NRMCA e-news

In late April, the Georgia Ready Mixed Concrete Association (GRMCA) hosted its inaugural “Day of Concrete” at NRMCA Producer member Vulcan Materials' training center in Kennesaw, GA. NRMCA’s Karthik Olba, vice president of technical services, and Build With Strength’s Frank Gordon, Assoc. AIA, senior director of building innovations, were two of the featured speakers. Obla discussed Performance-Based Specifications which focused on the importance of helping design professionals shift from prescriptive-based specifications to effectively achieve carbon-reduction goals while Gordon (seen here) presented Vertical Advantages: Ready Mixed Concrete for Multi-Family Residential and Educational Facilities, addressing market sector projects that are positioned to gain from using concrete structural systems (i.e., Insulated Concrete Forms and Insulated Tilt-Up).

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its long-awaited opinion in Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) which challenged the EPA’s authority to regulate wetlands and their connection to waters of the U.S. (WOTUS). NRMCA commends the court for ruling in favor of Sackett, which stated that EPA’s authority under the Clean Water Act (CWA) “extends to only those wetlands with a continuous surface connection to bodies that are ‘waters of the United States’ in their own right,” so that they are 'indistinguishable' from those waters.” The court effectively narrowed EPA’s WOTUS jurisdiction by asserting that for a water to be considered WOTUS, it must have a clear, continuous and indistinguishable connection to a traditional navigable water. This is counter to the current WOTUS definition issued by the Biden Administration which relies on EPA making a determination of wetlands and other waters simply being “adjacent” to WOTUS, but may not be clearly connected. 

 

 

Does your facility need to report to the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) Program? Have you run the calculations to determine if your facility does? Do you know what the requirements are and/or how to report if necessary? Now’s the time to obtain answers to all these questions.

 

NRMCA Senior Director, Building Innovations, Frank Mruk, FAIA, along with sponsors Craig Dauphinais (MaCAPA), Dominic Di Cenzo (CCPC), Ken Lynch (Nudura) and Tony Hans (CMTA) launched a Future of Education Summit in Farmington, MA, on May 24. Attendees listened to leading industry professionals from across the U.S. share best practices in Net Zero School Design; Ken Wertz (executive director MFAA and NSPMA) moderated.