This program will dive into Georgia’s experience with lithium-ion battery handlers and recyclers and the top fires the Fire Service is responding to and best techniques for overall incident mitigation once the flames stop. A comprehensive community approach is key in limiting secondary events.

PFAS are inherently difficult molecules to remove and destroy once present in water or solids. This study quantifies the costs of removing and destroying PFAS found in municipal wastewater, biosolids, landfill leachate and compost contact water at single treatment systems on a Statewide scale. Learn more about the technologies capable of removing and destroying PFAS and their feasibility, affordability, and related engineering challenges.

This program will allow for information sharing on how States and Territories (States) are addressing the management of lithium-ion batteries, including recycling, disposal, response, removal, and transport. The session will also provide an opportunity for States to have a discussion with Fire Chief O’Brian on how they can work with various fire associations. The start of the session will include remarks by U.S. EPA and a company involved with lithium-ion battery recycling. Kathy Lett, U.S. EPA Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery, will provide updates about an EPA lithium-ion battery recycling memo and webpages. Robert Kang, the CEO of Blue Whale Materials LLC, will highlight the company’s lithium-ion battery collection activities. The session will then turn to a facilitated discussion of lithium-ion battery management among attendees.

Leaders from several Federal agencies and departments will provide briefings to the membership on their current priorities, recent policy updates and challenges related to cleanup and waste management at federal facility sites. Invited speakers will also provide a summary of their efforts to address PFAS.

As a follow-up to the Pay for Prevention session presented at the September Tanks Workshop, the Financial Responsibility (FR) Task Force will further explore how to implement this type of program in your State. Paying for Prevention is the idea of using State-Fund monies to leverage UST system replacements or upgrades and thereby preventing releases from happening. The FR Task Force will be compiling a short guide which will include tools and resources for States wanting to develop a new program or expand on an existing program.

With the first year of BIL funding for 128(a) programs coming to an end, this session seeks to take stock of how initial BIL brownfields funding has been administered, including a discussion on how State/Territorial programs are using their BIL funding and examples of any early successes or difficulties with its implementation. Specifically, panelists will discuss experiences using BIL funding to conduct orphan tank removals, how (thanks to BIL) additional staff are being hired and are planned to be retained should infrastructure funding levels not be sustained, and how environmental justice considerations are being incorporated into State programs and in decision-making for site-specific work. Time will also be provided for an open discussion of other experiences and issues regarding BIL implementation.

The Federal Facilities Subcommittee will host a question-and-answer session between representatives of the federal agencies that participated in the Federal Facilities Update and State members. The last 30 minutes of the session will be closed to the press.

This session will highlight U.S. EPA and State work being done to address cumulative impacts assessment. In support of two January 2021 Presidential Executive Orders, the EPA Administrator issued an Agency-wide directive to take steps to better serve historically marginalized communities using cumulative impacts assessment. During this session, various EPA offices will provide an overview of how they are implementing this directive. A State speaker will discuss the potential applicability of guidance and tools created to address cumulative impacts assessment in air quality permitting to waste management.

States are often challenged with the impacts of staff turnover, trying to balance the onboarding of new staff, keeping sites moving towards closure, and ensuring existing staff continue to feel engaged. In this session, South Carolina will share their successful onboarding/training program for new hires, as well as share challenges in implementing the program and developing next steps!

A VT DEC presentation on PFAS source identification and how to access diverse types of funding to conduct this work. This presentation will discuss the use of programs like Air Quality Control and RCRA to identify facilities that potentially use PFAS. Also being presented is how to access federal funds to conduct sampling and cleanup. Funds discussed will be Pre-Remedial, Remedial, Clean Water Revolving Loan Fund and Drinking Water Loan Fund.

Federal Facilities will present Land Use Controls and their effective implementation at two NPL sites: Eielson Airforce Base (AK), and Weldon Springs (MO). These case studies cover the challenges that occur between interagency collaboration, and the tools State regulators may employ to implement a successful cleanup.

This session will feature presentations and discussions of two Hazardous Waste (HW) Subcommittee work products. The Rulemaking and Authorization (R&A) Task Force will present the results of the State Hazardous Waste Rulemaking and Authorization Survey developed by the Task Force. The results will serve as prompts for an interactive discussion with session attendees. Come prepared to share your program experiences! The session will also include an important overview of the Workgroup’s hazardous waste program funding report.

This session will discuss the use of closure turf and the installation of solar panels on closed landfills. Additionally, this session will cover use of phytoremediation technology for leachate management on closed landfill surfaces.

Does your UST program deal with complicated enforcement cases? Members of the Release Prevention and Emerging Issues Task Forces will be leading discussion on enforcement issues dealing with large entities with many locations, as well as multi-media enforcement encompassing both prevention and remediation in Environmental Justice areas.