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An Overview of LEED
By Peter
Voci
The push to go "green" that has risen in recent years
has not only affected the automobile, energy, and purchasing
choices of Americans but, has also found its way into the land
development and building construction industries in the form of
the LEED Green Building Rating System. The Leadership in Energy
and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system, which was
developed by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC), is
an established set of standards used to construct environmentally
sound and sustainable buildings.
The LEED rating system is composed of four certification levels:
Certified, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. A building is awarded a
specific number of credits in five criteria: sustainable sites,
water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, and materials resources
and indoor environmental quality. The current LEED standards
apply to new commercial construction, interior projects, current
building operations, and large renovations. However, work is
underway for criteria related to future developments, new
residential home developments and core and shell construction.
The benefits of achieving a LEED certification can range from
more efficient resource use and management, lower outputs of
solid waste, healthier work and living environments, more
productive employees, and in some cases, as in the use of natural
lighting in retail settings, there is evidence of increased sales
of those items illuminated by natural light compared to electric
lights.
The cost of LEED certification may increase the cost of a
building's design and construction mostly due to the
unfamiliarity of individuals involved in the design and
construction process with sustainable building principles and
techniques. Another factor that may increase the cost due to the
quest for a LEED certification is that in many areas of the
country, there is a lack of LEED-certified building materials and
as a result, the cost to transport those materials increases as
the distances involved in their transportation increases.
Consequently, credits may be lost if materials are transported
over a large distance as the use of fossil fuels used (burned)
during the transportation process increases. The quest for LEED
certification itself will increase the cost of any project as
time and money will be spent performing research and
communicating with LEED-certified professionals. It should be
noted that these higher initial costs are outweighed over time by
the lower than industry standard operation costs that are seen
with a LEED-certified building, higher employee productivity, and
a healthier work-environment. There is evidence supporting the
fact that the initial investment in a LEED-certification will,
over the lifespan of the building, yield ten times the initial
investment.
Although the LEED certification is the global standard used for
gauging a building's long term sustainability, it is not without
its flaw. Its scoring system is heavily weighted toward the
continued reliance on petroleum products. The majority of the
achievable credits support the efficient use of petroleum
products and not the use of sustainable or green sources of
energy. Another drawback to the system is that it does not
discount for products that are developed through the use of
environmentally unfriendly practices but will reward for the use
of the product if the product itself is considered
environmentally friendly.
Despite its drawbacks, the LEED rating process is still
considered the standard for building sustainable, environmentally
sound buildings and as each revision to its rating system is
developed, its use and implementation becomes more and more
prudent.
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Possible New Regulations for Underground
Storage Tanks
By Jude
Horton
In 1988 the United States Environmental Protection Agency's
Office of Underground Storage Tanks set forth regulations with
which all owners of underground storage tanks containing
petroleum were to comply. Twenty-one years later, with the input
of industry stakeholders, a review that could lead to regulatory
relief and / or new federal requirements for underground storage
tanks is underway.
Over the past year, in light of new technologies and with the
benefit of twenty years' worth of experience with current
regulations, the Environmental Protection Agency has assessed and
identified hundreds of possible changes to the current federal
underground storage tank regulations. The Environmental
Protection Agency has narrowed down its list of possible changes
and will further review these before a possible summer
rulemaking.
According the Petroleum Marketers Association of America, the
following are the possible changes:
RELEASE PREVENTION
- Operation and
Maintenance Requirements - Overfill equipment functionality
testing, walk through inspections, spill bucket testing and
integrity testing for interstitial areas.
- Ball Floats - Consider ban on new and restrictions on
existing flow restrictors.
- Repairs - If repair to primary or secondary wall
is made, a verification of structural integrity of the
interstitial space would be required before returningthe
tank and/or piping back into service. The EPA is also
considering changes to regulatory language regarding repairs
to include testing after non-release repairs.
- Incentives for
Voluntary Upgrades - Explore
possible incentives for encouraging secondary containment
and better leak detection. For example: Less record keeping
if better technology, reduced cathodic protection monitoring
requirement for certain types of interstitial monitoring,
additional or more frequent lead detection testing or
operation and maintenance for single-walled systems, no line
leak detector requirement for double-wall piping with
certaintypes of interstitial monitoring.
