• New Rule Lets Property Buyers Avoid EPA Cleanup Lawsuits
  
• EPA Pays for Asbestos Landscaping in Wealthy California Town
  
• Mock Funeral Held for Ford Electric TH!NK Cars
  
• New York State to Recycle Millions of Waste Tires
  
• Washington Funds Water Capture and Storage Projects
  
• Clemson's Homegrown Corn Plastic
  
• UV Light, Coatings Prevent Biofouling
  
• 35 Million Year Old Meteor Strike Decoded
  

New Rule Lets Property Buyers Avoid EPA Cleanup Lawsuits

To encourage the purchase, cleanup, reuse and economic revitalization of contaminated property, the EPA Monday proposed a new rule requiring potential owners to conduct a certain type of inquiry into the previous ownership, uses, and environmental conditions of the land prior to purchase.

If the inquiries are performed properly and other reasonable steps undertaken, the purchasers can buy the land with assurance from EPA that they will not be subject to lawsuits under the Superfund hazardous waste cleanup law.

Superfund authorizes the EPA to negotiate with parties that helped create hazardous waste sites to get them cleaned up. If these parties refuse to cooperate, EPA can sue them to conduct the cleanup. Regardless of how the cleanup is conducted, Superfund also gives EPA the authority to recover from parties any costs it incurs as part of the cleanup effort.

The agency’s proposal will also apply to any person conducting a waste site characterization or assessment with funding from the federal Brownfields grant program, regardless of whether a purchase takes place.

Although the current Superfund law provides some protection to innocent land purchasers who unknowingly buy contaminated property, "the statutory language is ambiguous," the EPA said Monday.

But even under the new proposal, prospective property owners who do not conduct the inquiries properly may lose their ability to claim protection from Superfund liability.

The proposed rule requires that an inquiry into the past uses of the property be conducted by an environmental professional. The inquiry must include, among other requirements, searches for recorded environmental cleanup liens; interviews with past and present owners, operators, and occupants; and reviews of federal, tribal, state, and local government records.

The inquiry is seeking information on current and past uses of hazardous substances, as well as waste management and disposal activities that could have caused releases or threatened releases of hazardous substances, either on the subject property or on adjacent properties.

The EPA was directed by Congress to propose this regulation under the Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act of January 2002.

That law specified that potential buyers be protected from Superfund liability as long as they perform all appropriate inquiries into former uses of the land. The law directs the EPA to develop a standard for these inquiries.

EPA used a negotiated rulemaking process to develop the newly proposed standards. This is a collaborative process in which a proposal is developed by a committee representing interests significantly affected by the rule.

The committee, representing state, tribal and local governments, environmental justice groups, lenders and real estate developers collaborated on the proposal last November. See a list of committee members at: http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/aai/faca.htm

The EPA emphasizes that "the failure to detect contamination prior to purchase does not exempt a landowner from the obligation to clean up newly discovered hazardous waste after the purchase."

During the Brownfields 2004 Conference in St. Louis, Missouri, the EPA will hold a public meeting on this proposed rule that would set standards and practices for inquiries into previous land use. The public meeting will be held on Wednesday September 22, 2004 from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. CDT in America's Ballrooms 221 and 222 of the America's Center, 701 Convention Plaza, St. Louis, Missouri, 63101. The meeting is open to the general public.

For more information on the proposed rule, go to: http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/regneg.htm and visit: http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/aai/draftreglangfinal.htm

EPA Pays for Asbestos Landscaping in Wealthy California Town

While located in a community with a high per capita income, the school district had no money to cover the costs, so the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) picked up the tab.

Landscaping the school grounds was done to prevent dust that may contain asbestos fibers from getting airborne where it can cause damage to human lungs, including asbestosis and a rare form of cancer, mesothelioma.

Scientists are still not able to say with certainty how much asbestos in soil becomes airborne. The EPA takes action to cut the risk of contamination when concentrations of one percent by weight asbestos in soil are discovered.

In 2002, grading for soccer fields at Oak Ridge High School disturbed a vein of amphibole asbestos. Lack of irrigation water prevented the school district from covering the new fields immediately with sod, leading to concerns about exposure of the campus community to asbestos.

Former grading and construction exposed or left exposed soils containing actinolite, chrysotile and tremolite asbestos on the 49 acre campus, the EPA said.

