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2018-2022 NEWMOA Strategic Plan
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Leading the Northeast to a Sustainable, Waste Free Future
On June 6, NEWMOA's Board of Directors approved a 2018-2022 NEWMOA Strategic Plan that outlines several key strategic priorities for the Association. Overall, the Plan affirms the commitment of NEWMOA's members to its mission and goals for the next five years and identifies key priorities.
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June 2017 NEWMOA Board Meeting
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NEWMOA's revised Mission: ...p
rovides a strategic forum for effectively solving environmental problems through collaborative regional initiatives that advance pollution prevention and sustainability, promote safer alternatives to toxic materials in products, identify and assess emerging contaminants, facilitate adaption to climate change, mitigate greenhouse gas sources, promote reuse and recycling of wastes and diversion of organics; support
proper management of hazardous and solid wastes, and
facilitate clean-up of contaminant releases to the environment.
NEWMOA's long term Goals are to:
- Support and strengthen state efforts to implement policies, regulations, and programs
- Promote interstate coordination and develop innovative strategies to solve critical and emerging environmental problems
- Develop and enhance the capabilities and knowledge of state officials so that they are well trained, able to adjust to rapid changes in technology, and respond effectively to emerging environmental challenges
- Articulate state program views on federal policy developments, programs, and rulemakings
- Cultivate and enhance relationships among member states, federal agencies, colleges and universities, and stakeholders
- Engage with and educate the regulated community and the public
NEWMOA's 2018-2022 priorities are:
- Identifying and Assessing Emerging Contaminants
- Anticipating and Mitigating the Impacts of Climate Change
- Building the Technical Capacity of and Ensuring Adequate Resources for Programs
NEWMOA's core programs are:
- Pollution Prevention and Sustainability
- Hazardous Waste
- Solid Waste and Sustainable Materials Management
- Waste Site Cleanup
- Interstate Mercury Education and Reduction Clearinghouse (IMERC)
- Interstate Chemicals Clearinghouse (IC2)
- Cross Program Initiatives
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news@NEWMOA
news@NEWMOA is designed to help our members and colleagues keep informed about the Association's projects and activities. You are receiving this e-newsletter because you are a member of a NEWMOA working group, committee, program, or listserv; an invitee to NEWMOA events; a colleague at EPA or a related organization; connected to the Association in some other way; or have expressed interest in our work. If you have questions about delivery of this e-Newsletter, contact
Lois Makina,
(617) 367-8558 x312.
Share this newsletter with others in your agency or organization that might be interested.
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Joint Strategic Action Plan with NERC
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Materials management encompasses a wide spectrum of commodities;
while NERC and NEWMOA monitor this wide range of products, there are times when certain ones' demand focused attention, often due to the changing demands of the market, emerging environmental challenges, or technological advances. The NERC and NEWMOA Boards regularly identify priorities upon which the respective organizations decide to take action. Through the Plan, NERC and NEWMOA agreed to collaborate in their efforts to address five sustainable management issues.
The organizations agree to undertake a number of steps to implement the Plan:
- Seek funding individually and jointly to support the actions outline in this Plan.
- Annually review the Strategic Action Plan with each organization's Board of Directors to ensure its accuracy and appropriateness given changing circumstances.
- Form cooperative working groups to oversee and evaluate the work on each of the issues.
- Hold 5 - 6 conference calls a year between the Executive Directors of both organizations to review the actions undertaken to implement the Plan and develop recommendations for consideration by their respective Boards, as well as 1 - 2 joint calls of the Boards
- Provide regular reports to their Boards on the progress toward implementing the Plan and seek recommendations and feedback on interim actions and strategies.
- Develop measures for evaluating progress toward addressing the issues and topics identified in the Plan and track those measures, as appropriate.
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Waste Site Cleanup Program
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Upcoming Webinar
NEWMOA is holding an In-situ Treatment of Back Diffusion from Bedrock webinar on Thursday, August 17, 2017 from 1:30 to 3:00 EST. The webinar will focus on in-situ treatment alternatives to traditional pump and treat to control back diffusion from bedrock. Matt Burns, In Situ Remediation Practice Leader at WSP will present on implementing biochemical reduction combined with bioremediation at several sites, including over three years of data. Russ McCormick, a senior scientist at CB&I Federal Services, will present a case study on implementing enhanced bioremediation at Loring Air Force Base in Maine.
PFAS Workshops
More than 300 state and federal regulators, consultants, and others participated in NEWMOA's "PFAS in the Northeast: State of Practice and Regulatory Perspectives" workshops held in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire in May. The workshops were co-sponsored with the Brown University Superfund Research Program. They covered:
- Toxicology
- Fate and transport
- Treatment and remediation
- Case studies, policy developments, and lessons learned
All of the attendees that submitted evaluation forms rated the workshops as excellent or good, and 92 percent said the information will be useful in their work. For more information, visit:
www.newmoa.org/events/event.cfm?m=259.
