The GMA bandwagon is rolling, jump on now

April 29, 2010 | Ron Bygness and Andrew Aho

The Geosynthetics Materials Association has taken a two-track approach to require that coal-ash waste sites in the U.S. are lined with geosynthetic materials. First, we have enlisted the help of Congressman Heath Shuler to develop legislation with the liner provision. I recently received an update on the status of that legislation. Rep. Shuler's office is still working on final language for the bill and hopes to introduce it in the near future.

Our second track is to influence the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to write regulations putting coal-ash waste sites under the Resource Conservation & Recovery Act (RCRA), which would also require liners. GMA has been successful in getting members of congress to sign a letter that tells EPA to mandate liners. We expect that the EPA will issue a "notice of rulemaking" on the issue yet this month after several delays. GMA is in a position to provide strong comments on any proposed rules.

All of these GMA efforts have required a tremendous amount of the association's resources. However, when we are successful we believe the payoff will be well worth the effort.

We appreciate companies that join and contribute to GMA.

We would appreciate your support, especially at this time as our government relations efforts are moving the coal-ash waste site issue in the direction of requiring geosynthetic liner systems.

We are calling upon all lining companies that will benefit from these efforts to join us.

Please let us know if you have any question regarding membership. If you want to move forward with membership in GMA please send us a note and we can simply send you an invoice.

Contact Andrew Aho, managing director of GMA, at amaho@ifai.com or 651 225 6907.

Ron Bygness is the editor of Geosynthetics magazine. Andrew Aho is the managing director of the Geosynthetic Materials Association (GMA).

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