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The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has fined the Texas Petroleum Investment Company of Houston, Texas, $134,895 for violating federal Spill Prevention Control and Countermeasure (SPCC) regulations outlined under the Clean Water Act.

A federal inspection of the company’s Hackberry Field Tank Battery #5, an onshore oil production facility in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, revealed the company had failed to prepare and implement SPCC plans as required by federal regulations. Another federal inspection of the company’s Romere Pass Tank Battery, an onshore and offshore production facility in Plaquemines Parish also found the company had failed to prepare and implement SPCC plans at that location.

Today’s announcement also settles Clean Water Act violations for discharges of oil into Black Lake in Cameron Parish and discharges of oil into Romere Pass and Main Pass, both in Plaquemines Parish.

In August 2011, EPA announced the company had been fined $163,487 for Clean Water Act violations found at its oil production facilities in Terrebonne, Plaquemines, Lafourche, St. Charles and Iberia parishes and for unauthorized discharges of oil into wetland areas and unnamed canals in Terrebonne, Plaquemines and Iberia parishes.

SPCC regulations require onshore and offshore oil production and bulk storage facilities to provide oil spill prevention, preparedness and responses to prevent oil discharges. The SPCC program helps to protect our nation’s water quality. A spill of only one gallon of oil can contaminate one million gallons of water.

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Today, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recognized 52 organizations for their environmental stewardship during a Sustainable Materials Management recognition ceremony at Richland Community College in Garland, Texas. The ceremony recognized their environmental records under the EPA’s National Partnership for Environmental Priorities (NPEP), WasteWise Program, School Chemical Cleanout Campaign (SC3) and Pollution Prevention programs.

In partnering with the EPA, the organizations pledged to go beyond day-to-day regulatory compliance requirements as demonstrated by a commitment to protect public health and the environment. Through these efforts the National Partnership for Environmental Priorities removed more than 29 million pounds of persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic chemicals from business processes and products and WasteWise partners assisted in eliminating more than 160 million tons of waste. School Chemical Cleanout Campaign partners helped to make schools safer by providing training and resources to properly manage school chemicals and in EPA Region 6 alone, grants awarded through the Pollution Prevention Program have reported direct savings of greater than $25,800,000.

“By preventing pollution and hazardous waste from entering our air, water, land, and ecosystems, EPA's partners in sustainability have become leaders in environmental stewardship,” said EPA Regional Administrator Al Armendariz. “As we move forward in sustainable materials management, their dedication and results will be a model for our future programs to follow.”

The NPEP is a partnership focused on reducing the use of potentially hazardous chemicals from products and processes. By forming partnerships with the EPA, NPEP partners representing industry, business, municipalities, federal facilities and tribes are successfully reducing the use and/or recycling of toxic chemicals, including mercury and lead.

WasteWise is a free, voluntary EPA program in which organizations eliminate costly municipal solid waste and select industrial wastes, benefitting their bottom line and the environment. WasteWise members can join as partners, endorsers, or both. Partners join to change behaviors and track internal waste reduction efforts, while endorsers are state and local government agencies, trade associations, nonprofit organizations and businesses that help their members, clients and constituents realize that reducing solid waste makes good business sense.

The EPA SC3 promotes chemical management programs that remove outdated, unknown or unneeded amounts of dangerous or inappropriate chemicals from K-12 schools. SC3 also promotes policies and practices that prevent accumulations of chemicals and encourages responsible management practices used in schools. These programs aim to minimize exposure to students and staff, thus improving the learning environment and reducing school days lost.

The EPA’s Pollution Prevention Program is reducing or eliminating at the source, modifying production processes, and promoting the use of non-toxic or less-toxics substances, implementing conservation techniques and reusing materials rather than putting them into the waste stream. Pollution prevention is a key policy in national environmental protection activities.

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Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s GreenChill Partnership announces Sprouts Farmers Market and Whole Foods Market as the top winners in the program’s 2011 Environmental Achievement Awards. The stores are being recognized for reducing harmful refrigerant emissions, thereby contributing to the fight against climate change and ozone-layer depletion.

The GreenChill partnership works with supermarkets to help them transition to more environmentally friendly refrigerants, reduce the amount of refrigerant they use, eliminate leaks, and adopt green refrigeration technologies and environmental best practices. More than 7,300 stores belong to the GreenChill Partnership, or 20 percent of the supermarket industry.

