The Environmental Protection Agency has established a new Office of Sustainable Communities and two pilot programs to advance the goals of the Interagency Partnership for Sustainable Communities along with the departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development. One of the new pilot programs, the Partnership for Sustainable Communities Brownfields Pilots, will support the cleanup and redevelopment of contaminated sites in coordination with community efforts to develop public transportation and affordable housing.  EPA, HUD, and DOT have selected five pilot sites for the program. The second program, the Pilot Technical Assistance Program for Sustainable Communities, will encourage states to use their Clean Water State Revolving Fund loan program to better support communities that adopt sustainable strategies like transit-oriented, mixed-use development. For more information, link to EPA’s news release and to EPA’s Interagency Partnership for Sustainable Communities website. (2-5-10)

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The Federal Highway Administration and the National Concrete Pavement Technology Center will conduct the International Conference on Sustainable Concrete Pavements: Practices, Challenges, and Directions, on Sept. 15-17, 2010, in Sacramento, Calif. The conference will serve as forum for discussing the sustainable attributes of concrete pavements, with presentations on existing technologies, emerging research, approaches to measuring energy and environmental impact, user considerations, and international practices and experience. The conference also will feature improved and innovative processes for achieving sustainable concrete pavements throughout the pavement's life cycle. For more information, link to FHWA’s conference webpage. (2-3-10)

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The Environmental Protection Agency has announces the availability of draft preliminary remediation goals (PRGs) for cleanup in dioxins in soil at contaminated sites. The goals are intended to serve as a target for use during initial development, analysis, and selection of cleanup alternatives at dioxin-contaminated sites. Currently EPA recommends dioxin PRGs of 1,000 per trillion in residential soil and a range of 5,000 to 20,000 ppt in commercial industrial soil. The draft interim PRGs EPA is proposing lower the amount of dioxin levels for residential land uses to 72 ppt and for commercial/industrial land uses to 950 ppt. Comments will be accepted for 50 days after the PRGs are published in the Federal Register. For more information, link to the draft PRGs EPA’s Superfund website. (12-31-09)

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A draft report released by the Recycled Materials Resource Center seeks to quantify the environmental and economic benefits of using coal combustion products (CCPs) from electric power generation in the construction industry, including concrete production and geotechnical applications. The report cites substantial reductions in energy consumption, water use, and greenhouse gas emissions from the use of CCPs over conventional materials and procedures, with the greatest environmental benefits coming from using CCPs in concrete production. For more information, link to Quantifying the Benefits of Using Coal Combustion Byproducts in Sustainable Construction. (12-5-09)

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The Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response (OSWER) has launched an online forum designed to improve communication between the agency and the public on issues related to contaminated sites, waste management, and recycling. The first four topics posted for discussion on the forum address community involvement, superfund metrics, toxic material reduction, and land revitalization. A new topic will be added each month, with potential future topics including brownfields, underground storage tanks, and emergency response. The agency solicits comments from stakeholders, the public, EPA program managers and policy experts, and others. For more information, link to the OSWER Discussion Forum. (12-3-09)

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Final amendments to the Environmental Protection Agency’s oil spill prevention, control, and countermeasure (SPCC) rules have been published in the Federal Register. The amendments, which revise a previous final rule issued in December 2008, include an exemption for hot mix asphalt. The rule includes requirements for oil spill prevention, preparedness, and response to prevent oil discharges to navigable waters and adjoining shoreline, and it requires specific facilities to prepare, amend, and implement SPCC Plans. For more information, link to the final rule and EPA’s SPCC rule webpage. (11-13-09)

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The Minnesota Department of Transportation has published a final report that describes a practical method to design local roadways using stabilized recycled pavement material or stabilized road surface gravel as the base layer and Class C fly ash as the stabilizing agent. According to the report, the use of industrial materials such as cementitious fly ash for stabilization during road reconstruction is attractive in the context of sustainability. The report includes a step-by-step design procedure, addresses practice implications related to implementation, and examines potential groundwater impacts. For more information, link to Use of Fly Ash for Reconstruction of Bituminous Roads. (10-19-09)

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The Federal Highway Administration’s Recycled Materials Resource Center has published the first issue of a new RMRC Quarterly Newsletter on the center’s current research and outreach regarding the beneficial use of recycled materials in the highway community. The current edition provides details on the RMRC review of the Environmental Protection Agency’s latest version of the Industrial Waste Management Evaluation Model (IWEM V2), which includes a module for assessing potential groundwater impacts caused by leaching from industrial material resources used as pavement materials in roadway construction. The newsletter also highlights new research projects, conferences, and workshops. For more information, link to the RMRC Quarterly Newsletter, Vol. 1, No. 1 – September 2009. (10-13-09)

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The National Center for Pavement Preservation (NCPP) has posted to its website video presentations from the Midwestern Asphalt In-Place Recycling Workshop held on August 11-13, 2009, in Bloomington, Minn. The event was one of a series of regional workshops developed by the Asphalt Recycling and Reclaiming Association and FHWA to provide a forum for pavement and recycling professionals to share information on improvements in research, design, specifications, materials, and construction practices and to promote the cost benefits of asphalt in-place recycling. For more information, including presentations from previous workshops, link to the NCPP website. (10-5-09)

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The Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response has published a report that finds a significant potential for reducing U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through materials management and land management practices, such as recycling, waste reduction, smart growth, and brownfields redevelopment. The report provides a systems-based framework for viewing U.S. GHG emissions, finding that 42 percent of U.S. emissions are influenced by materials management policies and 16 to 20 percent of U.S. emissions are associated with land management policies, including transportation, construction, and lost vegetation from clearing of undeveloped land. Another 13 percent of emissions are absorbed by soil and vegetation that also can be protected or enhanced through land management policies. For more information, link to Opportunities to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions through Materials and Land Management Practices. (9-21-09)

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