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Preface
This history was researched and written by the University of North Carolina under
contract to the Environmental Protection Agency during the summer of 1995. and is based on
archival searches and interviews in RTF and in Washington, D.C.
A cknowledgments
Special Thanks to the following people for offering information, advice, assistance, and
encouragement on this project.
Paul Altshuller, Allen Atkins. Elizabeth Aycock. John Bachmann, Doug Barrett. Delbert
Barth. Michael Berry. Michael Bower. Terri Burrell. Clarence Cade. Ron Campbell. Orlando
Carter. Marion Casev, Jake Cavines^ Carolyn Chamblee. Kit Channel' Norman CbilHs. Marv
lar*« I 'io-ri' I r»t-»T I 'iorl/ onH H o < rvt/^
«/ l^i.1*- \^-i »^i TV. A wiil >_ 114.^ Ai.. K.AAV* *-!.***. *^ *_/ t^. .
Paulette DeWitt. Aired Ellison. Dale Evarts. Jack Fanner. Gar}' Pole}-. Kirk Foster.
Carolyn Fowler. Nick Galifianakis. Donald Gardner. Barbara Gilchrist. Donald Goodwin. Lester
Grant. Willis Greenstreet. Bob Hangebrauck, Kay Harward, Guv Hickev, Gordon Hueter.
Malcolm Huneycutt, William Hunt, and Polly Hunter.
Debbie Janes. Maureen Johnson, Paul Kenline, Phyllis Lang, Dianne Laws, William
Laxton, Chris Long, Blair Martin, Sue Miller, Jack Morgan. Wayne Morris, Robert Neligan,
William Nelson, Vaun Newill. John O'Connor, John O'Neil. Joe Padgett, Robert Payne. David
Price, and Frank Princiotta.
Lorrie Ray, Linda Redford, Lawrence Reiter, Nancy Rhew. Wilson Riggan. Linda Ritch,
E.B. Roberts, Joe Safadi, Arnold Samuel, Michael Sanders. Terry Sanford. Ben Scaggs. Frank
Schiermeier, Patricia E. Sharpe, Janet Simmons, Jerry Slaymaker. Ray Smith, leva Spons,
Donald Walters, James Weigold, Sara Wells, and David Westmoreland.
Gail Whitfield, Mary Wilkins. Jean Wilkinson, Fred Woods, and Donald Worley.
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Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter One:
"Birth of an Agency "
Chapter Two:
"Research Triangle Park"
Chapter Three:
"Growth of an Agency "
Chapter Four:
"Making a Difference "
Appendix:
"Key Dates in the History ofEPA/RTP "
References
Page 1
Page 3
Page 13
Page 23
Page 35
Page 43
Page 49
REGION VI LIBRARY -
U. S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTS
AGENCY
1445 ROSS AVENUE
DALLAS, TEXAS 75202
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Introduction
Protecting the Environment
For 25 years, the Environmental Protection Agency in Research Triangle Park has
provided the backbone of the nation's air quality research and regulation. The EPA in RTP has
shaped technology, even as it has been shaped by politics. It has forged new links with Triangle
universities and industries, even while struggling to find a permanent home in the Park. What
difference has the EPA-RTP made? The following pages tell the tale.
Evolution
The EPA in RTP has two essential tasks: to research the characteristics of pollution and
to regulate it under the authority of the Clean Air Act and its amendments. The Office of
Research and Development - the research arm of EPA-RTP - and the Office of Air Quality
Planning and Standards - the regulatory arm - coordinate with each other to carry out the EPA's
air quality mission. These two elements would not be complete without a third piece: the Office
of Administration and Resource Management at RTP, which has provided the technology,
personnel, and infrastructure to conduct daily operations.
The mission at RTP has broadened as environmental challenges and public focus has
changed since 1970. In the early years, the emphasis was on controlling large pollution sources -
such as smoke belching from power plants, factories, and cars. Over time, complex concerns
have been expressed through legislation, public health trends, and scientific examination.
Pollution problems, identified primarily as single point, "stack or pipe" sources in the early
years, are now addressed on regional and global levels. EPA organizations at RTP have kept
pace and led the way toward better understanding of complex pollution problems and effective
solutions.
Through policies and technologies developed at RTP during the past 25 years, the EPA
has made strides in reducing power plant emissions, lead, carbon monoxide, smog, and even
contamination from woodstoves. By organizing joint ventures between researchers and
regulators, EPA-RTP has combined electronic information access with hot-line assistance to
connect the public with pollution control knowledge. By remaining on the forefront of
technology, EPA-RTP's National Computer Center has linked the EPA to the states, nation, and
the world.
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Conclusion
In the late 1960s, fewer than 100 people occupied two floors of an office building in
Durham. Now, more than 1,400 federal employees - and an equivalent number of on-site
contractors - occupy buildings scattered all over the Research Triangle area. But this story is not
only about buildings, smokestacks, auto exhaust, or computers. EPA-RTP goes beyond
organizational name changes or the availability of research money.
It is the people of EPA-RTP who have managed, over more than 25 years, to rise above
internal and external politics, industrial opposition, and facility dislocation to establish a
prominent presence in Research Triangle Park and to engineer major reductions in air pollution.
It's anybody's guess what would have happened if EPA had never come to North Carolina. But
it's a safe bet that it would be harder to breathe.
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Chapter One
Birth of an Agency
In July 1967, David Westmoreland drove a truckload of desks, chairs, and typewriters
from Cincinnati, Ohio, to a warehouse facility within the Burlington, N.C., Post Office. The
equipment, loaded on a two-ton flatbed truck, would signify the beginnings of the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency's operations in North Carolina.
For two weeks, Westmoreland manned the loading dock at the post office, securing the
furniture within the warehouse so that it could be moved later. There was one telephone, which
Westmoreland could use to call Cincinnati and Washington, D.C.
Beginning in September, Westmoreland and a handful of Public Health Service (PHS)
employees were on the road once again, piling furniture on the trucks to transport 30 miles down
the road to the N.C. Mutual Life Insurance Building in Durham. Westmoreland remembers that
so much furniture ended up in one corner of the Mutual Building's ninth floor that some
witnesses worried that the building would lean, "Like the Leaning Tower of Pisa."
In the midst of the concrete floors, metal government desks, limited telephone lines, and
long hours, an agency grew, setting down roots in an area ripe with research institutions. When
26 employees of the National Center for Air Pollution Control (NCAPC) moved from Cincinnati
to Durham in 1967, no one could know that multiple name changes, a handful of Clean Air Act
Amendments, and dozens of leased buildings would follow. Less than 30 years later, EPA in
Research Triangle Park (EPA-RTP) employs more than 1,400 federal workers and a similar
number of contract employees annually. The agency shares research dollars and expertise with
North Carolina universities inside and outside of the Triangle, has laid the groundwork for
constructing a 1.2-million-square-foot federal facility, and has become headquarters to two
national research laboratories.
Pulling Together
EPA-RTP owes its existence to politicians, environmentalists, and RTP leaders. The first
stirrings of an environmental movement began before the turn of the century, with the passage of
the Harbors and Rivers Act of 1899, a commerce law that granted the Army Corps of Engineers
authority to keep trash out of waterways. The Ohio River was one of the earliest recognized
waterways suffering from pollution due to heavy industrialization, says Clarence Cade, a retired
administrative officer with the EPA in Cincinnati. Because of the river's interstate status,
regulation was a federal concern.
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In 1913, the PHS began investigating water pollution and its related health problems.
This investigation later grew into Cincinnati's Robert A. Taft Water Research Center, birthplace
of many EPA programs. It is also where many original RTF employees began their EPA careers.
In the early 1920s, the U.S. Department of the Interior received the authority to enforce
the nation's first game laws, passed to protect waterfowl. At roughly the same time, it became
the U.S. Department of Agriculture's responsibility to regulate pesticides. These three laws -
each enforced by different executive departments - laid the groundwork for federal antipollution
legislation.
That legislation passed in 1955, with background provided by the PHS from air pollution
studies in Donora, Pa.' One conclusion of the report was that air pollution can have serious
health effects, but that further research was needed.2 Legislation dated July 14, 1955, gave the
Surgeon General of the PHS (part of the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, or
HEW), responsibility for control and mitigation of air pollution. The PHS received $5 million to
support research, technical assistance, and training. The major responsibility for air pollution
control policy rested with the state and local governments. But these states and municipalities
received no federal grants-in-aid for their efforts.3
At the same time, three National Weather Bureau meteorologists were assigned to the
PHS to study air pollution dispersion problems. It was one of the earliest interagency
agreements to affect the EPA and its predecessor agencies. This agreement is the foundation of
the unique research relationship between the EPA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA). Since then, NOAA has provided meteorological support and expertise
to the EPA andother federal agencies, says Frank Schiermeier, director of the Atmospheric
Characterization and Modeling Division within NOAA.
Early Legislation
Many states and municipalities were unable to develop pollution control programs under
the 1955 intergovernmental arrangements. A new intergovernmental agreement, in which the
federal government financed the local effort but did not shape local enforcement policy, became
law in 1963.4 It was the original Clean Air Act.
'Feller, Irwin, Alfred J. Engel, and Robert S. Friedman, with Donald C. Menzel Jr., and
John F. Sacco. Lnleigm^smmeiilalJielaljkms in the AdministratiorLflnd^Perfbrmance of Research
on Air Pollution. August 1972: 13.
2Ibid: 14.
3Ibid.
4Felleretal: 18.
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This Act gave limited enforcement authority to the federal government, increased the
availability of research and development money, and called for the development of air quality
criteria. Still, the federal government did not provide states and localities with control program
guidelines.5
With the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1965, the federal government received the
authority to control emissions from new automobiles. HEW agreed to stipulate new rules for
emission limits by the end of 1968.6
Name Changes
Before 1968, the RTF organization's parent agency was the Bureau of Disease Prevention
and Environmental Control. The newly-founded RTF branch became part of the National Center
for Air Pollution Control (NCAPC) and included NCAPC's Field Operations Activity - such as
Engineering, Meteorology, and Statistics sections - and a growing Health Effects Research
Program. NCAPC-RTP expanded when 26 NCAPC-Cincinnati employees transferred to
Durham, where they joined dozens of new employees from North Carolina and other states.
