or Operating Permit (BAQ-GPA/GP-13) for Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) Plants. The proposed BP-13 will apply to the construction, operation, and modification of both new and existing HMA plants. The proposed GP-13 establishes restrictions and Best Available Technology (BAT) requirements for HMA plants that are consistent with current industrial practices. Details about the proposed General Permit can be found in the PA Bulletin, Vol. 38, No. 47, page 6425 or at this link: http://www.pabulletin.com/secure/data/vol38/38-47/index.html. PADEP will accept written comments until January 9, 2009. EPA Extends Comment Periods EPA has extended the comment periods for two rules including the Continuous Parameter Monitoring Systems (October 9, 2008; 73 FR 59955) – extended to February 5, 2009 and the National Emission Standards for Halogenated Solvent Cleaning (October 20, 2008; 73 FR 62383). These rules were both discussed in more detail in last month’s Zephyr. RMP Alert In June 2009, approximately 8,000 RMP facilities nationwide are due for the 5-year update of their Risk Management Plans. The RMP updates must be submitted using EPA’s new online reporting system, RMP*eSubmit. For more information, link to http://www.epa.gov/oem/content/rmp/. U.N. Climate Change Conference 2008 The world converged on Poznan, Poland from December 1-12, 2008 for discussions and negotiations regarding a new global climate change deal. At least 192 member countries of the United Nations Climate Change Convention hope to lay out a vision of an agreement that they expect to conclude in Copenhagen in 2009. This is a continuation of the processes which were launched under the Bali Road Map in 2007. The proposed agreement will most likely restrict the industrialized countries to emissions guidelines. Other items slated for discussion at the meeting included the Kyoto Protocol, capacity-building for developing countries, reducing emissions from deforestation, technology transfer and adaptation. Web blogs report that over 10,000 participants were in attendance. Link to http://unfccc.int/2860.php for additional information.
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