OOON87005
NEWS FOR AIVP ABOUT EPA EMPLOYEES
Performance Agreements
Employee Wellness
Pension Losers?
VOLUME 4
NUMBER 9
SEPTEMBER 1987
A New Look in Performance Agreements
This year performance agreements
will be easier to prepare and keep
up-to-date. Employees, managers and
supervisors can thank two regional
employees for triggering a complete
revision and upgrading of the
performance-agreement package. Horst
Witschonke, an engineer in the
Chicago Region and Norma Rhea,
Kansas City Region, came up with a
way to reformat performance
standards for compatibility with
existing word-processing technology.
That prompted the Personnel
Management Division (PMD) to take a
fresh look at the entire performance
agreement and appraisal form with an
eye to simplification and automation.
The new, improved Performance
Agreement, Appraisal and
Certification form replaces the old
form as of October 1, 1987, for FY 88.
Clarence Hardy, Director of
Personnel, approved cash awards for
each employee. Valdas Adamkus,
Regional Administrator in Chicago,
and Robert Layton, Jr., Regional
Administrator in Dallas, presented the
awards.
Horsl Witschonke, Hegion 5
Women's Equality Day
The 19th Amendment to the
Constitution, which gave women the
right to vote, became law on August
26, 1920. President Reagan therefore
proclaimed August 26 as Women's
Equality Day in recognition of this
significant event in our country's
history. Lee Thomas, EPA
Administrator, noted that the
Agency's women have demonstrated
"the highest professional qualities
through their vision, dedication,
competence and perseverance in
carrying out our mission. They can be
very proud of their achievements
here." Thomas predicted that the role
of women will keep expanding in the
years ahead.
National Employ The
Handicapped Week
October 4-10, 1987 was designated as
National Employ the Handicapped
Week, a time to honor those whose
physical, mental or emotional
limitations have not stopped them
from doing outstanding work. The
Agency also recognized managers and
supervisors who have taken the
initiative in providing career
opportunity for the disabled. Various
activities were conducted to observe
the week throughout the Agency as
part of its continuing effort to exploit
the full potential of our human
resources.
Those Indispensable SiSers
by James C. Ballentine
One vital but often unnoticed link in
the chain of the Agency's daily labors
is the stay-in-school or SIS employee.
Such students provide valuable
services to many EPA offices. They
not only run errands and make those
urgent copies, but perform secretarial
and clerical duties as well. Some
offices have been surprised by how
dependent they have become on these
highly motivated young people, who
are working their arduous way
through high school or college.
Without the opportunity EPA offers,
few of them could get a firm grip on
that bottom rung of the occupational
ladder. Many are learning the
principles of "eco-ethics" right here.
Who knows how many may return to
EPA someday as professionals and
rise to the top?
Nine Percent Thrift Rate
Money invested during September in
the federal employees thrift savings
plan will earn nine percent interest,
according to the Federal Retirement
Thrift Investment Board managing the
six-month-old, tax-deferred fund.
Made up of employee and government
contributions, the fund has reached
$627 million and is growing by nearly
$5 million a day. Almost one million
of the government's 2.8 million
employees are in the plan.
The thrift savings plan is a feature
of the new Federal Employees
Retirement System (FERS), but it is
open to old and new federal workers
at all levels. Although the plan is
identical in concept to tax-deferred
savings plans in the private sector,
analysts say the federal program is
more generous because of the high
percentage of salary workers may
invest and the partial matching
contributions from government.
All money invested in the fund this
year goes into a so-called G-Fund
comprising guaranteed Treasury
securities. The interest rate changes
monthly; in August the fund paid 8.75
Continued to next page
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Employee Wellness
by Lee Thomas, Administrator
We have made great strides in human
resources initiatives in this Agency,
and I am pleased that we can now
step up our efforts in employee
wellness. OPM, OMB and GSA have
revised their regulations to allow the
use of appropriated funds for
educational programs on stress
management, smoking cessation,
nutrition and related subjects, and to
support employees committed to
physical fitness. I commend the
efforts of some of our EPA Offices and
Regions in this matter and believe that
wellness should be an integral part of
our human resources program.
Our time is paid for by the
taxpayers, so we owe them our best.
Studies have shown that productivity
and morale have risen substantially in
companies promoting mental and
physical health. Therefore, I consider
it good management and a wise use of
public funds to strive for the
following goals.
• Become partners with employees in
providing scientific exercise programs
that, with appropriate medical
oversight, can upgrade cardiovascular
and cardiopulmonary fitness, strength-
conditioning and musculoskeletal
motility.
