The Senate voted last December to approve a sweeping bipartisan chemical safety bill after years of work and months of tense negotiations. The primary law overseeing the safety of chemical products—the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)—was passed in 1976 and provides the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) authority to review and regulate chemicals in commerce. […]
Locus GHG calculation engine eases compliance burdens for GHG tracking GHG inventories may be the result of mandatory state, regional, or national reporting programs, such as California Air Resource Board (AB32), U.S. EPA Mandatory Reporting Rule, or European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS). Organizations need a GHG calculation engine that can calculate GHGs automatically […]
New EU rules to improve the monitoring of drinking water across Europe come into force, improving access to wholesome and clean drinking water in Europe. As a first step following the European Citizens’ Initiative Right2Water, new rules adopted by the European Commission today provide flexibility to Member States as to how drinking water quality is […]
A recent article in the Los Angeles Times about technology and the air we breathe discussed advances in environmental monitoring technologies. Rising calls to create cleaner air and limit climate change are driving a surge in new technology for measuring air emissions and other pollutants — a data revolution that is opening new windows into […]
California approves AB888, an important bill to prohibit the use of plastic microbeads in personal care products for sale in California by 2020. When someone uses a product – like a face wash, for example – that has microbeads, several things happen. First – they get a unique kind of cleanse in their face that […]
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has imposed new standards for mercury, lead and other toxic pollutants that are discharged into the water bodies (rivers and streams) from steam-powered electric power plants. EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said the rules, the first national limits on pollutants from steam electricity plants, will provide significant protections for children and […]
The Colorado mine spill that sent three million gallons of toxic sludge into a river last month highlighted the struggles of the federal Superfund program to clean up contaminated mining sites across the American West, reported Wall Street Journal on 12 September 2015. The program, administered by the Environmental Protection Agency, was set up in […]
The conversation about the environmental landscape has evolved drastically over the last 20 years as we continue to understand the extent to which human activity has affected the planet. Businesses are currently not so keen on sharing the data they collect about their emissions, wastewater, and energy use as they are with sharing consumer information. […]
This assessment provides a review and synthesis of available scientific literature and data to assess the potential for hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas to impact the quality or quantity of drinking water resources, and identifies factors affecting the frequency or severity of any potential impacts. The scope of this assessment is defined by the […]
Current Practice How do companies currently handle and store their environmental information? Managing an environmental project (contaminated site, emission source, or GHG inventory) is similar to making a Hollywood movie, with one difference: duration. A movie is usually made in few months, whereas an environmental project typically spans years or decades. The work involved in […]