US Environmental Protection Agency Regulations Research Articles

A Review of Retrospective Cost Analyses

This article reviews evidence from 28 peer-reviewed studies of the realized costs of 13 US Environmental Protection Agency regulations. We organize the review around the following four components of compliance cost: compliance strategies adopted by regulated entities, permit or other prices, unit compliance cost, and aggregate cost. For each cost component, we systematically assess data type, data coverage, unit of observation, method of obtaining the result, and controls for confounding factors. We then identify which factors drive differences between ex ante and ex post cost estimates. The most commonly identified factors are inaccurate ex ante accounting of baseline conditions and inadequate consideration of technological innovation. We find that failure to account for behavioral factors also contributes to differences between estimates. To improve future ex ante cost analyses, we recommend better characterization of baseline conditions, sensitivity analysis of highly uncertain parameters, greater reliance on economic models to incorporate behavioral response and reflect firm decision-making, and more explicit consideration of short-run implementation challenges. To enhance the ability to conduct ex post analyses, we recommend developing plans to collect data and to identify end points of interest and methods of analysis at the time the regulation is adopted.

Recycling Treatment Plant Residuals: Concerns Beyond Pathogens

Key TakeawaysAs the practice of recycling water treatment residuals matures, additional contaminants beyond pathogens are becoming increasingly relevant to how facilities may recycle their residuals streams.Manganese recycling and residuals treatment will become more critical if the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) ultimately promulgates a primary drinking water regulation targeting manganese.If a facility implements onsite dewatering and subsequently recycles their residuals streams, they may need to reduce the polyacrylamide levels to comply with USEPA regulations.

Melt ceramics from coal ash: Constitutive product design using thermal and flow properties

New US Environmental Protection Agency regulations for the disposal of coal combustion residues (CCR) incentivize bottom-up recycling efforts, to convert them into value-added applications. This study examines producing lightweight ceramic aggregates from CCR for concrete/geotechnical applications. More specifically, we argue that industrial residues such as coal bottom ash, despite their heterogeneity and diversity, are apt feedstock materials to constitutively design melt ceramics via high temperature recycling. A lot of knowledge on the feedstock (thermal and melt flow properties) is available, because of the historical interest in (molten) coal ash properties. It is shown how thermodynamics and empirically derived models and experimental observations on the viscosity, surface tension, heat capacity, enthalpy of fusion and thermal conductivity can be used to constitutively design melt ceramics. We created a custom model for the design of spherical porous reactive aggregates (SPoRA) from two different coal bottom ashes, using NaOH as an illustrative fluxing agent. To obtain the desired aggregate design, production should occur above the solidus temperature, yet viscous flow, caused by a low viscosity of the CCR melt, should be limited. The design method developed is able to discern the influence of various design parameters on the experimentally produced ceramic aggregates. A proper match between simulations and experimentally observed object shapes was obtained, allowing to define an operating window (temperature and residence time as function of fluxing agent addition) constitutively. This work shows how the available knowledge on coal ash assists the understanding and design of novel ceramic aggregate recycling processes.

Drinking water quality concerns from chloramine‐induced degradation of elastomeric compounds

Over the last decade, chloramines have often been used in place of chlorine as a disinfectant because of US Environmental Protection Agency regulations associated with disinfection by‐products. Although the switch generally has been beneficial, subsequent to this change, several utilities have reported problems with substantially higher rates of elastomeric component degradation in the distribution system. To investigate long‐term drinking water quality concerns, accelerated degradation tests were performed for three of the most commonly used elastomers (natural rubber, styrene butadiene rubber, and sulfur‐cured ethylene propylene diene monomer). Test solutions were then analyzed for suspended solids and organic compounds. Most of the organic compounds identified were associated with leaching of compounds from the elastomers; the exception was chloroform, which is thought to be a reaction by‐product. The presence of these organic compounds is considered to be long term because they are continually added to the system as the elastomeric compounds degrade over time.

They are your ears: Personal protection and personal responsibility.

