About Mathy Stanislaus

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Dec 7, 2016

Superfund Acts to Protect Americans from Harmful Vapors

By Mathy Stanislaus

Under the Superfund program, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) protects people who live close to Superfund sites by addressing any threats those sites may pose to soil, air, groundwater and surface water. Approximately 53 million people in the U.S. live within three miles of a Superfund site. So when EPA conducts Superfund investigations and finds significant threats to public health or the environment, we clean them up, control them, or both.

Another environmental concern that EPA addresses under Superfund is subsurface intrusion, which occurs when hazardous substances, pollutants or contaminants migrate from below the ground into overlying structures.

While subsurface intrusion can take multiple forms, vapor intrusion is the most common. Vapor intrusion generally occurs when volatile chemicals migrate from contaminated groundwater or soil into overlying structures. When someone is exposed to vapor intrusion, it can raise his or her lifetime risk of cancer or chronic disease.

EPA addresses subsurface intrusion under Superfund, but until now it was not a criterion for determining whether a site gets added to the National Priorities List (NPL). The NPL is EPA’s list of more than 1,300 of the nation’s most contaminated sites, where we conduct further investigation and possible remediation under the Superfund program.

So today, my office added subsurface intrusion to the Hazard Ranking System (HRS), which is the methodology EPA uses to evaluate and score sites for NPL inclusion. Sites receiving HRS scores above a specific threshold can be proposed to the NPL. Today’s action allows the EPA site assessment program to address two additional types of sites: those that either have only subsurface intrusion issues, and those with subsurface intrusion issues that are coincident with a groundwater or soil contamination problem. Therefore, this change expands options for EPA and our state and tribal partners to evaluate potential threats to public health and the environment from hazardous waste sites. This rulemaking only augments criteria for applying the HRS; it will not affect the status of sites currently on or proposed to the NPL.

Previously, if EPA addressed subsurface intrusion at an NPL site, it was because EPA listed the site on the NPL for a different contamination issue. Now that we factor subsurface intrusion into our HRS scoring, we have enhanced our ability to prioritize and address it.

The last HRS revision, in 1990, evaluated four exposure pathways: surface water, groundwater, air and soil. It did not include a subsurface intrusion component, as the science was not sufficiently advanced. In the interceding years the research has progressed to a point where today’s HRS revision stands on solid science.

Over its 35-year history, Superfund has made enormous contributions to improve the health, environment and economies of America’s communities. Today’s action moves the Superfund program forward and provides the public added protection and peace of mind.

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Dec 7, 2016

EPA Proposes Financial Requirements for Clean-Up at Hardrock Mining Facilities

and Liability Act, CERCLA, chemicals, Comprehensive Environmental Response, Human Health, Mining, superfund 0 Comments

By Mathy Stanislaus

The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA, better known as the Superfund law) protects human health and the environment by managing the cleanup of the nation’s most contaminated lands and by responding to locally and nationally significant environmental emergencies. To further CERCLA’s mission, we are proposing a rule that will reduce taxpayer costs at hardrock-mining and mineral-processing facilities.

Historically, hardrock-mining facilities have generated large quantities of hazardous substances, often over hundreds of square miles. In some instances, releases have resulted in groundwater and surface water contamination that require long-term management and treatment, which can be costly. For example, between 2010 and 2014 alone, EPA spent $1.1 billion in removal and remedial response costs at hardrock-mining and mineral-processing facilities, and taxpayer funds contributed to much of this amount. This has been the case for decades, with industry players leaving taxpayers to foot the bill for environmental cleanups.

It’s time for a change. Our latest proposed rulemaking ensures that future polluters are better prepared to pay. Under the rule, owners and operators at certain hardrock-mining and mineral-processing facilities would be required to make financial arrangements that address the risks from hazardous substances at these facilities. Additionally, they would still have to pay the agreed-upon amount if the company closes its doors.