By 1968, NCAPC had become the National Air Pollution Control Administration
(NAPCA), which it would remain until it reorganized to become EPA in 1970. In April 1968,
however, the PHS added another level to the hierarchy: the Consumer Protection and
Environmental Health Service, of which NAPCA was a part.
Frequent title changes spawned jokes within the agency. Jack Farmer, who retired in
1990 as director of the Emissions Standards Division with the Office of Air Quality Planning and
Standards (OAQPS), says that supervisors changed as often as organizational names. "The joke
was, 'If my boss calls while I'm gone, find out who it is/"
The RTF labs and offices that now exist grew out of the different bureaus that were
located here. In the late 1960s, they were part of NAPCA. The Bureau of Abatement and
Control was later known as the Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards (OAQPS). The
Bureau of Criteria and Standards and the Bureau of Engineering and Physical Sciences were
predecessors of the Office of Research and Development (ORD). Meanwhile, the Office of
Administrative Management became the Office of Administration in December 1968..
-ibid: 19.
6Ibid.
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Legislative Reforms
The late 1960s continued to be tumultuous years for air quality legislation. The Air
Quality Act of 1967 emphasized state control of air pollution problems and called for an
expanded federal program. The Air Quality Act attempted to:
Ensure a base of technical and scientific air pollution knowledge by initiating a research
program;
Provide trained air pollution professionals;
Provide a federal grants program;
Establish Air Quality Control Regions and issue criteria and control documents to
provide more technical support to the states;
Establish national motor vehicle emission standards without specified time frames for
attainment.7
Still, there were no National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), and thus no
national consistency. There were no time frames for attaining air quality standards.8 In
December 1969, Congress reviewed the Air Quality Act stipulations and found that none of the
states had completed an implementation plan.9 Before the law was to change, however, the
public would get involved.
Earth Day
On April 23, 1970, Congress stood in recess. Rallies stopped traffic in New York,
Washington, Philadelphia, Chicago, and other major cities for the first Earth Day celebration.
According to The New York Times, "Huge, light-hearted throngs ambled down autoless
streets."10
7O'Connor, John. "Analysis of Historical Changes to the Clean Air Act.'" Research
Triangle Park. Dec. 30, 1991.
8O'Connor. "Analysis."
"Feller, et al: 30.
10Lelyveld, Joseph. "Mood is Joyful as City Gives Its Support." The New York Times.
Thursday, April 23, 1970: Al.
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Organized by Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin, conservationists in Congress, and
Environmental Action, Inc., the event received a mixed reception. In fact, Comptroller General
Elmer B. Staats sent out $1,600 worth of telegrams at taxpayer expense charging that Earth Day
was a "Communist plot.""
The Clean Air Act of 1970
If there is a key year in the history of EPA-RTP, or of the agency as a whole, 1970 was
the year. Legislative and executive reforms sparked the formation of a new agency. The Clean
Air Act overhauled earlier approaches and established philosophies that dominate it today, by
identifying air quality as a major public health problem, introducing quantitative air quality
management, and clarifying the partnership between the federal and state agencies.12 The
programs under this Act:
Provided for continuing federal activities in research, training, and federal support to state
agencies;
Required air quality standards (NAAQS) for the most common pollutants, which
provided national force of law behind consistent minimum goals for clean air;
Required states to develop State Implementation Plans (SIPs) to attain and maintain
NAAQS within a specified time frame;
Established stationary source emission standards for new sources and for hazardous air
pollutants (HAPs);
Specified motor vehicle emission standards with reductions required within a certain time
frame.13
1'The New York Times. Thursday, April 23, 1970: 30.
12O'Connor. "Analysis."
3Ibid.
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It was the vehicle emissions time frame that became the major obstacle in regard to the
NAAQS. Not every state had the same pollution problems, and there was no provision for
preventing deterioration of air quality.14 Delbert Barm, who would become director of the
National Environmental Research Center in RTF in 1971, said that implementing the Clean Air
Act of 1970 was the biggest obstacle the new agency faced. "How do you divide the world up
into criteria pollutants?" Earth asks. "We had to try to decide the intent of Congress and try to
implement this Act in a rational way."
While these legislative actions were taking place, it was President Richard Nixon who put
the icing on the environmental cake.
Formation of EPA
Four months after his inauguration in January 1969, Richard Nixon established the
Environmental Quality Council within his cabinet. He had asked Roy L. Ash, founder of Litton
Industries, to lead an Advisory Council on Executive Organization. In November, the
president's Domestic Council instructed Ash to study whether all federal environmental activities
should be unified in one agency. By late 1969, Congress passed the National Environmental
Policy Act (NEPA), in which the government became protector of the earth, air, land, and
water.l;)
Acting on Ash's advice, Nixon decided to establish "an autonomous regulatory body" to
oversee the enforcement of environmental policy, and declared his intention to establish the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency. Nixon announced that the EPA mission would be:
Establishing and enforcing environmental protection standards;
Researching adverse effects of pollution and methods for controlling it;
Assisting others, through grants and technical assistance, in arresting pollution;
Assisting the Council on Environmental Quality in developing and recommending new
environmental policies to the president.16
14Ibid.
15EPA document: Origins of the RPA: 11.
16
Ibid.
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What came next was the Reorganization Plan No. 3, dated July 9, 1970, in which Nixon
informed the Congress of his desire to form the EPA. HEW lost NAPCA, as well as the Food
and Drug Administration's pesticides research, the Bureaus of Solid Waste Management, Water
Hygiene, and parts of the Bureau of Radiological Health. From the Interior Department came the
Federal Water Quality Administration, as well as all pesticides work. From the Agriculture
Department came the pesticides activities of the Agricultural Research Service. The Atomic
Energy Commission ceded radiation criteria and standards to EPA.17 From this network of
bureaucracies, EPA was born. On Dec. 2, 1970, (the effective date of Reorganization Plan #3
establishing EPA) the EPA was able to open its doors with William D. Ruckelshaus as the first
administrator.18 The combined EPA budget for fiscal year 1971 was approximately $1.4 billion
and almost 6,000 personnel nationwide.19
The other major aspect of this executive reorganization was with the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration. Nixon proposed that NOAA - formerly the Commerce
Department's Environmental Science Services Administration (ESSA) - remain within the
Department of Commerce because it involved the "least dislocation" by keeping it in a
department traditionally known for scientific and technological service activities.20
Negative Publicity
EPA's increasing strength frustrated many industrialists. An advertisement in the April
14, 1967 issue of Time - paid for by Coal for a Better America - asked consumers to face reality:
that pollution is a fact of life. "If you want an instant end to air pollution ... stop driving your
car," the ad proclaimed, playing to American fears that fighting pollution may limit individual
freedoms. "Coal is a minor cause of this contamination, but the coal industry is working hard to
clean the air," the ad stated further.
17Ibid: 12.
18Ibid: 13.
19Executive Office of the President. "Statement of Dwight A. Ink, assistant director,
Office of Management and Budget. Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1970.'" July 23, 1970.
20" Special Message to the Congress About Reorganization Plans to Establish the
Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration."
July 9, 1970:583.
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A more surprising attack came in May 1970, when "Nader's Raiders," a group of law
students rallied by consumer advocate Ralph Nader, labeled national air pollution cleanup efforts
as fraudulent and deceptive. The Air Quality Act of 1967 had been a failure, they announced,
because NAPCA has been "understaffed, underfinanced, and unwilling to battle big business." It
can't tackle the pollution problem with the "tough regulatory approach"' that it needed.21
Propaganda from automakers did not subside, with the Chrysler Corporation taking out a
full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal on March 12, 1973, telling consumers that it could cost
them as much as $1,300 extra to drive and own a car after 1975 because of emissions control
standards. Consumers had mixed feelings about paying the price for cleanup.
Agency Culture
EPA historian Dennis Williams attributes much of the EPA's reorganization to a
revolution in American thinking. The 1960s was a decade when a "critical mass of activist
citizens" accepted the view that the world was a series of interconnected, interdependent
organisms - as NOAA and EPA came to be.22 Many believed a complex organization could
better grapple with the complex issue of air pollution. But the mixture of different predecessor
agencies and programs provided old-line institutional cultures. For example, the USDA
pesticide registration program had sometimes been at odds with the HEW pesticide research
program.23 Such opposing cultures often made for strange bedfellows.
It was Ruckelshaus who created an activist agency image. He tried to resolve conflicts
amongst the programs quietly, while presenting a consensus agency opinion to satisfy public
concerns and shape public will.24 EPA appeared to use existing laws to their full effect, thus
becoming perceived as a "force to be reckoned with." The new Clean Air Act Amendments
added to this aggressive image.
21"Nader Team Questions Muskie's Sincerity in Sharp Attack on U.S. Clean-Air Efforts.
The Wall Street Journal. May 13, 1970: 13.
22Williams, Dennis. "Cleaning Up America: EPA and the United States' Pollution
Control Effort, 1970-1990." May 1995: 1.
23Ibid, 4.
24Williams. "Cleaning Up America."
10
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Those early years of the EPA were the "salad days" of the agency, says Jack Farmer.
"We didn't have all the new bureaucracy that the agency has today. We could really get
something done and not spend all the time documenting the rationale behind it." After meetings
with Ruckelshaus, Farmer and other early EPA employees who moved to RTP would get to work
writing regulations to meet Clean Air Act standards. Sometimes, it took all weekend to get a
regulation pulled together. "Then, we'd give it to them, they'd sign it and put it in The Federal
Register."
Conclusion
After multiple name changes, aggressive legislation and presidential action, the U.S. EPA
got off the ground and into North Carolina. Over the course of more than 25 years, EPA-RTP
would accumulate employees, leased facilities, and research dollars. Just as the federal agency
owes its existence to various political and social machinations, the agency in RTP owes its
presence to aggressive actions by North Carolina politicians, business leaders, and
philanthropists, who worked to build Research Triangle Park and to establish a federal presence
between Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill.
