&EPA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Office Of
The Administrator
(1101)
EPA 200-B-94-002
July 1994
The New Generation Of
Environmental Protection
EPA's Five-Year Strategic Plan
S Envlrer
ntai Pfocc-clion Agency
-"(PL-12J)
TT'west Jackson Boulevard, 12th
Chicago, IL 60604-3590
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Agency-wide Strategic Plan Message from the Administrator
MESSAGE FROM THE ADMINISTRATOR
I am proud to present EPA's five-year strategic plan, The New Generation of
Environmental Protection. This plan represents the combined insight, energy, and forward
thinking of EPA's senior leadership, employees, and its stakeholders as they define the Agency's
role and direction into the next century. This plan lays out the guiding principles that EPA will
emphasize as it works to achieve the goal of a sustainable environment and economy: ecosystem
protection; environmental justice; pollution prevention; strong science and data; partnerships;
reinventing EPA management; and environmental accountability. I believe that we can achieve the
goals we have set for ourselves by working with our partners and following these guiding
principles. If we achieve what is detailed in this plan, we surely will pass on to our children a
better world than we inherited.
The New Generation of Environmental Protection is the first step in a planning process
that will continue to involve EPA's partners in environmental protection. A critical part of this
process will be the availability of sound environmental, programmatic, and fiscal information that
will guide our future management and resource decisions. EPA will revisit its strategic plan and
update it, where appropriate, to ensure that the Agency is focusing its efforts and resources most
productively.
This is an exciting time for EPA as it charts new directions in environmental protection.
This plan provides us with a shared vision of our future and points us towards greater
opportunities to harmonize environmental protection and economic growth. In the spirit of
partnership embodied in this plan, I encourage your comments, participation, and continued
assessment of the plan and its implementation.
Carol M. Browner
July, 1994 Message from the Administrator
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Agency-wide Strategic Plan Table of Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
> INTRODUCTION Page 1
CHAPTER ONE
+ EPA's VISION, MISSION, AND GOALS Page 5
CHAPTER TWO
* EPA's GUIDING PRINCIPLES Page 7
Ecosystem Protection 9
Environmental Justice 13
Pollution Prevention 18
Strong Science and Data 23
Partnerships 28
Reinventing EPA Management 37
Environmental Accountability 40
CHAPTER THREE
+- LINKING THE PLAN TO OTHER EPA INITIATIVES Page 43
CHAPTER FOUR
* PROGRAM AND REGIONAL PLANS Page 49
Office of Air and Radiation 50
Office of Administration and Resources Management 56
Office of Civil Rights (AO) 61
Office of Communication, Education, and Public Affairs (AO) 63
Office of Congressional and Legislative Affairs (AO) 66
Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance 68
Office of General Counsel 73
July, 1994 Table of Contents
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Table of Contents Agency-wide Strategic Plan
Office of International Activities 78
Office of Inspector General 82
Office of Policy, Planning, and Evaluation 86
Office of Prevention, Pesticides, and Toxic Substances 91
Office of Research and Development 96
Office of Regional Operations and State/Local Relations (AO) 103
Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (AO) 107
Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response 110
Office of Water 116
Region I (Boston, MA) 123
Region II (New York, NY) 126
Region III (Philadelphia, PA) 131
Region IV (Atlanta, GA) 135
Region V (Chicago, IL) 138
Region VI (Dallas, TX) 141
Region VII (Kansas City, KS) 144
Region VIII (Denver, CO) 147
Region IX (San Francisco, CA) 150
Region X (Seattle, WA) 154
APPENDIX A
> Acknowledgments Page 157
APPENDIX B
> Glossary of Abbreviations Page 159
Table of Contents July, 1994
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Agency-wide Strategic Plan Introduction
INTRODUCTION
EPA'S CHALLENGE
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was established in 1970 to guide the nation's
efforts to protect and preserve public health and the vitality of natural ecosystems. EPA is
committed to achieving these goals by reducing risks to human health and the environment,
preventing pollution, and fostering environmentally sound, sustainable economic development in
the most cost-effective, efficient ways.
In the more than 20 years that have passed since its founding, EPA has helped improve the
national and global environment. Because of EPA's efforts to implement and enforce national
laws, many of this nation's most visible environmental problems have been alleviated. Emissions
of air pollutants from cars and large industrial facilities have been reduced and, in some cases, like
lead emissions from cars, virtually eliminated. Over 5,000 wastewater treatment facilities have
been constructed in the United States. Ocean-dumping of wastes has been prohibited. Hundreds
of waste disposal sites are in compliance with regulations or closed, and many more are being
cleaned up. More than 200 abandoned sites contaminated with hazardous waste have been
cleaned up, and hundreds more are in process. The production and use of substances such as
asbestos, DDT, PCBs, and CFCs and other ozone-depleting chemicals have been banned or are
being phased out. The bald eagle is no longer threatened with extinction from persistent
pesticides. Rivers no longer catch fire.
These accomplishments aside, many of the nation's environmental goals have yet to be achieved.
Thirty years after Rachel Carson warned the nation in her book, Silent Spring, to reduce
dependence on pesticides, the use of pesticides has doubled. Twenty-five years after the
garbage-filled Cuyahoga River caught on fire, forty percent of our rivers and lakes still are not
suitable for fishing or swimming. Twenty years after passage of the Clean Air Act, one in five
Americans live in areas where the air does not meet federal air quality standards. Fourteen years
after Love Canal, one in four Americans lives within four miles of a toxic waste dumpsite. Many
long-recognized environmental problems have not been solved, and new ones, like global
warming, are emerging.
The media-specific (i.e., air, water, land) nature of environmental laws and EPA's resulting
administrative structure have fragmented EPA's response to environmental protection. Too often,
our piecemeal approach to pollution has ended up simply moving contaminants around from
air, to water, to land rather than reducing and preventing pollution. "Command-and-control"
approaches to mitigating pollution have proven sometimes to be blunt instruments
overregulating in some areas, undercontrolling in others. The process through which
environmental policy is set has become polarized and adversarial at any given time, hundreds
of lawsuits are pending against EPA. Businesses and local officials alike complain about the costs
of environmental protection and environmentalists and others want better results.
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Introduction Agency-wide Strategic Plan
There also has been little progress in setting priorities across the spectrum of environmental
problems, which is critical in a period of tight resources and growing responsibilities. Moreover,
EPA today is being asked to address a more highly diverse and complex set of environmental
problems than ever before. Population growth and industrial expansion worldwide are straining
ecosystems, while human activities and the unprecedented release of chemicals into the
atmosphere are changing the global climate.
EPA is at a crossroads. To continue leading national efforts to preserve the earth's environment,
the Agency must pursue a new generation of environmental protection one founded on
renewed commitment to broad environmental goals combined with common sense, innovation,
and flexibility. The foundation of this effort must be vigorous, effective, and timely
implementation and enforcement of existing laws and responsibilities actions that forcefully
motivate innovation, prevention, and voluntary compliance within the regulated community.
Building on this firm foundation, EPA must move beyond strategies that react to today's
environmental problems to strategies that anticipate and prevent pollution. In particular, EPA
must:
+ Embrace the recommendations of the Vice President's National Performance
Revietv. EPA must work toward an integrated approach to environmental protection that
involves and protects all segments of society in this country and others, young and
old, poor and rich.
* Work with its partners to make environmental protection a commonly held value and
priority. These partners include Congress, agencies of federal, state, tribal, and local
governments, tribes, other countries, private business, public interest groups, and
individuals. EPA must listen to them, respond to them, and assist them in taking their
own environmentally sustainable actions.
* Develop and implement more innovative, effective, and efficient approaches to
environmental protection and sustainable development. Working with its partners,
EPA must focus its efforts on those issues that pose the greatest harm to human health
and the environment, being mindful of the burdens that environmental controls can
impose on individuals and society at large.
* Collect, process, and analyze the information needed to ensure that it is managing for
and achieving real environmental results. This information also must provide insight
into future developments, e.g., technology and demographic patterns that may affect
Agency strategies for achieving this country's environmental and economic goals.
* Shift toward a more comprehensive approach to environmental protection. This
approach must take into account the relative seriousness of different environmental
problems and the costs and benefits of addressing them, and use geographic targeting,
ecosystem-wide planning, and integrated multi-media strategies for key economic
sectors. The strategies must recognize the importance and interconnectedness of both
human and ecological health.
+ Continuously re-earn its reputation as the premier environmental agency in the
world. EPA's leadership in this respect is vital to many others at home and abroad. To
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Agency-wide Strategic Plan Introduction
meet these challenges, EPA must recruit and retain a highly talented, diverse staff who
view themselves as broadly focused and empowered environmental leaders.
* Ensure integrity and effective management of its programs and resources. EPA will
carry out its work in a way that best serves the American people and reassures the public
of the integrity of all EPA programs, activities, and information.
In sum, EPA's challenge is to ensure that the world this generation passes on to its children is
better than the one it inherited.
THE NEED FOR STRATEGIC PLANNING
This long-term strategic plan is a blueprint for change at EPA. The New Generation of
Environmental Protection will guide the Agency's planning, resource allocation, and
decisionmaking processes over the next five years (1995 1999). The plan sets the vision and
direction for the changes that will shape EPA's environmental agenda into the next century. It
identifies some of the broad environmental goals this country must define and work to achieve if it
is to attain a sustainable environmental future. It also lays out the guiding principles that EPA will
emphasize as it works toward these goals.
EPA's strategic plan, like the process that produced it, will not be static. EPA sees strategic
planning as an evolving process that will continue internally and externally in cooperation with its
partners in environmental protection. EPA will revisit its strategic plan each year and update it,
where appropriate, to ensure that the Agency is focusing its efforts and resources productively.
This is an exciting time for EPA as it charts its new direction in environmental protection. EPA's
strategic plan represents the combined insight, energy, and forward thinking of EPA's senior
leadership, employees, and stakeholders. It provides a shared vision of the future and points the
nation toward greater opportunities to harmonize economic growth and environmental protection.
ORGANIZATION OF THE STRATEGIC PLAN
As the cornerstone of EPA's overall planning process, this agency-wide strategic plan is a critical
link integrating EPA's planning and budgeting activities. The plan is divided into four chapters:
+ CHAPTER ONE "EPA's Vision, Mission, and Goals" summarizes EPA's vision and
mission statements. It also provides an overview of the process underway to develop
broad environmental goals that EPA will strive to achieve in the next five years.
+ CHAPTER Two "EPA's Guiding Principles and Implementation Strategies"
discusses the seven key principles that will guide EPA's work, and it describes strategies
for implementing these principles over the next five years.
* CHAPTER THREE "Linking the Plan to Other EPA Initiatives" discusses how the
plan and its strategic directions relate to other planning, budgeting, and
management-related efforts underway at EPA.
* CHAPTER FOUR "Program and Regional Plans" provides an overview of how each
of the major organizational units in EPA will support the strategic directions of this plan.
July, 1994
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Agency-wide Strategic Plan Chapter 1
CHAPTER ONE
EPA's VISION, MISSION, AND GOALS
ERA'S VISION
Looking into the next century, EPA has a vision of the state of the environment we hope to
achieve, as well as the Agency we will work to become.
* EPA envisions a world in which:
All individuals and institutions value the environment and choose to act in a manner
that ensures achievement of sustainable environmental and economic goals.
The natural balance of all living things is no longer threatened, and all individuals
rich and poor, young and old share in the benefits of a healthy environment.
> EPA will strive to become an Agency recognized for:
Leadership in environmental protection and environmental sciencedomestically and
worldwide.
Strong and effective working relationships with its partners in environmental
protection.
Integrity in the stewardship of its resources and the management of its programs.
EPA'S MISSION
The people who work at the Environmental Protection Agency are dedicated to improving and
preserving the environmentin this country and around the globe. Highly skilled and culturally
diverse, we work with our partners to protect human health, ecosystems, and the beauty of our
environment using the best available science. We value and promote innovative and effective
solutions to environmental problems. We strive to achieve the productive and sustainable use of
natural resources on which all life and human activity depend.
EPA'S ENVIRONMENTAL GOALS
Over the past 24 years, EPA has focused on developing programs that effectively implement the
statutes enacted by Congress. The most important measure of the success of these programs is
not the amount of activity underway e.g., the number of regulations promulgated or permits
issued but rather the degree to which human health and ecological vitality are protected and
preserved. To ensure we focus on these critical objectives and accomplish the broad purposes that
Congress has articulated, EPA is developing measurable environmental goals that will define the
environmental results we seek and our timing for achieving them.
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Chapter 1 Agency-wide Strategic Plan
Environmental goals that can be used to measure success are an important part of EPA's
long-term planning, budgeting, and program-evaluation process. They will enable EPA and others
to measure the success of their environmental strategies. Setting environmental goals will not
constrain the selection of methods to achieve them; EPA will emphasize flexibility and
effectiveness in all its programs.
Some of the statutes and programs that EPA administers set explicit environmental goals, while
others do not. To develop a full set of measurable goals, EPA recently launched the National
Environmental Goals Project. EPA expects to develop a set of measurable environmental goals by
Earth Day (April 22), 1995. Because EPA shares responsibility for protecting environmental
quality with many other public and private parties, the Agency is working closely with
representatives of these groups to develop goals and welcomes additional assistance.
As a first step, the National Environmental Goals Project has developed a preliminary list of broad
environmental goal areas for which measurable goals need to be set. The current preliminary list
of goal areas (presented below in alphabetical order) encompasses a range of environmental
concerns critical to EPA and the country:
NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL GOAL AREAS
Clean Air
Clean Surface Water
Cleanup of Contaminated Sites
Climate Change
Ecological Protection
Improved Understanding of the Environment
Prevention of Oil Spills and Chemical Accidents
Prevention of Wastes and Harmful Chemical Releases
Safe Drinking Water
Safe Food
Safe Indoor Environments
Stratospheric Ozone Layer Protection
Worker Safety
As a next step, EPA has scheduled a series of public meetings across the country during 1994 to
discuss the draft goal areas and to get the public input needed to define more explicit goals. A
final list of goals will be published by Earth Day 1995. Future EPA strategic plans will be targeted
on this complete set of measurable goals.
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Agency-wide Strategic Plan Chapter 2
CHAPTER Two
EPA's GUIDING PRINCIPLES
INTRODUCTION
EPA sees a new and challenging vision for itself and the environment over the next five years. To
bring this vision to life, EPA must move beyond reacting to today's environmental problems and
work more with its partners to anticipate and prevent pollution. The Agency's approach must
evolve from piecemeal solutions to a more comprehensive response that utilizes the best available
science. For all its programs and activities, EPA must ensure equal environmental protection for
everyone, and become known as a well-managed agency with efficient and effective programs and
activities.
EPA has identified the following principles' for guiding how it will achieve its goals:
1) Ecosystem Protection EPA will encourage ecosystem management and economic
development that promotes the health and productivity of natural systems. The long-term
mutual interdependence of human and ecosystem health, as well as economic prosperity,
will be a major premise of EPA's commitment in this area.
2) Environmental Justice EPA will work to ensure that individuals and communities
are treated equitably under environmental laws, policies, and regulations, and that the
benefits of environmental protection are shared by everyone.
3) Pollution Prevention EPA will work to prevent pollution by: incorporating
prevention into the Agency's mainstream environmental programs; strengthening
partnerships with state, tribal, and local governments, the private sector, and other
federal agencies; providing information to the public; encouraging technology innovation
and diffusion; and, where necessary, working to change existing environmental
legislation. The Agency will anticipate and address future environmental issues before
they become problems.
4) Strong Science and Data EPA will employ the best possible science, invest
strategically in research and development for the future, foster a productive dialogue
with the public about science and risk, and ensure that data are integrated and
information is available to support comprehensive environmental protection. To be
credible and effective, EPA policies, programs, and actions will be based on sound data
and research from physical, biological, and social sciences.
5) Partnerships EPA will work in partnership with its stakeholders federal, tribal,
state, and local agencies, Congress, private industry, public interest groups, and citizens
to develop the technology and capacity for carrying out environmental programs and
policies that are sensible, innovative, and flexible.
1 This ordering of the principles is not meant to convey any sense of relative priority, i.e., Principle 7 is as high a
priority as Principle 1.
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Chapter 2 Agency-wide Strategic Plan
6) Reinventing EPA Management EPA will strive to make itself known as one of the
best-managed agencies in the federal government. In an era of rapid technological
change and tight budgets, the public expects EPA to manage its resources, infrastructure,
and processes with integrity and maximum effectiveness. EPA will seek to manage for
better results, streamline its programs, and use savings to strengthen existing programs
and invest resources in emerging high-risk issues. EPA will emphasize employee
development, empowerment, and diversity.
7) Environmental Accountability EPA will stress that everyone in society is
accountable for protecting and enhancing the environment. The cornerstone of EPA's
effort will be a strong compliance and enforcement program. The Agency will promote
responsible environmental behavior by: setting out clear compliance requirements for
the regulated community and communicating them through comprehensive guidelines
and technical assistance; aggressively responding to noncompliance so violators are
penalized; and encouraging others in the regulated community to meet their obligations.
In addition, the Agency will provide information, education, and environmental data that
inform the public, and thereby the regulated community, and promote the kind of
responsible behavior that leads to and beyond compliance with the nation's
environmental laws.
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Agency-wide Strategic Plan Chapter 2
1. ECOSYSTEM PROTECTION
THE IMPORTANCE OF ECOSYSTEM PROTECTION
The United States and other parts of the world are experiencing a serious loss of essential natural
resources. If this trend continues, this loss will result in a long-term threat to the nation's
economic prosperity, security, and the sustainability of remaining ecological systems.
The value of ecosystems can be measured in many different ways. Living things and the
ecosystems2 upon which they depend provide communities with food, clean air, clean water, and a
multitude of other goods and services. Native American tribes believe that all life is
inter-connected that the health of one is directly dependent on the health of the another.
Consequently, the high rates of species endangerment, loss of natural resources (e.g., timber),
habitat fragmentation, and losses of recreational opportunities pose a potential threat to the
health, cultural values, lifestyle, and economic future of virtually every American.
Many of EPA's activities to date have helped protect ecosystems. The Agency has implemented
laws to control many of the major sources that pollute the nation's air, water, and land. Yet, even
as the more obvious problems are resolved, scientists discover other environmental stresses that
threaten ecological resources and general well-being. Evidence of these problems can be seen in
the decline of the salmon populations in the Pacific Northwest and the oyster stock in the
Chesapeake Bay, the decline in migratory bird populations, and degraded coral reef systems.
The causes of these problems are as varied as human activity itself: the ways Americans farm,
work, build, travel, and spend their leisure hours. Although many federal, state, tribal, and local
regulations address these problems, past efforts have been as fragmented as the laws enacted to
solve the problems. Because EPA has concentrated on issuing permits, establishing pollutant
limits, and setting national standards, as required by environmental laws, the Agency has not paid
enough attention to the overall environmental health of specific ecosystems. In short, EPA has
been "program-driven" rather than "place-driven."
As the Agency moves increasingly to a place-driven approach, existing barriers to progress must
be identified and addressed. These barriers include a lack of information on specific ecosystems;
inadequate ecological goals for specific places; historical single-medium focus within EPA
programs; the Agency's lack of a central system for planning, budgeting, and accountability; and
staff without appropriate skills.
Nationwide compliance with all federal environmental laws would not necessarily assure the
reversal of disturbing ecological trends. EPA must collaborate with other federal, tribal, state, and
local agencies, as well as private partners, to reverse those trends and achieve the ultimate goal of
healthy, sustainable ecosystems. The Agency therefore will act to solve integrated environmental
problems through a framework of ecosystem protection and in close partnership with others. This
approach will integrate environmental management with human needs, consider long-term
ecosystem health, and highlight the positive correlation between economic prosperity and
2 As defined in The Biodiversity Convention, an ecosystem is "a dynamic complex of plant, animal and
micro-organism communities and their non-living environment interacting in a functional unit."
July, 1994
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Chapter 2 Agency-wide Strategic Plan
environmental well-being. An ecosystem protection approach also will provide a framework
within which to address other issues facing the Agency and the country, such as environmental
justice, unfunded mandates, flexibility, state and tribal capacity, sustainable development, use of
science and data, and the measurement of environmental results.
OBJECTIVES
Within five years, the Agency will upgrade its ability to protect, maintain, and restore the
ecological integrity of the nation's lands and waters, including human health, urban areas, and
plant and animal species, by adopting a place-driven focus.
STRATEGIES
EPA's Ecosystem Protection Workgroup's strategy for protecting ecosystems included
reorienting the Agency toward a "place-driven" approach; that is, the work of the Agency would
be driven by the environmental needs of communities and ecosystems. For any given "place,"
EPA will establish a process for determining long-term ecological, economic, and social needs and
will reorient its work to meet those needs. Although this approach is being demonstrated in a
number of places now, the workgroup envisioned that, over time, the entire country would benefit
from this approach. To move toward an encompassing, place-driven approach, the workgroup
determined that EPA, working with appropriate partners, must:
1) Identify stressed or threatened ecosystems;
2) Define environmental goals and indicators;
3) Develop and implement an action plan based on sound science;
4) Measure progress and adapt management to new information over time; and
5) Identify tools and support that could be provided at a national level.
Three critical factors will determine EPA's success in making ecosystem protection a reality.
First, government activities must be driven by the issues faced by particular ecosystems and the
economies they support. EPA must implement its statutory mandates by devising programs that
respond to the needs of specific geographic areas. Success will be achieved with greater
integration and teamwork among environmental and natural resource agencies, and among
commerce, trade, and economic development programs.
Second, the ecosystem approach requires coordinated, integrated action by federal, state, tribal,
and local agencies; between government and private enterprise; and, most importantly, between
government and the people for whom services are being provided. EPA will enlist the support of a
spectrum of participants in the priority-setting and decisionmaking processes, and especially the
increasingly active states, tribes, and local agencies.
Third, information is a key to motivating communities to action. The availability of quality
information on the resources to be protected is essential and, in many cases, available primarily at
the local level. EPA must work to make this information broadly accessible.
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Agency-wide Strategic Plan Chapter 2
MEASURES OF PROGRESS
The effective use of an ecosystem approach requires an understanding of the status and trends in
ecosystems and, more specifically, of indicators and environmental goals at specific places.
Ecosystem protection requires an understanding of how the components of the ecosystems within
the region respond to different levels of stress. In addition, monitoring programs need to be
designed not only to indicate the status and trends of ecosystems within regions, but also to
predict how ecosystems respond to different kinds of stress.
To measure progress toward protecting ecosystems, the Agency must examine both
programmatic improvements and environmental results. EPA envisions a process by which places
are delineated and then, for each place, a series of steps are taken, including: characterization of
problems and solutions, determination of environmental objectives and indicators, establishment
of cross-media teams, action plan implementation, evaluation of results, and plan revisions as
necessary.
Measures of progress for ecosystem protection efforts will reflect these steps. The measures are:
> Percentage of the area of the United States addressed by multi-organizational,
multi-disciplinary teams;
** Percentage of these teams that have characterized problems, their causes and sources;
* Percentage of teams that have determined environmental objectives and indicators;
> Percentage of teams with action plans and the percentage being implemented; and
> Percentage of the places achieving stated environmental objectives.
KEY ACTIVITIES
To address the critical success factors and barriers discussed above, the Agency will align its
policy, regulatory, institutional, and administrative infrastructure to support ecosystem protection.
EPA will develop information and tools to facilitate the approach. The Agency's culture will be
reoriented to facilitate a place-driven approach.
Leadership
* EPA will work with Cabinet officials to ensure that the federal government as a whole
supports ecosystem protection and collaborative efforts by their departments and
agencies.
* The EPA Administrator will convene a meeting of EPA senior managers to obtain their
commitment to a place-driven approach to ecosystem protection.
Partnerships and Support
> EPA regions will work with other federal, state, tribal, and local agencies, private
organizations, and citizen groups to:
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Chapter 2 Agency-wide Strategic Plan
Catalogue ecosystem projects already underway, and identify the support needed for
these projects; and
Develop a process to identify priority places, set environmental objectives, and
implement actions to protect ecosystems.
Scientific Information and Technical Support
* EPA will review research, assessment, monitoring, data-gathering, and information
collection and dissemination activities to determine their capability to support a
place-driven approach to ecosystem protection.
*- EPA will establish a Center for Excellence in Ecosystem Protection dedicated to
improving science, education, and training in ecosystem approaches. The Agency also
will explore possible collaborative efforts with the National Science Foundation,
Smithsonian Institution, National Biological Survey, other federal agencies, tribes, states,
academic institutions, and private organizations.
EPA Organization and Culture
>- EPA will establish a training program on ecosystem approaches and techniques, and
provide opportunities for staff to work with other government and non-profit
organizations. EPA also will encourage specialists inside and outside the Agency to
collaborate on issues related to ecosystem protection.
> EPA will incorporate the ecosystem approach into its strategic planning, budget
development, streamlining, and reinventing government reforms.
> EPA will develop flexible financial and programmatic processes to carry out the
ecosystem approach.
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Agency-wide Strategic Plan Chapter 2
2. ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
THE IMPORTANCE OF ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
The remedies EPA adopted to upgrade environmental quality during the past two decades did not
always benefit all communities or all populations within a community. Many minority,
low-income, and Native American communities have raised concerns that they suffer a
disproportionate burden of health consequences due to the siting of industrial plants and waste
dumps, and from exposures to pesticides or other toxic chemicals at home and on the job and that
environmental programs do not adequately address these disproportionate exposures.
EPA is committed to address these concerns and is assuming a leadership role in environmental
justice initiatives to enhance environmental quality for all residents of the United States.
Incorporating environmental justice into "everyday" Agency activities and decisions will be a
major undertaking. Fundamental reform will be needed in Agency operations.
Five critical issues must be addressed to make environmental justice a reality:
*- Environmental justice must be integrated fully and consistently into the Agency's
policies, programs, and activities.
** Additional research is needed to address human health and environmental risk to
minority populations, low-income populations, and Native American populations,
including the identification of multiple and cumulative exposures or synergistic effects.
+ Environmental health data must be collected, analyzed, and disseminated routinely. This
is particularly true for data comparing environmental and human health risks to
populations identified by national origin, income, and race. Interagency cooperation is
vital to ensure effective data collection and research.
* Compliance monitoring inspections and enforcement actions must have a multi-media
focus to address exposures by minority populations, low-income populations, and Native
American populations.
> There must be early involvement in the Agency's activities by all stakeholders, including
affected communities, community and other non-profit organizations, federal agencies,
states, tribes, and local governments, academic institutions, industries, and business.
Information on human health and environment should be clear and readily accessible to
all stakeholders.
OBJECTIVES
The Agency looks ahead to the time when:
> No segment of the population, regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, as a
result of the EPA's policies, programs, and activities bears disproportionately high and
adverse human health and environmental effects, and all people live in clean and
sustainable communities.
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Chapter 2 Agency-wide Strategic Plan
* Stakeholders are educated and empowered to ensure improved public participation in
and access to information on environmental and human health issues.
STRATEGIES
To achieve its environmental justice objectives, the Agency intends to:
1) Make sure environmental justice is part of all the Agency's programs, policies, and
activities;
2) Identify methodologies, research, and data needed to identify and evaluate populations at
disproportionately high environmental or human health risks, and ensure that these needs
are considered in developing the overall federal research program;
3) Use currently available data systems to identify and prioritize how the Agency can most
effectively support the needs of affected communities and populations;
4) Target compliance monitoring, inspections, and enforcement in cooperation with
stakeholders; and
5) Promote outreach, communication, and partnerships with stakeholders, and ensure
sufficient access for stakeholders to training, information, and education.
MEASURES OF PROGRESS
* By February 1995, begin full implementation of EPA's Environmental Justice Action
Document
* Show quantitative risk reductions through measures based on risk assessment
methodologies that reflect the cumulative and synergistic effects of exposure, or multiple
and different pathways of exposure.
> By February 1996, develop data systems that analyze information assessing and
comparing environmental and human health risks borne by populations identified by race,
national origin, and income.
> Intensify enforcement actions, including inspections, and improve compliance rates in
minority communities, low-income communities, and Native American communities
(especially in accordance with the EPA Indian Policy).
* Reduce environmental justice impacts from major federal actions by performing analysis
under the National Environmental Policy Act and EPA's review process under Section
309 of the Clean Air Act.
+- Use the National Environmental Justice Advisory Committee and subcommittees to
assist the Agency in its environmental justice initiatives and to perform an annual
evaluation of implementation of EPA's Environmental Justice Action Document.
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Agency-wide Strategic Plan Chapter 2
KEY ACTIVITIES3
Integrate Environmental Justice: EPA will make environmental justice a part of all its policies,
policies, and activities.
> Environmental Justice Strategy: EPA will review all its programs and policies and
revise them, as necessary to address environmental justice concerns. EPA will develop
and implement its environmental justice strategy in accordance with the mandates and
milestones laid out under President Clinton's Executive Order 12898 of February 11,
1994, Federal Actions To Address EnvironmentalJustice in Minority Populations and
Low-Income Populations.
> Evaluation of Progress: EPA will develop a system for evaluation and management
accountability to monitor improvements and changes in the Agency's programs resulting
from the integration of environmental justice.
> Education: EPA will develop internal communication and training to sensitize and
educate Agency employees about environmental justice.
> Tribal Operations Committee: EPA will review the implementation of laws, regulations,
policies, and programs delegated by law to Native American tribal governments, so as to
identify barriers to and develop recommendations for improving environmental
protection.
Environmental and Health Data Needs: In coordination with other federal agencies, EPA will
design the environmental and human health research needed to support its environmental justice
programs.
> Urban and Rural Initiatives: EPA will conduct urban studies that identify risks to
minority populations and low-income populations from aggregate exposures to toxic
emissions.
> Human Exposure: EPA will develop national human exposure databases to address
geographic and demographic environmental justice issues.
> Interagency Workgroup: EPA will lead the interagency workgroup under Executive
Order 12898 to facilitate federal coordination of environmental justice activities,
particularly research, data collection, outreach, and interagency model projects.
Data Collection and Analysis: EPA will use currently available data systems to collect and
analyze information that can immediately support the needs of affected communities.
> Identification of Communities: EPA regions, working with key outside organizations
and other federal agencies, will identify affected communities or populations using
general guidance developed by EPA. These criteria may include, but are not limited to:
demographic, racial, and national origin makeup of a community; income levels;
environmental health sensitivity; environmental exposures; past regulatory practices; and
previous or ongoing interactions with the community.
3 Please refer to the Environmental Justice Action Document (working draft), April 1994, and Environmental Justice
initiatives 1993, USEPA200-R-93-001, for additional activities currently underway.
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* Consumption Patterns: EPA will recalculate human health criteria using more
appropriate patterns for fish and wildlife subsistence consumption rates.
> Risk Assessments: EPA will evaluate current risk assessment methodologies, including
multiple and cumulative exposures or synergistic effects, as they relate to affected
communities.
> Information Resource Management Strategy: EPA will develop an information resource
management strategy that sets out Agency policy on facility/location data,
standardization of shared databases, and identification of data needs/gaps, especially with
regard to baseline data for health, demographic, and socio-economic data.
Enforcement, Inspections, and Compliance Monitoring: EPA will give prominent attention to
environmental justice issues through compliance analysis and targeted data analysis of
communities exposed to multiple environmental risks, enforcement initiatives, Title VI
implementation, and review and enforcement of other federal agencies' proposals under the
National Environmental Policy Act and Section 309 of the Clean Air Act.
*- Targeted Enforcement: EPA will target affected communities and populations for
enforcement and compliance assurance activities, and utilize multi-media enforcement
and supplemental environmental projects, where appropriate.
** Enforcement Initiatives: EPA will develop a range of enforcement initiatives, affecting
minority populations, low-income rural and urban populations, and Native American
populations (especially in accordance with the EPA Indian Policy).
+* Title VI: EPA will develop a strategy to improve its management of the
non-discrimination provisions of Title VI.
Partnerships, Outreach, and Communication with Stakeholders: EPA will enhance
partnerships, outreach, and communication with affected communities, community organizations,
other non-profit organizations, federal, tribal, state, and local governments, academic institutions,
businesses, and industry .
> National Advisory Committee: EPA will work through the National Environmental
Justice Advisory Committee and subcommittees to identify the needs of particular
populations and facilitate communication and outreach among affected stakeholders.
> Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS): EPA will actively pursue
opportunities to create a meaningful partnership with the new CNCS to achieve all
environmental justice goals. Specifically EPA will make every effort to utilize CNCS
resources, employees, participants, and volunteers to facilitate EPA's environmental
justice programs, policies, and projects.
Ensure Training and Access to Information and Education: Environmental information must
be readily available and understandable by the public.
> Minority Academic Institutions: EPA will continue and expand its ongoing efforts to
promote environmental education programs with historically black colleges and
universities, the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, and tribal colleges.
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> Community-based Access to Information: EPA will target minority, low-income, and
Native American communities to provide the educational tools they need to assist them
in:
Understanding environmental and human health risks;
Understanding their public participation rights;
Reducing environmental risks in their communities; and
Making informed decisions about environmental programs in their communities.
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3. POLLUTION PREVENTION
THE IMPORTANCE OF POLLUTION PREVENTION
The Agency, and the nation as a whole, focus most of their efforts on solving environmental
problems long after they have been created when solutions are more likely to be costly and less
likely to be effective. Yet pollution prevention anticipating problems and stopping them before
they occur is far more cost-effective and protective of the environment. Consequently,
pollution prevention should be the strategy of choice in all that the Agency does.
OBJECTIVES
During the next five years, EPA will lead the nation in reorienting efforts to reduce and eliminate
pollution at the source. Pollution prevention will be the first strategy considered for all programs
at EPA.
STRATEGIES
The Agency will work to prevent pollution by:
1) Incorporating multi-media prevention principles into the Agency's mainstream
environmental programs;
2) Strengthening partnerships with state, tribal, and local governments;
3) Developing new cooperative efforts with the private sector;
4) Promoting prevention with other federal agencies;
5) Providing information to the public;
6) Encouraging technological innovation and diffusion; and
7) Working to change existing environmental legislation, where necessary.
MEASURES OF PROGRESS
There are four complementary ways to measure progress in pollution prevention: measures of
Agency activity, measures of state activity, measures of activity undertaken by the regulated
community and the public, and measures of environmental improvements that result from
pollution prevention.
Agency Activity: As the Agency reorients its efforts toward prevention, it will move beyond
measuring resource commitments and identify specific activity measures, for example:
* The number and environmental value of Supplemental Environmental Projects (SEPs),
permits, and regulations that include prevention approaches; and
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Agency-wide Strategic Plan Chapter 2
* More qualitative measures of progress, such as the identification of pollution prevention
options in the development of all major program and regional strategies, and changes in
requirements governing state programs.
State Activity: The states have been at the forefront of pollution prevention outreach and
experimentation. Possible measures of progress by states will include:
>- The amount of grant funds redirected through flexibility agreements to pollution
prevention efforts;
> Changes in base operations such as permitting, inspections, and enforcement settlements
that encourage pollution prevention; and
*- Direct outreach to the regulated community and the public through workshops and
facility visits that promote pollution prevention.
Activity of the Regulated Community and Public: Progress will be measured by assessing the
adoption of pollution prevention approaches in the private sector, including:
* The number of facilities that enroll in Agency-sponsored voluntary programs;
> Voluntary changes in industry and consumer behavior, such as the development of
prevention plans, the development of prevention technologies, and the marketing of
environmentally preferable products; and
^ Pollution prevention planning and implementation among federal and state agencies.
Toward Environmental Results: Reductions in the volume and toxicity of pollutants generated
will be measured across the entire range of programs that the Agency administers. While the
Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) is EPA's most visible measure, TRI can be complemented with
information from other environmental programs to create a more complete picture of releases
from facilities.
The Agency also will develop better methods for evaluating the effectiveness of particular
prevention approaches and better methods for showing how prevention contributes to
environmental results.
KEY ACTIVITIES
The Agency is pursuing innovative pollution prevention approaches throughout the regions and
programs in support of its objectives.
Mainstream Programs: EPA will expand all its compliance tools regulations, permitting,
inspections, and enforcement to explicitly promote prevention.
> Common Sense Initiative: Focusing on selected industry sectors, EPA will create
cross-Agency teams to identify and implement environmental management solutions that
provide greater environmental benefits at reduced compliance cost.
> Regulations and Permitting: EPA will incorporate pollution prevention into ongoing
activities, including effluent guidelines, Most Available Control Technology (MACT)
standards, and permitting under the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act.
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> Compliance and Enforcement: EPA will develop auditing policies that encourage
consideration of pollution prevention by private parties conducting environmental audits
and exploring facility-wide pollution prevention options during the settlement process,
both as injunctive relief and as Supplemental Environmental Projects.
State, Tribal, and Local Partnerships: EPA will support state, tribal, and local efforts to
reorient ongoing activities to promote prevention, consistent with the goal of building prevention
into mainstream environmental protection programs.
> Resources: EPA will provide states and tribes with more flexibility in administering
federal programs. For example, Region 10 is working with the Alaska Department of
Environmental Conservation to direct state grant funds to multi-media pollution
prevention projects. The State Pollution Prevention Office received three percent of the
program grant resources in the first year, and four percent in the second year. The goal
for the third year is five percent.
* Innovation: EPA will support innovation at all levels. The Agency will strengthen its
support for compliance assistance and other forms of technical assistance at the state,
tribal, and local level, and not simply channel resources into support of traditional
regulatory programs.
> Flexibility: EPA will reassess the required state commitments to federal programs if
these commitments interfere with pollution prevention.
Private Partnerships: EPA is initiating voluntary programs in all environmental media to
complement its traditional regulatory programs. In implementing these programs, EPA will work
to better integrate delivery systems, avoid multi-media tradeoffs, and focus on customer needs.
> Common Sense Initiative: EPA will work with industry, environmental groups, states,
tribes, and local governments to identify and encourage regulatory flexibility and
innovative nonregulatory approaches that enhance environmental protection while
reducing compliance costs for selected industries. EPA plans to expand the program
beyond the pilot industries in the future.
* Coordinated Voluntary Progi-ams: EPA will explore the feasibility of concurrently
marketing its various voluntary programs to particular businesses and facilities.
> MERIT Partnership: Region 9, for example, will continue to support the MERIT
(Mutual Efforts to Reduce Industrial Toxics) partnership, involving industry, federal,
state, and local governments, with the goal of reducing toxic emissions in southwest Los
Angeles County.
Federal Partnerships: Federal partnerships extend across a wide range of federal activities in
management of government facilities, in acquisition, and in developing new cooperative
arrangements for working with the private sector.
* Facilities: Executive Order 12856 establishes a framework for federal management of
its own facilities; it requires TRI reporting, goals for reducing releases and off-site
transfers, and pollution prevention plans. Source reduction is the preferred approach for
attaining these reductions.
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Agency-wide Strategic Plan Chapter 2
+- Acquisition: Executive Order 12856 requires plans and goals for eliminating or reducing
the unnecessary acquisition of products containing extremely hazardous substances or
toxic chemicals, and Executive Order 12873 mandates EPA to develop guidance for
other federal agencies to use in acquiring environmentally preferable products.
> Cooperative Ventures: The President's Climate Change Action Plan establishes energy
efficiency programs that are implemented jointly by the Department of Energy and EPA.
EPA has signed cooperative agreements with the National Institute of Standards and
Technology (NIST) Manufacturing Extension Partnership, and with the Small Business
Administration (SBA). The NIST agreement will increase its capacity for bringing
innovative pollution prevention technologies and technical assistance to small and
medium-sized manufacturers, and the SBA partnership will help SBA provide technical
assistance and assess various financial mechanisms that support prevention technology.
The Agency for International Development-funded Environmental Pollution Prevention
Project helps EPA foster pollution prevention through specific projects all over the
world.
Public Information and the Right to Know: Information is a tool for both the public and
industry. It fosters more knowledgeable advocacy by the public, better understanding of
opportunities to reduce waste and improve efficiency, and advances in professional expertise that
can inform consumer, citizen, and corporate decisionmaking.
+- Facility Data Base: EPA will support the development of a facility database that will
consolidate all the information developed under EPA, state, and tribal programs
concerning pollutants and releases from a particular facility.
