State of the New England Environment
            1970-2000
                        *
                       fr

         protect the future
                 • '. ' •.•<

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                   UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
                                          REGION 1
\   S    ?                     1 CONGRESS STREET. SUITE 1 1 00
                             BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 021 1 4-2023

April 25, 2000                                                                OFFICE OF THE
                                                                         REGIONAL ADMINISTRATOR
Dear New Englander:

As the new Regional Administrator of EPA-New England, I am extremely grateful to have the
opportunity to work with you to protect our region's environment and public health.  I am excited
about what we can achieve together in the coming months and beyond.  During the past six years, we
have together set a course for EPA-New England that has achieved tangible environmental results.
We will continue in this new direction, while constantly seeking ways to innovate and build on our
past successes.  Though we have changed leadership at EPA-New England, we have not changed
our course.

I am pleased to provide you with a copy of our 2000 State of the Environment Report.  This year's
report, published as we celebrate the 30th Anniversary of Earth Day, outlines many of our
accomplishments over the past year, and over the past 30 years. It is chock full of information, both
about our priorities and programs at EPA New England, and year-to-year environmental trends in
ozone air pollution, drinking water compliance, mercury contamination, and numerous other
environmental indicators in New England.  I strongly encourage you to read the report and use it as a
reference tool.

I also encourage you to share the report with others. The public can receive the report by accessing
it on the Internet - www.epa.gov/region 1 - or by calling us on our toll free telephone number,
1-888-372-7341.

Thank you for your interest and please feel free to contact us on our toll free telephone number,
1-888-372-7341 - if you have questions or thoughts about the report.

I look forward to working with you to tackle the environmental problems of the next decade.
      ffe. Lubber
Regional Administrator

Enclosure
                            Internet Address (URL) • http://www.epa.gov/region1
           Recycled/Recyclable • Printed with Vegetable Oil Bund Inks on Recycled Paper (Minimum 30% Postcomumer)

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                         "©PA was bom 30 years ago at a 'time when rivers eaught fire and eities
                         were hidden under dense clouds of smoke. We've made remarkable
                         progress since then. But we can't rest on our sueeess.

                         ©ur mission to protect the environment, and to protect public health, is a
                         mission without end. New challenges loom over the horizon as surely as
                         the new day.

                         We must continue our work to ensure that with each new dawn, the sun
                         shines through clear skies and upon elean waters-—and all our families
                         enjoy the blessings of good'health."

                                         — Carol M. Browner, ®PA Administrator
'Coverphotographs: Sieve Belahey

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This report is dedicated to the memory of

U.S. Senator John H. Chafee of Rhode Island
1922 - 1999

One of this country's great champions of environmental protection.
Because of his tireless leadership, Americans breathe cleaner air, drink
safer water and are far less threatened by toxic wastes. This generation
and future generations of Americans are deeply indebted to him.
dedication

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table of contents
open letter to the people of new england	3




introduction	4




protecting public health	6




new england's ecosystems	14




creating healthy conMnunities	20




promoting environmental stewardship	28




challenges in the next century	32

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      "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world: indeed, it x the only
      thing that ever has " —Margaret Mead

      It has often been said that a nation's most valuable asset is its people. We at EPA New England know this to be
      true and our work is guided by that premise.

      The most important action we can take to protect our environment is to build and expand the partnerships we
      have with the people of New England. Whether it's state agencies, tribes, municipal governments, businesses.
      nonprofit organizations or individual citizens, the bonds that we forge with these groups will be critical in our
      success or failure in improving our environment.

      This 40-page report on the State of the New England Environment is part of that effort. Well-informed citizens and
      communities are the foundation for clean water, healthy air and green vibrant landscapes.

      This year being the 30>h anniversary of EPA and Earth Day, we've made a special effort in this report to examine
      not only today's environment but how it compares to 1970 when the environmental movement in this country
      was launched.

      This report will show that we've made enormous progress. In one generation, we have reversed the effects of
      more than a century of industrial pollution  and environmental degradation. We're also well on our way to
      restoring our treasured natural resources. And we have accomplished all of this while building the strongest
      economy in the nation's history.

      But our work is far from finished. Many communities and neighborhoods—especially in our cities—have yet to
      share fully in the benefits  of our environmental progress. We also face environmental problems  that were
      scarcely understood 30 years ago - issues like sprawl, nonpoint source pollution and global climate change. EPA
      New England is tackling these challenges with a vengeance and has become a leader in finding new-1 innovative
      ways to deal with them.

      Much of what we have accomplished is a credit to John P. DeVillars, who ran EPA New  England for six years
      before departing in January, and to those regional administrators who preceded him. Even  more credit should go
      to the EPA New England staff who for years have worked long and hard to carry out the agency's mission. The
      outstanding work of these public servants has yielded huge  dividends for our environment and I have every
      intention of carrying that momentum forward in the years to come.

      But, in the end, we at EPA do not hold the key to protecting our environment. As you will see in this report, the
      common thread in all of our successes is strong cooperation and support from outside the agency—people like
      you who have taken up the challenge of achieving a better environment. And I am confident that the people of
      New England will continue to take up that challenge for the next 30 years, and for the generations to come.
      Thank you!
         dy S. Lubber
      Regional Administrator, EPA New England
open  letter  to  the

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               introduction
                                                          I  I
                                                                                «ni



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As we celebrate the arrival of a new millennium, we are also heralding the 30th anniversary of Earth Day
and the 30th birthday of the EPA. It seems an appropriate time to look at the victories we have won and the
challenges that lie ahead.

As we close out the 20th century, we can be proud that efforts to protect and enhance our environment are
paying substantial dividends. In fact, the environmental protection movement has been arguably the most
effective public policy initiative  of our generation. Throughout New England, the air we breathe is cleaner,
the water we drink and play in  is healthier and the land we live on is safer.

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Evidence of our success is at the doorstep of New
England's hub. Fifteen years ago, Boston Harbor was
among the nation's dirtiest. Today, after billions of dollars
of investment, eight miles of beaches are open to swim-
mers, seals and porpoises have returned and the harbor's
commercial lobster and shellfish industry is contributing
more than $ 10 million annually to the local economy.

We've made great strides not just in Boston  Harbor
but across New England. Our rivers have been trans-
formed from veritable sewers to recreational  havens
for anglers, boaters and tourists. River fronts, too, have
been transformed into bikeways, parks and greenways.
And  in all corners of the region, we're breathing cleaner
air no longer tainted by lead.

As we enter the new millennium, we need to be
mindful, despite  our success, that the environmental
protection job is  far from done. Moreover, we must
recognize that the strategies that have brought us
so much over the past 30 years need to be constantly
refined in order to meet new and changing circum-
stances. To that end, EPA New England, in concert
with  our many partners, has developed a set  of new
and promising initiatives.

Central to these new strategies is forging strong alli-
ances with those who live in the communities we're
working hard to protect. This collaborative approach
has proven particularly effective in densely-popu-
lated urban areas—communities which have, frankly,
been under-served by EPA in the past.

One  example is the Clean Charles 2005 initiative. By
bringing together a diverse coalition of environmental
groups, state and municipal agencies,  businesses,
universities and others who live and work near the
Charles River, we have made enormous progress in
achieving our goal of making the lower Charles River
fishable and swimmable by Earth Day 2005.
We're also applying this teamwork approach to busi-
nesses, public agencies, universities and others that
EPA regulates. By  using new technologies  and old
fashioned Yankee  ingenuity, EPA and our partners
can often help these institutions prevent pollution
well before  it becomes  a problem—and at much
less cost to consumers and taxpayers alike.

Market-based pollution trading programs represent an-
other promising, innovative environmental initiative.
In Manchester, NH and Wayland, MA, for example.
EPA New England has worked with elected repre-
sentatives, environmentalists, business leaders and
community activists to  achieve greater reduc-
tions in pollution at significantly less cost than
would have  been achieved through traditional
regulatory approaches.

None of these collaborative or market-based solu-
tions will work, however,  without the use of a more
traditional weapon in our arsenal—strong  enforce-
ment actions  against those who fundamentally seek
to ignore their environmental obligations. We have
made this clear  from Pittsfield, MA, in our case
against General Electric for polluting the Housatonic
River, to Cape Cod where we have issued three
unprecedented orders halting training and requiring
cleanup work at  the Massachusetts Military Reser-
vation which  has endangered part of the Cape's sole
source drinking water aquifer.

As we enter the new millennium, we should remind
ourselves of the values and traditions that make New
England so unique. Among those traditions is New
England's long history of active citizen involvement.
EPA New England places enormous value on this
tradition and has actively fostered and nurtured public
involvement in all of its programs. We hope that this
report will galvanize even greater participation in our
environmental protection efforts.

