The federal government enacted the Clean Air Act in order to protect and enhance the quality of the nation’s air. The key regulatory programs include:
National Ambient Air Quality Standards
National Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants
New Source Performance Standards
New Source Review Permitting Program
Operating Permit Program
The Clean Air Act requirements are applicable to any activity at the Institute that might be a source of air emissions, such as boilers, emergency generators, water heaters, space heaters, and parts cleaners. The Environmental Management Program (EMP) is responsible for assisting individual Departments, Labs or Centers with air emission requirements to which they might be subject to, and providing mechanisms to meet those requirements. EMP also maintains an inventory of all emission sources at the Institute.
Rising levels of greenhouse gases (GHGs) are raising temperatures, leading to shifting weather patterns that are only expected to get worse, with increased flooding, heatwaves, drought and wildfires afflicting millions worldwide. On August 7, 2008, Governor Deval Patrick signed the Global Warming Solutions Act (GWSA) that requires the state, and hence regulated entities, to reduce emissions of the greenhouse gases by between 10 percent and 25 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050. MIT’s Plan for Action on Climate Change calls for a reduction of campus greenhouse gas emissions by a minimum of 32% from 2014 levels.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is by far the most ubiquitous GHG. It is emitted through any use of fossil fuel energy, from driving to heating to computing. However, there are many other GHG that might be emitted on a regular basis. Some of these are very significant, despite being released in much lower volumes than CO2, because they trap much more heat per unit of mass. The power of a GHG to trap heat is measured as a factor of CO2’s heat-trapping power. This value is referred to as the gas’s global warming potential (GWP). Other common GHG are methane (CH4), Nitrous oxide (N2O), sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) and various refrigerants are tens, hundreds or thousands of times more powerful than CO2.
Both EPA and the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) impose significant regulatory requirements on the use and operation of a wide variety of combustion equipment, including boilers and emergency diesel generators. Permits are required by MassDEP for many activities, which could result in air emissions. However, the addition of any new sources that might not require a permit must still be tracked by EMP to determine the cumulative or aggregate effect of these emission units over time, and to evaluate the impact of these activities on the status of the MIT’s existing Operating Permit.
MassDEP also requires educational facilities with 1000 or more employees to comply with the Rideshare Regulations, which call for the reduction of single-occupancy vehicle trips to campus. Vehicles emit carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, which is associated with significant climate change problems affecting our planet.
An annual report submitted by MIT includes:
The total number of commuters
The number of commuters who use public transportation
The number of single-occupant commuter vehicles
The number of commuters who customarily carpool
The number of commuters who customarily vanpool
The number of commuters who use other means of transportation
The percentage which is single-occupant vehicles
The number of van-type vehicles with 8 or more commuters
The type of carpool matching program and description
The level of participation achieved in the most recent program
The types of incentives offered
Promotional strategies used
MIT actively encourages its employees to form carpools and vanpools to reduce single-occupant vehicle trips by providing them with preferential parking spaces and reduced parking fees. Also as another trip reduction incentive, MIT currently offers a transit pass subsidy to commuting students, faculty and staff.
To comply with the Rideshare regulations and assist in providing data that MIT may use in its efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with our campus, EMP surveys the entire MIT community.
Water Quality
The Institute’s activities can affect the quality of water in a variety of ways and we have several programs and requirements designed to minimize adverse impacts to this precious resource that effect work in labs and behind the scenes in related infrastructure.
Water Discharges and Disposal
The wastewater from laboratory sinks, floor drains, and other areas within MIT buildings enter the public sanitary sewerage system, where it flows to the treatment system on Deer Island (in Boston Harbor) that treats water from throughout the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority (MWRA) district. That wastewater, after treatment, is discharged to the Atlantic Ocean through a 9.5-mile outfall tunnel.
Discharges of clean water to the MWRA system raises their costs and threatens the capacity limits of the facility. We are therefore banned from discharging clean water without their permission.
Discharges of high volumes of clean water are also prohibited due to capacity concerns of the treatment facility. If you have cooling water needs or other clean water discharges, please contact EHS to discuss permitting options.
To protect water quality and the biological treatment processes at the Deer Island treatment plant, MWRA enforces strict limits on contaminants and pollutants in the water that can be discharged to the sanitary sewers. MIT, legally bound by these discharge limits, conducts regular testing of its effluent to document compliance, with the results submitted to MWRA. Any exceedance of the discharge limits could subject MIT to administrative, or even criminal, penalties.
