EnviroPolitics Blog

New York mayor sees citywide curbside composting by end of 2024

*New York Mayor Eric Adams is pictured in Times Square in October. (Luiz C. Ribeiro/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)*

By Maria Rachal, Waste Dive Editor

New York City officials plan for a curbside composting program to be available citywide by the end of 2024, Mayor Eric Adams said in his State of the City address Thursday.

“Hiring our new rat czar will be just the beginning of a new era in delivering the best in public services and public spaces,” Adams said. “We’re going to get stuff cleaner by launching the country’s largest curbside composting program. By the end of 2024, all 8.5 million New Yorkers will finally have the rat-defying solution they’ve been waiting for two decades.”

Over a three-month period, a composting pilot in Queens diverted nearly 6,500 tons of kitchen and yard waste from landfills, Adams reported. “Imagine how much we will accomplish when every family in the city is participating. A lot of people have talked about this issue, but this administration is getting it done,” Adams said.

Read the full story here

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Bill allowing more energy sources to connect to the grid clears NJ Senate panel

Sen. Stanfield’s bill requiring the BPU to find solutions that would allow additional energy sources to connect to the electrical grid was approved by the Senate Environment and Energy Committee. (Pixabay)

From a press release

Legislation sponsored by Senator Jean Stanfield that requires the Board of Public Utilities to conduct a study on short-term solutions that would allow additional energy sources to connect to the electrical grid was approved by the Senate Environment and Energy Committee.

“New Jersey has ambitious goals to promote and expand renewable energy projects, but the infrastructure must be in place for these initiatives to work,” said Stanfield (R-8). “Our legislation offers four potential solutions that could open segments of the electrical grid that are currently closed to new energy sources and instructs the BPU to identify alternative solutions as well.”

State and local governments have invested billions of dollars into renewable energy while the expansion of the electrical grid has lagged. Last year, researchers at Princeton stated that to reduce carbon emissions, the pace of grid expansion in the United States must “more than double” the rate of expansion seen during the previous decade.

Senator Stanfield’s bipartisan legislation (S-3489) with Senator Bob Smith (D-17) mandates that within one year the BPU must report the findings of their study to the Governor and Legislature with recommended regulatory actions to improve the delivery of electricity throughout the state.

The BPU would be required to implement its recommendations as a regional pilot program for one year. If their recommendations prove successful, rules and regulations would be implemented statewide.

“The process of building the infrastructure needed to open the grid for new energy sources will take time,” added Stanfield. “It is necessary to find solutions that make our energy grid sufficient to support new energy projects in New Jersey.”

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EPA to Accelerate Lead Pipe Replacements in Underserved Pennsylvania Communities

1,204 Lead Pipe Stock Photos - Free & Royalty-Free Stock ...

From the USEPA

PHILADELPHIA (January 27, 2023) – Today, EPA announced a new initiative to accelerate progress toward the goal of achieving 100% lead service line removal and replacement.

The “Lead Service Line Replacement Accelerators” initiative was introduced during a White House convening with Vice President Kamala Harris and EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan, alongside state and local leaders celebrating the one-year anniversary of the Lead Pipe and Paint Action Plan.

“EPA’s partnership with Pennsylvania will go a long way in helping thousands of small drinking water systems begin to address aging lead pipes and ultimately provide safe drinking water to their communities,” said EPA’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Administrator Adam Ortiz. “This historic funding is going to improve lives and we’re eager to get started in the Commonwealth.”

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law invested an unprecedented $50 billion in the nation’s water and wastewater infrastructure, including $15 billion dedicated to lead service line replacement and $11.7 billion for general Drinking Water State Revolving Funds that can also be used for lead service line replacement.

The EPA said it is committed to this work and using every tool available— statutory authority under the Safe Drinking Water Act, technical assistance, funding for lead service line replacement, and more—to protect all Americans from lead in drinking water.

For more information about water technical assistance for communities and the Lead Service Line Replacement Accelerators, please visit. https://www.epa.gov/water-infrastructure/water-technical-assistance.

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More leachate regs coming from EPA after study finds PFAS at 95% of surveyed landfills

A photo of the EPA entrance sign in the foreground of the agency's building — *Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images via Getty Images*

The agency is assessing new effluent limitation guidelines and pretreatment standards, but their effect on daily operations is not clear. WM, Republic Services, and waste trade groups have weighed in.

By Megan Quinn, Waste Dive

The U.S. EPA has announced plans to develop new effluent limitation guidelines and pretreatment standards for landfill leachate due to the presence of PFAS.

The recommendation is based on a study of 200 landfills it conducted in September 2021, which found PFAS was present in leachate at 95% of the locations. It counted 63 different PFAS among the sites surveyed.

It’s not yet clear when new rules would take effect or how they might impact daily landfill operations, in part because the process is “pending resource availability” according to the report. The waste industry is also awaiting other EPA decisions on PFAS that could affect operations, such as the anticipated regulation of certain PFAS as hazardous substances under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and the establishment of certain drinking water standards.

David Biderman, executive director and CEO of the Solid Waste Association of North America, called the ELG announcement a “potentially significant development.” He said in an email that SWANA has been discussing the news with members and “will be developing its response in the coming months.”

SWANA met with the EPA during the landfill study stakeholder process. The agency also met with the National Waste & Recycling Association, WM and Republic Services, and the Association of State and Territorial Solid Waste Management Officials.

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Here’s the man who unwittingly triggered the war over gas stoves

By Maxine Joselow, Washington Post

The son of a labor icon, Richard Trumka Jr. warned that gas ranges could harm children’s health. He’s since been swept up in the backlash against regulating gas appliances.

Until he became an unwitting flash point in the nation’s culture wars, Richard Trumka Jr. was little known to most Americans, despite being the son of a famous labor leader.

But less than three weeks ago, this member of the Consumer Product Safety Commission was thrust into the public limelight. In an interview with Bloomberg News, Trumka said his commission was considering regulations — or even a ban — on new gas stoves over concerns about their harmful indoor air pollution.

Ban gas stoves? Totalitarian, declared Fox News host Tucker Carlson. “If the maniacs in the White House come for my stove, they can pry it from my cold dead hands,” tweeted Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Tex.).

Trumka never imagined his offhand comments would ignite such a viral furor, which partly explains why he is now clearly uncomfortable talking about himself. At the beginning of an hour-long interview with The Washington Post, he fidgeted with his hands and looked at the floor. He was reluctant, he said, to become part of the story.

Read the full story here

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Biden bans logging roads in much of Tongass National Forest in Alaska

*A truck carrying old-growth trees that were recently cut drives on North Island Road in the Tongass National Forest on Prince of Wales Island, Alaska. (Salwan Georges/The Washington Post)*

From the Washington Post

The Biden administration on Wednesday restored protections for more than half of Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, safeguarding one of the world’s largest intact temperate rainforests from new roads and logging.

As Timothy Puko reports, the Tongass is a relatively pristine expanse in the state’s southeast that has been the focus of a long fight between environmentalists and Alaskan timber interests. State leaders had persuaded the Trump administration in 2020 to open it up to new roads and logging, reversing protections dating to the Clinton era, in a bid to boost economic development.

Biden restores protections for Tongass National Forest after Trump rollback
Biden restores the ‘roadless rule’

Biden administration officials said Wednesday the forest is too important to wildlife habitat — especially fish — and to fighting climate change to go without protections. Its decision, through the Agriculture Department, will repeal the 2020 Alaska Roadless Rule, now making it illegal again for logging companies to build roads and cut and remove timber throughout more than 9.3 million acres of forest.

The rule is scheduled for publication in the Federal Register on Friday and goes into effect immediately.