11
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Chapter Two
Research Triangle Park
While government action planted the first seeds for the EPA during the 1950s, North
Carolina was laying the ground for a research park. Just as the environmental movement started
to take root, so did the state's efforts to attract new business and research institutions to the
Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area.
Land of Opportunity
In the early 1950s, Greensboro building contractor Romeo Guest introduced the idea of a
Research Triangle.25 Guest's business - building textile factories - was slowing down because
fewer textile plants were locating in North Carolina.26 Guest's education at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT) showed him how research institutions attracted industrial research
facilities to the Boston area. In December 1954, Guest proposed to Governor Luther Hodges that
the state should support a promotional effort to attract "research and development facilities to the
area that he called 'North Carolina's golden triangle of research.'"27
In 1959, the employment base of the Triangle area still depended on farming and low-
wage manufacturing industries such as textiles, tobacco, and furniture.28 State government and
education - mostly concentrated in three growing universities - raised the area's wage and salary
levels compared to the rest of the state. There was little in terms of high-tech employment or
entrepreneurial activity. Still, Archie Davis, one of the primary motivators behind Research
Triangle Park, said in 1982 that the RTP ''took root in ground that was especially tilled for that
purpose."29
25Ibid: 3.
26Sellars: 4.
27Ibid.
28Luger, Michael I., and Harvey A. Goldstein. Technology in the Garden: Research Parks
and Regional Economic Development. The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill,
1991:79.
29Sellars, Linda. "Origins of the Research Triangle: Acquiring a Park." March 8, 1991:
2.
13
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Three Universities
That triangle, formed by three counties and three cities, had three research universities at
its core in the earliest days. The University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, Duke University in
Durham, and North Carolina State College of Agriculture and Engineering in Raleigh, later
known as North Carolina State University, created a triangle of university research.30
By this time, the three schools were well-known for their particular programs. The
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was the first state university to open its doors,
beginning in 1793. By the time of the Civil War, UNC was known as the leading university in
the South. By the 1920s and 1930s, it had become known as one of the premier academic centers
in the United States, with recognized schools in chemistry, biology, pharmacy, business,
journalism, and natural sciences.
Trinity College in Durham was endowed by tobacco mogul James B. Duke and renamed
Duke University in 1930. Its medical complex, with Duke Medical School, became one of the
best known in the nation. In 1959, the basic research program of the Ordnance Corps of the
Army was administered near the Duke campus.
In Raleigh, North Carolina State University, a land grant university, formerly N.C. State
College, was established in 1887 to train in the areas of agriculture and technical sciences and to
carry that training into industry. Since the 1930s, the college witnessed dynamic growth in its
engineering, textiles, and forestry programs.31 For the EPA, the programs offered at these
universities - especially chemistry, engineering, environmental sciences, health, forestry,
mathematics, physics, and statistics - have provided a vital research link.
30Research Triangle Foundation. "The Research Triangle of North Carolina." July 1959.
3'Research Triangle Foundation.
14
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Taking Action
To Governor Hodges, the great tragedy was that North Carolina's most intelligent,
talented natives would attend college in the state - but seek jobs elsewhere. They did not feel
challenged or believe that enough high-skill jobs existed in the Triangle or in the Tar Heel state.
"Our universities had been here all along," Hodges once said. "We simply had not recognized
them properly as a key to industrial development."32 Hodges reportedly was ''shocked and
dismayed" to learn that North Carolina was 44th among the (then 48) states in per capita income.
He made raising that income the primary objective of his administration and the primary reason
for supporting the Research Triangle idea.33
After hearing from Guest, Hodges urged him to get cooperation from the universities.
Guest contacted Gordon Gray, president of the University of North Carolina, and Hollis Edens,
president at Duke, and received their agreement.34 Ideas similar to Guest's had been proposed to
University officials in Chapel Hill during a review of the Physics Department back in 1954.35
A few days before Guest visited the Engineering School at N.C. State in February 1955,
N.C. State Chancellor Carey Bostian wrote Hodges, transmitting a report by Dean Malcolm
Campbell and Director of Research William Newell of the Textile School promoting the Triangle
as a research area. Bostian suggested that an organization was needed to plan development of a
Research Triangle. In what may be the first suggestion that there should be a particular place to
develop a research center, Campbell and Newell recommended that the state encourage the
growth of research organizations, because research would bring income to the universities.36
32Hodges, Luther H. "Partners in Preparedness." Ordnance. January-February 1968: 3.
33Sellars: 5.
34Sellars: 5.
35Ibid: 6.
36Ibid: 7.
15
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Mapping It Out
In January 1955, Newell sent Guest a suggested "map of a research area between Route
70 and the Raleigh-Durham airport, stretching west of Morrisville and east of Gary."37 Hodges
announced plans to form a "triangle research group" to explore the possibility of the "MIT of
North Carolina.''38 Five days later, he announced the membership of the committee, made up of
representatives from educational institutions, technical businesses, and traditional North Carolina
industries. They included:
Robert M. Hanes, president of Wachovia Bank in Winston-Salem;
Gordon Gray, president of UNC;
HollisEdens, president of Duke;
Brandon Hodges, former state treasurer;
Robert Armstrong, vice president for research at the Celanese Corporation in Charlotte;
E.Y. Floyd, director of the North Carolina Plant Food Institute in Raleigh;
Grady Rankin, a Gastonia textile manufacturer;
C.W. Reynolds, assistant works manager of the Western Electric Company in Winston-
Salem;
William H. Ruffin, president of Erwin Mills in Durham.39
Research Triangle Committee
This group appointed a Working Committee, made up of representatives from the three
universities, to develop an inventory of research being conducted at Duke, UNC and NC State
Universities. By January 1956 - just a year after the first federal legislation passed to set up
research and development programs on air pollution - the Research Triangle Committee was
setting down roots. The subcommittee on plans and programs recommended that an executive
secretary be hired as a communication and advertising coordinator.
"Ibid: 8.
38Ibid: 9.
39Sellars: 9.
16
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By fall 1956, the committee had hired George L. Simpson of UNC, who began work in
October. A protege of Kenan Professor of Sociology Howard Odum, Simpson brought many of
Odum's ideas about regional resource development into the planning of the Triangle project.40
Simpson began with two donated desks, chairs, and an office within a state building on Edenton
Street in Raleigh.41 His duty was to raise money to support the Triangle project.
Joining Simpson was Elizabeth Aycock, who began as office manager and secretary, later
serving as assistant treasurer, bookkeeper, and corporate secretary for what became the Research
Triangle Foundation. Aycock remembers her first days on Edenton Street:
"The telephone was in the middle of the floor. We didn't own a pencil or a piece of
paper. Mr. Hanes went to some of his furniture-manufacturing friends and they gave us two
desks and eight chairs. The telephone came off the state exchange in the Capitol."
On September 25, 1956, Hodges announced the incorporation of the Research Triangle
Committee and a five-year campaign to raise $150,000 to finance its operation.42 By the summer
of 1957, Simpson had six faculty members - from all three institutions - helping to support the
work of the Research Triangle Committee.43
Acquiring the Land
Also during 1956-57, Simpson encouraged Hanes and Hodges to meet with local leaders
to find a way to assemble a parcel of land. Getting this land was Guest's priority. He wrote to
Hodges in January 1957, saying that 3,000 acres in the center of the triangle was needed.44
Hodges wrote to George Watts Hill, son of John Sprunt Hill and president of Central Carolina
Bank in Durham, asking to talk to Hill about securing 2,000-3,000 acres to be made into a
"Research City.'" He wanted to know whether the Hill family could "spark a thing like this."45
40Ibid: 10.
41Ibid.
42Sellars: 10.
43Ibid: 12.
44Ibid.
45Ibid: 13.
17
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Meanwhile, T.Y. Milburn, executive director of Durham's Committee of 100, had written
to Robert Hanes in September 1956, saying that his committee wanted to "construct a group of
buildings at the intersection of highways 751 and 54.'' The venture could be financed in Durham
if his group received support from the Research Triangle Committee. Inc.46 After meeting with
Hodges in 1957, retired textile manufacturer Karl Robbins pledged his support for the Research
Triangle project, and authorized Guest to secure up to 5,000 acres and to prepare a budget on a
water line from Durham.47 Guest and Robbins formed the Pinelands Company to buy land for a
research center. By September 1957, Pinelands had quietly acquired land and options on 4,000
acres, and Hodges held a news conference to announce the plans for development of the research
park.48
Research Triangle Foundation
In late 1958, Archie Davis of Wachovia, who followed Robert Hanes as chairman of the
Research Triangle Committee, had raised enough money to buy out the stock in Pinelands. On
Jan. 9,1959, Davis and other committee members announced an accumulated contribution of
$1.4 million, according to Elizabeth Aycock. The Research Triangle Committee changed its
name to the Research Triangle Foundation of North Carolina, in recognition of the land
acquisition and capital contribution. The money would be used to build the Hanes Building,
where the Foundation operates today. It was also used as seed money for the Research Triangle
Institute, a separate, nonprofit corporation organized to conduct research on contract for industry
and government, including EPA.49 In addition, the funds provided a water line from the City of
Durham and supported operations for developing the park. Since that day, Research Triangle
Park has been owned and managed by the Foundation.
After 1959, RTF promoters began the long process of recruiting industry to the Park,
including an Environmental Protection Agency that hadn't even formed yet.
Political Maneuvers
The first few years out of the gate were slow for RTF. In May 1959, Chemstrand
Research Center announced its plans to move from Alabama to RTP, an event that "was a real
plum for this area," says Aycock. Beginning with IBM's purchase of a major site in the Park in
1965, business began to boom.
46Sellars: 13.
47Ibid: 17.
48Ibid.
49Research Triangle Foundation, July 1959.
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Before the settlement of EPA, Luther Hodges continued his maneuvers to build the Park.
This time, he was John F. Kennedy's secretary of Commerce. Terry Sanford, who was later to
become U.S. senator, served as North Carolina governor from 1961-65, and worked with Hodges
in getting a federal presence in RTP - specifically from the Department of Health, Education, and
Welfare (HEW).
In the mid-1960s, however, all federal aspects of environmental health - including what
became EPA and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences - were still together
under the Public Health Service (PHS). An environmental research center, as proposed by RTP
supporters, would require the presence of medical and university infrastructure, Sanford said.