Specifically, owners and operators of facilities subject to the proposed rule would be required to:

Use the formula provided in the rule to calculate a level of financial responsibility for their facility, and provide supporting documentation for their calculation;
Obtain a means of covering this financial responsibility through insurance, guarantee, surety bond, letter of credit, qualification as a self-insurer, or any combination of these instruments to demonstrate to EPA that they have obtained such evidence of financial responsibility; and
Update and maintain the rule until EPA releases them from the CERCLA §108(b) regulations.

This proposal, was developed after extensive consultation with stakeholders, including small and large businesses, industry groups, environmental groups, and state and tribal governments.

These requirements are not meant to duplicate existing financial responsibility requirements. EPA’s proposed CERCLA 108(b) regulations will be stand-alone financial responsibility requirements that address CERCLA liability. There are significant differences between these requirements and other existing requirements for hardrock mining facilities. In particular:

the proposed rule does not include technical requirements regulating the operation, closure, or reclamation of hardrock mining facilities;
the proposed rule does not provide financial responsibility to ensure closure or reclamation requirements made applicable to hardrock mining facilities through a permit;
the proposed rule is not intended to preempt state or local mining reclamation and closure requirements; and
the proposed rule is distinct from federal closure and reclamation bonding requirements imposed under other statutes.
Facilities that apply environmentally protective practices, including those required by other regulations, may be able to reduce their required amount of CERCLA 108(b) financial responsibility.

Additionally, we are publishing a notice describing the Agency’s plan to consider financial assurance requirements under CERCLA for three additional industries:

Chemical manufacturing;
Electric power generation, transmission and distribution; and
Petroleum and coal products.

The notice is not a determination that regulatory financial assurance requirements are necessary. We will evaluate a broad range of options in consultation with stakeholders including state and tribal governments, industry groups, and environmental groups before making such determinations. Our future activities will consist of information collection regarding each sector and an evaluation of the modern practices of these industries.This rule, and the consideration of others for additional industries, all starts with our fundamental desire to prevent the same kind of environmental contamination that has been plaguing American lands and dipping into taxpayer pockets for decades.

A pre-publication version of the proposed rulemaking is available at:
https://www.epa.gov/superfund/pre-publication-copy-proposed-financial-responsibility-requirements-under-cercla-section

Nov 22, 2016

Recognizing Leaders in Food Waste Reduction this Holiday Season

carbon dioxide, food waste, Food Waste Reduction, methane, thanksgiving 3 Comments

By Mathy Stanislaus

In just a few days, households across the nation will celebrate Thanksgiving, a cherished tradition of spending time with family and friends and sharing a meal. Many households, after enjoying abundant Thanksgiving meals, throw wholesome food into landfills. Did you know that food is the largest part of our everyday trash – more than paper, plastic, and glass? Reducing food waste results in significant environmental, social and financial benefits to our communities.

Food rots quickly in landfills and produces methane, a greenhouse gas that is 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere. Not only does wasting nutritious food exacerbate climate change, but we miss the opportunity to feed the millions of Americans that live in food insecure households. Additionally, throwing away food squanders money – an average family can spend up to $1,500 on food that is never eaten. Communities can save money, feed those in need and lessen environmental impacts by implementing strategies to prevent and reduce food loss and waste.

Innovative organizations recognize the benefits of sustainably managing food and are making real in-roads to prevent and reduce wasted food. This year’s top Food Recovery Challenge (FRC) national performers kept tons of food from becoming waste in 2015. Their creative practices range from targeting food recovery at farmers’ markets, creating food waste eco-leader volunteer programs in high schools, and adding infrastructure to better manage the distribution of perishable produce. These are a few great examples of what businesses and organizations can do to reduce food loss and waste across their operations.

The efforts of this year’s award winners, as well as the actions of all FRC participants and endorsers, will help us meet the national goal to reduce food loss and waste by 50 percent by 2030 and aligns with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. The federal government, led by EPA and USDA, is calling on leaders throughout the public and private sectors to heed the Call to Action to meet the 2030 goal. To do this, we need help from every sector, organization and household across America. The FRC participants are leading the way and I encourage others to institutionalize these best practices.