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        protecting  public health
Every American has a right to healthy air, clean drinking water and freedom from toxic chemicals. Since 1970, we've
made exceptional progress toward achieving this basic right for New England's residents. Our air is substantially cleaner,
our rivers no longer run with untreated sewage and our drinking water is safer. We've also curbed numerous health
threats like lead in gasoline and bacteria in swimming areas.
We need to do more, however, to reduce threats from smog, airborne toxics, acid rain and radon. We need to stop
childhood lead poisoning and asthma. In tackling these challenges, we will adapt our strategies to reflect the changing
patterns of New England's society. And, more importantly, we will continue to forge strong alliances with all of those in
New England who we are working to protect.

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 Reducing Smog
 New England has made great strides in combating summer-
 time smog. In 1983, air quality in New England violated
 ground-level ozone  health based standards on 90 days.
 During 1999, air quality violated those standards on only 35
 days. This progress has been achieved thanks to major
 improvements at power plants, the use of cleaner-burning
 fuels for most vehicles, stricter tailpipe standards and a new
 generation of standards for trucks, buses and marine
 vessels (Figure 1).

 But there is more work to be done. Since passage of the last
 Clean Air Act in 1990, EPA has tightened the health-based
 standards for smog to ensure the protection of children, the
 elderly and those  with certain illnesses. To meet these
 standards in New England, we'll need to further reduce emis-
 sions  of nitrogen  oxides (NOx) and  certain  organic
 compounds that react to form ground level ozone, a harmful
 component of smog (Figure 2). And, given that much of the
 region's air pollution  blows in from other parts of the
 country, the cutbacks will  need to come  both  in New
 England and in upwind states outside of New England.

 One tool in our arsenal is a new rule, to be implemented in
 2003,  that will require a 25 percent reduction  of NOx
 emissions in 22 states in the eastern half of the country. EPA
 is encouraging states to meet the reduction by adopting a
 cap and trade program for large  NOx sources, following a
 model  approved last summer by a group of states, including
 four in New England. That program will halve emissions of
 NOx from utilities and large boilers in participating states,
 with trading reducing the cost by $ 179 million.

 EPA also filed a lawsuit last year against power companies
 in the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest states, accusing them of
 illegally expanding and rebuilding their older plants without
 installing strict pollution control devices that are required
 for new or expanding power plants. The lawsuit comes amid
 a wave of deregulation in the electric industry which is
 encouraging more use of older, more polluting  plants—many
 of them in New England.
EPA New England will continue to communicate with the
public about air quality conditions. EPA's World Wide Web
site on ozone and air quality, www.epa.gov/region01/oms.
tracks smog levels from May through September, showing
whether the air on  a particular day is unhealthy  and
forecasting conditions for the next day. We also provide a
free smog alert service, available through the web site or by
calling 1-800-821-1237.

Transportation: Miles To  Go
Clean air is directly related to cleaner vehicles and cleaner
fuels. On both of these fronts, we've made huge progress.
Today's  new cars operate  90 percent cleaner than they did
30 years ago. And  we've  slashed lead levels  in the air by
        Figure 1. New England's Historical Trends in
                Healthy Air Quality Days
      350
      300
                  '88

            Burlington, VT

            Providence, Rl

            Portland, ME
                       '90
•92   '94    '96   '98

•- Manchester, NH

   Boston, MA

»-  New Haven, CT
             (Based on County-wide Air Quality)
   •air pollutant levels lower than 50% of the air quality standards
                    source: EPA AIRS
January 1, 1970
National Environmental Policy Aet (NEPA) requiring
an Environmental Impact Statement for every large project
approved or funded by the federal government.
1.970's..
December 1970
Clean Air Act, amending previous air laws, setting
auto emission standards & requiring state imple-
mentation plans to achieve air quality standards.
                            April 22, 1970
                            First Earth Day raises
                            awareness of threats to the
                            environment.
         Decembers, 1970 • •  •  •
         U.S. EPA Established signed
         into law by President Nixon.

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                          Figure 2. Progress in Cleaning and Protecting New England Air Quality
                Trends in Emissions 1960 - 1997
      ^ 1200
      e 1000
                 Trends in Air Quality 1983 - 1998
                                                                 Participate MaHer (ug/m3) Current Standard = 50ug/m3
                                                             ~*— Carbon Monoxide (ppb x 100)
                                                             -•— Sulfur Dioxide (ppb x 10) Current Standard = 80ppb
                                                  source: EPA AIRS
 98 percent due to the 27-year-old ban on leaded gasoline.
 Still, cars  and trucks continue to be the region's largest
 source of air pollution, emitting about one-third of all
 volatile organic compounds, nitrogen oxides and air toxics
 into our air. The reason is simple: there are more cars on the
 road and the number of miles we're driving is skyrocketing.
 In just 30 years, the total number of vehicle miles driven
 in New England has nearly doubled. And the trend is
 accelerating (Figure 3).

 EPA has launched a program to make our cars and trucks
 run even cleaner. Late last year, EPA finalized regulations
 that will result in cleaner gasoline and require for the first
 time that cars and light trucks meet the same emission
 requirements. The tougher light truck requirement is par-
 ticularly important because it will bring popular sport utility
 vehicles (SUVs), which are classified as light trucks, under
 tighter air  emission standards. The new standards, which
 will be phased in starting in 2004, are expected to produce a
       77 percent reduction in car emissions and as much as a 95
       percent reduction in truck and SUV emissions. Additional
       cutbacks will also  be achieved  through new vehicle
       inspection and maintenance programs recently imple-
       mented in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

       Indoor Air  Quality and Asthma
       The quality of the indoor air we breathe is an important
       health factor. Most people spend 90 percent of their time
       indoors, making indoor air pollution a serious issue in homes,
       schools, factories and offices. EPA studies have shown that
       indoor pollution levels may be as much as five times greater
       than outside levels. Sources of indoor air pollution include:
       burning fuels which result in elevated levels  of carbon
       monoxide; tobacco smoke; pesticides; and biological con-
       taminants such as dust mites, bacteria, fungi and viruses.

       Children are especially vulnerable to harmful  indoor air
       pollution because they breathe more air relative to their body
      1972       	
      Low Sulfur Fuel Reductions  by New
      England States Begin, significantly
      lowering sulfur dioxide emissions.
                                  1972
                                  EPA Bans Use of DDT, a widely-used
                                  pesticide found to be cancer-causing
                                  and accumulating in the food chain.
1971
Lead-Based Paint Poisoning Act
restricts lead-based  paints in
residential structures & bans lead
paint on cribs and toys.
October 18, 1972
Federal Water Pollution Control  Act requires states to establish
water quality standards and reduce pollution from point sources through
NPDES permits. EPA embarks on a major national commitment to
upgrade sewage treatment facilities.
                                                       8

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           Keeping  Kids  Lead Safe
           Eliminating lead from gasoline was a giant step forward in the
           country's battle to combat lead poisoning. However, exposure
           to lead-based paints continues to be a major problem in New
           England, especially in our urban areas where the housing is
           older. Despite banning lead-based paints in  1978, New
           England still has cities and tribal reservations where one-third
           of the children under the age of six have harmful lead levels in
           their blood, causing learning and behavior disorders. EPA New
           England has developed many initiatives to help residents and
           the regulated community prevent and reduce childhood lead
           poisoning, including:

            •"Keep It Clean," a campaign informing "do-it-yourself
            home  renovators about the risk of lead poisoning in
            children and adults during the renovation and repainting
            of older homes.

            •A Lead Safe Renovation interactive CD-ROM designed to
            meet federal training requirements for renovators and,
             "IMPACT', an interactive lead awareness training course
            on lead safe renovation for high schools and vocational and
            technical colleges.

            •"First Steps Day Care Provider Training" manuals, videos
            and CD-ROM available in English, Spanish, and a spe-
            cialty-designed Native American version, which explain the
            importance of blood lead screening, a healthful diet and
            basic preventive steps.

            •"English as a Second Language-A Curriculum for Urban
            Living," was designed for adult education and other
            students whose primary language is not English and
            includes a major emphasis on lead poisoning prevention.

            •"Community-Based Environmental and Lead Assessment
            and Educational Demonstration Program" which provides
            information to residents about lead in soil and low cost
            landscaping techniques for minimizing lead exposure.

           For more information on lead safety, call EPA's lead hotline at
           1-800-424-LEAD (1-800-424-5323) or
           EPA New England at 1-800-252-3402
                                       Figure 3. Vehicle Emissions Decrease &
                                            Vehicle Use and Population
                                             Increase in New England
                                                               Miles Traveled
                                                               (up 86.7%)
                                                               Population
                                                               [up 12.4%)

                                                               NOx Emissions
                                                               (up 1%)
                                                               VOC Emissions
                                                               (down 53.7%)
                                      70  75  '80  '85  '90 '95
                                           sources: U.S. Bureau of the Census and
                                            U.S. Federal Highway Administration
                           weight. That's why we've focused so much attention on air
                           quality in schools. For the past five years, EPA New
                           England has distributed thousands of our popular "Indoor
                           Air Quality Tools for Schools" Action Kits to help school
                           officials improve their indoor air quality. Last year we trained
                           hundreds of school officials—including 300 in Massachusetts
                           alone—and more than 100 schools  in the region imple-
                           mented air quality management plans.

