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News Briefs: (1) EPA Announces Biggest Green Power Purchase Nationwide; (2) To Help Meet More Protective Ozone Standard, EPA Will Update Vehicle Inspection and Maintenance Program Requirements; (3) EPA Proposes Minor Adjustment in Air Toxics Baseline for Certain Gasoline Refiners and Importers; (4) Cruise Company Given $2 Million Sentence in Alaska Pollution Case; (5) Former Wrecking Yard Owner Arrested on Illegal Disposal Charges; (6) Pipe Company, Co-Owner and State Inspector Indicted in Indiana Well-Plugging Case; (7) Minnesota Plating Company and Three Individuals Convicted in Wastewater CaseFollowing are some Agency developments which may interest you. If you need more information on any of these subjects, call the appropriate contact. (1) EPA Announces Biggest Green Power Purchase Nationwide (2) To Help Meet More Protective Ozone Standard, EPA Will Update Vehicle Inspection and Maintenance Program Requirements (3) EPA Proposes Minor Adjustment in Air Toxics Baseline for Certain Gasoline Refiners and Importers (4) Cruise Company Given $2 Million Sentence in Alaska Pollution Case (5) Former Wrecking Yard Owner Arrested on Illegal Disposal Charges (6) Pipe Company, Co-Owner and State Inspector Indicted in Indiana Well-Plugging Case (7) Minnesota Plating Company and Three Individuals Convicted in Wastewater Case (1) EPA Announces Biggest Green Power Purchase Nationwide Contact: Dave Ryan 202-564-4355 / ryan.dave@epa.gov EPA today announced a Green Power transaction involving biomass resources (paper pulp) in Georgia and the Agency’s Research Triangle Park, N.C., facilities. Nationwide, this is the biggest EPA Green Power procurement to date. EPA finalized a three-year contract with Unicoi Energy Services of Marietta, Ga., to provide RTP with 100 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of renewable energy certificates (RECs) annually -- equivalent to the energy consumed by 3,680 homes each year. Currently, EPA annually purchases more than 220 million kWh of Green Power for 26 of its facilities, laboratories and offices, across the nation. Green Power now accounts for 77 percent of EPA’s estimated national electricity consumption. Green Power is electric power derived from renewable resources such as wind, sun, and biomass (including burning of wood waste, plant materials and landfill gas). Green Power sources have lower emissions than more conventional generating plants, and generally have less adverse impact on the environment. White House Executive Order 13123 (titled “Greening the Government through Efficient Energy Management”), encourages all federal agencies to expand the use of Green Power by developing renewable energy projects, supporting the development of renewable projects by others on federal land and purchasing electricity from renewable energy sources. The Order also requires that federal agencies reduce their greenhouse gas emissions 30 percent from 1990 levels by 2010. EPA purchases Green Power through a process utilizing RECs (green tags), which are both cheaper and easier to procure than delivered power. For a more detailed explanation of green tags, go to: http://www.epa.gov/greeningepa/greenpower.htm#greentags . For more information on EPA’s Green Power program in general, go to: http://www.epa.gov/greeningepa/greenpower.htm . (2) To Help Meet More Protective Ozone Standard, EPA Will Update Vehicle Inspection and Maintenance Program Requirements Contact: John Millett 202-564-7842 / millett.john@epa.gov EPA has proposed updates to the Motor Vehicle Inspection and Maintenance (I/M) rule to reflect new, more protective air quality standards for ground-level ozone. Vehicle inspection and maintenance programs are important to state and local air quality improvement efforts because they can reduce air pollution by identifying passenger cars and light trucks with malfunctioning or worn-out emission controls. Only a few areas that do not currently meet the new 8-hour national ambient air quality ozone standard, will need to establish an I/M program. Updates to the I/M rule are necessary to synchronize I/M and 8-hour ozone standard regulatory deadlines and milestones. The updates will provide adequate flexibility to such state and local agencies’ I/M programs. For additional information, visit: http://www.epa.gov/otaq/epg/regs.htm . (3) EPA Proposes Minor Adjustment in Air Toxics Baseline for Certain Gasoline Refiners and Importers Contact: John Millett 202-564-7842 / millett.john@epa.gov To prevent “backsliding” in hazardous air pollutant emissions from mobile sources, EPA is proposing a minor adjustment to gasoline standards for certain refiners and importers under the Mobile Source Air Toxics (MSAT) Rule. EPA sets air toxics baselines to serve as fuel standards to reduce emissions of hazardous air pollutants from vehicles that burn gasoline. This proposal contains a minor amendment that updates the baseline to reflect available data. Today’s proposal is one part of EPA's MSAT regulations to reduce hazardous air pollutants from mobile sources. By 2010, EPA estimates that mobile source air toxics will be reduced by more than one million tons from 1996 levels. In addition to controlling pollutants such as hydrocarbons, particulate matter, and nitrogen oxides, EPA's recent regulations controlling emissions from highway vehicles and nonroad equipment also result in large air toxic reductions. Reformulated gasoline and anti-dumping standards, along with anti-backsliding provisions of the 2001 mobile source air toxics rule also result in large reductions. Under MSAT, reformulated gasoline and conventional gasoline toxics baselines were established for each refiner and importer based on gasoline production or import activity during the three-year baseline period 1998-2000. These baselines serve as the standards against which compliance is measured. Default toxics baseline values serve as the baseline standards for those refiners and importers who could not establish unique individual toxics baselines under the MSAT rules. When the rule was finalized in 2001, year 2000 gasoline data was not yet available. This proposal would include that data in the determination of the MSAT default toxics baseline values for certain gasoline refiners and importers. Today’s proposal is a relatively minor amendment and does not significantly affect the environmental benefits of the MSAT regulations. EPA is proposing