Concrete Products

MAY 2012

Concrete Products covers the issues that attract producers of ready mixed and manufactured concrete focusing on equipment and material technology, market development and management topics.

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GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS REGULATIONS ENVIRONMENTALISTS' LAWSUIT SEEKS TO RESURRECT EPA-TABLED COAL ASH RULE On behalf of 11 environmental and commu- nity groups, Sierra Club counsel Earthjus- tice has filed suit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to force completion of an Environmental Protection Agency rulemaking on power plant coal ash han- dling and disposal. Plaintiffs contend the Resource Conserva- tion and Recovery Act (RCRA) requires EPA to update safeguards to waste-rooted public health threats. They attach urgency to a rulemaking based on purported agency data indicating 29 newly identified instances of groundwater contamination from coal ash storage. Stiff opposition from construction and engineering interests concerned with a proposed rule's effect on the marketability of concrete-grade fly ash has helped pro- long review of "Identification and Listing of Special Wastes: Disposal of Coal Combustion Residuals (CCR) from Electric Utilities," a notice of proposed rulemaking EPA issued in June 2010. A six-month public comment period on the notice drew more than 450,000 responses from individuals and in- dustry or government groups. The document offers two paths to tighten handling and disposal of landfill-bound CCR. The first would see the agency desig- nate such material as hazardous waste under RCRA Subtitle C; Earthjustice and Sierra Club have championed the option, while insinuating the hazardous waste des- ignation would have no bearing on the vi- ability of fly ash in concrete or other applications where it is routinely recycled. A second option in "Identification and Listing" would have the EPA defer much regulation and oversight of landfill-bound CCR to state agencies via a RCRA Subtitle D designation. The American Coal Ash Asso- ciation and other proponents of fly ash re- cycling have endorsed aspects of the second option, especially in light of its absence of hazardous waste designation and stigma. The Earthjustice lawsuit would force the EPA to set deadlines for review and revision of relevant solid and hazardous waste safe- guards to address coal ash and "long-over- due" changes to the test that determines whether a waste is hazardous under RCRA. As the District Court reviews the merits of the suit and plaintiffs' standing, separate versions of a bill, The Coal Residuals Reuse and Management Act, preempting EPA des- ignation of a CCR as a hazardous waste re- main before the U.S. House and Senate. International Green Construction Code augments agency measures to codify green-building practice The 2012 International Green Construction Code (IgCC) increases the energy-efficiency of structures, while providing governments direction and oversight of green design and construction, according to the Interna- tional Code Council (ICC), document author and one of several U.S. Green Building Council partners in the effort. Developers of the LEED green building certification system and coauthors of ANSI/ASHRAE/ IES/USGBC Standard 189.1, USGBC ap- plauds the new model code that serves as an important new policy option for state and local governments looking to codify green building practice. "The IgCC and Standard 189.1 draw from more than a decade of national and regional leadership programs that road-tested green building practices, methods and materials," says USGBC Vice President of LEED Technical Development Brendan Owens. "These pio- neering efforts broke important new ground that has enabled the IgCC to mainstream green building practices that were previously considered innovative in a foundation in- tended for minimum code language." The 2012 IgCC, which incorporates the 2011 version of Standard 189.1 as an op- tional path to compliance, offers a new code baseline that can be tailored by state and local governments to share many of the benefits of green buildings with the IRON WORKERS UNION SPURS OSHA SURVEY ON REBAR PLACEMENT ACCIDENT REDUCTION The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has issued a Request for Information (RFI) that seeks comments through June 2 on how to prevent injuries and deaths from reinforcing concrete activities in construction, and from vehicles and mobile equipment backing into workers in construction. The agency will use responses to learn more about how workers get injured and what solutions exist to prevent injury and death, including possible regulatory action. Workers who use reinforcing methods to strengthen concrete face potentially life- threatening hazards including impalement; collapsed walls; and, slips, trips and falls. OSHA data indicate that more than 30 workers died while performing these activities from 2000-2009. Safety issues relating to these operations were brought to OSHA's at- tention in a 2010 petition from the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Or- namental & Reinforcing Iron Workers and an industry coalition of stakeholders including the Concrete Steel Reinforcing Institute, the Western Steel Council, and the Center for Construction Research and Training. Comments must be submitted through www.regu- lations.gov, the Federal eRulemaking Portal. 6 | MAY 2012 millions of buildings that are designed, constructed and renovated to meet mini- mum code, whether or not they are en- gaged in the LEED program. "As the International Green Construction Code begins to inform building codes and building practice across the country, LEED is evolving to reward greater thresholds of green building leadership," notes USGBC Senior Vice President of Global Policy & Law Roger Platt. "We need public policy that re- wards this beyond-code leadership along- side codes that redefine what we should expect of our buildings. The IgCC and Stan- dard 189.1 are an important and inten- tional complement to LEED." PHOTO: Washington State DOT WWW.CONCRETEPRODUCTS.COM

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