|
February 2019 www.newmoa.org
|
|
Board of Directors
NEWMOA's Board of Directors met in December to discuss state and EPA waste, toxics, PFAS, and pollution prevention challenges and NEWMOA's FY 2019 projects, funding, and strategic priorities. They discussed many of the projects that are described below.
Leadership
NEWMOA's FY 2019 Officers include:
- Ron Gagnon, RI DEM, Board Chair
- Nicole Lugli, CT DEEP, Board Vice Chair
- Peter Pettit, NYS DEC, Board Treasurer
NEWMOA's FY 2019 Program Chairs include:
- Tom Killeen, NYS DEC, Hazardous Waste Program Chair
- Trish Coppolino, VT DEC, Waste Site Cleanup Program Chair
- Peter Pettit, NYS DEC, Solid Waste and Sustainable Materials Management Program Chair
- Elena Bertocci, ME DEP, Interstate Mercury Education and Reduction Clearinghouse (IMERC) Chair
- Pam Hadad-Hurst, NYS DEC, Interstate Chemicals Clearinghouse (IC2) Chair
- Rich Bizzozero, MA OTA, Pollution Prevention and Sustainability Program Chair
We also want to extend our appreciation for efforts of the following people who are chairing important Workgroups:
- Nick Hodgkins, ME DEP, Brownfields Workgroup Chair
- Tom Metzner, CT DEEP, Joint NEWMOA-NERC EPR Leaders Group Chair
- Mark Dennen, RI DEM, Hazardous Waste Training Workgroup Chair
- Pam Eliason, Mass TURI, IC2 AA Workgroup Chair
- Sabrina Gogol, METRO (Portland, OR), IC2 Database Workgroup Chair
- Ken Zarker, WA Ecology, IC2 Governance & Outreach Workgroup Chair
- Beth Meer, NYS DEC, IC2 Procurement Workgroup Chair
- Kevin Masterson, OR DEQ, IC2 Training Workgroup Chair
- Joy Taylor, MI DEQ, IMERC Ed. & Outreach Workgroup Chair
- John Gilkeson, MN PCA, IMERC Labeling Workgroup Chair
- Peter Van Erp, NYS DEC, IMERC Phase-out Workgroup Chair
- Julie Churchill, ME DEP, Innovative Compliance Workgroup Chair
- Jennifer Wharf, Mass DEP, Soils Reuse Workgroup Chair
|
|
|
|
Follow us on
NEWMOA's Facebook page! We are now using Facebook to post notices about our events, new publications and information resources, projects, and members. We'd love to hear your ideas for how to make our Facebook page engaging and helpful. Check it out.
|
Rachel Smith has worked for NEWMOA for about 12 years. She recently accepted a position working in the solid waste management program at the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection and will be leaving the NEWMOA staff at the end of February. We will miss her greatly.
Rachel was hired in 2006 to help conduct a variety of projects focused on mercury reduction in Massachusetts and to assist with various pollution prevention (P2) projects. As a result of some of the mercury reduction projects, many schools throughout Massachusetts became mercury-free. She developed the content for NEWMOA's online database covering mercury legacy products. Rachel has made substantial contributions to a number of NEWMOA's P2 information resources, including the Green Lodging Calculator, the Wet Cleaning Virtual Trade Show, the National Sustainable Lodging Network, Zero Waste Connection, and others.
For more than five years, Rachel has been managing the Interstate Mercury Education and Reduction Clearinghouse (IMERC). In that role, she has led efforts to improve the states' product notification, labeling, and phase-out activities.
Rachel has contributed to important solid waste projects, including those focused on reducing the generation of paint waste, bulky waste, and food scraps. She also worked on training programs for transfer station operators on safety and waste reduction and for municipal officials on Pay-as-You-Throw. She took the lead on preparing many of the written materials for these projects and delivered a number of presentations.
