NEWS FOR AND ABOUT EPA EMPLOYEES
INSIDE:
* EPA Air
* Info Open House
* Day Care Underway
VOLUME 4
NUMBER 6
MARCH 1987
1988 Agency Budget Proposed
EPA's proposed 1988
Budget "provides growth
for the Agency in order to
address the nation's most
critical environmental prob-
lems," according to Ad-
ministrator Lee Thomas.
The budget includes, for
the second year, a major in-
crease in the reauthorized
'Superfund program. It con-
tinues the Agency's push
\
for implementation of the
?Safe Drinking Water Pro-
gram and incorporates the
Administration's proposals
for Construction Grants.
Further, it supports a well-
paced forward thrust on
^acid rain. At the same time,
the 1988 request includes
resources to ensure a stable
base for EPA operating pro-
grams. It continues the ex-
Budget Increases
($ in Millions)
$2905
$2689
1986 Final
1987 1988
Current Estimate President's Budget
Operating
Programs
Superfund/
LUST
J [
pansion of enforcement and
maintains trie strong state-
federal partnership that is
crucial in reaching environ-
mental goals.
The Agency's total re-
quest is almost $2.7 billion,
supported by 14,323 work-
years. The request includes
$1.5 billion and 11,522
work-years for operating
programs and $1.2 billion
OOON87002
and 2,801 workyears for Su-
perfund and thejoew Leak-
ing Underground Storage
TankJfcUST) programV With
previously appropriated
funds, EPA expects to con-
duct a total Superfund/
LUST program in excess of
$1.6 billion. The 1988 total
for Superfund exceeds all
resources during the first
five years of the program, n
Agency Workyears
14,323
Enacted
1 2,893
1643
11250
1986 Actual
Operating
Programs
14,165
2501
11664
1987
Current Estimate
f
2801
11522
1988
President's Budget
Superfund/
LUST
NFFE Sponsors Smoking, Day Care Conferences
Meetings were held on
March 2 in the Training
Center Auditorium under
the aegis of the National
Federation of Federal Em-
ployees (NFFE) to solicit
the views of the local
bargaining unit and shape
negotiating tactics regarding
day-care planning and the
forthcoming rules on smok-
ing at headquarters. The
Day-Care Center's board of
directors fielded questions
from a broad range of per-
spectives, including con-
cern about rules of gov-
ernance, operating methods
and how to make the Center
affordable to low-income
mothers.
(Continued on back.)
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People
Retirees: Lloyd Cherry, 25 years, Leo Flaherty, 20 years,
Robert Jasper, 32 years, Sam Morekas, 31 years, Thomas
Richard, 30 years, Myron Tiemans. 31 years, Paul
Wagner, 22 years, and Bertram Litt, 25 years,
Headquarters . . . Mae Aronson, 37 years, and Hilda
Wiedman, 22 years, Region 2 ... Wilma Alston, 26 years,
Kathryn Kamalick, 19 years, and Lucien Torrez, 19 years,
Region 5 ... Helen Ball, 30 years, Glenn Gruber, 35 years,
Albert Oberschlake, 18 years, and Clarence Enders, 14
years, Cincinnati . . . Margaret Holladay, 32 years and
Gordon Kennedy, 30 years, Ann Arbor . . . Wilburn
Holcomback. 19 years, Betty Watts, 22 years, and Howard
Zeller, 21 years, Region 4 ... Richard Jenkins, 18 years,
Theodas King, 36 years, Merritt Long, 30 years, and Julia
Putnam, 28 years, Research Triangle Park . . . Walter
Petrie, 41 years, Lorma Pickett, 24 years, and Marvin
Woods, 21 years, Las Vegas.
Special Act Awards presented to: David Leons, Charles
Evans, Sheila Holcomb, Mary Settle, Dela Ng, and George
Gray, Office of Water . . . Dan Heiser, Chris Mikolajczyk,
Susan O'Connor, Rod Kotyle, John Waanders, Lennie
Kocher, John Marshall, Joe Whitehead, Pat Brower, Andre
Harris, Bill Pidgeon, Tom Bejma, Jim Garvey, Pete
Hutchins, Linda Hormes, Bob Gilkey, and John Schwarz,
Ann Arbor . . . Janet Anderson, John Tice, and Robert
Zisa, Pesticides and Toxic Substances.
