The Environmental Protection Agency is seeking tighter standards for airborne emissions of mercury from new and existing sewage-sludge incineration units. Such units often are located at wastewater-treatment facilities. The proposal, announced on Sept. 30, would cut mercury emissions by 75%, EPA says. The agency plan would require many wastewater-treatment facilities to install controls such as high-efficiency scrubbers and fabric filters. The proposal would not apply to incinerators at commercial, industrial and institutional facilities. The proposed rule would take effect in 2015. EPA estimates complying with the requirements would cost $105 million per year for all currently operating units. The agency

Federal agencies will keep operating through Dec. 3 under a short-term spending bill President Obama signed on Sept. 30. The continuing resolution funds programs for about the first two months of fiscal 2011, generally at 2010 levels. One exception is the current Defense Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) round, a big multiyear construction program that’s nearing its end. The continuing resolution funds BRAC at the annual rate of $2.35 billion, the amount the White House requested for 2011 but a 68% cut from 2010. The stopgap’s Dec. 3 expiration gives Congress little time to pass regular 2011 spending bills when

Now is the time for the U.S. to update its approach to water treatment, says Bob Perciasepe, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency deputy administrator. “[The challenge] is how to get a 20th-century law—the Clean Water Act—appropriate for 21st-century projects,” he said at the Water Environment Federation’s annual meeting, held on Oct. 3-7 in New Orleans. When water-quality standards were first developed during the 1960s, problems such as high nitrogen and phosphorous levels as well as pharmaceuticals and other endocrine disruptors were not considered. Perciasepe said that implementing and enforcing Total Maximum Daily Load standards for contaminants are the best way to

The House passed on Sept. 23 and the Senate approved on the following day a stopgap funding measure that would continue for three more months airport construction grants and other Federal Aviation Administration programs. The extension— the 16th short-term FAA authorization since Sept. 30, 2007, when the last multiyear aviation bill was enacted—is expected to be signed by President Obama. thanks to an extension President Obama was expected to sign. The new stopgap would run through Dec. 31.

As the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to begin its fall term on Oct. 4, it has no construction-specific cases on the docket so far. However, it is slated to take up immigration and labor cases that could affect construction and other industries. Oral arguments are scheduled for Dec. 8 on Chamber of Commerce v. Whiting, a challenge to a 2007 Arizona law requiring companies to use the federal E-Verify system to ensure employees are legal U.S. residents. The case centers on whether the federal Immigration Reform and Control Act preempts the state law. Maurice Baskin, Associated Builders and Contractors’ general

Looking ahead to the next multiyear highway transit bill, Senate Environment and Public Works Committee leaders have voiced support for improving or enlarging the U.S. Dept. of Transportation’s 12-year-old Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) loan program to help fund major projects. Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said that while the Obama Administration’s proposed infrastructure bank has supporters and critics, TIFIA is in place. The committee’s top Republican, James Inhofe (Okla.), criticized the idea of a new infrastructure bank but said TIFIA is “a successful program that must be dramatically expanded.”

Related Links: Small-business Bill Aims To Spur Loans President Obama has signed into law a small-business bill providing $12 billion in tax breaks and a new $30-billion loan program. Among small-business owners with Obama at the Sept. 27 bill signing was Tony Scovazzo of AJS Consulting Engineers, Alexandria, Va. Obama said the firm is on the waiting list for a Small Business Administration loan. When it gets the loan, he said the firm would “be able to buy new office space and hire three people to do energy-efficient HVAC work.”

Senate banking committee members have elicited more information about the Obama Administration’s sketchy Sept. 6 proposal for a new federal infrastructure bank. Testifying at a Sept. 21 committee hearing, Roy Kienitz, under secretary of transportation for policy, conceded the bank proposal was “vague, and deliberately so.” He told reporters that officials hope to release details early in 2011, with the next budget proposal, but added, “Plans could change.” He testified that, although the bank initially would focus on transportation, “It certainly could go more broadly than that.” Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) said he feared the bank would be another Fannie

A new survey finds that nearly 80% of the states say they will be ready to implement the Environmental Protection Agency’s new clean-air “tailoring” regulation by the Jan. 2 deadline or within a few months after that. EPA’s final regulation, published on June 3, focuses states’ greenhouse-gas (GHG) permitting on the largest “stationary” sources of such emissions, such as powerplants and industrial facilities. The study, released on Sept. 15 by the National Association of Clean Air Agencies, analyzed letters that states sent to EPA this summer describing progress toward meeting the permitting deadline. Bill Becker, NACAA’s executive director, says states

Construction should see some benefits from a small-business aid package that appears to be on its way to enactment soon. The bill has $12 billion in tax breaks and would create a $30-billion federal fund to increase bank lending to small companies, including developers and contractors. But industry officials say the bill by itself will not pull construction out of its slump. The bill cleared a big hurdle on Sept. 16, when the Senate passed it. The House was slated to take up the measure about a week later. If the House approves the bill, President Obama is expected to