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June 2017 Brownfields Meeting
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Brownfields Meeting
NEWMOA held a successful meeting of states and EPA Brownfields program managers in June. The meeting focused on:
- States/EPA roundtable
- Area-wide planning
- Trichloroethylene (TCE) and vapor intrusion: re-examining closed sites
- Site vulnerability mapping and analysis
- PFAS and Brownfields
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Hazardous Waste Training
NEWMOA held a successful workshop for New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJ DEP) hazardous waste inspectors in June. The participants had an opportunity to learn about:
- Financial assurance
- Health and safety training
- The results of EPA Region 2's review of the program
- A tool for targeting inspections
Over the past few months, NEWMOA has held training calls that covered e-waste issues and ways to assess the integrity of waste storage tanks. These calls are for state and federal hazardous waste inspectors and other compliance and enforcement and regulatory development staff. If you are a state or EPA inspector, regulatory development staff, or otherwise involved with hazardous waste enforcement and are interested in joining NEWMOA's monthly calls, contact Terri Goldberg
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Solid Waste & Sustainable Materials Management Program
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Improving Safety & Reducing Waste at Rural Transfer Stations
NEWMOA has published a series of handouts for residents on:
NEWMOA is finalizing one additional handout and expects to publish it later in July. Some of the handouts contain location-specific information for NEWMOA's partners in the North Country of NH and the Northeast Kingdom of VT. NEWMOA has also developed writable templates of these handouts that users anywhere can adapt to their local areas and specific needs.
NEWMOA is holding training workshops with transfer station staff on July 27th in Littleton, NH and August 1st in Lyndonville, VT.
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The Benefits of Reuse in NH
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EPA Region 2 Meeting
NEWMOA organized a June meeting for sustainable materials management programs managers in New Jersey, New York, and EPA Region 2 to share program updates and priorities and discuss many topics, including:
- Implementation of EPA's Coal Combustion Residuals (CCR) Rule
- Coordination on food waste reduction
- Coordination on construction and demolition materials
- Updates on packaging waste
- Updates on disaster debris planning
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May 2017 Solid Waste Workshop
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Solid Waste Program Workshop
In May, NEWMOA held a workshop for solid waste program staff at the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection office in Hartford, CT. The workshop focused on new technologies for waste processing, permitting and overseeing anaerobic digestion facilities in the region, and post-closure care at old landfills.
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Pollution Prevention & Sustainability Program
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EPA Region 2 Pollution Prevention & Sustainability Roundtable
NEWMOA held a successful roundtable of pollution prevention and sustainability programs in New York, New Jersey, and EPA Region 2 in June. Attendees included representatives from the state and federal environmental agencies, as well as university-based programs and small business development centers. The meeting focused on program updates, P2 for food manufacturers, working with small business on climate resiliency, and green chemistry.
New Green Business Workgroup
NEWMOA is launching a new Green Business Workgroup. The goals of the Workgroup are to: 1) advise NEWMOA's efforts to establish an online system for managing green business program data, and 2) provide a forum to talk about programmatic developments and ongoing management issues, with a particular focus on business engagement.
If you work in a green business government program in the northeast and are interested in joining the Workgroup, contact Andy Bray.
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Interstate Mercury Education & Reduction Clearinghouse (IMERC)
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International Mercury Conference
This year's conference focuses on improving understanding of the multiple factors that accelerate and attenuate recovery of mercury contamination in response to environmental inputs on local to global scales. It will include presentations on topics related to the science of mercury, technology, management, and its effects on human health and the environment.
Rachel Smith, IMERC Project Manager and active participants in IMERC will participate in the public information session "Open House" on July 16th. Rachel will also display two posters during the conference, focused on trends in mercury use in products in the U.S., and the importance of mercury product labeling
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Several IMERC-members and supporting members are planning to attend the conference and will be convening for an informal meeting/dinner on July 17th. In many cases, this will be the first time that some state representatives have met each other.
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2016 Triennial Notification Reporting
The deadline for companies to file their 2016 Mercury-Added Product Triennial Notifications was April 1, 2017. Currently,
more than 200 companies have submitted their 2016 triennial applications through the e-filing system, some of which are "pending". The IMERC Notification Committee estimates that there are another 160 companies that should have filed and have not (45 percent non-compliance rate). It is likely that some have closed or phased-out their mercury products and have not alerted IMERC. These companies will be the priority for IMERC outreach over the next several months.
