An essential part of landfills accepting organic matter is the gas collection and control system (GCCS) for controlling odors and landfill gas (LFG) emissions into the environment; the piping network. GCCS design and construction have evolved significantly over the past four decades, from passive venting trench systems to a sophisticated and elaborate piping systems with specialized components for handling LFG, landfill liquids, and condensate flowing through the piping network.
This detailed article discusses best practices and recommendations that GCCS designers keep in mind; careful attention to these details can potentially save landfill operators significant modification costs and inconveniences prior to and during construction of the final covers.
Read the full article published in MSW Magazine.
About the Authors: Ali Khatami, Ph.D., PE, LEP, CGC, is a Project Director and a Vice President of SCS Engineers. Srividhya Viswanathan, PE, is a Senior Project Manager with over 10 years of engineering experience. David Fisher is an SCS National OM&M Compliance Manager with 18 years of environmental experience.
In a Motion filed on November 7, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) requested remand of five provisions of the Coal Combustion Residuals (CCR) Rule (40 CFR Parts 257 and 261), which would allow the agency to reconsider the provisions. This SCS Engineers Technical Bulletin covers the five provisions and the basis for their reconsideration. Read the full text here.
Oral arguments on EPA’s motion took place on November 20, 2017. EPA had asked that oral arguments be postponed, and all other aspects of the litigation are suspended until it could rule, but the court did not agree. The current provisions in this Technical Bulletin remain in place unless and until USEPA revises or rescinds them in a future rulemaking.
SCS Engineers will continue to track these issues and keep you informed. Join our Technical Bulletin email list by clicking here, or follow SCS on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter .
By keeping open lines of communication between industry stakeholders and the U.S. EPA at a federal level, both parties have been able to improve the quality of GHG emissions data reported under the GHGRP while reducing the monitoring burden.
Read this SCS Engineer’s abstract that discusses the cooperation between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and solid waste industry stakeholders in developing, revising, and implementing the landfill reporting requirements as part of the federal GHG Reporting Program (GHGRP) (40 CFR Part 98). The paper covers:
Ann O’Brien of SCS Engineers has pulled together a list of questions that printers should be asking themselves before the environmental reporting season is upon us.
Use Ann’s questions as a guide to find out how ready your company is, and decrease your risk of non-compliance by being more organized.
If you don’t know the answers, ask Ann. She’s one of our air and water permitting, monitoring, and reporting experts at SCS. Ann specializes in printing industry compliance.
Contact and we’ll direct you to an air, storm water, wastewater, or groundwater expert near you and in your industry.
They all use permitted grain elevators. According to Reuters, in 2017, the United States had 25 billion US bushels of storage capacity, a growth of 25% in the previous decade. Reuters Business News, April 11, 2017. There are a myriad of safety and permitting requirements for grain elevators; this article lists a few in Wisconsin.
Securing the proper air permits helps safeguard these facilities against the legal, financial, and reputational risks of non-compliance. The air permitting process can be complicated, but there are tools and people that can help.
Environmental engineering firms help guide companies through the process and offer direct support. States provide tools and support such as the self-serve tools on the WDNR website, for example, to help determine what level of permitting is applicable too. These State environmental sites provide the necessary permitting forms and backup calculations specific to the type of permit your facility may need to apply for. You may be able to submit an application online, and a certified engineer can do that for you as part of a permitting plan.
If you find the sites and requirements perplexing, ask a qualified environmental engineer to help. SCS Engineers professionals are recognized for their environmental permitting knowledge and are available to answer questions.
Learn more about air-permitting in Wisconsin or contact one of SCS Engineers’ local offices in a region near your facility.
Tuesday, October 10, 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm ET
This Air & Waste Management Association webinar covers the effective, sustainable operation of municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills in today’s changing environment.
The latest updates to EPA regulations in over two decades limiting air emissions from landfills will be reviewed in detail.
Participants will learn the available models for quantifying landfill gas generation emissions and which model to use in different situations as well as energy recovery from landfill gas, its emissions, and how control requirements can affect feasibility.
MasterMold, LLC makes component parts for manufacturers of recreational vehicles, utility equipment, and agricultural equipment who use the components in their end products. Because of the wide variety of industries and customers it serves, MasterMold must be poised to respond to its customers’ growth by increasing production levels on demand.
