bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Federal facilities and OSHA: A practical guide for managers
Authors: Rudolph Thomas E. 
Published: February 2007

AbstractMany seasoned federal facility environmental managers are very familiar with the “big three” environmental statutes: the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), the Clean Air Act (CAA), and the Clean Water Act (CWA). Ask them about the RCRA Hazardous Waste rules, Title V of the CAA, or the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) regulations, and they will explain the intricacies of those rules, ad nauseum. However, relatively few federal facility environmental managers are familiar with the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) or the special rules that apply to federal agencies under Executive Order 12196 and the Federal Employee OSHA Regulations. This article provides an overview of those rules.
Resolving state and federal cleanup control issues: A Kentucky experience
Authors: Sutton Dean H. 
Published: February 2007

AbstractDOE, EPA, and the Kentucky Department for Environmental Protection (KDEP) have been negotiating a Federal Facilities Agreement (FFA) for cleanup of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant (PGDP), located in southwestern Kentucky. The PGDP is a Federal Facility Superfund Site that is managing its hazardous wastes pursuant to permits issued by EPA and KDEP under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and state law. While the cleanup of the PGDP continues, the parties have had difficulty in finalizing the FFA, which is required by Section 120 of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA). The article reviews the current status of CERCLA and RCRA law in this area and suggests a way to break through the impasse that has been hampering the negotiations.
The corrective action management unit (CAMU) final rule and its impact on mixed waste management
Authors: Hippensteel David L. 
Published: February 2007

AbstractThe Corrective Action Management Unit (CAMU) Final Rule has provided much‐needed relief from land disposal restrictions and new land disposal facility minimum technology compliance for any waste meeting the requirements of a “remediation waste” as part of a Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments (HSWA) Corrective Action project. This waiver allows hazardous waste and mixed waste treatment, storage, and disposal facilities to actively manage remediation wastes within CAMUs and between CAMUs during HSWA Corrective Action programs, without having to comply with land disposal restrictions and minimum technology requirements.
Biological remediation of mixed waste by microbial mats
Authors: Phillips Peter , Bender Judith 
Published: February 2007

AbstractAlthough for regulatory purposes, mixed waste contains both a hazardous component as well as a radioactive component, the biotreatment technology described here remediates waste in the form of organic and metal mixtures and radionuclides and mixed metals. The BiomatTM, a proprietary microbial consortium, is photosynthetic, using atmospheric carbon dioxide and water to produce oxygen, and is nitrogen‐fixing (i.e., it uses atmospheric nitrogen to make usable nitrogen compounds for its growth). It contains anoxic (without oxygen) and oxic (with oxygen) zones in close proximity, which are assumed, for example, to simultaneously facilitate dechlorination and cleavage of aromatic carbon rings, respectively, in such difficult organic contaminants as PCBs and chlordane. It produces negatively charged, flocculating macromolecules which likely bind to metals.The BiomatTM tolerates chemical toxins and various pH, salinity, and temperature levels. In the laboratory, it has removed an array of heavy metals and metalloids, mineralized pesticides, PCB, solvents, oils, and explosives to carbon dioxide, and removed mixed waste in a continuous flow system. In the field, it has removed manganese, zinc, and other heavy metals (e.g., silver, chromium, cadmium, copper, lead, nickel, and iron) from mine drainage and BTEX, a gasoline mixture of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene, from contaminated groundwater. Landfill leachate is a mixture of toxic organics, metals, and ammonia. Waste Management, Inc., Microbial & Aquatic Treatment Systems, Inc., and the University of Louisville are currently collaborating in a pilot project testing simultaneous remediation of leachate with the BiomatTM.
The 104th congress and federal facility environmental activities: 1st session wrap‐up
Authors: West Michael A. 
Published: February 2007

AbstractThe dire predictions about how federal facility environmental activities would fare in the 1st Session of the 104th Congress proved unfounded. The fiscal year 1996 DOD and DOE appropriations and authorization legislation did not transfer Defense cleanup programs to EPA or slash DOD and DOE environmental funding requests. In part, this reflected the recognition that much of the criticism of DOD and DOE environmental programs was based on a misunderstanding of their development and operation. DOD and DOE environmental managers deserve credit for justifying and demonstrating the relative effectiveness of their environmental programs to the new congressional leadership.
Foreign technologies reduce costs and accelerate hanford site cleanup
Authors: Alexander Sandra L. 
Published: February 2007

