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Spring 2015 www.newmoa.org
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Happy Spring!
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, program, or listserv; an invitee to NEWMOA events; a colleague at EPA or a related organization; 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, (617) 367-8558 x312.
Share this newsletter with others in your agency or organization that might be interested. We welcome your comments and suggestions.
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Board of Directors
NEWMOA's Board met in March to share updates from EPA and state programs, and review and discuss NEWMOA's activities and plans. This news@NEWMOA highlights many of the Board's priorities and initiatives.
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Getting to Know NEWMOA's Leaders
The Chair of NEWMOA's Board is Peter Pettit from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Peter directs the Bureau of Waste Reduction and Recycling overseeing many of the Agency's sustainable materials management efforts. He has been on the NEWMOA Board since 2011 and has been active in several Workgroups for more than a decade. However, some of you may not know much about him, so here's a quick interview.
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NEWMOA: Tell us about yourself and your background.
Peter: I attended both Union College and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in NY for my Engineering Degrees and obtained my Professional Engineering License while I was working with Metcalf and Eddy, Consultants in the early 1980s. I worked on various engineering projects from water and wastewater systems to landfill design before joining state government.
NEWMOA: What do you do at the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYS DEC)?
Peter: At DEC I administer the State's Bottle Bill program, waste reduction and recycling programs including outreach and education, our organics recycling and management activities, mercury product reduction and management efforts, and the State's product stewardship programs.
NEWMOA: What are your priorities for NEWMOA this year? What do you hope it will accomplish?
Peter: I'd like to make sure that we convey the strengths of this organization to potential partners as well as to the states for which we serve. The expertise and experience of NEWMOA Directors, Workgroup members, and staff provides a wealth of information that I'm proud of, and we should continue to make sure that our stakeholders, constituents, and Executives are aware of this and can take advantage of this knowledge base when making policy and program directions and decisions.
NEWMOA: What's one thing you would like people to know about you?
Peter: I've hiked all 46 of NY's Adirondack High Peaks, twice, and raised funds to support finding a cure for ALS (Lou Gehrig's) disease in the process.
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Mildly Contaminated Solis
NEWMOA recently released a one-stop site for public information on management of soils that may be slightly contaminated in the northeast. Construction and utility projects, particularly in urban areas, can generate soils that cannot be reused onsite and that can contain contaminants at levels that are detectable, but well below the standards for hazardous waste. Providing clear guidance to generators of this excess soil on acceptable management options is a challenge for state agencies because requirements can differ between the waste site cleanup and solid waste programs. Due to strict requirements and/or the lack of clear guidance, these soils are often transported long distances to a solid waste landfill where they consume valuable space and add significant costs to projects. NEWMOA's Waste Site Cleanup and Solid Waste Programs have been working on a project since 2011 that focuses on improving the management of these mildly contaminated soil.
NEWMOA launched its webpage to provide a repository where available state contaminated soils-related regulations and policies are posted in an easy to navigate format.
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Dry Cleaning
On December 2, NEWMOA held a cross-program meeting to "Develop Strategies to Reduce the Impacts of Traditional Dry Cleaning" at the EPA Region 1 Lab in Chelmsford, MA. The purpose of this multi-program regional meeting was for participants to share experiences addressing environmental and public health challenges associated with dry cleaning and discuss the scope of a potential regional initiative. Participants brainstormed a number of possible strategies to advance the transition from using perchloroethylene (perc) to professionally clean clothes toward safer alternatives, including wet cleaning.
As a follow-up to the meeting NEWMOA has prepared a proposal for funding a regional initiative focused on reducing perc use to clean clothing. This comprehensive program would be designed to help dry cleaners adopt substitutes to perc that are safe for human health and the environment. As part of this effort, NEWMOA plans to promote the adoption of wet cleaning as the preferable method of professional garment care. The funding would support a technical assistance and public education and outreach program.
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Hazardous Waste Training
Over the past few months, NEWMOA held regular conference calls on such hazardous waste topics as:
- Results of a survey about hazardous waste management practices at small independent pharmacies in NH;
- Baghouse filter waste management;
- Pharmaceutical and personal care product (PPCP) test burn results at a waste to energy facility; and
- Management of aerosol can waste.
These training calls are for state and federal hazardous waste inspectors and other compliance and enforcement staff and regulatory development staff.
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Waste Site Cleanup Program
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Upcoming Workshop
TCE Vapor Intrusion: State of the Science, Regulations, and Technical Options on April 13th in Providence, RI and 14th in Lowell, MA will provide the latest information on investigation and remediation of sites with trichloroethylene (TCE) vapor intrusion (VI), covering:
- TCE toxicology
- TCE fate and transport
- VI assessment for TCE
- Approaches to managing TCE VI risks
- VI mitigation
- Making decisions under uncertainty
- Case studies
The workshops are co-sponsored with the Brown University Superfund Research Program. NEWMOA is repeating the workshop on May 20 in Lebanon, NH and is considering holding one in NJ.
NEWMOA is planning to hold "1,4 Dioxane Assessment and Remediation" workshops in September 2015. The dates and locations have not yet been determined.
