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Environmental Engineering Newsletter 28 Apr ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING NEWSLETTER 28 APR. 2014 This week's edition includes: If you need older URLs contact George at [email protected]. Please Note: This newsletter contains articles that offer differing points of view regarding climate change, energy and other environmental issues. Any opinions expressed in this publication are the responses of the readers alone and do not represent the positions of the Environmental Engineering Division or the ASME. George Holliday This week's edition includes: 1. ENVIRONMENT A D.C. CIRCUIT REJECTS CHALLENGES TO EPA’S 2012 EGU MATS On April 15, 2014, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ("D.C. Circuit") issued a decision upholding EPA’s 2012 mercury and air toxics standards ("MATS") for coal- and oil-fired EGUs. The case is White Stallion Energy Center, LLC v. EPA, No. 12-1100. In White Stallion, state, industry, and labor petitioners challenged EPA’s 2012 MATS on a variety of grounds. The court rejected all of the challenges. The court also rejected a separate challenge by environmental petitioners to provisions of the rule regarding compliance demonstrations. Env140428 Roger Zygmunt B. ANTI-FRACKING BILL ADVANCES IN CALIF. SENATE California's Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Water has approved a measure that would temporarily ban hydraulic fracturing in the state. The panel also advanced a bill that would improve the state's oil spill response program. The two measures await further action by the state Senate Committee on Environmental Quality. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-10/california-lawmakers-advance-bills-to-stop- fracking.html C. GULF OIL SPILL CLEANUP COMPLETED, BP AND COAST GUARD SAY BP and the Coast Guard have completed oil spill cleanup operations in the Gulf of Mexico, four years after the blowout that caused the spill. "Immediately following the Deepwater Horizon accident, BP committed to cleaning the shoreline and supporting the Gulf's economic and environmental recovery," said BP America Chairman and President John Minge. http://fuelfix.com/blog/2014/04/15/bp-says-its-finished-spill-cleanup-on-gulf- shorelines/?shared=email&msg=fail D. WATCHDOG: EPA INFLATING SUCCESS OF WETLANDS PROGRAMS An EPA inspector general report suggests the agency is inflating the success of its wetland preservation programs. The finding comes after the agency declared there was "no net loss" of wetlands under a key regulatory program between fiscal 2009 and 2011. The program, overseen in conjunction with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, dates back decades and applies to those seeking permits for everything from dams to highways to mining projects that could spew materials into U.S. wetlands. It requires permit seekers to offer "mitigation" plans -- in other words, wetlands restoration projects -- to offset any "adverse impacts." The EPA has reported these rules as successful -- but the EPA inspector general report found that the declarations were based on the EPA's assumption that all the mitigation projects would be 100 percent effective. That's not always the case, according to the IG report. "Not clearly communicating such assumptions hampers the public's understanding of the EPA's actual performance in protecting wetlands," the report said. One survey of North Carolina projects, for instance, found that none of the regions achieved "complete success." A memo from EPA Inspector General Arthur Elkins Jr. said the EPA should "clarify" its own claims -- which the EPA apparently agreed to do. A letter from Acting Assistant Administrator Nancy Stoner acknowledged that the agency was assuming all these projects would be entirely successful and agreed to "corrective actions." E. FEDS ISSUE TECHNICAL PAPERS ON METHANE, VOC EMISSIONS The Environmental Protection Agency has released five technical papers for public review as part of its initiative to reduce methane emissions. The papers cover methane and volatile organic compound emissions data from natural gas compressors, fracking, leaks from natural gas production, liquid removal from wells and pneumatic devices. "The white papers will help EPA solidify our understanding of certain sources of methane and volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions in the oil and natural gas industry," the agency said. http://www.ogj.com/articles/2014/04/epa-white-papers-offer-hint-of-methane-voc- emissions.html F. TEXAS WATCHDOG: NO PROOF OF CONNECTION BETWEEN FRACKING AND QUAKES There is no conclusive evidence that could link hydraulic fracturing with earthquakes, according to the Texas Railroad Commission, which oversees oil and natural gas exploration in the state. The statement came after Ohio regulators said they found "a probable connection" between fracking and quakes, prompting additional restrictions on fracking permits http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/news/2014/04/17/even-in-wake-of-new-ohio-limits-texas- regulators.html