UPDATE: EPA is extending until Dec. 26, 2013, the comment period for the Draft National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System General Permit for Stormwater Discharges From Industrial Activities. Click here to read the Federal Register notice. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will accept public comment through Wednesday, Nov. 27 on a draft general permit to regulate stormwater discharges from most industrial activities (78 Fed. Reg. 59,672, Sept. 27, 2013). Construction companies that perform activities associated with cement or concrete manufacturing, asphalt paving, minerals mining, or landfill operations will all likely be impacted by changes to EPA’s Multi-Sector General Permit (MSGP). Stormwater discharges from active construction sites that disturb one acre or more of land are regulated separately under a state or EPA’s Construction General Permit.

AGC Seeks Industry Input on Costs Associated with OSHA’s Proposed Cut to Legal Limit UPDATE: On Oct. 25, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced that it is extending the public comment period on its proposed silica rule by 47 days. The original deadline to submit public comments had been Dec. 11, but has been pushed back to Jan. 27, 2014. AGC submitted a request to extend the deadline by 90 days in order to best respond to the proposed rule’s 87 detailed questions. Click here for more. On August 23, 2013, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) proposed a rule to reduce the permissible exposure limit (PEL) to airborne crystalline silica in both the general/maritime industry and the construction industry by half, to 50 micrograms/m3.  OSHA estimates that the proposed rule will impact 477,000 establishments, 1.85 million workers, and carry an annualized compliance cost of $511 million dollars for the construction industry.  AGC believes industry’s compliance costs will actually be much higher, but we need you to provide us with the data to prove it.

Earlier Session Rescheduled Due to Government Shutdown, New Session Added – FREE to AGC Members! Registration is now open for the following webinar sessions that EPA is hosting specifically for the construction industry. Please register as soon as possible using the links below. (Note that these links are not accessible from EPA’s website.)

With the simultaneous release of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) draft science report on the connectivity of waters and the submittal of its new proposed rule to the Office of Management and Budget for review, the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) and Environment Subcommittee Chairman Chris Stewart (R-Utah) sent a letter raising concerns over the draft rule, which is expected to greatly expand the agency’s regulatory authority under the Clean Water Act (CWA).

In celebration of the 2013 America Recycles Day on November 15, the AGC Environmental Forum is issuing its first-ever annual used hard hat recycling challenge to AGC members.  Old hard hats can fade, turn brittle and compromise workers’ safety.  Let us see how many old and unsafe hard hats we can retire and recycle within the next three weeks.

During September, federal judges ruled on separate cases related to cleanup plans (TMDLs or Total Maximum Daily Loads) for two large watersheds in the United States: the Chesapeake Bay, comprising of six states and the District of Columbia, and the Mississippi River Basin, comprising of 31 states.

Other States May Now Adopt Identical Rules The California Air Resources Board (CARB) announced Sept. 13 that it has received authorization from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to enforce its statewide In-Use Off-Road Diesel Vehicle Regulation, including the rule’s engine emissions targets and related requirements, such as turnover requirements and restrictions on adding Tier 0 and Tier 1 vehicles. As previously reported by AGC, dozens of other states have been closely following California’s controversial effort to implement and enforce first-time emission limits for in-use “fleets” of off-road diesel equipment. Now that CARB has received a Clean Air Act (CAA) “waiver” from EPA, California is allowed to enforce the rule’s engine emissions limits and other states can then adopt and enforce standards “identical” to California’s regulation.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Science Advisory Board (SAB) will hold a public teleconference to receive written and oral comments from the public on new and emerging information related to hydraulic fracturing and drinking water resources.  The public teleconference will be held Wednesday Nov. 20, 2013, from 12:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. EDT.

There have been several important developments in the ongoing battle over the precise scope of federal jurisdiction over “waters of the United States,” as dictated by the Clean Water Act (CWA).  Most notably, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) sent a draft proposed rule – one that would clarify the definition of waters of the U.S. and their CWA permitting jurisdiction – to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for final interagency review. The resulting rule may add countless “water bodies” to the list of federally-controlled waters and make CWA Section 404 permitting an even more onerous and costly proposition.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) recently issued a chemical advisory that provides information on the hazards of ammonium nitrate storage, handling and management.  Ammonium nitrate is used in the highly explosive Ammonium Nitrate-Fuel Oil (ANFO). This is one of the most popular explosives for a variety of applications such as quarrying, mining and in construction.