City's 'All Green' Stormwater Plan Raises Eyebrows at EPA

By TARYN LUNTZ of Greenwire
Published: December 24, 2009

....The New York City, for example, which averages an overflow a week, a rainy day means 500 million gallons of filthy discharges pouring into waterways, according to nonprofit watchdog group Riverkeeper. That foul brew contaminates drinking water, forces beach closures and pollutes shellfish beds.

Most cities are working with U.S. EPA to curb overflows as part of a mandate to cleanse waters to federal standards.

But the traditional options are expensive. Philadelphia, for one, found it would need to build a $10 billion sewage tunnel under the Delaware River to solve its overflow problem the standard way -- with so-called "gray" infrastructure.

So the city is proposing an alternate solution: Invest $1.6 billion to turn a third of the city green in the next 20 years. The plan involves replacing streets, parking lots and sidewalks with water-absorbing porous pavement, street-edge gardens and trees.
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Nearly Half U.S. Lakes in Fair to Poor Condition

WASHINGTON, DC, December 18, 2009 (ENS) - The condition of 56 percent of the lakes in the United States is rated as good and the remaining 44 percent are in fair or poor condition, according to a draft study released by today by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
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EPA's Proposed Effluent Limitation Guidelines Are Here

EPA announced last week the long-awaited proposed effluent guidelines for construction sites and released a pre-publication version (you can see it here). Once the guidelines are published in the Federal Register, comments are due to EPA within 90 days. For all of us who work in the erosion and sediment control field and whose work might be affected, it’s worth taking a look at the full document. But here, in a nutshell, are some of the highlights. The full title of the proposed rule is “Effluent Limitations Guidelines and Standards for the Construction and Development Point Source Category,” and its intent is to tighten controls on discharges from construction sites by establishing technology-based effluent limits and performance standards. First, the rule calls for non-numeric limitations that require all dischargers to provide erosion and sediment control BMPs, which are specified in the rule. Additionally, sites of 10 acres or more would need to have a sediment basin, or something that controls sediment to the same extent. For certain sites, though—“large sites located in areas of high rainfall energy and with soils with significant clay content”—EPA proposes a numeric turbidity limit of 13 NTUs. Because this level is hard to achieve with fine silty and clay soils by settling alone, EPA says such sites will probably need to use active treatment systems, such as the addition of chitosan or other polymers to promote flocculation, followed by some type of filtration. It also mentions electrocoagulation as a technology capable of reducing turbidity levels. The sites subject to this 13-NTU limit would include those of 30 acres or more with an average soil clay content of more than 10% and a rainfall erosivity factor (the “R” factor from the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation) of 50 or greater. (If you view the complete document, see Option 2 for more details on which sites would be subject to the numeric limit and what other possibilities EPA considered.) In areas for which the R factor hasn’t been calculated, total annual rainfall will be used as a criterion. (Discharge from rainfall exceeding the local 2-year, 24-hour storm, however, would be exempt from the limit.The proposal addresses the concern that polymers might be overused at some sites, and that discharges from those sites would be toxic. It judges the likelihood of this problem occurring to be low, however, citing the widespread use of polymers in wastewater treatment facilities. EPA is also asking for comment on setting a turbidity limit in the range of 50 to 150 NTUs, based on passive treatment. See the document for a discussion of this option. EPA says the rule will cost about $1.9 billion per year, and the document includes a detailed discussion of how it arrived at this figure.http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/guide/construction/

Managing Wet Weather with Green Infrastructure Action Strategy 2008

This Green Infrastructure Action Strategy is the product of collaboration among many agencies, organizations and individuals. The following organizations are primarily responsible for coordinating the development of this first iteration of the action strategy:

• American Rivers
• Association of State and Interstate Water Pollution Control Administrators
• National Association of Clean Water Agencies
• Natural Resources Defense Council
• The Low Impact Development Center
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

For more information on green infrastructure planning and implementation, and partnerships, visit the green infrastructure website at: www.epa.gov/npdes/greeninfrastructure
>>See Strategy
http://www.stormwaterpa.org/assets/media/benefits/gi_action_strategy.pdf

EPA Releases Final Specification for WaterSense New Homes

This will help homeowners increase water efficiency and save on their utility bills

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its final WaterSense single-family new homes specification today, creating the first national, voluntary, water-efficiency specification for an entire new home.

“Home builders can now partner with EPA and earn the WaterSense label for their newly built homes, helping to create livable communities and quality homes that are easy to maintain,” said Peter S. Silva, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Water. “These homes will save homeowners as much as $200 a year on utility bills compared to their current homes.” See WaterSense

Silva Cell Tech Makes for Safer Sidewalks and Healthier Trees

Silva Cell Tech Makes for Safer Sidewalks and Healthier Trees

Printable Batteries Made From Paper

Scientists have made batteries and supercapacitors with little more than ordinary office paper and some carbon and silver nanomaterials. The research, published online December 7 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, brings scientists closer to lightweight printable batteries that may one day be molded into computers, cell phones or solar panels. >>Read More