EPA Action: Indianapolis agrees to spend $1.86 billion to stop sewer overflows

In other news below:
-- Oct. 18 is World Water Monitoring Day
-- EPA-ETV program APCT Stakeholder Teleconference set for Oct. 10
-- EPA names director of National Homeland Security Research Center
-- Two researchers join forces with EPA
-- Public meeting Oct. 26 to discuss draft of Guidance Manual for Stage 2 Rules
-- EPA, White House present Coastal America Award to Cargill
-- EPA issues order to Hanford to reduce arsenic in drinking water
-- Noted neurologist, ethicist joins EPA as Human Subjects Research Review official
-- Top environmental officials sign agreements to restore, protect Long Island Sound
-- EPA awards U.W. $600,000 for cutting edge drinking water research

• Indianapolis agrees to spend $1.86 billion to stop sewer overflows -- WASHINGTON, DC, Oct. 6, 2006 -- In an important action to protect the health and environment of its citizens, the city of Indianapolis yesterday signed a consent decree with the U.S. Justice Department and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to make over $1.86 billion in improvements to curb overflows from its sewer system. The settlement will be the third highest-cost Clean Water Act settlement addressing combined sewer overflows (CSO), and will ultimately reduce the volume of Indianapolis' untreated CSO discharges by 7.2 billion gallons in an average year. CSO systems combine sanitary (regular) sewage and stormwater runoff. Although EPA is not aware of any health problems from sewage overflow in Indianapolis, nationwide, sewer overflows can lead to outbreaks of disease from such substances as E. coli and Cryptosporidium...

• Oct. 18 is World Water Monitoring Day -- WASHINGTON, DC, Oct. 5, 2006 -- Learn about the science of protecting water quality. You can join volunteer groups, water quality agencies, students, and many others around the world to collect water samples and report your results. Last year, people and groups in over 50 countries submitted information about their local watersheds...
Also see: "USGS Alabama Water Science Center, ecology students from Auburn University at Montgomery celebrate World Water Monitoring Day"

• EPA-ETV program announces APCT Stakeholder Teleconference -- ETV Air Pollution Control Technology Center event set for Oct. 10 -- WASHINGTON, DC, Oct. 4, 2006 -- The ETV Air Pollution Control Technology (APCT) Center, operated in cooperation with RTI International, will host a semi-annual teleconference of the APCT Stakeholder Advisory Committee on Oct. 10. The teleconference will be held from 2-4 p.m. EST. Agenda items include discussions on verification activities related to indoor air products, baghouse filtration products, and mobile sources. For more information or to participate in the teleconference, please contact Andrew Trenholm, RTI, at (919) 316-3742 or [email protected]...

• EPA names director of National Homeland Security Research Center -- WASHINGTON, DC, Sept. 27, 2006 -- Jonathan Herrmann, who joined the agency in 1975, was named as director of the EPA's National Homeland Security Research Center, which is based in Cincinnati, OH. The center manages, coordinates, and supports homeland security research and technical assistance efforts, developing the scientific foundations to prevent or manage threats. Efforts focus on developing methods to clean up contaminated buildings, protecting the nation's drinking water supply, and improving techniques to assess risk...
Also see:
-- "Ex-Preparedness Programs director for Homeland Security Department joins CNA Corp."
-- "Homeland Security Department awards $399 million in grants to secure nation's critical infrastructure"

• Researchers join forces with EPA's existing experts to address new challenges -- WASHINGTON, DC, Sept. 25, 2006 -- Leveraging a powerful tool that helps the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency attract accomplished scientists and researchers with the best and brightest minds, the Agency announces three appointees who will join with other EPA professionals to battle the latest environmental challenges. Dr. Stephen Edwards has accepted the position of Systems Biologist within the National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory (NHEERL) in Research Triangle Park, NC. Dr. Richard Judson has accepted the position of bioinformatician with the National Center for Computational Toxicology (NCCT). Dr. Imran Shah will fill the position of computational systems biologist in the NCCT...
Also see:
-- "EPA advisors to hold public meeting on energy, water and stewardship in Denver"
-- "EPA Proposes Deleting the Army Materials Technology Laboratory Superfund Site from Superfund List"
-- "EPA removes 19th Avenue Landfill from Superfund list"

• Public meeting set to discuss draft Simultaneous Compliance Guidance Manual for Stage 2 Rules -- WASHINGTON, DC, Sept. 22, 2006 -- The EPA is holding a public meeting to discuss the draft Simultaneous Compliance Guidance Manual for Stage 2 Rules. This meeting will discuss the purpose and organization of the draft. The Agency will present the process for the public to provide suggestions and recommendations to strengthen the technical basis and make the manual more user-friendly. The public meeting will be held on Thursday, Oct. 26, from 1-5 p.m. ET...