• Support exercise commuting by
providing showers, change-rooms and
secure bike storage.
• Offer education on current health
topics such as nutrition, smoking and
stress management.
• Schedule work hours and lunch
periods to accommodate employees
who wish to participate in sponsored
fitness.
• Promote employee counseling,
occupational health and safety, and
subsidized physical examinations.
The Office of Personnel Management,
assisted by the President's Council on
Physical Fitness and Sports, is
developing new guidance and program
models for this fall. I look to the Office
of Administration to provide
leadership for employee wellness and
to our regional directors and office
managers to develop wellness
programs within their jurisdictions.
Contact Bob Magor, Director of
Fitness and Wellness, on FTS 475-7366
with your questions or suggestions.
Pension Losers?
An outside consulting firm warns that
many federal and postal workers
stand to lose major pension benefits
by staying with the old civil service
retirement system. Between now and
December 31, employees covered by
CSRS can switch to the new Federal
Employees Retirement System. FERS
offers benefits based on Social
Security, a modified federal annuity
and earnings from investments in the
tax-deferred thrift savings plan. So far,
fewer than two percent of those
eligible to switch to the new pension
program have done so.
Chambers Associates declares that
in 30 percent of the cases it has
reviewed, workers would be
financially better off in retirement if
they moved into the FERS program,
even if they made no contribution to
the savings plan. If the same group
contributed even five percent of pay
to the tax-deferred program, the
company claims, 54-57 percent would
be better off under FERS. At 10
percent the benefits are even greater.
For information call 857-0686.
Bicentennial Constitution
This year we are celebrating the
Bicentennial of the United States
Constitution. A personal copy of the
Constitution has been delivered to
each employee to enhance
understanding of this historic
document. Read it. Rededicate
yourself to the principles guaranteed
by the Constitution and reaffirm your
commitment to the responsibilities of
citizenship. Ignorance and
self-absorption, as Jefferson said, are
death to democracy.
Youth Outreach, R-2
The outreach program for kids in
Region 2 has been accelerating,
according to Isabel Funcia, regional
community relations specialist. The
Region has formally adopted Niagara
Falls High, and has begun to
participate in a number of student
programs at other schools as well. Ken
Stoller, Niagara Frontier Program
Manager, has organized a series of
monthly lectures on diverse
environmental themes for Falls
science classes. State government
officials, expert consultants and
public health types conducted 12
programs on radon and Superfund
over a six-week period for the
eighth-grade science class at Glen
Ridge (NJ) Middle School. Areas of
Glen Ridge and neighboring Montclair
are Superfund sites with homes built
on radon-contaminated soils.
A demonstration of EPA's chopper
highlighted a recent Science Fair at
the Lafayette Middle School in
Chatham Township, NJ. "The goal of
our youth program is to help
elementary and high school students
understand their environment and
how their actions affect it, and the
difficult decision-making process
behind protection of the environment
and public health," Ms. Funcia said.
Thrift Rate continued from page ^
percent, in July 8.5 and in June 8.625.
Employees covered by the new
FERS system can invest up to 10
percent of pay or a maximum of
$7,000 this year. Those who invest
five percent or more also get a
tax-deferred five-percent matching
contribution from government. Even |
those who invest nothing get a
one-percent contribution each payday
from government.
Federal workers who stay with the
old Civil Service Retirement System
can put five percent of their pay into
the tax-deferred savings plan, but they
get no matching contribution unless
they switch to FERS during the
enrollment period ending December 31.
The EPA Times is published monthly for EPA employees Readers are encouraged to submit news about themselves or fellow employees, letters
of opinion, questions, comments and suggestions to the Editor. The EPA Times, Office of Public Affairs (A-107). Telephone: 475-6643. Items
selected for publication may be edited to accommodate space available.
Editor: Don Bronkema Departments: Marilyn Rogers
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Alternative Dispute Resolution
Final guidance on the use of alternative dispute resolution
(ADR) techniques in enforcement actions was recently
promulgated after review by EPA headquarters and
regional offices, the Department of Justice and
representatives of the regulated community. EPA also
sought the advice of leading ADR professionals, including
many of the renowned participants at a recent colloquium
sponsored by the Administrative Conference of the United
States. Reaction to the draft guidance was overwhelmingly
favorable and helpful. The guidance now more clearly
distinguishes the uses of binding and non-binding
techniques, emphasizes the need to protect confidentiality
of conversations before a neutral, and includes model
agreements and procedures for each ADR technique. ADR
employs third-party neutrals to aid in the resolution of
disputes through arbitration, mediation, mini-trials and
fact-finding. It is being used increasingly to resolve private
commercial disputes. EPA is likewise applying forms of
ADR in various contexts: negotiated rulemaking, RCRA
siting and Superfund remedial actions. ADR holds the
promise of lowering transaction costs both to the Agency
and the regulated community.