What can you do? Businesses and organizations can assess their food waste and related management practices to find out what’s being thrown out and why by utilizing our tools to determine the best ways to implement reductions in their everyday operations. Individuals can make small shifts in how they shop, prepare and store food to reduce waste (e.g., use up overly ripe produce in creative recipes such as smoothies or compotes). Start by considering a new tradition this Thanksgiving of sending your dinner guests home with a container of nutritious leftovers so they don’t go to waste.

Read about this year’s Food Recovery Challenge results and winners: https://www.epa.gov/sustainable-management-food/food-recovery-challenge-results-and-award-winners

Learn more about what you can do at home to reduce food waste: https://www.epa.gov/recycle/reducing-wasted-food-home

Find creative ways your business or organization can reduce food loss and waste from the Call to Action by Stakeholders: https://www.epa.gov/sustainable-management-food/call-action-stakeholders-united-states-food-loss-waste-2030-reduction#opportunities

Nov 15, 2016

The Economic Power of Recycling: Sustainable Materials Management

America Recycles Day, recycling, Reduce Reuse Recycle, Sustainable Materials Management (SMM) 2 Comments

By Mathy Stanislaus

On America Recycles Day, we’re taking a look back over the last 40 years since the passage of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and how we’ve worked to protect the health of our country’s communities through resource conservation. Here at EPA, recycling is a key element of Sustainable Materials Management (SMM), a systemic approach to using and reusing materials more productively over their entire life cycles. SMM represents a global shift in the use of natural resources and environmental protection. America’s recycling and reuse activities accounted for 757,000 jobs, produced $36.6 billion in wages and generated $6.7 billion in tax revenues in 2007, based on the most recent census data. As we continue to reduce, reuse and recycle, we are evolving our resource conservation efforts to use materials in the most productive way, with an emphasis on using less and advancing a circular economy.

Today we celebrate our successes in sustainable materials management. The national recycling rate has more than quadrupled from 7 to 34 percent, and the slogan Reduce, Reuse, Recycle has become a staple of American life. Recycling bins are now common in our homes, schools and workplaces; restaurants are composting their food waste and businesses are working with communities to offer consumers reuse and recycling opportunities.

In 2001, to encourage the development of an economic market for recycling, we supported the creation of a national Recycling Economic Information (REI) Project and the related REI
report. The REI report was a groundbreaking national study demonstrating the economic value of recycling and reuse to the U.S. economy. Compiled through a cooperative agreement with the National Recycling Coalition, the study confirmed what many have known for decades: there are significant economic benefits associated with recycling.

That is why I am excited to announce the release of the 2016 REI Report. This report includes updated information about recycling jobs, wages, and tax revenue. We have found that recycling and reuse of materials creates jobs while also generating local and state tax revenues. According to the latest Census data available, in 2007 recycling and reuse activities in the United States accounted for:

757,000 jobs;
$36.6 billion in wages; and
$6.7 billion in tax revenues.

These are enough recycling jobs to employ more than the entire population of the city of Seattle, Washington. To break down those numbers a little more, every 1,000 U.S. tons of recyclable materials generates:

1.57 jobs;
$76,030 in wages; and
$14,101 in tax revenues.

Along with the new economic impacts, the 2016 REI report used an updated analytical framework and a new waste input-output methodology, which focused on the life cycle of materials and defining recycling. These refinements offered significant improvements over the 2001 REI study in terms of a better definition of recycling and more precise data. This new methodology will help decision makers and researchers more accurately estimate the economic benefits of recycling and create a foundation upon which additional studies can be built.