North Carolina faced fierce competition from Boston and Baltimore in hosting such a center.
Sanford visited the White House in 1960 to secure a greater commitment from Kennedy and to
remind him of what RTP had to offer.
Sanford was an early supporter of Kennedy, which was particularly unique in the South,
where Kennedy's Catholicism became a campaign issue. At the 1960 Democratic National
Convention in Los Angeles, Sanford, who was just elected North Carolina's governor and was
"one of the most promising politicians in the South,'* stood up for Kennedy, with an assist from
longtime political rival U.S. Senator Sam Ervin of North Carolina.50
"It finally came down to a presidential decision," Sanford said. "John Kennedy owed us
something, since I seconded his nomination and almost got beat for supporting him. I explained
to him that we didn't need [a research facility] in the Beltway and we didn't need it in Maryland.
And I laid out to him the necessity for having engineering schools and medical schools and
universities, generally. I made the case that you've got to have this kind of environment for this
kind of environmental agency.
"I said, in concluding, that there are only two places in the country that this ought to be:
one in the Boston area, and the other in the Research Triangle of North Carolina. He (Kennedy)
said, 'Now, tell me why North Carolina is better than Boston.'" Sanford simply told Kennedy:
"We need it more. But I was stating the truth. I was talking about an accumulation of
educational institutions that could have easily transferred to the Triangle."
The battle was not over. With Kennedy's assassination in 1963, the future was uncertain.
Although Sanford says that he was never really worried that Lyndon Johnson would fail to
uphold the Kennedy commitment to locate a federal environmental presence in the Park, he
visited President Johnson with U.S. Senators Everett Jordan and Sam Ervin to seal the deal..
50Clancy, Paul R. Just a Country Lawyer: A Biography of Senator Sam Ervin. Indiana
University Press, Bloomington; 1974: 179-80.
19
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"I thought we'd be all right, because Johnson was coming in," Sanford said later. "I think
that you could make a deal with Johnson quicker than you could with Kennedy. But I think the
fact that Kennedy had promised this to us was impressive to Johnson. I took Everett Jordan and
Sam Ervin to see Johnson ... to let him know that we had this on the burner and that it was ours -
and don't let anybody monkey with it."
Sanford had someone else "monkey" with it. When former HEW official Oscar Ewing
came to visit Sanford at the Governor's Mansion, Sanford asked that Ewing "get it fixed so that
it [the environmental research center] had to go somewhere other than Washington. He used his
friends at the department (HEW) to get an amendment that this couldn't be within 50 miles of
Washington."
During a tour of North Carolina's public schools in January 1965, Sanford told the media
that the location of the new environmental research facility "would be announced." That spark
lit up the wire services, and the decision came down from Washington soon afterward that HEW
would establish a federal facility in the Park.
NIEHS
The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), which at the time of
Sanford's term was under the wing of the Public Health Service along with EPA, was actually
the first to arrive in RTF as a result of these political maneuvers. Together with IBM, NIEHS
served as an anchor, helping to put RTF on the map as an ideal location for research facilities.51
In 1965, the U.S. Surgeon General agreed to establish within the Department of Health,
Education and Welfare a Division of Environmental Health Sciences. RTP officials had to
scramble to find space for what was then called the National Environmental Health Sciences
Center, but by 1966, HEW had leased space in RTP. The Division became NIEHS in 1969.
NIEHS leased space around the Park until its permanent facility opened on the RTP south
campus in 1981.
The National Center for Health Statistics also moved its data processing center with a
staff of 81 to the Park in June 1966, establishing another federal presence in the Park.
'Luger, et al: 78.
20
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In 1968, the Research Triangle Foundation sold 509 acres to the federal government for
one dollar - with a plan for NAPCA (later EPA) and NIEHS to share the new federal site at the
south end of RTF.52 This virtual donation of land was made possible by a $750,000
unconditional grant to the Foundation made by the North Carolina General Assembly. It was
never stated, however, that this grant was specifically to compensate for the donated land. HEW
officially accepted this property on July 12, "to be used for the purpose of constructing a
National Environmental Health Sciences Center relating to the environmental health functions of
the Public Health Service."53
This Land Is Your Land
In 1962, banker George Watts Hill purchased a 49-acre tract adjacent to the Park, stating
his intention to protect it as a future laboratory site for the Research Triangle Foundation. In
1968, he transferred the title to the property to the Foundation, with a stipulation that proceeds
from the sale were to be shared by RTI and the Durham Academy, which he and his wife had
founded in 1933.54
Piracci Corporation, a Baltimore construction firm, bought the property in 1969, building
facilities to lease to NAPCA (EPA). RTI received $200,000 from the transaction, Durham
Academy earned $77,000, and Research Triangle Park got the EPA.55 The EPA moved into the
facility - dubbed the National Environmental Research Center - in December 1971, after signing
a 20-year lease with Piracci for $1.25 million per year.56
REGION ^JBRA.RY^^_~
U S ENViRGN^NTAl PROTECTION
AGENCY
1445 ROSS AVENUt
DALLAS, TEXAS /5202
52Munger, Michael, and William Stockard. ''The Impact of the Environmental Protection
Agency in the Triangle." Jan. 5, 1995: 5.
"Statement of Acceptance, Durham County Register of Deeds.
54Larrabee, Charles X. Many Missions: Research Triangle Institute's First 30 Years,
1959-1990. Research Triangle Institute, RTF; 1991: 77.
55Larrabee, Charles. Many Missions: 77.
56Munger and Stockard: 2.
21
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Conclusion
The effort to bring the EPA to RTF began with the idea of recruiting federal
environmental research facilities from the Washington area. Just as the EPA was experiencing
its own birth and formation as an independent agency, the Park was recruiting industry and
government into its pine forests. Largely because of EPA's unique location within a research
park - within proximity to at least three nationally-known universities - research and
development at RTP continued to forge ahead.
22
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Chapter Three
Growth of an Agency
By the early 1970s, EPA had established a foothold in Research Triangle Park,
pioneering air quality research, developing air quality standards, and transferring agency
information to the rest of the world. For more than a quarter century, research and policy-
making occurred in the midst of organizational changes, personnel relocations, and political
juggling.
Coordination
EPA-RTP involves a great deal of internal cooperation. Regulation would not be
possible without research. Neither would be possible without a technical support network. John
O'Neil, Director of the Office of the Senior Official for Research and Development, says that
regulations cannot exist in a vacuum. "EPA is a regulatory agency not a research organization.
Many people believe that it should not be in the business of doing research. In an ideal world,
there might be some validity to that. The problem is, EPA has some very specific regulatory
needs. As it has evolved, EPA's research arm has been able to address those specific regulatory
needs."
Linking Research and Regulation
The Office of Research and Development (ORD-RTP) operates on a "risk assessment
paradigm," says Lawrence Reiter, director of the National Health and Environmental Effects
Research Laboratory (NHEERL) at RTP. It is a standard for the coordinated efforts between
EPA research labs and the Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards (OAQPS).
The first step is hazard identification, which involves whether or not a chemical has an
adverse effect. This is the job of NHEERL researchers, who also assess at what level a chemical
is toxic. Next is dose assessment, in which NHEERL researchers study the impact of that
chemical.
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The third step moves the analysis to the National Exposure Research Lab (NERL). This
is the exposure assessment phase. "If we know what the dose response relationships are and we
know what people are being exposed to, we can combine those two bits of information and
characterize risk,'' says Reiter. NERL is able to assess a person's likelihood of exposure by
developing test methods for measuring pollution, figuring out what happens to pollutants when
they get into the air, and developing computer models for people who will build factories. This
step also involves the research of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA).
Fourth is the control technology phase, for which the Air Pollution Prevention and
Control Division (APPCD) is responsible. This is the engineering lab, which builds and
develops control technologies and works hand-in-hand with industry to develop more
economical control measures.
Next is the model application and impact assessment phase. This is the responsibility of
RTF's division of the National Center for Environmental Assessment (NCEA-RTP). It is this
division's job to combine data and use agency models to predict what risk is going to be.
It is primarily in this phase that risk assessment leaves the science arena and moves into
the policy arena. Here is the inherent link between ORD and OAQPS. As described by OAQPS
Associate Director for Science and Policy John Bachmann, OAQPS is an arm of the national
regulatory office for air. OAQPS translates science into air pollution regulations.
In so doing, OAQPS directs the nation's efforts to meet air quality goals under the Clean
Air Act. The office sets national standards for air pollution control, provides guidance and
partnerships to states, local governments, and regulated industries, and manages a national
program for providing grants to states for air pollution programs. Bachmann says that OAQPS is
in a unique position because it is a headquarters office outside of Washington, D.C. But it is just
another example of how research and regulation dictate each other's agenda. "The physical
distance gives us a lot more time to reflect than if we were in Washington. But the science
grounds you."
Organizational Changes
When EPA received its name, it was just the beginning of a 25-year alphabet soup. To
keep track of the various RTP bureau name changes, early employees needed scorecards.
Almost no stone was left unturned, as ORD, OAQPS, and OARM grew accustomed to internal
restructuring, particularly in the early years. (See Appendix A for a chronology? of name changes
and key dates).
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Opening Doors
By August 1971, RTF had become the site of the third National Environmental Research
Center (NERC), with Delbert Earth as its director. The Environmental Research Center built by
the Piracci Corporation, nicknamed "the Fortress," housed the NERC-RTP functions, while the
Stationary Source Pollution Control Program - the OAQPS predecessor - remained in the North
Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Building in Durham. The Fortress was officially dedicated on
December 10, 1971, at a ribbon-cutting by Julie Nixon Eisenhower, President Nixon's daughter.
Ironically, the NERC/RTP dedication had been scheduled for November 1971. But
Washington officials were fogged in at the airport and had to postpone the ceremony until
December. EPA employees scrambled to prepare the grounds for her visit, including RTF
Building Manager E.B. Roberts, who had to set up a 4-foot by 8-foot plywood speaker's
platform in the outdoor courtyard. When he tried to move the heavy plywood with a lawn
tractor, he left muddy ruts in the grass. To make matters worse, he hit the building. "I started to
turn the corner of Q-Wing and the back end of the trailer hit the corner of the building and bricks
flew," he recalls nearly 25 years later.