ADR is a new, innovative and potentially more effective
way to accomplish results EPA has sought for years using
conventional enforcement techniques. The Agency will,
however, adhere strictly to the principle that, one way or
the other, the regulated community must comply with
environmental laws. The following will be undertaken to
utilize ADR more effectively.
• Training. Some may fear that fewer adversarial
initiatives means the agency will be seeking less rigorous
settlements. That is not the case. Staff must be trained in
what ADR is, what it is not, and how it can help meet
compliance objectives. This will be accomplished by
making presentations at national program and regional
counsel meetings, and by consulting on particular cases.
• Outreach. EPA must demonstrate to the regulated
community that the Agency is receptive to suggestions
about using ADR in a given case. Nominating a case for
ADR should not be viewed de facto as a sign of weakness
in either party. After additional experience, EPA will
conduct a national conference to popularize ADR.
• Pilots. Ultimately, the value of ADR must be proven in
pilot cases. ADR is being used to resolve an important
municipal water-supply problem in Sheridan, Wyoming.
Two recent TSCA settlements also utilized ADR to
forestall disputes in conducting environmental audits
under consent agreements. The applicability of ADR to
additional cases must be explored. Lee Thomas has
challenged assistant and regional administrators to help
apply ADR to the enforcement process, to wrap ADR
criteria into future program guidance, to include
discussions of ADR at upcoming national meetings, and to
review enforcement actions now under development, plus
cases already filed, to find those resolvable by ADR. Each
Region will be expected to nominate at least one ADR case
for FY 88.
The CAA and Indoor Air
In a recent letter to the Chairman of the Senate
Subcommittee on Environmental Protection, Jim Barnes
clarified the Agency's position on whether the Clean Air
Act applies to indoor air pollution. He said research is
explicitly authorized in the recently enacted Superfund
Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986, P.L.
99-499, which included as Title IV the "Radon Gas and
Indoor Air Quality Research Act of 1986." The latter Act
directs the Administrator to establish a research program
and submit a report to Congress on the results. Such
research also appears to be authorized under most
EPA-administered statutes where it furthers a statutory
purpose, e.g., by helping EPA to reach regulatory decisions
on indoor uses of toxic substances, or by helping EPA
assess the cumulative effects of multiple exposures to a
pollutant such as lead or carbon monoxide. Moreover,
Congress has appropriated funds specifically for such
research and urged EPA to expand its plans to study
indoor air. Vide Housing and Urban
Development—Independent Agencies Appropriations Act,
1985, P.L. 98-371, 98 Stat. 1222 (1984); H.R. Rep. 98-803,
98th Cong., 2nd Sess. 21 (1984).
In general, Barnes said, EPA does not interpret the Clean
Air Act (CAA) as authorizing regulation of indoor air
pollution. However, the Agency does regulate or plans to
regulate substances and pollutants under several other
statutes that do directly affect indoor air quality, including
the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act
(FIFRA), the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), and the
Atomic Energy Act (AEA).
Acid Damage Assessment
Jim Barnes recently commended the Clean Air Scientific
Advisory Committee for its review of OPPE's assessment
of damage caused by acid deposition. Many of CASAC's
recommendations have already been implemented by
OPPE and ORD. EPA's goal is to improve understanding of
the types and levels of damage induced by acid
deposition, as well as public perception of the threat.
Damage functions of much higher reliability are being
developed for galvanized steel, painted surfaces and
carbonate stones (as in monuments and building facades)
and better inventories are being compiled. Of particular
interest is a series of experiments the Agency is
conducting to determine which pollutants damage paints,
the mechanisms of damage and the best techniques for
relating microscopic chemical changes to perceptible
phenomena such as peeling and cracking. An extensive
effort is also underway to obtain and analyze survey data
collected by the Electric Power and Research Institute on
maintenance practices. Emphasis is being placed on how
building owners perceive damage and how they respond
by altering maintenance levels and methods.
It is EPA's belief that these efforts, combined with the
implementation of the remaining recommendations in the
Committee report, will produce reliable and accurate
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assessments of the economic damage caused by acid
deposition on materials. As recommended, estimated total
costs from acid deposition in the 1986 Mathtech report
will not be used in the sulfur oxides national ambient
air-quality-standard rulemaking process. The report will,
however, complement the 1982 Mathtech supply/demand
model now incorporated into the draft regulatory impact
analysis for sulfur oxides.
