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The Environmental Protection Agency has awarded $50,000 to the Cherokee Nation. The tribe will use the funds to collect water samples and perform a baseline pesticides assessment of Saline Creek. The tribe’s goal is to determine the levels of pesticides, if any, in the stream.

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The Environmental Protection Agency has awarded $152,940 to the Arkansas State Plant Board (ASPB). Under a cooperative agreement with EPA, the ASPB will ensure that pesticides are used according to label directions and that they are produced and/or distributed in Arkansas in compliance with the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). The ASPB will also use the funds to enhance pesticide worker safety programs, the endangered species program, and ground water protection.

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With the kids at home and vacations to plan, most Americans can’t avoid driving more during the summer. Here are some tips to improve your fuel economy and help you save money, at any time of year:

Drive more efficiently
Avoid aggressive stops and starts. Observe the speed limit: driving 70 mph instead of 60 is like paying an extra 40 cents a gallon. Also, don’t let your car become a closet. Lugging around sports equipment and other incidentals weighs your car down, making it use more gas to reach the same speed.

Keep your car in shape Taking care of little details can really help a car’s fuel economy, so make sure your car is properly tuned, check and replace air filters regularly, and keep your tires properly inflated.

Plan and combine trips If possible, run errands during off-peak traffic hours so you won’t waste time and fuel sitting in traffic. Combine errands to avoid cold-start trips, since a warm engine uses far less gas during start-up.

For more tips on saving fuel, and to compare fuel efficiency on different vehicles, visit www.fueleconomy.gov.

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The Environmental Protection Agency has awarded $139,300 to the East Baton Rouge Housing Authority to clean up 1705 Highland Road in Baton Rouge. This Brownfields property once operated as an auto maintenance shop, tire shop, and vehicle detailing shop. Brownfields are vacant, abandoned or under-used properties where redevelopment may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant. This cleanup grant will support petroleum cleanup activities and community outreach activities. Redevelopment of the property is expected to improve the aesthetics of the neighborhood as well as public health and safety.

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Texas Municipal Power Agency to complete project as part of settlement with EPA

Texas Municipal Power Agency (TMPA) will pay a $26,250 penalty and issue $78,750 in vouchers for electric lawn mowers to resolve violations of the Clean Air Act, the Environmental Protection Agency announced today.

The violations involve operations at the power provider’s Gibbons Creek Steam Electric Station in Grimes County. TMPA has since corrected the infractions and is in compliance with the Clean Air Act.

"It is imperative that business and industry do their part to help protect human health and the environment,” said EPA Regional Administrator Richard E. Greene. “EPA will continue to ensure that companies make every effort to follow environmental laws, so that our communities have cleaner, healthier air to breathe."

TMPA is a municipal power company serving the cities of Bryan, Denton, Garland and Greenville. The company violated the Clean Air Act by exceeding opacity emissions limits at its facility, failing to report in writing that its continuous opacity monitoring system was out of service for 397 hours, and not submitting required emissions reports to EPA.

Under a settlement with EPA, the company will pay a civil penalty and complete a supplemental environmental project that involves issuing vouchers worth $150.00 each to designated retailers in its service area. TMPA customers and city residents can use the vouchers to purchase electric lawn mowers.

The project is aimed at helping reduce air pollution in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, which currently does not meet federal requirements for ozone. Ground-level ozone, or smog, is created when volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and nitrogen oxides react with sunlight. Traditional lawn mowers emit carbon monoxide, VOCs and nitrogen oxides, while electric lawn mowers produce essentially no pollution.

The TMPA vouchers are expected to help replace 525 gasoline-powered lawn mowers, which has the potential to reduce 37 tons of greenhouse gases and other pollutants per year, or the equivalent emissions of more than 22,500 new cars, each being driven 12,000 miles.

To learn more about enforcement activities in EPA Region 6, please visit www.epa.gov/region6.

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Six facilities from Arkansas and Texas will be recognized by the Environmental Protection Agency for exemplary environmental programs that reduce pollution at the 2008 National Environmental Partnership Summit in Baltimore on May 21.