that these values be effective beginning with the 2005 annual compliance period which begins on Jan 1. For more information, visit: http://www.epa.gov/otaq/toxics.htm . Enforcement Wrap-up Contact: John Millett 202-564-7842 / millett.john@epa.gov (4) Cruise Company Given $2 Million Sentence in Alaska Pollution Case HAL Marine Ltd., an operating company of Holland America Cruise Lines which is based in Seattle, Wash., pleaded guilty and was sentenced on Dec. 13 in U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska in Anchorage on a misdemeanor violation of a federal law commonly known as the Murkowski Cruise Ship Law. This is the first criminal prosecution under this law which focuses on releases of pollutants from ships in Alaskan waters. The case involved the release of 20,000 gallons of sewage from the cruise ship Ryndam into the harbor at Juneau, Alaska, on Aug. 17, 2002. HAL Marine will pay a $200,000 federal fine, provide $500,000 to the National Forest Foundation of environmental work in Southeast Alaska, pay $1.3 million for an environmental compliance program and serve three years probation. A separate civil penalty of $65,000 will be paid to the state of Alaska. Releasing sewage into harbors can create a public health hazard. The case was investigated by the U.S. Coast Guard, the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation and the Anchorage office of EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division. It is being prosecuted by the U.S. attorney’s office in Anchorage and counsel from EPA Region 10. (5) Former Wrecking Yard Owner Arrested on Illegal Disposal Charges Wei Guo Huang, also known as Larry Huang, of Kent, Wash., was arrested by Washington state patrol officers on Dec. 14 on state charges that he improperly disposed of waste petroleum products and crushed automobile batteries, failed to properly store hazardous waste, failed to notify state officials about hazardous waste spills and operated an automobile wrecking yard without a license. From early 1999 until February 2003, the defendant operated Japanese Auto Wrecking in Kent on land he rented. He was evicted from the property in 2003, and cleanup costs are estimated at $5 million. The charges allege that Huang disposed of waste gasoline by dumping it in a pit or onto the ground and that he left crushed and leaking automotive batteries lying around his property. The alleged disposal sites were within 150 feet of the banks of the Green River, and created a potential river pollution hazard. Gasoline contains benzene which is a known carcinogen, and battery acids can cause burns. Both chemicals can harm fish and aquatic life if the chemicals are washed by rains into surface waters. The case was investigated by the Washington State Department of Environmental Quality and the Seattle office of EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division. It is being prosecuted by the district attorney’s office for King County, Washington. (6) Pipe Company, Co-Owner and State Inspector Indicted in Indiana Well-Plugging Case Bi-State Pipe Co. Inc., of Mt. Camel, Ill., Carl F. Hanisch, co-owner of Bi-State, and Donald G. Veatch of Francisco, Ind., were all indicted in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana in Indianapolis on charges they made false statements concerning a well-plugging operation in Southern Indiana. At the time of the alleged illegal conduct, Veatch was an inspector for the Indiana Department of Natural Resources’s Division of Oil and Gas. According to the charges, Bi-State was sub-contracted to plug 51 leaking inactive wells in Vandenbergh County in 1999. The defendants allegedly falsified forms for 21 wells submitted to the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. The charges contend the defendants falsely stated on the forms that Bi-State Pipe had installed cast iron bridge plugs in the wells to prevent petroleum-based hydrocarbons from contaminating freshwater zones higher up in the wells. The certifications were later used by the state of Indiana to receive $269,949.85 in reimbursement from the Federal Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund for the costs to plug the wells. The case was investigated by the Indianapolis Office of EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division and the Indiana Interagency Environmental Crimes Task Force. It is being prosecuted by the U.S. attorney’s office in Indianapolis and counsel from EPA Region 5. (7) Minnesota Plating Company and Three Individuals Convicted in Wastewater Case Prime Plating of Maple Grove, Minn.; Scott Hanson, Prime Plating’s owner; and two other individuals, Sam Opare-Addo and Arlyn Hanson, were each convicted by a jury on Dec. 15 in U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota in Minneapolis on eight counts of violating the Clean Water Act (CWA). In addition, Prime Plating and Scott Hanson were convicted of conspiracy and failure to notify the local sewage treatment authority of changes in a discharge system and failure to notify of a bypass. In addition, Prime Plating was convicted of introducing pollutants into a sewage treatment system which the defendant knew or should have known could cause injury or damage. Prime Plating is in the metal finishing business. The conspiracy took place in June and July of 2003, when Hanson and Prime Plating conspired to discharge industrial wastewater from the Prime Plating facility in order to allow the business to continue operations even though it did not have a functioning pre-treatment system for its waste as required by the Metropolitan Council. As a result of the conspiracy, untreated wastewater was discharged directly into sewers using pumps and garden hoses. In addition, Prime Plating and Hanson hid the illegal discharges from state and federal regulators. Discharging plating wastes into sewers can prevent the proper treatment of wastewater at sewage treatment facilities. The case was investigated by the Minneapolis Office of EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division, the FBI, the Metropolitan Council Environmental Services and the Hennepin County Department of Environmental Services with the assistance of EPA’s National Enforcement Investigations Center. It is being prosecuted by the U.S. attorney’s office in Minneapolis. R243 ### Release date:12/22/2004 Receive our News Releases Automatically by Email
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