Environmental Questions & Answers

An asphalt plant, just like any other industrial facility, needs to comply with a wide variety of environmental regulatory requirements. Simply stated, your plant has several environmental permits to comply with. Here we discuss the 5 most common permits and approvals needed at any asphalt facility across the US.

We work with a lot of asphalt companies across the US. One primary service we do with the asphalt industry is conducting environmental audits of companies and individual facilities. An environmental audit is basically us coming in, reviewing your operation, checking which permits & approvals you have, finding out which ones you need to have, and then helping companies create an action plan to get into environmental compliance. Pretty straight forward.

It all usually starts when a prospective client working at an asphalt company or facility goes

"What environmental permits does as asphalt plant need?"

Learn the reporting deadlines for both Community Right-to-Know Reporting and TRI Reporting.

We find there tends to be a lot of confusion surrounding the reporting deadlines for Tier II Reporting, also commonly referred to as Community Right to Know Reporting, and Toxic Release Inventory Reporting, aka TRI Reporting. People tend to mince the names of these two very different regulations, or even just refer to them as 'EPCRA Reporting', which is technically correct, but a confusing way to look at them.

Over the years, we've found that most facilities should be conducting Tier II Reporting, whether they realized it or not. For some, this is a huge challenge, for others, it's a walk in the park. Here we discuss our 5 best tips for doing your own Community Right-to-Know Reporting this year.

Are you working on CRTK Reporting by yourself this year? If so, I commend you, especially if this is the first time you're diving into the subject.

While some people still struggle with understanding what is Tier II Community Right-to-Know Reporting, others, like you, are charging in and getting things done.

Well since the March 1st deadline is quickly approaching, let's get into the article.

Tier II Reporting is a funny beast. It helps keep your neighbors, employees, and community safer, but it's not the easiest thing to do. Here we discuss how you can find out who you give Tier II Community Right-to-Know Reporting information to.

We find that many of our clients who do CRTK Reporting on their own, and even some of our staff members occasionally ask about who they give Tier II Community Right to Know Reporting information to.

Since we work all over the U.S., and we're not sure where you're reporting, it can get tricky, because each state is different.

It's vital to understand where this information goes to. From our experience, it can be a variety or reporting methods, and agencies to report to. Many of our clients turn to us for Section 311/312 Reporting assistance because they can't figure out who to send the information to, and they're concerned about who gets access to the information.

We explain Tier II / Community Right to Know Reporting.

Tier II Reporting, also called Community Right to Know Reporting, or Section 311/312 Reporting, is a regulation we find virtually every facility we work at needs to take seriously. Unfortunately, many don't know what it is, or why they would even need to do it. Here we discuss what Tier II CRTK Reporting is, and give some insight into whether or not you may need to do it.

Around this time of year, for practically every year since we've been in business, we tend to get a lot of phone calls from worried folks asking

"What's this Tier II or Community Right to Know Reporting?"

I'm just glad people are asking. I know finding information on this somewhat vague environmental compliance item can be tricky, confusing, and the regulations are about as clear as mud, so it's only natural that people are confused over the subject.

Environmental regulations can differ wildly from facility to facility, from industry to industry, and from state to state. Here we'll address how regulations impacting ready mix concrete and precast concrete plants are both similar and different in ways.

We've worked with the concrete industry in the United States extensively over these last 20+ years. Needless to say, we have our finger on the pulse of the industry, and know what kind of things are impacting folks running small, single operations, to nation-wide organizations.

We got a lot of concrete producers turning to us to ask us about things related to environmental compliance, and wondering if the regulations at their ready mix operation are similar, the same, or different, than the ones impacting their precast operation.

The answer? They kind of are!

Over the course of the last 20+ years, I've seen a wide variety of concrete facilities, from precast operations with one employee (the guy literally did everything) to huge operations with almost a dozen active plants (with literally hundreds of employees).

Needless to say, I've seen the best and the worst out there. Regardless of your size, product, or organization structure, there's some common environmental issues at every concrete plant I've ever been too.