All members of the MIT community are responsible for maintaining acceptable quality in our wastewater discharges. Laboratory personnel, in particular, must make special efforts to keep certain items out of the sinks and floor drains. Questions about these policies should be directed to the Environmental Management Program (452-EHSS or 617-452-3477). Substances, described below, may be disposed of through drains and all other materials are prohibited from sink disposal.
Allowed Discharges:
Soaps/detergents
Disinfectants
Aqueous, soluble and dispersible radioactive isotopes into designated sinks or pipe openings within established limits (detailed lists posted at the designated sinks)
Infectious/Biological materials that have been properly treated as described in each laboratory’s registration protocols
Non-contaminated growth media
Purified biological materials such as amino acids and proteins in aqueous or buffer solutions
Non-contaminated sugars and sugar alcohols (polyols) such as glycerol, xylitol, and sorbitol
Buffer solutions
Spent photo developer (not fixer)
Inorganic salts for which both the cations and anions are listed in the following table:
All other materials must be collected and managed as hazardous waste.
Water aspiration is an inexpensive way to generate vacuum that can be helpful with transferring or handling small amounts of liquids.
The use of vacuum aspiration devices that use water flow to generate a vacuum is prohibited in our discharge permit because they are seen as an unnecessary use of clean water and they have great potential to contaminate the water with the material being aspirated. These devices must be removed from service if discovered in a lab.
Storm Water
In an average year, over 45 inches of water falls onto the MIT campus as rain, sleet or snow. This water washes across our buildings, parking lots, sidewalks, and streets on its journey into the ground or the Charles River. A few buildings on campus harvest some of this water for non-potable uses such as toilet flushing or cooling tower make up. This helps to reduce the demand for clean tap water and helps with flow control to avoid flooding.
The Institute has many programs in place to reduce contamination of stormwater at the many construction activities on campus that include regular trash pickups and inspections of potential contaminant sources such as oil storage and trash dumpsters.
Another contamination threat is from an accidental spill or release of oil or other hazardous material into a storm drain. There are rigorous programs in place for inspecting these locations and reporting and responding to any spills or releases.
Please contact the EHS office (617-452-3477) if you see a spill that could reach a storm drain or have any other questions regarding stormwater.
Oil Spills
US EPA Oil Pollution Prevention Regulations require that any facility that meets certain oil storage thresholds have a Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure (SPCC) Plan. MIT has developed a campus-wide SPCC Plan to prepare for the possibility of oil spills to reach the Charles River. The regulations require that MIT’s SPCC plan address all oil storage containers or equipment with a capacity of 55 gallons or more. MIT provides annual compliance training for all personnel who participate in oil handling activities.
Oil spills may need to be reported to government agencies if in excess of 10 gallons or if they create a sheen on a waterway. If you observe or are aware of a spill outside a building, please contact Facilities or the MIT police. To report a spill or potential release, contact:
MIT Police at x100 from a campus phone or 617-253-1212
Most oil spills occur during transfer operations (such as loading/unloading or transport); or from equipment failures, such as leaks from valves or flanges; or from the failure of storage devices, such as tanks or containers.
While it is impossible to predict exactly what will cause a leak or a spill, based on past experience, the most likely areas have been identified and listed in the SPCC Plan. Contact emp@mit.edu for the SPCC Plan.
Our primary goal is to prevent spills. However, should a spill event occur, the best way to stop it from reaching the river is to contain the oil within the immediate area. MIT has developed policies to minimize the possibility of spills and the impact of spills that do occur.
All containers of oil must be properly labeled and stored upright.
When oil is stored in areas where a spill can reach the river (for example, loading docks), these containers must be stored in secondary containment to prevent that.
Sorbent materials are placed at or near all oil storage areas. Similar materials are also available at or near electrical rooms in which oil-filled electrical equipment is located.
All new tanks are equipped with secondary containment.
In rooms with existing storage tanks outside of secondary containment systems, open floor drains are covered, capped or plugged.
In the event of an oil spill the following steps should be taken:
Contact the Facilities Operations Center at Ext. 3-1500 (617-253-1500) and/or the MIT Police at x100 from a campus phone or 617-253-1212 to initiate spill reporting and cleanup efforts.
