Wednesday, September 28, 2005

-Enforcement-Action Ohio EPA reached a settlement with Visionmark

>>> "Eric Hendrickson" <eric.hendrickson@epa.state.oh.us> 09/28 2:54 PM >>>
Ohio EPA reached a settlement with Visionmark,  for past hazardous waste violations and issued an administrative consent order on September 27, 2005. The violations occurred at its facility located at 2309 Industrial Drive, Sidney, Shelby County, Ohio.  The settlement includes a $15,000 penalty of which $12,000 will be deposited into the state's hazardous waste cleanup fund.  In lieu of paying the remaining $3,000 of the penalty, Visionmark will fund a supplemental environmental project (SEP) by making a contribution in the amount of $3,000 to the Ohio EPA Clean Diesel School Bus Program.  You can view details on this final action online at: http://www.epa.state.oh.us/dhwm/pdf/09-27-05Visionmark.pdf 


Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Ingenuity Cleveland - 40,000 foot eco_logical impact assessment

Ingenuity Cleveland: first stab at a review.

While overall a phenomenal event, I must relay I was a bit disappointed in the apparent lack of concern by event management for addressing the environmental aspects and impacts of their event. Food service relied upon disposable everything, reusable containers were not to be found, not a single generator powered by biomass, biodiesel, used cooking oil, solar, wind, or fuel cells.

Vinyl table cloths reigned supreme on apparently all tables at the back of the 4th street stage, and there were plenty of vendors who's direct nonpermitted wastewater discharges were flowing freely into the city of Cleveland's storm sewers. Contrary to popular belief, storm sewers, which are typically located outside (along the curb in this case) do not pass through a publicly owned treatment works (POTW) or sewage plant prior to discharge into our great and greatly troubled Lake Erie.

All this being said and ecoimpact assessment mode turned off, the parts of the show we saw were fantastic. The only thing the event could have used a healthy dose more of was local electronic music artists, locally produced and more sustainable foods and products.

Till next year!