The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is accepting proposals for up to ten $30,000 cooperative agreements (grants) to support the protection of human health and the environment in communities affected by the BP oil spill. Local incorporated non-profit community-based organizations—including faith based organizations and those affiliated with religious institutions, environmental justice networks, and local Native American tribal governments—located and working in areas within affected states, are eligible to apply. Applications are due October 4, 2010.

When:  September 2, 2010
Time:  1:00 pm – 3:00 pm EDT

EPA is working to better respond to community requests for timely information about upcoming air pollution regulations and programs.  The Agency hopes that opportunities such as this webinar will encourage communication between EPA and communities throughout the regulatory process.

Proposed Rule:  On July 6, 2010, EPA proposed the Transport Rule, which would require 31 states and the District of Columbia to significantly improve air quality by reducing power plant emissions that contribute to ozone and fine particle pollution in downwind states.

Specifically, this proposal would require significant reductions in sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions that cross state lines.  These pollutants react in the atmosphere to form fine particles and ground-level ozone and are transported long distances, making it difficult for other states to achieve national clean air standards.

Last year, in the interest of promoting transparency and collaboration, EPA took the unprecedented step of releasing toxic chemical data to the public in mid-August, less than two months after the July 1st reporting deadline and before completing its own data analyses. This year, EPA is making the data available even sooner and is providing the data in downloadable data files, as well as in TRI Explorer (with limited analytical capabilities) and Envirofacts. The 2009 TRI preliminary dataset will be updated in August and September as more of the 2009 TRI facility submissions are processed. EPA encourages data users to read the Questions and Answers about the 2009 TRI preliminary dataset to understand the limitations of using and analyzing the data before the dataset is complete.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s mapping tool, EJView, is now publicly available. EJView is designed to allow users to choose and map demographic, environmental, and health data.

EJView is an upgrade to the Environmental Justice Geographic Assessment Tool (EJGAT). It includes the same functionality as EJGAT, but is now faster and easier to use.

More information about EJView: http://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice/mapping.html

To start using the tool: http://epamap14.epa.gov/ejmap/entry.html

Registration is now open for the 2010 National Training Conference on the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) and Environmental Conditions in Communities, which will be held November 1-4, 2010 in Washington, DC at the Washington Marriott Wardman Park hotel.

This year's conference expands on previous TRI National Training conferences to include sessions on sources of other environmental data and on conditions and trends in ecological and human health that collectively help to support environmentally-related decision making in communities.

Please periodically check www.chemicalright2know.org regularly for agenda updates and other information.

Before directing BP to ramp down dispersant use, EPA directed BP to analyze potential alternative dispersants for toxicity and effectiveness. BP reported to EPA that they were unable to find a dispersant that is less toxic than Corexit 9500, the product then in use. Following that, EPA began its own scientific testing of eight dispersant products. EPA’s results indicate that the eight dispersants tested have similar toxicities to one another when mixed with Louisiana Sweet Crude Oil. These results confirm that the dispersant used in response to the oil spill in the gulf, Corexit 9500A, when mixed with oil, is generally no more or less toxic than mixtures with the other available alternatives. The results also indicate that dispersant-oil mixtures are generally no more toxic to the aquatic test species than oil alone. View the toxicity test results: http://www.epa.gov/bpspill/dispersants