The facilities are part of EPA's National Environmental Performance Track, and they include the following: Atlas Copco Drilling Solutions of Garland, Texas; Eaton Hydraulics Operation of Searcy, Arkansas; Firestone Building Products of Corsicana, Texas; Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company of Fort Worth, Texas; Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas; and Standard Aero, Inc. of San Antonio, Texas.

“Businesses that partner with the national Performance Track are leading the way when it comes to environmental stewardship,” said EPA Regional Administrator Richard E. Greene. “We are pleased to recognize these six facilities and hope they will be joined by many more.”

Members of Performance Track come into the program with strong environmental compliance records and then go beyond regulatory requirements to create superior environmental management programs. This year's national summit brings together Performance Track participants and environmental professionals to discuss best practices and to develop successful strategies that are good for both business and the environment.

Performance Track facilities work to improve their efforts in a variety of environmental activities – such as water and energy use, land and habitat protection, air emissions, and waste reduction – throughout the product lifecycle, rather than focusing on just one specific pollutant or environmental issue. The program encourages continuous improvement through environmental management systems, community outreach, and measurable results.

Since its inception in 2000, Performance Track membership has grown to 533 members – ranging from major corporations to small businesses and representing a variety of industries across 49 states and Puerto Rico. To date, Performance Track members have collectively saved enough energy to power 46,000 homes for one year, enough greenhouse gases to offset the annual emissions of 57,000 cars, and prevented solid waste equivalent to that produced by 553,000 households yearly.

National Environmental Performance Track program: www.epa.gov/performancetrack

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Candy manufacturer part of EPA program that turns waste to energy
Business at the Mars Snackfood U.S. plant in Waco has never been sweeter. Today, members of the company were joined by officials from the Environmental Protection Agency to flip the switch on its first landfill gas project, a venture that will cut the company’s energy costs and the release of greenhouse gases into the environment.

The project will use methane gas piped in from the city landfill to power two furnaces that create steam for the plant’s candy-making operations.

“Turning waste into energy is a smart strategy for business and the environment,” said EPA Regional Administrator Richard E. Greene. “EPA is pleased to be working with partners like the Mars Snackfood on innovative projects like this one that deliver clean, renewable sources of energy.”

In addition to saving the company $600,000 a year in energy costs, the project will also reduce more than 10,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide, which has the equivalent environmental impact of avoiding the emissions of 1,900 cars. Methane, a primary component of landfill gas, is a greenhouse gas over 20 times as potent as carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere.

"More than being a decision about the bottom line, this project is about taking responsibility for the future – for our business, for our Associates and their children, for our community, and definitely for our environment. And the story today is not simply about Mars alone. It is a story of deep commitment and concern by multiple partners at every level in government in Texas. Again, I congratulate our partners in government, especially the City of Waco, the County of McLennan and the EPA, for their visionary leadership and dedication to a sustainable future for all,” said MARS Snackfood US President Todd Lachman.

Mars Snackfood joins a growing list of companies to complete landfill gas energy projects as part of EPA’s Landfill Methane Outreach Program (LMOP). There are currently 21 operational projects in Texas and a total of 34 throughout the five-state area that makes up EPA Region 6.

LMOP is a voluntary technical assistance and partnership program that helps businesses and communities reduce methane emissions from landfills by encouraging the recovery and use of landfill gas as a renewable energy source. The program also assists countries throughout the world in developing landfill methane reduction projects through the international Methane to Markets Partnership. Since 1994, LMOP has assisted in developing more than 330 landfill gas projects in the United States, reducing methane emissions by over 24 million metric tons of carbon equivalent.

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The Environmental Protection Agency has awarded $29,480 to the Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC) to protect underground sources of drinking water. The federal Safe Drinking Water Act regulates the underground disposal of hazardous wastes through deep injection wells. OCC will use the funds to issue permits, monitor the construction and operation of injection wells throughout the state and conduct field surveillance, inspections, investigations and enforcement activities.