Executive Vice President Jon Butts manages environmental compliance at three production facilities. “Environmental management is just one of the many hats I wear,” says Butts. MasterMold has multiple environmental needs. Permitting is high on Butts’ list, and so is passing routine inspections.
To help MasterMold meet its environmental compliance needs, the SCS Engineers team assessed the company’s air permitting needs with an eye toward future increases in customer demand. The team helped turn around a permit application quickly so MasterMold could continue to meet its customers’ production expectations without interruption and remain compliant with environmental rules and regulations. Butts stated:
Then SCS Engineers helped me collect and organize data for emission calculations in one place. They created an easy-to-use tool that my staff updates monthly so we’re prepared for an on-site inspection anytime. I can demonstrate compliance, pass inspections quickly, and get back to focusing on my customers.
Butts got the opportunity to test the new tool during the company’s latest inspections. MasterMold has undergone routine inspections by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). Both agencies checked the company’s compliance status with its air permit at its largest plants. “I had everything organized right at my fingertips,” Butts says. “I was ready for the inspections. I now know exactly where all of our emissions come from and exactly how they change over time.”
Thanks to the tool SCS Engineers helped me build, MasterMold passed its latest inspections in just a few hours with no citations. I’m confident I will pass on-site inspections and gain and grow inspectors’ trust in MasterMold’s business practices. Now I’m in a position to influence the process, take proactive steps, and partner with my inspector instead of responding reactively.
—Jon Butts, Executive Vice President, MasterMold, LLC | Johnson Creek, WI
Jared Omernik suggests following five steps to prevent environmental contamination at mixing and loading pads, or mix/load pad for short. Follow Jared’s tips to achieve compliance, limit your environmental liability, and keep your operations running smoothly.
Read the article in the summer 2017 edition of the Wisconsin Agribusiness News Quarterly
Oil and gas processing facilities, federal and local governments, landfills, land developers, contractors, industries with industrial hygiene plans can spend too much money for too little information if they don’t have an understanding of the limits and capabilities of their equipment and methods before the development of their Air Monitoring Plan (AMP) . That’s before considering the risk to their employees and to public health.
Even if you can’t afford a dedicated air monitoring group, you can eliminate the health risks, overwriting a plan, or overburdening your budget. A cost-benefit analysis and integrating stakeholders’ goals can help provide the guidance you need to develop a balanced air monitoring plan.
Start with this list of considerations when developing an Air Monitoring Plan (AMP). The list is followed by tips and suggestions which are helpful under specific circumstances.
Location of the monitoring site is initially dependent on the monitoring objective. For example, once it is known that there is a requirement to monitor for peak ambient H2S at a microscale site, it reduces the monitoring site location to specific areas. Hence, the first task when evaluating a possible site location is to determine the scale for which a candidate location can qualify by considering the following:
1. Location and emissions strengths of nearby sources, especially major source;
2. Prevailing wind direction in the area;
3. Nearby uniformity of land use;
4. Nearby population density.
To select locations according to these criteria, it is necessary to have detailed information on the location of emission sources, the geographical variability of ambient pollutant concentrations, meteorological conditions, and population density. Therefore, selection of the number, locations, and types of sampling stations is a complex process. The variability of sources and their intensities of emissions, terrains, meteorological conditions and demographic features require that each network is developed individually. Thus, selection of the network will be based on the best available evidence and on the experience of the decision team.
Developing an Air Monitoring Plan (AMP) can be a daunting task. There are many decisions to make that have downwind ramifications relative to budget, logistical constraints, and labor requirements. In addition, there may be competing goals in regards to the project stakeholders. SCS has the experience developing and implementing air monitoring plans and systems to meet these challenges; including developing site specific and network-wide AMPs for various monitoring objectives. SCS also understands the costs and demands of the implementation of AMPs on industry and government.
If you need to perform Air Monitoring or are in the initial steps of developing an AMP please contact for expert advice and guidance specific to your region and industry. We have robust programs and experts nationwide. We can also incorporate the use of remote monitoring controls and monitoring by our FCC authorized drones.
Author: Paul Schafer, SCS’ National Expert Ambient Air Monitoring
Thanks to you, our clients, SCS Engineers has received many awards and industry recognitions for research achievements and technology innovations. Engineering News-Record (ENR) recently released the Top 500 Design List, ranking SCS Engineers in the top 100 for the 9th year in a row. In the same publication, SCS is ranked in the Top 10 Sewerage/ Wastewater Firms.
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