                           Asthma is one of the most serious environmental  health
                           issues  facing  New Englanders today, particularly among
                           our children where it is the leading cause of chronic illness.
                           One-third of all pediatric emergency room visits are due to
                           asthma. The problem is especially severe  in large urban
                           cities where there are higher concentrations of low-quality
                           housing and air pollution,  hi Boston's Roxbury neighbor-
                           hood, for example, an estimated 15 to 20 percent of teenag-
                           ers are affected by asthma, five times the state average.
1972
Federal  Environmental Pesticide
Control Act requires manufacturers to
provide lexicological information and
register pesticides with EPA.
1973
Endangered Species Act establishes procedures for list-
ing species as endangered or threatened, and requiring
that federal agencies do not initiate or proceed with projects
that "jeopardize the continued existence" of such species.
                              1972
                              EPA Provides Water and Wastewater
                              Infrastructure for Tribal Housing
                              in tandem with HUD and EDA.
                                 1973
                                 EPA Begins Ban To Phase Out Lead  in Gasoline,
                                 resulting in 98% reduction in lead levels in air, and helping to
                                 reduce blood lead levels in children by 75%.

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EPA New England has been very active on this issue.
We are working with community-based coalitions  in
Lowell. Hartford,  Boston and a half-dozen other cities
to reduce asthma through "Healthy Homes" assessments
and other outreach  efforts. We've joined with the Physi-
cians for Social Responsibility to create a curriculum
for primary' care physicians on environmental asthma
triggers. And, in coordination with three Boston-area
universities, we've launched a pilot project to study
nine asthmatic families living in Boston public housing
to evaluate the causes of the asthma  and the barriers
and benefits to intervention.

Drinking Water Protection
Drinking water supplies in New England are safer now than
they've ever been (Figure 4). Currently,  96 percent of the
region's 12,000 public water supply systems are meeting
drinking water quality standards, up from 94 percent a year
ago. Our success in this area is a direct  result of the Safe
Drinking Water Act (SDWA), which promotes a "multiple
barrier" water protection approach combining source water
protection, filtration, chemical disinfection and distribution
systems safeguards.

EPA New England has been very aggressive in making sure
that all of these protection measures are being utilized. For
example, we provided $66 million last year to help New
England communities fund improvements in drinking water
treatment  and distribution systems. We've also used our
enforcement "stick" when we've had to. In fact, two of the
Agency's biggest ongoing battles evolve around drinking
water: our  lawsuit to force the  Massachusetts Water
Resources Authority to provide drinking water filtration for
two million Boston-area residents and our enforcement or-
ders halting military training at the Massachusetts Mili-
tary Reservation  on Cape  Cod due  to groundwater
protection concerns.

Among our newer priorities is the Source Water Protection
Program designed  to ensure the long-term protection  of
water supplies. A new requirement under the SDWA, the
source water protection program requires all suppliers, in
                         Figure 4. New England Public Water Systems
                          Meeting Drinking Water Quality Standards
                                                 Radionuclides 0.7%
                                                 Organics 1.3%
                                                 Inorganics 1.3%
                                                 Bacteria 96.7%
                                    source: EPA Safe Drinking Water
                                      Information System, 1999
                     cooperation with the  states,  to identify and assess
                     potential contamination threats to their drinking water
                     supplies. As these assessments are completed, states,
                     suppliers and citizens will work on ways to better protect
                     those drinking water supplies.

                     We're also working closely with businesses and teachers
                     to heighten their awareness about drinking water. For busi-
                     nesses, we've launched  an awards program to recognize
                     those that have voluntarily worked to protect drinking
 1973
 Energy Crisis Grips the World,
 exacerbated by an oil embargo by
 Arab nations. .
1974
First National  Standards Limiting
Industrial Water Pollution Set By EPA
                                                   December 1974
                                                   Safe Drinking Water Act—EPA begins setting
                                                   health-based standards and physical/chemical
                                                   treatment requirements for drinking water.

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               Fighting for  Cape  Cod's Drinking Water
               Protecting Cape Cod's  drinking water continues to
               be one of our biggest  battles. The Massachusetts
               Military Reservation (MMR), a 22,000-acre property
               that  has been used for military training activities
               since 1911, is located over a sole source aquifer that
               provides drinking water for 200,000 year-round and
               500,000 seasonal residents of Cape Cod. Parts of
               the aquifer have been  contaminated by fuel spills
               and  other past practices at MMR's Otis Air Force
               Base. Otis  is currently  being  cleaned up as a
               Superfund site.

               Fearful that military training was causing even more
               damage to the groundwater, EPA New England in May
               1997 suspended military training at Camp Edwards,
               including all use of live  explosives, propellants, flares
               and lead bullets. It was the first time in our country's
               history that military training activities had been halted
               due  to environmental and public health  concerns.
               That same year, we ordered a series of groundwater
               studies  that have produced evidence of serious
               groundwater and soil contamination.

               As a result of these studies, EPA this year ordered the
               military to begin the process for the removal of
               unexploded ordinance from the base  and to clean up
               contaminated groundwater and soils (available at:
               www.epa.gov/regionl). The order, the first of its kind in
               the country,  was issued under emergency provisions
               of the Safe Drinking Water Act. The federal law is
               specifically  designed to  protect underground
               drinking water supplies  such as Cape Cod's aquifer.
                         water supplies. This year, we'll also be distributing flyers to
                         businesses to  highlight the importance of drinking water
                         protection and provide examples of best  management
                         practices. We've also developed a groundwater curriculum
                         for schools and an awards program for teachers who are
                         doing exemplary work.

                         Last year was also the first year  in which drinking water
                         consumers all  across  the country received Consumer Con-
                         fidence Reports from their community water suppliers. These
                         easy-to-read reports tell consumers about the source of their
                         water, the distribution system and compliance  with drinking
                         water  rules. Consumers  can expect to receive  these
                         reports in the  mail every year, with the next reports due
                         out by July 1,2000.

                         Pesticides and  Public Health Protection
                         Pesticides are widely used to control bacteria, bugs and
                         other pests that can damage agricultural crops. At the
                         same time, pesticides pose potential threats to human
                         health, and in the environment  can  damage the fragile
                         balance of our ecosystems.

                         EPA has placed a special emphasis on protecting our
                         children from pesticides. A major milestone  in this regard
                         was working  on, winning, and implementing  the Food
                         Quality Protection Act (FQPA) of 1996 that for the first time
                         puts emphasis on protecting the health of infants and
                         children from pesticide risks.

                         The FQPA paved the  way for new regulations to  better en-
                         sure that pesticides are used in ways that are more sensitive
                         to human health and our ecosystems. In concert with those
                         efforts, EPA has launched a Reduced Risk Initiative which
                         encourages manufacturers to develop alternative pesticides
                         that pose less risk to human health and to encourage fann-
                         ers and others who use pesticides to find safer alternatives.

                         Implementation of the Food Quality Protection Act has
                         already resulted in cancellation of some pesticide products
                         and implementation of new restrictions on other pesticides.
1975
Energy Policy and Conservation Act includes
provision establishing fuel economy standards
for passenger cars and trucks in the U.S.
1976
The Argo Merchant Runs Aground off Nantucket,
spilling 7.6 million gallons of oil.
      1975     	
      Car Makers Begin Installing Catalytic
      Converters In  New Vehicles to meet
      EPA emission standards.
                                     1976
                                     Resource Conservation Recovery Act (RCRA)
                                     mandates  cradle-to-grave regulation  of
                                     hazardous waste.
                                                                  11

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        New England's unique
       geology has resulted in
          some of the highest
         radon concentrations
              in the country.
Last year also was marked by the first-time distribution of
an EPA Pesticides and Food Consumer Right-To-Know
brochure,  which was widely  distributed in large
supermarkets. The brochure is available on EPA's website
at: www.epa.gov/pesticides/food

In the year ahead, we will continue our efforts to encourage
manufacturers to develop pesticides with reduced risks to
the public. We will do this by speeding up the registration
process for certain pesticides and through other incentives.
As part of our effort to make sure pesticides are adequately
controlled  and  studied, we will also focus on better
consumer labeling, children's health affects and  develop-
ing new groundwater protection rules.

A Comprehensive Approach  to Radon
Radon is a serious public health issue, particularly in New
England. Radon is a colorless, odorless radioactive gas that
comes from the natural radioactive breakdown of uranium
in the ground. It can seep into basements and accumulate in
indoor air. It can also be found in groundwater. When radon-
containing  groundwater is used for showers and other
domestic purposes, the material is released to the air, poten-
tially contributing to the risk of lung and stomach cancer.