AbstractForeign technologies are being transferred to DOE's Hanford Site in Washington State to reduce costs and accelerate cleanup. Hanford is the most highly contaminated site in the DOE complex; its cleanup mission is projected to take over 30 years at a cost of approximately $230 billion. DOE contractors are using proven foreign technologies and services to accelerate cleanup and bypass costly technology development.Many of the international activities being funded at the Hanford Site by DOE's Office of Environmental Management, Office of Technology Development (EM‐50), play a key role in meeting Hanford Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order (Tri‐Party Agreement) milestones that were established among DOE, EPA, and the Washington State Department of Ecology. For example, the purchase of a safe cask system from France meets the requirement for emergency aboveground transportation of liquid tank waste. An Effluent Treatment Facility built by a U.S. company that is wholly owned by Japan Gas Corporation supports milestones related to effluent waste management. Use of British technical services for various phases of the Initial Pretreatment Module supports other important milestones.This article begins with a brief history of the Hanford Site cleanup mission. The major EM technical focus areas, countries that are collaborating with Hanford Site contractors, and specific initiatives are discussed. This article concludes with a summary of 1994–95 international activities that have had the greatest impact on meeting DOE cleanup goals.
CNG conversion: A cost‐effective alternative to trip reduction programs
Authors: Werle Christopher P. , Grover Jerry A. , Levinson Raymond A. 
Published: February 2007

AbstractThe United States Postal Service (USPS) Pacific Area implemented an employee trip reduction program (ETRP) in 1991. By the end of 1994, the Pacific Area was successful in increasing average vehicle ridership (AVR) from an initial level of 1.09 to approximately 1.15, against an ultimate goal of 1.50. (AVR is defined as the ratio of the number of employees arriving at the worksite to the number of vehicles arriving at the work site. Further, the ultimate goal is only a target. There is no penalty for not achieving the goal.) The total cost for administration and operation of the program during the same period was approximately $5.6 million. The apparent high cost of the program in comparison to the results achieved, coupled with similar results attained by other major employers within the same geographic area, prompted management to look toward alternatives to trip reduction which might provide equal or greater environmental benefit at reduced cost. The alternative selected for analysis was conversion of USPS gasoline‐powered fleet vehicles to compressed natural gas (CNG). The approach used was to first determine the number of employee vehicle miles eliminated under the ETRP. Emissions factors in grams per mile were then applied to determine the corresponding amount of targeted pollutants (i.e., reactive organics, CO, and NOx) that were eliminated. By using ducumented emissions factors for gasoline‐and CNG‐fueled fleet vehicles, a comparison was drawn to estimate the appriximate number of vehicle conversions that would have been required to achieve the same net reduction of pollutants.The results of this analysis showed that conversion of roughly 569 fleet gasoline‐powered vehicles to CNG would have achieved an equivalent reduction in emissions over the same four‐year period. This, in turn, would have cost only $4.4 millin (78 percent) over trip reduction. The economics of this analysis strongly suggest that some type of emissions reduction equivalency credit (EREC) should be applied to ETRP programs (particularly for thos organizations that have implemented comphrehensive ETRP and fleet fuel conversion programs) to enable more cost‐effective reduction of air emissons.
Risk‐based screening: Streamlining the baseline risk assessment process at federal facilities
Authors: Baines Ann , Haasbeek John , Stell Mary Jane 
Published: February 2007

AbstractRecent EPA guidance has focused on using risk assessment to support remedial action decisions (U.S. 1991). However, experience has shown that the Baseline Risk Assessment (BRA) is very time‐consuming and often yields insufficient guidance to remedial design engineers in evaluation and selection of remedial alternatives. This article presents an approach for streamlining the BRA for a Remedial Investigation/Feasibility Study (RI/FS) under CERCLA and for a Remedial Facility Investigation/Corrective Measures Study (RFI/CMS) under RCRA. It uses a combination of background concentrations, applicable or relevant and appropriate requirements (ARARs), and risk‐based preliminary remediation goals (PRGs) to set conservative, media‐specific screening levels for all constituents of concern (COCs) at a facility. These screening levels streamline the RI/FS and RFI/CMS process by reducing the number of areas of concern (AOCs) and COCs that require detailed risk assessment and providing remedial design engineers with early guidance on areas and constituents possibly requiring remediation, thus allowing preliminary technology identification and evaluation to proceed concurrently with the BRA.This article illustrates the utility of this approach, describing its application at a federal facility in the desert Southwest. The case study site was an ideal candidate for the screening approach in that it covered more than 22,000 acres, much of which was expected to be uncontaminated. Of the 45 AOCs initially identified in the Field Investigation Work Plan, only four AOCs required detailed risk evaluation after screening. In addition, the article describes the approach used in the case study site to screen potential risks posed by exposures to the interiors of concrete weapons storage bunkers (igloos).
Remediation efforts at DOE's hanford site
Authors: Abbott John C. 
Published: February 2007

