Supplemental Guide for Studies In Environmental Management and Safety: A California Focus

By Marie Vicario-Fisher

The supplemental guide for environmental management and safety focuses on California regulations in the areas of hazardous waste and materials, general industry standards, and includes regulations on construction safety. The book offers a concise manner of presenting the regulations deemed important for the student and entering professional. In addition to regulations, the book offers an overview of the importance of sustainability, and highlights recycling and other efforts being used to improve sustainability efforts. Thought questions are presented to the reader in order to enhance critical thinking.

“I wish I would have had a guide like this when I was starting out in the environmental industry.”
—Tim Felton, Industrial Hygienist Port of San Francisco

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu Publishing Services
• Release date: Aug 29, 2014
• ISBN: 9781483416144

Book preview

Supplemental Guide for Studies in

Environmental

Management and

Safety

A California Focus

Marie Vicario-Fisher

Copyright © 2014 Marie Vicario-Fisher.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of both publisher and author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

ISBN: 978-1-4834-1613-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4834-1614-4 (e)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Lulu Publishing Services rev. date: 8/19/2014

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Section 1    Sustainability

Section 2    California’s Environmental Regulations

Section 3    California’s Occupational Safety Regulations

Bibliography

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Preparation of a book (or guide) is never a simple task and is rarely only the work of the author(s). The following individuals are thanked for recommending the idea of having a study guide that focuses on California and its regulations: Alicia Ortiz, Jennifer E. Rosales, Matt Strickland, and Lorena Yescas. In addition, the following individuals are recognized for giving input on what regulations to include in this student guide: Daniel Hopwood, Ban Yahya, Matt Strickland, Zoraida Herrera, and Michelle Price. I also wish to thank and acknowledge Samuel R. Fisher for allowing me to use his photo for the book cover, and Terry Davis for his support of the Environmental Technology Program at SWC. Last but not least, a big thank you to Dr. Robert N. Fisher for his continued support in all areas of my life.

SECTION 1

SUSTAINABILITY

1.1- Introduction to Sustainability

The term sustainability or being sustainable can be identified regularly in most forms of media (i.e., television, internet, news, books, etc…). However, what does it really mean, and who are the people that are or should be working towards sustainability? There are a number of definitions for these words: as a noun, it is defined¹⁰ as the ability to be sustained, supported, upheld or confirmed. From the environmental science perspective it is defined as the quality of not being harmful to the environment or depleting natural resources, and thereby supporting long-term ecological balance. As an adjective it has even more meanings:

1. capable of being supported or upheld, as by having its weight borne from below.

2. pertaining to a system that maintains its own viability by using techniques that allow for continual reuse.

3. able to be maintained or kept going, as an action or process.

4. able to be confirmed or upheld.

5. able to be supported as with the basic necessities or sufficient funds.

The commonality of these definitions can be summed up as being capable of maintaining existence. Yet to read and hear about this term, its overuse has taken on a life of its own. These terms today are used loosely to mean so many things that are not truly maintaining existence.

According to Robert Engleman, President of the Worldwatch Institute:

"Today the term sustainable more typically lends itself to the corporate behavior often called greenwashing. Phrases like sustainable design, sustainable cars, even sustainable underwear litter the media. One airline assures passengers that the cardboard we use is taken from a sustainable source, while another informs them that its new in-flight sustainability effort saved enough aluminum in 2011 to build three new airplanes. Neither use sheds any light on whether the airlines’ overall operations- or commercial aviation itself- can long be sustained on today’s scale.¹

In order for the term sustainability to be properly acknowledged, society as a whole will need to change the manner in which it perceives this term. Sustainability can better be defined as maintaining the existence and the quality of all planetary life. Given this definition, one would better appreciate that the term sustainability should not be used lightly to highlight basic efforts in recycling, or technology that supports a decrease in waste. Rather, it should be looked upon as a necessary process for the survival of the planet and all its inhabitants. Recycling efforts are of course excellent starting points that can help support a better existence and quality of life for the living things on Earth, but it will take a substantial change in the manner in which societies all around the world live to have sustainability in its truest form. For the purpose of this book (and the courses you are taking in Environmental Technology), we will give the term a less significant definition that is similar to those that are typically stated: The ability to be maintained or supported in a manner that allows for quality of life. Using this definition we will identify some of what it takes to live in a more sustainable manner.