Breathing radon in indoor air is the second leading cause of
lung cancer in the United States, causing about 20,000 cases
a year.  Radon in drinking water is far less significant,
causing an estimated 168 cancer deaths a year.
          How do  I get more information
          about  radon?
          Questions about radon in air can be answered by call-
          ing EPA New England (1-888-EPA-7341), the Radon
          Hotline (1-800-SOS-RADON), or the New England state
          programs. The website www.epa.gov/laq/radon also has
          valuable information. For information on radon in
          groundwater, contact the Safe Drinking Water Hotline
          (1-800-426-4791) and EPA's Office of Drinking and
          Ground Water Internet site at:
          www.epa.gov/safewater/radon.htral

          New England State Radon Programs
          Connecticut	 (860)509-7367
          Maine	(800)232-0842
          Rhode Island	(401)222-2438
          Vermont	(800)439-8550
          Massachusetts	(413)586-7525
           	and(800)RADON95
          New Hampshire	(800)852-3345
           	,.. ext.4674
        New England's unique geology has resulted in some of
        the highest radon concentrations in the country. About
        one in four New England homes has indoor radon levels
        above the recommended action level of 4 pCi/1. In
        addition, almost half of the region's population gets its
        drinking water from groundwater.

        EPA has taken a comprehensive approach to reducing
        radon risk. Because the risk from radon in indoor air is so
        much greater, the  Agency's new proposed radon stan-
        dards for drinking water encourage states and communi-
        ties to address radon in indoor air before pursuing ex-
        pensive strategies to reduce radon in drinking water. EPA
        New England will also continue to support the state radon
        and drinking water programs with technical assistance
        and financial grants.
October 12, 1976
Toxic Substances Control Act sets stage for
EPA's ban that will phase out production and
use of cancer-causing PCBs.
August 1978
Love Canal in New York Found
to be Contaminated  by buried
leaking chemical containers.
March 28,1979
Accident at Three Mile Island
Nuclear Power Plant in
Pennsylvania
      1977    	
      First Sign of Improvement in Waters
      As Dischargers Comply With NPDES
      Permit Requirements
                          1978
                          EPA & Other Federal Agencies Ban
                          Use of Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)
                          as a propellent in most aerosol cans.

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                                                                     new  er>gland tribes
                EPA New England and the nine sovereign Tribes in the
                region have forged elose relationships, resulting in enhanced
                environmental proteetion on tribal lands and better coop-
                eration on issues that cross boundaries. Among the high-
                lights of this improved partnership was the New England
                Tribes and 13 federal natural resource agencies in the region
                signing a Memorandum of Understanding last year in which
                they agreed to work as  equal partners in protecting the
                Tribes' natural resources. EPA New England's Emergency
                Response Team was also the first in the nation to bring
                Tribal members into response team operations.

                Many of the collaborations between EPA and  the Tribes
                are focused on public health and ecosystem proteetion. In
                what will provide the first regional, centralized look at air
                quality on Tribal lands, EPA is providing funds for Tribes
                to deploy air monitoring  equipment in Maine and on
                Martha's Vineyard to collect and analyze mercury, acid rain
                and partieulate matter data. EPA is also collaborating with
                the Passamaquoddy and Penobscot Tribes to study  liver
                tissue in moose and deer to monitor toxics accumulation in
                subsistence game. A pilot mercury project with EPA and
                the Wampanoag and Passamaquoddy Tribes has also been
                launched to collect fish tissue to determine the health risks
                to Tribal members  from eating fish. EPA is also assisting
                the Bureau of Indian Affairs with a mulnVpartner collabora-
                tive study to evaluate if dioxin, furans, and PCBs in the
                Penobseot River pose public health andenvironmental risks.

                Recognizing that environmental proteetion of Tribal trust
                natural resources is critical for protecting each Tribes' tra-
                ditions, culture and history, EPA will continue  to provide
                increased funding  for these and other proteetion efforts.
                Last year EPA New England provided $2.3 million in funds
                to assist the Tribes in these activities.
                Aroostook Band of Micmacs

    Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians
   Passamaquoddy Tribe of Indians
   Indian Township Reservation
  Passamaquoddy Tribe of Indians
  Pleasant Point Reservation
   Penobscot Indian Nation
Mohegan Tribe
                        Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head

              Narragansett Indian Tribe


      Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation
              1981
              Interagency Task Force on Aeid  Precipitation
              reports aeid rain problem is intensifying in Northeast
              part of U.S. and Canada.
1980's
  1982
  Nuclear Waste Policy Act to provide long-term,
  safe disposal of the most dangerous radioactive waste
  from nuclear power plants and weapon production.
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and
Liability Act, referred to as Superfund,  establishes a national
program fortoxic waste cleanups and requires EPA to establish lists of
Hazardous substances and fhe most hazardous toxic sites in the U.S.
                           1983
                           Superfund Issues First National
                           Priorities List (NPL) - 406 sites
                           nationwide, 38 in New England.
                                                                      13

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       new
                                                                                  a  B*
                                                                       i

New England's ecosystems are our most valuable natural assets. The richness of our waterways provides
opportunities to see remarkable creatures such as bald eagles, striped bass and humpback whales.  The
northern forest provides habitat for bear, moose and hundreds of species of birds. And, of course, many of
our ecosystems are prized for recreational and commercial activities.

But human activities can  also significantly alter environmental  conditions for better or worse. By taking a
look at the condition of our waters, wetlands, air quality and species of interest, we can see the progress
we've made in protecting our ecosystems after 30 years and the challenges that  remain.

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Aquatic Ecosystems
In 1970, many of our rivers, estuaries and harbors were
environmental nightmares. Sewage and industrial wastes
transformed our waterways into waste dumps with almost
no life at all, except perhaps noxious algae blooms. Rivers
ran red, blue, or green depending on what dyes were used
by mills upstream. Our region's largest river, the Connecti-
cut, was openly referred to as a "landscaped sewer."  It was
no wonder many New England cities and towns turned their
backs on their rivers and harbor fronts, paving them over or
walling them from view.

Thanks to federal initiatives such as the Clean  Water Act,
water quality is much improved. As we see  the dramatic
results of our investments in pollution controls and sewage
treatment, we are rediscovering our rivers and waterfronts.
Witness the hugely popular Waterfire events  during the
summer on Providence's Woonasquatucket River—a river
that was once mostly  paved over in the city—or canoeists
on the Connecticut, no  longer a sewer, but home to bald
eagles and a small, but rising, stock of wild salmon.
                                  But new pollution challenges lie ahead. In the 1970s, waste-
                                  water treatment plants and other "point" sources comprised
                                  nearly 50 percent of the identified sources of pollution.
                                  Today that figure is less than 20 percent. This explains why
                                  we are focusing substantially more attention now on con-
                                  trolling nonpoint pollution sources such as stormvvater, fail-
                                  ing septic systems and atmospheric deposition (Figure 5).

                                  Eutrophication  - The Big  Challenge
                                  The biggest problem today for many New England water
                                  bodies is not  toxic chemicals, but high amounts of phos-
                                  phorus and nitrogen coming from runoff from over-fertil-
                                  ized lawns and farms, municipal discharges, failing septic
                                  systems and atmospheric deposition. These nutrients "over-
                                  feed" our waters, accelerating an aging process, known as
                                  eutrophication, that normally takes hundreds or thousands
                                  of years.  Increased levels of nutrients cause high growth of
                                  unwanted algae and other aquatic plants. Such overgrowth
                                  creates odor and visibility problems, clogs waterways and—
                                  as it dies and decomposes—uses  up oxygen in the water.
 Figure §. Water Quality Conditions in New England
 (Reported As Percent of Assessed Waters)
 Supports Designated Uses	Rivers/Streams (mi.)
                                        Lakes/Ponds (acres)
                      Estuaries (sa.mi.
 Healthy Aquatic Life                   96%
 Swimming                           96%
 Fish Consumption                    1 7%"
 Shellfish Consumption                  —
 "primarily due to statewide mercury advisories
 Leading Sources
 of Pollution
1970s   Municipal Point Sources
        Industrial Point Sources
                                        89%
                                        96%
                                        15%'
1990s
                      97%
                      97%
                      I 7%'
Urban Runoff/Storm Sewers
Industrial Point Sources
Hydromodification
 Leading Types        1970s   Pathogens
 of Pollution                   Toxic Chemicals
                              Nutrients/Low Dissolved Oxygen
 sources: State CWA§305(b) Water Quality Inventory Reports, ASIWPCA, Amer-co's Clean Water, 1983
                                            1990s   Pathogens
                                                    Low Dissolved Oxygen
                                                    Nutrients, Metals, Flow Alteration
1983
U.S. vs. A.C.  Lawrence  Leather Co. of
Winchester,  NH  is one of the first criminal
enforcement cases for Clean  Water Act  and
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act violations.
  1984   	
 Amendments to the Resource Conservation
 and Recovery Act establish the Underground
 Storage Tank Program and RCRA Corrective
 Action Program.
                                                 1985
                                                 Giant   Hole  in  Earth's  Protective
                                                 Atmospheric Ozone Layer over Antarctica
                                                 is reported by British scientists.
                                                  1984
                                                  Union Carbide Plant in Bhopal, India
                                                  Releases Methyl Isocyanate killing more
                                                  than 2000 people.
                                                     15

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This leads to low oxygen levels in water and poor habitat that
sensitive fish species cannot tolerate. Currently, 31 percent of
New England^ lakes and ponds are eutrophied.