In 2003, in response to state of California and county of El Dorado requirements, the El Dorado Union High School District took actions to assess and reduce the potential for exposure to asbestos from soils on the campus, including testing sports facilities on the campus for asbestos releases.

One air sampling event in July 2003, conducted by a contractor hired by the El Dorado Union High School District, demonstrated the potential for significant exposure to airborne asbestos from activities such as outdoor athletics and construction and maintenance.

The school district, under state and county oversight, did what it could, covering certain areas of the campus with clean fill and cleaning classrooms at a cost of some $1.3 million.

Over the past few months, bare dirt areas next to classrooms were landscaped or paved, access roads throughout the campus were paved, and dirt areas within the central quad area of the campus were covered with concrete.

The EPA’s action at Oak Ridge High was taken under the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), which requires that those responsible for pollution pay cleanup costs whenever possible. Although the asbestos at Oak Ridge is naturally occurring, the contamination was on school property, so under CERCLA, the school could have been held liable for the EPA’s costs.

The EPA decided not to try to recover cleanup costs from the school after determining that "it had no uncommitted funds to pay the government," the agency said.

Center of rich placer diggings during the California gold rush of the 1850s, the town of El Dorado Hills is situated halfway between the San Francisco Bay Area and the Lake Tahoe Basin.

The local Chamber of Commerce calls El Dorado Hills "one of Northern California's most prestigious residential addresses," and a new Chamber survey found that the car dealership most respondents request to move to El Dorado Hills is BMW.

While the EPA's asbestos work is complete, another federal agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) , is getting involved. In response to a petition from community members, a CDC division, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry is investigating the possible health hazards of naturally occurring asbestos on the grounds of Oak Ridge High School. The investigation report, which the agency calls a public health consultation, will be released for public review and comment this fall.

Mock Funeral Held for Ford Electric TH!NK Cars

New York State to Recycle Millions of Waste Tires

As part of the plan, the Departments of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and Transportation (DOT) will partner on the initiative to recycle scrap tires for use on state highway projects. The plan will help eliminate as many as 29 million tires located in tire dumps across the state.

"Scrap tire piles create potential health and safety hazards that threaten the well-being of our communities and natural environment," Governor Pataki said. "This comprehensive plan is a major step forward in the State's efforts to eliminate potentially dangerous waste tire piles from our communities and protect our air and water for our children and generations to come."

Contractors will soon begin work to remove eight million tires at the Mohawk Tire facility in Waterford. More than 2.5 million discarded tires were removed from the site in 2000 and 2001 through a contract issued by the DEC, but the tires remaining at the site continue to pose a threat to the surrounding community and businesses.

Mohawk Tire's proximity to the Hudson River continues to be of concern to state and local officials. The tire abatement project at Mohawk Tire will require that the remaining eight million tires be removed from the property within three years.

The Waste Tire Management and Recycling Act of 2003 requires the DEC to prepare and implement a comprehensive plan designed to abate all noncompliant waste tire stockpiles in New York state by September 10. The DEC expects to begin stockpile cleanups this fall.

Funding for this program is provided through a $2.50 fee added to each new tire purchased. The fee is deposited into a Waste Tire Management and Recycling Fund to be used for the cleanup of waste tire stockpiles and to develop markets for newly generated waste tires.

From September 2003 through May 2004, DEC inspectors visited 162 locations and documented 95 noncompliant waste tire stockpiles. There are an estimated 29 million waste tires in these stockpile sites.

The five largest noncompliant waste tire stockpiles represent approximately 85 percent of all stockpiled tires. In addition to the Mohawk facility, these sites include the Fortino Site in West Monroe; Hornburg Tire in the Village of Sinclairville; New York Tire in Smithtown; and Cycletech in the City of Hudson. The state is currently developing and accepting bids to initiate mitigation activities at these sites.

The discarded tires must be used in a beneficial manner to the greatest extent possible. Unwanted waste tires have been used in the past in steel production, as crumb rubber for rubberized surfaces, and as tire shreds for use in civil engineering applications including road construction and landfill construction.

Shredded tires will be used on DOT projects as embankment filler to help reduce the amount of gravel necessary for many highway projects. Tire shreds are lightweight, compact, and drain better than conventional gravel material used on highway embankments.

