Phase I Environmental Site Assessment

*North Texas power company to issue vouchers for electric lawn mowers *Texas Municipal Power Agency to complete project as part of settlement with EPA

(Dallas, Texas - May 22, 2008) Texas Municipal Power Agency (TMPA) will pay a $26,250 penalty and issue $78,750 in vouchers for electric lawn mowers to resolve violations of the Clean Air Act, the Environmental Protection Agency announced today.

The violations involve operations at the power provider’s Gibbons Creek Steam Electric Station in Grimes County. TMPA has since corrected the infractions and is in compliance with the Clean Air Act.
“It is imperative that business and industry do their part to help protect human health and the environment,” said EPA Regional Administrator Richard E. Greene. “EPA will continue to ensure that companies make every effort to follow environmental laws, so that our communities have cleaner, healthier air to breathe.”
TMPA is a municipal power company serving the cities of Bryan, Denton, Garland and Greenville. The company violated the Clean Air Act by exceeding opacity emissions limits at its facility, failing to report in writing that its continuous opacity monitoring system was out of service for 397 hours, and not submitting required emissions reports to EPA.

Under a settlement with EPA, the company will pay a civil penalty and complete a supplemental environmental project that involves issuing vouchers worth $150.00 each to designated retailers in its service area. TMPA customers and city residents can use the vouchers to purchase electric lawn mowers.
The project is aimed at helping reduce air pollution in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, which currently does not meet federal requirements for ozone. Ground-level ozone, or smog, is created when volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and nitrogen oxides react with sunlight. Traditional lawn mowers emit carbon monoxide, VOCs and nitrogen oxides, while electric lawn mowers produce essentially no pollution.

The TMPA vouchers are expected to help replace 525 gasoline-powered lawn mowers, which has the potential to reduce 37 tons of greenhouse gases and other pollutants per year, or the equivalent emissions of more than 22,500 new cars, each being driven 12,000 miles.

To learn more about enforcement activities in EPA Region 6, please visit

http://www.epa.gov/region6

An EPA audio file is available at http://www.epa.gov/region6/6xa/audio.htm#audio052208_tmpa.
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For more information, media may contact Dave Bary or Tressa Tillman at 214-665-2200 or r6press@epa.gov

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Due to the Federal government holiday on Monday of next week, the retail gasoline prices will be released on Tuesday by 5:00 P.M. (Eastern time). The data will still represent Monday’s prices.
RETAIL GASOLINE: (Self Service Prices per Gallon, Including Taxes) This report contains price estimates for gasoline sold in ozone non-attainment areas which require the sale of reformulated gasoline (RFG) as designated by the Environmental Protection Agency, and Conventional areas which includes both attainment areas and carbon monoxide non-attainment areas. Mogas web site url

http://www.eia.doe.gov/oil_gas/fwd/wrgp.html

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*Architecture Firms Build Energy Efficiency *Projects for 4 New Mexico schools and businesses will save money and emissions

(Dallas, Texas - May 15, 2008) Four schools and businesses in New Mexico can look forward to reducing their energy use and costs thanks to the innovative designs of the Dekker/Perich/Sabatini architecture firm.

The firm will receive the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Design to Earn the Energy Star designation at the American Institute of Architects (AIA) convention on May 15 in Boston.

The firm’s designs for the buildings meet strict EPA standards for energy efficiency and for preventing greenhouse gas emissions. Together, Sandia Vista and Cielo Azul schools in Rio Rancho, APS Design-Build Middle School in Albuquerque and Thornburg Campus in Santa Fe will prevent over 1,500 tons of carbon dioxide emissions a year with their new energy-efficient designs.

“Thanks to the ingenuity of these architecture firms, New Mexico schools and businesses will enjoy significant savings in their energy costs,” said EPA Regional Administrator Richard E. Greene. “The firms have proved that designing with the environment in mind can benefit their clients as well.”

The AIA convention will recognize 46 projects in 19 states as achieving Design to Earn the Energy Star. The designs will result in yearly projected savings of 120 million pounds of carbon dioxide and $5 million in energy costs for clients.

Additional information on the Energy Star program is available at http://www.energystar.gov/.
To learn more about activities in EPA Region 6, please visit http://www.epa.gov/region6.