For the second consecutive year, Sprouts Farmers Market received GreenChill’s top award, Best Emissions Rate, for achieving the lowest corporate-wide emissions rate of all GreenChill supermarket companies. The company’s store in the Westlake District of Thousand Oaks, California, was also recognized as the best new GreenChill-certified store. The store uses technology that prevents at least 95 percent of the harmful refrigerant emissions of a typical supermarket.

“To receive GreenChill’s award for the best corporate-wide emissions rate and for the best certified store in the nation is an incredible achievement,” said Keilly Witman, Manager of EPA's GreenChill Partnership. “This is the first time in the history of the Partnership that both awards have gone to the same company.”

For the second time, Whole Foods received the Most Improved Emissions Rate Award for most significant reduction in its corporate refrigerant emissions rate from the previous year.

"Whole Foods’ efforts to stop refrigerant leaks led to a 17 percent reduction in the company’s refrigerant emissions rate in one year," said Witman. "Whole Foods’ efforts show that it is possible to make significant gains in environmental protection in a short period of time when a company prioritizes emissions reductions.”

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Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it has proposed to approve revisions to the Albuquerque/Bernalillo County, New Mexico State Implementation Plan (SIP) which ensures air quality standards are maintained by regulations of the Clean Air Act. The proposal takes action on the regulatory plan to establish emissions thresholds for new and modified stationary sources within Albuquerque/Bernalillo County in accordance with EPA’s Green House Gas (GHG) Tailoring Rule.

On December 15, 2010, New Mexico submitted its plan to focus on ensuring large emitter of GHG, such as power plants and cement production facilities, are planning to build new structures or make modifications to existing ones to obtain air permits. In spring of 2010, the EPA finalized the GHG Tailoring Rule, which specifies that beginning in 2011, projects that increase GHG emissions substantially will require an air permit.

Currently, New Mexico’s SIP includes these requirements for issuing air permit and the EPA is proposing approval of similar provisions for the Albuquerque/Bernalillo County construction program. Emissions from small sources, such as farms and restaurants, are not covered by these requirements.

EPA will continue to work closely and promptly with states to help them develop, submit and approve necessary revisions to enable proper issuance of air permits to GHG-emitting sources. Additionally, EPA will provide guidance and act as a resource for states as they make various required permitting decisions for GHG emissions.

EPA will accept comment on the proposal for 30 days after publication in the Federal Register.

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The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced two sites have been added to the National Priorities List (NPL) of Superfund sites: the Chevron Questa Mine, formerly known as the Molycorp, Inc. site near the village of Questa, New Mexico, and the Falcon Refinery in San Patricio County, Texas. The EPA also announced the US Oil Recovery site in Pasadena, Texas, has been proposed to the NPL. Superfund is the federal program that investigates and cleans up the most complex, uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous waste sites in the country.

The Chevron Questa Mine is a molybdenum mining site in Taos County and consists of two separate areas – the mine area and the tailing ponds. Over 328 million tons of acid-generating waste rock was dumped into large piles within the side drainages during open pit mining from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s. Chevron Mining, Inc. currently owns and operates the mine which has been active for the last 90 years.

Contaminants of concern including antimony, boron, cadmium, cobalt, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, vanadium and zinc from the mining operations have been released into the soil, ground water and sediment at and in the vicinity of the mine and tailing facility, and into the Red River.

The Falcon Refinery, also known as the National Oil Recovery Corporation (NORCO) site, consists of a refinery that has operated intermittently since 1980 and is currently inactive. When in operation the refinery operated at a capacity of 40,000 barrels per day with primary products consisting of naphtha, jet fuel, kerosene, diesel and fuel oil.

Contamination has been documented in nearby wetlands, the Redfish Bay fishery and potential habitat areas for state and federal threatened or endangered species. Inspections revealed releases of fluoranthene, pyrene, chrysene, perylene, barium, manganese and mercury.

"The Superfund program is a proven way to get results for areas affected by extensive hazardous waste pollution," said EPA Regional Administrator Al Armendariz. "Cleaning up these areas also reflects EPA's national priorities of cleaning up our communities and protecting our waters."

The US Oil Recovery (USOR) site is an inactive used oil processor and wastewater treatment facility on two separate parcels located in Pasadena, Harris County, Texas. Hazardous wastes remaining onsite include a variety of volatile organics, metals and mercury. Releases of arsenic, barium, cobalt, manganese, mercury, silver and vanadium have been documented in both surface water and sediment within Vince Bayou. This contamination threatens a nearby fishery and wetlands.

The EPA will seek public comment on adding the US Oil Recovery site to the NPL for 60 days. Comments will be considered as the agency completes the final decision process.