£,FPA At OARMRTP996 Research Triangle Park Twenty Five Years of Environmental Protection Recycled/Recyclable. P'",,n <>- \w,-hir r, " ;" "-- -^sc" <'^-i o- Recycled r-'apc;' (20°, Pocic op.Lijmc: > ------- 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. ------- 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 ------- 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. ------- 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. ------- 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. ------- 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. ------- 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. ------- 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. ------- 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. ------- 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. ------- 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. ------- 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 ------- 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 ------- 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 ------- 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 ------- 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 ------- 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 ------- 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 ------- 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. 18 ------- 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 ------- "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 ------- 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 ------- 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 ------- 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. 23 ------- 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). 24 ------- 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. 25 ------- 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. 26 ------- 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 27 ------- 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. 28 ------- 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. 29 ------- 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. 30 ------- 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. 31 ------- 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, 32 ------- 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. ------- 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. 35 ------- 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. 36 ------- 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. 37 ------- 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. 38 ------- 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. 39 ------- 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. 40 ------- 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." 41 ------- 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. 43 ------- 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. 44 ------- 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. 45 ------- 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. 46 ------- 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. 47 ------- 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. 48 ------- References Bachmann, John. Policy Considerations in Developing Air Pollution Strategies: A U.S. Perspective. Morelos, Mexico: October 1991. Clancy, Paul R. Just a Country Lawyer: A Biography of Senator Sam Ervin. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1974. Contracts Management Division, U.S. EPA in Research Triangle Park, N.C. Special Instruction. RTP: May 1978. EPA Historical Collection. Executive Office of the President. Statement ofDwight A. Ink, assistant director, Office of Management and Budget: Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1970. Washington, D.C.: Wednesday, July 23, 1970. Feller, Irwin, Alfred J. Engel, and Robert S. Friedman, with Donald C. Menzel Jr., and John F. Sacco. Intergovernmental Relations in the Administration and Performance of Research on Air Pollution. University Park, Pa.: August 1972. Hodges, Luther H. ''Partners in Preparedness." Ordnance. Washington, D.C.: January-February, 1968. Knox, Margaret. "NERC Dedication a Big Deal." The North Carolina Leader. Research Triangle Park: Year 6, No. 13; Dec. 15, 1971. Larrabee, Charles X. Many Missions: Research Triangle Institute's First 30 Years, 1959-1990. Research Triangle Institute, RTP: 1991. Lelyveld, Joseph. "Mood is Joyful as City Gives Its Support." The New York Times. Thursday, April 23, 1970. Luger, Michael I., and Harvey A. Goldstein. Technology in the Garden: Research Parks and Regional Economic Development. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1991. Munger, Michael C., and William M. Stockard Jr. The Impact of the Environmental Protection Agency in the Triangle. Chapel Hill: Jan. 5, 1995. O'Connor, John. Analysis of Historical Changes to the Clean Air Act. Research Triangle Park: Dec. 30, 1991. O'Dell Planning and Architecture Engineering. Facilities Evaluation and Long-Term Planning Study for the United States Environmental Protection Agency at Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. Research Triangle Park: July 25, 1984. Office of Research and Development. EPA Organization for Environmental Research: The Third Decade. Washington, D.C.: January 1993. Research Triangle Foundation. The Research Triangle of North Carolina. July 1959. Rosen, James. "Panel Cuts Money for Area's New EPA Complex." The News and Obsen'er. Raleigh, N.C.: July 14, 1995. 49 ------- Sellars, Linda. Origins of the Research Triangle: Acquiring a Park. Research Triangle Park: March 8, 1991. Special Message to Congress About Reorganisation Plans to Establish the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. July 9, 1970. Statement of Acceptance, Durham County Register of Deeds. July 12, 1968. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Annual Report 1972: Office of Research and Development. Research Triangle Park, N. C. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Annual Report 1974: Office of Research and Development, Research Triangle Park, N. C. The Wall Street Journal. "Nader Team Questions Muskie's Sincerity in Sharp Attack on U.S. Clean-Air Efforts." May 13, 1970. Williams, Dennis. Cleaning Up America: EPA and the United States' Pollution Control Effort, 1970-1990. May 1995. Williams, Dennis. EPA Regional Facilities: A Historical Perspective on Siting. March 1993. 50 ------- |