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January 7-13, 2023
In this week's issue:
- EPA Announces $70 Million in Funding to Advance Environmental Justice (January 10, 2023)
- OECA Proposes 2024-2027 National Enforcement Initiatives in the Federal Register (January 12, 2023)
- Sterigenics Plant Settles Ethylene Oxide Suits for $408 Million (January 9, 2023)
- Administration Releases U.S. National Blueprint for Transportation Decarbonization (January 10, 2023)
- EPA Unveils “Cumulative Impacts” Addendum to Environmental Justice Legal Tools Report (January 11, 2023)
- EPA Releases Draft Ambient Monitoring Appendix to National Program Manager Guidance (January 9, 2023)
This Week in Review
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EPA has announced the release of $70 million in funding from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) that state, local, and tribal air agencies and other entities can apply for, to implement programs that advance environmental justice (EJ). The funding is being administered by EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights, and comes from a $3 billion funding stream directed toward EJ grants and actions in the IRA. EPA has published a Request for Applications for this funding through the Environmental Justice Government-to-Government (EJG2G) Program. The program would direct $70 million dollars to EJ-related actions by state, local, and tribal governments. “Of this, $20 million will be for State governments to be used in conjunction with Community-Based Organization (CBO) partners, $20 million will be for local government with CBO partners, $20 million will be for Federally Recognized Tribal Nations with CBO partners, and $10 million will be for U.S. territories and remote tribes with limited access to CBO partners”, EPA said in the accompanying release. In total the Agency anticipates funding approximately 70 projects of up to $1 million each for a 3-year project. EPA said that programs funded should “leverage or utilize existing resources or assets of state agencies to develop key tools and processes that integrate environmental justice considerations into state governments and government programs”, and that top consideration would be given to projects addressing climate change, located in rural areas, and advancing health impact assessment. Agencies interested in applying for funding must submit proposals by April 10, 2023, and projects would commence in October 2023. EPA intends to host a webcast for prospective applicants on January 26, 2023.
For further information: https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/biden-harris-administration-announces-availability-100-million-through-inflation
EPA has published a notice in the Federal Register (88 Fed. Reg. 2093) proposing its National Enforcement and Compliance Initiatives for 2024 through 2027, that will serve as crosscutting priorities for the agency’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) to target its resources to the most serious environmental violations. OECA has six initiatives underway from its 2020-2023 list of priorities, which include 1) reducing emissions of harmful air pollutants from stationary sources; 2) reducing emissions from hazardous waste facilities; 3) reducing “significant noncompliance” with national pollution discharge elimination system (NPDES) permits; 4) reducing noncompliance with drinking water standards at community water systems; 5) reducing risks of accidental releases at industrial and chemical facilities; and 6) stopping aftermarket defeat devices for vehicles and engines. The Federal Register notice announces a new docket (EPA–HQ–OECA–2022–0981), in which OECA is soliciting input on whether to continue, modify, or conclude these initiatives during the 2024-2027 period. It proposes to continue Initiatives 1 though 4, and conclude national initiatives on 5 (air emissions from hazardous materials facilities) and 6 (mobile source emissions tampering). OECA asserts that it has met its goals for Initiative 5, and that the “Agency has made significant progress on [initiative 6], addressed serious violations through enforcement actions reducing pollution and improving air quality, and raised awareness of the concerns.” (In our March 11, 2019 comments to OECA on the 2020-2023 National Compliance Initiatives, NACAA recommended that EPA include an enforcement initiative “focused on compliance by mobile sources,” with defeat devices as the top priority, and EPA noted that it selected to focus on aftermarket defeat devices in response to these comments. For more information, please see the related story in the June 8-14 2019 edition of NACAA’s Washington Update.) For 2024-2027, EPA is proposing two new National Enforcement and Compliance Initiatives, “Mitigating Climate Change” and “Addressing PFAS Contamination.” The agency also seeks comment on whether two additional initiatives, “Reducing Exposure to Lead” and “Addressing Coal Combustion Residuals”, should warrant consideration as new initiatives. EPA will be accepting public comment on the proposed 2024-2027 National Enforcement and Compliance Initiatives until March 13, 2023. NACAA has invited OECA to brief the state and local air agencies on this topic on our February 1, 2023 Enforcement Committee call.
For further information: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2023-01-12/pdf/2023-00500.pdf and https://www.epa.gov/enforcement/national-enforcement-and-compliance-initiatives
An Illinois facility has agreed to pay $408 million to settle over 870 pending federal and state lawsuits over claims that it emitted ethylene oxide (EtO) from its medical sterilization operations for many years. The company, Sterigenics (parent company Sotera), operated the facility in Willowbrook, Illinois until the plant closed in 2019 amid community outcry over emissions of EtO, which is a carcinogen. If most of the plaintiffs agree to the settlement, the company will pay out the funds by May 1, 2023. As part of the settlement, the company also does not admit liability. Litigation began in 2018, after information revealed that risks from EtO emissions were greater than previously understood and local residents and workers began expressing concerns about emissions from the Willowbrook site. In a separate lawsuit last year regarding EtO from the Willowbrook facility, a jury awarded over $350 million to a cancer survivor.
