In the US, national emission standards for hazardous air pollutants (NESHAP) have been established for industries emitting toxic air emissions that require the use of Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) for compliance.

Mercury NESHAP/MACT standards have been published for hazardous and municipal waste incineration, commercial/industrial boilers, chlor-alkali plants, and Portland cement kilns. Strategies for controlling mercury and other toxic air pollutants include pollution prevention measures, including product substitution, process modification, work-practice standards and materials separation; coal cleaning (relevant to mercury control); flue gas treatment technologies; and others.

More than 20 years after Congress passed the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on December 21, 2011, issued the first national standards for mercury pollution from power plants ̶ the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS).

The 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments required the stricter standards on power plants in an effort to reduce toxic emissions across the country. These new rules finalize standards to reduce air pollution from coal and oil-fired power plants under sections 111 (new source performance standards) and 112 (toxics program) of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments.

Power plants are the largest source of air pollution from mercury, arsenic and cyanide, and are responsible for half the mercury and over 75 percent of the acid gas emissions in the United States.

Mercury has been shown to harm the nervous system of children exposed in the womb, thereby causing impaired thinking, learning and early development. According to the EPA, the standards will prevent 130,000 cases of childhood asthma symptoms and about 6,300 fewer cases of acute bronchitis among children each year.

Today, more than half of all coal-fired power plants already use pollution control technologies that will help them meet these standards. Once finalized, these standards will ensure the remaining plants – about 40 percent of all coal-fired power plants – take similar steps to decrease these hazardous pollutants.

In addition to reducing emissions of mercury and other toxic air pollutants, the controls needed to meet the standards will result in reduced emissions of sulfur dioxide and fine particles, which will lower airborne soot levels throughout the United States.

Under these standards, the EPA is providing the standard three years for compliance, but is also encouraging permitting authorities to make a fourth year available for technology installations. If still more time is needed, they will provide a pathway to address any localized electric reliability problems, should they arise.

Among the improvements that will result, it is estimated there will be approximately 540,000 missed work or “sick” days avoided each year, enhancing productivity and lowering health care costs, and 3,200,000 fewer Restricted Activity days.

People exposed to toxic air pollutants at sufficient concentrations and durations may have an increased chance of getting cancer or experiencing other serious adverse health effects. These health effects can include disruption to the immune system, as well as neurological, reproductive, developmental, respiratory and other health problems. In addition to exposure from breathing air toxics, some toxic air pollutants such as mercury can deposit onto soils or surface waters. They are then taken up by plants and ingested by animals and are eventually magnified up through the food chain.

The Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, combined with the final Cross State Air Pollution Rule issued in 2011, are estimated to prevent up to 46,000 premature deaths, 540,000 asthma attacks among children, and 24,500 emergency room visits and hospital admissions. The two programs are estimated to provide a total of up to $380 billion in return to American families in the form of longer, healthier lives and reduced health care costs.

Tierra Environmental & Industrial Services, Inc., proudly sports the slogan, "Tierra has the expertise to quickly and effectively resolve a sewer crisis and get you back in business." According to the US Department of Justice, Tierra management allegedly conspired to crimes that were tantamount to actually causing a sewer crisis.

On November 3, 2011, Ronald Holmes, Tierra's Owner, and Stewart Roth, a Project Manager at the company, were indicted in the US District court of Hammond, IN, with one count of conspiracy and six counts of violating the Clean Water Act.

Holmes and Roth were charged with illegally discharging wastewater into the sewers of the Hammond Sanitary District from a closed, unpermitted facility. According to the indictment, Tierra's primary facility in East Chicago, IN, held no permit to discharge industrial waste into the district's sewer system and the facility's connection to that sanitary sewer system had been sealed shut; therefore, the company had to transport wastewater to other facilities for final treatment and disposal.

The defendants allegedly conspired to cut the costs associated with paying other facilities to lawfully treat, store, or dispose of the wastewater Tierra collected from its customers. The pair allegedly ordered their dispatchers to direct wastewater transporters to a shuttered facility on 141st Street in Hammond, IN, a separate property owned by Ronald Holmes. At this facility, the wastewater was discharged directly into the Hammond Sanitary District's sewer system.

The Clean Water Act makes it a felony to knowingly discharge hauled pollutants into publically-owned treatment works (POTW) from a discharge point not designated by the POTW.

The 141st Street property is adjacent to a residential neighborhood and Hermit's Park, home to a number of youth baseball fields.