* Environmental Justice: EPA will embark on a new effort to provide grants to
strengthen the capacity of minority and low-income communities to use environmental
information to advance pollution prevention.
> Education: Region 1, for example, will support the Pollution Prevention Consortium of
New England Universities, which includes 11 member universities with a mission of
facilitating joint pollution prevention research, education, and training projects.
Technological Innovation and Diffusion: In addition to promoting technology as an adjunct to
specific regulatory or response activity, EPA will promote good design and clean technology to
reduce pollution overall.
> Environmental Technology Initiative (ETI): ETI funds research and demonstration
projects, technology diffusion activities, and the assessment of regulatory barriers to the
adoption of prevention technologies. Through ETI, Office Research Development is
focusing nearly $5 million in research and technical assistance on the metal fabrication
industry, which is dominated by small businesses. Future funding will be focused on
industries participating in EPA's Common Sense Initiative.
** Regulatory Barriers: EPA will work to eliminate barriers to the adoption of prevention
technologies that are caused by the regulatory process, and it will investigate
opportunities to allow industry to coordinate regulatory compliance with capital
development cycles.
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^ Green chemistry: The Design for the Environment program will continue to foster a
"green chemistry" ethic that encourages industry to avoid the generation of toxic waste
when synthesizing chemicals.
Legislation: EPA will work to reorient fundamental statutory mandates toward prevention,
particularly in the Clean Water Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, food safety and pesticide
legislation, and environmental technology legislation.
> Coordination: Potential changes include both substantive provisions that can advance
prevention, and efforts to help align specific federal, state, and tribal activities under
these statutes. Better coordination of activities under different environmental statutes can
encourage prevention, rather than shifting waste from one environmental medium to the
next, and provide industry with opportunities to identify, implement, and finance
prevention alternatives to end-of-pipe treatment. For example, EPA will promote the
coordination of permitting activities under different environmental statutes.
* Superfund: The Agency will work to promote settlements and preserve liability through
the Superfund reauthorization process. Liability has been a major incentive for pollution
prevention, since industry realizes that the surest way to avoid future liability is to avoid
generating wastes in the first place.
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Agency-wide Strategic Plan Chapter 2
4. STRONG SCIENCE AND DATA
THE IMPORTANCE OF SCIENCE AND DATA
Sound science and data provide the foundation for EPA's environmental protection programs.
Science helps the Agency understand the processes and practices that cause pollution, evaluate
the risks that pollution poses to humans and ecosystems, and develop technologies and policies to
prevent or mitigate risks. What are the best ways to protect and restore the necessary functions of
whole ecosystems? What harmful pollutants are people exposed to, and how can they be
reduced? What technologies and other tools can be used to prevent pollution? How can people
receive information and be motivated to adopt environmentally sound practices? These and other
questions must be answered in order to develop and implement effective environmental policies.
Through the turn of the century, strong science and data will continue to be critical to the
environmental community. Without the ability to access and integrate data and information from a
variety of sources, advances in scientific understanding would be limited.
OBJECTIVES
EPA will seek to:
> Ensure that the Nation's environmental policies are based on the best science and
information available, drawing on expertise in EPA, other federal agencies, and the larger
scientific community;
> Expand its scientific capability to study environmental problems, evaluate trends in
environmental quality, and identify and analyze emerging environmental issues. EPA is
targeting 50% of its research resources toward long-term research efforts;
> Improve the environmental information infrastructure to ensure that people both inside
and outside EPA have access to timely, meaningful information; and
> Lead in the development of environmental technologies, methods for environmental
monitoring, methodologies for assessing risks to human health and ecosystems, and
innovative policy tools to enhance environmental quality.
STRATEGIES
EPA will strengthen science and data by:
1) Promoting scientific excellence in the physical, biological, engineering, and social
sciences to assure sound EPA decisions;
2) Ensuring that environmental data are accessible and useful to policy-makers, scientists,
and the public;
3) Measuring environmental progress, and using the results to improve environmental
protection programs;
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Chapter 2 Agency-wide Strategic Plan
4) Guiding creation of a national and international environmental research agenda;
5) Emphasizing research that reduces uncertainties associated with risk assessment and
improves the tools for managing environmental problems.
6) Expanding partnerships with the scientific community, other agencies, and the public,
including expansion of funding for competitive research grants; and
7) Creating opportunities for scientific and technical achievement at EPA.
MEASURES OF PROGRESS
EPA demonstrates clear reliance on established scientific and technical data and analyses, with
clear distinctions between science and policy components in risk management decisions and in
documenting improved environmental quality.
Interaction with the scientific community improves, as evidenced by open and participatory
research agenda-setting, peer review, interagency research coordination, and wide-spread
acceptance of science-based decisions.
There is enhanced peer recognition of EPA scientists from all disciplines by the external scientific
and technical community.
EPA increases the percentage of its research budget dedicated to long-term research, including a
significant expansion of competitive, extramural research grants.
KEY ACTIVITIES
Scientific Excellence to Assure Sound EPA Decisions: Environmental policy relies on
informed and responsible interpretation and use of data from the physical, biological, engineering,
and social sciences. EPA's analyses will be consistent with standard scientific principles and with
established Agency guidance. EPA will strengthen the guidelines and policies that govern how
scientific, economic, and other technical information are presented and incorporated into the
decisionmaking process. In both scientific research and regulatory development, EPA will strive
for consistent implementation of Agency policies for quality assurance and peer review, and
provide information and analyses for use in environmental policy decisions across the federal
government.
>- Peer Review Program: To ensure that rigorous analyses underlie policies and
regulations, EPA will expand the peer review process throughout the Agency to include
independent, expert review of: EPA's major scientific and technical products; proposals
to EPA for extramural funds; and the research programs in EPA laboratories.
> Risk Assessments and Guidelines: EPA will work with the scientific community to
improve health and ecological risk assessments and develop guidelines to promote
consistency within EPA and among federal agencies. EPA will focus on improving risk
characterization how we present the results of risk assessments by discussing in
full the predictions, limitations, and uncertainties of the assessments. EPA will begin
developing methods and guidance for assessing cumulative risks from multiple sources
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Agency-wide Strategic Plan Chapter 2
and through multiple pathways. Also, EPA will refine its techniques for conducting
comparative risk analyses to rank environmental problems by their relative risks.
* Risk Assessment Information: EPA will improve its effects and exposure information
(e.g., the Integrated Risk Information System) by setting priorities for data development,
enhancing quality control and other operating procedures, and conducting peer review.
Environmental Data: EPA will spearhead efforts to share environmental data more widely
among federal agencies and other organizations. The Agency will improve its own information
infrastructure, so that EPA personnel, EPA's partners, and the public will have access to timely,
meaningful scientific information for decisions.
> Access to Environmental Data: EPA's partners will have access to all types of
information to strengthen their critical efforts to protect the environment. All types of
information will be distributed in multiple formats.
+ Information Highway: EPA will complete its internal data pike and establish links to
external sources to ensure that staff and partners have access to needed information.
* Data Quality: EPA will implement data standards so that information from various
sources can be integrated easily to support comprehensive assessment and
decisionmaking. In making databases available to users, EPA will include descriptive
elements, such as the original purpose, source, and limitations of the information.
> Measurement Methods: Recognizing the need of its clients for cost-effective and reliable
methods for environmental monitoring, EPA will establish a unified process among its
laboratories for developing and validating analytical methods.
Measure Environmental Progress: EPA will work with other agencies to establish the
databases that will permit us to measure improvements in environmental quality, and use the
results to improve environmental decisionmaking.
* Environmental Goals: EPA will set environmental goals against which progress will be
measured. EPA will work with agencies across the federal government to develop
indicators for measuring progress towards these goals.
> Monitoring and Assessment of Ecosystems: EPA will develop ecological indicators and
a statistical sampling approach that can be used to monitor and assess trends in the health
of the nation's ecosystems. EPA will use the trend information to gauge the effectiveness
of environmental protection programs.
* Assessing Human Exposure: EPA will develop reliable data on the exposure of the U.S.
population to pollutants so that EPA can more accurately describe actual environmental
health risks. To test methodologies, EPA will conduct pilot studies on the general
population and special studies on sub-populations that may be more exposed.
> Geographic Information Systems: EPA will expand the use of geographic information
systems (GIS) to integrate environmental information in a form useful for "place-based"
decisionmaking.
National and International Environmental Research Agenda: EPA alone cannot identify
emerging issues and generate the knowledge needed to solve domestic and international
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Chapter 2 ^ Agency-wide Strategic Plan
environmental problems. But, as the primary U.S. environmental agency, EPA will form
partnerships with other federal agencies, organizations, universities, and countries that conduct
research, monitor the environment, assess environmental problems, and reduce risks. Within the
large constellation of federal research, EPA must define its role by identifying what research and
data collection it does best. In other areas, the Agency must take a leadership role to ensure that
research conducted by others addresses environmental policy needs.
> Environmental Research Agenda: EPA will work with other federal agencies to develop
a coordinated environmental research agenda that will address both current and emerging
environmental issues through the President's Science and Technology Council.
EPA's Research Program: Faced with increasingly complex environmental problems, EPA
needs a research program that will increase substantially our understanding of current
environmental problems and provide early warning of tomorrow's problems. We will achieve this
by:
> Setting Research Priorities: EPA will institute a new planning process that will allow
for strategic decision making on research priorities at the senior management level. The
Agency also will target research to areas that will reduce uncertainty in risk assessment
and facilitate risk management.
> Balancing Long-Term and Short-Term Research: EPA will commit 50 percent of its
research resources to support a stable, long-term research program, while committing
the other 50 percent to support regulation and policy development and implementation
by program and regional offices.
> Streamlining Organizational Structures: EPA will reorganize its research laboratories
to maximize the effectiveness of research and technical support programs.
Important areas for research include:
* Ecosystems research to understand, prevent and remediate damage to ecosystems
occurring at local, regional, and global levels;
* Risk assessment research to improve methods for understanding and predicting the
effects of pollutants, particularly how humans are exposed to pollutants and the impacts
of cumulative exposures, and for assessing ecological risks.
* New, more cost-effective technologies to both prevent and control pollution; and
> Social sciences research to provide a better understanding of how humans are motivated
and make decisions that affect the environment, and to develop methodologies
integrating scientific assessments and economic analyses to better estimate the real costs
and benefits of environmental protection. As a first step, EPA will update and implement
the Social Science Research Agenda, issued in draft in 1991.
Expand Partnerships with the Scientific Community, Other Agencies, and the Public: EPA
will involve the nation's scientific experts in solving environmental problems. The Agency will
pursue opportunities to exchange scientific personnel with other scientific and technical
organizations in order to broaden perspectives and experience. EPA also will expand efforts to
improve environmental literacy by working with the educational community on programs for
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grades K-12. The agency will seek to support undergraduate and graduate programs at colleges
and universities to train the next generation of environmental scientists and engineers.
* Research Grants: EPA will expand its program for competitive, peer-reviewed,
investigator-initiated research grants for the academic and not-for-profit scientific
community, with a target of $100 million annually.
> Environmental Science Careers: The Agency will establish a graduate fellowship
program to train young scientists and engineers. EPA also will expand its assistance to
minorities pursuing environmental science careers by sponsoring programs at
undergraduate and graduate levels at historically black colleges and universities and
other minority institutions.
> Outreach Programs: EPA will begin new outreach programs to build science capabilities
at the state, tribal, and regional level.
* Partnerships: EPA will initiate cost-shared partnerships with public and private sector
organizations to enlarge the knowledge base.
Opportunities for Scientific and Technical Achievement: The strength of EPA science and
data depends on the quality of its scientists and their supporting infrastructure. EPA will strive to
ensure that scientists stay current in their fields of expertise by providing opportunities for
advanced training, rotational assignments, and active participation in scientific conferences. EPA
will work to provide scientists with resources for state-of-the-art facilities (including laboratories,
information systems, and equipment) needed to improve the scientific knowledge base. Scientific
achievements within the Agency will be recognized and rewarded.
> Internal Research Awards: EPA will institute a program to award Agency scientists
with research grants through a competitive, peer-reviewed process, similar to the
external grants program.
> Science Career Tracks: Building on the experience of the Office of Research and
Development, EPA will establish science career tracks throughout the Agency to provide
all scientists with promotional opportunities based on their scientific achievements.
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5. PARTNERSHIPS
THE IMPORTANCE OF PARTNERSHIPS
Since the inception of EPA over 20 years ago, the nature of environmental protection has become
increasingly complex. It has become clear that all stakeholders must work together better to
further the nation's environmental goals. EPA's partners in this task include Congress, other
federal agencies, state governments, tribal governments,, local governments international partners,
the private sector, and the general public.
One of EPA's principal tasks over the next five years will be to help its partners carry out their
responsibilities, working together to define respective roles. EPA will listen and be responsive,
and it will work with its partners to develop and implement more innovative, effective, and
efficient approaches to environmental protection and sustainable development. It also will weigh
carefully the burdens environmental controls can impose on the economy and society at large.
The partnerships section will begin by laying out objectives and strategies common to relations
with all of EPA's partners; these will be followed by specific sections for each group of partners
that has been identified.
COMMON OBJECTIVES
Over the next five years, EPA expects to:
> Focus partnerships on environmental results.
* Ensure that the goals and efforts of the different members of the environmental
community are consistent and compatible.
^ Enhance the capacity of partners, especially tribes and small and medium-sized
businesses or governments, so they better define and meet their environmental goals.
COMMON STRATEGIES
1) Implement EPA's National Performance Review recommendations to "reinvent" the way
EPA does business with its partners (i. e., promote risk-based priority setting, develop
alternative management approaches, establish a new spirit of collaboration, simplify
environmental rules and regulations, and build an infrastructure for the future).
2) Foster independent partnerships between other entities.
3) Improve grants policy, process, and flexibility.
4) Reduce transactional costs between EPA and its partners.
5) Ensure EPA regulatory and policy activities involve partners early on in the process.
6) Improve communications and data sharing among all partners (e.g., computer bulletin
boards, network data transfer).
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FEDERAL PARTNERSHIPS
THE IMPORTANCE OF FEDERAL PARTNERSHIPS
Many of the best opportunities to protect the environment come from partnerships with other
federal agencies. Over the next five years, EPA expects to work closely with other agencies, in
particular the Departments of Energy, Transportation, and Agriculture. In addition, EPA will
work with other federal agencies to support EPA's own mission, such as environmental data
collection and enforcement. EPA will work with Congress to develop and improve the body of
statutes and regulations that define the nation's environmental responsibilities.
OBJECTIVES
Establish a shared federal commitment to environmental protection and pollution prevention.
Build science partnerships to enhance the quality of science and leverage resources.
Promote innovative, comprehensive approaches to environmental compliance at federal facilities.
STRATEGIES
1) Implement Executive Orders on "Pollution Prevention and Right-To-Know in the
Government" and "Federal Acquisition, Recycling, and Waste Prevention. "
2) Enhance efficiency by coordinating environmental management on Indian lands.
3) Increase awareness within EPA of the social and environmental impacts of other
agencies.
4) Promote innovative, comprehensive approaches to environmental compliance across the
federal government.
MEASURES OF PROGRESS
Agencies routinely consider the environment in setting policies.
Increased communication/information sharing with other agencies.
Reduced environmental risk from federal facility activities.
KEY ACTIVITIES
Increase joint grant programs and interagency personnel exchange opportunities.
Implement environmental training for other agencies, and train EPA staff about other agencies.
Involve other agencies in implementing the Environmental Technology Initiative.
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Implement the Federal Technology Transfer Act agreements.
Assist federal agencies to develop and maintain a federal recycling program.
Expand work with other agencies on common activities, such as facility permitting, emergency
response to accidents, and waste and spill cleanups.
STATE GOVERNMENT PARTNERSHIPS
THE IMPORTANCE OF STATE GOVERNMENT PARTNERSHIPS
The concept that states should hold primary responsibility for the implementation of regulatory
and enforcement programs is inherent in most federal environmental statutes. EPA recognizes the
co-management role of the states, as reflected in the Joint Policy Statement on EPA/State
Relations, and the recommendations of the National Performance Review and the State/EPA
Task Force Report on Strengthening Environmental Management in the United States.
OBJECTIVES
Realign EPA/state relationships, recognizing that states are co-managers with shared but
differentiated responsibilities.
Strengthen state involvement in national environmental management decisions.
Increase the flexibility of funding available to the states, both within and across media.
Reform the EPA/state oversight relationship with increased emphasis on environmental results,
compliance, and capacity building.
STRATEGIES
1) Establish new mechanisms for involving states in EPA's planning, priority-setting,
legislative reauthorization, and regulatory development processes.
2) Promote the exchange of information and experience among states.
3) Promote understanding and use of alternative finance mechanisms for funding state
environmental programs.
MEASURES OF PROGRESS
State issues and concerns are addressed effectively in the regulatory and policy development
processes.
Results of program implementation pilots are evaluated and translated into routine program
design and implementation.
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All senior environmental officials (state and EPA) have access to key environmental information
and communication systems (databases, email).
KEY ACTIVITIES
Enhance the consideration of state/local/tribal issues in the regulatory development process
(described under Executive Orders 12866 and 12875).
Promote state-to-state exchange of information and experience through conferences, roundtable
discussions, newsletters, and other mechanisms.
Establish and encourage use of an electronic mail link between state and EPA senior managers to
promote improved communications.
Develop and implement a joint strategy to improve state grant flexibility.
Implement the recommendations of the National Performance Review, such as promoting and
evaluating alternative program management pilots in several states.
Revitalize training and technical assistance to improve program performance continually.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT PARTNERSHIPS
THE IMPORTANCE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT PARTNERSHIPS
Local governments are the "front line" of environmental protection, the level of government
where federal and state laws and regulations are implemented.
OBJECTIVES
Clarify and strengthen the role and involvement of local governments in environmental policy and
regulatory activities.
Involve local government in equitable, effective partnerships with their state and federal
counterparts.
STRATEGIES
1) Develop new and improved methods of communication with local governments and with
their various associations and related interest groups.
2) Create opportunities to establish working partnerships among local, state, and federal
levels of government.
3) Provide enhanced flexibility to local governments to improve their capacity for
environmental protection responsibilities.
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MEASURES OF PROGRESS
Local governments have the necessary resources and capacity to carry our their environmental
protection responsibilities.
An improved communication structure results in better cooperation and understanding among
governmental partners.
KEY ACTIVITIES
Establish a local government advisory group to provide advice to the Agency on local government
issues.
Establish a Small Town Task Force to carry out the mandates of the Small Town Environmental
Planning Act.
Establish an intra-agency Local Government Coordinating Team.
Define and improve as necessary the Agency's local government database.
Identify and share successful innovative local government efforts.
Identify the proper role and involvement of local governments in EPA policy and regulatory
activities.
TRIBAL GOVERNMENT PARTNERSHIPS
THE IMPORTANCE OF TRIBAL GOVERNMENT PARTNERSHIPS
Since 1984, EPA has had a formal Indian Policy that recognizes the government-to-government
relationship between tribes and EPA, and endorses the full participation of tribes as co-managers
and co-implementers of environmental programs. The Administrator reaffirmed this policy in early
1994. Since then, President Clinton has directed all federal agencies to work on a
government-to-government basis with tribes and to remove any barriers to a successful
relationship on these terms. As tribes move toward greater self-determination, environmental
management and regulation can be among the most important governmental functions to be
assumed by tribes.
Many tribes are assuming responsibility for implementing environmental programs over the
coming years but EPA's financial and technical support will be needed to assure success. For
tribes that are not ready to accept program authorization, EPA has a continuing responsibility to
implement its programs in partnership with the tribes on tribal lands. This responsibility is based
on provisions of environmental statutes as well as the federal trust responsibility derived from the
U.S. Constitution, treaties, and historical interaction with the tribes.
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OBJECTIVES
Assure that tribes are primary managers of their environmental resources to the maximum extent
possible.
Strengthen tribal involvement in national environmental policy decisions.
Assure adequate protection of health and the environment on tribal lands through full and
effective direct implementation of programs by EPA where needed.
STRATEGIES
1) Increase funding for tribal capacity and infrastructure development.
2) Increase EPA program office and regional office emphasis on support to tribal
environmental programs.
3) Direct implementation of federal environmental programs on tribal lands when tribes are
not able to assume program authorizations.
MEASURES OF PROGRESS
More program authorizations to tribal governments.
Positive feedback from the tribes regarding their involvement in the Agency's policy and planning
decisions.
More programs implemented by EPA to provide for unmet needs on tribal lands.
KEY ACTIVITIES
Meet with tribes to discuss their specific environmental needs and how best to address them.
Help build tribal capacity by providing needed technical expertise, increased funding and grant
flexibility, and general administrative support.
Consult with the tribes, as co-managers, at the start of national and regional policy and planning
processes.
INTERNATIONAL PARTNERSHIPS
THE IMPORTANCE OF INTERNATIONAL PARTNERSHIPS
The Administration recognizes the interrelationship between the nation's environmental foreign
policy and international economic and social goals, and it is committed to a more active U.S. role
in protecting the global environment. EPA will foster partnerships among other nations and
multilateral institutions with a particular emphasis on joint problem solving and capacity building.
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OBJECTIVES
EPA plays a leadership role both within the U.S. government and internationally in achieving the
President's vision for the global environment.
International considerations permeate EPA's programs and objectives.
STRATEGIES
1) Form effective partnerships with foreign governments and international organizations to
address common environmental problems.
2) Reach out to non-government organizations and other stakeholders to promote the goals
of sustainable development.
3) Ensure close policy and programmatic coordination among EPA programs and regions.
4) Build environmental management, monitoring, and enforcement capabilities throughout
the world.
5) Promote enforcement cooperation and technical assistance in North America and other
selected areas in support of Administration priorities to integrate trade and
environmental protection. Seek new opportunities for additional efforts.
6) Enhance EPA technical assistance and capacity building programs for the most
ecologically fragile and economically disadvantaged regions of the world.
MEASURES OF PROGRESS
Reduction in global and transboundary environmental problems affecting the United States.
Environmental activities promote broader national objectives on foreign policy, competitiveness
and trade, and international economic and social development.
International cooperation widely recognized as an integral component of EPA's ability to fulfill its
domestic environmental mandate.
KEY ACTIVITIES
Use bilateral and multilateral programs to foster international coordination of policy and exchange
of information on legislation, science, management, etc.
Review and influence lending policies and practices of multilateral development banks and others,
in relation to environmental concerns and projects.
Work with other agencies and Congress to develop and implement international agreements on
climate change, ozone depletion, marine and polar contamination, the loss of forests and
biological diversity, and the transboundary movement of hazardous waste.
Support access to international electronic communication.
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Agency-wide Strategic Plan Chapter 2
Promote international partnerships that promote the safe handling of toxic chemicals through
research and in cooperation with United Nations organizations.
PRIVATE SECTOR AND GENERAL PUBLIC PARTNERSHIP
THE IMPORTANCE OF PRIVATE SECTOR AND GENERAL PUBLIC
PARTNERSHIPS
Among EPA's most important partners are the private sector and members of the general public,
because their actions most directly affect the environment. The nation can achieve the
environmental goals only when all levels of society understand how decisions by individuals and
businesses can affect the environment, especially at the local level. When developing and
implementing regulations, EPA must be especially aware of the needs of small and medium-sized
businesses, since many of them are affected disproportionately by compliance costs that may
discourage innovation (see the Pollution Prevention section).
OBJECTIVES
Informed public awareness of their impacts on the environment, and informed involvement in
environmental decisionmaking.
Informed regulated private sector and public community increasingly leads environmental
protection effort.
Lower societal costs for compliance.
STRATEGIES
1) Use "Common Sense Initiative" sector programs to bring stakeholders together to
develop integrated multi-media strategies that improve environmental performance and
reduce compliance costs through "cleaner, cheaper, smarter" solutions.
2) Increase environmental education efforts.
3) Improve public access to and understanding of environmental information and progress.
Take advantage of growing public access to "Information Highway" networks.
4) Work with regulated community on regulatory and permitting options and flexibility.
5) Work with industry on environmental technology initiatives to promote development and
marketing of cheaper, cleaner, and smarter new or alternative technologies.
6) Encourage top-level communication between government leaders and industry, the
public, and key stakeholder groups, especially in early stages of environmental
decisionmaking in localities.
7) Increase emphasis on nontraditional programs such as the Common Sense Initiative and
the "33/50" program, and find and expand new approaches to build upon success.
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Chapter 2 ^ Agency-wide Strategic Plan
8) Look for appropriate opportunities to use regulation negotiation and other
consensus-building activities with the private sector.
MEASURES OF PROGRESS
Improved citizen or industry poll results; broader agreement about EPA priorities.
Environmental decisions are made faster, more smoothly, and with greater public understanding.
Businesses increase their involvement in voluntary pollution prevention programs and activities.
More innovative environmental technologies available in the marketplace and in use by industry.
Common Sense Initiative approach increases beyond pilot industries.
KEY ACTIVITIES
Promote cooperative ventures such as Design for the Environment, the Common Sense Initiative
programs, the Water Alliances for Voluntary Efficiency (WAVE), and "WasteWi$e."
Make environmental data more accessible to states and citizens.
Augment education and outreach to professional groups.
Expand widely accessible pollution prevention information.
Form research consortia with industry for key areas.
Improve local preparedness for accidents and develop voluntary underground storage tank
standards.
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Agency-wide Strategic Plan Chapter 2
6. REINVENTING EPA MANAGEMENT
THE IMPORTANCE OF REINVENTING EPA MANAGEMENT
During few times in the history of the federal government has the climate been as receptive to
change as it is now. EPA has embraced this opportunity to explore the way it does business and to
make changes for the better. The Agency realizes that to achieve its goals, it must be totally
committed to reinventing its management systems and processes so that there is renewed and
continual emphasis on quality, efficiency, and integrity.
OBJECTIVES
EPA is striving to become one of the best managed agencies in the federal government. The
Agency is reinventing its management culture to ensure the most effective use of its people,
programs, and resources in achieving the nation's environmental goals. EPA will carry out its
work in a way that best serves the American people and retains the public trust in its stewardship
responsibilities. At the same time, the Agency will invest in its people to help them understand
their new roles and to equip them with the tools they need to do their jobs well. EPA seeks to
promote and achieve:
* Organizational changes that support customer oriented, results-driven approaches that
allow the Agency to work more quickly, more flexibly, and more responsively;
>- More effective stewardship and resource management to reassure the public of the
integrity of all of EPA's programs, activities, and information;
* Empowered employees who have the decisionmaking authority, accountability,
knowledge, and ability to achieve quality results, thus enabling EPA to boost its
employee-supervisor ratio while accomplishing its work effectively and efficiently;
*- Streamlined and re-aligned services, systems, and processes to better support EPA's
environmental mission and meet customer needs;
*" Greater involvement of state, tribal, and local governments in development of
management strategies early in the process;
* Partnerships among EPA staff, unions, and external customers and stakeholders to
ensure open, collegia!, and participatory interaction; and
^r Increased cultural diversity of EPA's workforce with development opportunities for
future career growth potential.
STRATEGIES
EPA's senior leadership will set a clear direction for the Agency by establishing policies to bring
about this cultural change. They will articulate how the many elements of reinvention such as
corporate decisionmaking; focus on results; streamlining; employee empowerment and
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Chapter 2 Agency-wide Strategic Plan
accountability; management and financial integrity; improved customer service;
labor-management cooperation; and cultural diversity in all levels of the workforce fit
together in their respective programs and functions. In employing this guiding principle as they
carry out the goals for their programs and functions, EPA managers will:
1) Implement National Program Review (NPR) recommendations and streamline their
processes to realize management improvements and resource savings, and reinvest these
savings within the Agency;
2) Make full use of advanced technologies to cut costs, boost productivity, enhance
communications, and speed the flow of information;
3) Integrate processes for planning, budgeting, financial management, management
controls, and program evaluation so that they are useful tools in managing environmental
programs to achieve results;
4) Measure performance to assess whether EPA programs and activities are achieving their
intended results, and to comply with the Government Performance and Results Act of
1993 and the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990;
5) Identify EPA's primary customers and their needs, define and set customer service
standards, evaluate Agency performance, and achieve greater customer satisfaction; and
6) Increase mentoring, rotational, training/re-training, and team-participation opportunities,
and Intergovernmental Personnel Act (IPA) assignments and other tools to foster
employee learning and growth.
MEASURES OF PROGRESS
** Employee-supervisor ratio at EPA raised from 5:1 to 11:1.
^ Speedier and better services to be more responsive to Agency customers.
* More positive commentary from Congress and the media about EPA's management
practices, and indications of greater trust in the Agency's management of its programs
and resources.
> Increased interactions among EPA staff, unions and stakeholders and greater reliance on
their feedback in Agency planning and decisionmaking activities.
> Increased number of hirings and promotions of culturally diverse employees in the
Agency, especially in management positions.
KEY ACTIVITIES
** Form an EPA management committee to condense and refine EPA's management
priorities and oversee their implementation.
* Implement the Executive Order on streamlining and the EPA streamlining plan; finalize
and implement headquarters and regional office plans.
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Agency-wide Strategic Plan Chapter 2
* Implement EPA's FY 1993-97 Financial Management Status Report and Five-Year Plan
and carry out long-term planned actions described in the Agency's Integrity Act Report.
> Follow through on commitments to improve extramural resource management.
> Implement EPA's FY 1993-97 Information Resources Management Strategic Plan,
Managing Our Information Resources: the "Common Currency" of EPA's Approach to
Environmental Management.
> Implement the EPA Indian policy, adopted on November 8, 1984, and formally
reaffirmed by the Administrator on March 14, 1994;
* Implement the Executive Orders on customer satisfaction, regulatory development, and
elimination of internal regulations.
> Implement the Executive Order on labor-management partnerships and form an EPA
partnership council to cultivate better labor-management relations, involving employees
and their union representatives as full partners in managing the Agency.
* Implement the Agency's affirmative employment plan for increasing diversity in the
workforce.
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Chapter 2 Agency-wide Strategic Plan
7. ENVIRONMENTAL ACCOUNTABILITY
THE IMPORTANCE OF ENVIRONMENTAL ACCOUNTABILITY
Effective compliance and accountability are cornerstones of environmental protection. Real public
health and safety, and a clean environment, cannot be achieved without compliance with the
nation's environmental laws. Enforcement is a key tool for producing compliance. It engenders
responsible behavior in the regulated community, provides a level, competitive playing field,
ensures that goods and services reflect their true costs, and establishes a baseline of integrity for
EPA's programs. Protection and enhancement of the environment are dependent on public
awareness and accountability.
During the nearly 25 years of EPA's existence, the enforcement program received a wide range of
administrative, civil, and criminal enforcement authorities. However, EPA's authorities are not
keeping pace with the increasingly diverse and complex nature of the regulated community. More
sophisticated approaches to compliance are needed to obtain maximum programmatic impact.
If EPA is to achieve broad compliance, it must move beyond traditional approaches to monitoring
and responding to noncompliance. To cope with its increased responsibilities, the Agency must
begin to target its activities, placing more emphasis on high-risk sectors, geographic areas,
ecosystems, and populations, and must leverage enforcement to achieve the maximum
environmental benefit.
OBJECTIVES
During the next five years, EPA will utilize a combination of sector-based, multi-media, and
media-specific approaches to gain compliance with the nation's environmental statutes. In doing
so, the compliance assurance program will endeavor to ensure equal protection from
environmental violations for all citizens.
EPA will develop integrated enforcement and compliance strategies for targeting noncomplying
sectors of the regulated community, sensitive ecosystems, and sensitive populations, and for
fostering risked-based, multi-media, whole-facility approaches that emphasize pollution
prevention and innovative compliance techniques.
In addition, EPA will reach out to its partners in states, tribes, local governments, and the
environmental community to amplify their capacity for obtaining and moving beyond compliance.
Compliance assistance approaches will be geared to those in the regulated community with the
will to comply but whose efforts are handicapped by a lack of information or sophistication. This
assistance, coupled with a strong deterrence-based enforcement program, will establish the type of
climate that motivates compliance, encourages innovation, and promotes prevention. By
providing the information, education, and environmental data necessary to inform the public and
the regulated community of their environmental responsibilities, the Agency will increase
everyone's accountability for the protection and enhancement of the environment.
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Agency-wide Strategic Plan Chapter 2
STRATEGIES
The Agency will assure the environment is protected by:
1) Promoting Compliance;
2) Ensuring Effective Enforcement; and,
3) Promoting Environmental Restoration.
MEASURES OF PROGRESS
To measure progress under the principle of environmental accountability, the Agency will use a
number of indicators to demonstrate: 1) the implementation of the foregoing strategies; and 2)
the success of those strategies in environmental terms. The measures of progress are:
> Higher rates of compliance The Agency will measure compliance rates within
traditional program areas and within targeted geographic or industrial sectors.
* Greater public involvement in the enforcement program The Agency will
measure improved interaction with the public, as evidenced by increased data-sharing,
better understanding of compliance requirements, and increased citizen involvement in
compliance monitoring.
* Improved partnership with states, tribes, and local governments EPA will
measure the increased emphasis on state, tribal, and local government concerns in
compliance assurance strategies, and improved communications resulting in cooperation
and understanding among government partners.
> Enhanced Federal Facility Compliance EPA will measure progress through federal
facilities enforcement measures, increased communication and information sharing, and
more comprehensive approaches to environmental compliance.
* Prioritized Site Clean-ups The Agency will measure progress through increases in
timely and protective cleanups at the worst sites.
^ Risk-Reduction The Agency will measure progress by increased compliance
assurance activities and targeted enforcement actions in high-risk areas.
* Deterrence/Enforcement Presence EPA will track the number of enforcement
activities undertaken by federal and state regulators as a measure of the message of
deterrence and enforcement presence projected in the regulated community.
KEY ACTIVITIES
The Agency will actively promote compliance by:
> Building regional, state, tribal, and local government capacity for whole-facility
compliance assistance and assurance;
^ Concentrating activities in targeted high-risk sectors, ecosystems, and populations;
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Chapter 2 Agency-wide Strategic Plan
^ Measuring compliance by sectors of the regulated community;
> Enhancing and streamlining data collection, management, and utilization;
* Making compliance information available to consumers and communities;
+- Providing information and assistance to those in the regulated community who lack the
means or information to comply;
* Promoting within EPA those policies and regulations that facilitate compliance;
*- Providing leadership that fosters international compliance improvements; and
* Establishing the federal government as an environmental steward.
The Agency will work to ensure effective enforcement by:
> Building partnerships and expanding the program capacity of regional, state, tribal, and
local governments;
** Developing comprehensive, multi-media enforcement approaches;
* Aggressively addressing violators and responsible parties;
> Publicizing enforcement to deter future violators;
* Ensuring that environmental justice considerations are factored into all aspects of
program implementation;
** Ensuring data integrity;
+ Promoting within EPA those policies and regulations that facilitate enforcement and
promote accountability; and
> Selecting the most appropriate enforcement response (i.e., administrative, civil judicial,
or criminal enforcement) to address any given violation.
EPA will foster environmental restoration by:
* Compelling site cleanups and supporting innovative technology;
> Increasing enforcement in targeted ecosystems, high-risk sectors, and geographic areas;
> Conducting timely and protective cleanups at the worst sites first;
*- Making liable parties pay;
> Driving pollution prevention; and
* Promoting voluntary cleanups.
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Agency-wide Strategic Plan Chapter 3
CHAPTER THREE
LINKING THE PLAN TO OTHER EPA
MANAGEMENT INITIATIVES
INTRODUCTION
Linking the strategic plan to the Agency's management and resource decisions is critical to move
EPA towards the new generation of environmental protection a new generation that combines
common sense, innovation, and flexibility to achieve environmental goals. Establishing the specific
program and funding priorities for environmental protection that result from this strategic plan
will not be an easy task, however. In this period of tight resources and growing responsibilities,
EPA must focus its efforts on those issues that pose the greatest risk to human health and the
environment, and on those programs that have the greatest chance of success and highest
potential for significant impact. Making these management and investment decisions will require
the availability of sound environmental, programmatic, and fiscal information about the operations
and results of EPA's programs.
EPA already has several efforts underway to strengthen the management, effectiveness and
efficiency of its programs and operations, in response to particular laws, Executive Orders, or
Agency initiatives. EPA is integrating these efforts, however, to provide better information about
the management of the Agency's resources and the results of its programs. The availability of
such information will:
> Enable managers and policymakers to make more informed decisions about the
investment of EPA's resources and the mission of its programs, thus ensuring that
limited tax dollars are used wisely;
>- Provide EPA and its partners with better information about the effectiveness and
efficiency of the Agency's programs for improving the quality of the nation's
environment; and
* Strengthen and maintain the public's trust in EPA's ability to manage its programs and
resources effectively.
The key management initiatives include:
LEGISLATIVE MANDATES
* Implementation of the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) of 1993:
The GPRA holds federal agencies accountable for what they do with their tax dollars by
requiring them to establish: strategic plans containing long-range goals and objectives
for all programs; annual budgets, performance plans, and indicators for each of their
programs; and annual program performance reports of their success in achieving annual
and strategic goals.
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Chapter 3 ^ Agency-wide Strategic Plan
Full implementation of the GPRA begins in FY 1999, but strategic and program plans and
budgets for FY 1999 will be due in FY 1997. EPA's implementation of GPRA began in FY
1994 when the Agency's Leaking Underground Storage Tank (LUST) program was
selected by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) as a GPRA pilot program. Each
year, EPA will expand the programs covered under GPRA until it achieves full
implementation.
This strategic plan, and subsequent updates, will meet the Agency's strategic planning
requirements under GPRA. Beginning with EPA's FY 1996 budget request, EPA will move
to goals-based budgeting, using the national environmental goal areas in this strategic plan.
This new approach to resource allocation will be the Agency's foundation for meeting
future annual budget and performance plan requirements under GPRA.
Establishing long-range and annual goals linked directly to the Agency's budget is a critical
step in being able to make investment decisions based on the Agency's progress in achieving
its annual and long-term goals. Beginning with the FY 1994 LUST program, EPA will
develop annual performance reports that review the progress of the programs covered
under GPRA.
+- Implementation of the Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Act of 1990: The CFO Act
was enacted to bring about more effective general and financial management practices in
government. While GPRA focuses on the results of programs and the success of agencies
in achieving their goals, the CFO Act focuses on the financial accountability of federal
managers in carrying out and evaluating their programs. The Act establishes CFOs in
each of the major federal agencies and charges the CFOs with overseeing the financial
management aspects of each agency's programs and operations, and providing complete,
reliable, timely, and consistent information for the executive branch and Congress to use
in financing, managing, and evaluating federal programs. The Act also holds the CFO
accountable for: monitoring the execution of the budget, preparing annual financial
statements, and working with agency program managers to develop and report on
program performance measures for those funds and activities covered under the CFO
Act. EPA's Inspector General is responsible for annual audits of the financial statements.
Combining accountability with program results helps to address the public's concern that
their tax dollars are spent appropriately and wisely. It also helps federal managers to ensure
that their programs are operated effectively and efficiently.
EPA's Annual Financial Statements and program performance measures, required under the
CFO Act, only cover the Agency's revolving funds, trust funds, and commercial activities.
As EPA expands the programs included under GPRA, it will consolidate the CFO Financial
Statements and GPRA Performance Reports to provide managers and policymakers with
more integrated and useful information on the Agency's programs and success in achieving
its environmental goals.
> Implementation of the Federal Managers' Financial Integrity Act of 1982: The
Integrity Act requires all federal managers to put into place appropriate checks and
balances, such as guidance and procedures, to prevent fraud, waste, and abuse of
government resources, and to protect the integrity of government programs. Similar to
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Agency-wide Strategic Plan Chapter 3
the financial accountability provisions of the CFO Act, the Integrity Act focuses attention
on the methods by which federal managers operate their programs to achieve their
program, administrative, and financial goals and meet their statutory mandates.
Manager awareness of existing and emerging Integrity Act vulnerabilities, and of the
resources needed to eliminate those vulnerabilities, is critical for effective program
planning and budgeting. EPA currently is revamping its implementation of the
Integrity Act to eliminate burdensome paperwork and to reinforce the use of the
core integrity principles in the Agency's routine management practices.