Phosphorus is the chief cause of eutrophication in most
New England lakes and streams while nitrogen is the main
contributor in estuaries and coastal areas such as Long
Island Sound.  In the summer, rivers usually have lower
water levels due to less rainfall.  This, along with higher
summer temperatures and high phosphorus levels, create
optimal conditions for algae and nuisance plants to thrive.
In the past, to control the discharge of phosphorus from
wastewater treatments plants, permits have included limits
of one milligram per liter (mg/1). Now limits lower than 1 mg/1 are
being explored and implemented, where necessary.

EPA, states and tribes are studying many impaired rivers
and lakes to  determine the amount of nutrients and other
pollutants they can handle from point and nonpoint sources
before they become unhealthy. The results—known as Total
Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs)—will be used in issuing future
permits for wastewater treatment plants and other point-source
dischargers, as well as in controlling nonpoint pollution sources.

Managing  Stormwater
Urban Stormwater continues to be a major source of water
pollution in New England. When it rains, oil, grease and
other contaminants from roadways and parking lots wash
into storm drains which lead directly to rivers and estuaries.
Last fall, EPA finalized new regulations requiring cities and
construction sites to implement Stormwater management
plans to minimize pollution to waterways. The regulations
will require cities to include such measures as regular street
sweeping, ensuring that sewers are not connected to storm
drains and educating residents to refrain from dumping oil
and other pollutants into storm drains.

Stormwater runoff is a major pollution source in non-urban
areas as well. EPA New England and our partners are work-
ing closely with agricultural, forestry and local communities
to establish Best Management Practices (BMPs) to elimi-
nate nutrients and toxic substances in Stormwater runoff.
Restoring Tidal Wetlands
Tidal wetlands have a critical role in New England's envi-
ronment, providing important habitat and nurseries for birds
and fish and improving water quality by filtering out pollut-
ants and sediment. Coastal salt marshes are among the most
biologically productive ecosystems in the world, rival-
ing tropical rainforests in the amount of plant material
produced each year.

For many decades, the importance of tidal wetlands was
unappreciated or not understood. As a result, thousands of
acres of tidal marshes in New England were filled for devel-
opment, used for garbage disposal, or drained to control
mosquito populations. Laws passed in the early 1970s halted
large-scale loss of tidal marshes by requiring permits for
activities in these areas.

Restoring degraded tidal wetlands is another priority in New
England. The Connecticut Department of Environmental
Protection has won national recognition for helping to re-
store more than 1,500 acres of tidal wetlands since 1980.
Similar efforts are underway in Massachusetts—among
those, a state/federal/local partnership to restore 100 acres
of salt marsh in Rumney Marsh north of Boston. Massa-
chusetts also has launched an innovative wetlands restora-
tion and banking program involving public agencies and
major corporations, such as Gillette.

Losing freshwater wetlands due to activities not reported
through permitting programs remains a  major concern.
According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, one acre of
wetlands can filter toxins, sediment and  other pollutants
from 7.3 million gallons of water runoff annually.  New
England states estimate that up to 250 acres of wetlands per
state are being lost or altered each year. Efforts to eliminate
wetland loss and restore this valuable ecosystem will be-
come increasingly important in the face of continuing popu-
lation growth and development pressure.

The National  Estuary Program
When the National Estuary Program (NEP) was established
by Congress in 1985, three of the original four estuaries
                            December 1985
                            EPA and U.S.  Department of Justice
                            file lawsuit against  the State of
                            Massachusetts for illegal discharges of
                            sewage into Boston Harbor.
           1986
           Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act
           requires states to designate emergency planning districts and
           industries to retain safety data sheets for hazardous substances
           and report releases of hazardous substances.
1985
EPA's National Estuary Program lists Long Island
Sound, Buzzards Bay and Narragansett Bay among
first estuaries in country.
  1986
  Superfund Amendments  and
  Reauthorization  Act (SARA)
  creates mechanisms to speed cleanups.

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              The Kennebec  River:
              Removing a Dam and  Restoring a Fishery
              The Edwards Dam on the Kennebee River in Augusta, Maine
              was breached last summer, allowing water to run freely on a
              17-mile stretch of the river for the first time in 162 years. The
              breaching—and subsequent removal of the dam last fall—was
              the result of a preeedentsetting decision by the Federal En-
              ergy Regulatory Commission (FERC) which found that the
              environmental benefits of removing the dam outweighed the
              economic benefits of re-licensing the dam. The dam's removal
              has already resulted in striped bass returning to this area of the
              river and, eventually, nearly a dozen migratory fish species are
              expected to return, including Atlantic salmon, shad, alewife
              and Atlantic and shortnose sturgeon. As fish populations re-
              boundj other wildlife dependent on a healthy fishery will also
              benefit, including eagles andosprey.

              The removal of the dam culminated a decade-long battle that
              began with the formation of the Kennebee Coalition, which
              includes groups such- as American Rivers, the Atlantic Salmon
              Federation, the Natural Resources Council of Maine, Trout
              Unlimited'and its Kennebee Valley Chapter. State and federal
              agencies, including EPA New England; joined the coalition in
              calling on FERC to take whatever action was necessary, in-
              cluding the dam's removal, to restore historic fish populations
              to the Kennebee above the dam. Before the dam was built in
              1837, the Kennebee River was home to  the state's largest
              population of resident striped bass.

              ^6j?K7ar^e/enee'rnagazme'reeognizedsthe;deeomrnissioning of
              the dam' with a 1'999 "Best of What's New" award to the
              Kennebee Coalition and FERC.
            targeted for attention were in New England — Long Island
            Sound,  Narragansett Bay and Buzzards Bay, Since then,
            Caseo Bay, Great Bay and Massachusetts Bays have been
            added.  All of New England's estuaries faee common envi-
            ronmental concerns  such as habitat loss, pollution from
            nutrients, bacteria and toxic chemicals, and adverse impacts
            from increasing development.

            Each of the NEP estuaries has a management plan for ad-
            dressing these and other problems unique to their areas. In
                               Narragansett Bay, for example, the NEP kick-started a pro-
                               gram to stop the discharge of boater waste (treated and
                               untreated) into the bay, which resulted in designation of all
                               Rhode Island marine waters as a "No-Discharge" area. In
                               Buzzards Bay, the estuary program is tackling the nitrogen
                               pollution problem head-on, resulting in more than 4,000 acres
                               of shellfish beds being reopened. Efforts also are underway
                               for Buzzards Bay to become a No-Discharge area. In Long
                               Island Sound, the NEP has  focused major attention
                               on upgrading wastewater treatment plants to reduce
                               nitrogen inputs.

                               Contaminated  Sediments
                               While we've worked successfully over the past 30 years to
                               reduce pollutant discharges into  our waters, bottom sedi-
                               ments in many areas continue to show the ill effects of con-
                               tamination. Nutrients, PCBs, mercury and other heavy met-
                               als are among the substances that bottom  sediments store
                               and eventually release into the  environment through natu-
                               ral decay, heavy rains or uptake by bottom feeding organ-
                               isms. EPA's National Sediment Inventory shows that sedi-
                               ment contamination is widespread in many New England
                               watersheds. About 40 percent of southern New England's
                               small coastal estuaries have bottom-dwelling organisms
                               impacted by sediment contamination.

                               On a positive note, however, federal  assessments of con-
                               taminant concentrations in New England mussels show that
                               levels of PCBs, copper and the  pesticide chlordane are de-
                               clining. One estuary, Boston Harbor, has seen a 20-fold drop
                               in hydrocarbon levels in mussels and a 10-fold drop in PCB
                               levels in flounder in just the past 10 years.

                               Air  Quality's Influence
                               New England's terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems are greatly
                               influenced by the air that passes over the region. Pollutants
                               deposited on our land and water can disrupt chemical bal-
                               ances, making trees more susceptible to disease and insect
                               infestation. Acid precipitation  can increase the acidity of
                               rivers and lakes, making them uninhabitable for desirable
                               species offish. Higher acidity also increases the likelihood
                               of high levels of dissolved metals in our waters which, in
     April 26, 1986
     Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Blows Up, causing
     thousands of deaths, large scale evacuation and
     significant long-term effects on surrounding environment.
                                               1987
                                               Clean Water Act  requires states to
                                               upgrade state water quality standards
                                               and focus attention on nonpoint source
                                               pollution.
1986
Safe Drinking Water Act Amended
tO'promote protection through Well Head
Protection Program.
1986
Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act
(AHERA) to protect school children and employees
from exposure to asbestos in school buildings.
1987
Montreal Protocol, signed by U.S.
and 23  other nations, pushes for
phase out of production of CFCs.
                                                                   17

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      Figure 6. Atmospheric Deposition in New England
                      1979 - 1998
                                       Sulfato

                                       Nitrate

           '80   '83    '86    '89   '92    '95   '98

                     source: EPA AIRS
 turn, can enter the food web offish, wildlife and people.
 "Greenhouse" gases and paniculate matter in the atmo-
 sphere also play a role  in  long term changes in New
 England's climate.