If convicted, Holmes and Roth each face up to 5 years in prison on the conspiracy count, and if convicted on all six Clean Water Act counts, they face 18 more years in prison and fines that could total $1.5 million. The company itself may also face fines and probation.

In 1988, Roth, as district manager of the Hammond Sanitary District, was indicted on federal charges for falsifying documents to conceal the illegal dumping of approximately 12 billion gallons of untreated, hazardous industrial waste into the Grand Calumet River. He pled guilty in 1990, was sentenced to three years probation, paid a fine of $5,000 and served 500 hours of community service.

The case was investigated by the Northern District of Indiana Environmental Crimes Task Force, including agents from the EPA's Criminal Investigation Division, the Criminal Investigations Office of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, the Inspector General's Office of the US Department of Transportation, and the Criminal Investigative Arm of the US Coast Guard. The case is being prosecuted by the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Indiana and the Environmental Crimes Section of the Justice Department’s Division of Environment and Natural Resources.

Mark Harbin has more than 20 years of experience in commercial and industrial environmental systems. With the Compliance Services Division of IHS and a Certified Environmental Auditor (CEA), he is actively involved in conducting onsite refrigerant management audits and assisting clients in meeting their operational and environmental goals.

Continuity is a big challenge for organizations today – especially when it comes to regulatory compliance. Owners and operators have obligations under the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts to ensure compliance – regardless of economic or other challenges. Yet more and more employees are being charged with “do more with less” and to “wear more hats.” People get spread too thin. Something’s got to give – right?

The “sine wave” up and down of environmental initiatives in organizations is related to many factors – employee turnover, reorganizations, consolidations, downsizing, acquisition, layoffs, budget cuts, etc. No matter what external factor upsets business as usual, environmental regulatory compliance initiatives (fragile things at best) will be negatively affected. From my experience as an environmental auditor, refrigerant compliance is a frequent victim of lack of continuity. Why?

It is the one area of the Clean Air Act Amendments that is most perplexing to environmental managers. Title VI along with Section 608 and 609 of the Clean Air Act Amendments is related to stratospheric ozone depleting CFC and HCFC refrigerants. These regulations are a morphed hybrid of the air conditioning industry and its jargon, and highly detailed air pollution rules. The end product is a mass of confusion for most owners and operators.

Environmental managers do not typically speak HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning) jargon and can have difficulty matching what the AC techs have said or logged with what the rules say. Getting a clear answer is often dependent on understanding the language of that trade. This tends to make them hesitant to lead refrigerant compliance initiatives.

The other group, facility managers, is typically managing groups of personnel that are crisis driven – systems break down, need immediate attention and quick resolution – or major costs can be incurred. Often spread thin with too few people and limited budgets, facility managers are usually not the first to volunteer to launch refrigerant compliance initiatives – or sustain them. But they often do anyway! Why? Because they understand that it is necessary for the organization to cover itself and its people.

Ownership and upper management, however, may not understand the necessity (and fragility) of refrigerant compliance – it’s too far down the food chain in their organization. Environmental managers have the responsibility of informing management of their regulatory obligations, but if they do not have a clear understanding of the specific rules how can they explain them to management?

"Sustainability" is a term that gets attached to a lot of issues. Management needs to inject some sustainability into their refrigerant compliance programs to ensure they survive the constant change that is the norm these days.

Sustainability measures that management can implement to aid continuity include:

• Establish a refrigerant management team to include environmental, facilities, operations, and purchasing/contracting (more people involved helps build momentum)
• Assign a site refrigerant compliance manager to oversee compliance initiatives
• Assign a “wingman” – don’t put the whole program’s success in one person’s lap (they might win the lottery and then what?)
• Develop refrigerant compliance policies and work practices specific to your organization.
• Assign responsibilities related to job titles. The Team should revisit and revise these as reorganizations, mergers, consolidations and the like occur.
• Provide the resources necessary to initiate and sustain refrigerant compliance over time – regular training, auditing, electronic recordkeeping systems

Deep downside: Ownership needs to keep in mind that failure to act can be deemed negligent and criminal by regulators. Several cases exist where plant managers and facility managers have had to defend themselves when accused of criminal conduct. Civil fines are based on $37,500 per day, per each violation. Supplemental Environmental Projects (SEPs) can end up costing millions of dollars with complete replacement of CFC/HCFC chillers and HVAC systems. One facility with sub-standard compliance can bring full EPA investigation and enforcement to the entire organization! Guess who gets downsized next?