AbstractThe Hanford Site in central southeastern Washington State is now cleaning up its act. Created back in the 1940s by the Atomic Energy Commission, now known as the Department of Energy (DOE), the Hanford Site produced the world's first plutonium for atomic bombs. Since that time, more reactors and processing plants were built, as its mission of producing atomic materials for our national defense continued. But this mission is done and the cold war is over. The reactors have been decommissioned, and the new mission of cleanup and restoration has begun. This article discusses some of the current cleanup technologies being used on the site, as well as innovative technologies which could be future value.
GIS for integrating environmental site remediation and compliance information
Authors: Maitin Izak 
Published: February 2007

AbstractGIS and advanced visualization system technology for displaying underground conditions is being applied extensively to site investigations by federal agencies. Environmental compliance systems relating to emissions management, permitting, chemical inventory management, and traditional adherence to regulations have not received a comparable degree of application of GIS technology; they are being addressed by more traditional database management approaches. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate an integrated approach whereby a common database structure and GIS are used to manage both remediation and regulatory compliance data at large government facilities, and to provide access to information at a management level. The system integrates facility drawings, process flow diagrams, building drawings, photographs, MSDS documents, budgets, regulatory drivers, and remediation costs and schedule data within a common framework. The system also interfaces with high‐end and low‐end visualization software tools.
State permit certification requirements examined
Authors: Smith John M. 
Published: February 2007

AbstractNearly all of the myriad federal environmental statutes that have been passed have included waivers of sovereign immunity. In order for federal practitioners to understand the nature of these waivers, and how extensive they are, it is important to understand the history of waivers by viewing them through the Supreme Court's interpretation of what is required for Congress to yield federal control to the states with respect to federal facilities.One area in which further exploration is necessary is states requiring professional engineers or registered engineers to certify permit applications or closure plans in accordance with state permit laws and regulations, in environmental fields as these laws and regulations apply to federal facilities. This issue is further complicated when the program has been given delegated authority by EPA. What is the effect of a program that has not been approved by EPA but still regulates an environmental area that will have a significant effect on a federal facility with respect to this same requirement?
Environmental compliance and military readiness
Authors: Hourcle Laurent R. 
Published: February 2007

AbstractIn recent years, Congress has questioned the appropriateness of the Department of Defense's (DOD's) environmental programs and their relevance to the Department's performance of its paramount national security mission. This increased criticism on Capitol Hill has been accompanied by significant funding cuts to the DOD cleanup requests in fiscal years 1995 and 1996. This article argues that further funding cuts will actually jeopardize readiness unless Congress also reexamines statutory environmental compliance requirements and regulatory structure that have been enacted over the past decade. Under current environmental law, military activities pollute—they always have and they always will. Just about any military activity can be regulated by a savvy regulator in terms of its “polluting” consequences. Moreover, EPA, the states, and interested citizens can bring to bear a number of formidable enforcement tools to ensure that military activities comply with statutory and regulatory guidance. Thus, the nature of U.S. environmental law makes military environmentally compliant “readiness” difficult and expensive.The mobilization and surge requirements associated with Desert Storm raised a number of serious questions about the compatibility of the current environmental statutory and regulatory structure and time‐sensitive military requirements. Modifying permits and Presidential waivers proved to be too cumbersome to address the magnitude and complexity of military requirements associated with a major contingency operation. The article concludes that Congress needs to move beyond unthinking reduction of DOD environmental funding to the commencement of a dialogue as to whether there is a more effective approach to DOD maintaining readiness while meeting its environmental and public health responsibilities.
The mega‐issues in the federal facilities cleanup program
Authors: Yaroschak Paul J. 
Published: February 2007

AbstractDespite a great deal of progress in consensus building among stakeholders involved in federal facility cleanup efforts in recent years, two mega‐issues have yet to be resolved. First, under what statutory and regulatory regime should federal facility cleanups be conducted? Second, how should federal agency cleanup budgets be determined? This article examines these mega‐issues and proposes a strategy for an efficient, cost‐effective federal facilities cleanup program. This strategy is based on the adoption of appropriate modifications to CERCLA Section 120 and RCRA, if necessary, to bring about a unitary cleanup approach for federal facilities, combined with full disclosure of requirements by federal agencies and the clarification of federal agency authority to set budget levels after considering the requirements.
Long‐term leases and the reuse of base closure property—The reaction of the courts and congress
Authors: Steinberg Barry P. , Peper Jennifer L. 
Published: February 2007