GOVERNMENT REFORM
+ Implementation of National Performance Review (NPR> recommendations: In
March 1993, President Clinton requested that Vice President Gore lead a review to
identify ways to make the federal government "both less expensive and more efficient..."
and "to redesign, to reinvent, to reinvigorate" it. As a result of the NPR, the Vice
President made many recommendations that apply government-wide. (The NPR also
made 11 recommendations specific to EPA, covering areas such as streamlined
permitting, pollution prevention, quality science, improved contracting, and enforcement
consolidation.) To implement those recommendations, the President issued directives on
streamlining, customer satisfaction, labor-management partnerships, regulatory
development, and elimination of internal regulations.
In tandem with the Vice President's review, EPA conducted its own NPR, which
yielded more than 400 recommendations, seventy-five of which were chosen for
priority implementation because they held the greatest potential for substantial
improvement. In many cases, the recommendations align directly with the guiding
principles outlined in this strategic plan.
Administrative Improvements: These recommendations focus on resource flexibility,
improved information management, communication, and workforce management and
development.
Programmatic Improvements: These changes reinforce ongoing initiatives, such as
pursuit of a cross-media orientation, especially for ecosystems protection,
environmental justice, and pollution prevention. They include developing new and
better environmental technologies; decisionmaking based on sound science; involving
state, local, and tribal governments in determining EPA priorities and policies; and
communicating early and clearly with the regulated community on EPA's
expectations for compliance with environmental laws.
EPA is committed to the implementation of the NPR recommendations and is
developing a prioritized plan for implementing both the government-wide and
EPA-specific recommendations. As they strive to attain their programmatic goals,
EPA managers will implement appropriate NPR recommendations, streamline their
processes to realize management improvements and resource savings, and reinvest
these savings toward other Agency priorities.
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Chapter 3 Agency-wide Strategic Plan
EPA INITIATIVES
> The National Environmental Goals Project: EPA is working in collaboration with the
President's Council on Sustainable Development and other federal, state, tribal, and local
governments to produce by Earth Day 1995 a set of national environmental goals to be
achieved early in the next century. As of April 1994, the Goals Project had developed 13
goal areas (listed in Chapter 1).
Although the Goals Project is not expected to complete its work until April 1995,
the goal areas are included in this strategic plan to identify the range of
environmental concerns critical to EPA and its partners, and to establish a
commitment to develop measurable environmental goals. This plan will be revised in
FY 1995 to reflect the final national goals as determined by the Goals Project.
The Agency will develop a goal-based budget for FY 1996 using the current goal
areas as a first step toward full implementation of the GPRA. In addition, EPA will
establish multi-disciplinary teams to review the Agency's programmatic and process
goals to determine how they can be used to develop the Agency's annual
performance plans under GPRA, and document the Agency's intermediate progress
in attaining the longer-range national goals.
> National Environmental Indicators: To manage for environmental results, the
Agency needs meaningful, credible, and understandable indicators to measure the quality
of the environment, nationally and internationally. These indicators will allow EPA to
measure progress towards the national environmental goals. The Agency, in partnership
with other federal agencies, is working to develop a set of indicators that are useful
across government for measuring various aspects of the environment. These include:
environmental pressures, such as pollution loadings; the state of the environment, such as
ambient levels of pollution, ecological conditions, and human health effects; and societal
responses or activities, such as establishment of regulatory programs.
EPA plans to make these indicators available for a number of its national activities,
including: the National Environmental Goals Project; the Interagency Sustainable
Development Indicators initiative; the upcoming Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development Country Review of the United States; and EPA's
implementation of the GPRA, the CFO Act, and the Integrity Act. By using the same
indicators in these related activities, EPA will facilitate communication and
coordination throughout the Agency and across government.
** Integrated Information Resources Planning: The availability of timely and useful
information is integral to everything EPA does, and is critical to environmental science.
As EPA moves to more comprehensive strategies for protecting human health and the
environment, the Agency's management of its information must keep pace with these
efforts. Recognizing that access to information is critical to its work, EPA is
strengthening the strategic planning of information resources management (IRM)
activities on an Agency-wide basis.
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By linking integrated IRM with this strategic plan, the Agency ultimately will have the
information needed to set environmental goals, measure its progress using environmental
indicators, and determine its costs in achieving those goals. In addition, EPA will ensure
data are integrated to support comprehensive environmental protection and provide its
partners and the public timely and useful environmental information.
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Agency-wide Strategic Plan Chapter 4
CHAPTER FOUR
PROGRAM AND REGIONAL PLANS
EPA program and regional offices already have begun many activities, using the guiding principles
outlined in Chapter 2, that bring the Agency closer to achieving its environmental goals, but there
is much more to be done before we can truly reach environmental goals, such as clean water and
food safety. The activities described in this chapter should not be viewed as separate from
on-going program-specific work. Rather, they are examples of how the Agency is working to
upgrade the way it already does its business to obtain measurable environmental results.
This chapter will provide details on how the program and regional offices will further implement
the strategies outlined in Chapter 2. Each program plan has the following elements:
*- Introduction Referencing Chapter 1 of the strategic plan, existing office-wide
strategic plans, and other long-range program planning documents, program and regional
offices provide their vision or mission statement along with a discussion of the main
priorities of their respective offices.
> Supporting the Guiding Principles In this section, programs explain how they will
support the Agency-wide strategic plan and changes they anticipate over the next five
years. They may include a discussion of relevant goals, indicators, statutory mandates
(existing and desired), and broad resource shifts necessary to implement the seven
guiding principles outlined in Chapter 2 that were appropriate for their office. Regional
office descriptions focus on unique regional initiatives and describe participation in
cross-media efforts that support the seven guiding principles. Included in this discussion
are changes in direction needed to further the principles over the next five years.
> Other Mandates and Obligations The Agency-wide strategic plan is not intended to
be comprehensive or encompass all Agency programs, operations, and activities.
Therefore, this section provides an opportunity, where appropriate, to describe program
strategies other than those included in this plan that are necessary to meet statutory and
other important obligations.
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Chapter 4 Agency-wide Strategic Plan
OFFICE OF AIR AND RADIATION
INTRODUCTION
Looking out over the next five years, the Office of Air and Radiation (OAR) embraces the
Agency's strategic vision of protecting human health and the environment, and minimizing
adverse ecological and aesthetic effects, both from airborne pollutants and radiation.
OAR's highest priority in pursuit of this vision and the greatest continuing challenge for FY
1995 and beyond is the implementation of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 (CAAA).
During the early implementation years OAR has made significant strides towards completing the
regulatory agenda called for by the CAAA, and the results are found in cleaner cars, trucks, and
buses; cleaner fuels; innovative acid rain controls; reduction of ozone depleting substances;'and
strong, workable air toxics controls. A large number of regulatory actions still are necessary to
complete the CAAA regulatory agenda, and that effort is being coupled with a gradual shift in
focus and resources away from regulation development into state and regionally based
implementation activities. This focus and resource shift away from the traditional approaches will
be accompanied by the redefining of roles among all the players working for cleaner air.
For the next five years, OAR also will place continued emphasis in areas outside of the framework
of the CAAA as EPA seeks dramatic reductions in greenhouse gases through voluntary climate
change programs; more radon-resistant homes and schools; increased focus on indoor air issues,
including environmental tobacco smoke; and an increased role in management standards for
radioactive sites. Support for these areas likely will require additional resource shifts, especially
where legislative mandates are increased.
Taken as a whole, both within and without the CAAA framework, the scope of OAR's efforts can
be seen as having three related focal points, each of which includes a distinct set of actions:
Global
*- Collaborate with other government agencies and nations, the private sector, and public
interest groups to conserve energy, promote technology transfer, and attack climate
change, ozone depletion, and trans-boundary air pollution problems.
> Advise and coordinate with the International Atomic Energy Agency and other
international groups on radon, indoor air, and radioactive waste issues.
> Provide assistance in the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA).
National
* Attain air quality standards throughout the country.
** Introduce cleaner motor vehicles and fuels.
* Reduce emissions from new and existing sources of toxic air pollution.
* Combat acid rain with market-based approaches and innovative strategies.
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> Reduce the public health threat that indoor radon, Environmental Tobacco Smoke
(ETS), and other indoor air pollutants pose in homes, schools, and other buildings.
> Promote integration of programs during development and implementation to improve
compliance and increase environmental gains.
> Ensure public health is protected in the cleanup and permanent disposal of high-level and
low-level radioactive wastes.
Regional and State
> Build partnerships and alliances with state and local governments to bring urban air
quality into line with national standards and to form a cohesive team to reduce toxic air
pollution.
*- Foster communication and improve information transfer among all entities involved in
implementing the CAAA.
> Ensure well-run permit programs that provide for full implementation of CAAA
requirements, including collection of fees to support state and local permit programs.
* Continue partnerships with states and key non-profit groups to increase the percent of
the population that is aware and has tested for or mitigated radon and to address indoor
air issues.
SUPPORTING THE GUIDING PRINCIPLES
The OAR strategic plan recognizes the protection of human health and the environment as the
principal goal that links the air and radiation programs to the Agency's strategic plan. In addition,
the plan incorporates the Assistant Administrator's overarching goal to restore the confidence of
key constituencies in EPA's commitment and competence to carry out the mandates of the
CAAA. The following operating principles will guide OAR efforts toward the implementation of
air and radiation program priorities in FY 1995 and future years.
> Improve performance in meeting deadlines for regulations, reports, and State
Implementation Plan (SIP) approvals.
> Demonstrate the benefits of applying innovative economic strategies to air pollution
control.
>- Incorporate sustainable development strategies into clean air attainment and maintenance
programs.
** Establish ecosystem protection as a clean air priority.
>- Ensure that all citizens receive full and equal protection under environmental laws and
regulations.
These principles provide the framework for how EPA will manage and implement core programs.
OAR is committed to implementing the CAAA in a cost-effective manner, while ensuring
consistency with national energy and economic policies. The implementation of the amendments
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not only will employ traditional approaches for controlling air pollution, but also will use the
power of the marketplace, encourage local initiatives, and emphasize pollution prevention.
OAR program priorities are fully supportive of the Administrator's guiding principles and are
incorporated into air and radiation programs as follows:
1. Ecosystem Protection
OAR will establish a task force to identify the most effective mechanisms for considering impacts
of EPA air program actions on ecosystems and endangered species. For example, specific actions
likely will be called for as a result of the ongoing "Great Waters" study. OAR's goal is, wherever
possible, to incorporate species/habitat concerns into the development of programs and standards,
as well as into individual permitting decisions. The task force also will consult with the Fish and
Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service regarding the impact of air programs on
endangered species. EPA continues to use the tools provided by the Prevention of Significant
Deterioration (PSD) requirements to protect visibility and ecosystems.
2. Environmental Justice
In addition to the tools already afforded by the CAAA for reducing the exposure of populations
suffering from disproportionate impacts, EPA is incorporating environmental justice concerns into
its regulations as a common practice. The Clean Air Act Advisory Committee likely will be used
to aid in that effort. In addition, as a result of recommendations made by the Agency's
Environmental Equity Workgroup, and as part of the Agency-wide strategic plan, OAR is
implementing four categories of environmental justice initiatives.
1) Improving the methodology for assessing exposures to air pollution (including multiple
exposures), specifically targeted to populations suffering disproportionate impacts. The
radon program seeks to reduce the disparity between high-income Caucasian and other
populations on radon awareness, testing, and mitigation. The indoor air program is
working to target minority and low-income populations in its Environmental Tobacco
Smoke (ETS) outreach activities. The 1990 census data now are linked to OAR's
Human Exposure Model system. When EPA's Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) is linked
to the system, OAR will have the ability to run equity analyses for source categories and
characterize the potential exposure of specific populations. OAR also has a pilot
underway to develop computer-based maps of nonattainment areas.
2) Expanding OAR's outreach/communication and consensus building efforts to
low-income and minority communities. OAR will look for opportunities to hold
regulatory hearings in affected areas, broaden the membership of the Clean Air Act
Advisory Committee to reflect environmental justice experience, and incorporate
environmental justice perspectives early in program development. OAR also will
continue to build on the extensive experience of the radon program in delivering the
radon, indoor air, and ETS messages to minority and low-income populations.
3) Supporting and enhancing existing and future regional equity initiatives. EPA will
provide support and funding for external programs targeted at low-income and minority
populations. Examples are the initial funding of the Mickey Leland Center for the Study
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of Urban Air Toxics, and indoor radon grants to support projects that encourage radon
risk reduction.
4) Enhancing the relationship between OAR and its adopted institutions in the Academic
Relations Program. Memoranda of Understanding already have been signed with North
Carolina A&T, Northern Arizona University, and Alabama A&M. The latter is designed
to strengthen research, training, and public service programs focused on Native
American people and their lands. In the near future, OAR anticipates the creation of
similar partnerships with Texas Southern University and Florida International University.
3. Pollution Prevention
OAR will emphasize pollution prevention throughout its programs as the first choice in
environmental protection, taking into account impacts on human health and the environment. The
CAAA provides opportunities for making pollution prevention a routine consideration in carrying
out air programs and reinforcing the major efforts already underway. For example, using a
strategy of flexible permits will enable permitted sources to commit to pollution prevention as part
of their compliance strategy; under the source reduction review project (SRRP), EPA will
encourage an innovative, source-specific approach to pollution prevention. In addition, OAR will
carry out initiatives for recycling CFCs under the ozone depletion program, encouraging energy
conservation under the Climate Change Programs (which includes Green Lights, Golden Carrot,
Energy Star, etc.), and promoting model building codes that reduce radon intrusion into the
home.
4. Strong Science and Data
OAR will elicit the support of the Office of Research and Development to assess: health and
ecological effects data, monitoring methods and support, models, risk assessments, emissions
reduction technologies, quality assurance in support of OAR's regulatory agenda, and public
information needs. This includes the "Coordinated North American Research Strategy for
Tropospheric Ozone;" air toxics research on source test methods, control technology, and Great
Waters; the Environmental Technology Initiative; and other research methodologies to address
the human health and environmental risks posed by criteria air pollutants. OAR also will continue
work on several fronts to better characterize vehicular emissions and indoor air pollution, and
apply that knowledge to ongoing policy implementation.
5. Partnerships
The evolving nature of CAAA implementation has put a premium on the development of effective
working partnerships among all concerned with clean air. Specifically, OAR envisions more
delegation to state/local partners and tribal governments, coupled with a strengthening of
technical advice and support as implementation moves away from Washington. Strong working
relationships will be essential to achievement of CAAA standards. In addition, OAR expects to
build on other successful partnership approaches across its programs. For example, previous
regulatory negotiations have produced a number of positive results: rules to prevent toxic
emissions from equipment leaks, requirements for cleaner "reformulated" and "oxygenated"
gasolines, and reduced toxic emissions from steel industry coke ovens. OAR has established
successful partnerships to work on climate change, ozone depletion, and trans-boundary air
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pollution, all of which seek to utilize and leverage both national and international resources.
Finally, the radon program is centered on a highly effective network of cooperative partners that
works to encourage radon testing and mitigation. The indoor air program has initiated the
Building Air Quality Alliance (BAQA) to address indoor air quality in large buildings through an
innovative partnership arrangement with indoor air quality community leaders. Building owners
and managers who become partners will be recognized for their efforts. OAR expects to continue
the development and use of all of these strategic and tactical partnerships as a basic part of how it
does business.
6. Reinventing EPA Management
OAR's Streamlining Plan: Making OAR Work Better integrates the Administration's goals of
increasing effectiveness and efficiency of government with the Agency's and OAR's ongoing
programs. OAR's streamlining strategy is to carefully examine internal processes and use the
results to enhance the utilization of staff. For example, an innovative approach to reinventing
OAR is the current effort to work with state and local agencies and other partners in developing
MACT and other rules. OAR expects this approach to effectively maximize our ability to meet the
air toxics standards of the CAAA, even with significant reductions in resources. Overall, OAR
believes that to effectively achieve the goals of reinvention, OAR must: create a vision of both
the mission and work practices of the organization; pursue the immediate opportunities for
streamlining; prioritize the other processes identified for streamlining and begin working on them
with vigor and a commitment to providing services in the most efficient manner; make structural
modifications where needed; and target reinvestment opportunities that utilize the savings
associated with streamlining. The plan includes several immediate steps that will improve the
effectiveness of OAR and make progress towards the quantitative goals, particularly the 11:1
staff/supervisory ratio.
7. Environmental Accountability
OAR will work closely with the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) to
ensure that its programs and activities address compliance and enforcement concerns as they
relate to its regulation development process, training programs, and other related activities.
OAR's Office of Radiation and Indoor Air Program (ORIA) will carry out its responsibilities
under the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) Land Withdrawal Act. ORIA's responsibilities
include issuing radioactive waste disposal standards which that apply to the WIPP as well as to all
spent nuclear fuel, high-level radioactive waste, and transuranic waste disposal facilities; certifying
compliance with radioactive waste disposal standards; and ensuring compliance with all other
applicable laws and regulations.
OAR's Air Quality Planning and Standards (OAQPS) Program will work with OECA to
incorporate environmental accountability in its policy, regulatory, and outreach activities.
Specifically, OAQPS will coordinate with OECA to ensure that compliance requirements in air
regulations are clear and enforceable. Through its training and outreach activities OAQPS will
ensure that partners in states, tribes, local governments, and the environmental and regulated
communities clearly understand their environmental responsibilities. OAQPS also will work to
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increase their partners' respective capacity to move beyond compliance by soliciting their
involvement in MACT, pollution prevention, and innovative technology activities.
REFERENCES
1. "OAR FY1995 - 1998 Strategic Plan, " USEPA, Washington, DC, July 1993.
2. "Blue Skies Update: Long-Range Planning 1994, " John Seitz, Director, Office of Air
Quality Planning and Standards.
3. "OAR's Streamlining Plan: Making OAR Work Better, " USEPA, Washington, DC,
February 1994.
4. "OAR's Budget Ovennew and Strategy," USEPA, Washington, DC, February 1994.
5. New OAR Management Process. USEPA, Washington, DC, May 1991.
6. Implementation Strategy for the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 Update. 1993,
EPA410-K-93-001, Washington, DC, November 1993.
7. The Clean Air Marketplace. USEPA, Washington, DC, December 1993.
8. FY 1994 Program Specific Guidance. USEPA, Washington, DC, June 1993.
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OFFICE OF ADMINISTRATION AND RESOURCES
MANAGEMENT
INTRODUCTION
The Office of Administration and Resources Management (OARM) provides the management
services, infrastructure and operations that enable EPA to achieve its mission. As the office of the
Agency's Chief Financial Officer (CFO), OARM also serves as the chief steward of the Agency's
resources. OARM's ultimate goal is to ensure that EPA's resource decisions enable the Agency to
achieve its environmental mission and meet its fiduciary and workforce responsibilities.
OARM's primary responsibility is to enable EPA and its partners to deliver on their shared
commitment to the environment. To fulfill this role, OARM will: take a fresh look at the service,
information, and infrastructure needs of its customers; realign its services, systems, and processes
to better support the Agency's mission and programs; strengthen stewardship and management of
the Agency's resources; and engage the diverse talents of EPA's workforce to meet new
challenges. This approach represents a fundamental shift in management philosophy and a culture
shift in how EPA conducts its work.
The next stage of OARM's strategic planning will be a three-part process that includes the
development of: (1) a more detailed and long-term implementation plan; (2) short-term operating
plans; and (3) mechanisms for consistently monitoring and measuring the success of (1) and (2).
These plans will provide the overall approach OARM will take in achieving its mission and
objectives, and will provide the basis for OARM's operations in fiscal years 1995 through 1999.
SUPPORTING THE GUIDING PRINCIPLES
OARM's first and foremost priority is to provide management services, infrastructure, operations,
and workforce support for the new generation of environmental programs and priorities. OARM
has identified the following key actions in support of the Agency's strategic plan during the next
five years.
1. Ecosystem Protection and 3. Pollution Prevention
OARM will provide the tools and infrastructure required by the Agency to implement the
ecosystem and pollution prevention approaches to environmental protection. OARM also will
facilitate removing institutional barriers to ecosystem protection in the budget, information
systems and data, organizational structures, and assistance programs.
For example, EPA currently is designing the Bay City facility as a center for ecological research
and ecosystems management. Home to the Agency's supercomputer and to its Great Lakes
research vessel, the Lake Guardian, Bay City will have state-of-the-art research and information
management facilities. OARM's aim is to create a center that brings together the nation's best
minds and talent in research, information management, and other disciplines in order to support
ecosystem management efforts nationwide. Bay City's training facilities will provide on-site and
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remote hookup training in the latest research and technology to EPA's workforce and its partners
throughout the country. Working with others in EPA, OARM will:
> Coordinate the acquisition and management of spatial information (land use/census, soils
data) to support ecological and related environmental analyses;
+ Provide the technical information infrastructure that will facilitate inter- and intra-agency
ecosystem protection efforts, such as telecommunications, scientific information
(Envirofacts), spatial data, and taxonomic information;
> Implement, support and showcase new approaches that integrate environmental
protection and natural resource management to meet the needs of ecosystems such as
prairies, savannas, the Great Lakes, the Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico; and
> Support the Agency's efforts to building a national information infrastructure, and
represent the Agency's interest on the Federal Geographic Data Committee.
2. Environmental Justice
OARM will lead the Agency in the adoption and integration of environmental justice principles
into all EPA activities. The goal of the environmental justice program is to ensure that no segment
of the population bears a disproportionate burden of the consequences of environmental pollution,
and that all peoples benefit from clean and sustainable communities. We are committed to the
education and empowerment of affected communities, community organizations, federal agencies,
tribal, state and local governments, academic institutions, businesses, and industries, and to the
creation of partnerships to achieve environmental justice. Working with others in EPA, OARM
will:
> Develop a strategy for integrating environmental justice into every Agency activity (e.g.,
policies, rulemaking, enforcement, research, planning, and budgeting);
^ Implement the President's Executive Order on Environmental Justice which require
integration of environmental justice principles in all relevant federal activities;
>- Foster environmental justice by awarding demonstration grants, issuing advisory studies,
and creating public-private partnerships with disadvantaged communities and
> Empower EPA's environmental justice partners by supporting and enabling meaningful
public access to EPA's information.
4. Strong Science and Data
Top flight research facilities are required to support the Agency's mission. As new facilities come
on line, OARM will work with the Office of Research and Development and the program offices
to use those facilities as testing grounds for innovative energy conservation, state-of-the-art
information technology, and pollution prevention technologies. We are designing the new
Research Triangle Park (RTP) facility, in concert with its future tenants, to be a center for
scientific excellence.
Sound management of our information assets also is needed for strong science and data. To
advance the Agency's scientific capabilities OARM is investing in the ability to perform
multi-pollutant and multi-media pollutant assessments with high performance computing tools,
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and will work with the Agency's partners to develop standards and practices for sound
management of scientific information.
5. Partnerships
OARM will work with EPA's workforce, unions, governmental partners (federal, state, tribal and
local), and the public to develop a shared vision and strategic approach that leverages combined
resources for maximum environmental results. With Office of Policy, Planning, and Evaluation
(OPPE), OARM will open the Agency's planning and budgeting processes to actively involve its
partners in goal- and priority-setting. OARM also will work with EPA's program offices to create
funding mechanisms that provide state and local governments with flexibility to fund priority
environmental problems and develop alternative financing mechanisms (e.g., the network of
Environmental Finance Centers at Syracuse University, and the Universities of Maryland and New
Mexico) to help state and local governments fund vital environmental infrastructure. Working
with others, OARM will:
> Build State capacity in learning tools, information management, and technology, and
improve access to EPA data and analytical capability;
> Foster public-private partnerships to address resource shortfalls at the national level and
unfunded federal mandates at the state and local level;
> Lead the development throughout EPA of a labor-management partnership e.g.,
establishing councils and other mechanisms to include unions in pre-decision phases, and
to train management and union representatives on techniques, such as alternative dispute
resolution, that helps the partnership succeed;
*- Forge collegial alliance with the General Accounting Office in providing Congressional
oversight on program implementation goals and results, program effectiveness and
efficiencies, and program resource requirements.
6. Reinventing EPA
OARM manages the systems and processes that provide the people, money, data, and
infrastructure needed by the Agency and, in many cases, its federal, state, tribal, and local
partners. We are committed to revitalizing OARM so that we deliver services in a more effective
and efficient manner at lower cost, while strengthening its stewardship for the Agency's
resources. Toward that end, OARM will re-examine its processes across the board and test
alternative ways of doing business. EPA will measure our ultimate success by improved
performance and customer satisfaction.
OARM is committed to the implementation of the National Performance Review (NPR)
initiatives. We want to ensure that OARM services and processes help managers and employees
reach their objectives instead of serving as barriers. Working with OPPE and others in EPA
OARM will:
** Develop and put into place an integrated approach to Agency-wide strategic planning,
budgeting, financial management, and program evaluation that will guide the Agency's
program and investment decisions and meets the mandates of the Chief Financial Officers
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(CFO) Act, the Integrity Act, and the Government Performance and Results Act,
(GPRA), an effort that OARM and OPPE co-lead;
^ Develop an Agency-wide Information Resources Management Strategic Plan. This plan
will guide the Agency's investment in and management of its hardware, systems, and
technical infrastructure to facilitate the work and decisionmaking of all EPA employees
and their colleagues in the environmental community (e.g., government, academia, and
private industry);
^ Further develop and implement a comprehensive resources-management training
program covering acquisition, assistance, budget, financial management, and
management integrity to ensure that EPA employees have the knowledge and skills to
effectively manage resources;
> Establish a Working Capital Fund to provide more appropriate and efficient
administrative services, better identify the cost of running programs, and logically plan
for and purchase capital equipment;
> Carry out the CFO's Financial Management Five-Year Plan to strengthen accountability,
financial management practices, and decisionmaking throughout EPA;
* Create the framework to improve organizational and workforce performance by pursuing
NPR and Labor-Management Partnership initiatives;
> Reinvent the Agency's administrative processes, beginning with personnel and contracts
management;
> Re-engineer EPA's implementation of the Federal Managers Financial Integrity Act,
building core integrity principles into the primary functions of planning, budgeting, fiscal
management, and program evaluation; and
> Provide all employees with a quality work environment that is safe, healthy and secure
(e.g., completing the move from Waterside Mall into EPA's new complex). OARM also
is committed to designing workplaces that provide state-of-the-art communications,
learning and energy conservation technologies, plus improved access for the
handicapped.
7. Environmental Accountability
To support the Agency's effort to assess compliance by type of industry, specific facility and
geographic location, OARM will make it possible to combine information from the Agency's
many data sources. OARM will develop the information policies, standards, and tools which will
allow the Agency to analyze such issues as the distribution of risk and environmental justice and
to display the results in easily understood maps and charts. This will allow EPA to target
enforcement actions by ecosystem, geographic area, and affected population.
The sharing of the Agency's information will empower greater public involvement. It will support
their efforts to make informed choices as consumers, to comply with EPA's requirements, and to
advocate sound environmental policies in their communities. OARM will promote policies, tools,
and technologies that improve the public's access to EPA's information. As part of this effort,
OARM will plan and develop the communication and computing tools to support this expanding
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access. OARM also will develop information partnerships with states, localities, and others to
improve their compliance assessment and enforcement capacity.
Another key OARM program which promotes environmental accountability is the Environmental
Justice outreach program. Through this program, minority and low income citizens will be
educated and empowered to advocate for environmental fairness within their own communities.
OARM's aggressive suspension and debarment program will continue to ensure that EPA does
business only with responsible contractors and grantees. Through this program, EPA will take
action against contractors and grantees who commit waste, fraud, or abuse, or who perform
poorly on projects funded by EPA. OARM will also continue its work with state and local
agencies in establishing partnerships which will enhance information and document exchange in
suspension and debarment matters. This partnership will improve our joint capacity to protect the
integrity of our contracts and grants investments.
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OFFICE OF CIVIL RIGHTS
INTRODUCTION
The Office of Civil Rights (OCR) serves as the principal advisor to the Administrator with respect
to the Agency's civil rights responsibilities. OCR provides Agency-wide direction, coordination,
monitoring, and evaluation of equal employment opportunity, affirmative employment, and
external compliance programs. The programs' OCR administrators in one way or another have an
impact on every employee and every program in the Agency.
SUPPORTING THE GUIDING PRINCIPLES
The Office of Civil Rights has responsibilities that support the strategic vision in three principal
areas. The goals of these overarching guiding principles, when fully realized, will fundamentally
change the way the Agency does business into the 21st century.
2. Environmental Justice
The Office of Civil Rights is responsible for enforcing a number of crosscutting civil rights
statutes prohibiting discrimination by recipients of EPA assistance. The principal statute for
addressing environmental justice issues is Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1963, as amended.
Title VI prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin in federally
assisted programs and activities. State and local governments are the largest recipients of EPA
grants. The states carry out delegated environmental programs using EPA funds, and they play a
major role in the siting and permitting of facilities. These activities affect minority communities,
and they are at the crux of many environmental justice issues.
During the next five years, OCR will focus its external compliance program activities on state and
local governments. In cooperation with the Office of Grants and Debarment, OCR is developing a
comprehensive compliance review reporting form for state agencies that will yield a variety of
information enabling OCR to determine their compliance with the applicable civil rights statutes.
OCR will use this information to identify environmental justice problems and target states for
in-depth compliance reviews to correct these problems. OCR is processing complaints filed by or
on behalf of minority communities raising environmental justice issues. These complaints are
precedent-setting, and OCR will be developing the procedures, guidance, and analytical
framework for processing and resolving these complaints. OCR will provide technical assistance
to recipient state agencies in compliance with Title VI, and to communities and individuals on
utilizing Title VI to address environmental justice issues.
5. Partnerships
OCR will develop partnerships that enable the Agency to achieve its diversity and environmental
justice goals. To enhance the Agency's ability to recruit minorities in the scientific and engineering
fields, OCR is developing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Hispanic Association
of Colleges and Universities that will lay the foundation for other MOUs with Hispanic
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institutions to provide for a variety of educational, developmental, and employment opportunities
with the Agency. OCR also will expand its relationships with Historically Black Colleges and
Universities. In the environmental justice area, OCR will develop working relationships with state
environmental agencies to foster compliance with Title VI. OCR also will work with communities
to educate them on their rights under Title VI. Finally, OCR will work to improve its partnerships
with EPA program offices, regions, and field offices. These partnerships are essential to achieving
the Agency's goals.
6. Reinventing EPA Management
One of the most controversial and critical issues facing the federal government in the next five
years is the need to streamline the federal workforce, particularly at the supervisory and
managerial levels, while at the same time increasing the representation of minorities, women, and
people with disabilities. The Agency's Affirmative Employment Plan is the Agency's strategic
plan for accomplishing increased diversity in the workforce. The plan provides a detailed analysis
of the Agency's workforce and specific numerical and percentage goals to correct
underrepresentation. The objectives outlined in the plan serve as a road map for how the Agency
will achieve its diversity goals.
In broad categories, the Affirmative Employment Plan's objectives include: eliminating
underrepresentation of minorities, women, and people with disabilities; reducing discrimination
complaints and expediting the process leading to complaint resolution; placing targeted group
members at the GS-13 through 15 and SES levels through a recruitment and hiring program that
produces qualified candidates; establishing and maintaining contact with minority academic
institutions; providing employee development opportunities to increase the selection of minorities
and women in supervisory and managerial positions; assessing the effectiveness of the affirmative
employment program by reviewing results; developing manager accountability for achieving
affirmative employment goals; implementing a program for prevention of sexual harassment; and
making the hiring of severely disabled individuals one of EPA's top priorities. Achievement of
these objectives will make EPA a model employer in the years to come and will bring the richness
of diversity to the nation's environmental policies and programs.
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OFFICE OF COMMUNICATIONS, EDUCATION
AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS
INTRODUCTION
Communicating with the public about evolving and complex issues is not easy for any
organization. Such efforts have been especially difficult at EPA over the years, because officials
did not always consider public knowledge to be a priority, because of limited staffing and funding
for public outreach, and because outreach efforts were dispersed throughout the Agency and not
always coordinated.
Today EPA is addressing new policies and goals beyond the old "command and control"
approach. Advances in protection of the environment will be a public that is educated, supportive,
and involved. Thus, the Agency needs to reach out to people in new and better ways.
Polls shows that people often are confused about environmental issues and that they want more
information. They also expect to partake personally in finding solutions to environmental
problems. That desire for more knowledge and participation matches well this Administration's
support for greater public discourse ranging from town meetings to use of the electronic
highways.
Over the next five years, the Office of Communications, Education and Public Affairs (OCEPA)
intends to ensure and augment the public's understanding of the environment and gain support for
Agency actions by:
> Integrating public communications planning earlier in the formation and implementation
of significant Agency proposals and regulations.
> Improving public understanding of multi-media efforts by increasing cross-program and
headquarters-regional planning and execution.
>- Making communications "work smarter" by consolidating and streamlining outreach
efforts across the Agency, thereby improving planning and execution to maximize results
at less cost.
> Adapting polling techniques to better understand the public's level of environmental
knowledge and areas of interest and concern.
> Introducing electronic technologies beyond those now available at EPA, including
sophisticated videos and television public service announcements, cooperative contacts
with entertainment television, environmental shorts in movie houses, CD-ROMs,
interactive videos, and regular feeds to computer networks.
> Broadening the span of environmental education beyond K-12, with changes in the
enabling legislation to reach college campuses, adult education programs, and
nontraditional or informal education systems, thus helping EPA reach and teach the
public.
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*- Helping train EPA personnel to communicate better with the public by using words and
images that fit audience levels of knowledge and areas of interest.
SUPPORTING THE GUIDING PRINCIPLES
In the future, public communications are more likely to vary according to audience needs and
characteristics than by Agency program or project lines.
1. Ecosystem Protection and 3. Pollution Prevention
Modern environmental programs require more public understanding and support than the early
end-of-pipe, command-and-control systems, and they often involve multi-media approaches. So
OCEPA intends to increase inter-program and headquarters-regional cooperative outreach efforts,
forming communicators' networks to provide mutual support and ensure that the Agency speaks
to the public with a clear, unified voice.
OCEPA intends to work with programs and regions to develop language materials that will
explain clearly to the public that subjects such as "ecosystems" can be understood as they pertain
to their own neighborhoods and backyards.
OCEPA will help train Agency officials to improve the delivery of messages on programs such as
ecosystem protection and pollution prevention so that members of the public understand their
own, personal role in the process and the personal value of their contributions.
2. Environmental Justice
OCEPA intends to work more with EPA regional offices and community groups to improve the
quality as well as the quantity of two-way communication with local communities. Headquarters-
supported polling research and focus groups will support regional staff on-site to determine the
informational wants and needs of inner-city, low-income, and minority communities. Related
efforts will include use of focus groups so the Agency can sharpen its outreach methods.
4. Strong Science and Data
The public should be aware of the depth and breadth of technical knowledge and information at
EPA. OCEPA will help provide communication training for Agency technical and scientific staff
so they can offer to the public, directly and through the news media, a better understanding of
relative risks and solutions. OCEPA foresees EPA technical staff being widely recognized as
experts for news interviews, public service announcements, and educational forums. OCEPA also
intends to work with EPA program staff to help disseminate technical data to educators, students,
and outside researchers.
5. Partnerships
OCEPA, though its Public Liaison and Environmental Education divisions, will further expand its
dealings with educators, civic organizations, environmental groups, business and industry
associations, individual firms, labor unions, public health organizations, and environmental justice
groups by expanding databases, introducing computer fax systems, engaging in outreach very
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early in the Agency's decisionmaking processes, and seeking partnerships with non-traditional
education sources. OCEPA also will reach out to other headquarters and regional staff that
engage outside groups in order to improve Agency-wide coordination of such efforts.
6. Reinventing EPA Management
Streamlining will be assisted by intensifying cooperative communication among headquarters and
regional offices. Duplication will be avoided and the quantity and quality of work will improve
without adding staff.
7. Environmental Accountability
In its role as the Agency's primary communicator to educators, constituents, news media, and the
general public, OCEPA will promote responsible environmental behavior that leads to and beyond
compliance with the nation's environmental laws. This effort will grow out of existing activities
within this office, which already promotes personal activism on behalf of the environment and
innovation by constituent groups.
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OFFICE OF CONGRESSIONAL AND LEGISLATIVE
AFFAIRS
INTRODUCTION
The Office of Congressional and Legislative Affairs (OCLA) coordinates the Agency's
Congressional and legislative strategies and activities, and serves as the Agency's principal point
of contact for Congress. OCLA advises the Administrator on all Congressional and legislative
matters and is responsible for:
*- Legislative drafting and liaison activities;
* Coordination with the White House and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to
ensure consistency with Administration positions;
* The Agency's Congressional correspondence; and
* The Legislative Reference Library.
OCLA's main statutory priorities include:
* Reauthorizing key environmental laws such as Superfund, the Clean Water Act, the Safe
Drinking Water Act, and legislation to reform food safety.
OCLA's non-statutory priorities in turn include:
* Obtaining Cabinet status for the Agency; and
* Supporting the Agency, its policies, and programs on Capitol Hill.
OCLA also is developing new tools and processes to facilitate effective working relationships
between the Agency and Congress. A long-term internal goal of OCLA, consistent with the
Agency's streamlining plan and desire to do more with less, is a new process for outreach; i.e.,
reorganizing the Congressional Liaison and Legislative Analysis Divisions into media-based teams
to promote coordination of issues expertise and political intelligence. These media teams will be
expanded to include representatives from all EPA offices performing external communications
functions.
One such new tool is a working geographic database, shared at headquarters and in the regions,
that will document EPA's interactions with individual members of Congress, record Senators' and
Representatives' environmental interests, and allow cross-referencing of environmental issues and
EPA activities in districts and states. This database will improve EPA's responsiveness to
Congressional concerns, while underscoring the Agency's mission.
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SUPPORTING THE GUIDING PRINCIPLES
Guiding Principles 1 through 4
OCLA will support the Administrator's strategic vision through all forms of interaction with
Congress, including affirmative statements in testimony, responses to questions, and advocacy of
supportive legislation. OCLA's work revolves around statutory mandates and thus by nature
includes ecosystem protection, environmental justice, pollution prevention, and strong science and
data. OCLA's role within the Agency is to weave together and emphasize Agency priorities,
including the strategic vision, in written and oral communications with Congress, regardless of the
program office of origin. In this way, the Agency is assured of delivering a consistent and
cohesive message to Congress about goals, priorities, and commitments.
Significant long-term changes in OCLA will be supplemented through increased emphasis on
internal and external partnerships and on reinventing EPA through improved teamwork,
technological advances such as the above-mentioned database, and improving employee diversity.
5. Partnerships
The partnership principle has particular meaning for OCLA as an operational matter apart from a
substantive policy principle. The success of the Agency's legislative calendar directly depends to a
large degree on the strength of EPA's working relationship with partners such as state and local
governments, regional entities, and tribes. OCLA is working to improve these relationships in its
Congressional outreach and briefing efforts, and by responsiveness to constituent concerns. The
Congressional database is a developing tool that will provide both headquarters and regional
offices with improved informational assets to support EPA's partners at all levels.
6. Reinventing EPA Management
Creation of the media teams will increase efficiency and improve communication. The teams also
will provide a structure through which personnel will learn about work done by the team
members. This will promote integration of the duties currently divided between divisions. In
addition, this structure allows more flexibility for staff movement between issues and more
opportunities for support staff to be part of a team and acquire substantive knowledge about their
team's issues. EPA will be considering creative and innovative ways of allowing support staff to
develop and gain expertise in substantive issue areas and in support techniques, thus empowering
them and boosting their career potential. Over the past years, several positions have been created
to develop and upgrade support staff to the professional level. Other improvements still can be
made, however, and diversity must be a major factor in recruitment and advancement.
OTHER MANDATES AND OBLIGATIONS
Through its work with Congressional oversight committees, OCLA helps the Agency meet its
statutory obligations. In terms of internal obligations, the Office of the Administrator and program
offices expect OCLA to serve as their early warning mechanism to anticipate Congressional
action, identify areas of concern and respond to them.