Sent by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency . 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW . Washington DC 20460 . 202-564-4355

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(Atlanta, Ga. -May 15, 2008) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will recognize the City of Valley on Friday, May 16, 2008 in Valley, Ala. as recipients of $235,000 in EPA brownfields grants to help clean up the Langdale and Riverdale Mill properties, turning them from problem properties to productive community use. Additionally, EPA awarded Florence, Ala. with $400,000 in brownfields grants.

Who: EPA Regional Administrator Jimmy Palmer

What: Award EPA Brownfields Grants to the City of Valley

When: Friday, May 16, 2008, 4:00 p.m. EDT

Where: Langdale Mill-Conference Room
5901 20th Ave.
Valley, Ala.

Brownfields are sites where expansion, redevelopment, or reuse may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant. The brownfields program encourages redevelopment of America’s estimated 450,000 abandoned and contaminated waste sites. Since the beginning of the program, EPA has awarded 1,255 assessment grants totaling more than $298 million, 230 revolving loan fund grants totaling about $217 million, and 426 cleanup grants totaling $78.7 million.

More information on the grant recipients: http://www.epa.gov/brownfields

Sent by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency . 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW . Washington DC 20460 . 202-564-4355

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(Atlanta, Ga. - May 13, 2008) EPA began a removal action at the Lincoln Metals site in Lincoln, Ala. on May 12, 2008. The removal action is a short-term cleanup intended to stabilize the Site and remove any hazards it may pose to human health and the environment. The removal action may take up to 3 months at an estimated cost of approximately is $2.5 million.

Work at the site may include:

- Mobilization and Site preparation;
- Excavation, disposal and removal of lead-contaminated soils from the foundry property, an off-site ditch, a public park, and a residential yard;
- Assessment of an additional property;
- Demolition and disposal of the foundry building;
- On-site stabilization of soils and debris, as necessary, before transportation to approved disposal facilities; and
- Restoration of a residential yard, a public park, and the foundry property.

The Lincoln Metals site is an inactive brass foundry that operated in Lincoln, Talladega County, Alabama from 1956 to 2001. The facility was built circa 1947. During March 2001, Heartland Faucet declared bankruptcy and in November 2001, Silvercrown Investments, purchased the company out of bankruptcy.

In August 2006, Alabama Department of Environmental Management referred the site to EPA requesting the abandoned property be considered for immediate response under Federal authority. In January 2007, EPA’s Emergency Response and Removal Branch (ERRB) conducted a removal site assessment and determined that further evaluation was required.

In May and July of 2007, EPA conducted additional soil sampling at the site to determine the nature and extent of contamination at the site and adjacent properties. The 2007 assessments revealed the presence of lead contaminated soils above EPA’s removal action levels at the site. As a result of the direct threat of potential contact with contaminated soils, a removal action was approved on March 26, 2008.

To obtain further information about the activities to be conducted at the site, please contact Sherryl Carbonaro, EPA Community Involvement Coordinator, at (800) 564-7577. Citizens with health concerns associated with potential lead exposure should contact Cheryl Browder, Alabama Department of Public Health, Talladega County, at (800) 201-8208 or consult with your family physician.

Sent by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency . 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW . Washington DC 20460 . 202-564-4355

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*Why are you or aren’t you biking to work?*

To bike or not to bike - that is the question… It’s National Bike Week

Biking is healthy, it prevents air pollution, and it can even save you money (filled your tank recently?). So why aren’t you biking to work? Need more bike paths? Different policies from your employer? Government sponsorship or policies? Or are you just a couch potato?

If you ARE biking, tell us about your route and experiences!

Share your answers  http://blog.epa.gov/blog/2008/05/12/qotwbikingtowork

Sent by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency . 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW . Washington DC 20460 . 202-564-4355

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(Dallas, Texas - May 13, 2008) Business at the Mars Snackfood U.S. plant in Waco has never been sweeter. Today, members of the company were joined by officials from the Environmental Protection Agency to flip the switch on its first landfill gas project, a venture that will cut the company’s energy costs and the release of greenhouse gases into the environment.

The project will use methane gas that is piped in from the city landfill to power two furnaces that create steam for the plant’s candy-making operations.

“Turning waste into energy is a smart strategy for business and the environment,” said EPA Regional Administrator Richard E. Greene. “EPA is pleased to be working with partners like Mars Snackfood on innovative projects like this one that deliver clean, renewable sources of energy.”