Shreds are placed in layers one-foot thick, compacted up to a total thickness of 10 feet, and covered on the sides and top with soil and pavement. The shreds are first wrapped on all sides with a material known as geotextile, a type of very tough cloth, to prevent the soil cover from infiltrating the tire shred layer.

The first DOT project that will utilize the shreds will be a bridge elimination project on Interstate 87 in Clinton County, expected to begin this month. This project will replace the bridge with a large embankment, utilizing 10,220 metric tons of tire shred, the equivalent of one million scrap tires. Subsequent projects could use as many as 25 million tires.

Washington Funds Water Capture and Storage Projects

The 2004 legislature earmarked the money for crafting water storage plans, evaluating how underground water systems function, developing engineering and financial reports, acquiring land and facilities, and completing other pre-construction activities.

Joe Stohr, who oversees Ecology's water resources program, said the selected projects will focus on determining whether and how underground and surface waters interact.

"This information will help us figure out the best way to capture and store water during our wet months so it's available in the summer and fall," Stohr said.

The city of North Bend in King County will receive the largest single grant, $500,000, to help defray the cost of either pumping water from a nearby deep underground water source into the Snoqualmie River or constructing a pipeline to carry water from the Cedar River to the Snoqualmie. Stohr said the goal is to help the city find new sources of municipal water while keeping the nearby threatened Snoqualmie River flowing for fish.

The East King County Regional Water Association will receive $450,000 to pump water from an underground source in the upper Snoqualmie River system during low-flow periods and put it directly in the river to help salmon migration. The association will monitor how the aquifer is replenished during wet months. If successful, the approach could be applied to other river basins in the state where fish runs are threatened.

Other projects include:

• $450,000 to the Chelan County Conservation District to study how underground and surface waters interact, including how area aquifers are replenished, and to evaluate where and how water-storage sites might be developed along the Entiat River.

• $300,000 to Yelm (Thurston County) to study the viability of storing water underground to augment flows in Yelm Creek or to replenish the Nisqually River aquifer.

• $285,000 to the Stevens County Public Utilities District to cover survey work and engineering evaluations for diverting spring runoff from Loon Lake to an existing gravel pit or new infiltration trenches.

• $75,000 to the Stevens County Public Utilities District to conduct hydrologic and environmental studies to determine whether to construct multiple ponds or a single large water-storage facility on private property owned by the Walter Davis family on Sheep Creek.

• $275,000 to the city of Walla Walla to extend the geographic boundaries of its existing groundwater-modeling study area to explore potential effects of storing water underground and how recovering the water might influence regional underground and surface-water resources.

• $250,000 to the Agnew Irrigation District (Clallam County) to design the Atterberry Irrigation Reservoir that would store about 500 acre-feet of water. Additional funds may be required to complete an environmental impact statement and permitting costs.

• $200,000 to the Asotin County Public Utilities District to assess if storing water in shallow aquifers in the Tucannon or Clarkston valleys during the wet season can help maintain flows in the Tucannon River during drier times of the year.
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  Clemson's Homegrown Corn Plastic

  CLEMSON, South Carolina, August 24, 2004 (ENS) - Tetramer Technologies, LLC is adding corn to plastic containers - and cars, airplanes and golf clubs. The Clemson University spinoff company has just received a $100,000 small business research grant from the National Science Foundation to demonstrate the commercial feasibility of plastics partially derived from renewable sources like corn.

  The award follows two previous grants, demonstrating that the National Science Foundation is really interested in vegetable based plastics.

  Most plastics, varnishes and packaging foams are made from chemicals derived from petroleum. But now stiffer environmental regulations and consumer conscience are driving the search for materials that are recyclable, renewable and less polluting.

  Polylactic acid is a byproduct of corn. It currently is used in some pill coatings and sutures because it easily dissolves - a property not desirable in drink containers, boat coatings and packaging.

  Clemson University professor Dennis Smith and his research group have found a new way to replace up to 50 percent of the chemicals that make regular plastics with polylactic acid. The end product is a plastic that has both the environmental friendliness of the corn-based product and the durability of regular plastics.

  Potentially, this new material could reduce by five billion pounds per year the amount of single use, nonbiodegradable plastics that are discarded. The new manufacturing process also could cut air pollutants from plants that produce plastics.

  But corn based plastics are not really new. In May 2003, Wild Oats Markets became the first grocery stores in North America to switch from conventional plastics to corn based polylactic acid plastics for packaging.