G. MONDAY, APR. 21 2014 ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY PROPOSED RULES Clean Water Act; Definitions: Definition of “Waters of the United States” Under the Clean Water Act 22187-22274 SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) are publishing for public comment a proposed rule defining the scope of waters protected under the Clean Water Act (CWA), in light of the U.S. Supreme Court cases in U.S. v. Riverside Bayview, Rapanos v. United States, and Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (SWANCC), and Rapanos v. United States (Rapanos). This proposal would enhance protection for the nation's public health and aquatic resources, and increase CWA program predictability and consistency by increasing clarity as to the scope of ``waters of the United States'' protected under the Act. http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2014-04-21/pdf/2014-07142.pdf H. EXPERTS SAY EPA FUNDED ETHANOL STUDY USED BAD MODEL Experts on Monday criticized a new University of Nebraska-Lincoln study, saying it used “worst-case” assumptions to determine that cellulosic ethanol creates more carbon emissions than gasoline. The report from Adam Liska, an associate professor at Nebraska, says crop residue (stover) used to make cellulosic ethanol creates 7 percent more greenhouse gas emissions in the short-run than gasoline emissions and are “above the 60 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions” required by the federal government. Tom Vilsack, the U.S. secretary of agriculture, said the study makes “certain assumptions about farming operations” that “aren’t a reality. It’s not what’s happening on the ground. “If you make the wrong assumption, you’re going to come up with the wrong conclusions,” said Iowa’s former governor, who was in Des Moines on Monday. “It’s unfortunate.” The U.S. Department of Energy provided a $500,000 grant over three years for the study, published Sunday in a peer-reviewed journal, Nature Climate Change. The research attempts to quantify, over 12 Corn Belt states, how much carbon is lost to the atmosphere when the stalks, leaves and cobs that make up residue are removed and used to make biofuel, instead of left to naturally replenish the soil with carbon. The university said the study “casts doubt on whether corn residue can be used to meet federal mandates to ramp up ethanol production and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.” The federal government has provided more than $1 billion in funding to support what it believes is greener cellulosic ethanol development. In November, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed pulling back how much renewable fuels — including corn-based and cellulosic ethanol and biodiesel — must be used in the U.S. fuel supply. EPA has reduced the target for the cellulosic industry five times, given the industry’s difficulty in meeting the volumes. Jennifer Dunn, an environmental team leader at the Argonne National Laboratory, said the study looked at “extreme levels of corn stover removal — up to 100 percent.” A study from Dunn and others in 2012 found that biofuels made with corn residue were 95 percent better than gasoline in greenhouse gas emissions. That study assumed some of the corn stover harvested would be used to create energy and replace power produced from coal. “The general consensus has been that we would manage corn stover removal to avoid adverse impacts to soil health, including a decline in soil organic carbon,” Dunn said. Dunn said several plants are creating energy to power their own cellulosic plants, a fact not factored into the Nebraska study. That includes Poet-DSM, which is building a $250 million cellulosic plant in Emmetsburg. Another Iowa plant, DuPont Nevada, says its $225 million facility has the potential to reduce greenhouse emissions by more than 100 percent. It’s under construction west of the Story County town. “The companies behind these plants have really striven to emphasize the sustainability of their feedstock, including the soil carbon aspect. It’s why there is only a certain level of stover that can be removed from the field. “Everyone knows that if you take the whole thing off, it’s going to cause problems,” she said. “That’s not even debated. ... Nobody wants to damage their soil health.” Dunn and others say farmers look at soil carbon on a “sub-field level” to determine how much stover can be sustainably removed. Liska said in an email that his study looked at stover removal at 25 percent, 50 percent and 75- 100 percent, and the rate of carbon emissions was constant. “It is likely that no matter what level of residue is removed, the carbon intensity stays the same,” he said. Douglas Karlen, a research soil scientist with USDA’s Agriculture Research Service, said the amount of stover removal used in the model isn’t physically possible. “If you could take off 75 percent of the corn stover, I’m not sure where you would put it,” he said.
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