Julie Nixon Eisenhower never saw the courtyard. Due to heavy rains before her arrival,
she ended up speaking in the indoor auditorium.
Joining Eisenhower were EPA Administrator William Ruckelshaus, Deputy
Administrator Robert Fri, and Assistant Administrator for Research Stanley Greenfield. Also on
hand was Fourth District Congressman Nick Galifianakis, who made a "further announcement
about his candidacy for a seat in the U.S. Senate."57 Galifianakis went on to beat Sen. Everett
Jordan in the Democratic primary, but lost to Sen. Jesse Helms in 1972 - the first year Helms was
in office.
Changes in ORD
The present-day ORD functions were part of the NERC/RTP in the early 1970s, with
three major laboratories assigned to the center, including the Perrine Primate Laboratory in
Florida. But many employees didn't welcome primates to the health labs. Biological Lab
Technician Paulette DeWitt remembers that the monkeys didn't always like to be there, and often
made life difficult and messy for lab personnel. "We had to pass their cages. They'd just sit
there, wait, and aim at you." Because of the advantages of using rodents for toxicological
research, EPA's animal investigations would eventually be limited to rodents making lab work
a little less colorful, but a bit more tame.
57Knox, Margaret. "NERC Dedication a Big Deal." The North Carolina Leader. Year 6,
No. 15, 1971: 1.
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Effects Research
By 1975, the EPA abolished the NERC concept and trimmed the number of RTF labs
from seven to four. One of these labs, the Health Effects Research Lab (HERL), seeks to
pinpoint the environmental stresses on human health, particularly in the Human Studies
Laboratory.
An important part of the health effects research performed on the University of North
Carolina campus has been in the human studies area, beginning in converted trailers during the
1970s and culminating in the Human Studies Facility that opened on the UNC campus in
February 1995. After gaining the HERL name and before settling into the Fortress, HERL
Director Vaun Newill met with Dr. Floyd Denney at the UNC Department of Pediatrics; together
they hired Dr. John Knelson to lead the Human Studies Branch. This laid the foundation for
more than 20 years of world-class, cooperative research between UNC and EPA into the effects
of clinical human exposure to environmental pollutants. This program is now housed in the $29-
million, 66,000-square-foot Human Studies Facility at UNC.
By 1992, all of the EPA's health research had consolidated to the RTF area. In May
1995, the health effects lab became the National Health and Environmental Effects Research Lab
(NHEERL), one of two national EPA laboratories located at RTF. The lab has developed
expertise in a variety of areas through the 1980s and early 1990s, including neurotoxicology (the
effects of chemicals on the nervous system) and clinical programs (the effects of pollutants on
human health). Health lab scientists also have studied the effects of toxic chemicals on the
development of reproductive and sex-related characteristics.
Exposure Research
From its earliest years, EPA-RTP has also contained major elements of exposure
research. The Environmental Sciences Research Lab consisted of two labs that focused on
different exposure missions. The research of the Chemistry and Physics Lab enabled EPA
scientists to measure atmospheric pollutants, while the Meteorology Lab provided a description
of the "interrelationships of atmospheric processes."
By 1988, the environmental monitoring and atmospheric sciences labs had merged,
uniting their functions under the exposure lab. With the May 1995 restructuring, the National
Exposure Research Lab (NERL), is EPA headquarters for exposure research. Gary Foley,
director of the newly-formed NERL, says that his lab takes "pollutants from their release into the
atmosphere and follow(s) them until they reach a receptor." NERL's focus is to understand what
exposures are occurring, through measurements that are later put into mathematical models -
partially through the continued interagency agreement with NOAA.
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Pollution Control Technology
While the effects lab and exposure labs carried on their pieces of the ORD puzzle during
EPA's evolution, the control technology lab has helped to complete the research phase, by
engineering the mechanisms to control pollution. This lab has worked cooperatively with
industry since the 1970s to develop economical pollution control measures, such as a pulverized
coal burner that reduces nitrogen dioxide emissions from industry and utilities. The lab, now
known as the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Division (APPCD), is part of the National
Risk Management Research Lab, headquartered in Cincinnati
Staffed primarily by engineers, the control technology lab is an integral part of the air
quality process. In June 1985, the lab teamed up with OAQPS to develop the Control
Technology Center (CTC). Originally designed to provide technical assistance on toxic and
volatile organic compounds to state and local governments, the program expanded in 1991 to
offer assistance to private clients through a hotline, on-site engineering support, and technical
guidance.
From Science to Environmental Protection
By the mid-1970s, the Assistant Administrator for Research and Development decided
that the health effects lab was not the appropriate office to prepare air quality criteria documents.
Until then, HERL's Special Studies Office produced the documents. In 1977, the administrator
detailed Gordon Hueter and Michael Berry to establish a separate group within ORD to turn out
criteria documents. Two agency groups became the Environmental Criteria and Assessment
Office (ECAO), with the RTP branch focusing on air pollutants and air toxics.
With the May 1995 ORD reorganization, ECAO-RTP changed its name, becoming the
National Center for Environmental Assessment at RTP (NCEA-RTP). Norman Childs, retired
group leader for the Environmental Media Assessment Group of NCEA-RTP, says that the
NCEA essentially pulls together information from three labs and summarizes what's been done.
"Our job is to put it in a form that OAQPS uses to propose a standard."
Before a criteria document can reach OAQPS, however, it must make it through the
scrutiny of authors, internal EPA reviewers, and external reviewers before it can reach final draft
stage used by OAQPS. While the NCEA is not the only link to OAQPS, it remains an integral
connection between research and regulation. Chapter Four provides more detail on cooperative
accomplishments at RTP.
OAQPS
In the early 1970s, the air pollution control programs in RTP were led by Bernard
Steigerwald, who would become known to many as "Mr. Air Pollution" for the indelible mark he
made on EPA's early regulatory efforts. While the Office of Research and Development
experienced changes during its 25-year evolution, the Office of Air Quality Planning and
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Standards at RTF was undergoing its own. In April 1974, after several name changes, OAQPS
officially received its name, with office personnel located in the Mutual Building since 1967.
The duty of OAQPS is to direct national efforts to meet air quality goals, particularly for
smog, air toxics, carbon monoxide, lead, particulate matter (soot and dust), sulfur dioxide, and
nitrogen dioxide. The office is responsible for more than half of the guidance documents,
regulations, and regulatory activities required by the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. Since
1970, OAQPS has been required to set air quality standards for common air pollutants that are
believed to endanger public health and the environment.
Writing Regulations
The major thrust of OAQPS in the early 1970s was to establish maximum pollution
concentration levels for known pollutants and to develop a grant program for states to develop
their own air pollution control programs. The grant program was a framework that included the
State Assignee program, as well as national contracts that could be used by the national regions
for various pollution control projects.
The first State Implementation Plans (SIPs), required by the 1970 Clean Air Act, began
coming in for review in late 1972; OAQPS staff members worked late into the night and
weekends to review, rewrite, and negotiate plans that could be approved. The SIPs are the
cornerstone of the state air pollution control programs.
Clean Air Act Amendments of 1977
By 1975, it was evident that many states had not come into attainment with the National
Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). The Clean Air Act, as it was amended in 1977,
required nonattainment areas to comply with the Act by 1982, with provisions for extensions to
1987. As a result of the 1977 Amendments, OAQPS was required to develop New Source
Performance Standards on an accelerated four-year schedule. This began a major contract
support effort, where multiple contractors were hired to develop the background information to
support these standards. Contractors were required to have local offices because of the need for
close technical direction.
Naturally, this had an impact on the EPA-RTP contract office. During 1977-78, a special
instruction for contract bidders stated that, "successful bidders must agree in writing to open and
staff... an office within 40 miles radius of EPA's Durham, North Carolina, facility,." Contracts
Specialist Sue Miller says that modern contract instructions stipulate a quick response time
instead of proximity to RTP. Even though location requirements no longer exist, this early rule
served as a magnet for growth in the RTP area.
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The 1977 Amendments also established the "Prevention of Significant Deterioration," a
program designed to help areas maintain their clean air. Major efforts were required to develop
national policies and guidelines for managing economic growth while preventing deterioration of
air quality.
Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990
The sweltering summer of 1988 - a time of disastrous air pollution levels - was also the
cornerstone of more key air quality legislation. Often cited as the most significant environmental
achievement of the Bush administration, the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 increased
emphasis on technology as a basis for regulation. The Amendments provided more stringent
emission limitations and encouraged the use of reformulated gasoline and alternative fuels.58
The 1990 Amendments reflect a new approach to regulating air toxics. The EPA must
identify categories of major sources that emit any of 189 pollutants listed under the Act.
According to the OAQPS Air Toxics Program, a major source is one that emits more than 10
tons per year of a single air toxic or 25 tons per year of any combination of air toxics.
In recent years, OAQPS has taken advantage of available technology to make air
pollution control information more widely available by establishing bulletin boards and
providing user-friendly access to its Aerometric Information Retrieval System (AIRS). The
bulletin boards are accessed by states, industry, consultants, and private individuals more than
100 times daily. The AIRS data base is the only one of its kind and receives thousands of
requests annually for information from all over the world. Chapter Four details more OAQPS
efforts to educate the public about pollution control, efforts that have involved interaction with
ORD and OARM.
Administration
Centralized administrative operations for RTP grew out of a need to knit together a
patchwork of EPA's early institutional components. In 1972, the RTP Office of Administration
(OARM) began under the direction of Burton Levy, and provided local personnel, contracts,
finance, data processing, facilities management and support services. Many of these functions
would expand into major, national service centers in the coming decades.
A major changing of the guard occurred in the mid-1980s. In March 1983, Willis
Greenstreet was playing cards with friends when he heard a radio announcement that EPA
Administrator Anne Gorsuch had stepped down and that William Ruckelshaus was returning.
Greenstreet, a former director of EPA" s information systems organization who had moved on to
58O'Connor, John. "Analysis of Historical Changes to the Clean Air Act.'" Dec. 30,
1991.