In addition to the economic benefits, we must recognize the major environmental benefits of recycling and SMM as a whole. Recycling reduces pollution and greenhouse gases, while generating positive economic benefits. For example, in 2014, 89 million tons of municipal solid waste were recycled and composted. That’s equivalent to removing the carbon dioxide emissions of 38 million passenger cars from the road annually. How our society uses materials is fundamental to our economic and environmental future. Global competition for our limited resources will only intensify as the world population and economies grow. A more productive and less impactful use of materials will help our society remain economically competitive, contribute to our prosperity and protect the environment in a resource-constrained future. We want to make sure we have sufficient resources to meet not only today’s needs, but those of the future as well. As we celebrate our nation’s commitment to recycling our materials today, let’s shoot for 40 more years of continuing to sustainably conserve and manage our resources.

To read the REI Report, visit: https://www.epa.gov/smm/recycling-economic-information-rei-report

To read the President’s Proclamation: https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/11/14/presidential-proclamation-america-recycles-day-2016

Oct 28, 2016

Keeping International Communities Safe — One Hazardous Waste Shipment at a Time

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By Mathy Stanislaus

Here at EPA we are not only focused on responsibly and safely managing our country’s waste, but it’s also our responsibility to ensure that our country’s waste isn’t a danger to human health or the environment of communities abroad. That is why I am excited to announce today’s publication of the Hazardous Waste Export-Import Revisions Final Rule. This rule will provide greater protection to global human health and the environment by providing for increased transparency, data sharing and more complete and efficient tracking for international hazardous waste shipments.

When hazardous waste is shipped across multiple countries to be disposed of or recycled, there can be a higher risk of mismanagement, which endangers the health and safety of surrounding communities. Abandoned shipments — or shipments sent to unapproved facilities that are not able to manage the wastes appropriately — present the biggest dangers to people and the environment. Other risk factors may include:

Increased number of people who are handling and transferring the international shipments
Entry and exit procedures
Temporary storage at ports and border crossings
Varying degrees of environmental controls and worker safety practices.

As the Assistant Administrator of the Office of Land and Emergency Management, I am committed to making sure that hazardous waste entering or leaving the United States is safely and correctly handled. That is why I am so proud of this new rule.

Specifically, the Hazardous Waste Export-Import Revisions Final Rule requires:

Updates to some current import and export requirements to be consistent with other existing EPA requirements based on Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) procedures, so that these widely-accepted standards will apply to all U.S. hazardous waste imports and exports in a consistent and protective manner
A switch to mandatory electronic reporting to EPA that will enable increased sharing of hazardous waste import and export data with state programs, the general public and individual hazardous waste exporters and importers
Linking the consent to export with the exporter declaration submitted to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which will provide for more efficient compliance monitoring

Through these new requirements, hazardous waste imports and exports will occur under contracts between the exporters and management facilities, and with the written approval of the country of import. Additionally, this rule will require the tracking of international hazardous waste shipments from start to finish, reducing the misdirection of shipments to unapproved facilities. They will also require that the facility complete recycling or disposal of the shipments within one year of receipt. By requiring receiving facilities to document both the initial receipt of the hazardous waste shipment and when the management of hazardous waste is complete, the rule ensures the timely management of the waste and lessens the possibility of abandoned shipments, which can seriously harm both human health and the environment. In every aspect of this rule, my top priority is that all communities where hazardous waste is being managed are safe and healthy.

This rule will go into effect on December 31, 2016. However, we understand that it will take time for businesses affected by this rule to make any required changes. That is why this rule also establishes appropriate transition periods to help minimize the burden of implementing these new requirements.

Additionally, to ensure that there is transparency and access to compliance data while this rule is in the process of being implemented, the Internet Posting of and Confidentiality Determinations for Hazardous Waste Export and Import Documents rule is being proposed to require companies to post data on their public websites until they can submit it electronically to EPA. This rule also proposes to exclude certain hazardous waste import and export documents from Confidential Business Information claims. Providing this information to the public will enable interested members of the community and the government to better monitor proper compliance with EPA’s hazardous waste regulations, as well as ensure that hazardous waste import and export shipments are properly received and managed.