To be added to the NEWMOA email list for notices about future waste site cleanup workshops, email Jennifer Griffith.
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Solid Waste & Sustainable Materials Management (SMM) Program
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Municipal Solid Waste Disposal
Most MSW collection and disposal facilities in the northeast are owned and/or operated by private haulers and waste management companies. A small number are owned by municipal or county level government. When a disposal facility is publicly-owned, it can limit the geographic area from which it accepts MSW, and in certain situations can mandate that the MSW generated within the area it serves be managed at that facility (these restrictions are known as "flow control"). With the exception of MSW generated in these flow control areas, MSW functions as a commodity with disposal markets that can vary year-to-year depending on tipping fees, transportation costs, and contract arrangements. State governments do not direct where disposal of MSW occurs.
NEWMOA recently released an analysis of available 2012 data on state municipal solid waste (MSW) that is shipped for disposal. NEWMOA's presentation analyzes available state and regional MSW disposal information for calendar year 2012 along with comparisons to previous years. NEWMOA's Solid Waste Metrics Workgroup oversaw the MSW data collection and analysis and the development of the presentation of the results.
NEWMOA found that all of the Northeast states export MSW to facilities in other states in the region for disposal, and with the exception of Rhode Island and Vermont, disposal facilities in all of the NEWMOA states import MSW from other NEWMOA states. Other key observations include:
- Approximately 29.7 million tons of MSW was generated in the region and disposed of in 2012, a reduction of approximately 2 percent from 2010, and a reduction of 19 percent from the high of 36.6 million tons in 2002. The amount of MSW requiring disposal is affected by economic activity and the availability of reuse, recycling, and composting markets and infrastructure.
- Region-wide, 71 percent remained in the state of origin for disposal, ranging from a high of 95 percent for Maine to a low of 62 percent for New York and 63 percent for New Jersey.
- Region-wide, 6 percent was exported from the state of origin to another state within the region for disposal, ranging from a high of 26 percent for Rhode Island to a low of 2 percent for New Jersey.
- Region-wide, 23 percent was exported to disposal facilities outside of the region, ranging from a high of 35 percent for New Jersey and 34 percent for New York to a low of zero for New Hampshire and Vermont.
- Region-wide, 0.7 tons per person of MSW was generated and disposed of in 2012; with the rate ranging from 0.52 tons per person for New Hampshire to 0.91 tons per person for Rhode Island.
- There is a relatively steady state or general decline since 1999 in the amount of MSW generated and disposed of within the same state.
- Significant year-to-year changes in waste shipment patterns can occur. With the exception of Connecticut and Massachusetts, imports of MSW for disposal from other northeast states declined between 2010 and 2012. Imports to facilities in Connecticut increased by approximately 30,000 tons (42 percent), and imports to facilities in Massachusetts increased approximately 50,000 tons (7 percent).
- In 2012, waste facilities in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and Vermont exported less MSW for disposal to facilities in other northeast states than they did in 2010, while New York and Rhode Island exported more.
- There has been an overall decline in the quantity of MSW exported for disposal from each of the Northeast states to states and provinces outside of the region since 2004, as well as an overall region-wide decline from a high of approximately 10.5 million tons in 2002 to approximately 6.8 million tons in 2012 - a 35 percent reduction.
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Pollution Prevention & Sustainability Program
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Green Chemistry Connection
NEWMOA has taken the Green Chemistry Connection national. Members use the site to network and share information and resources. Features include:
- Discussion Forum - share comments and ideas or post questions
- News - learn about what's happening
- Events - post announcements
- Groups - connect with others interested in a green chemistry topic
- Library - post information, including links to websites, publications, videos, case studies, curriculum and training materials, promotional materials, resource lists, and businesses
- Member Directory - identify green chemistry organizations, companies, and academic researchers
- Social Media - share what's going on at GreenChemConnect.org through other networking sites
- Jobs Board - post job openings or internships
Visit the site and join the conversation! NEWMOA is holding a Webinar on April 1st from 2:00 - 3:00 ET to introduce the site to new and prospective members.
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Interstate Chemicals Clearinghouse (IC2)
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Life Cycle Assessment & Alternatives Assessment
IC2 Project Manager, Topher Buck made a presentation at the March 5-6 International Symposium on Alternatives Assessment on ideas for incorporating life cycle thinking into the evolving alternatives assessment (AA) methodology. The presentation was based on a brief research project that IC2 conducted with funding from the Lowell Center for Sustainable Production. The main advice that emerged from the project included:
- Specify the goal and scope of the alternatives assessment at the outset;
- Create a product map as part of the AA goal and scope definition;
- Understand the supply chain and use that knowledge in conjunction with the product map to create a "heat map" (i.e., to identify potential hotspots);
- Remember that there may be poor correlation between the toxicity of a chemical and that of its upstream building blocks;
- Do not lose sight of the purpose of the analysis and guard against scope creep; and
- A library or libraries of publicly available chemical hazard assessments could streamline data collection and reduce effort.
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