 Acid rain first came to  light as a problem  in the late
 1970s and is still a major concern for New England. The
 primary sources of acid rain are sulfur dioxide and nitro-
 gen oxide from coal-fired power plants and other com-
 bustion sources, which  precipitate as sulfate and ni-
 trate (Figure 6). Reduced sulfur dioxide emissions have
 resulted in lower levels of acidity in New England rain-
 fall and some recovery of fresh water lakes. Still, de-
 cades of acid rain have diminished our soil's ability to
 neutralize acid, particularly in northern New England.
 We'll need further reductions in acid rain for significant
 recovery of lakes and forests.

 Many scientists also believe that atmospheric deposition is
 a primary source of mercury  in New England waters. The
 impact of mercury deposition on our fish and wildlife popu-
 lations  is not yet known. Mercury concentrations in fish
 tissue prompted five of the six New England states to issue
 statewide fish  consumption advisories, limiting fish
consumption for children and pregnant or nursing women.
EPA, states, tribes, the Eastern Canadian Provinces and other
partners are collaborating in studies and regulatory efforts to
reduce mercury transport into our waters and ecosystems.

A Clear View
One of EPA's air pollution goals is to preserve the air qual-
ity—in particular, visibility—in our national parks. Without
pollution, the natural visual range in the eastern United States
is 90 miles.  But over the years,  air pollution has reduced
that range to between 14 and 24 miles. Last spring, EPA
announced a program to tackle the haze  problem, with a
goal of restoring clear skies to 156 national parks and wil-
derness areas across the country, including the Presidential
Range in New Hampshire, Acadia National Park in Maine
and the Lye Brook Wilderness Area in Vermont.

Birds  &  the  Environment
Birds are excellent environmental indicators, providing us
with a  long-term perspective about the health of our eco-
systems. With the increase in development in New England,
birds that are well adapted to living with humans, such as
grackles and starlings, seem to be stable in their abundance.
However, birds requiring meadows, shrubland and other
grassy  open areas are dropping in numbers—among those,
bobolinks and meadowlarks. The dramatic reforestation of
New England's landscape, after the nearly complete defor-
estation by agriculture and timber production in the 19"1 and
early 20* centuries, is bringing back a large number of wood-
land birds such as owls and woodpeckers (Figure 7).

Neotropical  migratory  birds such as  warblers, cuckoos,
vireos  and hawks  are under severe stress, both in New
England and other North American breeding grounds and
in their Latin American wintering grounds. Many neotropical
migrant species, including warblers and flycatchers, have
declined dramatically over the last two decades. Twenty-
two species  that breed in New England and then fly to
Central and South America for the winter have suffered popu-
lation drops due to fragmentation and loss of forest and
grassland habitat,  pesticide poisoning, predation, adverse
land use practices and habitat changes along migratory routes.
   September 1988
   EPA & U.S. Surgeon General
   Urge Homeowners to Test for
   Radon
    1988
    10G'h Emergency Removal Action
    completed in New England.
May 1988
First National Volunteer Monitoring Conference
held at University of Rhode Island. Today, there are more
than 20,000 volunteers monitoring New England's waters.
        March 24, 1989
        Exxon Valdez Spills almost 11 million
        gallons of crude oil into Alaska's Prince
        William Sound.

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                                                Figure 7. Birds as Indicators of Land Use Change
                                         Northern
                                      New England
           New England's Declining Breeding Birds 1966 - 1998
     Urban

Brush/Scrub

  Woodland

Neotropical

     Urban

Brush/Scrub

  Woodland

Neotropical
                                                                                      Land Use Change
                                         Southern
                                      New England
                       0     5    10    15   20
                       number of species declining
                                                                 Northern New England
                                                                     (ME, NH, VT)
                                                              '45  '54  '64   74  '87  '97
                                                                                           Southern New England
                                                                                                (CT, MA, Rl)
                                                                  I agriculture     urban
                                                                                                     '45  '54  '64  74  '87  '97
                                                                                                          forest
             sources: USGS-8RD, Powtuxot Wildlife Research Station,
             Brooding Bird Survey, ERS - USDA Major Land Use Database
                                              (Based on over 31.5 mil. acres in Northern New England and 8.8 mil. acres in Southern New England.
                                              The difference between total acreage and the sum of these 3 usos is other types of land use.)
            Bald Eagle:  A Cautious  Success Story
            When Europeans first arrived in North America, there were
            approximately 100,000 bald eagles living in what was to
            become the lower 48 states. By 1967, the population had
            plummeted to less than 500 breeding pairs. This was due to
            habitat loss and the effects of the pesticide DDT in the fish
            that eagles were eating, which caused eggshell thinning.  In
            1972, DDT was banned and habitat conservation efforts
            were launched. Bald eagle populations have since rebounded
            to a current level of 5,748 breeding pairs and  continue to
            improve in the lower 48 states. In New England, there are
            currently 215 known nesting sites. Although proposed for
            removal from the federal Endangered Species List, bald
            eagles remain vulnerable to  contaminants in the food chain
            and to habitat loss.
                                                                        Bald Eagle Nesting in New England
                                                                                   1970-1998
                                                                   250
                                                                         70   '75   '80   '85   '90   '95   '98
                                                                               source:  USFWS, 1999
          1989
          The World Prodigy runs aground off Newport,
          Rhode Island, spilling 420,000 gallons of oil.
                                                    19907s
                                                           1990
                                                           National  Environmental  Education Act
                                                           makes EPA the lead federal agency for promoting,
                                                           supporting & encouraging environmental education.
1989
Toxics Release Inventory is available, allowing public
to know the location and nature of toxic chemical releases
from specific industrial facilities in communities.
                                                  Pollution Prevention Act encourages
                                                  industry to reduce toxic emissions through
                                                  cost-effective changes in production.
                                                                    19

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     creating healthy
As we look back on what we've accomplished over the past 30 years, we have come to realize that we need
to bring our environmental protection efforts closer to home. We now recognize that preserving the environ-
ment isn't simply about protecting a beautiful far away place such as a  forest or  a beach. It is  about
enhancing our communities—the places where we live and raise our families.

Over the past five years,  EPA New England has been a national leader in finding new ways to give our
communities the tools they need to address the environmental and public health problems that threaten
them. And the benefits are being felt in all corners of the region, from Burlington, VT and Bridgeport, CT to
Providence, Rl and Presque Isle, ME.

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Revitalizing  our  Urban Neighborhoods
Residents in urban areas throughout New England are ex-
posed to a disproportionate share of environmental and
public health hazards, ranging from asthma and lead poi-
soning to air toxics and contaminated industrial sites. The
effects of these hazards are further compounded by limited
economic development opportunities, social ills and, often,
little political power. In 1995, EPA New England launched a
pilot program, the Urban Environmental Initiative fUEI), to
tackle the complex challenge of making environmental and
public health improvements in our urban cities.

The  UEI program  is all about community-based environ-
mental protection.  Focusing on neighborhoods in Boston,
Hartford and Providence, the UEI team has  made public
involvement the foundation  of its efforts to help commu-
nity partners build their capacity for solving their own envi-
ronmental problems. Some of UEI's urban environment and
public health projects include:

   •In Providence, which has among  the highest  lead
   poisoning rates in the country, we've tested  more than
   100 vacant lots for lead contamination. The sampling
   effort is being coordinated with a city program to sell
   vacant lots  to neighborhood residents for S1.
   •In Boston, we've helped launch an award-winning
   program in Dorchester that trains local youths in lead
   testing and abatement for residential properties, thus
   providing both environmental improvements and job
   training. We're also helping to restore waterfront prop-
   erties on Chelsea Creek in East Boston and Chelsea.

   •In Hartford, we've trained community educators on
   lead  poisoning and asthma prevention, efforts that
   have reached thousands of children and their parents.

To obtain more information about UEI. visit our web site:
www.epa.gov/region01/eco/uei

Brownfields
Ail across New England abandoned industrial sites plague
our cities and towns and hinder revitalization. For years and
sometimes decades, these  Brownfield properties have sat
dormant due to fears of environmental contamination and
the potential costs of cleaning the sites up.

EPA's Brownfields Program is reversing this trend, benefit-
ting both our cities and our rural areas which are scrambling
to protect precious open space. Through grants, site evalu-
ations and other assistance. EPA New England has helped
  Protecting  Neighborhoods  Near Logan Airport
  Residents of Chelsea, East Boston, Somerville, Winthrop and Roxbury know all too well what it is like living near Logan Airport. Hour
  after hour, day after day, year after year, the airport generates noise, traffic congestion and compromised air quality. Last year. EPA
  New England set an important precedent by opposing construction of a new runway at Logan largely on the grounds that it would,
  once again, unfairly and disproportionately burden neighboring communities.

  Citing environmental justice issues, we told the Federal Aviation Administration that communities around Logan should not be asked
  to accept the impacts of further expansion unless and until Massport, the airport's operator, takes specific steps. In particular, we
  asked Massport to reduce noise and traffic impacts from the airport's current operations and to work harder to shift more of Logan's
  customer base to regional airports and rail alternatives.