Hearing protection devices are a primary means of protecting workers from occupational noise-induced hearing loss. However, the Achilles’ heel of this approach is the correct and consistent use of personal protective equipment. When workers fail to wear or fit protection correctly, they risk compromising their hearing. Currently five companies have developed commercial fit-testing solutions for hearing protection devices that can be used in a range of acoustical environments. In some cases the fit-test method requires a quiet test space because hearing thresholds are measured for unoccluded and occluded conditions under headphones. In other cases, the measurements are conducted above threshold and can be performed in acoustical environments with more background noise. These solutions will be presented along with evidence of how training in protector use can affect self-efficacy and attitudes toward using protection. Pending changes in the US Environmental Protection Agency regulations for labeling a variety of hearing protection will be discussed. Example cases for estimating occupational noise exposure with the new labels will be presented.

Assessment of metal contaminations leaching out from recycling plastic bottles upon treatments

Heavy metal contaminants in environment, especially in drinking water, are always of great concern due to their health impact. Due to the use of heavy metals as catalysts during plastic syntheses, particularly antimony, human exposure to metal release from plastic bottles has been a serious concern in recent years. The aim and scope of this study were to assess metal contaminations leaching out from a series of recycling plastic bottles upon treatments. In this study, leaching concentrations of 16 metal elements were determined in 21 different types of plastic bottles from five commercial brands, which were made of recycling materials ranging from no. 1 to no. 7. Several sets of experiments were conducted to study the factors that could potentially affect the metal elements leaching from plastic bottles, which include cooling with frozen water, heating with boiling water, microwave, incubating with low-pH water, outdoor sunlight irradiation, and in-car storage. Heating and microwave can lead to a noticeable increase of antimony leaching relative to the controls in bottle samples A to G, and some even reached to a higher level than the maximum contamination level (MCL) of the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) regulations. Incubation with low-pH water, outdoor sunlight irradiation, and in-car storage had no significant effect on antimony leaching relative to controls in bottle samples A to G, and the levels of antimony leaching detected were below 6 ppb which is the MCL of USEPA regulations. Cooling had almost no effect on antimony leaching based on our results. For the other interested 15 metal elements (Al, V, Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, As, Se, Mo, Ag, Cd, Ba, Tl, Pb), no significant leaching was detected or the level was far below the MCL of USEPA regulations in all bottle samples in this study. In addition, washing procedure did contribute to the antimony leaching concentration for polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles. The difference of antimony leaching concentration between washing procedure involved and no washing procedure involved (AC) was larger than zero for samples A to G. This interesting result showed that higher antimony concentration was detected in experiments with no washing procedures compared with those experiments with washing procedures. Our study results indicate that partial antimony leaching from PET bottles comes from contaminations on the surface of plastic during manufacturing process, while major antimony leaching comes from conditional changes. The results revealed that heating and microwaving enhance antimony leaching significantly in PET plastic bottles. Plastic bottle manufacturers should consider the contaminations during manufacturing process and washing bottles before first use was strongly recommended to remove those contaminants.

Critical evaluation of the NSF 61 Section 9 test water for Lead

The authors evaluated the NSF 61 Section 9 protocol from the perspective of test water chemistry and lead‐leaching propensity. Overall, the test water proved representative of a typical water supply. However, some chloraminated waters with lower pH and lower alkalinity can be more aggressive than the Section 9 water, especially after months of exposure. As a result, products that are certified under NSF Section 9 might still cause compliance problems with US Environmental Protection Agency regulations for lead. Moreover, similar problems may be expected to affect approximately 16% of the US population served by private water supplies and cistern‐type systems, which also are considered aggressive to lead leaching. To account for these concerns, the authors recommend that the Section 9 pass/fail criterion be tightened and that product information be made available that details possible limitations of the products relative to lead leaching in certain corrosive water supplies.

