AABE Energy News: February 2013 | Highlights from the EPA Office of Public Engagement

February 11 – 14, 2013

Table of Contents:

1. EPA Releases State Enforcement Performance Information and Comparative
2. EPA Provides Technical Assistance to 43 Communities to Meet their Sustainability Goals
3. Register for EPA-hosted Webinar on Integrated Pest Management in Schools
4. Transocean Pleads Guilty, Is Sentenced to Pay $400 Million in Criminal Penalties
5. Presque Isle Bay Removed from Great Lakes “Area of Concern” List

1. EPA Releases State Enforcement Performance Information and Comparative

WASHINGTON –The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the release of state dashboards and comparative maps that provide the public with information about the performance of state and EPA enforcement and compliance programs across the country.

“Transparency and access to information at all levels helps to drive improvements in environmental performance,” said Cynthia Giles, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. “Today’s release of state enforcement information highlights the important work going on at the state level to address serious pollution problems and also underscores areas where states and EPA may need to strengthen enforcement and compliance efforts.”

Most states and tribes in the United States have the authority to implement and enforce many of the nation’s air, water and waste laws. The dashboards and maps include state level data from the last five years and provide information including the number of completed inspections, types of violations found, enforcement actions taken, and penalties assessed by state. To ensure data quality, EPA made the maps and dashboards available to the states in advance of this public release, in order to provide an opportunity to make any necessary data corrections. The interactive state performance dashboards are located on EPA’s Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO) website. ECHO is an EPA transparency tool that allows the user to map federal and state inspection, violation, and enforcement information for more than 800,000 regulated facilities. The state dashboards and comparative maps that are available in ECHO are part of EPA’s commitment to increasing transparency and providing data to the public in a format that is easy to understand and use.

View the state performance dashboards and comparative maps: http://www.epa-echo.gov/echo/stateperformance/comparative_maps.html

Visit EPA’s ECHO website: http://www.epa-echo.gov

2. EPA Provides Technical Assistance to 43 Communities to Meet their Sustainability Goals

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced that 43 communities - rural, urban and suburban - will receive technical assistance to pursue sustainable growth that encourages local economic development while safeguarding people’s health and the environment.

EPA consulted with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to select this year’s 43 recipients from 121 applicants through a competitive process. EPA staff and national experts will conduct one to two-day workshops that focus on the specific sustainability goal each community chose in their initial application to EPA. The agency offered nine tools this year, including a Green Building Toolkit, Land Use Strategies to Protect Water Quality, and Using Smart Growth to Produce Economic and Fiscal Health.

"If we want a healthier environment and a stronger economy, sustainable practices must be part of community development across the country," said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. ”The EPA’s Building Blocks program helps communities invest in sustainable growth techniques, so they can plan for a better future. The short-term, targeted assistance we are providing will help stimulate local economies, while protecting people’s health and safeguarding the environment."

To date, EPA’s assistance through the Building Blocks program has reached 141 communities. Together, EPA, HUD and DOT form the federal Partnership for Sustainable Communities, which coordinates investments in housing, transportation, and environmental protection to get better results for communities and use taxpayer money more efficiently.

More information on the Building Blocks program: http://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/buildingblocks.htm

More information on the Partnership for Sustainable Communities:http://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/partnership/index.html

Read Full Article:

http://go.usa.gov/4ekY

3. Register for EPA-hosted Webinar on Integrated Pest Management in Schools

On Wednesday, March 6th, from 2pm to 3pm EST, the EPA will host a webinar as part of the Department of Education's Green Strides webinar series. The webinar, titled Integrated Pest Management in Schools: Protecting Children in Schools from Pests and Pesticides, will cover areas such as how to establish a school IPM program and tips for practical application of school IPM strategies.

Protecting children's health where they live, learn and play is a top priority for the EPA. Children in the United States continue to face risks arising from exposure to pests and pesticides in school settings. School IPM is an approach to managing pests that schools can use to reduce pest and pesticide risk for students and staff. The EPA's recently released Strategic and Implementation Plans for School IPM demonstrate how the EPA will promote the goal that all of the nation's children be covered by a verifiable and ongoing school IPM program.

To pre-register for the Green Strides webinar, visit: https://epa.connectsolutions.com/epaschoolipmevent/event/registration.html

To learn more about EPA's commitment to healthy school environments, visit: www.epa.gov/schools.