Air Programs
The federal government enacted the Clean Air Act in order to protect and enhance the quality of the nation’s air. The key regulatory programs include:
National Ambient Air Quality Standards
National Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants
New Source Performance Standards
New Source Review Permitting Program
Operating Permit Program
The Clean Air Act requirements are applicable to any activity at the Institute that might be a source of air emissions, such as boilers, emergency generators, water heaters, space heaters, and parts cleaners. The Environmental Management Program (EMP) is responsible for assisting individual Departments, Labs or Centers with air emission requirements to which they might be subject to, and providing mechanisms to meet those requirements. EMP also maintains an inventory of all emission sources at the Institute.
Rising levels of greenhouse gases (GHGs) are raising temperatures, leading to shifting weather patterns that are only expected to get worse, with increased flooding, heatwaves, drought and wildfires afflicting millions worldwide. On August 7, 2008, Governor Deval Patrick signed the Global Warming Solutions Act (GWSA) that requires the state, and hence regulated entities, to reduce emissions of the greenhouse gases by between 10 percent and 25 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050. MIT’s Plan for Action on Climate Change calls for a reduction of campus greenhouse gas emissions by a minimum of 32% from 2014 levels.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is by far the most ubiquitous GHG. It is emitted through any use of fossil fuel energy, from driving to heating to computing. However, there are many other GHG that might be emitted on a regular basis. Some of these are very significant, despite being released in much lower volumes than CO2, because they trap much more heat per unit of mass. The power of a GHG to trap heat is measured as a factor of CO2’s heat-trapping power. This value is referred to as the gas’s global warming potential (GWP). Other common GHG are methane (CH4), Nitrous oxide (N2O), sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) and various refrigerants are tens, hundreds or thousands of times more powerful than CO2.
Both EPA and the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) impose significant regulatory requirements on the use and operation of a wide variety of combustion equipment, including boilers and emergency diesel generators. Permits are required by MassDEP for many activities, which could result in air emissions. However, the addition of any new sources that might not require a permit must still be tracked by EMP to determine the cumulative or aggregate effect of these emission units over time, and to evaluate the impact of these activities on the status of the MIT’s existing Operating Permit.
MassDEP also requires educational facilities with 1000 or more employees to comply with the Rideshare Regulations, which call for the reduction of single-occupancy vehicle trips to campus. Vehicles emit carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, which is associated with significant climate change problems affecting our planet.
An annual report submitted by MIT includes:
The total number of commuters
The number of commuters who use public transportation
The number of single-occupant commuter vehicles
The number of commuters who customarily carpool
The number of commuters who customarily vanpool
The number of commuters who use other means of transportation
The percentage which is single-occupant vehicles
The number of van-type vehicles with 8 or more commuters
The type of carpool matching program and description
The level of participation achieved in the most recent program
The types of incentives offered
Promotional strategies used
MIT actively encourages its employees to form carpools and vanpools to reduce single-occupant vehicle trips by providing them with preferential parking spaces and reduced parking fees. Also as another trip reduction incentive, MIT currently offers a transit pass subsidy to commuting students, faculty and staff.
To comply with the Rideshare regulations and assist in providing data that MIT may use in its efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with our campus, EMP surveys the entire MIT community.
Water Quality
The Institute’s activities can affect the quality of water in a variety of ways and we have several programs and requirements designed to minimize adverse impacts to this precious resource that effect work in labs and behind the scenes in related infrastructure.
Water Discharges and Disposal
The wastewater from laboratory sinks, floor drains, and other areas within MIT buildings enter the public sanitary sewerage system, where it flows to the treatment system on Deer Island (in Boston Harbor) that treats water from throughout the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority (MWRA) district. That wastewater, after treatment, is discharged to the Atlantic Ocean through a 9.5-mile outfall tunnel.
Discharges of clean water to the MWRA system raises their costs and threatens the capacity limits of the facility. We are therefore banned from discharging clean water without their permission.
Discharges of high volumes of clean water are also prohibited due to capacity concerns of the treatment facility. If you have cooling water needs or other clean water discharges, please contact EHS to discuss permitting options.
To protect water quality and the biological treatment processes at the Deer Island treatment plant, MWRA enforces strict limits on contaminants and pollutants in the water that can be discharged to the sanitary sewers. MIT, legally bound by these discharge limits, conducts regular testing of its effluent to document compliance, with the results submitted to MWRA. Any exceedance of the discharge limits could subject MIT to administrative, or even criminal, penalties.
