Vapor intrusion. If you haven’t yet heard the term, you soon will: A growing environmental concern that has made national headlines, this indoor air quality issue develops when rapidly evaporating chemicals from polluted soil or groundwater make their way to the indoor air of overlying buildings, similar to the way radon enters homes.
This article originally appeared in the 10/01/2007 issue of Environmental Protection.
This article originally appeared in the 09/01/2007 issue of Environmental Protection.
Competitive pressures and unpredictable energy costs continuously motivate us to examine our processes for opportunities to increase quality and productivity, and to decrease costs. Energy-intensive processes such as those associated with the manufacture of a wide variety of products utilizing water or VOC-based solvents offer opportunities to reduce operating costs through heat management or control.
This article originally appeared in the 09/01/2007 issue of Environmental Protection.
Last September, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) revised the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for particle pollution. As part of that measure, EPA issued revisions to the ambient air monitoring rules for fine particulate matter (PM-2.5). These actions were published in the Federal Register Oct. 17, 2006, and became effective Dec. 18, 2006.
This article originally appeared in the 09/01/2007 issue of Environmental Protection.
Regenerativer thermal oxidizers (RTOs) that control volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted by a wide variety of industrial processes are widely accepted. As a general rule, RTO technology has been very successful with most installations, operating trouble-free for extended periods. In some cases, however, operation has been troublesome, and a good proportion of these problem applications have been on biomass dryers.
This article originally appeared in the 07/01/2007 issue of Environmental Protection.
This article originally appeared in the 06/01/2007 issue of Environmental Protection.
Mercury is getting a lot of attention, both in the popular press and in state and federal regulatory agencies. Combustion systems, like coal-fired power plants, industrial boilers, incinerators, and cement kilns, are sources of mercury emissions to the air. This article outlines the mercury emission regulations that apply to different combustion systems and the best demonstrated means to control these emissions from combustion sources. This article focuses on utility and industrial combustion systems because they are the highest emitters and face the greatest reductions and tightest scrutiny.
This article originally appeared in the 06/01/2007 issue of Environmental Protection.
This article originally appeared in the 05/01/2007 issue of Environmental Protection.
On Sept. 21, 2006, Stephen Johnson, administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), signed the latest revisions to the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for fine particulate matter (PM), also known as PM-2.5.
- By Steven J. Christiansen, JD
This article originally appeared in the 05/01/2007 issue of Environmental Protection.
Just as "it takes two to tango," it has taken two political parties working in tandem over the last few decades in the United States to produce the vast majority of major federal environmental laws.
- By Cindy Chen, Mike Hicks
This article originally appeared in the 05/01/2007 issue of Environmental Protection.
For years, fiberglass-reinforced baths and showers have been perceived as “commodity” products. Of course -- as with any product -- there have always been quality differences between brands. Nevertheless, the manufacturing methods employed and the materials used have been roughly similar.
This article originally appeared in the 05/01/2007 issue of Environmental Protection.
Facilities across many industry sectors are turning to mobile technology software designed for PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) handheld devices to meet various environmental compliance demonstration requirements. This article discusses the capabilities of mobile technology in this regard and describes several situations in which facilities fulfilled regulatory requirements by utilizing software designed for handheld devices.
This article originally appeared in the 04/01/2007 issue of Environmental Protection.
When considering entities that manage hazardous waste generated at a large number of generating sites, most people think of billion-dollar national or multinational corporations, with factories and facilities distributed over a wide area.
This article originally appeared in the 04/01/2007 issue of Environmental Protection.
Did you ever notice that advertisements for environmental, health and safety (EH&S) software products sound like commercials for pain relief?
This article originally appeared in the 04/01/2007 issue of Environmental Protection.
Change is in the air. Congress changed in November from Republican to Democratic leadership. A pending U.S. Supreme Court case and new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules probably will change the New Source Review requirements. These and other changes may affect how you operate your facility in 2007.
This article originally appeared in the 01/01/2007 issue of Environmental Protection.
A new type of electronic nose, based on ultra-fast gas chromatography, can perform analytical measurements of volatile organic vapors in near real-time with part-per-trillion sensitivity.
This article originally appeared in the 11/01/2006 issue of Environmental Protection.
Meteorological monitoring for air quality studies has evolved over the past four decades. During the summer of 1956 an experimental program to study micrometeorology and dispersion from near-surface releases was conducted near the town of O'Neil in north-central Nebraska.
This article originally appeared in the 10/01/2006 issue of Environmental Protection.