AbstractThe expeditious transfer and reuse of contaminated parcels of base closure property has been complicated by the requirements of Section 120(h)(3) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) that all remediation be completed or that a remedy be in place and working. Long‐term leases have been used by the Department of Defense (DOD) in recent years to facilitate community reuse efforts. This article examines the basis for legal challenges that DOD's use of long‐term leases violates CERCLA, the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and Congress's response to recent court decisions. It Concludes that the enactment of Sections 2833 and 2834 of the National Defense Authorization Act provide a reasonable basis for the continuation of DOD's use of long‐term leases and demonstrates Congress's continued willingness to provide selective relief to facilitate and expedite community plans for the economic reuse of base closure property.
Guidance for negotiating the base closure environmental restoration gauntlet
Authors: Murphy Joseph M. 
Published: February 2007

AbstractThe military base closure acts passed in the United States since 1988 have established an aggressive challenge for the U.S. Army and other armed services to achieve. The challenge is to close the bases, restore the local environment to a condition suitable for reuse, and revitalize affected communities. Adding to the challenge is the need to do this under an accelerated schedule and in compliance with all applicable federal, state, and local environmental laws/regulations, including those pertaining to cleaning up hazardous waste. These actions need to be accomplished in an environment of constrained resources and high accountability for use of taxpayer's dollars. This challenge is similar to running a gauntlet, and one worthy of discussion and guidance on how to successfully avoid unnecessary pitfalls. This article discusses the scope of the U.S. Army's Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Environmental Restoration Program, the myriad of interests that need to be satisfied to accomplish its objectives, some techniques the Army has utilized with a fair degree of success to negotiate the BRAC gauntlet, and several site‐specific examples of success that resulted from using these techniques.
Putting a price tag on the environmental consequences of the cold war
Authors: Tyborowski Teresa A. 
Published: February 2007

AbstractThe U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Office of Environmental Management (EM) released the second Baseline Environmental Management Report (BEMR) in July 1996. The congressionally mandated report provides life‐cycle cost estimates, tentative schedules, and projected activities necessary to complete DOE's Environmental Management Program. This “base case” estimate is predicated on current program assumptions and the most likely set of activities. However, since the future course of the Environmental Management Program depends on a number of fundamental technical and policy choices, alternate program scenarios also were developed. This article describes the creation and implementation of the life‐cycle cost estimating process underlying the BEMR. It addresses the history of the Environmental Management Program and the requirement for life‐cycle cost estimates, organizational and methodological challenges to implementing life‐cycle planning, general methodology and results, and implications of life‐cycle planning.
Relative risk site evaluation within DOD's cleanup program
Authors: Turkeltaub Robert , Rowe William D. 
Published: February 2007

AbstractThis article describes elements of the relative risk site evaluation framework used by the Department of Defense (DOD) and military services, and it presents the results of relative risk site evaluations at the DOD level through April 1996. It summarizes how DOD uses relative risk informations as a program management tool, describes the status of relative risk implementation efforts, and summarizes findings and recommendations for improving the consistency and quality of relative risk site evaluations and associated data in the future.
Alleviating conflicts between army training and endangered species at fort bragg
Authors: Gorsira Bryan , Belfit Scott C. , Cantrell Mark A. 
Published: February 2007

AbstractThe second‐largest endangered red‐cockaded woodpecker (Piciodes borealis) (RCW) population in the world is located in the Sandhills physiographic region of North Carolina. The majority of the RCWs are located on the Ft. Bragg Military Installation. Ft. Bragg is working toward species recovery by conducting intensive cavity enhancement, RCW tree monitoring, RCW breeding surveys, growing season burns, and midstory reduction. However, significant barriers to recovery exist. The RCWs occur in two smaller‐than‐viable populations, one primarily on Ft. Bragg and surrounding private lands, the other on Camp Mackall and the state‐owned Sandhills Game Lands. Camp Mackall is separted from Ft. Bragg by a 10‐kilometer gap of private and state landholdings. Cooperation among private, federal, and state landowners is necessary to reestablish and maintain habitat for linkage between the Camp Mackall and Ft. Bragg populations. Dispersal between populations is required to ensure genetic interchange, increase population stability, and fcilitate recovery of the Sandhills population. A regional working group consisting of personnel from federal, state, and private conservation organizations has been established to develop and coordinate a conservation strategy for the North Carolina Sandhills. Current initiatives include: (1) safe harbor habitat conservation plan; (2) public outreach programs; (3) cooperative research agreement between the Army and the National Biological Survey; and (4) cooperative agreement between the Army and The Nature Conservancy. The future of military training at Ft. Bragg is linked to recovering endangered species, precluding the need to list additional species as endangered, and sustaining the longleaf‐wiregrass ecosystem of the region.