Sustained Superior Performance Awards presented to:
Gail Johnson, Mary Hursey, Elva Slagle, Janvier Young,
Hortensia Coffee, Roy Prince, Michael Montgomery, Mary
Tychsen, and Cathy Parks, Administration and Resources
Management . . . Candace Brassard, Thomas Dixon, Lynn
Bradley, Nancy Dodd, Martha Bradley, Evelyn Alston,
Francis Griffith, Allen Vaughn, Esther Saito, Joel Garbus,
John Bascietto, Douglas McKinney, Robert Pilsucki, Ann
Stavola, Pam Harrison, Sami Makak, Fannie Mosley,
Richard Loranger, Matthew Dorber, Winnie Teeters, Mary
Hood, Michael Metzger, Elizabeth Leovey, Leslie Touart,
John Janula, Edward Fite, Virginia Garvin, Roger
Gardner, Milwina Slappey, James Priestley, Dennis
McLane, Maxie Nelson, Constance Hoheisel, Robert Lee,
Ernestine Dobbing, Elmer Hayes, Arnold Edelman, Angela
Barnes, Janet Anderson, Caroline Gordon, John Kliewer,
Mary Gardner, Diane Hayden, James Kearns, Maureen
Sherrill, Susan Lawrence, Joanne Miller, Charles Lewis,
Michael McDavit, James Rowe, Marion Copley, Arthur
Schlosser, Georgia McDuffie, Joan Moyer, David
Vanormer, Roy Sjoblad, David Ritter, Margaret Jones,
Raymond Landolt, Esther Rinde, Mildred Lassman,
William Greeher, Quang Bui, Pamela Hurley, Rachell
Kudrick, John Doherty, Brian Dementi, Jerome Blondell,
Daniel Rieder, and Alan Katz, Pesticides and Toxic
Substances ... Brenda Salander, Janice Poole, Stanley
Yonkers, Rene Bowman, Thomas Connelly, James
Tompkins, Akiva Abromovich, Sue Rathman, Whang
Phang, Velma Lewis, Geraldine Guggemos, Mary
Stoddard, Jane Alexander, Lutithia Barbee, Thomas
Charleton, Wanda Ruffin, Cherly Bentley, and Brenda
Browne, Office of the Administrator . . . Roberta Lee, Air
and Radiation . . . Patricia McKimmie, Sharon Boyde, and
Doris Gillispie, Research and Development . . . Michael
Scott, External Affairs . . . Judy Carmickle, Chris Keller,
Mike*McCuaig, Chris Mikolajczyk, Marc Schaffer, Tom
Snyder, Larry Wagner, Matt Wagner, Eric Zellin, Kim
Donahue, Nick Waanders, Greg Piotrowski, Tim Sprik,
Jeff Alson, Jensen Cheng, Jenny Chris, Addie Moore,
Sharon Roderick, Marion McQueen, Kitty Walsh, Al
Bertalmio, Gail Sobecki, Beth Laird, Tracey Bradish,
Carmen Garrett, Joan Wilfong, Dave Brzezinski, Penny
Carey, Tammy Loy, Paul Bradley, Paul Maschiele, Paul
Laing, Michael Lidgard, Phil Carlson, Jim Hudzinski,
Jackie Whekhel, Terry Newell, Tom Baines, Mike Gold,
Deborah Weir, Sandy Kretschmer, Paul Velandra, Bob
Dieter, Mark Iwanicki, Lou Oleszkiewicz, Nancy
Tschirhart, Sue Cook, Susan Mizinski, Brad Cromwell,
Dean Gilger, Chris Short, Hanneke Hall, Laury Johnson,
Eric Munger, Connie Kauffman, Kathleen
Rogers-Martinez, Jim McCargar, Eugene Tierney, Craig
Harvey, Gay MacGregor, Jeff Houk, Tom Power, Sherry
Moody, Larry Landman, James Ehlmann, Jane DeRose,
Celia Shih, Tom Darlington, Walt Adams, Mark Colcott,
Margaret Holladey, Ernie Bulifant, Stan Syria, John
Shelton, Kelly Miller, Ray Lyttle, William Hyden, Bob
Jones, Brett McBryde, Lester Lents, Bill Harbowy, Ralph
Yeckley, Dave Perkins, Steve Dorer, Ray Quillette, Ted
Cieslak, Stephen Pfeiffer, Mark Simons, Lennie Kocher,
John Kargul, Carl Scarbro, Doug DeVries, Larry Haslett,
Melinda Shaffer, and Lesia Scott, Ann Arbor.