I am proud that we’ve taken another step toward keeping people and our environment safe. This new rule is an integral step in ensuring that internationally shipped hazardous waste is responsibly and safely handled. However, we still have more work to do. Whether it’s working with the Commission for Environmental Cooperation to develop technical guidelines for safe international recycling, or participating in the Basel Convention’s technical working groups to develop guidance for the environmentally sound management of electronic-waste, EPA continues to be at the forefront of creating innovative strategies to respond to ever evolving international waste issues.

We will be hosting a webinar on December 12, 2016 to introduce this new rule and give a broad overview of the immediate changes when the rules goes into effect on December 31, 2016. To RSVP for the webinar, visit: https://clu-in.org/training/#upcoming

To learn more about the rule, visit: https://www.epa.gov/hwgenerators/proposed-rule-hazardous-waste-export-import-revisions

Oct 21, 2016

Celebrating 40 Years of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act

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Forty years ago, our nation looked much different than it does today. There were few protections in place to safeguard people and our environment from the mismanagement of solid and hazardous waste…and it showed.

On October 21, 1976, President Ford signed the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) into law. And from that day, EPA and countless others have worked to protect the health of communities by promoting resource conservation and implementing safe waste management practices to ensure a cleaner environment for future generations.

What does RCRA do? In a nutshell, it keeps our country safe and healthy by:

Protecting our communities and the environment from the threats of solid and hazardous waste;
Cleaning up land and water; and
Conserving resources.

For the past 40 years, we’ve worked to provide safe and sustainable solutions that meet the needs of businesses and communities. We’ve empowered citizens by delivering information and opportunities that enable communities to participate in the decision-making processes. Each time a new problem presents itself, the RCRA program has found flexible and common sense ways to address it. Some of those successes include:

Managing 2.5 billion tons of solid, industrial and hazardous waste every year, and providing opportunities to reduce or avoid greenhouse gas emissions through material and land management practices.
Cleaning up and restoring 18 million acres of contaminated lands, nearly equal to the size of South Carolina.
Raising the national recycling rate to 34 percent.
Providing grants to states and tribes to support their hazardous waste management programs and address numerous issues, including open dumps, household hazardous waste collection and education activities.
Collaborating internationally on resource conservation and waste management issues in the interconnected global economy of our modern day world.

It’s surreal to me to imagine our country before RCRA, with lifeless waterways and burning trash. I think the biggest measure of our success is that reminders of RCRA have become expected parts of our everyday lives – such as recycling bins at the curbside and hazardous waste trucks on the highway.

As the world around us changes, so does the RCRA program. We are looking to the future and finding ways to reduce waste at its source. Our Sustainable Materials Management program protects people and the environment by managing materials sustainably throughout their life cycles and efficiently using natural resources. Benefits include employment opportunities, social benefits and sustainable green growth.

This approach has gone global and is more critical than ever. Global material resource use during the 20th century rose at about twice the rate of population. One half to three quarters of annual raw material inputs to industrial economies are returned as waste to the environment within a year. This results in significant environmental impacts – including 42% of greenhouse gases in the US due to materials flows in the US economy. A life cycle approach to sustainably use materials is viewed as critical to integrate economic growth and climate change strategies globally by such organizations as World Economic Forum, Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development and United Nations Environmental Program.

Forty years ago, President Ford and a nation demanding change brought RCRA to life and put our country on the path towards a safe and sustainable environment for all. We, at EPA, commit to continue the essential work of RCRA and create innovative solutions to the challenges of the future. Together, we are 40 years stronger.

Read more on RCRA’s Critical Mission and the Path Forward
To learn more about the history of RCRA, check out our RCRA Timeline
Follow the RCRA 40^th anniversary campaign on social media: #ProtectPreventPreserve

Sep 21, 2016

Waste and Materials Tracking Now Available in EPA’s ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager®

energy, energy star, greenhouse gas emission, waste, waste management, water 0 Comments

By Mathy Stanislaus and Janet McCabe

While you might not think about buildings as polluters, the places where we work, shop and learn offer a significant opportunity to save energy, save water, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and reduce waste. The good news is that for many buildings, measuring and tracking energy and water use has become standard operating procedure.