In addition to saving the company $600,000 a year in energy costs, the project will also reduce more than 10,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, which has the same environmental impact of avoiding the emissions of 1,900 cars. Methane, a primary component of landfill gas, is a greenhouse gas over 20 times as potent as carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere.

“More than being a decision about the bottom line, this project is about taking responsibility for the future - for our business, for our Associates and their children, for our community, and definitely for our environment. And the story today is not simply about Mars alone. It is a story of deep commitment and concern by multiple partners at every level in government in Texas. Again, I congratulate our partners in government, especially the City of Waco, the County of McLennan and the EPA, for their visionary leadership and dedication to a sustainable future for all,” said MARS Snackfood US President Todd Lachman.

Mars Snackfood joins a growing list of companies to complete waste-to-energy projects as part of EPA’s Landfill Methane Outreach Program (LMOP). There are currently 21 operational projects in Texas and a total of 34 throughout the five-state area that makes up EPA Region 6.

To foster more development of waste-to-energy resources, EPA Region 6 has developed a pilot Waste-to-Energy (WTE) Strategic Geographic Planning tool that is designed to link waste producers with end users by identifying optimum locations for such projects. The region is currently working with the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory to expand the pilot to a national scale.

LMOP is a voluntary technical assistance and partnership program that helps businesses and communities reduce methane emissions from landfills by encouraging the recovery and use of landfill gas as a renewable energy source. The program also assists countries throughout the world in developing landfill methane reduction projects through the international Methane to Markets Partnership. Since 1994, LMOP has assisted in developing more than 330 landfill gas projects in the United States, reducing methane emissions by over 24 million metric tons of carbon equivalent.

Additional information on the LMOP program is available at http://www.epa.gov/lmop.
To learn more about activities in EPA Region 6, please visit http://www.epa.gov/region6.
An EPA audio file is available at http://www.epa.gov/region6/6xa/audio.htm#audio051308_mars.
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For more information, media may contact Dave Bary or Tressa Tillman at 214-665-2200 or r6press@epa.gov
Note: If a link above doesn’t work, please copy and paste the URL into a browser.

Sent by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency . 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW . Washington DC 20460 . 202-564-4355

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(Dallas, Texas - May 8, 2008) An Arkansas nanotechnology company has been awarded $224,997 from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program to develop a green alternative to fluorescent lighting.

Nanomaterials and Nanofabrication Laboratories, LLC (NN-Labs) of Fayetteville is one of seven small businesses to receive a total of $1.6 million in funding to commercialize green technologies that promise to deliver BIG results.

“These companies are showing how innovative ideas can translate into both economic and environmental success,” said EPA Regional Administrator Richard E. Greene. “Together, EPA and small businesses are advancing research, creating jobs, and protecting the environment at the same time.”

NN-Labs was awarded a Phase II SBIR contract, which is given to small businesses that successfully complete Phase I contracts. The company received a Phase I award for $69,988 in 2007.
Approximately 25 million small businesses in the United States employ more than 50 percent of the American workforce and develop most of the country’s new technologies. SBIR was established to ensure that new technologies are developed to solve priority environmental problems, and is just one example of EPA’s commitment to achieving real world environmental results through the use of innovative technology.

Since its inception in 1982, EPA’s SBIR program has helped fund more than 600 small businesses through its two-phased approach. Phase I awards are used to investigate the scientific merit and technical feasibility of a proposed concept. If the results of this phase are successful, businesses can submit proposals for Phase II contracts, which can reach amounts up to $225,000.
EPA will be accepting submissions for the next year’s Phase I SBIR awards until May 21, 2008. To participate in SBIR, a small business must have fewer than 500 employees, and at least 51 percent of the business must be owned by U.S. citizens.

Additional information on the SBIR program is available at http://www.epa.gov/ncer/sbir.

More on the Phase II projects: http://es.epa.gov/ncer/sbir/08awards/index_state.html

About activities in EPA Region 6: http://www.epa.gov/region6.

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For more information, media may contact Dave Bary or Tressa Tillman at 214-665-2200 or r6press@epa.gov
Note: If a link above doesn’t work, please copy and paste the URL into a browser.

View all Region 6 News Releases

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