SO2 Options
Managers may be interested in certain elements of Lee
Thomas' recent response to an interrogatory by the House
Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations on acid
rain control and sulfur dioxide emissions.
According to a WasJiington Times article,
"environmentalists want the government to clean up older
power plants". Indeed, because of the long service lives
projected for many existing plants, a solution to acid rain
and related regional air-quality problems may well require
some additional SO2 emissions reductions from existing
plants. A second quotation implies that industry supports
the development of new technology as a ploy to avoid acid
rain controls. This is certainly not a tactic employed by
EPA—its position is that until scientific uncertainties have
been clarified, an acid-rain control program would be
premature. EPA also supports the development of
clean-coal technology to expand the menu of cost-effective
and environmentally sound control measures.
According to a third quotation from the Times article,
"utilities are extending the life of older plants beyond the
normal 30 to 40 year life-span to keep their grandfathered
status". EPA generally agrees with the assertion of the
Edison Electric Institute that there is no "normal"
expected life for a power plant unit, and that it is
increasingly difficult to predict how long older plants will
remain in service. Unit retirement decisions are made on a
case-by-case basis depending on site-specific and utility-
system conditions and needs. Economic conditions have
encouraged utilities to keep generating units in service
beyond a "typical" 40-year life-span, but this tendency
does not appear to be driven by environmental constraints.
EPA analysis also indicates that retrofitting existing units
with scrubbers, though expensive, would still cost
substantially less in most cases than replacing old plants
in toto.
The Times article also argues that because scrubbers do
not remove nitrogen oxide, they do not address an
important component of acid rain. Whereas this statement
is true, it is no argument against scrubbers. Many of the
innovative retrofit technologies now under development or
being considered for demonstration are designed to control
either SCh or NOx, but few deal simultaneously with both.
With regard to load management, conservation and
co-generation strategies in reducing utility emissions and
control costs, EPA believes they should play a positive
role in conjunction with utility emissions control
programs. The impacts and means of implementing such
methods are not well understood; they are also dependent
on regional and utility-specific conditions.
Emission-rate-based control requirements, such as those
embodied in last year's H.R. 4567 and this year's H.R.
2666, do not give credit for conservation and, in fact,
provide a strong disincentive.
Federal Facilities Compliance
The issue of EPA's management of federal facilities
compliance was raised at recent internal budget hearings.
Following some discussion, the Administrator has decided
that a "White Paper" should be developed and has
directed Jennifer Joy Wilson, Assistant Administrator for
External Affairs, to conduct a thorough examination of this
matter with the participation of regional and media
program offices. The results are to be presented at the next
Regional Administrators' meeting in Denver, October 14-16.
Dick Sanderson, Director, Office of Federal Activities, is
serving as overall project manager for the study. Alex
Smith, Deputy Administrator, Region 8, and her staff have
agreed to serve as lead region and coordinate
information-gathering and analysis of materials.
Federal facilities present unique challenges from the
standpoint of compliance with federal statutes. Agency
management must recognize the distinctive needs of this
portion of the regulated community and be able to provide
technical assistance while insisting on appropriate
enforcement.
Restoring the Earth
The first national gathering to consider the restoration of
natural resources and the redesign of urban areas will be
held January 13-16 at the University of California,
Berkeley. The conference is organized by the Restoring the
Earth project of the Tides Foundation, San Francisco, and
co-sponsored by the College of Natural Resources and the
Center for Environmental Design Research at U.C.
Berkeley. Proceedings will be published by the Center.
The conference will bring experts in natural resource
restoration and management together with a panoply of
academic, government, industry, foundation, labor, public
health and environmental representatives; upgrade the
exchange of scientific information and detail restoration
techniques.
Topics include coastal ecosystems, estuaries, rivers,
lakes, streams, fisheries, rangelands, prairies, mined lands,
forests, wildlife, atmosphere and climate, dry and farm
lands, urban environmental planning and control of toxic
wastes. Refereed papers will be presented at scientific and
technical sessions. Non-technical seminars will include
accounts of restoration successes and discussions of policy
issues, legislation, litigation, trends and conflict
resolution. The program embraces keynote panels, plenary
sessions, workshops, films and exhibits.
Formal deadline for papers was October 15, 1987, but
you might wish anyway to submit "on spec" four copies of
abstract (title and 200-400 word descriptions of proposed
20-minute presentations). Final text of accepted
papers will be due November 30, 1987. Information is
available from Restoring the Earth Conference, 1713-C
Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Berkeley, CA 94709 or
415-843-2645.
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