She has made numerous contributions to other projects and activities over her tenure. We greatly appreciate Rachel's many years of dedication and hard work and wish her well.
|
|
Solid Waste & Sustainable Materials Management Program
|
|
Using Recycled Content Materials in Roadways Workshop
NERC and NEWMOA are jointly hosting a daylong workshop to promote the use of recycled materials in road and infrastructure projects. The workshop will bring together state, local highway, and public works officials, environmental departments, and others to hear about new opportunities, case studies, and lessons learned from experts in the field. The workshop will focus on case studies by peers who have successfully used the following materials in road and infrastructure projects:
- Compost
- Glass
- Ground asphalt shingles
- Shredded tires
NEWMOA and NERC are seeking workshop sponsors. Sponsorship offers the following benefits:
- Opportunity to present for approximately five minutes during the workshop about your services and products
- One complimentary registration
- The organization's logo with a link included on the workshop webpages, email marketing materials, workshop handouts, and a printed display poster
- Opportunity to share handouts during the workshop
The cost for the basic sponsorship is $500. Opportunities are available to sponsor the continental breakfast, lunch, or afternoon break. Meal sponsors will receive enhanced visibility during the workshop.
To apply to be a sponsor, contact Terri Goldberg.
|
Using Composting as a Management Tool in Disaster Recovery
NEWMOA held a webinar on February 7 focused on using composting as a management tool in response to environmental emergencies. Mark King, Maine Department of Environmental Protection (ME DEP) shared the outcomes and lessons learned from a fall 2018 Unusual Mortality Event (UME) involving seals, response work to address poultry mortalities in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence, and debris management activities that took place in the U.S. Virgin Islands following Hurricane Irma and Maria in 2017. Mark is a well-respected expert in composting and debris management. To view the slides, go to:
www.newmoa.org/events/event.cfm?m=349.
|
 |
|
|
Click here for more information. |
Food Waste Reduction
NEWMOA recently completed its Promoting Strategies to Keep Food Waste Out of Landfills project that worked with rural areas of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont to help residents reduce their generation of wasted food and implement backyard composting. The project also focused on increasing the recovery and donation of excess food from businesses, such as grocery stores, restaurants, and cafeterias. NEWMOA partnered with NERC to hold a joint webinar in December that presented the project's results, including outreach materials and stakeholder workshops.
|
|
Waste Site Cleanup Program
|
|
PFAS
NEWMOA's States/EPA PFAS Working Group has planned two webinars in March and June:
The webinars are free for participants from EPA and state government agencies in the northeast. Fees are $50 fee for consultants and others from the private sector and $25 for those from non-profits, academic institutions, other federal agencies, and government agencies in states outside the NEWMOA region.
|
ITRC Annual Meeting in Boston
The Interstate
Technology and Regulatory Council's
2019 Annual Meeting
will be held in Boston, MA on March 25-28. This meeting is open to all and will host team meetings on a variety of issues, including PFAS, 1,4-Dioxane, Incremental Sampling Methodology, In Situ Optimization, Advanced Site Characterization Tools, and Harmful Cyanobacterial Blooms. The two Plenary speakers are Maureen Sullivan, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Environment and Martin Suuberg, Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection.
ITRC will also be hosting a
PFAS training on Friday, March 29 in Boston. This training is free for state/city/local and federal staff, academia, public stakeholders, and tribal members. For industry employees, it costs $200.
|
Soil Reuse
NEWMOA's Soil Reuse project held a webinar in November for states programs to share information and answer the following questions:
- What term is your state using to describe mildly contaminated soil?
- Under what authority are you regulating soil that is not generated from a site in your waste site cleanup program and that does not have contamination levels that make it a regulated hazardous waste?
- If soil has contamination at levels below your residential cleanup standards, is it regulated?
- What are the uses of mildly contaminated soils in your state?
- Does your agency review and approve/disapprove proposals for soil use/s as a beneficial use determination/s or under another program? If so, what is the authority and how does the process work?
- Does your agency promote certain uses? If so, how? How has risk communication with the public been managed?
- What are the top three challenges/problems your state is facing related to mildly contaminated soils? Are you facing issues with inter-state shipments?
For more information, contact Jennifer Griffith.
|
NEWMOA recently held conference calls for state hazardous waste program staff that covered:
- State requirements for safe closure of generator sites
- The issues raised by a recent enforcement case at a Treatment, Storage, and Disposal Facility in Vermont
- Characterization and management of decommissioned photovoltaic solar panels from large scale installations
Upcoming calls will focus on:
- Training resources for hazardous waste program staff
- State regulatory approached to hazardous waste recycling
- Used oil management
- EPA's pharmaceutical waste rule
- E-manifest
- RCRA financial assurance
These conference calls are for state and EPA hazardous waste program staff only.
|
|
Interstate Mercury Education & Reduction Clearinghouse (IMERC)
|
Webinar on IMERC's 2016 Mercury-added Product Data Analysis
This webinar was held in early February and focused on IMERC's latest
analysis of mercury-added products data
reported through its e-filing system, which covers the 2016 calendar year. There were 40 participants, including federal, state, and local government programs, academic institutions, non-governmental organizations, and/or manufacturers, distributors, and importers of mercury-added products. A copy of the PPT slides, as well as a recording of the webinar are available at:
www.newmoa.org/events/event.cfm?m=347
.