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OFFICE OF ENFORCEMENT AND COMPLIANCE
ASSURANCE
INTRODUCTION
EPA's mandate to protect public health and safety depends upon effective enforcement. The costs
of violating environmental laws both direct litigation costs as well as costs resulting from
remediation and the assessment of civil penalties or criminal fines and incarceration are great.
Strong, deterrence-based enforcement as reflected, for example, in the rapid growth of EPA's
criminal enforcement program creates a climate which forcefully motivates innovation,
prevention and compliance by the regulated community.
The newly organized Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) will provide,
through its consolidated multi-media structure, a single voice for national enforcement policy and
direction. For the first time, OECA's national strategic plan will provide an integrated
enforcement and compliance assurance strategy for targeting noncomplying sectors of the
regulated community, sensitive ecosystems, and populations, and for fostering risk-based,
multi-media, whole-facility approaches that emphasize pollution prevention and innovative
compliance techniques.
Principally through its Offices of Regulatory Enforcement (ORE), Criminal Enforcement (OCE),
and Site Remediation Enforcement (OSRE), OECA will maintain a bedrock commitment to
enforcement in order to deter noncompliance. At the same time, OECA's past success will enable
the development of innovative ways to reach greater segments of the regulated community.
OECA will develop additional strategies to assure overall compliance, using both formal
enforcement tools to correct violations and industry-based and facility-specific assistance
programs to prevent violations from occurring in the first place. OECA considers "compliance
assurance" as an integrated set of activities including inspections, compliance monitoring, civil
enforcement, criminal prosecutions, compliance assistance and promotion, deterrence-oriented
publicity regarding enforcement actions, and environmental review of proposed federal actions
all designed to accomplish consistent widespread compliance and maximize environmental
protection. OECA will invest heavily in enforcement in order to improve compliance.
SUPPORTING THE GUIDING PRINCIPLES
1. Ecosystem Protection
During the past several years, the Agency has conducted "pilot" multi-media initiatives involving
sensitive geographic zones, including the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico. The experience
gained in conducting these initiatives, as well as recent advances in geographic targeting, will help
shape OECA's new, more focused efforts to protect sensitive ecosystems.
One of the primary functions of the Office of Compliance's (OC) Agriculture and Ecosystems
Division will be to work with the regions and other EPA offices to identify and target
environmental impacts and activities in critical ecosystems, e.g., watersheds, and fashion
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compliance strategies. In addition, the Office of Federal Activities (OF A), acting pursuant to the
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and section 309 of the Clean Air Act (CAA), will
conduct reviews of other federal agencies' actions, proposed regulations, and legislative proposals
that emphasize effective mitigation of adverse impacts, and refer to the President's Council on
Environmental Quality (CEQ) those federal actions that may impact sensitive ecosystems.
2. Environmental Justice
OECA will give prominent attention to environmental justice issues through compliance analysis
and targeted data analyses of high-risk population areas and enforcement initiatives affecting
specific groups, e.g., urban populations, farmworkers, and subsistence fishermen, as well as
through review of other agencies' proposals under NEPA and CAA.
In order to facilitate cooperative efforts in the enforcement arena among federal, state, tribal, and
local governments to realize equal protection for all citizens, OECA has created an Environmental
Justice Coordinator position. The coordinator will develop an OECA strategic vision for
environmental justice and ensure that these concerns are integrated within all of the OECA
component offices. The National Enforcement Training Institute (NETI), working in conjunction
with minority institutions, will develop and deliver expanded environmental justice training.
3. Pollution Prevention
OECA has developed multi-media settlement policies to advance the incorporation of pollution
prevention (source reduction) and innovative pollution control technologies in enforcement
settlements. The OC and the Federal Facilities Enforcement Office (FFEO) will assure that
auditing policies identify methodologies and opportunities for considering process changes that
will result in pollution prevention; multi-media investigations and inspections undertaken by the
National Enforcement Investigations Center (NEIC) and the regions will consider pollution
prevention and waste minimization opportunities; and ORE's Multi-Media Enforcement Division
will ensure that facility-wide pollution prevention options are explored during the settlement
process, both as injunctive relief and as Supplemental Environmental Projects (SEPs). NETI will
provide enforcement-oriented pollution prevention training and material to federal and state
personnel.
Working in conjunction with the Agency's pollution prevention division, OECA will develop a
systematic understanding of pollution prevention technologies that can be applied to specific
industries and sectors of the economy. While OECA will not have the resources to develop
"particularized" pollution prevention expertise in all areas, OC's Manufacturing, Energy and
Transportation and Chemical, Commercial Services, and Municipal Divisions will integrate
pollution prevention into the full spectrum of compliance and enforcement activities.
4. Strong Science and Data
By reorganizing, OECA has pulled together in one office all headquarters legal, technical
enforcement, and compliance assurance personnel, and most of the Agency's compliance data
systems. This reorganization should promote improved science-based enforcement
decisionmaking as well as consistent, well-integrated enforcement data that the Agency needs for
carry out its regulatory responsibilities.
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OECA will standardize compliance and enforcement information and provide sector, pollutant and
geographic reports and analyses to identify problems, promote compliance, and target national
initiatives. The use of data quality/data integrity compliance initiatives, such as the TSCA 8e CAP
program (submission of data regarding potentially adverse chemical health effects), Good
Laboratory Practices (GLP) data audits, and Section 313 Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) data are
effective tools for improving the quality of environmental data. Other initiatives will ensure that
the regulated community is operating within the regulatory system and enhance the quality of
compliance data (e.g., RCRA's "Second Illegal Operators Initiative," which began July 1993).
OECA will rely on "good science" and "good data" to assess the impact of compliance and
enforcement efforts. Traditional enforcement activity measures will be supplemented and
strengthened by efforts to develop improved measures of success that will better gauge the
environmental and public health benefits of compliance and enforcement efforts. Examples include
measuring reductions in pollution emissions or discharge loadings achieved in consent orders and
decrees, measuring the investment value of improvement projects secured through enforcement,
as well as measuring increases in national compliance rates achieved through the enforcement and
compliance program as a whole.
OECA will expand its data integration efforts to allow EPA and state managers and staff to easily
access consistent, useful compliance and enforcement information for facilities across the country
and across media programs. OECA also will pursue more efficient data entry and management
techniques such as electronic data interchange to reduce generation of paper and improve data
quality.
5. Partnerships
An effective national enforcement and compliance assurance program must involve federal, state,
tribal, and local cooperation, as well as communications with, and the participation of, the public.
The Office of Enforcement Capacity and Outreach (OECO), OF A, and OC will work with states,
tribes, localities, and environmental justice organizations to ensure their involvement in program
planning and implementation. OFFE and OFA will work with other federal agencies to promote
multi-media, innovative, and holistic approaches to environmental compliance, while the OSRE
will ensure citizen input at Superfund sites. OECA also will make compliance data more
assessable to states and citizens. OECA also will develop strategies to work out roles and
responsibilities with states in the implementation of the new comprehensive enforcement
approach. Some states with delegated or approved enforcement programs may want to adopt
EPA's targeted, multi-media focus, while others may prefer to emphasize the more traditional
single-media focus. OECA's liaison efforts must consider the different authorities, capabilities and
environmental priorities of individual states and tribes, and develop effective differential oversight,
grant assistance, and cooperative agreement procedures to ensure the most effective overall
national enforcement response.
OCE will expand coordination and communications among federal, state, tribal, and local law
enforcement units by designating state contacts to serve as focal points for exchanging
information regarding the status of criminal investigations and cases, engaging in cross referral of
cases, technical support and training, and coordinating state/federal civil and criminal proceedings.
State, local, and tribal civil and criminal law enforcement capability will be enhanced through the
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NETI-sponsored training delivered by the state association networks and the National Association
of Attorneys General (NAAG).
OFA will establish, improve, and expand coordination and communications with federal agencies
and with EPA program offices to assure agency compliance with federal statutes, regulations, and
executive orders relating to the protection and conservation of special and natural resources (e.g.,
the Endangered Species Act, National Historic Preservation Act, NEPA, the Floodplains
Executive Order, etc.).
OECA will build environmental enforcement capabilities internationally and cooperate with
Mexico and Canada to protect shared environmental resources. This includes NAFTA
implementation and the work of the Trilateral North American Commission on Environmental
Cooperation to improve environmental enforcement, as well as Mexican and Canadian
cooperation in implementing the multi-media enforcement initiatives for the Gulf of Mexico and
the Great Lakes. OECA will provide technical assistance on environmental compliance and
enforcement to Eastern Europe, Russia, the former Soviet states, Central and South America,
Africa, and the Middle East.
6. Reinventing EPA Management
The decision to reorganize the Agency's compliance and enforcement program is itself a
recognition of the need to allocate scarce resources more effective and more efficiently among
priority areas. The integration of technical and legal enforcement personnel will enable OECA to
develop a comprehensive strategic plan, thus providing a single, authoritative enforcement "voice"
for the entire Agency. It also will enhance EPA's goal of assuring that rules, permits, and
compliance strategies are clearly enforceable.
As reflected by OECA's significant advances in streamlining its management structure (1:11
management to staff ratio for 90 percent of OECA's Washington, D.C., operation), OECA will be
very much committed to empowerment of its personnel. Moreover, OECA is committed to
making the regional/headquarter decisionmaking process as efficient as possible. It will assess
existing delegations of authority and concurrence procedures to eliminate unnecessary or
duplicative layers of review.
7. Environmental Accountability
The Agency's cornerstone for implementing this principle is a strong compliance and enforcement
program. In the coming years, OECA will intensify its efforts to promote compliance through
improved targeting and deployment of available tools. Areas of emphasis will include compliance
assistance, motivating compliance by improving access to compliance data for consumers and
communities, and regulatory development.
OECA will select the most appropriate enforcement response for any given violation to achieve
the maximum environmental benefit. OECA will target its activities in noncomplying sectors of
the regulated community and sensitive ecosystems and populations. A strong deterrence-based
enforcement program will establish the type of climate that motivates compliance, encourages
innovation, and promotes prevention.
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OECA will undertake a range of activities that will build capacity for compliance. It will continue
partnerships with other federal agencies, states, and tribes in implementing our field programs
(including compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)) and sharing
information collected under OECA programs. OECA will work with the program offices in
developing compliance assistance strategies for the various sectors, geographic areas, ecosystems,
and populations. These strategies will be geared to those in the regulated community that the
information or means to comply.
OECA will build on the successes realized under the Emergency Planning and Community
Right-to-Know Act by improving public access to compliance information, thereby empowering
consumers and communities to make informed choices and to participate more effectively in the
regulatory process. OECA also will work to ensure that the implementing regulations for the
Agency's statutes are more understandable to the regulated community and the public. In
addition, OECA will work closely with the program offices and general counsel to ensure that
regulations are more enforceable.
OTHER MANDATES AND OBLIGATIONS
While OECA proceeds to implement its multi-media, sector-based strategy, it also recognizes that
most of its current mandates and legislative authorities are media-specific. A large portion of
OECA's short-term activity will continue to support media program priorities by addressing
single-media violations, and it must be careful not to lose its media-specific expertise and
experience during the transition to an integrative, multi-media approach. ORE will include Air,
Water, RCRA, and Toxics and Pesticides Divisions, in addition to the Multi-Media Division.
These media divisions will work with the regions and states on media-specific case development
and prosecution, including national initiatives to promote media-specific enforcement priorities.
REFERENCES
1. "Revised Office of Enforcement Four-Year Strategic Plan: 1994-1997,"July 1992.
2. "Revised Policy Framework for EPA/Stale Enforcement Agreements, " August 25,
1986. Subsequent revisions to the Revised Policy Framework include the Criminal
Enforcement Addendum (February 1, 1993), the Multi-Media Addendum (May 13,
1992), and the Oversight of State and Local Penalty Assessments (July 20, 1993).
3. "Policy on the Use of Supplemental Environmental Projects in EPA Enforcement
Settlements, " February 12, 1991, and the Interim Policy on the Use of Pollution
Prevention Conditions in Enforcement Settlements, February 26, 1991.
4. "New Strategic Enforcement Organization, " Memorandum from Administrator
Browner, October 12, 1993.
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OFFICE OF GENERAL COUNSEL
INTRODUCTION
The General Counsel is the chief legal officer for EPA, supervising staff in the Office of General
Counsel (OGC) and the counseling activities of the Offices of Regional Counsel (ORCs). OGC
will strive to foster the independent critical analysis and cross-cutting vantage point that are the
hallmark and strength of its approach, and that can serve as key resources for moving EPA in a
new direction.
OGC's key goals revolve around several themes:
* Providing sound and creative legal advice. OGC will need to anticipate problems that
arise under the Administrator's initiatives to position the Agency to deal successfully
with them. Central to these efforts will be assisting the Agency in retaining control, to
the maximum extent possible, of its own policy agenda. By using advance planning and
thinking to anticipate or avert legal challenges that can impose outside priorities on the
Agency, OGC can assist in keeping the Administrator's new initiatives on target.
Furthermore, the emphasis on decentralization of decisionmaking processes in the
Agency will require that the Agency's attorneys deliver legal services to more
decisionmakers;
> Participating in new Agency partnerships. The formation of new or additional
partnerships with states, local governments, tribes, businesses, other agencies, and other
countries will likely involve cross-cutting issues and new combinations of expertise, as
well as the need to service a new range of stakeholders; and
* Supporting and facilitating new organizational and management approaches. The
replacement of some of EPA's more rigid ways of carrying out its own business in such
areas as personnel and procurement, while avoiding the pitfalls which some of these
procedures were written to protect against, will require increased training, better
efficiency, and the improved use of new information technologies. OGC can become a
model for these innovations in its effort to anticipate future trends in legal services.
In working toward achieving the Administrator's strategic vision, OGC and ORCs will rely upon
their current counseling functions whereby they serve as the government's environmental law
experts and their ability to provide forward thinking and creative problem solving for the
Agency. The General Counsel will use a combination of: careful priority setting to eliminate those
functions that can be carried out in other parts of the Agency; accomplishing current functions
more efficiently; and requesting the addition of new resources where necessary.
The ability of the Agency to perform its mission effectively is tied directly to the ability of OGC
and ORCs to provide timely and effective legal advice and review. OGC and ORCs are generally
depended upon to find creative legal solutions to complex and difficult problems. The capacity of
OGC and ORCs to provide sound but creative legal support for the Administrator's new
strategies is at a critical point that will require hard choices on how resources will be allocated
within and for the legal counseling function.
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SUPPORTING THE GUIDING PRINCIPLES
1. Ecosystem Protection
OGC and ORCs have started to build their capacity to advise EPA programs on ecosystem
management protection, including the development of ecological approaches to implementing
EPA's existing authorities and new, integrated approaches that focus on particular ecosystems.
The Agency's recognition over the past year that EPA needed to improve its management of
Endangered Species Act (ESA) requirements has been a critical component of the Agency's
foundation for ecosystem management protection, including the promotion of biodiversity, within
EPA programs. OGC has provided initial guidance and organized a workshop in conjunction with
other EPA offices and the Interior and Commerce Departments to provide a better understanding
of the ESA requirements. There is, however, a definite need for OGC and ORCs to increase their
capacities to address ESA issues and a wide variety of issues concerning implementation of
ecosystem approaches under the Agency's organic statutes. OGC also has provided substantial
participation in the Convention on Biological Diversity, which takes an ecosystem management
approach. OGC has made a large contribution to ecosystem-related geographic initiatives such as
the Great Lakes. OGC has a demonstrated expertise in trade and environment issues directly
relevant to sustainable development and ecosystem protection.
OGC will target its recruiting requirements for new attorneys to build capacity in these areas as
well as in the other areas discussed below. OGC also will create training opportunities both within
and outside the Agency for its staff. OGC also will establish pilot programs using cross-media or
cross-cutting teams to address individual ecosystem protection issues and broader Agency-wide
initiatives. With its experience over the past year, OGC is well positioned to work with program
offices in developing an understanding of ecosystem management protection and in advising on
ways to conserve biodiversity and to protect endangered and threatened species under the ESA
consistent with other authorities. OGC will need to increase its expertise and capacity so that
OGC can advise on ways to combine protecting the health of ecosystems and promoting
economic development to enhance integrated ecosystem management.
2. Environmental Justice
OGC and ORCs are uniquely situated to contribute to the early, understandable, and workable
articulation of principles by which the Agency can incorporate environmental justice
considerations as it carries out its mission. The early commitment of resources to this effort,
including coordination with the regions and the development of national guidance, should serve
EPA its customers, and the public well.
OGC has started to develop a core expertise on environmental justice. OGC played a substantial
role in shaping the recently issued Executive Order on this subject. OGC is also participating in all
of the Agency's environmental justice initiatives. An internal OGC workgroup has started to
assess the flexibility within EPA's statutory and regulatory authority to address environmental
justice issues, highly complex areas of law in which OGC will have to refine its expertise. For
example, OGC will assist the Agency in using Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to help implement
its environmental justice principle.
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It is crucial to have OGC increase its capacity on environmental justice in part, by increased
training to assist, for example, in examining statutory and regulatory barriers, authorities
related to siting of facilities, financial assistance options, opportunities for increased public
participation, and risk and exposure issues. It is also important that OGC have the capacity to
assist the Administrator in implementing the President's Executive Order within the Agency and
within the Executive Branch. It is also crucial to have ORCs increase their capacity to deal
effectively with environmental justice implementation issues.
3. Pollution Prevention
OGC has played an important role over the last few years as the Agency has steered toward
explicit emphasis on pollution prevention, including a strong role in drafting the Executive Order
on Pollution Prevention and Community-Right-to-Know. OGC continues to provide a critical role
in identifying the flexibility within EPA's statutory authorities to adopt pollution prevention
opportunities in EPA regulations, policies, permits, guidance documents, and compliance
activities and in implementing the new Executive Order.
OGC still needs to increase its capacity to promote new pollution prevention opportunities. For
example, the Administrator's Pollution Prevention Policy Statement will encourage new
approaches in all of EPA's activities. EPA's new sector initiative will offer enhanced opportunities
for pollution prevention. In addition, pollution prevention guiding principles will need to be built
into EPA's partnership relationships and international agreements. The success of these
opportunities in large measure will depend upon the flexibility that OGC can define within EPA's
statutory authorities. It is equally important that ORCs increase their capacity to address pollution
prevention opportunities at the regional level.
4. Strong Science and Data
OGC has a core expertise in science and risk issues. OGC has been an active participant on these
issues in the context of rulemaking and has been asked by the Administrator in limited instances to
lead initiatives such as the current dioxin regulatory review. Historically, OGC has not created or
designated an organizational unit to provide continuous legal services on media-related issues to
the Office of Research and Development (ORD) as a client office. As a result, OGC has not had a
recognized role in any of the Agency's ORD-led science and data initiatives. Rather, OGC
provides legal services on an ad hoc basis.
OGC will explore with ORD whether the current relationship should be expanded and, if so, in
what ways. OGC can provide a vital role in analyzing the place of risk in EPA's statutes as a
decision criterion. OGC also can assess the amount of data and research that is legally required to
defend the Agency's science. OGC also can continue to provide assistance to Agency scientists in
obtaining patents or licensing them to the private sector. If OGC is to provide legal services to
ORD on a regular basis or increased legal services on science issues in the program offices, OGC
will have to increase its capacity. To do so may result in a net saving to the Agency's resources by
having OGC participate early in the development of the Agency's science and data initiatives
rather than later when the research and data are used to make regulatory decisions.
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5. Partnerships
OGC currently has expertise to address partnership issues that are raised by state, tribal, and local
governments, other nations, and other stakeholders. With the strong priority placed by the
Administrator on more effective, frequent, and extensive relations with these stakeholders, OGC
can play an even stronger and more important role in bringing these groups together. OGC can
work toward depolarization of environmental regulation by undertaking exploratory discussions
with all litigants against the Agency. As the role that stakeholders play in rulemaking activities
increases, OGC's role may have to increase to ensure that Administrative Procedure Act and
Federal Advisory Committee Act requirements are met, just as OGC will be a critical advisor in
finding more flexible financial assistance arrangements for stakeholders. Furthermore, with the
Administrator's clear commitment to delegate processes to state and local government authorities
where appropriate including under extensive Clean Air Act provisions, such as the operating
permits program OGC may play a critical role in facilitating these efforts and ensuring a
coordinated, legally defensible national approach. OGC can also assist in devising creative and
effective new means for cooperating with other countries on common environmental issues.
OGC will likely need to educate members of the public on the legal requirements of EPA's
mission as the public participates on a greater basis in cooperative regulatory approaches. OGC
also may sponsor training opportunities for OGC's counterparts in state environmental agencies
or state attorneys general. There are sufficient issues of mutual concern that an annual conference,
for example, may facilitate communication and understanding between OGC and state legal
offices on how those issues should be resolved. OGC also has developed the lead core expertise
regarding the unique legal status of Indian tribes. OGC needs to increase its capacity to work
more closely with program offices to develop and implement regulations addressing EPA
authorization of tribal regulatory programs and tribal eligibility for EPA grant funding. Such
increased capacity also would be used to anticipate Indian law issues so that they could be
addressed with increased dialogue with the interested stakeholders. OGC also would develop an
Agency-wide Indian law training course to provide better understanding of Indian issues. Working
directly with OGC, ORCs also need to increase their capacity to ensure more effective legal
analysis and review of Indian law issues and greater consistency within the Agency on significant
matters of Indian law.
OGC has led the Agency-wide effort to draft a strategy for innovative technology, putting
emphasis on creating effective new partnerships with the private sector and other federal agencies
to substantially increase the number of technological innovations available to solve environmental
problems. An equally important thrust of the draft strategy is the adaptation of the EPA policy
and regulatory framework to provide incentives for innovation and to impose fewer barriers. It is
this latter area where continued OGC involvement will be especially important, as the Agency
seeks to provide flexibility for technological innovations within its existing statutory and
regulatory requirements.
6. Reinventing EPA Management
OGC will actively contribute to the Agency's efforts on streamlining. Many of the new initiatives
will require careful legal analysis to identify the best ways to structure increased flexibility for
Agency managers and staff within the statutory requirements. The legal counseling resources
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within OGC and ORCs are not exercised in a vacuum, but in support of other Agency functions.
For this reason, OGC's strategy will be revised as OGC works with other EPA components while
they implement their guiding principles.
Internally, OGC is committed to examining its processes and looking for opportunities to
re-engineer the way OGC operates to emphasize employee development, empowerment, and
diversity. OGC will develop a strategy to use its existing resources, both attorneys and support
staff, in the most efficient manner. OGC will strive over the next five years to become the "Law
Office of the Future". Critical to this effort will be the use of new information technologies for
providing more efficient legal services. OGC will visit some private-sector legal offices that are
recognized leaders in new technology. OGC will eliminate duplication between OGC and ORCs
and program attorneys. OGC will provide training to share its expertise with other EPA legal
staffs. OGC also will improve its records management to ensure that the office's institutional
memory is preserved. Agency-wide, OGC will work to minimize the possibility that streamlining
fewer employees, more flexible grants, changes in procurement and contracting procedures
will not result in unanticipated legal consequences.
7. Environmental Accountability
The Office of General Counsel will remove, to the extent legally permitted, legal barriers that may
have hindered implementation of this principle in the past. This will require construing its
authorizing statutes and the appropriation laws that govern the expenditure of funds in ways to
further environmental accountability. OGC will assist in encouraging responsible environmental
behavior by construing information law requirements, to the extent legally permitted, to allow
EPA to provide information, education, and environmental data to the public and the regulated
community in support of environmental accountability.
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OFFICE OF INTERNATIONAL ACTIVITIES
INTRODUCTION
In his Earth Day address of April 1993, President Clinton laid out a comprehensive strategy and
vision for protecting the global environment. The President noted the inter-relationship between
the nation's environmental, foreign policy, and economic and social goals, and called for a more
active U.S. role in addressing such global environmental problems as climate change, ozone
depletion, marine and polar contamination, and the loss of forests and biological diversity. The
President also stressed the importance of developing and disseminating innovative environmental
technologies internationally.
The Office of International Activities (OIA) envisions a role for EPA in which the Agency leads
both within the U.S. government and internationally in achieving the President's vision for the
global environment. This vision includes partnerships with foreign governments and international
organizations in solving environmental problems at the global, regional, and national levels; with
other federal agencies in promoting broader U.S. objectives on foreign policy, international
competitiveness and trade, and international economic and social development; and with
international and domestic non-governmental organizations and other stakeholders in promoting
the goals of sustainable development.
Within EPA, OIA envisions an integrated and strategic approach in which international
considerations permeate the programs and objectives of every single office, division or branch
within the Agency. According to this vision, the Agency speaks with one voice and acts as an
effective advocate for international environmental policy and technical objectives. International
initiatives are carefully coordinated and managed throughout the Agency, ensuring incorporation
of a wide range of different issues and perspectives. Budgetary decisions are linked to priorities,
and resource needs and constraints are identified at the earliest stage possible.
The vision includes increased recognition throughout the Agency of the important domestic
environmental benefits of international cooperation. Beyond purely altruistic considerations, such
cooperation will be an integral component of EPA's ability to fulfill its domestic environmental
mandate. OIA envisions its own role within EPA as the primary focal point and catalyst for the
Agency's international activities, working closely with other offices and regions in providing
overall policy and programmatic coordination and facilitation.
All these components will further a broader vision of a world in which natural resources are
properly valued and preserved and in which, at the most basic level, individuals and local
communities have access to safe food and drinking water supplies, are protected from health and
environmental threats, and are able to make informed choices and participate in government
decisions affecting them.
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SUPPORTING THE GUIDING PRINCIPLES
1. Ecosystem Protection
The Great Lakes, the Rio Grande, and other water bodies and airsheds spanning U.S. borders
with Mexico and Canada demonstrate that many ecosystems cross national as well as state and
local boundaries. Other sensitive ecosystems, such as polar and marine environments and other
parts of the global commons, fall outside the jurisdiction of individual nations; they can only be
protected through joint action with others. OIA's cross-media perspective helps ensure that all
environmental dimensions are incorporated into the Agency's approach for protecting fragile
ecosystems, that, because they cross national borders, that may fall outside EPA's domestic
environmental mandate. One example is the effort currently underway to develop a Coral Reef
Initiative that will include integrated domestic and international programs aimed at the protection
of coral reefs, mangroves, sea grasses, and other critical marine ecosystems.
2. Environmental Justice
EPA's international programs will play an important role in extending the principle of
environmental justice beyond U.S. borders. EPA's draft Environmental Justice Principle proposes
the creation of international partnerships, particularly among the most ecologically fragile and
politically and economically disadvantaged regions of the world, to strengthen the internal
capacity of governments and local communities to participate in environmental protection. The
Agency's experience in enhancing environmental education and in promoting
community-right-to-know and public participation principles also have important applications
internationally.
OIA will play a central role in establishing an interagency International Environmental Justice
Coordinating Council, if approved, and in expanding cooperation with foreign governments and
international organizations. OIA's participation in the United Nations Development Program
(UNDP) Capacity 21 and the United Nations Conference on Women for example, will foster
greater and more equitable distribution of environmental protection. EPA's environmental
activities in connection with the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) also will boost
environmental protection for disadvantaged communities along the U.S.-Mexico border.
3. Pollution Prevention
International cooperation enables EPA to promote the principles of pollution prevention
throughout the international community. The Agency played a major role in incorporating
pollution prevention principles into Agenda 21 and other documents of the Earth Summit, as well
as into other global and regional environmental treaties and conventions. EPA has also promoted
their adoption through bilateral programs, both government-to-government and project-specific.
EPA's technical assistance programs under the Support for Eastern European Democracy
(SEED) Act and Freedom Support Act (FSA), for example, focus on the demonstration of
pollution prevention and waste minimization technologies and cost-effective pollution control
options. Another example would be the AID-funded Environmental Pollution Prevention (EP-3)
operating project-by-project throughout the world.
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4. Strong Science and Data
EPA can learn much from the experience of other nations, both industrialized and developing. The
Agency can strengthen its scientific and technical base through bilateral programs with Germany,
Japan, Russia, Canada, Mexico, and other nations. Through the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development, the World Health Organization, and other scientific and technical
organizations, EPA also promotes the adoption of common data collection and testing procedures
that have widespread benefits for domestic programs.
5. Partnerships
International cooperation with foreign governments and international organizations enables EPA
to influence and benefit from the experience of others in addressing common environmental
objectives. Within the United States, partnership with other federal agencies and with other
stakeholders enables EPA to influence the international practices of these organizations affecting
the environment and to contribute to broader Administration objectives on foreign policy,
international competitiveness and trade, and international economic and social development.
Helping other countries adopt and enforce environmental regulations and standards protects
ecosystems and creates a more level playing field for international trade. Finally, greater outreach
to non-governmental organizations and other stakeholders throughout the world permits EPA to
promote the goals of sustainable development as widely as possible. For example, the exchange of
scientists and technical experts, environmental training, and institution-building programs under
SEED, the FSA, and the US-Asia Environmental Partnership enables the Agency to work with
the Agency for International Development and other federal agencies in achieving U.S.
environmental and other objectives in many other parts of the world. In addition, the Agency's
review of the environmental lending policies and practices of the World Bank and other
multilateral development banks enables EPA to influence the lending of almost $40 billion a year.
6. Reinventing EPA Management
International cooperation greatly leverages U.S. resources, thereby economizing on the use of
limited resources for greater environmental results domestically. Vast expenditures in the United
States on non-ozone depleting chemicals, processes, and technologies can be completely nullified
by unabated emissions of chlorine-containing chemicals in other nations. Provision for "joint
implementation" within the framework convention on climate change is another example of the
potential for achieving a nation's environmental objectives more cost-effectively through action in
another country. OIA's role within EPA enables the Agency to coordinate and integrate
international programs and activities and avoid wasteful duplication and overlap. OIA also
coordinates and co-funds assistance programs with all EPA regional offices and many state
environmental offices, thereby leveraging their support.
7. Environmental Accountability
International programs of cooperation and technical assistance are strengthening environmental
accountability in countries that are U.S. neighbors and trading partners. Pursuant to bilateral
programs and the new trilateral Commission on Environmental Cooperation, EPA is working
actively with Mexico and Canada to promote compliance and to address vigorously violations of
environmental requirements. EPA are also is encouraging cooperative targeting of enforcement
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resources on industry sectors and ecological resources that cross national borders. Strong
compliance and enforcement programs are vital to protect the U.S. environment from pollution
crossing international borders and to create a level playing field for trade with these new partners
in the North American Free Trade Agreement. Outside of North America, EPA is supporting
programs of technical assistance to strengthen enforcement and compliance institutions in selected
countries around the world. EPA efforts leverage resources available from foreign assistance
appropriations and international institutions to develop the critical capacity in other countries to
translate the words of laws and treaties into actual environmental protection. With expanding
world trade, U.S. competitiveness will be enhanced by encouraging strong environmental
enforcement programs with trading partners.
OTHER MANDATES AND OBLIGATIONS
Many of EPA's international programs, including those related to acid rain, climate change, and
ozone depletion, are specifically provided for in EPA's statutory mandates. In addition, the
Agency has assumed a number of other obligations for which OIA is now responsible. Cutting
across all six guiding principles described above, these obligations include management,
implementation, and/or coordination in the following areas:
> Technical assistance programs under SEED, FSA, and the US-Asia Environmental
Partnership.
* Integrated Environmental Plan for the U.S.-Mexico Border and, on behalf of the Deputy
Administrator, post-NAFTA activities, including those related to the North American
Commission on Environmental Cooperation and the Border Environmental Cooperation
Commission.
* International agreements on marine pollution and land-based sources of pollution,
biodiversity, forests, desertification, and the Global Environment Facility.
+ U.S. Technology for International Environmental Solutions (U.S. TIES) program under
the President's Environmental Technology Initiative (ETI).
> GATT/World Trade Organization and other trade-related organizations.
> Agency follow-up to the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro
> Gore-Chernomyrdin Environment Commission.
>- Government-to-government and agency-to-agency bilateral agreements with Germany,
Japan, Canada, China, Russia, and others.
> Formal agreements and Agency participation in the OECD, UNDP, the NATO
Committee on the Challenges of Modern Society, and numerous other multilateral
organizations.
> Review of the environmental lending practices and policies of the World Bank and other
multilateral development banks.
> Review and tracking of EPA's international travel and the International Visitors
program.
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OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL
INTRODUCTION
The Office of Inspector General (OIG) supports the Agency's strategic plan by seeking to
enhance its role in assisting the Agency deliver its programs to EPA's diverse customers.
The Inspectors General, as a community, recently adopted the following vision statement:
"We are agents of positive change striving for continuous improvement in our
agencies' management and program operations, and in our own offices."
This statement reflects the commitment of the Inspectors General to be a positive factor in
improving management and program operations within their respective agencies, while at the
same time fully carrying out the Inspector General's responsibilities under the Inspector General
Act.
The mission of the Inspector General stated in the Inspector General Act of 1978, as amended, is
to:
> Conduct and supervise independent and objective audits and investigations relating to
Agency programs and operations.
* Promote economy, effectiveness, and efficiency within the Agency.
> Prevent and detect fraud, waste, and abuse in Agency programs.
* Review and make recommendations regarding existing and proposed legislation and
regulations relating to Agency programs and operations.
^ Keep the Agency head and the Congress fully informed of problems in agency programs.
To ensure objectivity, the Act provides the IGs:
* Independence to determine what reviews to perform.
** Access to all information necessary for the reviews.
* Authority to publish findings and recommendations based on the reviews.
In carrying out this mission, EPA's Inspector General will strive to:
> Work with management and the Congress to improve program management.
> Use investigative and program compliance reviews to improve the effectiveness of
program operations, elevate government integrity, and recommend better systems to
prevent fraud, waste, and abuse.
> Be innovative and question existing procedures; suggest improvements.
* Build relationships with program managers based on a shared commitment to improving
program operations.
> Continue to improve the quality and usefulness of EPA products.
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>- Work to identify and address government-wide issues.
The main priorities of the OIG for 1995-1999 will be:
* Identifying major areas of agency-wide concern and vulnerability that significantly impact
the economic, efficient, and effective fulfillment of the environmental mission, including
acquisition management, financial and management integrity, and data/information
management.
> Monitoring the Agency's implementation of the reauthorization of Superfund and the
clean water legislation.
** Engineering a culture change within OIG so that our employees more clearly understand
that one of then major roles is to assist EPA managers (customers) to achieve their
program objectives.
To improve assistance to EPA managers, OIG is striving to:
> Obtain more extensive Agency involvement in the annual and strategic planning
processes and for individual audits to ensure EPA addresses its most critical needs.
> Establish early and continuing communication with Agency personnel during audits to
minimize non-productive adversarial situations.
>- Survey customers to determine their specific concerns and needs.
> Expand all audits, and especially audits of EPA's programs, to include more thorough
evaluations of management control systems.
* Use risk-based assessments to focus OIG work where it will have the most impact and
be most helpful to the Agency.
The principal changes EPA anticipates are:
> Development of a set of commonly understood measurements to evaluate OIG success
and relate it to Agency success in meeting customer needs. EPA is working
cooperatively with other IGs to develop such measurements.
*" A stronger partnership between OIG employees and other EPA employees, with
interaction at all levels.
SUPPORTING THE GUIDING PRINCIPLES
Guiding Principles 1 through 3
The OIG is committed to working cooperatively with the Agency in ensuring that these guiding
principles are fulfilled. The OIG will solicit and consult with program management and employees
to get more of their input on strategic and annual work plans to ensure that the OIG focuses on
these critical areas of the Agency's operations.
The OIG reports will expand on examples of successful program management practices, when
possible, that can be adapted for use in other and emerging Agency programs.
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The OIG seeks opportunities for up-front consultation, in order to utilize its experience and
knowledge, to help Agency personnel avoid pitfalls when developing new programs or innovative
approaches in current programs. The OIG consistently will stress the need for strong controls in
the development of Agency initiatives to ensure the integrity of the mission and the use of
resources.
As a member of EPA's National Environmental Goals Project, the OIG will continue working
with the Agency to establish measurable environmental goals to be achieved by early in the 21st
century. These goals will be instrumental in EPA's planning, management, and budgeting.
4. Strong Science and Data
The OIG is continuing audits/investigations of the contract laboratory program, as well as the
ORD labs. The OIG is concerned that the Agency gets the results it pays for, and that important
decisions are based on accurate data. The OIG will promote appropriate controls that protect the
integrity of scientific research and results.
In response to Congressional requests for broad, top-level reviews of EPA's financial
management and information resources management program, the OIG is working with Agency
personnel to catalog all significant causes of EPA's problems in these areas and to make joint
recommendations to the Administrator for effective solutions.
5. Partnerships and 6. Reinventing EPA Management
The OIG always has taken a cooperative approach with EPA management in resolving and
implementing results of its audits and investigations. In this regard, the OIG has begun to place
even greater emphasis on building partnerships with Agency program managers based on a shared
commitment to improving operations. The OIG has taken or planned a number of other initiatives
to enhance this cooperation. More OIG resources are being directed to conducting performance
audits to analyze how well programs are meeting their program goals, and the OIG is
recommending changes in program design and management techniques to increase efficiency and
improve program results. The OIG will focus more on causation and provide more balanced
reporting by identifying effective corrective actions taken by Agency management and examples
of good management practices, when possible.
The OIG has begun a streamlining process with three themes:
1) Increased Delegation and Decentralization of Authority The OIG plans to delegate
to the lowest practical level the responsibility and authority to make managerial decisions
and increase autonomy over its audits, investigations, and administrative support
activities.
2) Increased Empowerment of Employees with Appropriate Accountability The OIG
will review present requirements for periodic reports from field divisions to headquarters
to streamline or eliminate unproductive or overly burdensome requirements. The OIG
will continue to seek ways to increase the use of electronic data exchange to facilitate
reporting between field and headquarters offices. The OIG will seek to streamline the
number of specific measurements and the narrative justification for employee ratings,
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while meeting EPA requirements. The OIG will examine the feasibility of empowering
the field divisions with more authority and autonomy in personnel matters.
3) Improvement of Work Processes and Systems The OIG has devoted considerable
time soliciting ideas from staff at all levels to improve work processes. Several major
theme areas have emerged from these discussions. First, as stated above, the OIG will
focus more attention on assisting EPA managers to achieve their program objectives.
While the OIG continues to conduct compliance reviews as part of its audits, it will work
more cooperatively with customers to ensure that OIG products meet their needs.
Internally, the OIG will undertake a comprehensive review of OIG policies and
procedures to ensure that each requirement in the audit process adds value to final
products.
7. Environmental Accountability
The Office of Inspector General will work cooperatively to build partnerships with Agency
compliance and enforcement personnel in order to ensure that taxpayers' funds are properly and
effectively spent in this important effort. The work of the OIG especially focuses on the adequacy
of controls over environmental and administrative programs and operations, identifying risks and
vulnerabilities, and recommending appropriate actions to ensure accountability over EPA's
resources and delivery of its environmental mission. In audit reports of all Agency programs, the
OIG will highlight "best practices" to encourage their application in other areas. The OIG will
continue to stress the importance of sound data to compliance decisions.
OTHER MANDATES AND OBLIGATIONS
The OIG has other statutory requirements, such as auditing the Agency's annual Superfund report
(required by the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act) and the Agency's annual
financial statement (required by the Chief Financial Officers Act). In addition, the OIG operates
EPA's personnel security program, under delegation from the Administrator. The OIG does not
anticipate these objectives to require any significant reallocation of resources except shifting some
resources from Superfund to the General IG account.
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OFFICE OF POLICY, PLANNING AND
EVALUATION
INTRODUCTION
The new generation of multi-media, place-based, and service-oriented environmental programs
will be implemented through partnerships within and outside the government. By providing
unique services and working with others in teams, Office of Policy, Planning and Evaluation
(OPPE) will be a catalyst for this new generation of programs.
As part of EPA's strategic plan, OPPE will have three main priorities: strengthening the
relationship between the economy and the environment; integrating environmental
decisionmaking; and improving Agency and OPPE management.