Waste and materials are another story, however. Materials can include items such as furniture, construction materials, and equipment. Up to this point, there hasn’t been an easy or consistent way to track waste in commercial buildings and manufacturing facilities. That’s a problem since these facilities are responsible for nearly half of the 167 million tons of waste that wind up in incinerators or landfills each year.

Material recovery and waste reduction are essential components to the productive and sustainable use of materials across their entire life cycle to conserve resources, reduce waste, slow climate change and minimize the environmental impacts of the materials we use. EPA’s 2009 report, Opportunities to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions through Materials and Land Management Practices, shows that approximately 42 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are associated with materials management. Since new and existing buildings include materials such as furniture, construction materials and equipment, buildings represent a good opportunity for improvement and GHG reductions in America.

That’s why two years ago EPA began collaborating with leading building owners, managers, and waste haulers to identify key metrics and waste management options to add to ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager, the Agency’s popular online energy and water measurement and tracking tool.

Portfolio Manager is actually the industry standard energy measurement and tracking tool for commercial buildings in the United States and Canada. More than 450,000 U.S. buildings, representing over 45 percent of the nation’s commercial building space, have been benchmarked in Portfolio Manager, as well as more than 10,000 buildings in Canada. These buildings are already using the tool to benchmark and improve performance, prioritize investments, and verify reductions in energy and water use across these tens of thousands of buildings.

We’re proud to debut the result of this collaboration. Portfolio Manager now includes a new waste and materials tracking feature. It’s designed in a way that allows for flexibility and basic comparative analysis, recognizing that the type and quality of available waste and materials management data vary widely.

With the addition of waste and materials tracking in Portfolio Manager, building owners and managers can now apply their successful energy management techniques holistically to reduce not only waste, but also the associated carbon footprint that results from landfill decomposition and incineration, as well as the costs of disposal.

Historically, waste management activities haven’t been well measured and tracked in commercial buildings. However, as we learned from our experience with energy tracking, standardized measurement is the cornerstone of building management practices that drives improvement.

It’s incredibly rewarding when we can work together with businesses and organizations to offer new tools and capabilities that not only help them save money, but also help their communities remain economically competitive and support a healthy environment. We can’t wait to see what innovations lie ahead as owners and managers tap the same wealth of knowledge and creativity they’ve used to reduce energy, water, and greenhouse gas emissions, and apply it to the important issue of managing and reducing waste and materials. To learn more, visit www.energystar.gov/trackwaste.

Sep 13, 2016

Retail Strategy: A New Focus on Hazardous Waste Regulations

hazardous waste, Human Health 15 Comments

By Assistant Administrator Mathy Stanislaus

America’s hazardous waste management program ensures the safe management of hazardous waste from the “cradle to the grave”. Many of these regulations were developed more than three decades ago, so it is important we ensure they continue to effectively protect human health and environment into the future.

These regulations were developed primarily for industrial and manufacturing settings, but apply to any non-household facility generating and managing hazardous waste—including some facilities that may surprise people. For example, hospitals, schools, and retail stores all generate hazardous waste and are subject to our regulations. However, because these types of facilities aren’t industrial in nature, sometimes the design of the hazardous waste regulations can pose compliance challenges. In recent years, we began to explore how we can update these important safeguards for a retail setting and address the potential challenges these regulations present for retail.

You might not think of consumer goods at retail stores as especially hazardous, but some household cleaners, automotive products, batteries and other items meet the definition of hazardous waste when disposed. These goods are important parts of our everyday lives and may require special disposal when they are no longer able to be sold. We want to ensure that these items, if they are not sold and must be disposed, are managed safely and properly.