Fact Sheets Updated with 2016 Data
|
The
Fact Sheets
summarize the data provided by manufacturers and distributors of mercury-added products to the IMERC-member states in compliance with the state Notification requirements. They include a trends analysis of mercury use in each product category sold in the U.S. from 2001 to 2016; as well as information about the amount of mercury used in the products; why mercury has been or continues to be used in the products; state phase-outs and bans on the use of mercury in products; collection and recycling programs (where applicable); and other useful information.
Overall, mercury use in each of the product categories analyzed from 2001 to 2016 has declined, with large decreases in mercury-added lighting (e.g., fluorescent lamps) and batteries. Mercury use in new button-cell batteries is expected to be zero after 2016, and new mercury thermostats stopped being manufactured and sold in 2015.
|
Updates to Online Notification System
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued its
Final National Mercury Inventory and Reporting Rule
under the Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA) on June 27, 2018. This Rule requires manufacturers and importers of mercury and mercury-added products to report on their supply, use, and trade in the U.S. every three years. The first report will cover calendar year 2018 and is due to EPA by July 1, 2019. EPA's rule allows reporters to utilize IMERC's online
e-filing system
for reporting on applicable mercury-added products sold in the U.S.
IMERC is updating its online reporting cycle to conform with EPA's timeline and other requirements. The most significant change for companies will be that the next round of triennial notifications will include mercury-added products data for calendar year 2018 - rather than calendar year 2019. Additional upgrades to the system will allow IMERC and its members to track companies' compliance with product labeling laws and phase-outs (i.e., product bans and sales restrictions). IMERC expects to launch the updated version of the e-filing system on March 31, 2019.
For more information, contact
Andy Bray
.
|
|
Interstate Chemicals Clearinghouse (IC2)
|
|
Development of the IC2 High Priority Chemicals Data System
The IC2 has moved from design to active development of the IC2 High Priority Chemicals Data System (HPCDS), which will collect information concerning the presence of chemicals of high concern to children's health reported by manufacturers of children's products sold in Oregon, Vermont, and Washington. When deployed later this year, the HPCDS will reduce the reporting burden on children's product manufacturers and eliminate the need for each of the three states to maintain its own reporting system. The HPCDS will also enhance public access to the reported information.
Webinar on PFAS Uses
- The universe of PFAS
- PFAS chemicals currently in use and their applications
- Degradation pathways (biotic and abiotic)
- Degradation products of PFAS chemicals currently in use (e.g., large-volume products, perfluoropolyether polymers, side-chain fluorinated polymers, and products used in dispersive applications, like AFFF).
Per- and Polyfluorinated Substances (PFAS) in Firefighting Foam
The IC2 has posted a new report that summarizes the results of work to scope an alternatives assessment of the use of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) in aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF), also known as "firefighting foam." AFFF is used to fight fuel (Class B) fires and typically contain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). They are responsible for many incidents of contamination of groundwater and drinking water. The goal of the project is to:
- Help define the parameters for performance evaluation of firefighting foams
- Identify foams containing short-chain PFAS and fluorine-free foams
- Further inform the scope of any future assessment work to develop alternatives to the use of per- and polyfluorinated substances in firefighting foams
|
|
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
|
|
news@NEWMOA is designed to help our members and colleagues keep informed about the Association's projects and activities. You are receiving this e-newsletter because you are a member of a NEWMOA working group, committee, or program; invitee to NEWMOA events; a colleague at a related organization or EPA; connected to the Association in some other way; or have expressed interest in our work.
If you have questions about delivery of this e-Newsletter, contact Lois Makina.
Share this newsletter with others in your agency or organization that might be interested.
|
|
Newsletter contributors:
Andy Bray, Topher Buck, Terri Goldberg, Jennifer Griffith, Lois Makina, and Rachel Smith.
|
|
Equal opportunity employer and provider
|
|
|
|
|