• EPA, White House present Coastal America Award to Cargill -- SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 20, 2006 -- As part of the Corporate Wetlands Restoration Partnership, the EPA, along with the President's Council on Environmental Quality, presented the Coastal America Spirit Award to Cargill Inc. for its donation and sale of 16,500 acres of San Francisco Bay salt ponds. The South Bay salt ponds effort involved a number of partners, including Cargill, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, California Department of Fish and Game, the Resources Legacy Fund, and Senator Dianne Feinstein. The award was presented at the Long Beach Aquarium during a reception held for California companies to learn more about the development of a California Corporate Wetlands Restoration Partnership...

• EPA issues order to Hanford to reduce arsenic in drinking water -- Naturally occurring arsenic exceeds newly set federal standard -- SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 18, 2006 ¿ The EPA last week issued an order to the city of Hanford, CA, requiring the municipality to adhere to a compliance schedule for removing arsenic from its drinking water to comply with the Safe Drinking Water Act. Arsenic in Hanford's drinking water ranges from less than 10 to 50 parts per billion. The new federal standard for arsenic in drinking water from municipal systems is 10 ppb or less. The order requires the city to meet a schedule of well rehabilitation and development that will result in the first well coming into compliance with the arsenic standard late this year. The rest of the city's wells will each be brought into compliance over the next several years with full compliance by all of the city's 18 wells by December 2009...

• Noted neurologist, ethicist joins EPA as Human Subjects Research Review official -- WASHINGTON, DC, Sept. 18, 2006 -- To continue to ensure that EPA's research complies with all regulations that govern the protection of human research subjects, the EPA Administrator's Science Advisor announces Warren E. Lux, Jr. M.D., has joined the Agency as the new Human Subjects Research Review Official (HSRRO). Dr. Lux's appointment in the Office of the Science Advisor will provide high-level leadership and overall Agency direction regarding human research ethics and safety of those involved in EPA or EPA-funded research. Effective Sept. 17, Dr. Lux assumed the HSRRO duties from Dr. Peter Preuss who served for 10 years. Formerly medical director of the Defense and Veteran's Brain Injury Center at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington D.C. and Adjunct Associate Professor of Neurology at Washington University in St. Louis, MO, he's an affiliated scholar at the Center for Clinical Bioethics at Georgetown University...
Also see: "EPA submits 'Guidelines Establishing Test Procedures for the Analysis of Pollutants; Analytical Methods for Biological Pollutants in Wastewater and Sewage Sludge'"

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Among other recent agency action:
-- "Southern Missouri Governments to Help Streams After Illegal Activities" (10/5/06)
-- "EPA Grants Waiver for Ponce Wastewater Treatment Plant" (10/4/06)
-- "New EPA awards will recognize environmental stewardship at feedlots" (9/29/06)
-- "Top Environmental Officials Sign Agreements to Restore and Protect Long Island Sound" (9/28/06)
-- "New Discharge Permit for Mirant Kendall Power Plant in Cambridge, Mass. Significantly Advances Protections for Charles River" (9/27/06)
-- "EPA Seeks Community Input on Logan Airport Draft Water Permit at Informational Meeting" (9/27/06)

-- "Littleton, Englewood, CO, earn EPA Clean Water Act award" (9/25/06)
-- "EPA Seeks Public Comment on Cleanup of Former Naval Station Roosevelt Roads Base" (9/21/06)
-- "U.S. EPA reopens comment period for BHP LNG Cabrillo Port water discharge permit" (9/21/06)
-- "Chesapeake Executive Council Joins With Watershed Partners to Usher in New Policies to Protect Bay Forests, Farms, Waterways" (9/20/06)
-- "Federal, State Officials Award Grants to Restore the Health and Living Resources of Long Island Sound" (9/15/06)
-- "First Annual EPA Report on Dredged Material Management in Long Island Sound Released" (9/14/06)
-- "EPA, California Coastal Commission, Heal the Bay help cleanup Compton Creek" (9/14/06)
-- "EPA awards U.W. $600,000 for cutting edge drinking water research" (9/12/06)
-- "EPA reviews Bad River Band clean-water authorization application; public meeting set for Sept. 21" (9/12/06)
-- "Ashtabula River dredging has begun" (9/12/06)
-- "EPA Proposes Innovative Way to Clean Up Iceland Coin Laundry Site" (9/7/06)
-- "Three South Dakota cities earn EPA Clean Water Act awards" (9/5/06)
-- "EPA acts to ensure safe drinking water for Wyoming residents" (9/5/06)