Notification through the
e-filing system
enables companies to comply with the Mercury-added Product Notification and Labeling requirements of Connecticut, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota (labeling only), New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington (labeling only). Reporting is required for any company that sold or distributed mercury-added products into the states listed above during calendar year 2016.
Mercury-added Product Labeling
After several months of discussion and deliberation, the IMERC Labeling Committee is winding down its review of alternative labeling applications for lamps. The result has been the approval of more than 30 alternative applications for 12 companies.
In an effort to strive for
consistency among product labels and simplicity in the review process, the States relied on the following tiered labeling approach when evaluating mercury-added product labeling proposals.
- Tier 1 (Standard Label) - Product labels include all three standard labeling elements: 1) the Hg in a circle symbol; 2) text that states "contains mercury" in 10-point font (in English and French translation if shipping to Canada); and 3) a crossed-out wheelie bin symbol. A product that contains these three pieces of information does not require an alternative label application or review process. The States encourage manufacturers to utilize this label whenever possible.
- Tier 2 - Product labels incorporate a slight variation of the three standard labeling elements: 1) Hg in a circle symbol; 2) text that states "mercury/mercure" in font sizes less than 10 point; and 3) a crossed-out wheelie bin symbol.
- Tier 3 - Product labels include two of the standard labeling elements: 1) Hg in a circle symbol and 2) a crossed-out wheelie bin symbol.
- Tier 4 - Product labels include the Hg in a circle symbol.
- Tier 5 - Product labels include the Hg symbol underlined.
IMERC updated its website with this information and is developing additional guidance on individual state regulations, as the labeling laws often vary among states. IMERC has utilized a similar approach when providing information on states' product phase-outs and bans.
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Interstate Chemicals Clearinghouse (IC2)
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New IC2 Supporting Members
The IC2 is pleased to welcome three new Supporting Members:
- Clean Water Action Minnesota collaborates with other organizations in Minnesota and across the country to reform chemical policies. It co-founded a Minnesota public health coalition called Healthy Legacy in response to the growing body of scientific evidence linking rising rates of disease and exposure to toxic chemicals in consumer products and the environment.
- Costco Wholesale is a multi-billion-dollar global retailer with warehouse club operations in eight countries. Costco is committed to providing its members with high-quality goods at the lowest possible price in a way that is respectful to the environment and to the people and animals that produce these goods. Costco works with the chemical and consumer products industries to find appropriate replacements for many chemicals of concern and to develop a green approach to chemical use.
- The National Tribal Toxics Council (NTTC) is an EPA Tribal Partnership Group that is focused on providing Tribes with an opportunity for greater input on issues related to toxic chemicals and pollution prevention. The NTTC gives tribes a forum for providing advice on the development of EPA's chemical management and pollution prevention programs that affect tribes. Given the uniqueness of tribal cultures, communities, and environmental problems, the forum helps EPA better tailor and more efficiently address a variety of issues, expand pollution prevention and safer chemical initiatives in Indian country, and better evaluate unique chemical exposures on tribal lands.
Chemical Hazard Assessment Database Additions
In recent months, the IC2 has added 5 new GreenScreens and 13 QCATs to the
Chemical Hazard Assessment Database. The new GreenScreens provide detailed chemical hazard information for:
- Bumetrizole
- Fumed (or pyrogenic) nanosilica
- Silver
- Nanosilver
- HeiQ AGS-20 (a silver-silica nanocomposite)
The QCATs provide information for acetonitrile, 2-methyltetrahydrofuran, 1-methoxy-2-propanol, methyl isobutyl ketone, n-hexane, and butyl paraben.
IC2 Webinars
The IC2's Training Workgroup presents webinars on topics of interest to the IC2 membership. In late May, Rachel Massey and Joy Onasch, from the Massachusetts Toxics Use Reduction Institute (TURI), described
TURI's work to develop a limited alternatives assessment for sports turf, with a particular focus on materials used in artificial sports turf infills. Many communities face difficult decisions as they consider whether to install artificial turf playing fields, and state pollution prevention programs may receive inquiries from municipalities, educational institutions, and others about the materials used in artificial turf.
On July 18th, Beth Meer and John Vana of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) will describe New York's multifaceted work to "green" the State's procurement of goods and services, including furniture, food containers, batteries, disinfectants, and hand sanitizers. They will discuss the process used to develop or revise procurement specifications (including stakeholder engagement and collaboration with other states) and the top challenges and how they were resolved.
IC2 webinars are a members-only benefit.
For more information, contact
Topher Buck
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Newsletter contributors:
Andy Bray, Topher Buck, Terri Goldberg, Jennifer Griffith, Lois Makina, and Rachel Smith.
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