  EPA's strong opposition to the runway played a major role in the FAA's decision in January to delay any approval of the runway. As
  a result of that decision, Massport will be required to do additional environmental studies on whether and how a new runway can be
  built without placing an unfair burden on Boston's neighborhoods.
    1990
   The World's Largest Oil Spill is Caused during the Gulf War
   when five tankers and hundreds of storage tanks and oil wells are
   blown up in Kuwait by Iraq, releasing a total  of 294 million
   gallons of crude oil.
        1990
        Merrimack River Watershed Initiative
        is launched,  using  National Estuary
        Program os a  model.
1990
The Ocean Liner Bermuda Star and Barge
Bouchard run aground off Falmouth, MA in
separate incidents, spilling a total of 107,000
gallons of oil.
                           November 15, 1990
                           Clean Air Act Amended, with
                           major new programs addressing
                           smog, acid rain and air toxics.
                                                      21

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clean up dozens of contaminated properties, resulting in
thousands of new jobs and millions of dollars of tax
revenues tor municipal coffers. Since the start of the pro-
gram in W5, nearly $30 million in federal funds has been
invested in identifying, investigating and cleaning up these
properties in New England.
          Much of the Brownfields redevelopment has been in the
          cities that need the most help. In Bridgeport, CT and Lowell,
          MA, residents are flocking downtown to see the Bridgeport
          Bluefish and Lowell Spinners minor-league baseball teams
          play in stadiums built on former Brownfield sites. At both
          locations, EPA grants were used to evaluate the sites for
          contamination. In Warwick, RJ, the T.H. Bayliss site was
          assessed with EPA funds, leading to a decision to use the
          property for a new intermodal rail station linked toT.F. Green
          Airport. And in Stamford, CT, the city recently issued the
          first low-interest loan of its kind in the country—a loan
          made possible from an EPA grant—that will help a devel-
          oper clean up a property along Long Island Sound for new
          housing and a waterfront walkway.

          Wrestling  with  MTBE Pollution
          MTBE  (methyl tertiary butyl ether), a compound used in
          reformulated gasoline (RFG), has been found at low levels
          in about 15  percent of the drinking water wells tested in
          New England. Although the air quality  benefits of using
          reformulated gasoline have been significant - a35 percent
          reduction of air toxics and up to a 20 percent reduction in
          smog-forming pollutants—MTBE is about 30  times more
   Underground Storage Tanks In New England:
   A Success  Story
   New England has been a national leader in complying
   with federal regulations requiring that underground stor-
   age tanks (USTs) be upgraded, removed or replaced to
   prevent leaks and spills. All six of the New England
   states have compliance rates exceeding 90 percent.
   Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire and Rhode Island lead
   the pack at 97 percent compliance or better. The compli-
   ance push  has resulted in nearly 70,000 USTs being
   closed in the region since 1986 when the UST program
   began. The 38,000 tanks still in service are state-of-the-
   art, leak-resistant tanks.
                                 1991
                                 First Completed Construction of Cleanup
                                 Remedy at an NPL site in New England-
                                 Cannons Engineering, Bridgewater, MA.
                                     1992
                                     Ban on Dumping of Sewage Sludge
                                     into ocean and coastal waters.
1991
EPA Coordinates Use of Recycled and
Recyclable Products by Federal Agencies
where possible.
1992
United Nations Earth Summit Conference
on Environment and Development in Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil.

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               Getting  to Yes:
               The Pine Street  Barge  Canal  Superfund
               Site Agreement
               "This agreement proves that communities can play a crucial
               role in solving these difficult issues and that the federal govern-
               ment is willing to listen." — Vermont Governor Howard Dean

               Last fall, EPA New England finalized a first-of-its-kind agree-
               ment with 23 parties responsible for contamination at the Pine
               Street Barge Canal Superfund site in Burlington, VT. Crafted
               by a first-in-the-nation citizen council, the $7.3 million agree-
               ment addresses environmental risks to Lake Champlain,
               provides for projects to compensate for past resource damages
               and allows for commercial redevelopment of the site.

               The agreement came six years after EPA withdrew its original
               $50 million cleanup proposal due to local opposition and initi-
               ated a consensus-building process. Together, we developed a
               cleanup strategy that both protects the  environment  and is
               acceptable to the community. The responsible parties collec-
               tively agreed to participate in cleaning up the site and under-
               take a wetland enhancement project at a nearby  farm. They
               also agreed to voluntarily spend up to $3 million on additional
               environmental projects in the Burlington area.
                    Progress in Superfund Site Cleanups

                Today, there are more tfian 1,200 Superfund sites on EPA :
               National Priorities List (NPL) nationwide, 100 of which are in
                  New England. Study or cleanup is underway at all of
                these sites. At 38 of the 100 sites, EPA has completed all
                      construction associated with the cleanup.
             Cleanup Construction Completed
              (38 Sites - 7 Deleted from NPLI
                                       Investigation/Design Phase
                                              (30 Sites)
              Cleanup Construction Underway
                       (32 Sites)
                            source: EPA New England
                Raymark:  Turning a Superfund Site  into  a  Wal-Mart
                "Redevelopment initiatives have become a chief goal of Superfund cleanups and now the Raymark site is a shining star of those
                efforts. " — Editorial in The Connecticut Post

                The former Raymark waste site in Stratford, CT will soon be a linchpin of the local economy thanks to an EPA cleanup that is being
                touted as a national model. EPA New England's Superfund team designed the cleanup from the very beginning to allow for retail
                redevelopment of the 34-acre property. Among the design features was incorporating pilings into the protective cap so that the site
                could support the weight of a shopping center.

                This past January, three mega-retailers—Wal-Mart, Shaw's Supermarkets and the Home Depot—offered a winning bid of S24 million
                for the commercially prime property adjacent to Interstate 95. The money will help offset the substantial cost of cleaning up the site.
                The retail complex will contribute up to 800 permanent jobs, $1 million in local property taxes and $4.5 million a year in retail sales
                taxes to Connecticut's economy. And, by building the shopping center in downtown Stratford instead of on the outskirts, sprawl has
                been avoided and open space preserved.
1992
Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act
directed EPA to promulgate regulations for lead based
paint activities.
1993
Curbside  Recycling  Triples
Recycling Rate for Nation's Trash
from 7% in 1 970 to nearly 22%
                           1993
                           EPA's Common Sense Initiative shifts from pollutant-by-pollutant regulatory
                           approach to industry-by-industry approach to achieve better results in a more
                           efficient cost-effective manner for businesses and taxpayers.

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   Using  Enforcement to Protect Workers and  Jobs
   Protecting both worker safety and job stability, EPA New England negotiated an innovative settlement last year that
   requires Aerovox Inc. of New Bedford to address widespread PCB contamination problems at its manufacturing
   facility along the Acushnet River. The agreement required the company to take immediate actions to reduce employee
   exposure to PCBs, close and relocate its operation within 16 months, and undertake a comprehensive cleanup of its
   nine-acre property. In addition to protecting workers and the environment, the agreement helps preserve hundreds of
   jobs in the community.  Aerovox has already begun relocating its operations to a new industrial park in the city. A
   groundbreaking ceremony was held in the summer of 1999.
soluble in water than most other components of gasoline.
Therefore, it moves through the groundwater at a very rapid
rate. MTBE creates an unpleasant taste and smell in drink-
ing water even at low levels, and is a possible human
carcinogen.  Sources of MTBE in drinking water wells are
most likely to be gasoline releases from point sources such
as pipelines and underground storage tanks or gasoline
spills —including small spills of less than 10 gallons.

EPA is concerned about the detections of MTBE in drinking
water and is moving aggressively to phase out the use of
MTBE as an oxygenate in gasoline.  In order to phase out
the use of MTBE, Congress must modify current statutory
requirements mandating a 2 percent oxygenate level in RFG,
a requirement which has been met primarily through the
addition of MTBE. EPA's goal is to protect public health
and the  environment by ensuring that Americans have
both cleaner air and water—and never one at the expense
of the  other.

Keeping Track  of Toxics
EPA is strongly committed to expanding the amount of en-
vironmental information available to citizens and communi-
ties. One of the first right-to-know programs at EPA is the
Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) started in 1988. TRI requires
facilities using or manufacturing any of 650 chemicals to
report how much they released into the air, water or transfer
waste offsite (Figure 8). This information is available in
an  electronically accessible national database at:
                           Figure 8. Trends in Toxic Releases
                              {Total to Land, Air and Water)
                   100
                       '88 '89 '90 '91 '92 '93 '94 '95 '96  '97 '98

                                 VT  •  Rl  •  NH

                               • ME  • MA  •  CT


                            source: EPA Toxic Roloaso Inventory
    1994
    First Completed Construction of
    the Remedy at a RCRA Site in New
    England- IBM, Essex Junction, VT
                              July 1995
                              Recovery of American Bald Eagle
                              population allows upgrade from
                              Endangered to Threatened Species
1994
Brownfields Program  Launched to  help
communities revitalize abandoned, contaminated
sites so they con be returned to productive use.
1994
List of Toxic Chemicals Reported
to Public under Community Right-
To-Know Lows doubles
October 1995
EPA New England Launches Charles River
"Fishable &  Swimmable by 2005"  Program,
Gives River Water Quality a Grade of D.

