In November, 2018, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced funding for three clean diesel projects totaling $4.7 million. The grants are part of an effort to reduce air pollution from aging diesel engines in the Mid-Atlantic region.
The funding will go to the Maryland Environmental Service (MES), the Mid-Atlantic Regional Air Management Association (MARAMA), and the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (WashCOG).
EPA’s Clean Diesel Program provides support for projects that protect human health and improve air quality by reducing harmful emissions from diesel engines.
This program includes grants and rebates funded under the Diesel Emissions Reduction Act (DERA). DERA funding has supported nearly 25,000 cleaner buses across the country for America’s schoolchildren.
Cumulatively, this funding will result in overall lifetime emissions reductions of more than 1,013 tons of ozone-forming oxides of nitrogen (NOx): 58.7 tons of particulate matter (PM); more than 240 tons of carbon monoxide (CO): 724 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2); and, will save more than 91,000 gallons of fuel.
Clean Diesel Grants:
Maryland Environmental Service (MES)
EPA will provide $2.5 million to the port of Baltimore to assist MES in its efforts to reduce diesel emissions and exposure at the port. This project will replace or repower cargo handling equipment and drayage trucks, as well as marine engines on the pleasure vessel, The Spirit of Baltimore, which will improve air quality by reducing harmful emissions by 37 tons of PM, 398 tons of NOx, 165 tons of CO, and 724 tons of CO2, as well as saving 64,450 gallons of fuel.
Mid-Atlantic Regional Air Management Association (MARAMA)
The agency will provide MARAMA with more than $1.3 million to provide incentives to dray truck owners serving the ports and railyards of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Wilmington, Delaware for voluntary early replacement of 40 drayage trucks with older (1997 – 2006) engines. Replacement trucks will have model year 2013 or newer engines with the latest particulate and NOx reducing technology. This initiative will reduce emissions by 197 tons of NOx, 11.5 tons of PM, 75 tons of CO, as well as air toxics in areas that are not currently attaining federal health-based air quality standards.
Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (WashCOG)
EPA will provide WashCOG with $882,000 to partially fund the re-powering of four diesel propulsion engines and four auxiliary engines on two marine passenger vessels. These vessels are currently operating on the Potomac River in Washington, DC and surrounding communities in Maryland and Virginia. The retrofits will result in reductions of 418 tons of NOx, and 10 tons of PM.
For more information about the DERA program, visit www.epa.gov/cleandiesel.
source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Showing posts with label potomac river. Show all posts
Showing posts with label potomac river. Show all posts
Saturday, December 29, 2018
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
2011 Chesapeake Bay Blue Crab Assessment
A new National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientific assessment of the Chesapeake Bay’s blue crab stock has been released, setting higher abundance thresholds and crab population targets.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration assessment, the Chesapeake Bay Blue Crab population indicates significantly more work needs to be done to fully rebuild the stock to sustainable levels.
The study concludes that although the stock has increased substantially in response to three years of rebuilding efforts by Virginia, Maryland and the Potomac River Fisheries Commission, the stock was more depleted than originally believed and will take longer to rebuild than had been expected.
The assessment sets a new overfishing threshold as well as a new safe abundance level for female crabs. According to NOAA, the project took three years to complete and represents the best available science on the stock’s reproductive capabilities, lifespan, gender and size distributions.
Until now, fishery managers used an interim target of 200 million total adult crabs in the bay as the threshold of a healthy stock and considered overfishing to occur if 53 percent of adult (age 1+) crabs were harvested in a year. Regulations were established to meet these benchmarks, which were based on 2005 bay-wide crab assessment data.
The new stock assessment sets a new healthy-species abundance level of 215 million female crabs, with overfishing occurring if 34 percent of the female crabs are harvested in a year.
Put into context, this means that fishery managers have only come close to achieving this level of female abundance three times over the past 22 years, in 2010, 1993 and 1991.
These more stringent assessments of the stock’s health will allow fishery managers to set more precise female harvest limits in order to fully rebuild the stock. Virginia, Maryland and the PRFC remain committed to working together to rebuild the bay’s crab population to meet the new female population threshold and abundance target.
In September the Chesapeake Bay Stock Assessment Committee will meet to consider the new assessment, examine data from the past two years and provide management recommendations to Maryland, Virginia and the Potomac River Fisheries Commission.
The bay-wide crab harvest in 2010 was in the 90 million-pound range, confirming that a healthy harvesting industry can coexist with regulations designed to rebuild a self-sustaining, healthy blue crab population.
Through a historic collaboration in 2008, Maryland, Virginia and the Potomac River Fisheries Commission took strong, coordinated action to reduce harvest pressure on female crabs by 34 percent. At that time, scientists deemed conservation measures necessary as blue crab suffered near historic lows in spawning stock.
Dr. Tom Miller, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, lead author of the stock assessment commented on the assessment, stating: "Overall, crabs in the bay are doing well. Implementing recommendations developed in the stock assessment, like focusing fishing regulations on female crabs, will help even more,"
The stock assessment can be viewed in its entirety at: http://hjort.cbl.umces.edu/crabs/Assessment.html
source: Virginia Marine Resources Commission/Maryland Department of Natural Resources
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration assessment, the Chesapeake Bay Blue Crab population indicates significantly more work needs to be done to fully rebuild the stock to sustainable levels.
The study concludes that although the stock has increased substantially in response to three years of rebuilding efforts by Virginia, Maryland and the Potomac River Fisheries Commission, the stock was more depleted than originally believed and will take longer to rebuild than had been expected.
The assessment sets a new overfishing threshold as well as a new safe abundance level for female crabs. According to NOAA, the project took three years to complete and represents the best available science on the stock’s reproductive capabilities, lifespan, gender and size distributions.
Until now, fishery managers used an interim target of 200 million total adult crabs in the bay as the threshold of a healthy stock and considered overfishing to occur if 53 percent of adult (age 1+) crabs were harvested in a year. Regulations were established to meet these benchmarks, which were based on 2005 bay-wide crab assessment data.
The new stock assessment sets a new healthy-species abundance level of 215 million female crabs, with overfishing occurring if 34 percent of the female crabs are harvested in a year.
Put into context, this means that fishery managers have only come close to achieving this level of female abundance three times over the past 22 years, in 2010, 1993 and 1991.
These more stringent assessments of the stock’s health will allow fishery managers to set more precise female harvest limits in order to fully rebuild the stock. Virginia, Maryland and the PRFC remain committed to working together to rebuild the bay’s crab population to meet the new female population threshold and abundance target.
In September the Chesapeake Bay Stock Assessment Committee will meet to consider the new assessment, examine data from the past two years and provide management recommendations to Maryland, Virginia and the Potomac River Fisheries Commission.
The bay-wide crab harvest in 2010 was in the 90 million-pound range, confirming that a healthy harvesting industry can coexist with regulations designed to rebuild a self-sustaining, healthy blue crab population.
Through a historic collaboration in 2008, Maryland, Virginia and the Potomac River Fisheries Commission took strong, coordinated action to reduce harvest pressure on female crabs by 34 percent. At that time, scientists deemed conservation measures necessary as blue crab suffered near historic lows in spawning stock.
Dr. Tom Miller, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, lead author of the stock assessment commented on the assessment, stating: "Overall, crabs in the bay are doing well. Implementing recommendations developed in the stock assessment, like focusing fishing regulations on female crabs, will help even more,"
The stock assessment can be viewed in its entirety at: http://hjort.cbl.umces.edu/crabs/Assessment.html
source: Virginia Marine Resources Commission/Maryland Department of Natural Resources
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