II. R&D NEEDS AND POTENTIAL PROJECTS

6. Technology Assistance

a. Background

Both government and industry have made considerable investments in communicating environmental research and technology information to the metal finishing professional community--i.e., metal finishers individually, their companies, the suppliers, consultants, technical assistance providers, academics, and others. For example, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) has created extension centers that provide technical assistance to small- and medium-sized manufacturers. Because a number of companies were requesting assistance with environmental compliance, the MEP created a thrust on pollution prevention in conjunction with EPA/ORD.

NIST and ORD decided to focus on metal finishers because of their prevalence in the Midwest, where two of the first manufacturing extension centers were located in Cleveland, Ohio, and Ann Arbor, Michigan. Over the past few years, ORD and NIST (in conjunction with OPPT and the Office of Compliance Assurance - OECA) have provided several million dollars in demonstration, tool development, and outreach to help metal finishers achieve environmental compliance and economic competitiveness through pollution prevention.

In addition, NIST, ORD, OPPT, the DOE Office of Industrial Technology, the Northeast Midwest Institute, the National Association of Metal Finishers, and others, joined in a project that was co-funded by the Technology Reinvestment Project (TRP) to provide a number of environmental, energy conservation, and manufacturing efficiency supports to the metal finishing industry.

The project included development of a field-tested assessment tool (in both paper- and computer-based versioins) for metal finishers that provides trade-off investment information to achieve pollution prevention, energy efficiency, and/or increased manufacturing efficiency; benchmark data and a benchmark self-assessment tool for metal finishers so they can see how their company compares with others in the industry on measures in each of the three areas; and the chromium emissions MACT standard compliance demonstration that was endorsed by the CSI Metal Finishing Subcommittee and carried out under the oversight by the Research and Technology Work Group.

As part of the NIST-EPA cooperative effort, it was also decided to create a national center that could help provide information on environmental compliance requirements at the Federal, State, and local levels and information on the pollution prevention research results, technologies, and technical assistance sources that could help metal finishers achieve compliance. A competition for the Center, which was the first of its kind in the country, was won by a group composed of the NAMF, AESF, National Center of Manufacturing Sciences, and the National Pollution Prevention Roundtable.

The Center was funded for three years with $750,000 of EPA and NIST funds that are to be matched by $1 million of industry and other funds. After three years, the Center is to become self-supporting. This project was endorsed by the CSI Metal Finishing Subcommittee and carried out with guidance by its Compliance Work Group.

b. Projects

There are a number of additional technical assistance and dissemination activities that are regularly carried out. For example, AESF and ORD hold an annual environmental conference that in recent years has increasingly focused on pollution prevention. The NAMF, AESF, and MFSA all have regular meetings, symposia, publications, and local chapters that perform these functions. EPA/ORD, OPPT, and OECA have developed and provided relevant technical information to the industry. State and other pollution prevention technical assistance providers have served the industry with outreach and assistance.

Despite all these activities, many of the smallest metal finishers have said that they do not get enough good information on existing technologies to help them choose among them and use them on a long-term performance basis. As a result, the following are possible technology transfer projects.

i. Develop a series of short, well researched, peer-reviewed articles on the selection and use of simple technologies for improved environmental performance for each of the major metal finishing operations that utilize the materials of concern discussed in this Plan.


ii. Within every State that has a significant number of metal finishers, develop one or more locations (NIST manufacturing extension center, State pollution prevention technical assistance office, large metal finisher or client company) where small metal finishers can go to get computer access to the National Metal Finishing Resource Center and assistance in posing the right questions and using the answers from the Center.