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a a senior executive position on the Alaska natural gas pipeline project, recalls, "I threw down
my cards and said, 'Folks, let's go home. I'm going back to EPA."" He took over as OARM-
RTP director in 1984.
Contracts and Finance
Both contracts and financial management in RTF have grown to national service
functions, with RTF running a third of EPA's contracts and paying all of the Agency's contract
bills. The structure of many contracts, requiring quick responses to EPA programs in the
Triangle, has driven significant economic development in the local area, where a large number of
environmental and research-oriented businesses have located since 1970.
Data Processing
The EPA-RTP evolution into a national computing center began with the local purchase
of an early generation GE 225 computer that, in the words of Senior Planner Don Worley, "had
less power than today's hand calculator." In 1973, OARM awarded a $4.8-million contract with
Sperry-UNIVAC to manufacture, install, maintain, and provide software for five years. But
UNIVAC had its share of problems, says Acting Division Director Jerry Slaymaker. Although it
was one of the first computer companies to provide commercially available mainframe
computers, and had early success with the Department of Defense, EPA's equipment had major
reliability problems, resulting in as many as 10 computer crashes per day. Willis Greenstreet,
then director of the Management and Information Data Systems Division (MIDSD) in
Washington, demanded that UNIVAC get the machines fixed or get them out of RTF.
By 1976, some of the agency's national computer systems ran on the National Computer
Center (NCC), located in RTF. By 1981, RTF had become the central computing arm of the
agency, with portions of the MIDSD and a handful of IBM operating systems consolidating into
the NCC. By 1985, the newly-formed National Data Processing Division (NDPD) approved or
operated all general purpose and scientific computers, telecommunications facilities, and local
area networks at headquarters and RTF. Over the last decade, the NCC's nationwide data
communications network has grown, expanding throughout the country and overseas. In
addition, the NCC handles more than 100,000 incoming Internet connections each month.
In the last decade, data communications and the advent of the personal computer have
driven major changes in EPA's information management environment. EPA has used E-mail
since 1983, and as of July 1995, there were approximately 20,200 mailboxes in the Integrated E-
mail System. Carolyn Chamblee, a senior EPA computer specialist, says that the Agency bought
several personal computers for a trial run in 1984, with only a few machines available within
each division. "We had everybody write proposals for how and why they needed a PC," says
Chamblee. By 1990, there was a PC on nearly every desk.
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People
The administrative divisions in the early 1970s served a small, but growing population of
EPA employees and contractors. For many EPA-RTP employees, the late 1960s and early
1970s had been an idyllic time. Dianne Laws, director of the Area Office of Civil Rights,
remembers the anticipation surrounding the agency when federal employers were brought under
Title Seven of the Civil Rights Act in 1972. "It's been exciting to see how the EPA has evolved
over the years. There have been real strides to have an all-inclusive work force that mirrors
society."
By 1995, that workforce at RTF had grown to 1,400 EPA staff, making the Triangle one
of EPA's largest national centers. A striking note in the evolution of EPA programs has been the
pendulum swing on contracting for services versus staffing with government employees. The
"contracting-out" initiatives of the early 1980s were counterbalanced in the early 1990s, when
nearly 200 "inherently governmental" contract functions at RTF were converted back to EPA
staff positions. Still, today there are as many contractors as government staff serving EPA in the
Research Triangle.
Places
At its birth, the EPA inherited 183 buildings at 84 sites in 26 states.59 Sixteen years later,
EPA Administrator Lee Thomas wrote to Office of Management and Budget Deputy Director
Joseph Wright, requesting a consolidated facility for EPA-RTP: "We believe that the Research
Triangle Park, North Carolina facility should be enhanced through a building program that
ultimately could locate most of EPA's environmental effects research ... in a single, research-
suitable, government-owned facility,'' he wrote. That dream still remains elusive.
A master plan developed by the Public Health Service, completed March 15, 1971,
assumed that EPA and NIEHS would share the 509 acres on the south side of the Park. The
NIEHS has occupied its building since the early 1980s, but the EPA has not yet received funding
for its permanent facility.
'"Williams, Dennis. "EPA Regional Facilities: A Historical Perspective on Siting."
March 1993.
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EPA officials tried in the mid-1970s to consolidate existing resources to a solar-paneled
research facility in RTF. The building never left the design phase. It was, "environmentally
correct'' for the day, however. Designed to house mostly labs, 40 percent of the prototype
building was underground. Architects planned for solar collectors and underground insulation to
reduce heating and cooling costs. But the building was not designed to pass the OMB review
process, says Paul Kenline, former head of the Special Studies Office. He suggests that part of
the reason that the facility didn't sell was that the EPA was about to eliminate the NERC concept
and restructure RTF.
During the 1980s and 1990s, EPA-RTP spread itself over the Park, Chapel Hill, and
Durham, shifting employees to various leased facilities. One success story has been the state-of-
the-art Chapel Hill Human Studies Facility, opened in 1995 on the University of North Carolina
campus at Chapel Hill.
But building a permanent facility in RTF has proven to be a daunting task for the past 25
years. Beginning in the mid-1980s, based on a series of cost-benefit studies demonstrating the
economic justification for the project, U.S. Congressmen Tim Valentine and David Price sought
funding and authorization for the project. These men were able to secure $22.3 million in design
funds for the facility. Before Price left office in November 1994, he worked to ensure that
President Clinton would include the first phase of construction funding in the fiscal 1996 budget
an effort continued by his successor, Congressman Fred Heineman. But the severe cut to
EPA's 1996 funding proposed by the 104th Congress has now placed that funding in doubt.
(Editor's note: after this history was written. Congressman Fred Heineman, Senator Lauch
Faircloth and others worked to restore Congressional funding for the RTF facility. An initial
round of construction funding was ultimately provided in the 1996 budget).
Playing Politics
Politics shape the EPA's annual budget and regulatory power, sometimes constraining
research and personnel dollars. Political activity was critical in landing the EPA in RTP, even as
political support has been necessary in the battle to build a consolidated facility. Politics has
injected new work into RTP with the passage of amendments to the Clean Air Act and a number
of other statutes, and it has influenced EPA's top leadership. Each Administrator has made his or
her own mark on the Agency, as the baton has passed from Bill Ruckelshaus to Russell Train and
on to others through the years.
The Gorsuch era brought particularly dramatic changes. When EPA Administrator Anne
McGill Gorsuch was sworn in on May 20, 1981 by then Vice President George Bush, she was
the first woman to head the agency. Linda Ritch, a telecommunications manager for EPA-RTP,
says that many female employees were glad to see a woman as the administrator. "The women
were all excited to start with, to have a woman in charge." But by October, Gorsuch had
announced plans to abolish 100 jobs within EPA, including 25 jobs at RTP. Less than one
month later, Gorsuch announced plans to revamp the Office of Research and Development,
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whose scientists, she said, are "capable and dedicated" but "burdened by an astoundingly
complex and cumbersome management system and a budget process that seem(s) more to
frustrate than support their efforts." Some RTF research budgets were cut considerably at that
time, while others were largely spared. Frank Princiotta, director of EPA's pollution prevention
and control research programs, recalls a big cut. "Our losses were directly felt. Our budget went
from about $50 million to about $12 million." However, the basic research and regulatory
programs at RTP were held intact, and continued to grow under subsequent administrations.
On Dec. 16, 1982, the House of Representatives cited Gorsuch for contempt of Congress
for refusing - on President Reagan's orders - to turn over documents sought by a congressional
subcommittee regarding Superfund management. Gorsuch was the highest executive branch
official ever cited for contempt and she resigned on March 3, 1983. President Ronald Reagan,
having recognized the low morale within the agency, asked former Administrator William
Ruckelshaus to take over once again. Ruckelshaus was followed by Lee Thomas, William
Reilly, and Carol Browner, who have continued to rely on RTP as a vital, national center for
research, policy and technical infrastructure.
Conclusion
Since the late 1960s, EPA-RTP employees have witnessed more than their share of
organizational changes, and most staff have packed up and moved from building to building
more than once during their careers. Nearly everyone has been affected by shifts in legislation,
funding, and programs. Still, these changes have served as mere background to EPA-RTP's
enormous contributions to environmental protection.
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Chapter Four
Making a Difference
The following summary is just a sample of the EPA 's accomplishments at Research
Triangle Park.
The EPA's concentration of scientific, engineering, policy making and computing talent
in Research Triangle Park has helped make it a hub for tackling the toughest environmental
issues. In the early 1970s, the agency's mission at RTP was to control large, single-point
pollution sources such as smoke stacks or automobiles. In the 1990s, through the continued
cooperation between research, regulation, and support services, EPA-RTP has addressed
pollution on regional and global levels.
What We Have Accomplished
The impact of EPA-RTP is not always apparent to the naked eye. But our lungs can tell a
difference. Since 1970, OAQPS has been required, under the Clean Air Act, to set air quality
standards for pollutants common in the United States. Regulators are able to establish these
standards by using data gathered by ORD researchers, scientists, and engineers. Administrative
services link these offices together by providing computing services, human resources, financing,
and facility support.
Here are some ways that EPA-RTP has made a difference and continues to work
aggressively:
Lead
Before 1970, lead was rampant in the air because of its use in gasoline. Since 1984, lead
levels in urban areas were reduced by 89 percent.
In the early 1970s, health effects researchers conducted studies comparing children's IQ
ratings with the lead levels they were exposed to. Lead was found to cause developmental
damage in children. Years later, EPA-RTP's Environmental Criteria and Assessment Office
wrote the criteria documents for lead, which paved the way for OAQPS to write regulations to
remove the substance from gasoline.
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Even though lead has been virtually removed from automobiles, danger still exists from
indoor air exposure found in household paints, as well as in house dust, drinking water, soil, and
street dust. The RTF exposure lab's Childhood Lead Exposure Assessment & Reduction Study
has tested a strategy for reducing the average blood lead in inner-city infants and toddlers.
Coordinated activities such as the lead studies show that the research and regulatory offices work
in conjunction to clear the air of hazardous elements.
