Kansas e-tips


Upcoming environmental-related events and information for Kansas businesses are listed below.  If your small business has environmental compliance questions, give us a call at 1-800-578-8898 or email us at    sbeap@ksu.edu . 

For pollution prevention technical assistance or P2 intern program information, email KSU-PPI@ksu.edu. 
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Resources for businesses during the Covid-19 pandemic

Circumstances surrounding COVID-19 in the U.S. are changing rapidly. K-State PPI has dedicated a COVID-19 Small Business and Industry webpage for information and resources to help small businesses and industry understand relevant environmental health and compliance guidance, as well as identify resources to help them navigate the resulting economic impacts. If you have questions regarding the information on the webpage or would like specific technical assistance, please call 800-578-8898 or email sbeap@ksu.edu.
K-State SBEAP and P2 programs operations

Greetings from the staff at K-State's Pollution Prevention Institute. We hope this finds you, your families, and your employees and coworkers healthy and safe.
 
Although this pandemic has radically altered many of our lives, workplaces and ways we do business, we wanted to assure you that PPI staff remain available for environmental compliance and permitting technical assistance as well as pollution prevention technical assistance.
 
This current crisis may have you thinking about evaluating your business and operating processes to determine where you can tighten your belt and find cost savings. Our mission at PPI is to help you find ways to improve or maintain environmental compliance while reducing emissions and cutting costs. With our on-site services are restricted right now, we are assisting clients virtually and through email, as well as on our hotline at 800-578-8898. Be well and hope to see you soon!
Open burning in Kansas and Covid-19

April means open burning season in the Flint Hills region of our state, an essential activity in this area to preserve the tallgrass prairie ecosystem. However, with this practice comes consideration of important health effects, safety practices, environmental impacts and burn restrictions.
 
On March 26, 2020, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and the Kansas Department of Agriculture issued a joint press release encouraging landowners and managers to voluntarily reduce the numbers of acres they intend to burn. Smoke from open burning operations produces air pollution, which can cause undesirable health effects, even in healthy individuals.
 
 "With the potential for this pandemic to overwhelm the state's medical facilities, any additional respiratory concerns that might be produced by breathing smoke from prescribed fires need to be mitigated," said Dr. Lee Norman, secretary of the KDHE.
 
In Kansas, the open burning of industrial wastes is generally prohibited. If you are an industry with a permit to open burn, please refer to the KDHE April Burning Restrictions FAQ. If you plan to burn during April, please check with your local authorities and familiarize yourself with the information available at http://www.ksfire.org before initiating any such activity. If you have questions about open burning, please contact your local law enforcement, fire authority, KDHE District Office in your area ( District Office Air Quality Cont acts ), or the KDHE Bureau of Air in Topeka at (785) 296-1551.

Earth Day - we're all in this together

April 22 is Earth Day and the theme for 2020 is "Climate Action."  For many of us who are practicing social distancing in our workplaces or are finding ourselves working "safer at home," a host of activities and educational webinars are planned to celebrate Earth Day online. 
Now more than ever we can participate in local, regional and global webinars that can provide new information, new connections and new strategies for our workplaces and homes, while improving the environment and our lives.

Earth Day live events can be found at https://www.earthday.org/earth-day-live/. For Earth Day events in our region, check out online events planned by the Climate Council of Greater Kansas City at http://climategkc.org/ef20/. Although KDHE's Earth Day Park Cleanup Events have been cancelled, the website provides other Earth Day activities and challenges that you can do at work or home, especially with so many of us looking for educational and entertaining activities for our children who are now home from school full-time. 

If you have an Earth Day event you'd like to share, please email the story or information to sbeap@ksu.edu so we can include it in our Twitter feed.
Industrial Environmental Sustainability course - professional development hours available

The Pollution Prevention Institute, part of Kansas State University Engineering Extension, is offering the intersession class, Industrial Environmental Sustainability Practices , in May.  

Professional development hours are available for those who complete the course. Participants will gain insight into reducing a facility's environmental footprint, primarily through source-reduction strategies. The material will cover introductory and general strategies in identifying, developing and implementing possible projects, tools and resources available to evaluate needs and possible outcomes - all with an emphasis on the "triple bottom line" - the idea that being truly sustainable means being socially and financially sustainable as well as environmentally. For more details on this intersession opportunity, contact Lynelle Ladd at lladd@ksu.edu or 800-578-8898.
Upcoming events

Aug 11-13: Kansas Environmental Conference, Manhattan, Kansas
Sept. 15:-17:  KOR WORKS! Conference , Topeka, Kansas
Dec. 1-2:  Midwest Environmental Compliance Conference , Kansas City, Missouri

Important dates to remember

Tier II reporting due annually March 1
Class I and II air emission reports and fees due annually April 1
TRI reporting due annually July 1
April 2020

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About us

Established in 1989 within the College o f Engineering at Kansas State University, the Pollution Prevention Institute (PPI) has been providing environmental compliance and pollution prevention (P2) technical assistance to Kansas and Region 7 industries, communities and institutions for 30 years.
 
Entirely grant-funded, PPI provides a number of services including, 
P2 technical assistance, P2 engineering interns, P2 and environmental-compliance training. 

PPI partners with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to host the Kansas Small Business Environmental Assistance Program known as SBEAP and with U.S. EPA to support the National SBEAP .