Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery released two documents to support the
beneficial use of industrial non-hazardous secondary materials--a methodology for evaluating
beneficial use and a compendium of resources.
The Foundation also announced new names for the scholarships honoring coal ash
beneficial use industry leaders.
The remainder of this note, instead, focuses on evaluating alternative claiming strategies for ESTs that should satisfy the utility requirement, while not relinquishing any economically
beneficial use of an EST.
"It is important that regulatory impediments to the appropriate
beneficial use of produced water be removed," said Thomas Richmond, administrator for the Montana Board of Oil and Gas Conservation and a participant in the study.
The key elements to the prior appropriation doctrine are: intent, diversion,
beneficial use, priority and fixed quantity.
As with other uses, once the positive criteria are demonstrated, an inherently beneficial applicant must also satisfy the negative criteria through a showing that the use "will not substantially impair the intent and purpose of the zone plan...."(106) However, an inherently
beneficial use applicant is not subject to an "enhanced quality of proof" standard(107) and does not face the same "formidable burden."(108) This reduced burden places inherently
beneficial use applicants in a particularly advantageous position when seeking a use variance.(109)
In addition to serving as great natural reservoirs discharging slowly and evenly into stream systems, forest reservations were expressly made available for the construction of storage, diversion, and conveyance structures for
beneficial use of water by westerners under state law and local customs.(20) In 1905, the first Department of Agriculture Forest Service Regulations and Instruction(21) (promptly dubbed the "Use Book" by its primary author, Gifford Pinchot) assured the protection of pre-existing rights and facilities, many of which were functioning to supply water diverted on and through forest lands.
Advancing the environmentally sound,
beneficial use of industrial materials, such as spent foundry sands, provides substantial opportunities for addressing climate change and air quality, enhancing state, tribal and local partnerships, reducing costs and working toward a sustainable future."
EPA has formally proposed a rule maintaining provisions for
beneficial use of fly ash in concrete and other construction materials, while significantly tightening existing regulations' treatment of non-construction-grade coal ash.
EPA's Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response, which would be responsible for implementing the proposed regulations, has said it supports "the legitimate
beneficial use of coal combustion residuals," and believes the regulations will "clearly differentiate these uses from coal ash disposal and assure that safe
beneficial uses are not restricted and in fact are encouraged."
While new ideas for
beneficial use of industry residuals are plentiful, more effort is needed to overcome the commercialization hurdles facing the most premising opportunities.