Sulfur Dioxide
Before 1970, sulfur dioxide belched out of coal-burning power plants and pumped
continuously into the atmosphere from its use in electrical heating systems. Sulfur dioxide
contributes to acid rain and causes breathing difficulty for asthmatic individuals. Through the
efforts of the RTF control technology lab, wet lime and limestone scrubber systems have reduced
sulfur dioxide emissions by about 8 million tons annually. Since 1984, levels of sulfur dioxide in
urban areas has decreased 26 percent.
OAQPS Associate Director for Science and Policy John Bachmann says that the sulfur
dioxide program is an example of market-based incentives for industry to regulate itself. "If we
do it right, we'll put ourselves out of business. In fact, every business out there will be motivated
by the invisible hand - to do the right thing. Now that we've seen that you can make those
technologies work and you can make things cheaper, there are clear economic incentives."
Common pollutants also have an impact on visibility. In keeping with the EPA's
regional and global approach, OAQPS issued a regulation in 1991 that reduced sulfur dioxide
emissions from a power plant near the Grand Canyon. The action represents an important step in
improving the public's enjoyment of that national park.
Particulate Matter
Before the 1980s, little was known about paniculate matter, or "PM," the dust and soot
particles suspended in the atmosphere that are often smaller than a human hair. In the past 10
years, EPA revised the standards for PM. Of the 70 areas designated in 1990 as violating the
particulate air quality standard, 37 areas now have clean air.
The original PM standards were actually based on primitive monitoring technology
through collaborative efforts of the exposure and control technology labs. "It was literally a
Eureka vacuum cleaner with a filter stuck on it. It was the original sampler for PM," Bachmann
says. Researchers measured what was on the filter - an effort that involved every facet of the
EPA-RTP complex, including atmospheric chemists, health effects researchers, and the
regulators who had to merge the findings together into something useful.
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Smog
Before 1970, there was no air quality standard for ozone or smog - the well-publicized
substance that damages lung tissue and contributes to respiratory illness. OAQPS passed those
standards in the early 1970s. Still, when the Clean Air Act Amendments passed in 1990, 98
areas were designated as "nonattainment'" because they did not meet the air quality criteria for
smog. As of July 1995, 20 of those areas have been formally redesignated as attaining the ozone
air quality standard.
Many of the efforts to characterize the lung irritation and losses in lung function resulting
from smog exposure occurred in RTF labs. It was another example of coordinated effort
between effects, exposure, and control technology labs to study and control ozone risk. And it
put RTF on the ozone study map. "The center of gravity for ozone work, other than California,
has to be here," says Bachmann. "People who know about ozone know about RTF."
Air Toxics
Prior to 1970, EPA had only regulated seven of the hundreds of toxic air pollutants
emitted from industrial processes. Since 1990, OAQPS has issued 11 regulations affecting 23
industrial categories. The agency now requires air toxic emissions to be reduced by more than a
half million tons per year and smog-causing volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to be reduced
by more than 1 million tons per year - the equivalent of taking 38 million cars off the road.
The 1990 efforts will require even more coordination between ORD and OAQPS. The
latest emphasis is on technology-based standards for industry. Just as sulfur dioxide controls
involved economic incentives for business, the agency's approach to air toxics is also industry-
friendly. EPA allows industry to develop its own cost-effective methods of reducing air toxics
emissions, while still ensuring compliance with the law. Researchers will continue to study
Toxic substances such as pesticides. The RTF exposure lab already has conducted a study of
household exposure to common pesticides.
Carbon Monoxide
In the early 1970s, the EPA issued an air quality standard for carbon monoxide, a
common pollutant that reduces oxygen delivery to the body's organs and tissues. Found
primarily in auto exhaust and industrial processes, carbon monoxide levels have fallen by 37
percent since 1984.
Without health effects, exposure, and control technology research, however, such
regulations could not have existed. Cleaner cars, vehicle inspections, and oxygenated fuels
would most likely not be here. These coordinated efforts at RTF have further contributed to the
significant reductions in carbon monoxide levels nationwide.
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Nitrogen Oxides
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, little was known about the formation of nitrogen oxide.
Still, the substance, formed during the coal combustion process, was a major national health
problem. Health and exposure research revealed that nitrogen oxide is a significant contributor
to smog levels, acid rain, forest damage, and visibility problems. Control technology during the
late 1980s and early 1990s was made possible by EPA-RTP's Combustion Research program,
which has worked closely with industry to develop nitrogen oxide burner technologies now
available from equipment vendors.
The Pollutant Standards Index
In the 1970's, many State and local air pollution control agencies in the USA developed
their own air pollution indices. There were so many, in fact, that in the mid-1970's the Federal
Government found it necessary to adopt a uniform "Pollutant Standards Index." OAQPS led the
joint interagency effort to develop the index joining forces among EPA, the Department of
Commerce and the President's Council on Environmental Quality. The purpose was to take
daily information for pollutants with short term air quality standards or significant harm levels
and turn data from multiple pollutants into a single air quality index.
Why is the index needed? To simplify the reporting of information, especially for the
general public to plan their daily activities. The index plays an extremely important
communications role - keeping the air pollution problem before the general public and helping
to show if the environmental problem is getting "better" or "worse." In addition, when examined
over time, the index can be used to judge pollution trends and overall effectiveness of
environmental policies/regulations across multiple pollutants.
The PSI is reported in all major metropolitan areas in the United States with populations
exceeding 200,000. It has also become a worldwide indicator of air pollution. The index was
used to advise American troops in the Persian Gulf War on how to deal with the Kuwait oil, and
was adopted for use by the governments of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. It has been adapted for use
by the governments of Mexico, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines and Taiwan. The index is
also used by the Chinese Institute of Environmental Health Monitoring in Beijing, China.
Indoor Air
Several recent studies by the EPA have identified indoor air as one of the worst national
health risks. For many pollutants, indoor levels are 2-5 times higher than they are for outdoors.
To make matters worse, it is estimated that people spend as much as 90 percent of their time
indoors. In yet another joint RTF project between health effects, exposure effects, and the
control technology lab, researchers have developed an Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) model that takes
source emissions data, air exchange rates, and air movement to predict air quality over time.
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EPA researchers have established that Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) trapped
inside a building are the cause of the Sick Building Syndrome. These VOCs cause an
inflammatory response in the upper airways. Through the IAQ model, researchers can identify
sources of indoor air pollution and develop test methods for producers of carpet, fabrics, paint,
and ceiling tiles.
The Kuwait Oil Fires
Serious attacks were made on the environment during the Persian Gulf War. In late
January 1991, Iraq ordered millions of barrels of crude oil released into the Persian Gulf from
tankers and oil terminals located off the coast of occupied Kuwait. Less than a month later, as
Iraq's armies were driven from Kuwait, they blew up more than 700 oil wells, storage tanks,
refineries and facilities. An estimated nine hundred million barrels were burned or spilled onto
the land during the 9 months the fires burned. Within two weeks after the war ended, EPA
dispatched a team from RTP to deal with the air pollution emergency. Air pollution models run
in the U.S. and Saudi Arabia predicted that episodes of very high levels of particulates, sulfur
dioxide and hydrogen sulfide would occur, seriously harming humans and potentially causing
death. Andy Bond and Willie McLeod (AREAL) and Tim Gerrity (HERL) all served on the
Persian Gulf Risk Evaluation Team, and Bill Hunt (OAQPS) served as deputy team leader.
Along with doctors and scientists from the U. S. Public Health Service, the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Coast Guard and the Defense Department their
mission was to identify pollutants and determine acute health effects expected from the fires,
determine threats to areas where American citizens were located, and assess the impact of the
war on the Kuwait and Saudi Arabian health infrastructure and its ability to respond to the crisis.
The team met its objectives, helped rebuild the air monitoring network in both countries and
were able to assess the risk to U.S. citizens and our allies. As Bill Hunt said in flying through the
fires, "It was as if you were flying through Hell!" In Fact, Administrator William K. Reilly said
it best, "If Hell had a National Park, it would be those burning oil fires!" Hunt and Gerrity
returned with Administrator Reilly on a Presidential mission to give technical assistance to
Kuwait and Saudi Arabia on the environmental problems caused by the fires.
Thinking Globally
The earth's stratosphere, or "upper ozone layer," is a thin shield that protects the surface
from damaging ultraviolet-B (UV-B) radiation. But the presence of chloroflurocarbon (CFC)
chemicals has damaged this ozone layer. The global efforts of EPA-RTP can be seen in the
efforts of health researchers, who have shown that exposure to higher levels of UV-B light will
suppress the immune system and lead to cataracts. EPA scientists, in working with the National
Weather Service, have also established the UV-B Radiation Index to provide daily prediction of
UV-B exposure potential.
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In addition, EPA-RTP engineers have developed solutions for curbing the destruction of
the ozone layer. Together with the automotive industry, EPA engineers have developed
equipment for capturing and recycling CFC Freon from auto air conditioners. Researchers have
begun to identify cost-effective alternatives to the CFC. Recently, the U.S. Navy selected one of
these chemicals to replace CFCs in all shipboard chillers.
Communication and Education
Linking all of these efforts together is technology transfer, as seen by EPA's efforts to
extend knowledge to states, municipalities, and industry. The OAQPS Technology Transfer
Network provides immediate access to a wide range of information on air pollution issues, such
as Clean Air Act regulations. The Control Technology Center, or CTC, is a collaborative
ORD/OAQPS effort to provide technical assistance to a wide range of external users.
RTF's National Computer Center (NCC) is the EPA's major computing facility and
houses about $40 million in mainframe computers and associated hardware. The EPA's National
Environmental Supercomputing Center (NESC) is also managed through the NCC. This center
provides investigators access to the most advanced computing resources available. The
Scientific Visualization Laboratory in RTF supports researchers across the country as they
convert complex data into understandable three-dimensional and multi-media images. Needless
to say, EPA is reaching out, and it is doing it largely through RTP.
Looking to the Future
The EPA at RTP can be proud of its accomplishments over the past quarter century.
Now, employees look ahead, and try to see past political and budgetary issues to make the air
even cleaner for the next 25 years. Instead of seeing itself as an embattled agency, EPA has
learned to roll with the punches, says Kirk Foster, compliance training coordinator with the
Education Outreach Group of OAQPS. "We have to govern with the lightest possible hand. It's
that balance."
