President Donald Trump has nominated Paul Trombino III, P.E., to be administrator of the Federal Highway Administration. He is set to transition to the agency from Iowa-based McClure Engineering Co., a nine-office transportation and environmental firm for which he has served as president since January 2017.
Trombino arrived at McClure Engineering after a 2011-2016 term as director of the Iowa Department of Transportation, responsible for the planning, design, construction and operation of 9,400 miles of highways and 4,300 bridges. He also served as the 2015-2016 American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials president and 2016 Transportation Research Board Executive Committee vice chair. He holds bachelor of science degrees in civil engineering and economics, respectively, from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and -Madison.
EPA REVISITS CCR BENEFICIAL REUSE
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has granted petitions to reconsider the definition of beneficial reuse and other substantive provisions of the final rule regulating coal combustion residuals (CCR) as nonhazardous waste under subtitle D of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). The 2015 rule regulates how CCR generated from electric utilities and independent power producers are managed in surface impoundments and landfills.
Agency officials determined that their action is in the public’s interest based in part on the Water Infrastructure for Improvements to the Nation (WIIN) Act. The late-2016 law authorizes states to operate permit programs under subtitle D of RCRA provided the EPA deems state requirements are as protective as the standards in the final CCR rule or successor regulations.
“In light of EPA’s new statutory authority, it is important that we give the existing rule a hard look and consider improvements that may help states tailor their permit programs to [their] needs in a way that provides greater regulatory certainty, while also ensuring that human health and the environment remain protected,” says EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt.
Utility Solid Waste Activities Group and AES Puerto Rico LLP petitions seek reconsideration of specific CCR rule provisions, including those prohibiting the use of alternative points of compliance for ground water contamination; regulating inactive surface impoundments; defining what activities constitute beneficial use of CCR; and, addressing certain on-site storage practices.