1.2 The Nine Proposed Planetary Boundaries

According to a number of researchers and authors, we are in a new epoch, appropriately titled the Anthropocene, where humans constitute the dominant driver of change to many of the Earth’s natural systems (Rockstrom et al. 2009, Crutzen 2002, Steffen et al. 2007). This is an unusual situation because the majority of people and their social and economic development remain largely oblivious to the risk of human-induced environmental and planetary disasters⁴. The following excerpt is taken from Carl Folke’s chapter in State of the World 2013: Is Sustainability Still Possible?⁵ It describes the planetary boundaries that have been proposed by Rockstrom et al. for satisfactory human livelihood.

Climate Change.

The suggested climate change boundary of 350 parts per million (ppm) CO2 in the atmosphere aims at minimizing the risk of getting into zones of uncertainty and crossing thresholds that could lead to major changes in regional climates, alter climate-dynamics patterns such as the oceanic thermohaline circulation, or cause rapid sea levels to rise. Current observations of a possible climate transition include the retreat of summer sea ice in the Artic Ocean, retreat of mountain glaciers around the world, loss of mass from the Greenland and West Antartic ice sheets, and weakening of the oceanic carbon sink.

Biological Diversity.

Biological diversity plays a significant role in ecosystem dynamics and functioning, and in sustaining a flow of critical ecosystem services. The planetary boundaries work used species extinction rates as a first proxy of diversity loss. Accelerated species loss is likely to compromise the biotic capacity of ecosystems to sustain their current functioning under novel environmental and biotic circumstances. Since the advent of the Anthropocene, humans have increased the rate of species extinctions by 100-1,000 times the background rates that were typical over Earth’s history. The biodiversity boundary, still under considerable debate, was suggested at 10 extinctions per million species per year. This boundary is currently exceeded by two orders of magnitude or more.

Nitrogen and Phosphorus.

Nitrogen and phosphorus are critical nutrients for life and are instrumental in enhancing food production through fertilization, but their use also has impacts on forests and landscapes and leads to pollution of waterways and coastal zones. Human activities now convert more nitrogen from the atmosphere into reactive forms than all of Earth’s terrestrial processes combined. The nitrogen boundary is tentatively set at 35 million tons of industrially and agriculturally fixed reactive nitrogen per year flowing into the biosphere, which is 25 percent of the total amount now fixed naturally by terrestrial ecosystems. This is a first guess only, and new estimates are needed to enable a more informed boundary.

Phosphorus is mined for human use and also added through weathering processes. Inflow of phosphorus to the oceans has been suggested as a key driver behind global-scales ocean anoxic evens (depletion of oxygen below the surface). The phosphorus boundary was proposed not to exceed approximately 10 times the natural background rate for human-derived phosphorus inflow into the ocean. New estimates of the phosphorus boundary that incorporate estimates for both freshwater eutrophication and phosphorus flows to the sea conclude that current conditions exceed a proposed planetary boundary for phosphorus in relation to global freshwater eutrophication.

Stratospheric Ozone.

Stratospheric ozone filters ultraviolet radiation from the sun and thereby protects humans and other organisms. The suggested ozone boundary is set at a decrease of less than 5 percent in column ozone levels for any particular latitude compared with 1964 to 1980 values. Fortunately, because of action taken as a result of the Montreal Protocol and its subsequent amendments, humanity appears to be on a path that avoids exceeding this boundary.

Ocean Acidification.

Addition of CO2 to the oceans increases acidity of the surface seawater. The current rate of ocean acidification is much higher than at any other time in the last 20 million years. Many marine organisms are acidity-sensitive, especially those that use calcium carbonate (CaCO3) dissolved in the seawater to form shells or skeletal structures (such as corals and marine plankton). Globally, the surface ocean saturation of the aragonite form of carbonate is declining with rising ocean acidity. To avoid possible thresholds, the suggested oceanic acidification boundary is to maintain aragonite saturation in surface waters at a minimum of 80 percent of the average global pre-industrial level.

Global Freshwater Use.

Humans alter river flows and the spatial patterns and seasonal timing of other freshwater flows all over the globe. A planetary boundary for freshwater resources needs to secure water flows to regenerate precipitation, support terrestrial ecosystem functioning and services (such as carbon sequestration, biomass growth, food production, and biological diversity), and also ensure the availability of water for aquatic ecosystems. Transgressing a freshwater boundary of roughly 4,000 cubic kilometers per year of consumptive use of runoff may push humanity toward water-induced thresholds at regional to continental scales. Currently, consumptive use is about 2,600 kilometers per year.

Land Use Changes.

Land use change, driven primarily by agricultural expansion and intensification, contributes to global environmental change. It is proposed that the boundary for change be set at no more than 15 percent