1) Strengthening the relationship between the economy and the environment
In the past, the public has been presented with false choices between economic well-being and
environmental protection. By developing more accurate measures of economic well-being and
innovative policy instruments, OPPE will demonstrate that economic well-being and
environmental goals are mutually reinforcing, and that sound environmental policy reinforces
environmental and economic sustainability. Specifically, OPPE will:
> Promote policies that improve the functioning of markets through legal and institutional
structures, thus encouraging the more efficient deployment of production capital. OPPE
will coordinate implementation of the President's Environmental Technology Initiative
(ETI). It will accomplish widespread use of innovative technologies by 1) adapting
EPA's policy framework to promote innovation; 2) strengthening the capacity of
technology developers; 3) accelerating the diffusion of innovative technologies; and 4)
strategically investing EPA funds in the development and commercialization of promising
new technologies.
^ Develop regulatory and non-regulatory policies, such as market incentives, to promote
environmental protection and economic growth. Specifically, OPPE will work with
program offices and other federal agencies to develop innovative policies in the
agriculture, transportation, and energy sectors that will achieve goals efficiently in those
sectors and decrease their impact on the environment. OPPE also will develop measures
of economic progress that account for environmental quality.
> Bring environmental considerations into economic decisions. In partnership with other
EPA offices and federal agencies, OPPE will help incorporate environmental
considerations into the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and help
develop eco-labeling schemes. OPPE will help EPA provide services to empowerment
zones being established by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. OPPE
also will suggest ways to restructure tax and expenditure policies to protect the
environment through greater economic efficiency.
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2) Integrating Environmental Decisionmaking
The new generation of environmental programs will integrate environmental protection across
media and will focus on specific places. OPPE will catalyze this change by working with many
programs simultaneously to achieve environmental goals. Specifically, OPPE will:
> Lead cross-program development in several sectors in EPA's Sector Initiative. Focusing
on the photography, metals plating, and organic chemicals sectors, OPPE will help firms
use pollution prevention to improve management and reduce emissions to all media.
> Serve as a catalyst for refocusing the Agency's work from programs to places. OPPE
will work in partnership with OW and OARM to implement the Agency's ecosystem
guiding principle, which will emphasize using EPA programs to protect specific
ecosystems. OPPE is developing training and analytical tools and demonstration projects
that will help the Agency's Regional offices solve environmental problems in particular
places. OPPE will work with stakeholders to identify a specific place to demonstrate
environmental justice precepts and mitigation methods.
> Promote climate change policies that extend national and international commitments to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions and reduce risks to ecosystems and the economy
beyond the year 2000.
3. Improving Agency and OPPE management
Building on Vice President Gore's National Performance Review, OPPE will act as a catalyst to
alter EPA resource allocation procedures so that, by the turn of the century, budget decisions will
be based on strategic plans formulated to achieve national environmental goals. OPPE also will
implement changes to the Agency's policy development process so that rules are developed more
efficiently. OPPE will be a catalyst for improved management at EPA by demonstrating
innovative management techniques and becoming a model of human resources management.
Specifically, OPPE will:
> Catalyze a public discussion of national goals for the environment. OPPE also will lead
the development of Agency-wide strategic planning to direct EPA's work and shape
budget decisions. OPPE also will develop ways to measure our progress toward
environmental goals, and those measurements and program evaluations will act as
feedback mechanisms for the strategic planning process.
** Continue working with the rest of the Agency to implement the new policy development
system. By operating a system that identifies and raises issues to management attention
early and focuses management attention and analytical resources on the most important
rules, OPPE will help streamline EPA's policy development system to produce high
quality rules and policies more efficiently. OPPE will collaborate with the rest of the
Agency to support policy and regulation development.
> Work with the Innovative Technology Council to make matrix management successful in
implementing the Environmental Technology initiative.
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> Streamline its operations by Devaluating organizational structure to determine the most
effective use of its experienced leaders and developing new career paths for technical and
support staff.
SUPPORTING THE GUIDING PRINCIPLES
1. Ecosystem Protection
OPPE will support the Agency's ecosystem protection principle by reorienting its work to
develop tools to support environmental management at specific places. Among other things,
OPPE will develop an integrated ecological and economic model of the Patuxent Watershed and
will use the data and methodology developed through that project to apply the model in other
areas. OPPE already is developing models of wildlife risk from exposure to toxic chemicals that
will help local ecosystem managers evaluate ecosystem health. OPPE will develop contingent
valuation data to help regions evaluate ecosystem impacts. OPPE will develop a bulletin board of
environmental economic literature and data that will be available to the regions. OPPE will
develop and conduct an ecosystem risk and decisionmaking workshop to help carry out the
education component of the ecosystem protection guiding principle. OPPE will complete and
distribute ECOVIEW, an easy to use mapping software that will assist ecosystem managers in
decisionmaking. Finally, OPPE will asses the global and national effects of climate change on
forests, agriculture, wetlands, and water resources.
2. Environmental Justice
OPPE will support the environmental justice principle by conducting a major demonstration
project and by incorporating environmental justice issues into its analyses of major environmental
policies. OPPE has begun what promises to be a fruitful working relationship with two
historically African American colleges. Over the next three years, OPPE will work extensively
with local stakeholders to identify a specific place to demonstrate environmental justice analytical
techniques and mitigation methods. The results of that demonstration project will be used to
develop a model that will help other communities use environmental management techniques that
involve all members of the community. OPPE will incorporate environmental justice concerns into
its analyses of major environmental policies and rules by developing models to compare risks
across populations and by developing innovative policy tools to address those risks.
3. Pollution Prevention
OPPE will support the pollution prevention principle by helping to combat global climate change
and focusing on economic sectors. Over the next five years, the Agency will face challenges and
opportunities in the area of global climate change. As a major implementor of the Climate Change
Action Plan, OPPE will design and implement, in partnership with other federal agencies and the
states, several programs that will help the United States slash greenhouse gas emissions to 1990
levels by the year 2000. OPPE's climate change initiatives on source reduction and recycling,
transportation planning, industry incentives to reduce emissions, and state and local outreach
serve to further the Agency's broader goal of pollution prevention. OPPE also will focus on broad
economic sectors that affect the environment across all media and will help prevent pollution
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through innovative policy mechanisms. OPPE's transportation planning program will help prevent
air pollution and wetlands destruction by encouraging alternatives to highway construction
through pricing policies and by developing planning tools for state and local transportation
planners . OPPE will implement innovative policy ideas in agricultural pollution prevention.
OPPE's sustainable industry program will work with a set of industries over the next five years to
help them satisfy their customer demand through non-polluting or less-polluting production
processes. OPPE's energy program will develop innovative policies to help provide clean energy
and cut energy demand.
4. Strong Science and Data
As a repository of economic, statistical, and science policy expertise within the Agency, OPPE
will support the strong science and data principle by innovating in the social sciences and laying
the foundation for the prospective Department of Environmental Protection's Bureau of
Environmental Statistics. OPPE will help strengthen the relationship between the environment and
the economy by improving benefits analysis, supporting the use of contingent valuation by
developing innovative methods, helping to develop measures of economic progress that take
environmental quality into consideration, and enhancing the Agency's ability to consider
intergenerational equity in decisionmaking. OPPE also will work with the rest of the Agency to
update and implement the December 30, 1991, draft EPA "Social Science Research Agenda".
OPPE's environmental data group will form the core of the Bureau of Environmental Statistics in
a new cabinet-level environmental department. OPPE will help the Agency plan to assume those
new responsibilities by creating partnerships with other federal statistical agencies and developing
appropriate data-gathering and analytical capabilities.
5. Partnerships
In the new generation of environmental programs, EPA will be the center of partnership building
within the federal government, and OPPE will be the center of partnership building within EPA.
OPPE will foster mutual relations with other federal agencies to strengthen the relationship
between the environment and the economy and to incorporate pollution prevention into key
economic sectors. OPPE also will develop partnerships with the Department of Commerce, the
Department of Energy, other federal agencies, and technology development and production firms
to implement the ETI. OPPE will implement its climate change program by forming partnerships
with other federal agencies and state and local governments. As the Agency moves to a place -
based approach to environmental policymaking, OPPE will provide policy services to regional,
state, local, and tribal customers, specifically in the areas of ecosystem management and
environmental justice. OPPE will develop partnerships with private industry to provide pollution
prevention services through the Common Sense Initiative, and it will involve industry in the
Agency's strategic planning process.
6. Reinventing EPA Management
OPPE will support the Agency's streamlining principle by acting as a catalyst for effective
environmental management. OPPE will reach out to all parties affected by EPA programs to
develop national environmental goals. These goals will help focus EPA's efforts on the highest
priority environmental problems. OPPE will help the Agency develop strategic plans in 1994 and
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succeeding years that will allow the Agency to use its resources as efficiently as possible. OPPE
will develop indicators of environmental progress to determine whether EPA's actions are helping
to achieve national environmental goals. This information will be used to adjust the Agency's
strategic plan to ensure that the Agency is focusing resources on activities that are having the
greatest effect.
OPPE will work in partnership with EPA's media offices, cross-program offices, and regions to
implement the new policy development process, which will increase the efficiency of EPA policy
and rule development by focusing senior management attention on the most important Agency
actions. The system also will increase efficiency by reducing the time staff in cross- Agency offices
spend developing rules and policies that do not apply outside of particular programs or do not
address major policy issues within programs. This system will require the development of an
analytic blueprint for each significant rule or policy, so that resources are used as efficiently as
possible. OPPE will help make this system successful by ensuring that important issues are raised
to upper management as early in the process as possible, and less important issues are decided at
the lowest possible level.
OPPE is dedicated to being a stimulating and satisfying place to work. OPPE will improve
communications and empower its workers. OPPE will continue to develop and implement
innovative management support approaches through the Administrative Support and Career
Management System. To realize the Agency's streamlining objectives, OPPE will explore
re-engineering administrative processes, restructuring management systems, and developing
potential new career paths for EPA's uniquely talented work force. OPPE will work with OARM
and other parts of the Agency to reduce, to the greatest extent possible, unnecessary delay and
redundancy in the Agency's procurement and personnel systems.
7. Environmental Accountability
OPPE will support the principle of environmental accountability by working with the rest of the
Agency to identify high priority industrial sectors and ecosystems on which to focus Agency
efforts, including compliance assistance. OPPE also will develop a new generation of measures of
environmental accountability. Through its Climate Wise program, OPPE will help a broad
spectrum of firms be good corporate citizens by assisting them in reducing green-house gas
emissions. OPPE will work with the rest of EPA to develop technologies through the ETI that
will allow firms to comply with environmental mandates at less cost.
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OFFICE OF PREVENTION, PESTICIDES AND
TOXIC SUBSTANCES
INTRODUCTION
The Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances (OPPTS) is experiencing dynamic
change as it considers its agenda for the next five years. While basic chemical and pesticide
regulatory programs and information reporting requirements continue as mandated by existing
legislation, in the future OPPTS will devote increased attention to a new and expanded mission.
The new mission for OPPTS is (1) to promote safer designs, wiser use of materials, products,
processes, practices and technologies, and disposal methods using pollution prevention as the
guiding principle of first choice; and (2) to provide information, education, and technical
assistance to empower the public to make informed decisions on the risks associated with
pesticides and toxic substances.
To obtain these ends, OPPTS plans to make greater use of the scientific data and information
used for long-standing regulatory programs for pesticides and industrial chemicals. These new risk
reduction and pollution prevention opportunities fall into eight major categories:
1) Reducing the use of pesticides by removing higher-risk pesticides from the market, and
accelerating regulatory decisions on safer pesticides and promoting increased use of
integrated pest management techniques.
2) Improving the safety of the nation's food supply by implementing health-based
tolerances for pesticide residues.
3) Identifying sectors of the general population that are at greater risk from pesticides
for example, children and farmworkers and taking action to reduce exposures to these
groups.
4) Expanding the use of pollution prevention guiding principles in the Agency, the federal
government, the states, and the private sector, including the development of safer
chemicals, products, and technologies in the industrial sector.
5) Empowering the public with information about chemicals that will help identify
significant risks and define pollution prevention opportunities for reducing those risks.
6) Reducing exposure to chemicals of national interest such as lead, other heavy metals,
PCBs, and other complex organic compounds.
7) Providing expertise in chemical risk assessment, using tools such as structure activity
relationship assessments to provide highly accurate predictions about the toxicity of
chemicals and making information available both within and outside the Agency.
8) Meeting statutory responsibilities to register pesticides and ensure that chemicals in
commerce do not pose unacceptable risks to the public or the environment.
This agenda for OPPTS is clearly related to the Agency's vision and strongly supports several of
the guiding principles.
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OPPTS has declared activities under the guiding principles that are the most appropriate.
However, many of the specific activities OPPTS undertakes to carry out this agenda make very
substantial contributions to several of the guiding principles.
SUPPORTING THE GUIDING PRINCIPLES
1. Ecosystem Protection
OPPTS' primary activities supporting ecosystem protection are the programs for protecting
endangered species and groundwater. Financial and technical assistance provided to the states,
territories, and tribes has laid a firm foundation of cooperation with the Agency in implementing
these guiding principles.
In the near future, this foundation will be expanded to develop ecosystem-based pilot projects
designed to reduce aggregate pesticide risks. These pilot projects will contribute to a goal for
development of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programs and implementation guiding
principles for 75 percent of U.S. total crop acreage within seven years.
2. Environmental Justice
The EPA lead guiding principle, including Title X implementation, is one of the Agency's
preeminent environmental justice initiatives, aimed at reducing the prevalence of lead poisoning
among inner-city children. Incidents of lead poisoning in children, particularly children living in
inner-cities, have received considerable notoriety and Congressional interest. As more is learned
about the extent of lead exposures, pressures for positive corrective actions will rise.
The Agency will have to expand technical and financial assistance to address lead exposures.
While initial steps have been taken to work with the states on abating hazards from lead-based
paint, especially to children living in older buildings in disrepair, other sources of lead exposures
need attention. For example, low-income residential neighborhoods adjacent to abandoned metal
smelters are contaminated by lead in dust and soil in many urban areas.
The Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) empowers communities by providing information on chemical
releases from facilities in their locales. TRI-related tools, such as Geographic Information System
(GIS) mapping, can help identify communities that face disproportionate environmental effects
and assist those communities in addressing the problem.
In addition to continuing implementation of these programs over the next five years, OPPTS will
focus on new initiatives that will reduce risks to specific segments of the population that are at
disproportionate risk from environmental pollutants. Of particular concern are exposure to lead
and chemical releases from industrial facilities.
The evolving farm worker protection program also makes significant contributions to
environmental justice. The farm worker protection standards are designed to protect agricultural
workers on farms land in forests, nurseries, and greenhouses from pesticide exposures. The
standards set requirements for training, notification, posting of treated fields, restrictions on entry
into treated areas, and access to protective equipment and decontamination facilities.
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3. Pollution Prevention
OPPTS is the leading advocate for promoting pollution prevention as the guiding principle of first
choice to achieve environmental stewardship. This advocacy applies within the Agency to other
programs and outside the Agency to the states, the general public, and constituent groups.
OPPTS now has reoriented its chemical programs to support the emphasis on source reduction in
the Pollution Prevention Act. The new chemicals program, the Agency's first opportunity to
practice pollution prevention guiding principles, keeps dangerous chemicals from entering
commerce. It also is being used to instill a "green chemistry" ethic in industry, aimed at selecting
chemical synthesis pathways that avoid the generation of toxic waste. OPPTS will continue to
reform the existing chemicals program to promote the use of safer chemicals, materials and
technologies in the industrial sector. The Design for the Environment (Dffi) program, which is an
outgrowth of the existing chemical program, will become a key component in the Agency's
Environmental Technology Initiative.
The pesticides program's pollution prevention priorities will focus on promoting sustainable
agriculture. Increased emphasis will be given to promoting the wider application of alternative
agricultural practices including IPM, education and outreach to growers and other pesticide users,
and recycling of pesticide containers to encourage pollution prevention. Initiatives to reduce the
use of high-risk pesticides are also an important on-going part of OPPTS pollution prevention
activities.
The TRI program will take a more prominent role as one of the cornerstones of the Agency's
pollution prevention activities. The program will be expanded to include federal facilities,
additional chemicals, and new categories of reporting facilities. Providing usable information from
the TRI to many diverse groups of customers is essential to assist and enhance participation in
environmental decisionmaking.
4. Strong Science and Data
The regulatory programs for chemicals and pesticides in TSCA and FIFRA, respectively, require
that decisions to permit the production or use of the chemical or pesticide be based on scientific
test data on health and environmental effects, risk assessments, and risk management. Advances in
EPA's understanding of health and environmental effects of chemicals and pesticides, improved
testing protocols, and new measurement systems constantly expand the Agency's knowledge
base.
For example, the recent National Academy of Science (NAS) report, "Pesticides in the Diets of
Infants and Children, " made a variety of recommendations concerning how the Agency evaluates
pesticide toxicity, residue levels, and food consumption, and how this information should be used
in risk assessment. The NAS recommendations cite the need for higher standards for the quality,
quantity, sensitivity, and scope of data used in evaluating the risks from pesticides. In response,
OPPTS will develop new types of testing to support the establishment of tolerances for pesticide
residues, multiple tolerances for residues in food at different points in the food production and
distribution chain, and the unique aspects of infants' and children's diets. This represents a major
change for OPPTS's tolerance activities.
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New pesticides are submitted regularly to the Agency for review and registration. More and more,
these pesticides are biologicals, transgenic plants, and other "safer" pesticides. These new types of
pesticides will expand the scope and complexity of scientific analyses and review.
Considerable progress has been made in developing a process for evaluating the risks of the
70,000 existing chemicals and enhancing pollution prevention. Sharpening the focus to the
approximately 14,000 non-polymer chemicals produced in quantities above 10,000 pounds per
year still represents a tremendous work load involving complicated risk assessments, structure
activity relationship assessments, and other analytic tools. The use of these tools, however, relies
on chemical, lexicological, and other scientific data.
In addition to making the required regulatory decisions, these scientific data constitute a vast
information base on chemicals. The challenge before the Agency is to use and apply this scientific
information in innovative ways to advance risk reduction and pollution prevention opportunities.
5. Partnerships
Partnerships with other federal agencies, the states and tribes, and internationally are important
components of OPPTS programs. Activities such as food safety and lead risk reduction require
coordination with other federal agencies including the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the
Untied States Department of Agriculture (USD A), the Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD), and the Department of Labor (DOL). State assistance in implementing
OPPTS field programs (i.e., groundwater protection, endangered species protection, farmworker
protection, lead-in-ecosystems protection, and environmental justice) is invaluable, and OPPTS
will continue to encourage and support state efforts in these areas.
The lead program includes joint grant programs with HUD and training and demonstration
programs with state and local authorities. The pollution prevention program helps build a national
network of prevention programs among state and local governments. State grant programs and
technology transfer/technical assistance help develop state prevention programs and provide
prevention information to industry and the public.
OPPTS will continue to build international partnerships through activities related to test guideline
harmonization; chemical testing through the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development Screening Information Data Set (OECD SIDS) program; and the notification of
foreign countries receiving pesticides that are banned for use in the United States, through EPA's
prior informed consent program.
6. Reinventing EPA Management
Over the next few years, OPPTS intends to continue its efforts to make its programs more
effective, efficient, and responsive to the public. In the toxics area, OPPTS will continue efforts to
streamline the new chemical review process, emphasizing the identification of chemical categories
that do not need to be reviewed. The existing chemicals and chemical testing programs will
accelerate efforts to achieve practical environmental improvements through the use of consent
agreements and voluntary actions. Within the pesticides program, OPPTS will continue to explore
new ways to streamline the registration, reregistration, and special review processes. OPPTS also
will begin implementation of a new strategic planning process.
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7. Environmental Accountability
In the coming years, OPPTS will continue its efforts to promote compliance. These efforts will be
in the areas of regulatory development, compliance/technical assistance, and support to the
OECA. OPPTS will ensure that the implementing regulations for its programs are more
understandable to the regulated community and the public. In addition, OPPTS will work closely
with OECA to ensure that regulations are more enforceable.
OPPTS undertakes many activities that relate to compliance and technical assistance. OPPTS will
continue its partnerships with other federal agencies, states, and tribes in implementing EPA
programs. OPPTS will continue to operate its various program hotlines and sponsor and
participate in workshops and conferences that deal with complying with OPPTS's program
requirements. OPPTS will work with OECA in developing compliance assistance strategies for
various high-risk sectors, geographic areas, and ecosystems.
The regulatory programs for chemicals and pesticides in TSCA, EPCRA, and FIFRA collect a
vast information base on chemicals and pesticides. Over the last few years considerable progress
has been made in developing processes for evaluating the risks of chemicals and pesticides. The
risk assessment analytical tools coupled with the vast information bases on chemicals and
pesticides will allow OPPTS to assist in determining the areas of highest risk, where compliance
assistance and enforcement activities should concentrate. In addition, OPPTS will continue its
technical and regulatory assistance in support of traditional enforcement actions undertaken by
OECA and EPA regional offices.
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OFFICE OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
INTRODUCTION
The Office of Research and Development (ORD) strives to improve the scientific and
technological bases for EPA's environmental protection actions; to exert national leadership in
environmental science and engineering; and to provide expert scientific and technical advice and
problem solving for the Agency.
In response to two reports1 of the EPA's Science Advisory Board and the report of an expert
panel2, ORD has undertaken several new directions:
> Build the scientific knowledge base needed for managing the nation's ecosystems.
> Conduct research to improve the ability to do human health risk assessment with special
emphasis on human exposure.
*- Shift the emphasis in research and development from pollution control to preventing
pollution, and become a catalyst for innovations in environmental technology.
* Conduct long-term research programs to address current and future environmental
problems as well as continue short-term research and technical support to support EPA
regulatory, compliance, and enforcement programs.
While revamping its research program places ORD in a good position to support the Agency's
strategic vision over the next five years, several decisions have to be made by the Agency about
the scope of its research and development program. The competing objectives of short-term
program support research, technical support activities, and long-term fundamental research
exceeds ORD's ability to maintain high-quality programs in every area. Only through a clear and
open agency-wide process for deciding how best to balance these objectives can ORD's
contribution to the Agency's strategic vision be realized.
SUPPORTING THE GUIDING PRINCIPLES
1. Ecosystem Protection
Strategic Direction:
> Move toward an integrated ecosystem research program that provides the science and
the tools to support ecosystem management efforts.
> Continue to develop an interagency capability to provide national and regional
assessments of ecosystem status and trends.
* Through Agency authorities and cooperative programs, engage industry to provide
ecotoxicology and transport and fate data on xenobiotics.
Historically, a large portion of ORD's ecological research program has been devoted to providing
methods for assessing the risk of specific chemicals to individual species. These methods have
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made a major contribution to the risk assessments that the program offices have used to set
standards for reducing the ecological impacts of regulated pollutants. However, as controls have
become more widespread and our scientific understanding has increased, ORD has recognized a
need to develop a comprehensive understanding of ecosystems and how they are affected by
multiple, interacting chemicals and many other non-chemical stresses.
During FY 1994, ORD is implementing a major transition of its ecological research program that
will provide the Agency with the science and tools necessary for ecosystem management. ORD is
reorganizing its ecological research program into three major components: monitoring, risk
assessment, and geographically focused research and modeling. The program will address
questions related to ecosystem status and trends; understanding and predicting how ecosystems
respond to multiple stressors and how this response translates into ecological conditions; and
assessing risks and predicting how an ecosystem would respond to various management scenarios.
The research focused in geographic regions will produce scientific knowledge and tools (e.g.,
models and methods) that will be tested and developed in an integrated fashion in selected
geographical areas and then transferred for use in other areas with similar characteristics.
In FY 1995 and FY 1996, ORD will consolidate its ecological research program to reflect the
design and transition work completed in FY 1994. Over the next five years, the new focus will
move the program to the leading edge of ecological research where ORD's expertise can be
applied most productively and leveraged with other research organizations. Consistent with this
effort, ORD phased out its separate Arctic research program in FY 1995 and will participate in
Agency Arctic activities through a project under the Regional Environmental Monitoring and
Assessment Program (REMAP). Under this project, ORD will work with the state of Alaska,
EPA's Region 10, and the Office of International Activities to train U.S. and Russian scientists in
monitoring methods developed by the Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program
(EMAP) that can be applied in the Arctic region.
While the focus and design of the program is fairly well defined, ORD needs to resolve how fast
to move towards an integrated program and how to distribute resources among the three
components of the program. Two major issues that must be addressed are how to meet the
continuing short-term ecological research needs of the program offices, and whether the ORD
should accelerate implementation of the EMAP in FY 1996.
2. Environmental Justice
Strategic Direction:
* Maintain a strong health research and risk assessment program.
> Improve risk assessment capabilities by addressing data gaps in human exposure.
* Address weaknesses in risk assessment capabilities identified in the National Academy of
Sciences report on hazardous air pollutants.
> Ensure that all data collection and assessments consider environmental justice.
ORD's most important contribution to the environmental justice issue is to improve the Agency's
ability to conduct human health risk assessments by focusing on a major weakness in risk
assessments, i. e., human exposure. Many are concerned that minorities and low-income groups
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experience higher-than-average exposure to selected pollutants. However, with the exception of
lead, there is a significant lack of data that provide a reliable indication of environmental
exposures and health effects for different minority and income groups.
ORD is addressing the exposure issue in three main areas; methods development, monitoring data,
and model development. Significant advances are needed in all these areas to address widely
recognized gasps in EPA's risk assessment capability. To address the monitoring component,
ORD is developing the National Human Exposure Assessment Survey (NHEXAS). Full
Implementation of NHEXAS will provide an exposure profile for the U.S. population that may
serve as the baseline to which minority and low income group exposures can be compared. In
addition, ORD is considering approaches to NHEXAS that will allow early consideration of the
equity issue at least on a limited basis. ORD also plays a significant role in supporting the
Agency's environmental justice activities through several research projects that will help answer
specific scientific questions directly related to the environmental justice issue. These research
projects range from the development of methods to measure exposure to aromatic hydrocarbons
among inner city and rural children to determining the fish ingestion rates and adverse exposures
to contaminants for Native Americans.
The recent report issued by the National Academy of Sciences3 (NAS) found the Agency's risk
assessment practices to be basically sound but provided 70 recommendations necessary for
improvement. Although the report was specifically on air toxic risk concerns, the
recommendations in the NAS report are generic and cut across the Agency. Because Agency's
risk assessment practices are a focus of major science controversy, it is important to adopt quickly
all the recommendations in the report.
During FY 1994 and FY 1995, ORD will complete pilot NHEXAS programs and also work to
structure multi-agency support and participation in NHEXAS implementation. The Agency must
decide whether to adopt a national NHEXAS program or some other approach that would
improve human exposure data and ensure that environmental justice concerns are dealt with in all
data collection efforts. Deliberations are currently underway to address the research planning and
resource implications of the NAS report. The Agency must determine if a special research effort
will be necessary.
3. Pollution Prevention
Strategic Direction:
+ Build partnerships between innovators, sources of capital, and users of technology.
*- Sponsor limited in-house technology development/evaluation when partnerships are not
appropriate.
* Solicit investigator-initiated grants focused on specific innovative technology needs.
ORD's pollution prevention and technology development programs are moving in a new direction
that will harness expertise and resources outside of the Agency to bring about innovative
technology development. ORD's shift from an internal research focus to promoting and
facilitating outside activities is one that will be pursued wherever possible to meet the technology
needs of Agency programs. With the Agency, ORD is expanding from a narrow focus on
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developing control technologies for a few EPA-administered programs to promoting innovations
and fostering pollution prevention across all sectors of the economy.
ORD will use the ETI model to refocus its engineering and demonstration program in areas where
there are opportunities to build partnerships. These partnerships would be sought with parties that
could use innovative technologies or have sources of capital to develop and commercialize them.
In addition, ORD will build into its program the concept of "fast finish", a strategy by industry to
assess a project's potential for success or failure as early as possible in the project.
ORD believes that properly focused investigator-initiated grants could be a valuable tool for
furthering the development of innovative technologies and should be pursued as part of this effort.
ORD believes it is very important to have an adequate number of senior scientists and program
managers to manage the great deal of money associated with these programs. While both ETI and
pollution prevention are based on partnerships with the public and private sectors, there is a need
to provide considerable coordination, oversight, and direction to ensure that these programs
produce. This new approach also requires a different skill mix than has been traditionally fostered
for the in-house research program.
4. Strong Science and Data
Strategic Direction:
+ Build EPA's reputation as a strong science agency by redefining ORD's research
program to ensure continuous improvement in the quality of science in all EPA's
endeavors.
* Build an awareness among EPA's scientists and engineers that their scientific reputations
require continual attention in all Agency activities.
* Strengthen the interaction of Agency scientists and engineers with academia and
professional scientific societies.
> Use evaluative techniques such as benchmarking against the best in research to measure
continual improvement.
*- Reinvent the Agency's regulatory, compliance, and enforcement processes by improving
the science policy interface, and use peer review, quality assurance, and risk assessment
to ensure science quality in decisionmaking.
Improving the quality of the science and data for the Agency's decision-making requires effort in
a number of areas outlined in chapter two. ORD's contributions to these efforts in the past have
been significant; in the future, ORD will be expected to continue to provide leadership for these
efforts. However, ORD's mission is much broader than the resources that are available to carry it
out. Consequently ORD will clarify and focus its mission, and develop an operation plan that
explains how ORD resources (people, facilities, and extramural funds) are allocated and managed.
ORD's greatest resource is its scientists and engineers, who in many cases are world leaders in
their disciplines. Their contributions to the Agency's mission and the credibility of its decisions
can be improved only by their continual attention to and participation in all Agency activities. In
addition, their active involvement in professional scientific organizations will promote the
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cross-fertilization of ideas, initiate research partnerships, and enhance the Agency's scientific
reputation. ORD will encourage and support its scientists and engineers to participate in Agency
decisionmaking and to interact with peers in academia and the private sector.
As a possible way to improve the use of science by the regulatory programs, ORD proposes to
divide its program into four components: strategic research, program support, national
assessment and evaluation programs, and programmatic assessments. This approach of distinctly
separating program support from the rest of the research will strengthen the links between the
program and regional offices' science needs and ORD's research. Changes in allocations among
these categories would be made through an explicit Agency-wide decisionmaking process. In
addition to redefining ORD's program, the Agency laboratory study will develop a baseline
description of all EPA's laboratories and assess options to enhance the quality, effectiveness, and
efficiency of all the Agency's laboratory operations. While it is uncertain what actions will be
taken, all results will be benchmarked against other research organizations with similar mission
and staffs.
5. Partnerships
Strategic Direction:
* Based on experience gained from successful partnerships forged to date, strive for
continued growth in public/private research activities that address the broad
environmental research agenda.
* Build partnerships with other federal agencies to help focus their research activities on
EPA science policy issues.
* Encourage industry to support high quality research through the Federal Technology
Transfer Act (FTTA), joint research planning and other cooperative arrangements.
* Build science capacity at the state level and ensure the transfer of the latest science and
technology into state programs.
In its 1990 strategic plan, ORD recognized the need to build science partnerships to enhance the
quality of its science and leverage its resources. From its stated goal to "Collaborate with other
federal agencies, industry, academia, and other countries to enhance . . . national and international
research efforts," ORD has developed a variety of partnerships. In addition to FTTA agreements
and the Superfund Innovative Technology Evaluation program, ORD has formed research
consortia with industry to plan and carry out research in areas such as ozone transport, fuel
additives, and disinfectant byproducts. The Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program
.(EMAP) is an example of a broad partnership with other federal agencies such as the Forest
Service, which conducts all forest sampling for the program. To promote interaction with
academia, ORD has increased the use of competitive cooperative agreements for research
conducted by universities. Because of its extensive experience in building research partnerships
and the technology expertise in its laboratories, ORD is well prepared to contribute significantly
to the ETI.
Successful partnership building requires a highly trained staff in science and technology that has
the credibility to focus and direct public and private activities in this area. While ETI provides an
excellent opportunity for ORD to extend further the impact of its research program, there will
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continue to be a significant strain on ORD's resources through FY 1996. Finally, the Agency
needs to focus on building the capacity of state and local governments to independently address
the scientific aspects of environmental problems.
6. Reinventing EPA Management
Strategic Direction:
> In the next five years, create an ORD to meet the challenges of the 21st century through
implementation of an operational plan drawn around streamlining, the NPR action plans,
measurable environmental goals, and the EPA laboratory study.
As stated above, ORD's streamlining plan is based on an examination of fundamental guiding
principles related to mission, organization, and customers. Over the years, different views about
the role of ORD in EPA have resulted in conflicts regarding the needs for long-term research,
program support, and assessments. ORD proposes the following four criteria to guide
development of its operational plan:
1) Establish and maintain a high-quality, strategic research program focused on key
long-term environmental issues, an extramural research program that harnesses the
resources and creativity of the academic and private sector, and an in-house staff able to
build effective partnerships.
2) Support the scientific and technical community while ensuring effective stewardship and
adequate controls of these resources.
3) Focus resources on responding to the explicit needs of the Agency and its regulatory,
prevention and enforcement agenda, and be explicit about resources that are available for
these activities and the results expected.
4) Recognize that high quality research and development requires sustained research and
development support.
To implement the operational plan, ORD is undertaking the following actions:
> Reorganizing and streamlining the headquarters and laboratory hierarchy.
** Simplifying internal administrative requirements into a true accountability system while
ensuring effective stewardship of resources.
> Making strategic decisions about future staffing needs to guide a large potential turnover
of staff during the next five years.
* Instilling a new spirit in ORD that values diversity.
*- Empowering its workforce through enhanced communication, delegation, and
teamwork.
> Establishing four Committees for Change made up of members of the ORD Streamlining
Task Force and other ORD staff to participate in the implementation of the overall plan.
7. Environmental Accountability
Strategic Direction:
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* Provide data to support and justify Agency decisions.
* Provide data on status and trends of ecological and human exposures and effects.
** Support environmental accountability through technology transfer, technical assistance
and environmental science education.
ORD's program of research, technology transfer, education, and technical assistance supports the
Agency's compliance and monitoring efforts by:
> Providing the scientific foundations for regulatory and policy decisions;
+- Providing a scientifically valid baseline for measuring changes in ecological resources and
human exposures to environmental stressors; and
> Supporting the Agency throughout numerous technology and information transfer
activities that assist in the achievement of compliance with environmental goals.
During the next five years, ORD's EPA ecosystem research program will provide the science and
tools that will enable us to better understand ecosystems and their stressors the first step for
developing enforcement strategies to protect sensitive ecosystems. Of equal importance will be
the ecological status and trends information provided by EMAP, which will permit decision
makers at all levels to observe the impacts of their decisions and to monitor changes in the quality
of this country's ecosystems. Similarly, NHEXAS will provide information about the trends of
human exposures to toxic chemicals in the environment and will help to identify groups in the
population who may be more heavily exposed than the norm. ORD's program of technology
transfer and technical assistance provides information to states, local governments, the regulated
community, and the public that enables them to most effectively and efficiently meet their
environmental goals. Seminars such as Comprehensive Environmental Planning: A Guide for
Small Communities build the capacity of small communities to identify environmental priorities
and to assess their compliance across a range of regulations and environmental responsibilities.
ORD's environmental education program, from the primary to the postgraduate level, expands the
core of citizens and scientists who are better educated about the environment, and for whom
environmental accountability has become a matter of daily concern and action rather than an
occasional afterthought.
REFERENCES
1 Future Risk: Research Strategies for the 1990s and Reducing Risk: Setting Priorities
and Strategies for Environmental Protection.
2. Safeguarding the Future: Credible Science. Credible Decisions. March 1992.
3. Science and Judgment in Risk Assessment. National Academy Press, 1994.
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OFFICE OF REGIONAL OPERATIONS AND
STATE/LOCAL RELATIONS
INTRODUCTION
A large and significant component of how the EPA does business involves relations with states,
localities, and tribes. Their perspectives are all necessary components of reinventing EPA,
because intergovernmental relationships, communication, and interaction with states, localities,
and tribes are critical to achieving improved environmental protection.
In building a network of strong environmental management, EPA must maximize utilization of all
of the available resources. To achieve this, EPA will emphasize building and strengthening
regional, state, and local capacity to manage environmental programs. EPA also must provide
flexibility to address unique problems, or to address old problems in new ways. Working with the
regions and state and local partners, EPA must identify, correct and remove barriers to achieving
maximum environmental benefits in a way that makes sense and encourages innovation.
SUPPORTING THE GUIDING PRINCIPLES
1. Ecosystem Protection
As EPA moves toward a more holistic approach for key economic and geographic areas, the
Office of Regional Operations and State/ Relations (OROSLR) intends to work with the regions
and states to showcase new integrated approaches to environmental management. A new
program, begun in FY 1994, will provide funding for each region, working with its state and local
governments as appropriate, to begin assessing and addressing high-risk and high-priority
environmental problems that are unique to each region. Some of these projects are ecosystem
studies/assessments, and most of them are geographically based. The office will be directing an
effort to institutionalize successful approaches demonstrated by the projects; develop criteria for
selection of future projects; work out appropriate measures to evaluate progress of the projects;
and develop effective mechanisms to communicate successes and difficulties encountered with
these unique projects to the rest of the Agency. Another important function that OROSLR will
provide is linkage with other Agency efforts such as the ecosystem management guiding principle,
sustainable development, and particularly EMAP/REMAP. In the future, additional geographic
problem areas will be chosen to highlight new and innovative environmental approaches.
2. Environmental Justice, and 3. Pollution Prevention
In addition to showcasing ecosystem management approaches via regional geographic initiatives,
a number of ongoing initiatives will use pollution prevention tools and environmental justice
guiding principles to address existing environmental problems. OROSLR intends to document all
results of these regional initiatives and convey lessons learned to the rest of the Agency. Of the
additional regional initiatives selected in the out-years, some will be encouraged to demonstrate
environmental justice guiding principles and the use of pollution prevention tools. OROSLR also
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will work with local governments and especially small towns to address their environmental
justice concerns as well as highlight their environmental justice approaches and successes. Finally,
OROSLR will work closely with the regional leadership to encourage states to apply and promote
pollution prevention and environmental justice approaches throughout their operating programs.
4. Strong Science and Data
Although much data has been collected by the media programs, EPA continues to suffer from a
lack of reliable, integrated, and accessible data nationally. Identifying unmet needs and linking
data systems will be an important challenge over the next five years. OROSLR will pursue the
following activities to address this challenge:
* Build a database containing an extensive list of characteristics of small governments
including their governmental forms, budgeting systems, environmental protection
responsibilities, and environmental infrastructure.
* Ensure widespread availability of the database for the purposes of Agency
decision-making, planning, budgeting, and rule-making.
* Identify and establish mechanisms to improve electronic communication and data
exchange among the states, EPA headquarters, and the regions (i.e., E-mail, Internet,
bulletin boards, early warning systems, etc.). Pursue the same goals for local and tribal
governments as well.
^ Work with the national programs to ensure that state monitoring and tracking
information is as useful and accessible to the states themselves as it is to EPA.
> Continue to fund and improve the responsiveness of Regional Analytical Environmental
Services.
* Ensure that the technical support activities performed by the Environmental Services
Divisions meet the applied scientific investigation, inspection, monitoring, and sampling
needs of the region's media programs.
> Work with ORD, the regions, and states to develop and implement a state lab
certification program.
* Work with Agency staff to share scientific and technical findings more effectively with
state, local, and tribal co-regulators and implementers.
5. Partnerships
OROSLR, working in tandem with the regions, is the catalyst to drive an agency-wide, ongoing
effort to ensure the most effective working partnership between EPA and its governmental
partners. OROSLR's role as catalyst will involve the following set of activities:
* Build partnership with states and localities.
^ Increase opportunities for exchange of information between the headquarters program
staff, the regions, states, local governments, and decision makers in the regulatory
development process, to ensure more effective implementation of environmental
protection objectives.
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> Encourage and assist regular meetings between EPA officials (especially in the regions)
and state and local environmental officials to promote, discuss, and resolve issues of
concern such as state capacity building through training, technical assistance, and
cross-state learning; multi-media and cross-program activities; and priority setting.