For further information: https://investors.soterahealth.com/news-releases/news-release-details/sotera-health-announces-settlement-ethylene-oxide-litigation
The Biden-Harris Administration announced the U.S. National Blueprint for Transportation Decarbonization: A Joint Strategy to Transform Transportation. An “interagency framework of strategies and actions,” the Blueprint is based on a September 2022 memorandum of understanding signed by the Administrator of EPA and the Secretaries of the U.S. Departments of Energy, Transportation and Housing and Urban Development to accelerate an affordable and equitable clean transportation future for the nation. The goal of the framework is to eliminate all U.S. transportation sector emissions – including from all modes of travel by land, air and sea – by 2050 with an interim step of achieving a 100-percent-clean electrical grid by 2035. The three key transportation decarbonization strategies overarching the Blueprint are increased convenience through improved community design and land-use planning, improved efficiency through increased options to travel more efficiently and deployment of cleaner, zero-emission vehicles, engines and fuels, including for cars, commercial trucks, transit, off-road, rail, maritime, aviation and pipelines, among others. In a joint statement, the four agency leaders say, “The Blueprint builds on President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act, which together represent historic investments in the future of our nation that will transform how we move and live while we build the backbone of a safer and more sustainable transportation system.” The Blueprint also responds to a key recommendation made to the Biden-Harris Administration by NACAA in its January 2021 transition paper: “Despite the technological and regulatory progress made over the past nearly 60 years, mobile sources continue to dominate emission inventories across the U.S. and are the largest contributing sector to GHG emissions. Our nation needs a strong sustainable transportation strategy. Top priority must be placed on new federal programs to continue to reduce emissions from the mobile source sector – both from new and rebuilt engines and vehicles.” The association further recommended that “[a]s efforts to reduce GHGs and tackle climate change move forward, the need for further reductions in criteria pollutant emissions, especially nitrogen oxides (NOx) and PM from the mobile source sector, should not be overlooked.”
For further information: https://www.energy.gov/articles/biden-harris-administration-releases-first-ever-blueprint-decarbonize-americas,
https://www.4cleanair.org/wp-content/uploads/NACAA2021PresidentialTransitionDocument-01152021.pdf
EPA released a detailed report examining the agency’s legal authority to address cumulative impacts affecting communities with environmental justice (EJ) concerns. The report is styled as an “addendum” to EPA’s comprehensive May 2022 report, EPA Legal Tools to Advance Environmental Justice. It expands the discussion of cumulative impacts contained in that document by providing further detail and analysis and illustrated examples. “Cumulative impacts” and similar terms have varying definitions across different EPA legal authorities, but in general, EPA interprets the term as referring to the combined, often disproportionate burden and exposure to chemical and non-chemical stressors borne by communities with environmental justice concerns. The “Cumulative Impacts Addendum” to the EJ Legal Tools report is intended as a reference for EPA staff and decision makers, as well as for EPA’s state, local and tribal partners, to better understand EPA’s authority to address cumulative impacts. It is not intended to prescribe when and how EPA should undertake specific actions, nor does it provide methodologies for how to conduct a cumulative impacts assessment. The federal statutory and regulatory provisions discussed in the Addendum extend across all environmental media; Chapter One focuses on Clean Air Act programs. The CAA chapter in turn is divided into four subsections: New Source Performance Standards, NAAQS Reviews, Air Toxics, and Permitting; EPA notes at the outset of the chapter that the potential for taking cumulative impacts into account varies widely across CAA provisions and programs. Each subsection describes legal authorities within that program, many of which allow EPA to consider cumulative impacts as a matter of discretion. “Discussion of such examples does not necessarily obligate EPA to take cumulative impacts into account in any particular action,” the agency notes. It further states, “EPA program and regional offices should consult with the relevant Office of General Counsel and Office of Regional Counsel attorneys regarding potential legal issues associated with whether and how to consider and address cumulative impacts to advance environmental justice through EPA’s air programs.”
For further information: https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2022-12/bh508-Cumulative%20Impacts%20Addendum%20Final%202022-11-28.pdf
EPA released the draft FY 2023-2024 “National Program Manager (NPM) Guidance – Ambient Monitoring Appendix” for review and comment by state, local and tribal monitoring agencies. EPA’s National Program Guidance (NPG) documents describe the key activities expected for EPA, states, local agencies and tribes, aligning with the agency’s strategic plan and the Administration’s budget request. The NPGs for FY 2023-2024 were finalized in summer 2022, but the Ambient Monitoring Appendix has not been updated since FY 2020. The draft monitoring appendix provides a summary of EPA priorities in ambient air monitoring, including associated quality assurance, laboratory support and other activities for state, local and tribal air agencies to implement and maintain the ambient air monitoring programs. The listing of a program in the appendix indicates that agencies may use eligible Section 103 or 105 Clean Air Act grant funds to support that program consistent with an approved grant negotiated with the applicable EPA regional office. Consistent with NACAA’s comment on the NPG for the Office of Air and Radiation, the draft monitoring appendix indicates that EPA intends to continue to make grants available under CAA Section 103 to support PM2.5 monitoring activities, rather than shifting them to Section 105. EPA invites state, local and tribal agencies to review the draft monitoring appendix and email any comments to AirMonitoring@EPA.gov with “NPG Monitoring Appendix” in the subject line. The agency intends to incorporate feedback on the draft and post an updated version on AMTIC by the end of January 2023. EPA says it “will continue to work with monitoring agencies by dialoguing and addressing any additional issues as they arise.”
For further information: https://www.epa.gov/amtic/national-program-manager-npm-guidance-monitoring-appendix