Congratulations to Marjorie Gibson and Jane Thomas,
Region 2,who both received the Regional Administrator's
Award for Excellence; the only award of its type in EPA
whose recipients are nominated and evaluated by fellow
employees. D
The EPA Times is published monthly to provide news and informa-
tion for and about EPA employees. Readers are encouraged to submit
news of themselves and of fellow employees, letters of opinion, ques-
tions, comments, and suggestions to the Editor, The EPA Times, Office
of Public Affairs (A-107). Telephone: 382-4359. Information selected
for publication will be edited as necessary in keeping with space
available.
Features Editor: Don Bronkema
Departments Editor: Marilyn Rogers
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One of Us
Our thanks to John Rapsys of Region 5 for submitting the material
for this story.
Profile: Allen Lang—Region 5
As health and safety manager, he's one of the most
visible employees in Region 5. Some have even sworn
they've seen him in two places at once, a definite breach
of space-time principles. We can't vouch for that, but
Allen K. Lang certainly is a whirlwind of purposeful
activity: accomplished speaker, medical expert, civic
activist, and published author of some 200 science fiction
and mystery short stories.
Lang's career with EPA began in 1980, when he
joined Region 5 as a computer specialist. He first labored
over word-processors and microcomputers, but later took
up ergonomics, an engineering discipline that examines
"how machines can fit people, instead of the other way
around," and applied it to office equipment, systems and
working arrangements. That led to his appointment as
chief of health and safety in June 1985.
"One of the environmental ironies is that more EPA
employees get hurt in the sanctuary of their own offices
than in the dangerous places they visit in the field," Lang
says. To slash the accident rate, last year he started a
series of top-to-bottom inspections for hazards in the
workplace. He found that people are astoundingly
indifferent even to obvious problems like frayed wiring,
overloaded circuits, loose cables underfoot, flammable
paper clutter, vermin, and bad air.
Lang has organized a number of CPR classes, aerobics
programs, seminars, and lunch-hour workshops on
educational and safety topics. But his proudest
achievement is a special resolution of thanks he received
from those who successfully completed his first regional
anti-smoking clinic. "The weed must go," he insists.
Lang can also be proud of his rhetorical expertise, since
it's a safe bet that he never put anyone to sleep with his
well-documented, witty and lively commentary — no
matter what the occasion, provocation or subject. He has
been with the EPA Toastmasters' Club for four years and
has served as its president. He is famous for his ability to
speak cogently, with parsimony and elegance, on a host of
scholarly and public issues.
"To overcome that hideous fear of speaking in public is
worth every eff^ort," declares Lang, speaking from the
agony of his own experience. His advice: join the
Toastmasters; it will make a new person of you.
Lang has a B.S, in biology and a master's in public
administration. He served in Korea (1946-47) as an
infantry platoon sergeant and in the U.S. Air Force
(1950-54] in England and Norway as an independent-duty
medic. "It meant practicing medicine without a license,"
he jokes.
An avid reader of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells in his
youth, Lang later turned to writing himself. His 200 stories
have appeared in such publications as Analog and Ellery ,
Queen's Mystery Magazine. Our informants say his
themes run the gamut from mainline adventure and
fantasy to studies of character under stress and
philosophical speculations. He draws his ideas from
books, people and the spirit of the times.
In 1965 he even had a novel published Wild and
Out-Side, but it hit the literary pavement, "like an elephant
dropped from a C5-A. Even I didn't like it," he confesses.
Lang and his wife, Ruth, who have two daughters and
six grandchildren, live in Chicago's Hyde Park. They are
active in a German-language conversation group at the
Goethe Institute, where Lang has just finished his fourth
course in business German. He has presented two
lectures—on ergonomics and on running a "stop smoking"
clinic—both in German.
The Langs are organizing intensively for their first trip
to Germany in the fall of 1987. Here's hoping they prevail
against the sturm and drang of trip preparations and have
a gemutlich zeit. n
Training
One of the Agency's priority initiatives is to promote
excellence and professional growth among all employees.
