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Facility Maintenance
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As part of maintaining the physical site, an owner of an agricultural establishment may have to be aware of environmental requirements that are not necessarily tied to agricultural operations. These requirements, while not agricultural in nature, must still be complied with by the owner.
- Asbestos
- Chemical Use and Safety
- Lead-Based Paint
- Managing Electrical Equipment With PCBs
- Maintenance and Service of Unpaved Roads
- Maintenance and Service of Paved Roads
- Onsite/Decentralized Wastewater Treatment Systems (Septic Systems)
- Servicing Farm and Heavy-Duty Equipment Air Conditioning Systems
Asbestos
Asbestos is the name for a group of naturally occurring minerals that separate into strong, very fine fibers. The fibers are heat-resistant and extremely durable. Because of these qualities, asbestos has become very useful in construction and industry. In the home it may or may not pose a health hazard to the occupants, depending on its condition. When it can be crushed by hand pressure or the surface is not sealed to prevent small pieces from escaping, the material is considered friable -- fragile or easily crumbled. In this condition fibers can be released and pose a health risk. However, as long as the surface is stable and well-sealed against the release of its fibers and not damaged, the material is considered safe until damaged in some way.Asbestos tends to break down into a dust of microscopic fibers. Because of their size and shape, these tiny fibers remain suspended in the air for long periods of time and can easily penetrate body tissues after being inhaled or ingested. Because of their durability, these fibers can remain in the body for many years and thereby become the cause of asbestos-related diseases. Symptoms of these diseases generally do not appear for 10 to 30 years after the exposure. Therefore, long before its effects are detectable, asbestos-related injury to the body may have already occurred. There is no safe level of exposure known; therefore, exposure to friable asbestos should be avoided.
Buildings on agricultural establishments and agribusinesses may contain asbestos or asbestos-containing materials (ACM). Used for insulation and as a fire retardant, asbestos and ACMs can be found in a variety of building construction materials, including pipe and furnace insulation materials, asbestos shingles, millboard, textured paint and other coating materials, and floor tiles. Asbestos may also be found in vehicle brakes. Buildings built in the sixties are more likely to have asbestos-containing sprayed- or troweled-on friable materials than other buildings.
Related laws and policies
Asbestos
Related environmental requirements
Toxic Substances Control Act text
40 CFR Part 61More information from EPA
Asbestos
Asbestos and NESHAP: Common Questions on the Asbestos National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) - The Asbestos NESHAP regulations protect the public by minimizing the release of asbestos fibers during activities involoving the processing, handling, and disposal of asbestos-containing material.Telephone assistance from EPA
Asbestos Information Hotline: 800-438-2474
Asbestos Ombudsman: 800-368-5888More information from the states
Asbestos State Resource Locator
Construction & Demolition Debris State Resource Locator
Chemical Use and Safety
Whenever significant hazards are found in the course of accident investigations, EPA issues Chemical Safety Alerts to caution facilities, State Emergency Response Commissions, Local Emergency Planning Committees, emergency responders, and others to reduce risks and prevent future accidents.Related topics
Chemical SafetyRelated publications from the Ag Center
Chemical SafetyMore information from EPA
Chemical Safety Alerts and Bulletins
Lead-Based Paint
In 1978, EPA banned the manufacture and use of lead-based paint and lead-based paint products. Current studies suggest that the primary sources of lead exposure for most children are deteriorating lead-based paint, lead-contaminated dust, and lead-contaminated residential soil. EPA is playing a major role in addressing these residential lead hazards. Lead-based paint chips and dust, if ingested, can create severe, long-term health effects, especially for children. Lead is a known carcinogen and, through any exposure pathway, may result in significant health effects.Lead-based paint on an agricultural establishment or agribusiness farm will typically be found on building interiors and exteriors for buildings constructed prior to 1978. During renovation and demolition, paint removal has the potential to impact human health and the environment as fibers, dust, and paint chips are released. Paint chips and dust can cause indoor air contamination during renovation, and soil contamination from demolition or improper disposal.
Related laws and policies
Lead-Based PaintRelated environmental requirements
Toxic Substances Control Act
40 CFR Part 35
40 CFR Part 745More information from EPA
Lead ProgramsTelephone assistance from EPA
National Lead Information Center: 800-424-LEADMore information from the states
Lead Paint Abatement Resource Locator
Managing Electrical Equipment with Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs)
PCBs are mixtures of synthetic organic chemicals that have the same basic chemical structure and that have physical properties ranging from oily liquids to waxy solids. Due to their non-flammability, chemical stability, high boiling point, and electrical insulating properties, PCBs were used in hundreds of industrial and commercial applications including electrical, heat transfer, and hydraulic equipment; as plasticizers in paints, plastics, and rubber products; in pigments, dyes, and carbonless copy paper; and in many other applications. More than 1.5 billion pounds of PCBs were manufactured in the United States before production stopped in 1977.PCBs have significant ecological and human health effects including carcinogenicity (probable human cancer-causing or cancer-promoting agent), neurotoxicity, reproductive and developmental toxicity, immune system suppression, liver damage, skin irritation, and endocrine disruption. These toxic effects have been observed from both acute and chronic exposures to PCB mixtures with varying chlorine content. PCBs do not break down readily in the environment and are taken into the food chain by microorganisms. PCBs are then biologically accumulated and concentrated at levels much higher than found in the surrounding environment, thus posing a greater risk of injury to human health and the environment than might be imagined.
Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were widely used in electrical equipment manufactured from 1932 to 1978. Types of equipment on agricultural establishments and agribusinesses potentially containing PCBs include transformers and their bushings, capacitors, reclosers, regulators, electric light ballasts, and oil switches. Any pieces of equipment containing PCBs in their dielectric fluid at concentrations of greater than 50 ppm are subject to the PCB requirements. Human food or animal feed must not be exposed to PCBs. Therefore, transformers and other items containing PCBs must not be located near food or feed.
Related laws and policies
PCBs
Related environmental requirements
Toxic Substances Control Act
40 CFR Part 761More information from EPA
PCB Program
Maintenance and Service of Unpaved Roads
Erosion of unpaved roadways occurs when soil particles are loosened and carried away from the roadway base, ditch, or road bank by water, wind, traffic or other transport means. Exposed soils, high runoff velocities and volumes, sandy or silty soil types, and poor compaction increase the potential for erosion. Loosened soil particles are carried from the road bed and into the roadway drainage system. Some of these particles settle out satisfactorily in the road ditches, but most often they settle out where they diminished the carrying capacity of the ditch, and in turn cause roadway flooding, which subsequently leads to more roadway erosion. Most of the eroded soil, however, ultimately ends up in streams and rives where it diminishes channel capacity causing more frequent and severe flooding, destroys aquatic and riparian habitat, and has other adverse effects on water quality and water-related activities.The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency have helped fund a manual of standard procedures that describes and illustrates cost-effective techniques and practices that can be used to enhance stability and maintenance of unpaved roadways while reducing sedimentation and improving the quality of surface waters. The manual was developed in Alabama for Choctawhatchee, Pea, and Yellow Rivers Watershed Management Authority counties in south Alabama and northwest Florida, but agricultural operators in other areas should also find it useful.
More information from EPA
Recommended Practices Manual: A Guideline for Maintenance and Service of Unpaved Roads
Gravel Roads: Maintenance and Design Manual
Controlling Nonpoint Source Runoff Pollution from Roads, Highways, and Bridges
Planning Considerations for Roads, Highways, and Bridges
Pollution Control Programs for Roads, Highways, and Bridges
Erosion, Sediment, and Runoff Control for Roads and Highways
EPA Office of Water: Roads, Highways, and Bridges Web site
Air Pollution Emission Factors from Unpaved Roads (AP-42, Fifth Edition, Volume 1, Chapter 13, Section 2.2) (PDF) (20 pp, 247K)
Maintenance and Service of Paved Roads
Particulate emissions occur whenever vehicles travel over a paved surface such as a road or parking lot. Particulate emissions from paved roads are due to direct emissions from vehicles in the form of exhaust, brake wear and tire wear emissions and resuspension of loose material on the road surface. In general terms, resuspended particulate emissions from paved roads originate from, and result in the depletion of, the loose material present on the surface (i.e., the surface loading). Of particular interest in many parts of the United States are the increased levels of emissions from public paved roads when the equilibrium between deposition and removal processes is upset. This situation can occur for various reasons, including application of granular materials for snow and ice control, mud/dirt carryout from construction activities in the area, and deposition from wind and/or water erosion of surrounding unstabilized areas.More information from EPA
Air Pollution Emission Factors from Paved Roads (AP-42, Fifth Edition, Volume 1, Chapter 13, Section 2.1) (PDF) (15 pp, 145K)
Additional information on the Air Pollution Emission Factors from Paved Roads document (scroll down to chapter 13.2.1)
Onsite/Decentralized Wastewater Treatment Systems (Septic Systems)
Septic systems treat and disperse relatively small volumes of wastewater from individual or small numbers of homes and commercial buildings. Septic system regulation is usually a state, tribal, and local responsibility. EPA provides information to homeowners and assistance to state and local governments to improve the management of septic systems to prevent failures that could harm human health and water quality.Related laws and policies
How A Shallow Disposal System On Your Property Affects You
Class V Injection WellsMore information from EPA
Septic Systems Web site
Basic Information on Septic Systems
Funding Decentralized Wastewater Systems Using the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (PDF) (6 pp, 573KB)
Voluntary National Guidelines for Management of Onsite and Clustered (Decentralized) Wastewater Treatment Systems (PDF) (62 pp, 1,263KB)
DRAFT Handbook for Management of Onsite and Clustered (Decentralized) Wastewater Treatment Systems (PDF) (166 pp, 2.1MB)
Information for Homeowners
Servicing Farm and Heavy-Duty Equipment Air Conditioning Systems
The following fact sheet should help owners and servicers of farm and heavy-duty equipment understand how the Clean Air Act governs the servicing of MVAC-like appliances -- the term used in the Act for open-drive compressor appliances used to cool the driver's or passenger's compartment of non-road motor vehicles, such as agricultural, construction, mining or quarry equipment.More information from EPA
Fact Sheet: Servicing Farm and Heavy-Duty Equipment
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