Environmental Protection Agency Latest Developments

5/12/2004

From: Environmental Protection Agency Public Affairs, 202-564-7824

WASHINGTON, May 12 -- Following are latest developments at the Environmental Protection Agency. For more information on any of these subjects, call the appropriate contact.

-- New Website Highlights Drinking Water Research World-Wide

Cathy Milbourn, 202-564-7824, milbourn.cathy@epa.gov

To continue the celebration of National Drinking Water Week, EPA is launching a new Drinking Water Research Information Network (DRINK) website that tracks on-going drinking water research. DRINK website will help disseminate information within the research community, assess future research priorities, provide updates on regulations and support programs that protect drinking water and public health. Active DRINK partners include the U.S. EPA Offices of Water and Research and Development (ORD), the American Water Works Association Research Foundation (AwwaRF), the Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF), the United Kingdom Water Industry Research (UKWIR) and Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI), American Water, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), WateReuse Foundation, and the Water Research Commission (WRC) in South Africa. The DRINK system connects to EPA's ORD Environmental Information Management System (EIMS) database and to external drinking water research organizations including academic institutions and international organizations. Through the connection of the two databases, DRINK can provide a single source for ongoing research information. This resource is critical to fill data gaps, identify key personnel for workgroup and public meetings and strategically plan for regulations that are under development. As a centralized resource of drinking water research, DRINK allows EPA to effectively plan its research needs. The DRINK website is available at: http://www.epa.gov/drink . Information on EPAs drinking water program is at: http://www.epa.gov/safewater/

-- Corrective Action Smart Enforcement Strategy is Announced

Bonnie Piper, 202-564-7836 or piper.bonnie@epa.gov

EPA is launching an enforcement strategy to better control human exposure at or near hazardous waste facilities. The Corrective Action Smart Enforcement Strategy (CASES) is an effort to get hazardous waste facilities to address contamination that is potentially harmful to human health. EPA's goal is to have human exposures controlled by 2005 at 95 percent of facilities that were identified in 1999 as high priorities for cleanup under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). Under Subtitle C, RCRA requires parties who seek a permit to treat, store or dispose of hazardous waste to clean up environmental contaminants at their facilities regardless of the time of the release. The cleanup at treatment, storage or disposal facilities is termed "RCRA Corrective Action." Corrective action at these types of facilities may be accomplished through the permitting and enforcement mechanisms found in the RCRA law, through state programs, or through voluntary agreements. For more information about Corrective Action enforcement, see the compliance website at: http://www.epa.gov/compliance/cleanup/rcra/index.html .

-- New Guidance issued for Managing Used Consumer Electronic Equipment

Dave Ryan, 202-564-7827 or ryan.dave@epa.gov

Today, EPA released new, voluntary guidance to its Plug-In To eCycling partners, who will test its provisions to determine the most effective and practical methods for safely managing used electronic equipment. The Plug-In To eCycling partnership, formed in 2002, aims to increase the safe recycling of used electronic products by providing recognition and other incentives to partners. The new guidance, "Plug-In To eCycling Guidelines for Materials Management," spells out preferred waste management practices for used electronic products, and defines partner eligibility. Plug-In partners are manufacturers, retailers, government agencies, or nonprofit businesses that help in the collection, reuse, recycling, or refurbishing of old electronic equipment. These guidelines further encourage anyone who handles used electronic equipment to: (1) maximize reuse, refurbishment, and recycling rather than the option for disposal and incineration; (2) ensure that exported electronic products will be legitimately reused, recycled, or refurbished by receiving countries, and provide for special handling of export components which may contain potentially harmful substances and (3) make sure that facilities follow best management practices that are consistent with these guidelines. In addition to ensuring environmentally safe recycling of old electronics, this guidance aims to promote and maintain adequate markets for the reuse and recycling of electronic equipment. For more information, go to: http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/osw/conserve/plugin/index.htm .

-- Winning Designs Reduce Environmental Impacts of Computers

Dave Ryan, 202-564-7827 or ryan.dave@epa.gov

The selected winners of the Cradle to Cradle Electronics Design Challenge are being recognized for their creative electronic designs that contain fewer toxic components, require fewer materials to make, and generate less waste at the end of the consumer electronics product's useful life. The winners were presented with awards today at the 2004 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Symposium for Electronics and the Environment in Scottsdale, Ariz. The National Recycling Coalition predicts that 500 million computers will become obsolete by 2007. The first place winning design, called "LINC," was submitted by a University of Cincinnati student, Brett Christie. It features a compact, solar powered hand-held unit that replaces multiple electronic devices such as WiFi Internet, GPS Navigation, Movie Player, Music Player and E-Book. Customers return the LINC unit to the manufacturer, where its components are recycled to create new LINC units. The second place design, called "Ecoprojection," was submitted by a team of students, Junko Hosokawa, Stuart Ottenritter, John Gualtieri and Michael Dickson, from Virginia Tech at Blacksburg. "Ecoprojection" replaces the cathode ray tubes and plasma screen technologies in personal computers (PCs) by using a full color laser to project images onto a variety of surfaces. This uniquely designed PC also includes a modular CPU (central processing unit) with components that can be taken out while the machine is running. The components can be sent back to the manufacturer when upgrades are desired. This design showcases novel materials such as: a releasable adhesive for printed circuit boards, and plastics and metals that return to their standard shape with minimal reprocessing, thereby expediting reuse of the material. The third place design, called "bioPC," was submitted by a team of students, Summer Hill, Pooja Goyal, Joe Bradley and Ben Shao, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "bioPC" proposes the use of a type of bacteria, Bacteriorhodsin (BR) for information storage; the personal computer is made from biodegradable plastic materials, which are designed to be returned to a municipal composting facility at the end of the personal computer's useful life. The IEEE Symposium (http://www.iee.org) is the leading forum worldwide for electronics industry leaders to explore the latest environmental aspects of design, manufacturing, research, development, recycling and marketing of electronics products. The first and second place winners receive $5,000 each, donated by Hewlett-Packard and IBM. The third place winner receives $4,000, donated by Lexmark Corporation and the Consumer Electronics Association.

More information on the Cradle to Cradle Electronics Design Challenge is available at: http://www.greenblue.org/edesign .

More information on the Resource Conservation Challenge is available at: http://www.epa.gov/rcc .