This has prompted increased human resources activities,
particularly in the area of training. As supervisors and
managers begin to develop training plans for their
employees, they often run into problems, first in finding
appropriate courses and second in determining which will
give the greatest return for their training dollars. To help
alleviate these problems, the Agency's personnel and
training community has subscribed to a training event
database called EdVENT.
EdVENT contains over 125,000 listings of seminars,
workshops, educational conferences, and continuing
education programs offered by more than 5,200 sponsoring
organizations (mostly non-government). The sponsors (or
vendors) are colleges, universities, professional
associations and societies, government agencies, industry,
and consultants. The coverage is concentrated in the
United States, although there are events occurring in
Canada and other global regions. The subject matter is
comprehensive. In the topic of management alone, there
are over 10,000 listings.
At Headquarters, EdVENT recently was used to develop
individual training plans for the Agency's SES Candidate
Program and it proved to be an outstanding source of
information.
If you are looking for a quick, easy way to find out just
what is out there in the training world, contact your local
personnel/training office to schedule an EdVENT search.
For general information on the system, or to arrange a
search for Headquarters employees, contact Becky Parrott
of the Employee Development and Training Staff, on
382-2997. D
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NFFE Sponsors Conferences (continued from front
The vocal opposition of the new smoking rules, in-
Around EPA
some mid-level EPA offi-
cials to the entire concept
of federally supported day
care was not addressed in
detail. (EPA will provide
start-up costs, space and
utilities, and a parent co-op
will manage daily op-
erations).
The NFFE Labor-
Management Subcommittee
on Clean Air analyzed the
far-reaching implications of
eluding how to handle non-
cooperation by the smoking
minority. It is estimated
that somewhat less than
30% of EPA employees are
still addicted to nicotine
and the numbers are ex-
pected to continue their
long, gradual decline.
Further information is
available from Bill Hirzy,
382-2327 (childcare), and
Mark Antell, 382-2878
(clean air). D
"Armed and Dangerous"
EPA has recently begun a
special Hazardous Waste In-
vestigations Training Pro-
gram for state and local reg-
ulatory and law enforce-
ment personnel. The first
two-week pilot program
was a major success and by
all indications it will be-
come one of the Agency's
most popular training
courses. Students get in-
tensive classroom instruc-
tion and then participate in
practical exercises at a
mock disposal site where
role players are hired to
pose as armed and danger-
ous violators. Participants
search the site, poke around
in the woods, and inspect
trucks filled with unmarked
drums in an effort to dis-
cover evidence of illegal
dumping.
Both students and staff
are highly enthusiastic
about this pioneer program.
It is conducted by EPA's
National Enforcement In-
vestigations Center (NEIC)
in cooperation with the
Federal Law Enforcement
Training Center (FLETC),
which set up the practicum
outside Glynco, GA. The
program reflects Adminis-
trator Lee Thomas's strong
stance on criminal enforce-
ment. Thomas toured
FLETC and the mock dis-
posal site last fall and
stated that he was "very im-
pressed."
Requests for further in-
formation should be ad-
dressed to Jim Prange,
Assistant Director at NEIC
for Criminal Investigations,
FTS 776-3215
Georgia Tech has been rewarded for running what EPA
calls "the leading asbestos control program in the nation."
EPA has provided Tech with a scanning transmission
electron microscope worth $250,000. The microscope,
which can magnify objects up to 200,000 times, will allow
Tech's asbestos information center to make extremely
detailed measurements of asbestos fiber levels in the air of
schools and other buildings. Tech's asbestos program is
funded by EPA and was the first such center of its kind in
the U.S.
Left to right: Jim Littell, Region 4 Asbestos Coordinator, Bill
Ewing, Georgia Tech Asbestos Action Program Director; and
William Spain, Georgia Tech Continuing Education Director
EPA's recently-modernized Headquarters Library now
offers to EPA managers and staffers a wide variety of
information assistance on policy analysis, program
analysis, and background research. The goal of the library
staff is to make the library integral to EPA's way of doing
business. The staff gives top priority to providing quick
and accurate responses to requests for information. The
Library is located in Room 2904-Mall. For more
information, call 382-5922. D
Jim Vance, News Anchorperson
for WRC-TV, spoke at EPA's
Black History Month
ceremonies on February 2.
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