RELEASE DETECTION
- Operation and
Maintenance Requirements - Periodic operational checks and
periodic testing of automatic tank gauge, probes, sensors,
line leak detectors, and alarms that is more stringent than
equipment manufacturers' recommendations.
- High Throughput
Facilities - Consider
whether additional or different release detection
requirements are appropriate for high volume sites.
- New Technologies - Consider incorporating into regulations
new technologies such as Statistical Inventory
Reconciliation (SIR) and Continuous In Tank Leak Detection
System (CITLDS).
- Clarification - Consider whether clarification is
needed concerning catastrophic and monthly release
detection.
- Interstitial
Alarms - Explore how to
address interstitial alarms with regard to requirements for
reporting suspected releases.
- Leak Rates - Explore adjusting leak rates and/or
probabilities and other performance criteria based on method
of release detection.
MISCELLANEOUS
- Alternative Fuels
- Consider adding
alternative fuels to definition of motor fuels or regulated
substance in the UST regulations.
- Update
Regulations - Remove
references to 1998 deadline, including removing upgrade
options and/or internal lining from regulations (but keep
inspection requirements for existing systems.) update tank,
piping sections for new technologies - include clad and
jacketed tanks and flex-piping.
- UST Ownership Change
Notification - Explore
requiring submitting revised UST notification forms when
ownership changes at the facility.
- Technical
Corrections - Update
standards and correct typos in regulations.
DEFERRALS
Explore whether to regulate, exclude or continue to defer to the
following:
- Release detection
for emergency generator USTs
- USTs containing
radioactive substances
- Emergency
generator USTs at nuclear facilities
- Airport hydrant
systems
- Field-constructed
USTs
- Wastewater
treatment tanks
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SPCC Plan and Compliance Update
By Daryl
Valley
The United States Environmental Protection Agency requires that
certain facilities, typically those that include bulk storage of
petroleum hydrocarbons and other potentially hazardous
substances, must prepare and implement Spill Prevention, Control,
and Countermeasure (SPCC) Plans to address the potential for a
discharge of oil or other substance to inland waters located in
the United States. These facilities may include properties that
contain bulk storage of petroleum products for retail
distribution, oil production facilities, petroleum refineries,
asphalt production operations, some agricultural operations, and
others that contain a total aboveground oil storage capacity of
greater than 1,320-gallons or completely buried oil storage
capacity greater than 42,000-gallons. Applicable facilities in
operation prior to August 16, 2002, must maintain and implement a
current SPCC Plan in accordance with the SPCC regulations then in
effect.
Recently, the Environmental Protection Agency extended the
compliance deadline for the SPCC regulations to November 10,
2010, for all facilities (including farms subject to these
rules). Alternative Environmental Solutions has prepared a number
of SPCC Plans over the years. Although it is not required that
affected facilities revise their plans each year, we suggest that
our clients and other applicable facilities review their SPCC
plans at least once each year for compliance purposes and note
any changes to facility operations, administration, features,
etc. that may be considered to be an administrative and/or
technical change to their plan. If a major (or sometimes minor)
technical or administrative change occurs at an applicable
regulated facility, then that facility is required to update
their SPCC plan without undue delay.
If we can provide advice or otherwise assist you in keeping your
regulated facility compliant with the existing SPCC regulations
and anticipated new final rules, please call us at (888)
844-2371.
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Seeking Employment?
By Brian J. Beahan, P.G., President
We are always looking for qualified professionals to join our
team. We appreciate your referrals of business and now are
seeking your referrals for qualified environmental and geologic
consulting professionals. If you know of anyone who is seeking a
change and a challenging new direction in their career, where
creativity and solutions-oriented thinking really make a difference,
please pass on our contact information.
Find
out more....
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Our customers have approached us with problems, we've
understood what needed to be done and we've provided appropriate
solutions. Our mission statement, indeed our company as a whole, is
centered on meeting this objective. May we put our quality,
client-centered environmental solutions to work for you too?
On behalf of the staff of Alternative Environmental
Solutions, Inc., I invite you to experience the value we add to
your business.
Sincerely,
Brian J. Beahan
Alternative
Environmental Solutions
email: aes1@altenv.com
phone:
717-517-5000
fax:
717-517-5004
web: http://www.altenv.com
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