Environmental Insider News articles from July 2001

Environmental Insider News archives from July 2001

Textbook Review Time Again.
July 2, 2001... Six years ago Environmental Insider's Duggan Flanakin served on the State Environmental Science Textbook Adoption Committee, and afterward he wrote a broad-based report, "Sound Science or Pseudo Science: The Future of Environmental Education in...

Texas Gets Plumbing, Mechanical Codes.
July 2, 2001... Texas lawmakers - and Governor Rick Perry - acted this spring to link the Lone Star State to four codes created by the International Code Council (headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia). We had earlier reported that Senate Bill 5 (and Senate...

Cheney To Head NSR Review.
July 2, 2001... The National Energy Policy Development Group, under the direction of Vice President Richard Cheney, has directed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to review its New Source Review (NSR) program, including administrative interpretation and...

CERCLA Settlement at Kilgore Site.
July 2, 2001... EPA has announced a proposed administrative settlement concerning the Shore Refinery site in Kilgore in which the settling parties are required to perform a removal action and make payment of future response costs to the Hazardous Substances...

Old Lace, Anyone?
July 5, 2001... In what might not be a big surprise, the Natural Resources Defense Council a few days ago filed suit challenging the Bush Administration's suspension of the new arsenic in tap water standard of 10 parts per billion. Several Senate Democrats...

Hazardous Waste Combustors.
July 5, 2001... In the ongoing working out of its controversial September 1999 amendments to its regulations for hazardous waste burning cement kilns, lightweight aggregate kilns, and incinerators, EPA has proposed both a direct final rule and an alternative...

EPA Posts Texas Drinking Water Rules.
July 5, 2001... EPA Region 6 has asked for public comments, due August 2, regarding the adoption by TNRCC earlier this year of an Interim Enhanced Surface Water Treatment Rule to improve control of microbial pathogens in drinking water, and the Stage 1...

EPA Seeks Climate Change Studies.
July 5, 2001... EPA's Office of Research and Development, National Center for Environmental Assessment, Global Change Research Program, has asked for applications for cooperative agreements to provide assistance to state, tribal, and other local environmental...

Vargas on the TMDL Study.
July 9, 2001... Just two weeks ago, the National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council, issued a report critical of EPA's Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) program that is aimed at establishing pollutant limits for over 20,000 streams, lakes, and...

A New Take on Global Warming.
July 9, 2001... Foolish people once said women would not make good scientists! As proof that this is untrue, we offer the research - reported in the July 2001 issue of Austin's The Good Life magazine - of one Karen Woodin, whom the journal tells us is awaiting...

SIPpin' Lemonade in Houston?
July 12, 2001... There is dancing in the streets outside the Houston City Hall for perhaps the first time since the Great Flood of 2001. No - it is not just that people are finally back in their own offices after camping out all over town for the last month. It...

Large Municipal Waste Combustors.
July 12, 2001... EPA on July 12 also announced a direct final rule (and a backup proposed rule) that amends the standards of performance for large municipal waste combustors by expanding the definition of mass burn rotary waterwall MWC's to include mass burn...

Tex Tin Cleanup Plan.
July 12, 2001... The Texas Natural Resource Trustees have announced the availability of the federal consistency determination under the Texas Coastal Management Program of a draft restoration plan and environmental assessment for ecological injuries and service...

Vehicle I/M Program Moves Ahead.
July 13, 2001... TNRCC's new motor vehicle inspection and maintenance program for the Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston-Galveston, and El Paso ozone nonattainment areas is scheduled to begin on May 1, 2002. Currently, vehicles in Dallas, Tarrant, Harris, and El Paso...

Bush Pushes Climate Science Efforts.
July 17, 2001... On June 11, President Bush announced a commitment to develop initiatives to advance the science of climate change, spur technological innovation, and promote international cooperation. Last Friday, the President announced that the National...

EPA Goofed on SAB Panels, GAO Says.
July 17, 2001... In a study commissioned by U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman (D, California), the General Accounting Office took a look at the membership of peer review panels chosen by EPA's Science Advisory Board to evaluate EPA's procedures for preventing conflicts of...

