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The purpose of the Department of Natural Resources' (DNR) Remediation and Redevelopment (RR) Program guidance document Environmental Contamination and your Real Estate (RR-973) is to provide information to help property owners understand the impact contamination may have on the market value of their property and the legal obligations they have should the property be sold in the future.
The document can be found here. Additional documents and guidance from the RR Program may be found using the search tools available on the publications and forms webpage.
Questions regarding this document may be submitted to Barry Ashenfelter at Barry.Ashenfelter@wisconsin.gov.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Forest Service announced it will offer $41 million through the 2023 Wood Innovations Grant and 2023 Community Wood Grant programs to spark innovation and create new markets for wood products and renewable wood energy.
Made possible in part by President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act, these grants expand wood products use and strengthen emerging wood energy markets, supporting sustainable forest management – particularly in areas of high wildfire risk.
The application deadline for both grant programs is Thursday, March 23, 2023 at 5 p.m. local time. Applications may be submitted via email to the Forest Service Regional Wood Innovations coordinator listed in the application instructions.
Not only are these grants helping support local economies by expanding the potential of wood products and wood energy, they are also helping address critical issues like climate change. By finding new uses and expanding current uses for wood products and energy made from materials removed from unhealthy, overgrown forests, we can restore forests to health, reduce wildfire risk, fight climate change and sustain local economies.
The Wood Innovations Grant Program makes funding available to expand traditional wood use projects, advance wood energy markets, and promote wood use in commercial building construction. This Request for Proposals focuses on the program’s market development goals to reduce hazardous fuels and improve forest health on national forests and other forest lands, reduce the costs of forest management, and promote economically strong and environmentally healthy communities.
Eligible project examples include:
- Architectural and engineering designs, cost analyses, and permitting to secure financing for commercial wood construction or wood energy projects development.
- Establishing or increasing wood products manufacturing to support forest restoration.
- Showcasing environmental and economic benefits of wood as a sustainable commercial building material to encourage growth in the industry.
- Establishing statewide wood use teams or wood energy teams.
- Developing wood energy projects that use residues from wood products or woody biomass.
- Developing commercial woody biomass and wood product industrial parks.
- Overcoming market barriers to stimulate wood energy expansion.
- Purchasing wood processing equipment to create markets supporting forest management.
The Community Wood Grant Program funds shovel-ready projects to install thermally led community wood energy systems or build innovative wood product facilities to support healthy forests and stimulate local economies by expanding renewable wood energy and innovative wood products manufacturing capacity.
Eligible project examples include:
- Community wood heating, cooling, or electricity systems that replace fossil fuels.
- Purchase and installation of manufacturing equipment at a mass timber production facility.
- Expanding sawmills with innovative technologies, cost cutting measures and higher value production lines.
- Equipment purchase and installation at new facilities producing forest products biofuels.
To apply for either grant, applicants must be registered with the System for Award Management (SAM). Applications should show a clear benefit to underserved or historically marginalized people, communities, and the forests they value. For-profit entities, state and local governments, Indian Tribes, school districts, non-profit organizations, higher education institutions, public utilities, and fire and conservation districts are eligible to apply.
More information is available at the Forest Service Wood Innovations website or at grants.gov.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released three improved pollution prevention (P2) calculator tools. These tools — the P2 Cost Calculator, the P2 Greenhouse Gas Calculator, and the P2 Calculator for Reductions in Hazardous Substances, Pollutants and Contaminants — convert information on P2 activities at a business, such as reductions in energy use, into information on cost savings and pollution reductions. They help P2 grantees, technical assistance providers, and others measure environmental outcomes and economic performance related to P2 activities.
The updates to the Cost Calculator and the Greenhouse Gas Calculator include:
The updates to the Reductions Calculator include expanded categories of pollutants and releases — including hazardous materials used, hazardous wastes, air emissions, water pollutants, and solvent remanufacturing — that EPA tracks and measures.
The calculators use Microsoft Excel and perform best when used with the most current Excel version.
For help with the calculators, please visit the P2 Hub or email p2hub@epa.gov.