Encourage state-to-state exchanges and meetings on these issues as well.
>- Facilitate, within the Agency and among states and localities, dissemination of successful
environmental management models.
> Build a customer feedback mechanism from state and local governments to inform EPA
regional management.
> Support the media programs and regions in developing the least cost, most effective way
of communicating with the states, and serve as a repository of in-house expertise for the
rest of the Agency in conducting outreach to the states, localities, and tribes.
> Implement the Small Town Environmental Planning Act of 1992 (STEP), including the
establishment of a Small Town Ombudsman network throughout headquarters and the
regions, and a Small Town Notification Program.
* Explore the feasibility of a notification program for small communities, including an
experimental on-line bulletin board.
> Support the Administrator's Task Force on Tribal Relations and facilitate the
implementation of their findings and recommendations.
> Continue to facilitate headquarters/regional communication, as needed, to ensure a
coherent Agency approach to environmental partnerships.
6. Reinventing EPA Management
OROSLR will seek to promote changes at EPA and among the states and localities that will
promote streamlined environmental management for improved environmental results. Activities to
support this goal include:
> Test the hypothesis that EPA can offer states and localities increased flexibility with
accountability to improve overall environmental performance. Working with the regions,
sponsor and facilitate state flexibility pilot projects, disseminate lessons learned from
these projects, and make recommendations for Agency-wide change.
> Work with regional programs to redefine the EPA/state oversight relationship, so that
we moves toward measuring real environmental accomplishments, reducing paperwork
associated with oversight, and rewarding states with high-performing programs.
** Facilitate the regular provision of cross-regional information in a format that facilitates
management decisions in the regions and EPA national programs.
* Use information from the state and local customer feedback mechanisms to further
EPA's reinvention efforts.
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7. Compliance Assurance
In supporting this principle, OROSLR, working with OECA, the regions, and others throughout
the Agency, will attempt to identify ways in which the state/EPA compliance assurance
relationship can be improved for better environmental outcomes. Activities under consideration to
support this principle are:
> A study to identify how the EPA can better assess the quality of state/EPA compliance
assurance and enforcement programs. There are many ways to gauge the quality and
effectiveness of enforcement programs that go beyond activity measures. This study will
attempt to identify which such alternative measures would present a more robust
assessment of the effectiveness of state and federal compliance and enforcement
programs.
> An assessment of and recommendations on ways in which the EPA/state oversight
relationship can be changed to foster better EPA/state relations and more effective
environmental management. The compliance assurance and enforcement relationship will
be a component of this assessment.
* As part of a larger National Performance Review initiative, OROSLR will evaluate and
disseminate information on several state pilots in which states are trying new and
innovative approaches to environmental management, including compliance
measurement and assessment. For example, the states of New York and Massachusetts
will launch pilot projects that will showcase targeted multi-media inspections coupled
with pollution prevention compliance assistance.
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OFFICE OF SMALL AND DISADVANTAGED
BUSINESS UTILIZATION
INTRODUCTION
The Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU) was established in 1978 to
develop and administer Agency policies, procedures, and guidelines that not only will assist small,
disadvantaged (minority and women) businesses in securing opportunities in EPA's direct and
indirect procurement, but also increase the participation of Minority Business Enterprise (MBE)
and Women Business Enterprise (WBE) firms in the Agency's procurement processes. Assistance
is provided through conferences and seminars, environmental training in the cleanup and
abatement of various environmental hazards, workshops, networking sessions, and consultations
with prime contracting and socioeconomic contracting consultants. Policies include procurements
subcontracting goals for small businesses, small disadvantaged businesses and women-owned
businesses, as well as "fair share" goals for subcontracts obtained through grants and other
procurements under assistance. In addition to these responsibilities, OSDBU maintains the
Asbestos and Small Business Ombudsman, also serves as the Administrator's internal advocate on
economic issues affecting the small business community, provides information and technical
assistance to the small businesses required to comply with Agency regulations, serves on
regulatory workgroups to convey small business concerns speaks on behalf of small businesses
works with national and state trade associations to disseminate and exchange information that will
promote voluntary compliance and operates a toll-free Small Business Ombudsman "Hotline" for
small business questions and concerns.
SUPPORTING THE GUIDING PRINCIPLES
2. Environmental Justice
OSDBU was part of EPA's original working group in the development of the Agency's
environmental equity program. In FY 1992, OSDBU provided $115,000 to the Office of
Environmental Equity for the study of the clean air issues affecting small businesses in small/rural
communities. This study was conducted by Xavier University, a Historically Black College,
located in New Orleans, Louisiana. In the first quarter of FY 1993, OSDBU provided funds and
initiated a working agreement with the environmental equity office to benefit the District of
Columbia by providing technical training to low-income residents living in public housing where
lead paint was a known hazard. OSDBU was joined in this effort by the Department of Commerce
and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Ten low-income residents not only were
trained in asbestos removal and lead abatement, but they also were guaranteed employment with
the District of Columbia. In the first quarter of FY 1994, ten more low-income in the District of
Columbia were trained through OSDBU's support of the environmental equity initiative and they
all were placed by the District of Columbia government in private sector jobs. These residents
now earn an average of $10.50 per hour.
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For FY 1995, OSDBU proposes to implement two initiatives. The first initiative will focus on
enhancement of the environmental training for minority and women contractors and entrepreneurs
in support of the environmental justice initiative. Specifically, OSDBU will develop a cadre of
qualified and trained minority and women contractors to perform work and provide services to
minority communities at risk. OSDBU in FY 1995 will add more course material to the training
programs so that more minority and women contractors are qualified to work at environmental
justice-designated sites. OSDBU plans to conduct a demonstration program in FY 1995 in at least
one environmental justice-designated site where the minority and/or women contractors will serve
as contractors as well as the subcontractors; bonding requirements, if any, waived by EPA. In FY
1996, OSDBU, as part of a two-year pilot program, will require all EPA prime contractors to give
preference to OSDBU-trained minority and women contractors and to 8(a), women-owned, and
small disadvantaged business firms registered with OSDBU.
5. Partnerships
In FY 1995 through 1997, OSDBU will promote a pilot program that will focus on the
participation of minority academic institutions (especially historically black colleges and
universities) in partnerships with minority and women businesses seeking greater involvement in
the Agency's Environmental Technology Initiative. Joined by the Department of Commerce's
Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) and the Small Business Administration (SBA),
OSDBU's pilot program will identify private sector funding to supplement a special public sector
funding mechanism designed to assist in technology transfer, innovation, and commercialization.
This demonstration project will adhere to the four guiding principles established by EPA in the
administration of the Environmental Technology Initiative.
A second partnership envisioned by OSDBU focuses on greater outreach efforts to minority- and
women-owned businesses interested in doing environmental work either directly for EPA or
indirectly for a grantee such as a state or municipality. This partnership involves a shared
responsibility with the SBA, MBDA, and EPA's proposed overall coordinator, the National
Association of Minority Contractors, Inc. OSDBU envisions a complete overhaul of its state
conferences to increase the amount of business information disseminated to minority and women
contractors in order to enhance their marketing skills.
6. Reinventing EPA Management
The re-inventing of EPA's OSDBU will be conducted in four phases beginning in FY 1995 and
completed by the end of FY 1997.
* Phase One: A disinvestment of the Small Business Ombudsman function an operation
currently administered by two FTEs with four American Association of Retired Persons
(AARP) employees to be transferred to OPPE because of the role it plays in the
regulatory process. An investment of one professional FTE and one clerk typist to assist
in the expansion of the procurement and business opportunities initiatives of OSDBU.
The disinvestment will be accomplished by the end of FY 1995. The investment will be
accomplished by the end of FY 1996.
* Phase Two: Establishment of a Quality Action Team (OSDBU, OARM, SBA, MBDA)
to increase coordination, information, and accomplishments in support of small and
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disadvantaged businesses. This Quality Action Team will meet quarterly beginning in FY
1995 to review progress made toward the goals negotiated with SB A and the 8 percent
goal incorporated in EPA's appropriations language.
* Phase Three: Establishment of regional staff fully dedicated to OSDBU's mission (one
person per region) serving as associate directors, OSDBU. Phase Three will be
implemented in FY 1996. In FY 1995, OSDBU will pilot this program in Regions 4, 5,
and 8, using the existing staff and resources.
> Phase Four: Creation of a workgroup with specified staff from grants administration, the
Cincinnati and Research Triangle Park, NC buying facilities to meet with headquarters
staff to promote the utilization of disadvantaged businesses. Phase Four will be
implemented in FY 1995.
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OFFICE OF SOLID WASTE AND EMERGENCY
RESPONSE
INTRODUCTION
The Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response (OSWER) has four long-term strategic
planning goals:
1) Minimize the quantity and toxicity of waste created by residential, commercial, industrial,
and government activities.
2) Ensure the environmentally sound management of solid and hazardous wastes.
3) Prevent harmful releases of oil and hazardous substances into the environment.
4) Prepare for and respond in a timely and effective manner to releases of hazardous
substances into the environment.
These four goals apply across OSWER's programs and provide a common thread to its statutory
mandates of protecting public health and the environment from the effects of waste management
and the release of harmful substances. While OSWER's programs (Superfund, Underground
Storage Tanks, Solid and Hazardous Waste Management, and Chemical Emergency Preparedness
and Prevention) were established by six different laws, these goals distill the essence of OSWER's
mission, reflect underlying values and provide criteria for making operational decisions.
Each OSWER program has developed program-specific priorities and guiding principles for
meeting the four goals.
In Superfund, OSWER just completed an extensive outreach process to build consensus on
statutory reforms to make site cleanups faster, fairer, and more efficient. Superfund's goals
anticipate statutory changes but also work within the current legal framework.
* Speed the pace of cleanups,
* Rely on "enforcement first",
*~ Meet annual numerical goals for site completion,
* Ensure a fair enforcement process,
> Enhance environmental justice and community involvement,
+ Increase the role of the states and tribes,
** Speed military base closures,
*" Improve contracts management,
> Encourage innovative technologies,
*- Work on the worst sites first, and
* Reduce administrative costs.
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The Oil Spills Program goals are to respond to spills quickly and effectively minimize the extent
and frequency of spills.
The goals of the Underground Storage Tank (UST) Program are to:
> Build stronger state/tribal/local partnerships,
>- Speed up corrective actions through streamlining and new technologies,
+- Promote full compliance with leak detection requirements, and
* Prevent leaks by promoting early compliance with the 1998 UST upgrading deadline.
The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Solid and Hazardous Waste Program
aims to:
^ Increase source reduction and recycling,
> Tighten safeguards on waste management, including combustion facilities,
* Remediate worst sites first,
*> Build stronger state and tribal partnerships,
> Enhance environmental justice,
*- Ensure environmental protection at federal facilities, and
> Enhance safeguards on waste exports and imports.
The goals of the Chemical Emergency Preparedness and Prevention Program (CEPP) are to:
* Reduce risks from accidental releases of hazardous materials,
+* Improve the hazardous materials emergency infrastructure, and
* Enhance the preparedness, prevention, and response capabilities of private and public
sectors.
SUPPORTING THE GUIDING PRINCIPLES
Even a cursory review of OSWER's strategic planning goals and program-specific priorities
reveals strong links to the EPA strategic vision. Pollution prevention and ecosystem protection
(along with public health) are an inherent part of OSWER's mission and goals. The other
elements of the strategic vision environmental justice, strong science and data, partnership
building, and streamlining play key roles in OSWER programs. The following are some
examples of how OSWER supports the new approach.
1. Ecosystem Protection
OSWER targets funding to states to address waste management's contribution to environmental
protection in a range of sensitive ecosystems. These include the Great Lakes, Gulf of Mexico,
Mexican border, Chesapeake Bay, and the Caribbean.
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2. Environmental Justice
OSWER was the first EPA office to establish an Environmental Justice Task Force. The task
force is developing a strategy to address public health and environmental risk concerns across all
our programs.
OSWER has a cooperative agreement with the NAACP to address environmental justice concerns
at Superfund sites.
To assist in graphically depicting geographic areas of concern for environmental equity and justice
issues, CEPP has developed LandView, a tool for combining maps and demographic data.
3. Pollution Prevention
OSWER's Solid and Hazardous Waste, CEPP, and Oil Pollution Programs are true pollution
prevention programs.
The Office of Solid Waste reaches out to business, industry, government, and individuals to
demonstrate that waste reduction and use of recycled material can stimulate economic growth,
corporate competitiveness, and job creation. The Combustion Strategy puts waste reduction
efforts ahead of new combustion capacity. In addition, pollution prevention guiding principles are
written into enforcement settlements with responsible parties, making OSWER's approach one of
the most proactive in the Agency.
The CEPP Program encourages pollution prevention by helping states, local governments, and
industry with risk management planning, chemical safety audits, and community right to-know
activities.
The oil program prevents harmful releases of oil into the environment by ensuring that facilities
have response plans in place to handle spills.
The UST program is achieving pollution prevention by making steady progress toward a 1998
deadline for equipping all USTs with corrosion protection and spill prevention.
4. Strong Science and Data
OSWER is the only EPA office with a Technology Innovation Office (TIO) that promotes
development and technology transfer of new cleanup and remediation methods.
5. Partnerships
The UST program has empowered state and local programs to a greater degree than any other
EPA-delegated program. The Office of Solid Waste continues to seek new ways to address state
funding and priority needs and to enhance state and tribal capabilities. The Office of Solid Waste
works with government at all levels, business, industry, and institutions.
Efforts to increase state involvement in Superfund and Oil programs will continue through
partnerships with the National Governors Association (NGA), National Conference of State
Legislatures (NCSL), and Association of State & Territorial Solid Waste Management Officers
(ASTSWMO).
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CEPP leverages industry resources to improve local preparedness and response effectiveness.
TIO has developed an extensive partnership with federal facilities, industry, and others to
demonstrate and verify the performance of remediation technology.
OSWER contributes to EPA's international partnerships through participation in international
agreements, standard-setting, international emergency response planning, and technical assistance.
6. Reinventing EPA Management
OSWER's Office of UST is a leader in working with states and industry as customers to improve
program implementation. The UST program pioneered the use of field citations as a streamlined
enforcement tool and has helped the states streamline their corrective action processes to cut
cleanup costs and time.
Superfund has a number of administrative improvements underway to accelerate site cleanup and
reduce costs.
7. Environmental Accountability
OSWER reaches out to the public and regulated community using technical guidance, the
RCRA/Superfund industry hotline, and training seminars on regulations and their enforcement.
OSWER manages varied and complex information systems to ensure that the enforcement data
needs of headquarters, the regions and the states are met.
OSWER will strive to enhance public involvement in all aspects of the cleanup programs.
OTHER MANDATES AND OBLIGATION
As EPA's basic "command-and-control" regulatory structure was put in place, the Agency shifted
its attention toward the methods outlined in the strategic vision. These hold the promise of
allowing the Agency to leverage the resources of all sectors, to obviate problems, to accomplish
its mission more scientifically and less expensively, and to ensure that EPA considers the impact
of its actions on the community as a whole. OSWER expect to place even greater emphasis on the
strategic vision approaches in the future.
OSWER foresees both opportunities and barriers in moving toward the strategic vision.
Opportunities include the upcoming reauthorizations of CERCLA (Superfund) and RCRA. The
Administration's proposals for Superfund will foster a much stronger partnership with the states
and tribes, allow EPA to consider the cumulative and multiple source risks to minority
communities, will provide economic redevelopment in distressed communities, and streamline
remedy selection. While revisions to RCRA are not developed at this point, OSWER anticipates a
movement toward a more flexible, innovative, and delegated program that emphasizes locally
tailored solid and hazardous waste programs, promotes pollution prevention and recycling as a
central strategy, and advocates effective use of data and information.
OSWER expects to maintain or increase its support for risk assessment and for innovative
technologies such as bioremediation and alternative in-situ treatment technologies. OSWER will
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take advantage of these successes to spur public and private sector efforts to improve scientific
knowledge in waste remediation and risk assessment.
OSWER anticipates important payoffs in the areas of environmental data. Local Emergency
Planning Committees are the recipients and users of sound environmental data. They provide
OSWER an opportunity to track success in effective response and ecosystem protection.
Science and data areas that could benefit particularly from increased investment include efforts to
put practical information about science in the hands of people (such as site and facility cleanup
managers) who really need it and can apply it. Also, OSWER's programs suffer from an inability
to develop and track environmental indicators that allow it to measure its impact on ecosystem
protection; increased funding for data gathering and analysis, and increased sharing of existing
data, would enhance OSWER's ability to protect ecosystems.
There are numerous opportunities for increased partnerships to achieve OSWER's mission.
OSWER would like to expand efforts such as joint projects with industry to develop voluntary
underground storage tank standards as an alternative to prescriptive rule making. Regarding state
and tribal partners, in five years OSWER anticipates that states and tribes will run a large share of
the Superfund program. The RCRA and UST programs are recognized as Agency leaders in state
delegation and in flexibility in administering grant programs. The Office of Solid Waste (OSW)
has pioneered the "co-regulator" concept with states to effect a true partnership in hazardous
waste protection. OSWER will continue to look for ways to provide increased flexibility to states
to achieve national goals as well as state priorities.
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OFFICE OF WATER
INTRODUCTION
The Office of Water (OW) envision a nation that has clean, safe, and sufficient water resources to
sustain living things and societal needs.1 Over the past several years, water programs have shifted
to innovative, risk-targeted approaches to assuring safe drinking water and a watershed-based
approach to environmental improvement. OW's work on the President's Safe Drinking Water Act
(SOWA) and Clean Water Act (CWA) Reauthorization Initiative,2'3 as well as its FY 1994 and
FY 1995 budget investments and redirections, 4 reflect our commitment. The watershed approach
mobilizes "traditional" programs (permitting, enforcement, and standards setting), orients them to
geographic areas, and supplements them with new tools to address drinking water supply or
quality problems, nonpoint sources, habitat loss, and other ecological stresses through
partnerships with other federal agencies, state and local governments, industry, landowners, and
the public. Both approaches are consistent with the objectives of the President's "Vision of
Change for America", mandates in the National Performance Review, the Reinvention Initiative,
new Executive Orders on streamlining, recommendations in EPA's Science Advisory Board
report, "Reducing Risk", Congressional interest, and OW's stakeholders' belief that current
programs must be supplemented with, and to a degree replaced by, local/regional efforts that
focus on priority areas.
OW's goal is to integrate programs on a watershed basis and empower water quality agencies and
others to do the same. The OW program will transform from a focus on specific point sources of
pollution in stream segments to one that emphasizes the watershed as the functional unit
necessary to meet both human and ecosystem health. Over the next five years, watershed activities
will cut across virtually all water programs. To accomplish this goal, OW is implementing a major
reprogramming of personnel and resources.
SUPPORTING THE GUIDING PRINCIPLES
1. Ecosystem Protection
OW is committed to a watershed-based program using ecosystem management guiding principles.
In 1994, geographic initiatives in all ten regions and 130 state, and local watershed projects used
ecosystem management techniques. By 1999, the number of federal, state and local organizations
managing water resources on a watershed/ecosystem basis will increase exponentially. The
Agency's Ecosystem Task Force, co-chaired by the Assistant Administrator for Water, is critical
to policy and institutional changes necessary for this transition. Current watershed projects will
demonstrate the effectiveness of ecosystem management techniques and will allow continuous
evaluation and refinement.
Several efforts highlight this priority on developing and implementing national, state, and tribal
strategies to transition water and aquatic habitat protection programs to a watershed-based
approach. In FY 1995, the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit
program will refocus 50 percent of its resources to integrate permitting functions into a broader
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watershed context and to support development of state-wide basin management approaches. In
February 1994, OW completed a draft NPDES Watershed Strategy.5 The document outlines key
activities to be taken by regional offices in FY 1994 to ensure that the watershed approach is
incorporated into FY 1995 regional and state programs. In 1995, OW will launch the Source
Water Protection Program as a tool for states and localities to protect drinking water supplies on
a watershed basis. Also starting in FY 1995, a significant portion of CWA Section 319 funds will
be targeted to specific state-designated local restoration projects for riparian, wetland, stream
channel, and shoreline habitats. OW will be implementing President Clinton's recent Wetland
Protection Plan over the next five years and have requested a $5.0 million increase in funds for FY
1995 wetlands grants.
Over the next several years, OW will strengthen the institutional framework for the watershed
management approach in other areas by integrating grant, planning, standard setting, and
assessment and reporting processes per watershed.6 Some examples include;
> Combining/linking 15 separate surface water, ground water, and drinking water planning
processes into a coordinated watershed process,
^ Using the Great Lakes Water Quality Initiative as a model for developing consistent,
watershed-wide water quality standards to protect human health, aquatic life, and
wildlife,
+ Coordinating the issuance of storm water permits with watershed plans,
^ Establishing Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLS) ahead of permits,
* Standardizing monitoring and information management practices across federal
organizations through efforts, and
* Encouraging the use of state revolving funds to support projects in priority watersheds.
Additional activities are planned to incorporate ecosystem management practices into water
programs. In FY 1995, OW will consolidate several water quality research issues into an
ecosystem protection research cluster. Projects conducted under a multi-media approach will
provide the scientific basis for sustainable management and protection of ecological systems in
specific watershed areas. OW is expanding the coverage of water criteria beyond human health
and aquatic life by considering sediment, wildlife, and biological criteria, and augmenting the
assessment methodology with tools besides whole effluent toxicity testing. By FY 1999, many
tools (e.g., revised human health and aquatic life methodologies) will be in place for the'watershed
protection approach. Biological assessment measures linked to eco-regions and indigenous
species, which help states incorporate bioassesment into their ambient monitoring programs, will
be complete for rivers, streams, lakes, and estuaries by FY 1999 and in progress for wetlands.
In FY 1995, OW will begin reporting on some environmental indicators that measure the
effectiveness of water quality programs in protecting and improving ecosystem health. All these
tools are the basis for the ecological risk assessment (ERA) methodologies that will enable OW to
more directly measure the overall state of a watershed/ecosystem. By evaluating effects from all
stressors in the watershed and analyzing their impacts on the physical, chemical, and biological
components, OW will be better able to identify and rank those watersheds at greatest risk,
particular stressors in a watershed with the greatest impacts, and target resources appropriately.
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2. Environmental Justice
Both the CWA and SDWA Reauthorization Initiatives recognize the needs of small, economically
disadvantaged and rural communities. These communities often are impacted disproportionally by
pollution and need innovative solutions for their water-related problems. The CWA initiative
allows states to use the State Revolving Fund (SRF) for disadvantaged community needs; permits
zero and negative interest loans with extended repayment periods; places priority on urban
watersheds whose residents often rely on subsistence fishing; and encourages states to restore and
protect urban watersheds. The SDWA proposals address the higher costs per household that small
community water systems face in meeting regulatory requirements, allowing "Best Available
Technology" (BAT) alternatives for small systems.
Native Americans as well as minority groups consume larger amounts offish than the average
U.S. citizen. The Criteria and Standards Program is evaluating whether water quality criteria
should be based on risk to recreational and subsistence fishermen instead of the national average
consumer. OW leads an Agency-wide task force, monitoring fish contamination in the Columbia
River Basin to evaluate the health risks to Native Americans from fish consumption. In FY 1995,
OW, together with key local organizations, will identify and address environmental justice issues
in selected minority communities. Region 10 and OW are leading an effort to coordinate federal
programs to help Alaskan Native American village officials address severe sanitation problems.
The Indian and Alaskan Native American set aside for wastewater treatment facilities, the FY
1995 budget request of $50 million in grants to support wastewater treatment for the Hispanic
residents in Texas colonials, and the FY 1995 request for $100 million for wastewater
infrastructure for US/Mexico border cities also support EPA's environmental justice goals.7
3. Pollution Prevention
Pollution prevention is a significant component of both the CWA and SDWA Reauthorization
Initiatives. CWA pollution prevention proposals include: allowing permit and pretreatment
programs to require industrial dischargers to consider pollution prevention, including recycling
and pollutant reduction, expanding the SRF to programs promoting water conservation and
pollution prevention; and encouraging pollution prevention to be considered in the development
of effluent guidelines and best management practices.
Similarly, the SDWA proposals have a strong emphasis on pollution prevention. The Source
Water Protection Programs for both ground water and drinking water allow states to protect
drinking water supplies by addressing pollution from all sources, looking beyond jurisdictional
borders, and building local efforts to prevent and control source contamination. Ultimately,
preventing contamination of drinking water sources will reduce the burdens of treatment required
of water systems.
OW is integrating pollution prevention into its operations including: the development of national
water discharge standards (effluent guidelines); conditions in NPDES permits; comprehensive,
site-specific pollution prevention plans under storm water general permits in 29 industrial sectors;
conditions in enforcement settlements; and encouraging Municipal Water Pollution Prevention
Programs for municipal waste treatment plants. OW also initiated the Water Alliances for
Voluntary Efficiency (WAVE) to promote water use efficiency with the hotel industry. Preventing
pollution is the aim of the Wellhead Protection Program and the national Comprehensive State
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Ground Water Protection Program (CSGWPP). OW is working with other EPA offices and the
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to develop an interagency agricultural pollution
prevention guiding principle. This guiding principle will establish goals for pollution prevention
through direct and indirect (technical/financial assistance) Agency actions, and public and private
partnerships with agricultural trade organizations. OW's efforts to incorporate pollution
prevention into all its program activities will increase over the next five years.
4. Strong Science and Data
OW's scientific focus has been strongly influenced by two Science Advisory Board (SAB)
reports8'9 that emphasized the importance of: sound science in decision making; Agency programs
working together to reduce risk to the environment and to human health; and giving ecological
risk reduction the same emphasis as human health risk reduction. Providing access to quality data
from a variety of sources for cross-program and multi-media analysis is critical to the success of
the watershed and ecosystem management approaches. Over the next five years, OW will
incorporate these guiding principles into its program by:
* Developing science, methods, models, criteria, and other tools to better identify, assess,
and quantify risks for both human health and ecosystems.
* Advancing science and technology to reduce risks from unaddressed sources or
unregulated pollutants.
> Co-chairing the National Science and Technology Council's Committee on Environment
and Natural Resources Research. The Committee will develop a national environmental
and natural resources research and development (R&D) Strategy to address the
Administration's goals of improving linkages between science and policy and enhancing
federal coordination.
> Participating in the President's Environmental Technology Initiative.
> Incorporating social sciences into OW's decision-making process to demonstrate the
relationships between the environment and the economy.
** Implementing action plans (1-5 years) for the environmental indicators recommended by
the OW Indicators Workgroup10 and working with several states to pilot the use of
selected indicators. This effort also will support the requirements of the Government
Performance Review Act.
>- Improving nationwide11 and EPA monitoring12 and data management practices, including
improving quality assurance practices,13 and complying with agency-wide data
administration standards to facilitate the sharing of data across organizations.
> Modernizing and upgrading data systems14'15 so they better meet new program needs
associated with risk and watershed-based programs.
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5. Partnerships
A key OW strategic guiding principle is to strengthen the capacity of non-federal partners,
primarily states and municipalities, to meet shared environmental goals. The success of newer
programs will depend heavily on local involvement and competency.
The CWA and SDWA Reauthorization Initiatives recommend "designer partnerships" among
federal, state, and local governments, private landowners, industry, and the public so they can
collaborate on flexible, innovative, efficient solutions to water quality problems, increasingly
making watersheds the basis of analysis and action. A key EPA role, as indicated in the FY 1995
budget, will be to provide local governments, the agricultural community, citizens, and industry
with technical and financial and evaluation tools as they explore alternative approaches to solving
significant water quality problems.
Partnerships must include strategies to help state and local governments meet the financial and
other challenges they face in achieving CWA and SDWA goals. EPA recognizes the burden faced
by states and localities, and OW intends to respond through increased technical assistance,
site-specific assistance, training, and tailored innovative approaches to program funding and
implementation. In FY 1993, OW pursued new partnerships with the regulated community and
environmental groups. For example, rather than taking the traditional rulemaking approach, OW
expended significant time and resources on two highly successful rulemaking processes involving
external stakeholders: (1) a negotiated rule on disinfectants and disinfection by products, and (2)
the pulp and paper industry integrated rule for water and air. It is OW's goal to involve states in
all OW rulemaking. OW also initiated the Water Alliances for Voluntary Efficiency (WAVE).
WAVE is designed to promote water use efficiency, with the hotel industry as partners in
educating the general public. In FY 1992- FY 1993, OW used consensus-building among a
diverse group of stakeholders to develop a comprehensive strategy to address problems from
combined sewer overflows (CSOs).
OW plays an important leadership role in international activities, because so many basic
environmental needs are linked to water supply, wastewater treatment, watershed protection, and
regulatory development. OW's highest geographic priority has been to work closely with this
country's nearest neighbors, Mexico and Canada. The new North American Commission on
Environmental Cooperation should foster EPA's work on the Mexican Border and the Great
Lakes. Other significant near-by activities include developing protocols for addressing land-based
pollution impacting the Caribbean, as well as the ongoing work on the London Dumping
Convention that impacts the U.S. marine environment. Other OW geographic initiatives include
extensive work on Middle East water issues; water scarcity and security are growing areas in
importance and impact the United States. Future geographic initiatives will be undertaken when
they have continental or global environmental consequences.
6. Reinventing EPA Management
President Clinton's CWA Initiative provides new flexibility to meet CWA goals more efficiently
while reducing base program cost. It proposes grant consolidation, multi-year workplans,
streamlined administrative requirements for states electing to use the watershed approach, and
simplified revolving fund requirements to assist local communities. These measures will reduce
substantially State and EPA paperwork. Substantially OW already has begun efforts to streamline
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CWA Section 319 and 106 grants. In response to the National Performance Review (NPR), OW
is working with the states and OMB to allow the use of a computerized grants system.
OW's Office of Science and Technology is working with the Effluent Guidelines Task Force to
identify ways to expedite the promulgation of effluent guidelines. OW will continue to coordinate
rule development with the air, toxics, and waste programs, and the public for early issue
resolution of all rules and to ensure that regulations minimize industrial investments. A regional
workgroup currently is evaluating the NPDES permit program and will provide suggestions for
streamlining to OW. Recommendations may include eliminating evidentiary hearings by having
permit appeals go directly to the permit appeal board and expanding the use of general permits or
permits-by-rule for certain classes of dischargers.
Employee development, empowerment, and diversity are key components of the January 1994
OW Streamlining Plan.16 The plan calls for: individual development plans for all OW employees;
establishing mentoring and Position Exchange Shadow Assignment programs; multi-media
training opportunities, specific slots for career growth, and rotations on a regular basis to broaden
management experience and provide opportunities for growth. OW intends to increase the use of
the team approach and matrix management. These teams will focus on multi-media, cross-cutting
projects vital to OW mission. They will provide OW employees with more flexibility to develop
innovative approaches.
Recruitment of diverse candidates for middle and upper level positions will be expanded.
Management will work with the OW Minority Focus Group to address issues surrounding the
hiring, training, recruiting, and promoting of minorities. Efforts also will continue with Virginia
State University and a consortium of 34 historically black colleges and universities to amplify
training and career opportunities for minorities. Progress toward achieving a diversified work
force will be documented for staff in an annual report.
7. Environmental Accountability
Over the next five years, the Office of Water (OW) compliance assurance activities will continue
to support and promote a strong compliance and enforcement program. OW will target high-risk
ecosystems, geographic areas, waterbodies, populations, and sectors. This approach will be
integrated into the watershed management and source water protection strategies now being
emphasized in water programs. The OW compliance assurance activities will focus on regulatory
development, outreach, and enhanced citizen participation, capacity building,
compliance/technical assistance, supporting the new Office of Enforcement and Compliance
Assurance (OECA) with its compliance and enforcement activities, and jointly developing
compliance assistance strategies with OECA for targeted areas.
The Office of Water will continue efforts to assure that its regulations are clear to the public, its
regulatory partners, and the regulated community, and that scope and regulatory responsibilities
are defined clearly. OW also will develop regulations for which compliance can be measured
easily. Staff will conduct training on new regulations shortly after they are promulgated. Working
closely with OECA early in the regulation development process to ensure that regulations and
regulatory programs are enforceable will be a priority.
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Compliance assistance, including outreach and technical assistance, will continue to be a key
component of water programs. The Office of Water will continue and strengthen its partnerships
with federal agencies, states, tribes and local governments in developing their capacity to manage
programs that achieve and go beyond the requirements of environmental law. This includes
continuing efforts to ensure compliance data are fully and accurately reported and to share
information widely using new communication technologies.
The Office of Water will continue to sponsor and participate in workshops and conferences
pertaining to compliance with OW program requirements. For example, OW will continue to
work on interagency wetlands enforcement workgroups to identify ways to improve federal
wetlands enforcement through better processing of cases, training, communications and outreach,
and setting of priorities. OW will coordinate these programmatic meetings (e.g., national
meetings of regions and states) with OECA to ensure mutual objectives and common interests are
served. Publications, training, and seminars will be provided to increase public awareness and
accountability regarding protection of the nation's wetlands, surface waters, and ground water
resources. This includes: publication of annual reports on compliance of public water systems,
promoting National Drinking Water Week, continuing efforts with the National Training
Coalition, implementing the Safe Drinking Water Hotline, conducting training and outreach on
storm water program requirements, and working with the regulated community to develop a
national control program for combined sewer overflows.
OTHER MANDATES AND OBLIGATIONS
Public Health Protecting and enhancing public health is an OW strategic goal.1 The
Administration's September 1993 package often recommendations for SDWA Reauthorization2
addresses fundamental issues that will better safeguard public health and provide safe drinking
water to all Americans. The SDWA reauthorization and its implementation is a top priority over
the next five years. The Administration's proposal includes: a Source Water Protection Program,
flexibility for states with enhanced source-water protection programs, a drinking water state
revolving fund, a program to ensure the viability of small systems, an improved process for
selecting contaminants for regulation, and optional SDWA-authorized user fees.
Wet Weather Sources of Pollution and Persistent Toxics The greatest sources of water
pollution are agricultural and urban nonpoint sources. In response to the Administrator's review
of Agency base activities, OW is shifting its emphasis to managing nonpoint source pollutants.
OW requested $20 million dollars in FY 1995 for controlling nonpoint sources of pollution. This
will be directed toward controlling both urban/suburban and agricultural runoff produced by wet
weather conditions and restoring watersheds impacted by nonpoint source pollutants.
Another key priority is to address persistent toxics. The President's CWA Initiative strengthens
authorities to restrict or prohibit discharge of highly toxic and bioaccumulative pollutants,
includes authority to address loadings from all media, and establishes a more risk-based approach
to developing water quality criteria for toxics.
Base Programs OW is committed to preserving its base programs as it moves toward solving
the remaining pollution problems. OW has tried to maintain the level of resources for national
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baseline programs. This is critical so that water quality progress made to date is not significantly
compromised and becomes the foundation upon which to build watershed and risk-based
approaches.
REFERENCES
1. 'Water Planet IV; The Water Program's Strategic Plan, " Draft, USEPA, Washington
B.C., July 1993.
2. Administration Recommendation for Safe Drinking Water Act Reauthorization,
USEPA, Washington B.C., September 8, 1993.
3. President Clinton's Clean Water Initiative. EPA 800-R-94-001, Washington B.C.,
February 1994.
4. Summary of the 1995 Budget, USEPA, Washington B.C., February 1994.
5. Draft NPDES Watershed Strategy, USEPA, Washington B.C., February 15, 1994.
6. Office of Water Directors Meeting on Watershed Protection: Programmatic
Opportunities to Promote the Watershed Protection Approach, Washington B.C.
Becember 1992.
7- U.S.- Mexico Integrated Border Environmental Plan (IBEP), USEPA, Washington
B.C., February 1992.
8. Framework For Ecological Risk Assessment. USEPA/630/R-92/001, Washington B.C.,
February 1992.
9. Reducing Risk: Setting Priorities and Strategies for Environmental Protection. USEPA,
Washington B.C., 1991.
10. Briefing on Office of Water Environmental Indicators; Measuring Progress to Reach
National Goals, USEPA, Washington B.C. January 1994.
11. Ambient Water-Quality Monitoring In the United States: First year Review,
Evaluation, and Recommendations; Report to the Office of Management and Budget,
Intergovernmental Task Force on Monitoring Water Quality, Interagency Advisory
Committee on Water Bata, Water Information Coordination Program, Washington
B.C., Becember 1992.
12. Water Monitoring Strategy, USEPA, Washington B.C., November 1993.
13. Office of Water Quality Management Plan, Braft, USEPA, Washington B.C.,
Becember 1994
14. Information Strategic Plan for the Public Water Supply System, USEPA, Washington
B.C., 1993.
15. STORETModernization Project Work Plan: Findings, Conclusions, and
Recommendations, USEPA, Washington B.C., February 1991.
16. Office of Water Draft Streamlining Plan, USEPA, Washington B.C., February 7, 1994.
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REGION 1
INTRODUCTION
Region 1 encompasses the six New England states and nine tribes, and ranges from densely
populated coastal urban areas to pristine mountains and forests. Historically a center for the
textile, paper, and metal plating/jewelry industries, and more recently for high-tech and health
industries, Region 1 environmental challenges include old mills and industrial sites, contaminated
sediments and water, urban air quality problems, acid deposition, radon, land use, and others.
The vision for Region 1 is "A New England where 1) people freely include in their daily lives a
concern for the environment and a commitment to prevent pollution at work, at home and at play;
2) a quality environment and a healthy economic climate are compatible and meet the needs of
future generations; 3) rich and poor alike share in the benefits of a healthy environment; 4) the
natural balance of all living things is not threatened; and 5) a Regional Office with a dedicated,
highly skilled and culturally diverse workforce rewards achievement, creativity, teamwork and
continuous improvement."
Four years of strategic planning, resulting in a comprehensive, long-term (FY 1993 1998)
strategic plan, has enabled Region 1 to focus its activities in priority areas by re-targeting
resources and by undertaking new initiatives. Consistent with the Agency-wide guiding
principles, Region 1's plan targets five long-term areas:
1) Protection of critical New England resources;
2) Pollution prevention;
3) Improving science and data, in-house and with partners;
4) Measurement of environmental results; and
5) Changing the organizational culture; collaborating with states and tribes is a key
component of all Region 1 long-term strategies.
In addition to pursuing long-term strategies, Region 1 will be implementing several new
initiatives: a) the environmental technology industry initiative; b) assistance to the regulated
community; c) reinventing EPA through bold experimentation; and d) targeted enforcement.
Region 1 will target activities and shift resources into regional and Agency-wide priorities, and
out of lower priority activities, using the disinvestment process. In FY 1994, Region 1 is
reinvesting about 5 percent of its staff into multi-media teams in priority areas, and funding five
positions from overhead to coordinate cross-program priority activities. There also have been
significant shifts within divisions to carry out strategic workplans. The ultimate goal is to
incorporate these new approaches into the way Region 1 does business in the region so that the
disinvestment process becomes unnecessary.
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SUPPORTING THE GUIDING PRINCIPLES
1. Ecosystem Protection
Region 1's resource protection strategy entails management measures to protect high priority
natural resources in New England, and integrating the resource protection approach into how the
region does its work. Initiatives during the next five years include:
* New Hampshire Pilot This pilot will identify and protect high priority resources in
New Hampshire, in partnership with federal, state, and local agencies and other
organizations; this approach will be expanded to the other New England states.
> Comprehensive Ground Water Protection Strategy EPA will integrate ground
water activities across its programs, and provide flexibility to states on ground water
management.
> Merrimack River Initiative EPA will work with federal, state, local, and private
partners developing a multimedia, ecosystem protection plan for the watershed, with
targeted outreach activities, environmental and ecosystem goals and indicators, and a
monitoring plan.
2. Environmental Justice
Region 1's environmental justice strategy includes implementation of Region I's Environmental
Justice Policy (using a database Region 1 developed to target potential inequities), annual division
workplans, and regular assessment of progress to integrate environmental justice into EPA, state,
and tribal activities, and a strong focus on partnership with community groups, Indian tribes, and
other agencies. The Urban Lead (Pb) Project, in collaboration with federal, state, and community
organizations, has the goal of reducing risk of exposure to lead for urban children in
ethnic/minority and low-income communities.
