CMRA Joins Coalition on EPA’s NHSM Rule

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently released its Non-Hazardous Secondary Materials (NHSM) rule as part of a package of regulations it was required to do by a federal court order. The other regulations focused on boilers, and were flawed enough that the EPA “stayed,” or delayed their implementation. The NHSM rule, though affected the fuels that fed those boilers, including C&D wood biomass. It is the general consensus of all who read the rule the fuels would be negatively and seriously impacted by the regulation.

The CMRA formed an ad hoc group to examine the rule, and gain more information about its effect on C&D biomass. The group included Gary Sondermeyer, Bayshore Recycling; Greg Wirsen, Green Seal Environmental; Max Lee, Phd., Koogler & Associates; Chaz Miller, NSWMA; and, William Turley. Sondermeyer contacted the proper EPA personnel and determined the rule would put an undue regulatory burden on C&D wood fuel and the boilers that use them. Miller discovered there was a coalition of industry associations that had reached the same determination, and the CMRA contacted them and joined the coalition. Some associations in that coalition include American Forest & Paper, Rubber Manufacturers Association, Biomass Power Council, among others.

Through the coalition CMRA representatives met with the EPA to provide background information on C&D biomass and how the rule would hurt the recycling industry. First, Lee went to Washington D.C. to meet with technical personnel and showed wood was a safe and powerful fuel. Then Turley, with several other associations, met with several top EPA personnel to examine a proposal from the agency to help solve the situation. The EPA did provide a solution that could work, but whether it was legal was questioned, as well as how the EPA would react when the environmental groups would fought against the solution.

In early July, Sondermeyer traveled to Washington D.C. to meet with Robert Perciacepe, EPA Deputy Administrator, to try to gain a stay for the rule, which will slow down implementation and perhaps the rule to be redrawn to include all of the non-traditional fuels that will be negatively affected by the rule.

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