Most EPA employees have a sense that they are contributing to the welfare of the
environment, says John O'Neil. "Investigators are driven by the need to have high-quality
science. When we see our research published in peer journals, when we see our data taken and
used to establish public policy, that's a very heady experience." This leadership role, not just in
science, but in technology, infrastructure, and policy development, is likely to continue well into
the future.
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It's also an accomplishment for Mary Wilkins when she looks out her window in the
Mutual Building and can see for miles on a clear day. "All you have to do is be my age and look
out the window on a day like today. And you can tell. You can see what we've accomplished
for the past 25 years."
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Appendix
Key Dates in the History of EPA-RTP
1955
First legislation passed to set up research and development programs on air pollution (under the
Public Health Service). Public Law 159, dated July 14,1955, gives the Surgeon General of the
Public Health Service (under the supervision and direction of the Secretary of Health, Education,
and Welfare) responsibility for control and mitigation of air pollution.
Community Air Pollution Control Program established within Public Health Service (PHS). The
first federal office is established in Cincinnati.
Through an interagency agreement, three Weather Bureau meteorologists are assigned to the
PHS to study air pollution dispersion problems.
1959
1960
1963
The Research Triangle Committee becomes the Research Triangle Foundation. The Foundation
acquires 4,200 acres as the Research Triangle Park and raises the first seed money for Research
Triangle Institute, a non-profit research institution.
John F. Kennedy is elected. He names N.C. native Luther Hodges as Secretary of
Commerce; N.C. Governor Terry Sanford receives commitment from Kennedy to locate
some Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) functions in North Carolina.
The first Clean Air Act is passed. With a goal "to improve, strengthen, and accelerate programs
for the prevention and abatement of air pollution," it stipulated that the administrator of HEW
(the predecessor of Health and Human Services, HHS) develop air pollution programs. These
are mainly directed at R&D control technologies to minimize pollution.
Kennedy is assassinated, delaying presidential action on the project.
1964
Sanford, along with North Carolina Senators Everett Jordan and Sam Ervin, visits Pres. Lyndon
Johnson regarding Kennedy's promise to locate an environmental health center in RTP.
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1965
1967
1968
1970
Sanford tells media in January that the "Environmental Health Center" location in North
Carolina would be announced soon. Soon afterward, the Johnson Administration
announces that the center will be located in RTF.
Clean Air Act Amendments passed. Provides federal authority to control emissions from new
automobiles.
The Air Quality Act - authorized planning grants to air pollution control agencies;
expanded research provisions related to fuels and vehicles; provided for interstate air pollution
control agencies or commissions; specified that states establish air quality standards.
After existing as the Field Studies Branch of the HEW, Field Studies becomes the National
Center for Air Pollution Control (NCAPC).
The first North Carolina employees are hired; NCAPC rents warehouse space within the
Burlington post office to store office supplies and furniture.
Twenty-six NCAPC personnel from Cincinnati transfer to RTP to pilot the air research activities
from the Mutual Building in Durham. The Abatement Program under this center was the
predecessor of OAQPS.
In the midst of several name changes, the National Center becomes the National Air
Pollution Control Administration (NAPCA). Under NAPCA is the Bureau of Abatement and
Control, a predecessor of OAQPS, and the Bureau of Criteria and Standards and Bureau of
Engineering and Physical Sciences, predecessors of ORD.
While still under DHEW, NAPCA is placed under the Consumer Protection and
Environmental Health Service in April.
Office of Administrative Management becomes the Office of Administration in December.
U.S. EPA - With the Reorganization Plan Number 3, Nixon forms EPA out of HEW, the
Department of Interior, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and Atomic Energy Commission.
RTF's operations become the Air Pollution Control Office (APCO).
Pesticides Registration moves from the Department of Agriculture. Water and Pesticides
Research moves from the Department of the Interior (and locates in Cincinnati).
Pesticides in Food moves from the Food and Drug Administration. The Radiation
Program moves from the Atomic Energy Commission. Air, Solid Waste, and Drinking
Water move from HEW.
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1971
The Clean Air Act is amended again on Dec. 31, 1970. Key among the points is for the EPA
administrator, "[T]o research ... the short- and long-term effects of air pollutants on public
health and welfare."
The act:
Authorized using scientific information for setting National Ambient Air Quality
Standards (NAAQS).
Authorized development of control technology programs to implement these standards.
The Weather Bureau, having earlier evolved into the Environmental Science Services
Administration (ESSA), becomes the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA) under Reorganization Plan Number 4.
In February, the Bureau of Abatement and Control (the OAQPS predecessor) is still under
APCO. But in April, it becomes the Bureau of Stationary Source Pollution Control. Four days
later, APCO becomes the Air Quality Office, and this bureau retains its name for a time.
In April, the Bureau of Criteria and Standards (the ORD predecessor), also part of APCO,
becomes the Bureau of Air Pollution Sciences. When APCO changes to the Air Quality Office
four days later, this bureau retains its name for a time.
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1972
In October, APCO merges with the Office of Water Programs and is renamed the Office of Air
and Water Programs. RTP functions are the Office of Air Programs under Bern Steigerwald.
Present OAQPS functions become the Stationary Source Pollution Control Programs, and would
become OAQPS within three years.
The National Environmental Research Center (NERC) opens at RTP in December. Julie Nixon
Eisenhower cuts the ribbon. Fourth District Congressman Nick Galifianakis is the only elected
N.C. official to appear at the ribbon-cutting. He stays long enough to make "further
announcement" about his candidacy for the U.S. Senate, saying that he would run in the
Democratic primary against Sen. Everett Jordan. He later loses to Jesse Helms in Helms' first
Senate term.
EPA sets up the Office of Administration at RTP, consolidating the Personnel Management
Division, Contracts Management Division, General Services Division (later known as Facilities
Management Services division), Financial Services Division, and Data Processing Division
under Burton Levy.
Three National Environmental Research Centers (NERCs) form. NERC-RTP: Air; NERC-
Cincinnati: Water and Municipal Waste; NERC-Corvallis, Oregon: Ecology. NERC-Las Vegas,
which focused on Monitoring, formed in 1974. NERC-RTP, headed by Del Earth, includes the
Bureau of Criteria and Standards and the Bureau of Engineering and Physical Sciences, which
together become part of the Office of Research and Monitoring (OR&M). OR&M is predecessor
ofORD.
The Quality Assurance and Environmental Monitoring Lab (QAEML) first organizes.
In August, the Perrine Primate Laboratory in Florida begins reporting to RTP, along with two
other major laboratories: the Twinbrook Radiation Laboratory from Rockville, Md., and the
Eastern Environmental Radiation Laboratory from Montgomery, Ala., formerly of HEW's
Bureau of Radiological Health; and the Wenatchee Field Research Station in Washington, once
under the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
In October, the administrative offices and central laboratories of the Clinical Research Branch
relocate to the Clinical Environmental Research Laboratories building on the UNC Medical
Center complex.
1973
In May, OR&M becomes the Office of Research and Development, ORD.
1974
Univac 1100 Computer System replaces IBM 360 at RTP.
In April, the Stationary Source Pollution Control Programs become OAQPS.
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1975
1978
1981
NERC concept is abolished. From the four NERCs, 16 research laboratories across the United
States report directly to ORD headquarters. At RTF, the NERC divides into four laboratories.
These labs were: the Health Effects Research Lab (HERL), Industrial Environmental Research
Lab (IERL), Environmental Sciences Research Lab (ESRL), and Environmental Monitoring and
Support Lab (EMSL). The ESRL includes consolidated Chemistry and Physics Laboratories and
a separate Meteorology Lab. EMSL includes the QAEML.
The National Computer Center reports to Management Information Data Systems Division in
Washington, D.C. The mainframe operation stays at RTF.
The first prototype for a new "energy-effective" Environmental Research Center, complete with
solar panels, reaches the design stage but does not receive Congressional approval.
Two Environmental Criteria and Assessment Offices are created within the Office of
Environmental Health and Assessment, one in Cincinnati and the other at RTF. ECAO-RTP
focuses on air pollutants and air toxics; ECAO-Cincinnati focuses on water and solid waste
pollutants.
Consolidation of mainframe computer services at RTF, including portions of the
Management Information Data Systems Division (MIDSD), into the National Computer Center
(NCC).
1984
ESRL renamed Atmospheric Sciences Research Lab (ASRL).
Consolidation of the Office of Administration, Office of Data Processing (later known as
National Data Processing Division or NDPD), and Office of Financial Management into the
Office of Administration and Resources Management (O ARM-RTF), with Willis Greenstreet as
director. The National Computer Center, part of NDPD, opens the Washington Information
Center (WIC).
IERL becomes the Air and Energy Engineering Research Lab (AEERL).
1985
Conversion to an IBM 3090 computer system
NCC assumes responsibility for maintaining the telephone services and local operations for
headquarters.
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1988
HERL-Cincinnati moves to HERL-RTP.
EMSL and ASRL merge to become Atmospheric Research and Exposure Assessment Lab
(AREAL).
1990
Clean Air Act amended once again. Amendment expands national standards by
"providing] for attainment and maintenance of health protective national ambient air quality
standards," including ozone and carbon monoxide.
The act:
Recognized the unique pollution problems of larger metropolitan areas.
Named nearly 200 hazardous air pollutants and a time frame for reducing them.
Created a program by which more polluted areas could comply with Clean Air
Act stipulations.
Recognized the acid rain problem.
1994
Finance and Contracts HQ once again removed from OARM-RTP to report directly to D.C.
1995
Mega-lab restructuring effective in May. HERL becomes the National Health and
Environmental Effects Research Laboratory (NHEERL). AREAL becomes the National
Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL).
AEERL becomes the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Division (APPCD), a division of the
National Risk Management Research Laboratory (NRMRL), headquartered in Cincinnati.
The ECAO becomes a division of the National Center for Environmental Assessment
(NCEA-RTP), headquartered in Washington, D.C.
The National Data Processing Division (NDPD) again reports to Washington HQ. The
Information Resources Management Division (IRMD) is created as an RTP division that reports
to Bill Laxton, OARM-RTP director.
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