Update on USEPA's drinking water regulations

Pontius continues his annual tradition of providing an updated assessment of US Environmental Protection Agency regulations and a regulatory outlook. The current status and agenda for the coming year are outlined. In addition, the author discusses several important regulatory actions expected in 2003, including proposal of the Stage 2 Disinfectants/Disinfection Byproducts Rule, the Long‐Term 2 Enhanced Surface Water Treatment Rule, the final Groundwater Rule, and the final Radon Rule. A section on biological and chemical warfare agents is also included. Because the regulatory political horizon is continually changing as budgets shrink and players and priorities change, the information in this article can help water providers stay abreast of the most current regulatory demands. Because it takes years to implement major treatment changes, utilities must review regulations regularly and assess the expected effects of future rules to plan effectively.

A Mechanistically-Based Model for Spallings Releases at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant

SummaryThe Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) is an underground facility operated by the US Department of Energy (DOE) for permanent disposal of transuranic waste. The compliance of the WIPP to the US Environmental Protection Agency regulations, as assessed by the performance assessment process, is demonstrated by comparison of potential releases to the regulatory limits. In the Compliance Certification Application the potential for solids release to the surface exists only for “disturbed” scenarios, whereby the repository is intersected by an exploratory borehole at some time during the regulatory period of 10,000 years. Releases for this scenario are dominated by three mechanisms associated with the hypothetical scenario. These mechanisms are “cuttings”; the removal of solid materials by the action of drilling, “cavings”; the removal of solids by erosion by the circulating mud, and “spallings”; the removal of solids by a gas-driven blow-out.

Manganese removal from acid coal-mine drainage by a pond containing green algae and microbial mat

Acid mine drainage flowing from an underground seep, through an anoxic drain to an oxidation pond and then trickling filter was distributed among three treatment ponds for manganese reduction before releasing the mining water to a surface stream. Manganese was more effectively removed from the integrated green algae and microbial mat with limestone substrate pond (algae mat system) than from control ponds containing limestone or pea gravel substrates without mat. Although there was some Mn-cell binding, manganese was primarily deposited as precipitates at the pond bottom. Day/night and winter/summer manganese removal was essentially the same. The greater efficiency in Mn removal by the algae mat pond was most pronounced with higher flow rates and during the night. At 2 metres from the influent point of each pond, the algae mat pond removed 2.59 g manganese/day/M2, respectively, compared to 0.80 in the limestone pond and 0.37 in the pea gravel pond. Control ponds showed either Mn breakthrough or near breakthrough (Mn outflow releases > US Environmental Protection Agency regulations of 2 mg/L) during night-time sampling or when mine drainage flow exceeded 4.5 L/min.

Manganese removal from acid coal-mine drainage by a pond containing green algae and microbial mat

Acid mine drainage flowing from an underground seep, through an anoxic drain to an oxidation pond and then trickling filter was distributed among three treatment ponds for manganese reduction before releasing the mining water to a surface stream. Manganese was more effectively removed from the integrated green algae and microbial mat with limestone substrate pond (algae mat system) than from control ponds containing limestone or pea gravel substrates without mat. Although there was some Mn-cell binding, manganese was primarily deposited as precipitates at the pond bottom. Day/night and winter/summer manganese removal was essentially the same. The greater efficiency in Mn removal by the algae mat pond was most pronounced with higher flow rates and during the night. At 2 metres from the influent point of each pond, the algae mat pond removed 2.59 g manganese/day/M2, respectively, compared to 0.80 in the limestone pond and 0.37 in the pea gravel pond. Control ponds showed either Mn breakthrough or near breakthrough (Mn outflow releases>US Environmental Protection Agency regulations of 2 mg/L) during night-time sampling or when mine drainage flow exceeded 4.5 L/min.

What Turbidity Measurements Can Tell Us

While alternative methods for measuring filter performance such as particle counters and monitors are increasing in importance, the turbidity measurement continues to have a significant place in water plant operations. All techniques have limitations and, consequently, no single method can provide all the answers to monitoring filter performance. In the future, many systems will need to use a combination of measurements. This article describes the turbidity measurement and the proper sampling and measurement techniques needed to analyze high‐quality filtered water as mandated by US Environmental Protection Agency regulations.