3. Pollution Prevention
Region 1's pollution prevention strategy mandates annual division workplans of new and ongoing
efforts to integrate pollution prevention (P2) into all EPA activities, flexible negotiation of state
and tribal grants, and development of prevention measures. Region 1 supports new activities such
as integrating environmental objectives with transportation planning and the P2 University
Consortium. Region 1 and Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) are
negotiating flexibility to implement DEP's "FIRST" program of whole-facility inspections. Air,
water, and RCRA program outputs are negotiated as a package, and DEP is allowed to vary the
inspection mix between type and major and minor sources. Among the many DEP innovations:
identifying unpermitted waste streams and prevention opportunities during inspections.
4. Strong Science and Data
The region's improving science/data and environmental measurement strategies focus on
developing and utilizing scientifically sound data, methods, and environmental and performance
measures that support regulatory actions and assessment of EPA program effectiveness. Actions
include implementing a team approach to setting data quality objectives for data collection,
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developing regional guidelines, methods, and environmental indicators, nurturing scientific staff,
and supporting EMAP and REMAP projects. Region 1 is establishing an indicators workgroup to
work with states on environmental measures.
5. Partnerships
Region 1 will be implementing a new approach to state and tribal partnerships to achieve better
joint planning, more capacity building, enhanced flexibility, increased public involvement, and
greater accountability for environmental results. A quality action team is addressing grants
streamlining. The State/EPA Communities Workgroup is evaluating the burden of regulatory
mandates on communities. The New England State/EPA Enforcement Committee will coordinate
enforcement priority setting and planning. New initiatives will focus on building partnerships with
states and tribes, and establishing collaborative relationships with other external stakeholders.
6. Reinventing EPA Management
Region 1's changing organizational culture strategy recognizes the need for changes in EPA
culture to foster new approaches to environmental stewardship in New England. Key elements
include quality, cross-program approaches, teamwork, risk-taking, and diversity. Ongoing
activities include Total Quality Management, cross-program coordination, streamlining, and the
Organizational Health Survey (a periodic survey of employees' perceptions of progress on
long-term objectives). Region 1 will be reinventing EPA Region 1 through a series of bold
experiments with new approaches to more effectively and efficiently achieve environmental
outcomes.
7. Environmental Accountability
Through targeted enforcement initiative, EPA will work with the existing New England
State/EPA Environmental Enforcement Committee to establish a cooperative State/Federal New
England Environmental Compliance Network that will undertake a concerted, cross-program
effort to strategically target state and federal compliance and enforcement resources. Region 1
will use two approaches: offering technical assistance to the regulated community, and pursuing
vigorous enforcement actions against the right targets. Activities will include analysis of
enforcement resources, joint priority-setting with states, public outreach, setting measures of
success, and institution-building.
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REGION 2
INTRODUCTION
Region 2 is responsible for carrying out EPA programs in New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico,
and the Virgin Islands. Home to over 29 million people, the region claims unique features such as
its vast coastal marine environment, the coral reefs and rain forests of the Caribbean, and three
major waterways bordering Canada. The region's densely concentrated industrial sector, including
printing, publishing, and manufacturing of chemicals, allied products, and electronic equipment is
a major factor in regional planning. Region 2 fully embodies the Agency mission and shares the
Administrator's vision for the future of environmental protection in this country. Region 2
priorities reflect the national agenda as well as local circumstances.
SUPPORTING THE GUIDING PRINCIPLES
1. Ecosystem Protection
At the heart of the region's efforts in ecosystem protection is the targeting of waters that continue
to experience adverse ecosystem impacts. Region 2 is working with stakeholders to develop
comprehensive plans to restore the ecological integrity of the Niagara River, Lake Ontario, the
Long Island Sound, New York/New Jersey Harbor, the New York Bight, the Delaware Estuary,
and San Juan Bay. Joint EPA/State/tribal strategic plans outline clear commitments for all parties
to protect these watersheds and ensure EPA support of state and tribal initiatives on others.
Region 2 also plays a leadership role in the protection of Onondaga Lake, Lake Champlain, and
the Peconic Estuary, in response to Congressional mandates, and it is working with federal, state,
tribal, and local partners to protect other unique ecosystems such as the Hackensack
Meadowlands in New Jersey. Ecosystem protection will continue to be an integral consideration
in the region's strategy for targeting both multi-media and single-medium enforcement activities.
One primary cause of adverse ecosystem impacts in Region 2 is contaminated sediment. Toxics in
sediments contribute to elevated levels of toxics in fish tissue, which impose significant risk for
the health of humans and fish-eating wildlife. Contaminated sediments also make dredging and
dredged material disposal problematic, threatening the economic viability of the region's ports.
Therefore, Region 2 will focus in the coming years on the identification, characterization and
remediation of contaminated sediments, and on environmentally responsible dredging and dredged
material disposal.
2. Environmental Justice
Region 2 can point to several environmental justice efforts, including the establishment of a
cross-divisional regional workgroup on environmental justice. One of this group's most important
functions is to recommend to senior management ways to ensure that environmental justice
considerations figure prominently in technical and managerial decisionmaking. Most recently,
workgroup members have begun to draft a multi-year plan to guide the region's environmental
justice endeavors. At the same time, staff are active in bringing the benefits of environmental
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protection to all parts of the region. In the Catano area of Puerto Rico, which combines both
residential and industrial zones, a multi-media risk assessment is being conducted in response to
public health concerns raised by local residents. Regional enforcement resources also are being
focused on Catano to assure industrial and municipal facilities are in compliance. These efforts
will culminate in a long-term environmental management plan for the entire area that will mitigate
environmental factors that may be contributing to reported health problems. The Superfund
program also is engaged in an environmental equity study comparing remedial activities at
CERCLIS National Priority List (NPL) and non-NPL sites with respect to racial and economic
indicators. Objectives are to determine whether demographic groups are disproportionately
represented among residents near these sites, and whether groups have been differentially served
by any of the processes and procedures applied to Superfund site identification and remediation.
Results are expected to help orient program planning well into the future. In recognition of the
health problems related to subsistence fishing and the consumption of contaminated fish by
minority populations in the New York/New Jersey Harbor, Hudson River, and Great Lakes, the
region has implemented a fish advisories project. Grants have been given to the states to promote
community outreach and education on fishing bans and the risks associated with fish consumption.
Environmental justice factors will also be added to the criteria Region 2 currently uses to target
facilities for coordinated multi-media inspections and the resultant enforcement actions.
3. Pollution Prevention
In keeping with the Agency's emphasis on pollution prevention, Region 2's FY 1994 Pollution
Prevention Incentives for States grant program encourages partnerships between state agencies
and local government and/or non-profit private agencies; targeting of high risk areas; and
implementation of special projects in support of environmental justice goals. Over the next five
years, Region 2 will continue to support creative, local-level efforts to promote pollution
prevention through outreach and training and by developing a network of university-based
pollution prevention programs. Consistent with the Agency's internal Pollution Prevention
Policy, Region 2 also will assess and implement pollution prevention approaches at the EPA
facility in Edison, New Jersey (which is the largest EPA-owned facility), including waste
reduction, downsizing, and product or method substitution.
The region's strategy for using multi-media compliance and enforcement to support pollution
prevention encompasses EPA, state and tribal initiatives. Region 2 are committed to incorporating
pollution prevention elements in case settlements, including those that lend themselves to
Supplemental Environmental Projects. The next few years will see the development of a
partnership with the state of New York to carry out a risk-based multi-media inspection and
pollution prevention audit program. This effort will target major toxic dischargers who generally
represent higher-risk facilities and afford the greatest opportunities to prevent pollution. By
offering training and technical assistance, Region 2 will encourage other state and local
governments to adopt a similar approach.
4. Strong Science and Data
Region 2's Geographic Information System (GIS) is a critical tool that ensures programs are
managed on the basis of strong science and data with respect to multi-media sources, exposures,
and environmental conditions. Region 2's database design is a blueprint for building the GIS
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infrastructure over the coming years, setting priorities for data acquisition, and developing
applications that meet regional needs. Several pilot applications are underway, including projects
for the Niagara River and Multi-Media Aquifer Protection. Region 2 will continue to share data
with state, tribal, and other federal agencies in order to obtain cost-effective information that is
critical to local-area multi-media analysis.
Region 2 also intends to promote quality science by providing analytical and technical support to
programs and delegated states and tribes, and implementing state-of-the-art analytical methods in
the regional laboratory. As a member of the EPA Environmental Monitoring Management
Council steering committee, Region 2 will work toward Agency-wide, consistent, comparable
monitoring methods. Region 2 will pursue similar goals on an interagency level through work
with the Interagency Task Force for Monitoring and the Interagency Quality Assurance for
Environmental Measurements Committee. This year Region 2 is initiating a pilot for an
interagency environmental data information transfer system to facilitate federal agency sharing of
environmental data, and to avoid duplication of monitoring efforts. The pilot will be governed by
the highest standards of data quality to maximize its utility. Region 2 also plans to foster improved
science dialogue with the public through implementation of Region 2's Peer Review Policy and
continuation of the Region 2 Quality Assurance Outreach Program.
5. Partnerships
Working to develop partnerships with stakeholders to improve the effectiveness of EPA's
environmental programs and policies is another of Region 2's fundamental activities. Through FY
1999, the region will continue and expand its outreach programs with other federal, state, and
tribal agencies to help develop and strengthen their capacity to deliver effective environmental
programs. Building on successful pilot efforts with two states in the water program, the region
will expand strategic planning efforts with state and tribal agencies to ensure that their needs and
priorities are accounted for in all programs. In addition, the region will emphasize flexibility by
reducing the level of oversight where state and tribal agencies have proven their capability to
conduct effective environmental programs.
Indian nations have used regional assistance to develop environmental consortia; the St. Regis
Mohawk Tribe periodically publishes the Iroquois Environmental Newsletter, further promoting
information sharing. Region 2 anticipates the further strengthening of EPA-Indian partnerships
through specific unique initiatives. For example, the Seneca Nation of Indians is considering a
program of tribal enforcement and outreach to mitigate the potential environmental impacts of
petroleum storage tanks on their lands. The region's Indian program will become more directed to
specific programs in the future, consistent with the partnership strategy.
International programs in Bulgaria, Poland, and Asia should be viewed as an extension of EPA's
domestic efforts, recognizing that pollution knows no boundaries. The region will continue to
support the Agency's international program in a manner consistent with the strategic plan. The
region's technical assistance to Bulgaria aims to support the creation of sustainable programs to
protect human health and the environment. Region 2 anticipates that, in the coming years,
Bulgaria will begin to institutionalize some of the components of previous Region 2 programs,
especially in the area of drinking water protection and waste water treatment. Region 2 also plans
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to call upon New York State's expertise in air protection to assist Bulgaria in the development of
its comprehensive monitoring, compliance, and enforcement program.
6. Reinventing EPA Management
Region 2 views reinventing EPA management as an opportunity to re-examine its priorities, to
restructure its operations to make the best use of resources, and to improve the quality of service
and programs delivered to customers. Region 2 shares the goals articulated in the Agency's
streamlining guidance and have devised, with input from all divisions and all staff levels in the
region, a plan that addresses each goal in turn. Specific Region 2 efforts over the coming years
will include establishing a process for organizational analysis and redesign; analyzing the feasibility
of regional task force recommendations; and continuing an aggressive recruiting programs in
support of workforce diversity, while providing a broad range of developmental opportunities to
enhance employee readiness for managerial positions when vacancies occur. At the end of five
years, streamlined work processes and increased delegation of authority and accountability will
have contributed to significant managerial improvements in the region.
7. Environmental Accountability
Region 2 has a variety of plans in place to enhance environmental accountability in the regulated
community over the coming years. For example, the region will continue to concentrate both
single-medium and multi-media inspections and follow-up enforcement activity (as appropriate) in
geographic areas of ecological sensitivity and/or in communities with environmental justice
concerns. These include the Niagara Frontier and Corning and Cortland aquifer regions of New
York, the area of the Akwesasne Indian lands, and the Catano region of Puerto Rico. The next
several years will see an increase in efforts to use SEPs to achieve pollution prevention objectives
in connection with enforcement case settlements. Finally, Region 2 will continue to develop new
levels of partnership with counterpart state agencies by encouraging their participation in
Multi-Program Enforcement Steering Committee, which selects multi-media inspection candidates
and oversees all aspects of Region 2's multi-media enforcement program.
Media program staff will continue to offer educational programs on new and existing regulatory
requirements. The region expects to replicate the positive results of the region's storm water
permitting effort in Puerto Rico, which enabled the region to ensure that emerging compliance
requirements were widely discussed, understood, and met prior to initiation of follow-up
enforcement actions. The emphasis in future years for Clean Water Act programs will be on the
combined sewer overflow policy/Clean Water Act requirements, wetlands, and the second phase
of the storm water permitting program. Region 2 also plans to expand active compliance
assistance programs in the areas of quality assurance and sound scientific data, laboratory, and
field technical assistance, and the programs for asbestos, lead, PCBs, the transition to
non-ozone-depleting refrigerants, and EPCRA Section 313 and federal facilities compliance.
Region 2 will continue to refine its process for developing compliance assistance targets and
strategies, especially through the use of GIS data and risk analysis. Regional staff also will expand
public information, education, and assistance programs designed to address environmental justice
concerns in low-income and minority areas. In selected areas, including Camden and Newark,
New Jersey, compliance profiles will be developed in coordination with local and state agencies.
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The region's Superfund program plans a number of advances in the area of environmental
restoration over the coming years. Construction completions at the region's "worst sites first" will
be a top priority, as will continued participation in the Superfund Accelerated Cleanup Model and
Superfund Administrative Improvements Initiative. The region's focus on enforcement is expected
to increase the number of timely cleanups it can undertake or oversee with existing resources.
Procedures to be developed in the near future will ensure that potential responsible parties (PRPs)
meet the terms of compliance vehicles, especially schedules to which parties have consented, and
will do much to maintain patterns of timely compliance over the next five years. Other specific
activities to be undertaken in support of the region's Superfund enforcement commitments during
FY 1995 FY 1999 include the conduct of early PRP searches to favor negotiations and
maximize their participation in cleanups, and the utilization of innovative techniques to promote
settlements, such as alternative dispute resolution and non-binding preliminary allocations of
responsibility. At the same time, the region will work to expedite the resolution of PRPs' liability,
especially in cases involving small volume generators. The timeliness of these resolutions will be
enhanced by full consideration of de minimis and de micromis settlements, opportunities for mixed
funding, and prospective purchaser agreements to expedite the re-use of Superfund sites.
It is difficult to segregate regional activities into discrete categories because in many cases Region
2 initiatives respond to a number of important concerns, in addition to a primary one: the
protection of the environment and human health in all parts of the region. For this reason, a
number of the region's endeavors exemplify the pursuit of more than one key strategy. This is a
good indicator of Region 2's successes in multi-program, multi-divisional planning, which the
region will build upon in the future. It is envisioned that implementation of these strategies will
primarily involve targeting of regional programmatic activities and resources, rather than shifting
from one area or medium to another. Through implementation of these strategies, in concert with
strong base program activities, the region anticipates continued steady progress toward attaining
national goals for environmental protection.
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REGION 3
INTRODUCTION
Region 3 is the nation's mid-Atlantic region. It includes the states of Delaware, Maryland,
Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia, as well as the District of Columbia, which is treated as
a state by most environmental statutes. EPA's Region 3 is located in Philadelphia, PA. The
Central Regional Laboratory and the Chesapeake Bay Program Office are situated in Annapolis,
MD. There is also a small staff in Wheeling, WV.
Region 3 is characterized by densely settled urban areas, large agricultural areas that are
cultivated intensely, mountain regions with significant coal mining and mineral extraction, and
several areas with producing gas and oil wells. It is a center of steel-making, coal mining, and oil
refining, and a secondary center for gas and oil extraction. Environmentally, the region is
threatened by acid mine drainage, acid deposition, ozone violations, toxic releases from chemical
plants and refineries, significant non-point source water pollution, and problems related to aging
heavy industry.
The region's major river systems include the Delaware, the Susquehanna, the Ohio, the Potomac,
and the James. The region's rivers feed into two major estuaries, the Delaware and Chesapeake
Bays. The Chesapeake Bay and most of its basin lie within the region. The Delaware Bay lies
partially in Region 3 and partially in Region 2. Both estuaries face significant environmental
stresses. The region has major program efforts underway in each.
Region 3's overall approach and priorities for the next five years are similar to those in the
Agency-wide strategic plan and support the Agency-wide plan. The region is looking forward to
implementing both plans.
Overall Approach
Region 3 is implementing a regional strategic plan for FY 1994 through 2001 that complements
the Agency-wide strategic plan. It is based on five strategic goals and twenty-one objectives that
support the goals. The goal topics are Management, Reliance on Data, State Relations, Acid
Pollution and Ozone. (A complete list of goals and objectives is included in Region 3's strategic
plan which is available from the region's Strategic Planning and Program Integration Branch.)
The region's goals are reflected by the activities the region will stress in addition to national
priorities. There are a number of other initiatives underway in the region that support both
regional and national priorities. For example, the Chesapeake Bay Program is an initiative that
involves the region, the states in the region and several headquarters offices. Other initiatives of
this type are the Baltimore-Washington Urban Risk Project, multi-media enforcement targeting,
an emphasis on ecosystems and protection of biodiversity, development of environmental
indicators, support of international programs, and a very active pollution prevention program. The
region will support these activities by investing more resources over the next five years.
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SUPPORTING THE GUIDING PRINCIPLES
1. Ecosystem Protection
* The Chesapeake Bay program supports ecosystems on the broadest scale. Bay program
efforts are multi-media, cross program, and inter-governmental. For example, the
program has an initiative underway to assess the impact of air transport of nitrogen
compounds as a major source of nitrogen as a nutrient in the Bay. This program will help
achieve the nitrogen reduction target for the year 2000.
*- The region's study of the inland and coastal bays focuses on a unique ecosystem, small
bays that have extremely limited interchange of their waters and which are under
development pressure. The study includes field sampling, data analysis, and a comparison
with historical data to establish a baseline and trends to guide future environmental
improvement efforts.
* The Terrestrial Ecosystem Protection Initiative takes a proactive role in conserving
terrestrial habitats and biological diversity in unique and threatened areas. The initiative
is focusing on development issues in the Pocono region of Pennsylvania to protect
habitats in areas that will be developed over the next five to ten years.
* The Mid-Atlantic High/and Assessment (MAHA) enhances ecosystem protection and
improves science and data. It is a major effort to chart the environmental health of a
fragile ecosystem that is found throughout the Appalachian highlands.
2. Environmental Justice
Each division has an environmental justice plan in place that is intended to make environmental
justice part of the region's everyday work and not an afterthought. The plans will be implemented
over the next five years.
> The Baltimore-Washington Urban Risk project addresses environmental justice concerns.
The project is examining the relationship between exposure to toxic substances and
neighborhoods in Baltimore as well as working to raise awareness of environmental risks
to city residents. Work has been underway in Baltimore for two years and is starting in
Washington. There are three headquarters-funded comparative risk projects in Region 3
that will provide data on environmental justice.
* The region's multi-media enforcement program supports environmental justice by
targeting actions in areas where environmental justice is an issue. A study has been
started to document environmental justice concerns in enforcement actions throughout
the region. It should be available to the region's enforcement staff in FY 1995.
3. Pollution Prevention
* Prevention strategies are an important part of Region 3's approach to compliance.
Region 3 was a pioneer in using Supplemental Environmental Projects (SEPs) in
enforcement settlements. The region has active 33/50 and Green Lights programs.
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+ Region 3 is part of the Tidewater Interagency P2 Project (TIPPP). TIPPP is an EPA,
DOD, NASA pilot created under the EPA-DOD Chesapeake Bay Agreement. It has
advanced from planning to implementation. Results will be used throughout DOD.
4. Strong Science and Data
* The region has made reliance on data one of its strategic goals. The region has started a
multi-year process to develop improved environmental indicators. Region 3 plans to have
indicators in place and to produce a "State of the Region" report during FY 1995.
> The MAHA project, described under the Ecosystem Protection section, also is intended
to upgrade environmental data available to the region.
* The region will improve its programmatic and administrative data as part of the reliance
on data goals. Activity measures will be integrated into indicators. Data will be
developed to support the management goal. The region's on-LAN (Local Area
Network) management information system will be expanded to include data from all
efforts. Most of this work should become operational during FY 1995.
> The region is building a new environmental science center at Fort Meade, which will
house the Central Regional Laboratory and the OPPTS laboratory in Beltsville.
>- The region plans to study the use of neo-tropical birds as environmental indicators. Bird
populations, migratory habits, and species diversity are unique indicators.
5. Partnerships
* The region has adopted state relations as one of its strategic goals. State representatives
are being invited to participate in the activities of the goal which include involving states
in the region's priority setting/strategic planning process.
> Region 3 is very active in its support of international activities. The region has the lead
for managing EPA's partnership with Poland.
* The management goal includes customer focus as one of its areas of emphasis. The
region's external relations plan for FY 1994 focuses on the customer needs of various
constituencies. Region 3 also is providing leadership for the Agency-wide work group
addressing the President's Executive Order on Customer Focus.
>- In the area of state partnerships, Region 3 is working with the state of West Virginia to
address acid mine drainage, which is a significant environmental problem in the coal
mining areas.
> The Chesapeake Bay Program is dependent on the efforts of all of the states and many of
the local governments in the region. In particular, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia
are the prime movers behind the program and are keys to its success.
In FY 1993, Region 3 acted to improve its state/federal enforcement partnership. Semi-annual
meetings are held between senior state and EPA enforcement managers to identify areas where
the state/federal enforcement partnership can be strengthened.
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The region's Multi-Media Enforcement Initiative is an integrated regional approach to single and
multi-media enforcement using various systems for information exchange, targeting, coordination,
and case management. The initiative has established enforcement objectives from headquarters,
regional, and state goals and priorities. Part of the region's effort will be directed to working with
the newly established OECA to incorporate national strategies into the region's enforcement plan.
6. Reinventing EPA Management
> The region's management goal emphasizes process improvement, empowerment, and
cultural diversity.
> The Region 3 Cultural Diversity Work Group, with the assistance of a consultant, will
develop and implement a cultural diversity strategy for the region.
*- Each major organization in the region is undertaking a review for possible realignment to
meet the needs of changing programs and to reduce overhead. The region's streamlining
plan also includes an outreach component to help work with customers on implementing
changes as part of reinventing government.
7. Environmental Accountability
Region 3 has a number of initiatives listed under Pollution Prevention, Environmental Justice, and
Strong Science and Data which will enhance Environmental Accountability. In particular, a strong
promotion of voluntary programs and development of environmental indicators will involve more
actors in cleaning up the environment and boost Region 3's ability to assess the impact of its
actions.
Region 3 also has a number of enforcement initiatives underway to support Environmental
Accountability:
* The Multi-Media Enforcement Initiative is designed to target the region's enforcement
activities in a systematic fashion by emphasizing environmental, health, and compliance
problems and resolving them in a whole facility context with or without enforcement
actions.
*" Region 3 enforcement programs are developing innovative targeting strategies. For
example, the NPDES program is redirecting its attention from significant non-compliers
(SNCs) and to the issue of water quality and the numerous minor sources and non-SNCs
that contribute to its degradation.
*- The region holds semi-annual meetings with states. These meetings have established a
continuing forum that addresses enforcement and compliance issues and emphasizes
state/federal cooperation.
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REGION 4
INTRODUCTION
By the year 2000, the population of Region 4 is expected to top 52 million, making this region
most populous of all ten EPA regions. The special challenges associated with this growth make it
imperative that the region enhance traditional regulatory approaches to environmental protection
without the benefit of extensive new resources. The region must work externally to leverage the
resources of states, local governments, the regulated community, environmental groups, and the
general public. Internally, Region 4 must provide an environment that allows its employees to be
creative and empowered, provide a more geographic focus for the region's actions, and put more
emphasis on non-regulatory strategies while maintaining the region's regulatory base.
Region 4 will use the National Goals Project as a starting point to begin work internally and with
states and other customers externally to develop quantitative, results-oriented goals and
indicators. Region 4 expects to begin working with states and other external customers following
the National Goals Project Regional Roundtable. As the region moves toward goals and
indicators, much of its work will take a more geographic focus. This will provide a framework to
examine a variety of solutions to complex problems and better measure environmental results.
SUPPORTING THE GUIDING PRINCIPLES
1. Ecosystem Protection
The region is continuing several selected projects including South Florida, Atlanta Olympics,
Southern Oxidant Study, Southern Appalachian Mountain Initiative, Savannah River Watershed,
Flint Creek, several National Estuary Projects, and several Advanced Identification of Wetlands.
Region 4 will increase investment in the Gulf of Mexico Program to meet the five-year
environmental challenges set in 1992. The region will increase the emphasis on ecosystem-related
projects in the future. In order to select the most critical priority areas for such projects, Region 4
will develop and use a system to characterize and prioritize ecosystems based on hydrologic and
other ecosystem characteristics.
2. Environmental Justice
Region 4 intends to integrate environmental justice concerns into its everyday program operations
and improve internal communication on this issue. Over the next 18 months the region will be
developing and delivering training to its employees. The region is now involved in a health risk
targeting analysis project. Once the highest-risk areas are identified, Region 4 will overlay
demographic information to identify areas of high environmental justice concern. Region 4 also
plans to place special emphasis on environmental justice in all of its geographic/ecosystem
initiatives. Region 4 will meet with its customers in each area to discuss their concerns.
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3. Pollution Prevention
This plan seeks to broaden the understanding of pollution prevention beyond source reduction to
include increased efficiency in the use of raw materials, energy, water, and other resources and
conservation of natural resources leading to sustainable development. Region 4 will incorporate
pollution prevention into its internal regulatory operations through opportunities identified by the
Region 4 pollution prevention network. With a separate regional office pollution prevention focus
group, Region 4 will build pollution prevention into daily office activities and work with the
Government Service Administration to make the new Atlanta Federal Building, which will be
occupied in 1996, a model of environmental efficiency. The region is seeking partnership
opportunities with industries and local government to promote voluntary pollution prevention
efforts and will promote environmentally beneficial technologies.
4. Strong Science and Data
A major need in Region 4 is to redirect and increase monitoring and analysis to strengthen the
regions understanding of geographic problems. Region 4 plans to leverage the resources of other
agencies as much as possible in the sharing of environmental data and expand its ecosystem
assessment capability of the use of GIS and EMAP to help develop solutions to problems and
display indicator trends. This will be an invaluable tool as the region expand its geographic focus.
By using existing data, knowledge, approaches, and best judgments, the region can meet the
needs of broad assessments of ecosystems with sufficient information to develop goals and
problem-solving strategies, and improve its capability to develop indicators.
5. Partnerships
The development of goals and indicators with states will be a major effort in this area. The region
is also planning to initiate a new partnership with the citizens of Region 4 by focusing
environmental education efforts on the community at large to provide awareness of how
individuals can play major roles in improving environmental quality. Region 4 will build
partnerships with small business and communities by providing a greater emphasis on
non-regulatory cooperative assistance. As part of its geographic and ecosystem focus, Region 4
will develop and strengthen partnerships with land acquisition and resource management agencies.
The region also will continue its on-going partnership-building in Central and South America in
collaboration with the Pan American Health Organization. The region also expects to continue to
strengthen its working relationships with tribes and environmental groups.
6. Reinventing EPA Management
Region 4's recently completed streamlining plan lays out a detailed set of activities with
accompanying milestones. Specific regional goals addressed in the plan include flattening the
organization and empowering employees to make decisions as appropriate, using diversity as a
strength, creating GS-14 and higher positions to provide technical expert opportunities, and
taking advantage of new technologies to improve operations internally. Region 4 intends to use
the streamlining process to help create an atmosphere among all of employees of integrity, trust in
the ability of co-workers, and encouragement of diverse viewpoints. The region believe these
values are important factors in encouraging the maximum creativity from its employees. Another
regional goal which is not specifically addressed n the plan is managing the organization to
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increase focus on geographic and non-regulatory activities. Region 4 expects the implementation
of its streamlining plan to make these types of activities easier to accomplish by increasing
flexibility in the organization. This increased flexibility is essential to begin dealing effectively with
problems on a multi-media basis. Region 4 will be looking carefully at this issue as it examine
potential organizational changes to improve the region's enforcement program.
7. Environmental Accountability
The heart of Region 4's enforcement program is to maintain high levels of administrative and civil
judicial enforcement actions. Region 4 will contain to maintain this level of enforcement activity.
Region 4 will increase cross-program and multi-media targeting and compliance/enforcement
planning activities. Region 4 also intends to increase the utilization of its enforcement resources in
higher priority areas (e.g., sensitive ecosystems, environmental justice and other "hot" spots).
Region 4 will increase the use of compliance assistance activities for "key" sectors and industries
in Region 4, including both private and federal facilities. Region 4 plans to define and measure
"compliance rates". Region 4 intends to communicate/develop "strategic enforcement" plan with
states and to collaborate with the states on numerous compliance and enforcement activities.
Region 4 intends to increase the use of SEPs and other innovative enforcement tools, as
appropriate.
OTHER MANDATES AND OBLIGATIONS
Region 4 is strongly committed to meeting its regulatory obligations while at the same time
carrying out the activities presented in this plan. Region 4 believes that a geographic, multi-media
focus to its activities will lead ultimately to improved regulatory compliance. Most of the activities
presented in this plan can be undertaken with out the expenditure of significant new resources.
Region 4 is not requesting that resources be shifted from one medium to another. The region does
expect to be targeting many of its base activities by geographic area rather than by program.
However, there are some changes in the way the region does business that are necessary for full
implementation of its goals. These changes include targeted resource shifts from regulatory
activities toward non-regulatory assistance activities, changing emphasis from activity measures to
tracking environmental results, greater regional flexibility in overview of state programs, and
greater flexibility in state grants. If the Agency can make these changes in how it does business,
the regions can put greater emphasis on achieving environmental results rather than meeting
quarterly activity targets.
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REGION 5
INTRODUCTION
Region 5 and the six state environmental agencies and departments located in Region 5 (Illinois,
Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Wisconsin) are dedicated to serving as stewards of the
environment and its natural resources for present and future generations.
In November 1993, Region 5 and the states completed an 18-month effort to reach agreement on
strategic directions for the Midwest environment (1995 1999). Ten strategic themes that
address protection of public health and the environment, reduction of pollution at its source, and
improvement of the institutions that perform these responsibilities form the basis of a joint
planning process. The ten themes are: human exposures to environmental hazards; ecosystem
protection and restoration; diffuse and non-point source pollution; global atmospheric hazards;
prevent pollution; reduce toxic releases; intergovernmental capacity and cooperation; enhanced
public outreach; improved delivery systems, and local physical infrastructure.
A fundamental shift in management philosophy is occurring among Region 5, the states, and the
tribes. With the states, a series of annual one-on-one meetings will identify specific activities to
pursue during the coming year. With the tribes, Region 5 currently is developing a strategic
planning process to identify similar opportunities.
In the near term, changes in workplans and budgets will reflect these strategic directions. In order
to effect long-term changes, Region 5 will work with EPA headquarters to obtain the necessary
flexibility in grants programs and systems of accountability to achieve environmental goals. The
region intends to work with headquarters to shift from activity measures to environmental
indicators and results. Ultimately, the allocation of resources and the accountability among Region
5, the states, and the tribes will be linked to attainment of environmental results.
SUPPORTING THE GUIDING PRINCIPLES
1. Ecosystem Protection
Traditional programs, effective in the past, no longer are sufficient to address threats facing
Midwest ecosystems such as the Great Lakes, oak savannas, prairies, etc. Environmental
protection and conservation programs must be re-oriented to meet the needs of ecosystems.
The Great Lakes National Program Office has long-term planning specifically addressing the
Great Lakes Basin. Actions such as the joint federal/state Five-Year Strategy for the Great Lakes,
the Great Lakes Enforcement Strategy, and the EPA/State Great Lakes Wafer Quality Initiative '
are basin-wide efforts aimed at translating theory into practice. These efforts target existing tools
or develop new tools to address specific, identified threats to the ecosystems. Lakewide
Management Plan (LaMPS) and Remedial Action Plans (RAPS) are key management processes
that integrate and coordinate management actions based on lake-wide or local impairments.
Efforts are underway to integrate fishery management goals for lakes and local areas with
environment goals established in LaMPS and RAPS.
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To implement the Great Lakes five-year habitat protection goal, work has begun with other
partners to develop a strategic conservation plan for critical Great Lakes habitats. Demonstration
projects are underway for habitat restoration and protection. These efforts present opportunities
to bring about greater integration and coordinated management between environmental protection
and resource management activities.
Region 5 has forged a relationship with federal, state, and private land management agencies
under an "Ecosystem Resolution". This framework enables Region 5 with its partners to define
areas of ecosystem protection where joint efforts are essential for success. These areas include the
sharing of information, resources and project planning and implementation activities. Through
these efforts and strategic planning with the states and tribes, Region 5 is moving in the direction
of integrated ecosystem management.
2. Environmental Justice
Region 5 and the states are pursuing environmental justice by working towards the reduction of
human exposures to environmental hazards, the reduction of toxic releases, the prevention of
pollution and the enhancement of public outreach. In addition, environmental justice is being
addressed in specific Regional initiatives such as brownfields and urban redevelopment,
sustainable development and on-going geographic initiatives, notably Southeast Chicago and
Cleveland, Ohio.
3. Pollution Prevention
Region 5 and the Great Lakes National Program Office are working in collaboration with states,
tribes, non-government organizations, and Canada on pollution prevention projects in the Great
Lakes basin, such as the Bi-Nation Program to Restore and Protect Lake Superior, the Great
Printers Project, and in the automotive sector. Region 5 and its partners will continue to work
together to: 1) identify and remove barriers to pollution prevention; 2) develop incentives that
encourage pollution prevention and conservation of environmental resources; 3) integrate
pollution prevention into current programs; 4) educate and increase public awareness on pollution
prevention; 5) support and promote research and development of pollution prevention
technologies; and 6) develop methods of measuring achievement and tracking performance in
preventing pollution.
4. Strong Science and Data
The Great Lakes National Program Office has been cited as a national model for expanding the
use of data integration. Region 5, the states, and other federal agencies are identifying existing
and needed research for solving environmental problems, developing methods to share databases
and GIS information, and devising methods to assess, maintain, and restore ecosystem
biodiversity at the regional level.
5. Partnerships
Region 5 has found that, when it works in partnership with others, it has been successful in
operating outside of the regulatory framework to pursue more effective environmental protection.
Region 5 and the states have developed a joint, multi-year strategic plan. They are developing a
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joint strategic plan with the tribes. In partnership with 20 other state and federal agencies, the
region has developed the resolution for Interagency Cooperation on Ecosystem Management
(ICEM). ICEM is a consortium of midwestern state and federal agencies working together to
coordinate ecosystem management activities.
6. Reinventing EPA Management
Region 5 will implement its reinventing plan. The plan addresses issues such as empowerment,
organization structure, diversity in the workforce, and improving work processes and systems. It
lays out a detailed set of activities with accompanying milestones. The plan is designed to
empower Region 5 employees and provide them with a clear sense of mission.
7. Environmental Accountability
Region 5 will work with the states, the tribes, and other federal agencies to promote an effective
enforcement program. Region 5 will target actions on multi-media initiatives, high-risk sectors,
geographic areas, and ecosystems to accomplish its goal of protecting human health and the
environment. In addition, Region 5 will continue to pursue pollution prevention and other
innovative solutions. The region is committed to maintaining its strong enforcement presence.
OTHER MANDATES AND OBLIGATIONS
Region 5 has a unique role as the Program Manager for the Great Lakes National Program Office.
This office has specific ecological objectives mandated by Congress for which the region is
responsible. The region will continue to meet regulatory obligations and at the same time move
ahead on new initiatives. Region 5 is committed to addressing the enforcement priorities identified
with the states and tribes. Resource savings identified in the reinventing Region 5 process will be
shifted to priority matters.
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REGION 6
INTRODUCTION
The Region 6 vision is "To Meet the Environmental Needs of a Changing World." The region's
employees are public servants dedicated to improving and preserving the quality of the
environment and protecting human health.
Region 6 encompasses an ecologically, demographically, and economically diverse five-state
region of Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas, as well as 63 Indian tribes.
The Region 6 strategic plan addresses environmental problems and issues in terms of the priorities
determined by a region-wide comparative risk analysis that examined ecology, human health, risk
management, and economic factors. To assist in this effort, Region 6 has developed an
environmental justice assessment indicator process using the CIS.
In support of the Administrator's seven guiding principles, Region 6 is focusing on geographic
initiatives to address issues identified in the comparative risk report as posing the greatest risks to
human health and the environment. The plan is not intended to be comprehensive nor to duplicate
national program goals or initiatives that are accomplished, to a large extent, through regional
base programs.
Geographic specific concerns along the U.S./Mexico Border in the southern Louisiana are
integrally tied to environmental justice. By combining ecosystem protection and pollution
prevention as approaches to manage risk and address environmental justice in these areas, the
region addresses not just symptoms, but the causes.
Basing the Region 6 approach to prioritization on comparative risk assessments allows the region
to direct effort and resources toward solving problems that pose the greatest danger to human
health and the ecology first. In addition, this approach supports the commitment to strong science
and data. Building partnerships is an approach key to accomplishing the region's goals. Region 6
is making, and will continue to expand its efforts with the various constituencies the Agency
serves. Streamlining will be pursued in all of the region's efforts as government and the Agency
move toward smaller workforces and fewer resources, with expanding missions.
SUPPORTING THE GUIDING PRINCIPLES
The region's strategic plan addresses its priorities in the context of the Administrator's seven
guiding principles ecosystem protection, environmental justice, pollution prevention, strong
science and data, partnership building, environmental accountability, and reinventing EPA
management. These principles will form the basis of how the region implements the major
initiatives. In addition, Region 6 will use community outreach to achieve its objectives. These
priorities have been discussed with Region 6 states, and the Regional Administrator has
committed to meeting personally with states/tribes on a regular basis to further this partnership of
developing yearly outputs/activities in support of the region's initiatives. The region has eight
major initiatives to be accomplished in the next five years that reflect the seven guiding principles.
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1) State/Tribal Capacity Building to establish a framework for state/tribal/ regional
relations emphasizing flexibility, a mutually supportive working relationship, and a
recognition of shared and unique EPA, state, and tribal environmental priorities.
2) Multi-Media Enforcement to implement a more comprehensive, multi-media
approach to solving environmental problems. Develop and implement an inspection
program that targets facilities to be inspected on a multi-media basis. Refine and focus
enforcement actions.
3) U.S./Mexico Border to provide for the long-term protection of human health and
natural ecosystems in the border area through pollution prevention, monitoring,
investigations, and mitigation of the effects of pollution. Integrate environmental justice
into all decisionmaking in partnership with EPA regions, state and local agencies in
Texas, and New Mexico, as well as affected public/private entities.
4) Southern Louisiana/Lower Mississippi River to minimize loss of natural
ecosystems, reduce impact of air toxics, reduce pesticides exposure, identify and address
Superfund sites in this highly populated and ecologically sensitive area. Develop and
implement strategies with local, state, federal, and public/private partnerships to aid in
protecting human health and restoring, protecting, and creating natural ecosystems.
5) Gulf of Mexico to develop and implement a comprehensive strategy for managing
and protecting resources of the Gulf in partnership with EPA (Atlanta), other federal
agencies, state and local agencies in Texas and Louisiana, as well as affected
public/private entities. Aggressively implement Resource Conservation and Recovery
Act permitting and corrective action programs to minimize releases that could affect the
Gulf of Mexico. Protect, restore, and reduce the loss of coastal wetlands through
implementation of Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection and Restoration Act
(CWPPRA), the Clean Water Act (CWA), and other remedies involving federal state
partnership.