Recently, EPA and other regulators focused increased attention on the retail sector. Instances of hazardous waste mismanagement and non-compliance by major retailers led us to seek information and solicit feedback by issuing a Retail Notice of Data Availability (NODA) in 2014. Feedback on the NODA, as well as information gathered from our continued engagement with the retail sector and regulatory community, not only increased our understanding of how retailers handle consumer goods that cannot be sold but also shed light on the challenges retailers face when managing goods that are hazardous wastes when disposed.

I’m excited to announce that we are unveiling a cohesive strategy to address these unique issues and to ensure that retail stores comply with hazardous waste regulations. This strategy takes into account the feedback we received in 2014, as well as our knowledge of how unsalable items are managed in the retail sector. It builds upon regulatory efforts underway, including proposed updates and improvements to existing hazardous waste generator regulations and a proposed set of regulations designed to allow flexibility in the management and disposal of hazardous waste pharmaceuticals.

As laid out in the strategy, we’ve taken these actions to ease the burden of managing hazardous wastes in a retail setting while maintaining important protections to human health and the environment, and furthering the President’s goal of reducing regulatory burden across the government (EO 13610). The strategy outlines our next steps, which include:

issuing the final generator rule in fall 2016;
working on finalizing the pharmaceuticals rule;
issuing a guide on recycling aerosol cans;
proposing a universal waste rule for aerosol cans; and
issuing a policy on reverse distribution and RCRA.

This retail strategy is an important next step in our journey to explore options for reducing management burdens, ensuring compliance with hazardous waste regulations and protecting human health and the environment. Our strategy is available at http://www.epa.gov/hwgenerators/hazardous-waste-management-and-retail-sector. Take a look. We’re interested in your thoughts as we move forward in partnership with all stakeholders to implement this strategy.

Sep 9, 2016

Superfund Investigates Land Pollution from the Past…and Present

hazardous waste, Human Health, national priorities list, npl, superfund, tribes, water 13 Comments

By Mathy Stanislaus

On September 7, 2016, we took steps to respond to states, tribes and citizens who asked for our help addressing contaminated sites. In response, we are adding 10 hazardous waste sites to the National Priorities List (NPL). The NPL is our list of more than 1,300 of the most contaminated sites in the country that we are addressing under the Superfund program. Superfund is one of the most important federal programs to improve the health, environment and economy of America’s communities.

As I’ve traveled across the country during my tenure as Assistant Administrator for EPA’s Office of Land and Emergency Management, I’ve seen firsthand how the mismanagement of contamination and hazardous waste can threaten entire communities. According to census data, approximately 53 million people live within three miles of a Superfund site – roughly 17% of the U.S. population, including 18% of all children in the U.S. under the age of five. Some groups, such as children, pregnant women and the elderly, may be at particular risk. During environmental emergencies, health threats — poisoning, injuries from fires and explosions — are often urgent and immediate. At other sites, health effects of contamination — cancer, birth defects — may be more long term. Under the most difficult circumstances, communities reach out to us to use the Superfund program to protect them from these risks.

We continue to find sites where recent operations have resulted in the mismanagement of contamination that warrant our investigation. In addition to adding 10 sites to the NPL, we are proposing the addition of eight more. Nine of these 18 sites were in operation within the last two decades, including several as recently as the late 2000s. Pollution at these 18 sites came from a variety of sources, including manufacturing, mining, battery recycling and dry cleaning.

One area we are listing on the NPL is the Bonita Peak Mining District in San Juan County, Colorado. Mining began there in the 1870s and continued into the 1990s. The Bonita Peak Superfund site includes 48 sources, comprised of 35 mines (including Gold King Mine) and 13 other mining-related areas. We have drainage data on 32 of these sources and we estimate that they collectively contribute an average of 5.4 million gallons of mine-influenced water per day to the Upper Animas River watershed. This water includes metals such as cadmium, copper, manganese and zinc that threaten the health of the watershed and downstream communities.