For more information on the EPA's Strategic and Implementation Plans for School IPM, visit: www.epa.gov/pestwise/ipminschools/strategicplan.pdf.

4. Transocean Pleads Guilty, Is Sentenced to Pay $400 Million in Criminal Penalties for Criminal Conduct Leading to Deepwater Horizon Disaster

Second Corporate Guilty Plea Obtained by Deepwater Horizon Task Force, Second-largest Criminal Clean Water Act Fines and Penalties in U.S. History

WASHINGTON - Transocean Deepwater Inc. pleaded guilty today to a violation of the Clean Water Act (CWA) for its illegal conduct leading to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, and was sentenced to pay $400 million in criminal fines and penalties, Attorney General Holder announced today. In total, the amount of fines and other criminal penalties imposed on Transocean are the second-largest environmental crime recovery in U.S. history – following the historic $4 billion criminal sentence imposed on BP Exploration and Production Inc. in connection with the same disaster.

“Transocean’s guilty plea and sentencing are the latest steps in the department’s ongoing efforts to seek justice on behalf of the victims of the Deepwater Horizon disaster,” said Attorney General Holder. “Most of the $400 million criminal recovery – one of the largest for an environmental crime in U.S. history – will go toward protecting, restoring and rebuilding the Gulf Coast region.”

“The Deepwater Horizon explosion was a senseless tragedy that could have been avoided,” said Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Eleven men died, and the Gulf’s waters, shorelines, communities and economies suffered enormous damage. With today’s guilty plea, BP and Transocean have now both been held criminally accountable for their roles in this disaster.”

Transocean’s guilty plea was accepted, and the sentence was imposed, by U.S. District Judge Jane Triche Milazzo of the Eastern District of Louisiana. During the guilty plea and sentencing proceeding, Judge Milazzo found, among other things, that the sentence appropriately reflects Transocean’s role in the offense conduct, and that the criminal payments directed to the National Academy of Sciences and National Fish and Wildlife Foundation are appropriately designed to help remedy the harm to the Gulf of Mexico caused by Transocean’s actions. The judge also noted that the fines and five year probationary period provide just punishment and adequate deterrence.

Read Full Release:
http://go.usa.gov/4Mph

5. Presque Isle Bay Removed from Great Lakes “Area of Concern” List; Second Area in U.S. to be Delisted

WASHINGTON -The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced that Presque Isle Bay, on the Pennsylvania shore of Lake Erie, has been removed from the list of heavily contaminated Great Lakes sites targeted for cleanup by the U.S.-Canada Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. Environmental conditions in Presque Isle Bay have significantly improved due to actions taken by federal, state and local government. Studies have shown that revitalized waterways, like Presque Isle Bay, can benefit the local economy and better protect people’s health. Presque Isle Bay is now the second site in the nation to be taken off the list of Great Lakes “Areas of Concern” (AOCs).

“On my last day as EPA Administrator, I’m proud to announce that Presque Isle Bay is no longer considered an Area of Concern. We still have a great deal of work to do in the Great Lakes, but this is a positive step that will help protect people’s health and the environment in the community,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, who also serves as Chair of the Great Lakes Interagency Task Force. “President Obama has made cleaning up the Great Lakes a priority for his Administration, and delisting Presque Isle Bay is a big step toward fulfilling that commitment.”

The historic discharge of industrial and domestic wastewater contaminated Presque Isle Bay with excessive nutrients, organic compounds, toxic metals and other pollutants. Improvements at Erie’s wastewater treatment plant, along with the waterfront’s conversion from heavy industrial to commercial use, reduced pollution and helped restore the bay.

Since 2010, Great Lakes Restoration Initiative funding has been used to accelerate the final steps needed to delist Presque Isle Bay. President Obama launched the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative at the start of his first term.

“Presque Isle Bay being delisted is a testament to the many conservation, environmental and sportsman groups in Erie County who have made the health of Presque Isle Bay a community priority,” said Congressman Mike Kelly. “While this is certainly an achievement, we as a community must keep Presque Isle Bay a priority to avoid any environmental challenges in the future.”

For more information on Presque Isle Bay, go to http://www.epa.gov/greatlakes/aoc/presque/index.html.

For more information on the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, go to www.glri.us.

Read Full Release:
http://go.usa.gov/4Mdk

Office of Public Engagement

Office of External Affairs and Environmental Education

Office of the Administrator / U.S. Environmental Protection Agency / Tel 202-564-4355 / PublicEngagement@epa.gov

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