6) Petrochemical Industrial Sector to identify specific sites of this industrial sector (40
percent of the national total are located in Region 6) that are causing environmental
problems and move toward an integrated, multi-media approach to pollution prevention,
permitting, and compliance activities. In partnership with the states, establish
coordinated EPA, state, and local programs to reduce environmental risk associated with
the petrochemical industry through activities that promote chemical release prevention,
regulatory compliance, and public interaction.
7) Watershed/Geographic Approach to work closely with state and tribal officials to
develop a cooperative effort of pollution control and prevention in carrying out the
watershed protection program with full participation of all stakeholders. As an example,
the region currently considering the Mississippi Delta Project for inclusion in its plan.
8) Federal Facilities to achieve multi-media compliance at all facilities, timely and
efficient remediation, expeditous property clean-up, transfer, and closing of bases, and
participation of affected communities.
Region 6 has directed resources within each program to focus on these high priority initiatives.
The region will continue to work with headquarters counterparts to maximize flexibility within
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existing appropriations and laws. The region's strategic plan addresses its priorities in the context
of the Administrator's seven guiding principles as shown below.
1. Ecosystem Protection
Three initiatives Southern Louisiana/Lower Mississippi River, Gulf of Mexico, and Watershed
Protection deal specifically with protecting natural ecosystems. They will aim to protect,
restore, and reduce impacts in these geographic areas.
2. Environmental Justice
Southern Louisiana/Lower Mississippi River, U.S./Mexico Border, Petrochemical Industrial
Sector, Federal Facilities, and Multi-Media Enforcement initiatives all directly address the of
environmental justice. The region's goal is to integrate environmental justice decisionmaking,
particularly focusing on these initiatives.
3. Pollution Prevention
The U.S./Mexico Border initiative, Petrochemical Industrial Sector initiative, and Multi-Media
Enforcement initiative focus on pollution prevention strategies to achieve their goals.
4. Strong Science & Data
In accomplishing the initiatives, the region is using the Geographic Information System (GIS) to
create a consistent, organized process for programs to access, review, verify, and catalog data.
Use of GIS as a data quality tool augments scientific credibility and promotes data integration.
5. Partnerships
The State/Tribal Capacity Building initiative centers on the strategy of building and sustaining
partnerships. Other initiatives that focus on the strategy of partnership include: U.S./Mexico
Border, Southern Louisiana/Lower Mississippi River, Gulf of Mexico, and the Watershed
Protection Program.
6. Reinventing EPA Management
Region 6 will continue to refine and implement its streamlining plan, which promotes diversity and
empowerment while moving forward in meeting the Administration's goals to increase
supervisor-to employee ratios and reduce federal workforce. The region continues to focus on
Total Quality Management (TQM) principles for improving work processes and systems.
7. Environmental Accountability
The State/Tribal Capacity Building initiative, Multi-Media Enforcement initiative, and
Petrochemical Industrial Sector initiative, as well as the environmental justice and pollution
prevention principles, will serve as the cornerstone of implementing environmental accountability.
Within these initiatives, Region 6 will stress societal accountability for protecting and enhancing
the environment through compliance and enforcement.
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REGION 7
INTRODUCTION
Region 7 is comprised of the states oflowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska, and is home to nine
federally recognized tribal nations. Covering nearly 287,000 square miles, with a population of 12
million, the landscape is dominated by grassland prairies.
Through a comprehensive set of strategies, Region 7 supports the Administrator strategic vision
for FY 1995 1999. Region 7 will continue to deliver strong and effective regulatory programs.
Enforcement and compliance will be critical elements in carrying out statutory mandates. Yet the
region will enhance and expand its environmental protection efforts through use of a broad array
of tools, featuring education and outreach, pollution prevention and partnerships, and a focus on
places by emphasizing ecosystem management and other geographic-based initiatives. Region 7's
goal is a sustainable environment together with a vibrant economy and culture for future
generations.
Protection of surface water, and groundwater from agricultural pollution is a major concern.
Groundwater provides 75 percent of the drinking water for the region, and surface water is vitally
important to the health of numerous riparian and other ecosystems covering the Great Plains,
including the central flyway for migratory birds. Although the major industries are agriculture and
agriculture-related, Missouri has been the center of the U.S. lead mining and refining industries
for over a century.
The region continues to address priorities established through its comparative risk analysis:
statutory implementation, lead risk reduction, pesticides/nitrates risk reduction, toxic chemical
releases risk reduction, and ecosystem assessment and protection. These strategic directions could
be combined with additional priority areas identified through future analytical processes. The
region will work closely with the states and other partners as it finalizes its agenda for the FY
1995 1999 planning period.
SUPPORTING THE GUIDING PRINCIPLES
1. Ecosystem Protection
Region 7 is employing a complement of programs and initiatives in support of this strategy. A
major focus of Region 7's ecosystem strategy is the development of methodologies and tools to
prioritize risk, measure progress, and communicate results. Increased emphasis on environmental
assessment is illustrated by the region's partnership with The Nature Conservancy, Western
Governor's Association, state agencies, other federal agencies, and Canada to identify risks to
endangered species and critical habitat across the Great Plains region. The second component of
this strategy is a focus on geographic, place-based programs, including the watershed protection
program and larger-scale ecosystem initiatives. Both the Great Plains Program and the Platte
River Basin Protection Program are examples of this approach.
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2. Environmental Justice
Implicit in Region 7's approach to environmental stewardship is an emphasis on environmental
justice. The region's multi-pronged strategy incorporates equity concerns in the conduct of
statutory mandates, and provides a focal point for addressing issues through specific initiatives.
For example, in cooperation with Region 5, Region 7 will work with state and local health
officials and community organizations in the St. Louis/East St. Louis metro area to reduce health
risks from exposure to lead. Exposure to lead potentially affects a disproportionate share of
low-income and minority children in this area. Region 7 is targeting bilingual training information
and instructions regarding toxic and agricultural chemicals to Hispanic farm workers. At
Superfund sites with environmental justice implications, the region is utilizing communication
forums to surface issues that could place low-income people and minorities at greater risk. The
Great Plains ecosystem program offers opportunities to address specific Native American
concerns through geographically-targeted initiatives. Internally, the region is employing a diverse
workgroup to offer recommendations for more broadly incorporating environmental justice issues
into its work.
3. Pollution Prevention
Prevention is the first choice of action, with education, sound science, accessible data, and
partnership approaches serving as the hallmarks of the program. Education and outreach have
been continuing priorities in Region 7. "Charlie Chipmunk" helps the region publicize a wide
range of environmental issues at schools and at civic events. The region also supports this strategy
through grants to stimulate the development Environmental Education Training Center at the
University of Kansas, and to encourage Haskell Indian Nations University's environmental
curriculum. Seven million tons of fertilizer and 70,000 tons of pesticides are applied annually to
122 million acres in Region 7. Through partnerships with the farming community, extension
services, agri-business, and federal and state agencies, the region is working to reduce this usage
through Best Management Practices (BMPs) and environmental education. Region 7 is expanding
its agricultural chemical container recycling program. And Region 7 will build upon a successful
mix of pollution prevention and public-private partnership initiatives (e.g., 33/50), as it designs
strategies for watershed, ecosystem, and other geographic-based programs.
4. Sound Science and Data.
As the region broadens strategies for environmental protection, the accessibility of scientifically
sound indicators and other data becomes critical for assessment and valuation purposes, and for
management of multi-media projects. The region's IRM Strategic Plan REMAP, and related
initiatives provide the framework for an aggressive strategy that incorporates development of
predictive models (e.g., wetlands risk prioritization) and environmental indicators (e.g.,
measurement of the health of fisheries), with long-term data collection and management efforts.
Related initiatives include innovative environmental technology, such as remote sensing of toxic
air pollutants, a State-EPA Locational Data Program, and expansion of the region's Quality
Assurance (QA) states through a technical assistance initiative.
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5. Partnerships
Region 7 has established mutual environmental priorities with each of its four states, and it is
finalizing a process to extend mutual planning efforts to Indian tribes. These will set the Region 7
environmental agenda for the future. In working with the states and tribes, the region will explore
all opportunities for flexibility, and emphasize managing for environmental result over
administrative activities. Region 7 is exploring a variety of approaches to capacity building,
including technical training, IP As of EPA staff, enhanced data sharing, and joint project efforts.
As part of sustainable development efforts, the region also will work with small communities to
develop capacity and flexibility in protecting health and the environment at the local level. The
region will expand its partnerships to include not only public sector entities, but also private
sector groups with environmental concerns. Small business is a vital client group in Region 7.
6. Reinventing EPA Management
Region 7 will continue to emphasize a strong fiscal and management control program to protect
federal funds. New initiatives include technical assistance to the states in enhancing their program
of internal controls, flexible grant programs and procedures, and automated systems to improve
productivity (e.g., LANs) and safeguard the region's resources (e.g., ESD equipment and supplies
inventory management system).
The region has begun a program to streamline its operations and empower its employees. Region
7 will cut unnecessary red tape, reduce multiple levels of concurrence where appropriate, and
involve its employees in central decisionmaking processes. Working jointly with states and
headquarters counterparts, Region 7 will look for opportunities to reduce resources spent in
oversight, and redirect efforts to areas that yield the most environmental results.
7. Environmental Accountability
Region 7 will continue to maintain a rigorous and comprehensive enforcement program to ensure
compliance with environmental mandates. The region also will emphasize compliance assistance,
outreach, state and tribal partnerships, other form of compliance assurance, using multi-media and
geographic approaches where feasible. Region 7's goal is to direct the region's compliance and
enforcement resources to high-risk problems and areas as identified.
OTHER MANDATES AND OBLIGATIONS
As the region strives to encourage industry compliance, it will increase attention to mandatory
and voluntary compliance initiatives (e.g., New Source Performance Standards, sector strategies,
use of farm BMP and pesticide container recycling), and multi-media inspection and enforcement.
Region 7 also will look for specific opportunities to amplify its ecosystem and pollution
prevention initiatives.
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Agency-wide Strategic Plan Chapter 4
REGION 8
INTRODUCTION
Region 8's vision and priorities for protecting the environment over the course of the next five
years are grounded in its commitment to fulfill EPA's mission of protecting public health and the
environment, and participate in the re-invention of government by implementing, as appropriate,
the recommendations of the National Performance Review, the Agency's strategic vision, the
Region 8 streamlining plan "A Framework for Change, " and the extension of the current Region
8 strategic plan.
The geographic area contained in Region 8 is noted around the world for its unique blend of
pristine and fragile environs, including, for example, its scenic national and state parks, wilderness
areas, picturesque landscapes, rugged mountains, diverse prairies, arid deserts, trout fishing, and
skiing. The six states and 27 Indian reservations in Region 8 cover 581,477 square miles
(approximately 33 percent is federal and 5.2 percent is Indian land). The 1990 census population
for the region is 7,686,060.
Strategic Investment Goals
As Region 8 streamlines, it will function with a more compressed organization, emphasizing
stakeholders' needs (internal/external) and invest more strategically to:
* Promote ecosystem protection and sustainable development guiding principles, policies,
and partnerships to cultivate an encompassing, multi-media approach to environmental
protection, and foster more risk reduction using the authorities and resources of the
statutory programs;
*- Promote pollution prevention guiding principles, and practices in all day-to-day
activities;
> Direct the region's enforcement efforts to maximize compliance in partnership with the
state and tribe environmental statutes;
> Expand partnerships with other federal agencies, the states, and tribes, local
organizations, academia, and the private sector, resulting in more interregional and
interstate working relationships and projects;
> Promote environmental justice to ensure all citizens are equally protected by
environmental laws with emphasis on information sharing and targeting compliance
assessment in concert with local community interests;
* Promote scientific excellence and data management to bolster linkages between science
and decisionmaking; and
+- If feasible, provide more training and technical assistance opportunities to ensure that the
region, states, and the tribes acquire the skills necessary to carry out the strategic plan.
These investments will require the region to be more cognizant of and deal more sensitively with
such critical issues as unfunded mandates, resource shifts, sustainable development, cost and
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benefit accounting, small communities, regulatory impacts on communities, delegations, and
significant increases in population and tourism throughout the region.
SUPPORTING THE GUIDING PRINCIPLES
In support of the Agency's strategic vision and the media-specific Region 8 is dedicated to the
following guiding principles
1. Ecosystems Protection
Establish and participate in forums for sustainability and stewardship of ecosystems; support
innovative initiatives through all statutory authorities and regulatory programs, and, by
reinvesting resources in assessment and protection of public health (especially children and others
at elevated risk) and ecosystem health, promote those initiatives that consider socio-economic
well-being. Current examples are: the Region 8 Headwaters Mining Waste Initiative, the
Colorado Plateau Ecosystem Project (co-lead with the National Park Service), and the Great
Plains Initiative (a cooperative effort with Region 7).
2. Environmental Justice
Implement the region's environmental justice plan working with the states, the tribes, and
communities to reduce disproportionate environmental risks to people of color and low-income
communities through grants, technical assistance, education, and outreach to affected parties;
implement the region's Indian lands policy; and, provide cultural diversity training to Region's
staff.
3. Pollution Prevention
Focus more on market-based pollution prevention incentives; promote "life-cycle analysis" to
better understand the flow of materials used by society, and assist in the design of methodologies
to reduce the amount of materials that cause pollution; invest more in education and
communication through information-based strategies; develop and implement Region 8's
Pollution Prevention Federal Sector Enforcement Initiative, focusing on federal facilities and
Indian country; establish for all tribes strong pollution prevention programs; expand approaches
(like the Colorado pollution prevention partnership) across industry, government, and academia;
and establish outreach to other federal agencies and facilities, formally inviting them to develop '
"green plans," including Green Lights, WAVE, Waste-Wise, etc.
4. Strong Science and Data
Develop and use environmental indicators and indices and monitoring partnerships across all
levels of government; expand the resource base to include more volunteers; improve quality
assurance and data accessibility; expand the EMAP and the Regional EMAP (or REMAP)
program potentials; and improve Environmental Services Division (ESD) capabilities to perform
lab analyses and data quality assurance, and coordinate with the programs.
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5. Partnerships
Across all levels of staff, improve working partnerships with the states, the tribes, the local
governments, and private sector; invest more in ecosystem-oriented partnerships, e.g., the
Terrestrial Regional Research and Analysis Laboratory (TERRA), the Colorado Ecosystem
Partnership, the Canyonlands Coalition, the Yellowstone Coalition, the State Rural Development
Councils; support organizations like the Colorado Pollution Prevention Partnership and the Utah
Manufacturing Association; and, encourage Intergovernmental Personnel Assignments (IPAs).
Region 8 also will strive to increase grant funding for tribes.
6. Reinventing EPA Management
Implement Region 8's streamlining plan to create an office that works better and costs less; use
total quality management (TQM), facilitation, and conflict management skills, and train employees
in these and other skill areas; establish an ad hoc Streamlining Implementation Task Force to
oversee progress and promote re-engineering of some core work processes, e.g., permits,
inspections, enforcement, block grants, and budget.
7. Environmental Accountability
In directing the region's enforcement efforts to maximize compliance in partnership with the state
and tribe environmental statutes, Region 8 will address the highest priority, cross-regional
enforcement initiatives, and utilize enforcement tools to help address environmental equity issues
of disproportionate risk.
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Chapter 4 Agency-wide Strategic Plan
REGION 9
INTRODUCTION
Region 9's primary mission is to protect public health and the environment by implementing and
enforcing environmental statutes. Region 9 complements the Agency's mission through its vision
of a sustained regional economy based on sound environmental policy decisions; effective
pollution prevention measures; and constructive partnerships with states, tribes, municipalities,
and economic and environmental interests. Part of this vision includes the infusion of
environmental justice throughout the region's work to achieve equal environmental protection for
all segments of the public.
Region 9 includes the states of Arizona, California, Hawaii, and Nevada, as well as the Pacific
Islands and numerous Indian tribes. Major environmental challenges facing the region include
improving air quality for the south coast of California and other geographic areas; improving
water quality, conserving water resources, and preserving wetlands for the San Francisco
Bay/Delta Estuary; military base cleanup; and environmental renovation along the U.S./Mexican
Border. Over the next five years, Region 9 will continue to address each of these areas by
following the guiding principles outlined in the Administrator's vision.
The region is continuing its emphasis on enforcement. One of the goals of Region 9's Regional
Enforcement Management Council is to operate an integrated strategic program that targets
Region 9's enforcement interests most effectively.
SUPPORTING THE GUIDING PRINCIPLES
Region 9 supports the Administrator's strategic vision through two regional initiatives: (1) San
Francisco Bay/Delta Estuary Initiative and (2) Toxic Source Reduction Initiative.
1) The San Francisco Bay/Delta Estuary Initiative is a long-term geographic initiative that
focuses on protecting and restoring the estuary's waters, wetlands, and aquatic
ecosystems by informing and involving the public and agricultural and regulated
communities in the pollution prevention process. The initiative emphasizes the region's
commitment to ecosystem protection, pollution prevention, forming partnerships with
federal and state counterparts, coordination with other projects (e.g., Central Valley
Project Improvement Act), improving scientific technical capabilities, and fostering
cross-media integration. The initiative has agriculture and wetlands components. The
agriculture component emphasizes preventing pollution from agricultural sources, such
as pesticide run-off, as well as promotion of water conservation practices. In FY 1995,
activities will include determining the total maximum daily load of selenium into the San
Joaquin River; and demonstrating an on-farm pollution prevention approach for priority
pesticides found through comprehensive environment planning; public education; and
advanced identification to improve wetlands function in the Bay/Delta area. The
advanced identification effort will provide better information to target future
enforcement cases to high value resources and/or areas with multiple violations that
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cause significant cumulative effects. California has been working with the region to
implement their State Wetlands Conservation Policy, and has identified mitigation
banking and Section 404 delegation among their pilot projects. FY 1995 activities
include implementing the North Bay Resource Management Plan, a cooperative effort
among federal, state, and local groups to coordinate resource protection activities in
Marin, Sonoma, Napa, and Solano Counties; advance planning in rapidly urbanizing
Sacramento County; and local planning assistance/outreach for communities and farmers
throughout the Central Valley.
2) The goal of the Toxic Source Reduction Initiative is reduction of toxics emissions and
reduction exposures to lead. The initiative emphasizes two major activities the Mutual
Efforts to Reduce Industrial Toxics (MERIT) partnership and the lead exposure
reduction project. The goals of the MERIT partnership are to reduce toxic emissions by
promoting a pollution prevention partnership in southwest Los Angeles County, the area
of highest toxic release inventory emissions in Region 9. The partners consist of industry
and federal/state/local agencies. Guidelines were drafted for companies and agencies to
develop methods to reduce industrial releases, including incentives for expedited
consideration of permit applications. In FY 1995, Region 9's goal is to increase outreach
activities to industry sectors like metal-finishing, aerospace, electronics, and oil refineries
in order to facilitate implementation of actual pollution prevention projects. In the lead
project, Region 9's goal is to reduce lead exposure risk through research, public
outreach and education, and grant funding in partnership with states, industry, and the
public. Activities to date include regional GIS lead study, establishment of a lead hotline,
distribution of multi-lingual educational materials on lead hazards, a culturally-based
home remedies survey, partnership development of state grants, and targeted outreach
and education presentations. Region 9 plans to continue implementation of the Region 9
lead strategy to further identify areas of high lead risk. The region will use data from the
TRI reporting program in conjunction with the GIS as a means of targeting areas of
high lead risk for pollution prevention and future enforcement. The region will also work
in partnership with states to develop lead programs and outreach and education to
promote environmental justice.
Resources for both the San Francisco Bay/Delta Estuary Initiative and the Toxic Source
Reduction Initiative have come from existing regional resources (e.g., priority permit and EIS
reviews) as well as funding for regional initiatives from EPA Headquarters in FY 1993 (SF Bay
only) and FY 1994 (both). In recognition of the Administrator's desire to reinvent EPA to
manage for better results among other activities, to implement a major streamlining, some of
whose projected cost savings will be reinvested in regional initiatives.
OTHER MANDATES AND OBLIGATIONS
Part of Region 9 vision is to assure that equal protection under the law is infuse into everything
done in the region. The region's environmental justice efforts promote this ethic through open
communications with affected community groups, outreach and public education programs.
Regional senior management recently developed an action plan that includes, as a first step, an
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assessment of the real and perceived impact of EPA's environmental protection programs on the
distribution of risks in Region 9.
One of the region's major environmental obligations is to its 139 Indian tribes. Among them is the
Navajo Nation, for which Region 9 serves as the lead region responsible for coordinating EPA
assistance among three regions. A recent study of Native American programs has resulted in new
efforts to strengthen coordination between programs to better target resources to tribes. These
efforts will require shifting some of the region's resources within programs to more up-front
planning and coordination of tribal issues.
SUMMARY
The following is a summary of how regional initiatives and other regional activities support the
Administrator's seven guiding principles:
1. Ecosystem Protection
The San Francisco Bay Delta/Estuary Initiative (SFBAY) will promote fully the protection of the
region's diverse aquatic ecosystems through its agricultural and wetlands components. This is
being done in concert with several other efforts, including the The San Francisco Estuary Project.
2. Environmental Justice
The Toxic Source Reduction Initiative's lead project will promote culturally-based community
outreach and education in the Los Angeles area, as well as other environmental justice activities.
3. Pollution Prevention
The region will promote pollution prevention through the MERIT Project by encouraging
voluntary reductions to toxic emissions in southwest Los Angeles County. In SFBAY, the region
will demonstrate on-farm pollution prevention approaches for priority pesticides. The region will
continue to encourage states to integrate pollution prevention into annual grant workplans.
4. Strong Science and Data
The region will promote scientific and technical expertise through participation n Headquarters
technical workgroups, liaisons and exchanges with the Office of Research and Development, and
through affiliation with various universities and scientific and professional organizations.
5. Partnerships
The MERIT Project will promote a partnership of industry and federal/state/local agencies to
reduce toxic emissions in the highest release area. Region 9 will continue to promote numerous
other partnership activities, including alliances with Pacific Gas and Electric in San Francisco and
the Arizona Public Service utility in Phoenix.
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6. Reinventing EPA Management
Region 9 is implementing a major streamlining plan to refine its infrastructure and serve clients
better.
7. Environmental Accountability
The region will carry out its regional enforcement strategic plan under the guidance of the
Regional Enforcement Management Council. The plan will help to ensure that the region's
resources, both multi-media and traditional single medium, are directed towards clear goals that
can be shared with its state, tribal, and local government partners.
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REGION 10
INTRODUCTION
Region 10's strategic directions, developed with input from public and private sector customers,
are the foundation of its strategic plan. The directions embody the main priorities for Region 10
and tie directly to the Agency's strategic vision and guiding principles. Each of the region's
strategic directions has a vision statement that represents environmental goals for the region. The
five strategic directions and examples of required changes and resource shifts are listed below:
1) Environmental Outreach and Education More emphasis on seeking out
customers/stakeholders to include their concerns in region's decisionmaking process will
require a change of focus in some programs.
2) Pollution Prevention The goal of integrating pollution prevention into the region's
daily business and decisionmaking will shift resources from cleanup to prevention.
3) Rethinking the Enforcement Mix This represents a shift in the way the programs
are run. One of the activities of this strategic direction is a cost-benefit analysis of
multi-media inspections, enforcement, compliance assistance programs, etc.
4) Geographic/Multi-Media Leadership Extra grants support will be required for a
well-integrated, multi-media, geographical approach.
5) The Wholesale-Retail Concept of Program Delivery Program focus will change as
the region works toward its goal of enabling others with an emphasis on providing
technical assistance.
SUPPORTING THE GUIDING PRINCIPLES
Region 10 media programs chose a list of specific program activities to implement the strategic
directions. Each ensuing year, different activities will be emphasized. Progress is reviewed
through the region's Management System. The region also focuses on environmental benchmarks
that help measure environmental progress, customer needs, and program outputs.
1. Ecosystem Protection
As a direct outcome of the President's Forest Conference, Region 10 is part of a federal
cooperation structure established to develop an ecosystem management design for northwest
forests. Another Region 10 project, in the Mid-Snake River area, focuses on exploring options for
enhancing sustainable agricultural practice, but it will require a significant redirection of
resources.
2. Environmental Justice
Underway for over a year, Region 10 coordinates a federal/state project to improve the health of
Alaska natives by improving waste disposal/drinking water in their villages. The region will
evaluate enforcement data to determine where regional enforcement actions have occurred and if
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Agency-wide Strategic Plan Chapter 4
there is a trend related to environmental justice. The study will use methodologies similar to the
National Law Journal study. The geographical area will be determined based on input from
community organizations and local agencies. Additional outreach with affected communities, to
better understand community perceptions of Region 10's enforcement efforts, will be a part of the
project.
3. Pollution Prevention
For the second year, Region 10 is working with the Alaska Department of Environmental
Conservation in a pilot to redirect state program grant funds to initiate multi-media pollution
prevention activities. Year one provided the state's Pollution Prevention Office with three percent
of its program resources. The amount was increased to four percent in year two, with a third year
goal of five percent. This initiative is successful in two ways: helping Alaska integrate P2 into its
program activities, and promoting Region 10 state/EPA partnerships.
4. Strong Science and Data
Region 10 is involved in many cross-media activities unique to the region: using the GIS system
to link to environmental justice by monitoring seafood consumption by minority groups and
resulting exposure; working with ORD and Region 9's states/tribes to develop monitoring
systems on an ecosystem instead of species-by-species determinations. The region also is
developing hard science methodologies such as sampling and analyzing to ensure that the entire
ecosystem is being addressed.
The region's Career Tracks Order enhances the careers of scientific and technical staff, thereby
maintaining and improving regional expertise and commitment to strong science. Exceptional
scientific employees may advance to master level (GS-14) positions without assuming a
supervisory role, thereby retaining their scientific expertise and functions.
5. Partnerships
Region 10 has operation offices in each of its states. The offices provide Region 10 closer access
to state offices, the legislature, and the public. With the operations office on the same site as state
offices, it is easier for grantees to access EPA staff, and that helps build trust and familiarity. The
cross-media organization of the operations office provides an advantage when meeting with
customers, giving Region 10 a unique perspective on state programs and facilitates technical
assistance to a variety of agencies.
The Idaho Cumulative Mandates Pilot Project focuses on small towns in Idaho and seeks to
develop environmental priority-setting approaches that enable communities to better target
resources to their most significant problems. Partners in this project are the Idaho Department of
Environmental Quality, four towns, three universities, and other federal, state and local
organizations.
6. Reinventing EPA Management
Region 10 has implemented Career Enrichment, which identifies temporary opportunities for
supervisors and staff. The region is seeking ways employees can broaden perspectives, develop
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additional skills, and meet changing Agency needs. Employees initiate their assignments or
respond to Career Enrichment Opportunity announcements, which fit with streamlining.
7. Environment Accountability
Building heavily on our existing Strategic Direction: Compliance (Rethinking the Enforcement
Mix), Region 10 is already well positioned to implement the seventh guiding principle
Environmental Accountability. To do so, Region 10 will continue to implement its Compliance
Strategic Direction and emphasize the following elements:
^ Continue to target our compliance activities in high risk sectors, ecosystems, and
populations.
^ Emphasize multi-media, whole facility approaches which emphasize pollution prevention
and innovative compliance techniques.
> Continue to evaluate our data reporting systems and work to measure all activities which
contribute to compliance rates, not just traditional measures such as cases referred or
penalties assessed.
> Look carefully at environmental justice concerns in all our compliance activities, and
provide leadership in fostering participation in international environmental compliance
activities.
OTHER MANDATES AND OBLIGATIONS
Sustainable Development: Region 10 is serving as a major catalyst in promoting sustainable
development. Areas of focus include pilot work with small communities, work with industrial
sectors, extending a watershed focus in selected areas to incorporate sustainability, and working
to build commitment in the business and university communities on this issue. There is also an
ongoing internal effort to increase staff knowledge and awareness of sustainability concepts and
implications.
Enabling Customers and State Capacity Building: One of Region 10's strategic directions is
the "Wholesale-Retail Concept" of program delivery. The direction's goal is to boost
effectiveness through a clearer definition of the various partners. Strategies developed by each
program division emphasize Region 10's preferred role of enabling state or local partners for
successful program delivery. Activities also will focus on identifying the core skills needed to
develop staff for the changing role of EPA.
Multi-Media Enforcement: In Region 10, the Office of Enforcement serves as coordinator for
the regional multi-media program and is responsible for ensuring that the region is using state of
the art, risk-driven targeting as well as coordinating joint multi-media inspections. Examples of
the guiding principles supported by this approach are the ability to use pollution prevention in
settlements, and optimization of opportunities for partnerships (state, tribe, and local) in joint
inspections and enforcement follow-up.
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APPENDIX A
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
On December 7, 1993, Administrator Browner announced her intentions to develop a five-year agency-wide
strategic plan that would guide the Agency's planning, resource allocation, and decisionmaking processes in
carrying out a new approach to environmental protection. Towards that end, she formed an agency-wide Strategic
Planning Task Force. Task Force members devoted much time and energy in developing a strategic plan and
process that provided a focus for prioritizing strategies and for identifying measurable environmental goals this
country must strive to achieve if it is to attain a sustainable environmental future.
In working to create an open, inclusive process for developing the strategic plan for the Agency, the Task Force
members worked with established agency workgroups (e.g., the Science Policy Council helped develop the
principle on Strong Science and Data) to further develop the principles and their implementation outlined in
Chapter II of the strategic plan. The Task Force met with all Assistant, Associate, and Regional Administrators
and the General Counsel and Inspector General to discuss plans for program and regional implementation of the
seven principles outlined in Chapter II. Program and Regional offices then developed broad plans for supporting
the agency-wide strategic plan. These plans constitute Chapter IV of the strategic plan.
In order to ensure broad, external involvement in the development of the strategic plan, the Task Force met with
industry representatives, environmental groups, Congressional Committees, States, Tribes, Office of Management
and Budget, and White House staff to solicit their ideas and comments on the strategic plan. At a meeting of EPA's
senior leadership, the states and tribes were invited, for the first time, to discuss the strategic plan. Without the
involvement of all internal and external stakeholders, the strategic plan could not be successful, nor would it
include such a diverse set of ideas for achieving environmental goals. The plan will not be static. Rather, it will be
constantly evolving to ensure that EPA is focusing its efforts most productively. Not only will this process continue
within EPA, but also with our local and global partners in environmental protection.
STRATEGIC PLANNING TASK FORCE
Co-Chairs Advisors
David Gardiner, Assistant Administrator, OPPE Sylvia Lowrance, Associate Deputy Administrator, AO
Jonathan Cannon, Assistant Administrator, OARM Mike Vandenbergh, Chief of Staff, AO
Members
Lynn Goldman, Assistant Administrator, OPPTS
Elliott Laws, Assistant Administrator, OSWER
Elizabeth Cotsworth, Acting Deputy Director, Office of Solid Waste, OSWER
Pat Meaney, Deputy Regional Administrator, Region 1, Boston
Bill Muszynski, Regional Administrator, Region 2, New York
Jane Saginaw, Regional Administrator, Region 6, Dallas
Beverly Negri, Chief, Program, Planning, and Grants Branch, Region 6, Dallas
Bob Wayland, Director, Office of Wetlands, Oceans, and Watersheds, OW
Gene Durman, Deputy Director, Office of Radiation and Indoor Air, OAR
Senior Manager Support
Deny Allen, Director, Office of Strategic Planning and Environmental Data, OPPE
Kathryn S. Schmoll, Comptroller, OARM
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Agency-wide Strategic Plan
Thanks go to the many staff members that provided significant support to the strategic planning process:
Katherine Brown
Bonita Crockett
Robert Currie
Steve Delaney
Michael Glikes
Elaine Haemisegger
Debbie Ingram
Dona Harris
Maurice LeFranc
Charles Minor
JeffMorin
Joyce Morrison
Sharon Payne
Alan Perrin
Sue Priftis
Margaret Saxton
Ruth Alene Soward
Julie Spyres
Tom Super
Debbie Walker
Kerry Weiss
Shiree Womack
There are many individuals that should be recognized for their participation on one or more of the guiding
principle teams and their assistance in writing major portions of the agency-wide strategic plan:
ECOSYSTEM PROTECTION
Jonathan Z. Cannon, Team Lead, OARM
Maurice LeFranc, Staff Lead, OPPE
Don Brady, OW
David Gardiner, OPPE
Lynn Goldman, OPPTS
Janet Pawlukiewicz, OW
Bob Wayland, OW
Louise Wise, OW
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
Kathy Aterno, Team Co-lead, OARM
Elizabeth Cotsworth, Team Co-lead, OSWER
Dona Harris, Staff Lead, OPPE
Clarice Gaylord, OARM/OEJ
Robert Knox, OARM/OEJ
Environmental Justice Policy Workgroup
POLLUTION PREVENTION
Lynn Goldman, Team Lead, OPPTS
Alan Perrin, Staff Lead, OPPE
Elizabeth Cotsworth, OSWER
John Cross, OPPTS
Gene Durman, OAR
David Gardiner, OPPE
Mark Greenwood, OPPTS
Dave Kling, OPPTS
Fred Lindsey, ORD
Tom McCully, P2 Policy Staff, AO
Al McGartland, OPPE
Pat Meaney, Region 1
Tom O'Farrell, OW
Greg Ondich, ORD
Eric Schaeffer, OECA
STRONG SCIENCE AND DATA
Lynn Goldman, Team Co-lead, OPPTS
Jonathan Z. Cannon, Team Co-lead, OARM
Mike Glikes, Staff Lead, OPPE
Robert Sussman, Chair, Science Policy Council
William Raub, Chair, SPC Steering Committee
Jay Benforado, ORD
Mark Day, OARM
Angela Nugent, OPPE
Dorothy Patton, ORD
Gail Robarge, ORD
PARTNERSHIPS
David Gardiner, Team Lead, OPPE
JeffMorin, Staff Lead, OPPE
Elizabeth Cotsworth, OSWER
Eugene C. Durman, OAR
Charles W. Kent, OROSLR
Jamison Koehler, OIA
Janet S. Mason, Region 5
Patricia L. Meaney, Region 1
Shelly Metzenbaum, OROSLR
REINVENTING EPA MANAGEMENT
Sylvia Lowrance, Team Lead, OA
Debbie Ingram, Staff Lead, OARM
Management Committee
ENVIRONMENTAL ACCOUNTABILITY
Scott Fulton, Team Lead, OECA
Alan Perrin, Staff Lead, OPPE
Phil Milton, OECA
Jack Neylan, OECA
Eric Schaeffer, OECA
Frederick Steihl, OECA
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Agency-wide Strategic Plan Appendix B
APPENDIX B
GLOSSARY OF ABBREVIATIONS
AARP American Association of Retired Persons
ASTSWMO ... Association of State & Territorial Solid Waste Management Officers
8
BAQA Building Air Quality Alliance
BAT Best Available Technology
BMP Best Management Practices
c
CAA Clean Air Act
CAAA Clean Air Act Amendments
CD-ROM Compact Disk - Read Only Memory
CEPP Chemical Emergency Prepared and Prevention/OSWER
CEQ Council on Environmental Quality
CERCLA Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act
CERCLIS Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Information System
CFC Chlorofluorocarbons
CFO Chief Financial Officer
CSGWPP Comprehensive State Ground Water Protection Program
CSO Combined Sewer Overflow
CWA Clean Water Act
CWPPRA Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection & Restoration Act
D
DDT Dichloro Diphenyl Trichloroethane
DEP Displaced Employee Program
DEQ Department of Environmental Quality
DfE Design for the Environment
DOD U. S. Department of Defense
DOL Department of Labor
£
EIS Environmental Impact Statement
EJ Environmental Justice
EMAP Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program
EPA Environmental Protection Agency
ERA Ecological Risk Assessment
ESA Endangered Species Act
ESD Environmental Service Division
ETI Environmental Technology Initiative
ETS Environmental Tabacco Smoke
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FDA Food and Drug Administration
FFEO Federal Facilities Enforcement Office
FMFIA Federal Managers' Financial Integrity Act (Also referred to as "The Integrity Act")
FSA Freedom Support Act
FTE Full time Equivalent
FY Fiscal Year
FTTA Federal Technology Transfer Act
G
GATT General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
GIS Geographic Information System
GLP Good Laboratory Practices
GPRA Government Performance and Results Act
GS General Schedule
H
HUD Housing and Urban Development
IBEP Integrated Border Environmental Plan
ICEM Interagency Cooperation pm Ecosystem Management
IG Inspector General
IPA Intergovernmental Personnel Assignments
IPM Integrated Pest Management
IRM Interim Remedial Measures (CERCLA)
L
LaMPS Lakewide Management Plans
LAN Local Area Network
M
MACT Maximum Achievable Control Technology
MAHA Mid-Atlantic Highland Assessment
MBDA Minority Business Development Agency
MBE Minority Business Enterprise
MERIT Mutual Efforts to Reduce Industrial Toxics
MOU Memorandum of Understanding
N
NAAG National Association of Attorneys General
NAFTA North American Free Trade Agreement
NAFTA North American Free Trade Agreement
NAS National Academy of Science
NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization
NCSL National Conference of State Legislatures
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Agency-wide Strategic Plan Appendix B
NEIC National Enforcement Investigations Center
NEPA National Environmental Policy Act
NETI National Enforcement Training Institute
NGA National Governors Association
NHEXAS National Human Exposure Assessment Survey
NPDES National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
NPL National Priority List (CERLA)
NPR National Performance Review
o
OAM Office of Acquisition Management
OAQPS Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards
OAR Office of Air and Radiation
OARM Office of Administration and Resource Management
OC Office of the Comptroller (OARM)
OCE Office of Criminal Enforcement
OCEPA Office of Communication, Education, and Public Affairs
OCLA Office of Congressional and Legislative Affairs
OCR Office of Civil Rights
OE Office of Enforcement
OECA Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance
OECD Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
OECD SID .... Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Screening Information Data Set
OECO Office of Enforcement Capacity and Outreach (OECA)
OFA Office of Federal Activities
OFFE Office of Federal Facilities Enforcement
OGC Office of General Council
OIA Office of International Activities
OIG Office of Inspector General
OMB Office of Management Budget
OPPE Office of Policy Planning and Evaluation
OPPTS Office of Pollution, Pesticides and Toxic Substances
ORC Office of Regional Counsel
ORD Office of Research Development
ORE Office of Regulatory Enforcement
ORIA Office of Radiation and Indoor Air
OROSLR Office of Regional Operations and State/Relations
OSDBU Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization
OSRE Office and Site Remediation Enforcement
OSW Office of Solid Waste (OSWER)
OSWER Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response
OW Office of Water
P
P2 Pollution Prevention
Pb Lead
PCBs Polychlorinated biphenyls
PPIC Office of Policy, Planning and Information (OSWER)
PRP Potential Responsible Party
PSA Public Service Announcement
PSD Prevention of Significant Deterioration
July, 1994 161
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Appendix B Agency-wide Strategic Plan
Q
QA Quality Assurance
R
R&D Research and Development
R-EMAP Regional Environmental Monitoring & Assessment Program
RAPS Remedial Action Plans
RCRA Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
REMAP Regional Environmental Monitoring and Program
RTP Research Triangle Park
s
SAB Science Advisory Board
SBA Small Business Administration
SDWA Safe Drinking Water Act
SEED Support for Eastern European Democracy
SEP Supplemental Environmental Projects
SES Senior Executive Service
SIP State Implementation Plan (CAA)
SNC Significant Non-Compliance
SPC Science Policy Council
SRRP Source Reduction Review Project
STEP Small Town Environmental Planning
STORET Storage and Retrieval of Water Quality Information
T
TERRA Terrestrial Regional Research and Analysis
TIO Technology Innovation Office/OSWER
TIPPP Tidewater Interagency P2 Project
TMDLS Total Maximum Daily Loads
TQM Total Quality Management
TRI Toxic Release Inventory
TRI Toxic Release Inventory
TSCA Toxic Substances Control Act
u
U.S. TIES U.S. Technology for International Environmental Solutions
UNDP United Nations Development Program
USDA United States Department of Agriculture
UST Underground Storage Tanks
w
WAVE Water Alliance for Voluntary Efficiency
WBE Women Business Enterprise
WIPP Waste Isolation Pilot Plant
162 July, 1994
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