  IPER, a 22 store chain in Italy, first launched a Cargill Dow corn based plastic packaging product in 2002 to bring new attention to its fresh foods. All 22 IPER markets now sell a broad range of produce, fresh pasta and salads in the corn plastic packaging.

  And in Belgium, the supermarket Bio-Planet began offering foods packaged in the Cargill Dow product earlier this month.

  But Clemson wants to develop a homegrown South Carolina corn based plastic product. "By finding commercial applications for Clemson research, Tetramer is fueling South Carolina's knowledge based economy," said Earl Wagener, CEO of Tetramer. "We're creating jobs that will help keep the top researchers coming out of the university."

  Wagener, a 1967 Clemson graduate in physical organic chemistry, returned to South Carolina to head the company. Wagener has 36 years of new product commercialization and venture capital experience at Stepan Co. and The ChemQuest Group Inc. and Dow Chemical.

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  UV Light, Coatings Prevent Biofouling

  UNIVERSITY PARK, Pennsylvania, August 24, 2004 (ENS) - The combination of ultraviolet (UV) light and certain coatings can lower the ability of some types of bacteria to stick to a glass surface and cause contamination or biofouling, Penn State environmental engineers have found.

  Dr. Baikun Li, assistant professor of environmental engineering at Penn State Harrisburg, says "Ultraviolet light has been used for many years as an environmentally friendly route to water disinfection. However, these new results indicate that ultraviolet light, combined with certain coatings, also may offer a green approach to keeping glass surfaces free of contamination."

  Li described her results in a paper, "The Impact of Ultraviolet Light on Bacterial Adhesion to Glass and Metal-Oxide Coated Surfaces," at the American Chemical Society meeting on Sunday in Philadelphia. Her co-author is Dr. Bruce Logan, the Kappe professor of environmental engineering, Penn State's University Park campus.

  The researchers exposed flat glass surfaces coated with thin layers of silicon dioxide, titanium dioxide or tin dioxide to eight different strains of bacteria, including some types that cause diseases, and two different wavelengths of UV light.

  Measurements showed that the lower wavelength UVC light lowered cell adhesion by 15 to 50 percent, depending on the type of bacteria, on both the titanium dioxide and tin dioxide coated surfaces.

  The higher wavelength UVA light produced similar effects for glass coated with titanium dioxide but not with tin dioxide. Higher intensity light reduced adhesion more than lower intensity UV light.

  Li says, "Our work is among the first studies of the combination of ultraviolet light and coatings to prevent biofouling. These early results are promising and suggest potential for further study and anti-biofouling application."

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  35 Million Year Old Meteor Strike Decoded

  ATHENS, Georgia, August 24, 2004 (ENS) - A meteorite that hit Chesapeake Bay some 35 million years ago caused an explosion bigger than the eruption of Mt. St. Helens, and sent matter flying as far as Georgia, researchers at the University of Georgia believe.

  People in Georgia's Dodge and Bleckley counties have picked up small pieces of natural glass called Georgiaites for years - mysterious small, translucent green or brown objects, but no one could explain their origin.

  Now researchers at the University of Georgia, studying a kaolin mine in Warren County, have found a layer of tiny grains, which indicate that the grains and the Georgiaites were products of a recently discovered impact that left a huge crater beneath the waters of the Chesapeake Bay.

  Some 1,700 of these objects have been found in Georgia to date, and potassium-argon geochronology has dated them to around 35 million years of age.

  "We knew we had these tektites here, but we'd never found them in place," said Michael Roden, a geologist and part of the research team. "We believe this layer is further evidence that the Chesapeake Bay impact was an enormous event with widespread consequences."

  The abandoned kaolin mine where the discovery was made was near the sea's edge in ancient times, the researchers believe. This former shore now crosses central Georgia.

  The impact in the Chesapeake Bay caused a huge amount of material, both from the Earth and the asteroid, to become airborne, researchers believe, and the 25 feet deep layer of tektites in the kaolin mine was probably laid down by the event.

  The search for the layer, led by University of Georgia graduate student Scott Harris, led to the discovery of so-called shocked quartz - grains whose physical signature mark them as having originated from the extremely high pressures characteristic of an impact event.

  The research was published in the August issue of the journal "Geology."

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