In January 2023, the EPA updated the Safer Chemical Ingredients List (SCIL), a living list of chemicals organized by functional-use class that EPA’s Safer Choice program has evaluated and determined meet Safer Choice criteria. With this update, there are a total of 1,064 chemicals listed on the SCIL.
In this update, EPA is adding nine chemicals to the SCIL. To expand the number of chemicals and functional-use categories on the SCIL, EPA encourages manufacturers to submit their safer chemicals to EPA for review and listing on the SCIL.
EPA is also changing the status for one chemical (CASRN 27619-97-2, 1-Octanesulfonic acid, 3,3,4,4,5,5,6,6,7,7,8,8,8-tridecafluoro-) that has recently been identified on the SCIL as a per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS). This chemical is not used in any Safer Choice-certified products, but was added to the SCIL in 2012 based on the data available and the state of EPA’s knowledge at the time. EPA has now updated the SCIL listing for this chemical to a grey square because of a growing understanding of the toxicological profiles for certain PFAS and incomplete information on the potential health and environmental effects of these substances.
EPA’s process for removing a chemical from the SCIL is to first mark the chemical with a grey square on the SCIL webpage to provide notice to chemical and product manufacturers that this chemical may no longer be acceptable for use in Safer Choice-certified products. A grey square notation on the SCIL means that the chemical may not be allowed for use in products that are candidates for the Safer Choice label, and any current Safer Choice-certified products that contain this chemical must be reformulated unless relevant health and safety data is provided to justify continuing to list this chemical on the SCIL. The data required would be determined on a case-by-case basis. In general, data useful for making such a determination would provide evidence of low concern for human health and environmental impacts. Unless information provided to EPA adequately justifies continued listing, the chemical would then be removed from the SCIL 12 months after the grey square designation.
EPA’s Safer Choice program certifies products containing ingredients that have met the program’s rigorous human health and environmental safety criteria. The Safer Choice program allows companies to use its label on products that meet the Safer Choice Standard. The EPA website contains a complete list of Safer Choice-certified products.
EPA Takes Key Step to Stop Unsafe PFAS from Reentering Commerce
The EPA proposed a rule that would prevent companies from starting or resuming the manufacture, processing or use of an estimated 300 per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) that have not been made or used for many years without a complete EPA review and risk determination. In the past, these chemicals, known as “inactive PFAS,” may have been used in many industries in a variety of ways, including as binding agents, surfactants, in the production of sealants and gaskets, and may also have been released into the environment. Without this proposed rule, companies could resume uses of these PFAS absent notification to and review by EPA. The proposal reflects the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to address the impacts of these forever chemicals, and is a key action in EPA’s PFAS Strategic Roadmap.
When the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) was first passed in 1976, thousands of chemicals were grandfathered in under the statute and allowed to remain in commerce without additional EPA review. Before TSCA was amended in 2016, EPA completed formal reviews on only about 20% of new chemicals and had no authority to address new chemicals about which EPA lacked sufficient information, which is part of the reason why many chemicals, including PFAS, were allowed into commerce without a complete review. Under the new law, the EPA must formally review the safety of all new chemicals before they are allowed into commerce.
This proposed Significant New Use Rule (SNUR) would ensure that modern, robust reviews happen before any of these old chemicals could be used again. The proposal would first require companies to notify EPA before they could use any of these 300 chemicals. The EPA would then be required to conduct a robust review of health and safety information under the modernized 2016 law to determine if their use may present unreasonable risk to human health or the environment and put any necessary restrictions in place before the use could restart. EPA will accept public comments on the proposed rule until March 27, 2023 via docket EPA-HQ-OPPT-2022-0876 at www.regulations.gov. Learn more about the proposed rule.
Proposed ENERGY STAR NextGen™ Certification for Commercial Buildings
EPA is proposing a new ENERGY STAR certification for commercial and multifamily buildings, designed to encourage top energy performance, use of renewable energy, and electrification. They are requesting comments from the public before finalizing and launching the new certification. Comments will be accepted until March 2, 2023.
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