All members of the MIT community are responsible for maintaining acceptable quality in our wastewater discharges. Laboratory personnel, in particular, must make special efforts to keep certain items out of the sinks and floor drains. Questions about these policies should be directed to the Environmental Management Program (452-EHSS or 617-452-3477). Substances, described below, may be disposed of through drains and all other materials are prohibited from sink disposal.
Allowed Discharges:
Soaps/detergents
Disinfectants
Aqueous, soluble and dispersible radioactive isotopes into designated sinks or pipe openings within established limits (detailed lists posted at the designated sinks)
Infectious/Biological materials that have been properly treated as described in each laboratory’s registration protocols
Non-contaminated growth media
Purified biological materials such as amino acids and proteins in aqueous or buffer solutions
Non-contaminated sugars and sugar alcohols (polyols) such as glycerol, xylitol, and sorbitol
Buffer solutions
Spent photo developer (not fixer)
Inorganic salts for which both the cations and anions are listed in the following table:
All other materials must be collected and managed as hazardous waste.
Water aspiration is an inexpensive way to generate vacuum that can be helpful with transferring or handling small amounts of liquids.
The use of vacuum aspiration devices that use water flow to generate a vacuum is prohibited in our discharge permit because they are seen as an unnecessary use of clean water and they have great potential to contaminate the water with the material being aspirated. These devices must be removed from service if discovered in a lab.
Storm Water
In an average year, over 45 inches of water falls onto the MIT campus as rain, sleet or snow. This water washes across our buildings, parking lots, sidewalks, and streets on its journey into the ground or the Charles River. A few buildings on campus harvest some of this water for non-potable uses such as toilet flushing or cooling tower make up. This helps to reduce the demand for clean tap water and helps with flow control to avoid flooding.
The Institute has many programs in place to reduce contamination of stormwater at the many construction activities on campus that include regular trash pickups and inspections of potential contaminant sources such as oil storage and trash dumpsters.
Another contamination threat is from an accidental spill or release of oil or other hazardous material into a storm drain. There are rigorous programs in place for inspecting these locations and reporting and responding to any spills or releases.
Please contact the EHS office (617-452-3477) if you see a spill that could reach a storm drain or have any other questions regarding stormwater.
Oil Spills
US EPA Oil Pollution Prevention Regulations require that any facility that meets certain oil storage thresholds have a Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure (SPCC) Plan. MIT has developed a campus-wide SPCC Plan to prepare for the possibility of oil spills to reach the Charles River. The regulations require that MIT’s SPCC plan address all oil storage containers or equipment with a capacity of 55 gallons or more. MIT provides annual compliance training for all personnel who participate in oil handling activities.
Oil spills may need to be reported to government agencies if in excess of 10 gallons or if they create a sheen on a waterway. If you observe or are aware of a spill outside a building, please contact Facilities or the MIT police. To report a spill or potential release, contact:
MIT Police at x100 from a campus phone or 617-253-1212
Most oil spills occur during transfer operations (such as loading/unloading or transport); or from equipment failures, such as leaks from valves or flanges; or from the failure of storage devices, such as tanks or containers.
While it is impossible to predict exactly what will cause a leak or a spill, based on past experience, the most likely areas have been identified and listed in the SPCC Plan. Contact emp@mit.edu for the SPCC Plan.
Our primary goal is to prevent spills. However, should a spill event occur, the best way to stop it from reaching the river is to contain the oil within the immediate area. MIT has developed policies to minimize the possibility of spills and the impact of spills that do occur.
All containers of oil must be properly labeled and stored upright.
When oil is stored in areas where a spill can reach the river (for example, loading docks), these containers must be stored in secondary containment to prevent that.
Sorbent materials are placed at or near all oil storage areas. Similar materials are also available at or near electrical rooms in which oil-filled electrical equipment is located.
All new tanks are equipped with secondary containment.
In rooms with existing storage tanks outside of secondary containment systems, open floor drains are covered, capped or plugged.
In the event of an oil spill the following steps should be taken:
Contact the Facilities Operations Center at Ext. 3-1500 (617-253-1500) and/or the MIT Police at x100 from a campus phone or 617-253-1212 to initiate spill reporting and cleanup efforts.