More broadly, the addition of the sites to the NPL continues a 35-year history of EPA improving the lives of those who reside on or near Superfund sites. Academic research has shown the cleanup of Superfund sites reduces birth defects of those close to a site by as much as 25 percent. Cleanups involving lead-contaminated soil have contributed to documented reductions in children’s blood-lead levels.

In addition, Superfund cleanups have a positive impact on local economies by enabling the reuse of previously unusable land. More than 850 Superfund sites nationwide have some type of actual or planned reuse underway. Last year, we reviewed 454 Superfund sites supporting use or reuse activities and found they had approximately 3,900 businesses with 108,000 employees and annual sales of more than $29 billion.

As our recent listing demonstrates, land pollution continues to occur from a variety of sources. It is not only an issue at abandoned industrial sites riddled with buried hazardous material, or at waste sites that operated before our nation’s environmental laws were enacted. Land pollution is still an issue — often due to the mismanagement of contaminants from more recent operations. Unfortunately, the Superfund program is needed as much today as in the past to clean up communities from such mismanagement.

Our Superfund program will continue to respond to requests from states, tribes and citizens to investigate all eras of pollution — past and present — to protect communities and hold polluters accountable. I am proud of the work our Superfund program has completed to date, and I encourage you to read more about its 35-year history and its highlights.

More information about the September 2016 NPL listing can be found here. http://go.usa.gov/xZ9nP.

Aug 1, 2016

A Reflection on the Gold King Mine Incident

Gold King Mine, Mining, superfund, water 6 Comments

By Mathy Stanislaus

Today, we are releasing a new publication, One Year After the Gold King Mine Incident: A Retrospective of EPA’s Efforts to Restore and Protect Communities. The report details our efforts — including the projects and groups we have funded — to protect the areas around the Gold King Mine (GKM) and prevent another spill like this from happening at other EPA work sites at mines across the country.

We continue to be accountable for the release, which occurred as a result of our work to investigate the mine. Since the accident, we have dedicated more than $29 million to respond to the release and to provide for continued monitoring in the area. Over the past year, we have remained committed to distilling important lessons from the incident, and are working on a more permanent solution to acid mine drainage in the Upper Animas Watershed. We have improved and tested stakeholder notification lists, instituted a headquarters review and state consultation process for all mine work plans prior to starting work at a site, provided grant assistance to foster collaboration and help support state and tribal water quality management programs, and are developing a national report on best practices for hardrock mine remediation. We have worked with communities within the Bonita Peak Mining District area for many years on long-term solutions to address the estimated discharge of more than 5 million gallons per day of acidic mine influenced water to the Upper Animas River watershed. In April, we proposed a Superfund National Priorities Listing for the Bonita Peak Mining District (which includes Gold King Mine) and are working to finalize the listing this fall.

As Assistant Administrator for our Office of Land and Emergency Management, I can say that tackling the national environmental issue of abandoned mines is one of the toughest challenges we face. There are no overarching federal statutes or regulations for addressing the environmental contamination from abandoned hardrock mines. When requested by state or tribal partners, our Superfund program has been used to investigate and remediate abandoned mines that present a high risk to human and environmental health. A 2015 Government Accountability Office report estimates that we spend anywhere from 7 to 52 times more at mining sites than at other types of Superfund sites.

Overall, the scale of this problem is striking. There are at least 161,000 abandoned hardrock mines in the western U.S. states and Alaska. Water draining from these types of mines and mine tailings are often highly acidic and release heavy metals such as zinc, lead, cadmium, copper and aluminum into the groundwater and surface waters the public relies on for drinking, agricultural irrigation and recreation.

The legacy of abandoned hardrock mines continues to be a source of complex challenges for our and the other federal and state agencies working to address this impact over the long-term. We thank all of our federal, tribal, state and local partners for their contributions to this first year of work following the GKM incident. We are strongly committed to working together to achieve long-term solutions to prevent future releases and protect our vital water resources. For more information, please visit: https://www.epa.gov/goldkingmine.

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