EPA OK's TNRCC's TCM, VOC Rules.
July 17, 2001... As part of its ongoing efforts to approve the Texas State Implementation Plan, EPA on July 16 published direct final rules and proposed rules that would approve revisions to the SIP that contain the transportation control measures (TCM) rule...

Critics: Region L Plan May Hurt Cranes.
July 18, 2001... The Texas Water Development Board today approved the South Central Texas (Region L) Regional Water Planning Group's adopted regional water plan, despite concerns expressed by spokesmen from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and, the National...

EPA Funds El Paso Energy Efficiency Effort.
July 18, 2001... As part of its efforts to promote energy efficiency and to support the National Energy Policy Report, EPA's Region 6 announced it will award a $40,000 grant, under section 103 of the Clean Air Act, to the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP)....

Saitas Rides in Black Helicopter.
July 18, 2001... Our pal Richard L. Smith of the Waco Tribune-Herald reports today that TNRCC Executive Director Jeffrey Saitas took time from his busy Austin schedule to hop a flight on one of the city of Waco's heralded (or blasphemed) "black...

Huston: TNRCC on Track on I/M.
July 19, 2001... The brand-new National Research Council study, "Evaluating Vehicle Emission Inspection and Maintenance Programs," was still hot on the Internet (the print version is not yet available), but TNRCC Chairman Robert Huston was quick to state that...

Arsenic, Anyone?
July 19, 2001... EPA today announced it is seeking public comment, due October 31, on the analyses it used in developing the January 22, 2001, standard that was promptly yanked by the Bush Administration, which would have lowered the acceptable amount of...

U.S., Italy Team Up on Climate Change.
July 19, 2001... Fulfilling a pledge made just two days earlier, the Bush Administration today announced a joint research agreement with Italy's new conservative leadership to conduct several critical studies, including atmospheric studies related to climate,...

HGA Mass Cap and Trade.
July 24, 2001... In its ongoing effort to make Texans happy, EPA has proposed approval of the nitrogen oxides mass emission cap and trade (MECT) program for the Houston-Galveston 1-hour ozone nonattainment area. The MECT program is mandatory for stationary...

EPA's Regional Haze BART Guidelines.
July 24, 2001... EPA has asked for comments, due September 18, on proposed guidelines for implementation of the best available retrofit technology (BART) requirements under the general haze rule that was published on July 1, 1999 [at 64 FR 35714]. The agency...

EPA To Revisit TMDL Rule.
July 24, 2001... Here's one we almost forgot. Last week EPA Administrator Christie Whitman announced that her agency will undertake a review of its widely criticized impaired waters (Total Maximum Daily Load) rule, which was lambasted in a recent National...

Publisher's Note.
July 24, 2001... We have been on a bit of a mini-vacation, and in the midst of a couple of special projects. We have NOT commented to date on the action in Genoa under which a bunch of nations approved a watered down Kyoto protocol that now lacks teeth. Do...

Sierra Challenges Beaumont SIP.
July 26, 2001... The Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club says it has filed suit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in an effort to compel EPA to move the compliance date for the Beaumont-Port Arthur ozone nonattainment area two years forward to...

Bush To Pick PA Woman for EPA.
July 27, 2001... President Bush has announced his intention to nominate Kimberly Terese Nelson to be EPA's Assistant Administrator for Environmental Information. Nelson, currently the Executive Deputy Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental...

Hydraulic Fracturing, Abandoned Mine Lands.
July 27, 2001... As part of its study of the potential effects of hydraulic fracturing on ground water, EPA has asked for data or reports of groundwater contamination incidents possibly attributable to hydraulic fracturing of coalbed methane wells. Hydraulic...

Texas Superfund News.
July 27, 2001... The Texas Natural Resource Trustees have announced the finalization of a restoration plan and environmental assessment for ecological injuries and services losses at the Tex Tin Corporation Superfund site in Texas City. At the same time, TNRCC...

TNRCC TMDL Hearings - and More.
July 27, 2001... Last week TNRCC's Commissioners took several actions related to the Total Maximum Daily Load program. In coming weeks, the agency will conduct non-adjudicatory public hearings in several locations, as follows, pursuant to those actions: *...