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         www.epa.gov/tri and is also being used by many groups to
         compile their own publicly available scorecards.

         The TRI  program has been hugely successful, spurring
         dramatic  reductions in the use and discharge of toxics all
         across the country. From 1988 to 1998, TRI manufacturing
         facilities nationwide reduced their onsite and offsite envi-
         ronmental releases by 45.3 percent. Over the same period,
         New England manufacturers reduced their releases of toxics
         to the environment by 80 percent; decreases in air releases
         accounted for 90 percent of these reductions.

         EPA has expanded the program several times to include ad-
         ditional chemicals and types of facilities that must report
         and, recently, seven "new sectors" began reporting to the
         TRI. A new class of TRI chemicals, known  as persistent,
         bioaccumulative toxics (PBTs), was also added to the
         inventory. EPA is continuing to find more ways of giving
         people  and communities the information they need to be
         informed about their environment  and to be effective  in
         protecting it.

         Recycling Results
         Twenty years ago, when less than 10 percent of the region's
         trash was being recycled, most of our waste was being
         trucked to ever-scarce landfills and a spate of new incinera-
         tors which posed air pollution concerns.  Today, New
         England states have some of the highest recycling rates  in
         the nation—and they're still going up. Most communities
         have achieved 25 percent recycling rates and some national
         role models in our region—the City of Worcester, for ex-
         ample—have reached over 50 percent. Over nine million
         people in New England recycle their trash.

         EPA New England is working to further  expand the
         frontiers of recycling so that electronic products (comput-
         ers, monitors and televisions), construction debris, food
         waste and other materials can also be diverted from land-
         fills and  incinerators. Over  the past four years,  these
         efforts in creating new markets have resulted in more than
         200,000 tons of recyclable materials being recovered and
         200 new jobs being created.
                 We are also promoting a new concept in waste management
                 called Pay-As-You-Throw.  Under this new  system, trash
                 collectors (typically towns or cities] charge customers
                 according to each bag of trash that they generate. This
                 encourages residents to recycle more and throw away less.
                 The boost in recycled materials also boosts revenues, which
                 can result in lower property taxes that pay for trash
                 collection. EPA's national goal is to reach  a  35  percent
                 recycling rate by 2005. That would mean  reducing  the
                 amount of trash generated  to 4.3  pounds per person  per
                 day.  By implementing new recycling incentives and
                 supporting and expanding recycling markets, New England
                 is well on its way toward reaching this goal.
                 Restoring Troubled Waters
                 Over the past 30 years, states, tribes and federal gov-
                 ernments have successfully rallied to meet challenges of
                 improving polluted waterways. These often require
                 unique approaches, but to be successful, they all need
                 the  involvement and support  of local communities.
                 Three examples in  New England are presented here.

                 The Charles River Initiative
                 EPA New England's campaign to make the Charles River
                 fishable and swimmable by Earth Day 2005 continues to
                 make remarkable progress (Figure 9). Due to a variety of
                 efforts by a broad coalition of river advocates, the river met
                 boating standards 91 percent of the time and swimming
                 standards 75 percent of the time during  1999. That's com-
                 pared to only 39 percent and 19 percent compliance.
                 respectively, in 1995.

                 Various activities are underway to cut the flow of pollut-
                 ants into the river. Seven communities along the river have
                 nearly completed the removal of illegal connections be-
                 tween sewer and storm drains, stopping the discharge of
                 over a million gallons of untreated sewage into the river
                 every day. All  10 communities on the Lower Charles have
                 developed stormwater management plans that have been
                 reviewed by national urban stormwater experts. And last
                 year, the Clean Charles Coalition, a consortium of 15 pri-
                 vate institutions on  the river, launched a public awareness
                 effort to focus energy and attention to  the river cleanup.
       1995
       2 out of 3 Metropolitan Areas—
       unhealthy in 1990—now meet Air
       Quality Standards
                          1995
                          EPA's Project XL is Launched to help companies,
                          facilities, communities and states develop innovative
                          ways to achieve exemplary environmental results in
                          common-sense and cost-effective ways.
November 1995
EPA New England Expands Indian Program by
appointing EPA Tribe Coordinators for each of the
nine tribal governments.
1995
National Marine Fisheries Service is forced to impose severe
fishing and catch limits for cod and other groundfish on Georges
Bank, as a result of depleted fish stocks

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As the turnaround continues, the Charles is receiving more
and more notoriety not just as  a rowing mecca but as a
national model for restoring highly urbanized rivers.

The Woonasquatucket:
A River on the Rebound
The Woonasquatucket River, which flows 18 miles from
North Smithfield to Upper Narragansett Bay, is the focal
point of Rhode Island's urban revitalization efforts, par-
ticularly in downtown Providence where the river is the
centerpiece for the nationally-acclaimed  Waterfire
shows. After  years of neglect  during and after the In-
dustrial  Revolution, the  Woonasquatucket is now  be-
ing targeted for cleanup activities and a "greenway." In
August  1998, the river received national recognition
when it was designated as an American Heritage River.

EPA New England has been actively involved with the
Woonasquatucket since 1996, when the agency's Urban
Environmental Initiative team first learned that urban resi-
dents were subsistence fishing and eel trapping in parts of
the river. A subsequent EPA-sponsored sampling effort
          revealed dioxin contamination in the lower river, which led
          to a "catch and release" fish advisory that has been in place
          since fall 1996.

          EPA New England is now working with state and local part-
          ners to determine the extent of the dioxin contamination and
          how it should be cleaned up. With strong  local support, the
          site was recently named to the federal Superfund list which
          will ensure additional resources for a comprehensive
          cleanup. In the meantime, the UEI team has contacted thou-
          sands of residents about the "Do's and Don'ts for the
          Woonasquatucket  River" to keep families safe. For more
          information, access our website at:
          www.epa.gov/region01/ra/woonas/

          Boston Harbor: An  Environmental Success
          In the 1980's, Boston Harbor was nationally renowned as
          one of the most polluted water bodies in the country.
          Billions of gallons of untreated sewage and industrial wastes
          spilled into the harbor every year, killing and contaminating
          marine life, closing beaches to swimming and causing odor
          problems for surrounding neighborhoods.  Sewage treatment
                   Figure 9. Progress in the Charles River Basin - Samples Meeting Fecal Coliform Standards


                                            100

                                         J   80
                                         a.
                                         S   60
                                         f  40
ll
                                                 '96     '97     '98
                                                     Dry Weather
                                    '96      '97     '98
                                       Wet Weather
                                 Swimming
                                              Boating
                                                            source: Charlos Rivor Watershed Association
January 1 996
North Cape Oil Barge Spills
over 800,000 gallons off Rhode
Island's coast.
                         August 1996
                         Food Quality Protection Act changes the way EPA
                         regulates pesticides. Requirements include a new safety
                         standard—a reasonable certainty of no harm—that must
                         be applied to all pesticides used on foods.       .
     1996
     EPA  Takes Action to Prevent Development
     of Sears Island, Maine, the largest undeveloped
     island on the entire East Coast.
    1996
    Amendments to Safe Drinking Water Act
    establishes State  Revolving Funds to help
    communities pay for water protection measures.

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         facilities were built in the 1950s and 1960s, but they fell into
         disrepair due to underfunding.

         In 1985, EPA New England sued the Metropolitan District
         Commission and  the  Massachusetts Water  Resources
         Authority (MWRA) for widespread violations of the Clean
         Water Act. The lawsuit resulted in a court order requiring
         the MWRA to build a secondary wastewater treatment sys-
         tem for 43 Boston-area communities. The new Deer Island
         treatment facility—easily recognizable by its futuristic look-
                                                      ing egg-shaped sludge digesters—relies on aggressive indus-
                                                      trial pretreatment and creative approaches to wastewater treat-
                                                      ment, such as conversion of sewage sludge to fertilizer.

                                                      Benefits from the improved wastewater treatment have been
                                                      enormous. The  harbor's water is noticeably  clearer.
                                                      porpoises and  harbor seals have returned to the area and
                                                      concentrations of pollutants in fish and shellfish are down
                                                      dramatically. We're also seeing more and more beaches open
                                                      for swimming.
 Energy  Conservation
• Paint your walls in a light color so more light is reflected
• Open blinds instead of turning on lights
• Dress warmly in winter so you can turn the heat down
• Reduce the temperature on your water heater
• Make sure your home is well insulated
• Turn off lights, fans, computers and the TV when
 they're not being used
• Use rechargeable batteries
• If it's not far, avoid using the car
• Use your clothesline as often as possible instead
 of a dryer
•Try carpooling or public transportation, even ONE
 day a week


 Bathroom
• Take shorter showers and use less water for baths
• Turn off the water while brushing teeth, shaving, etc.
• Check your toilet for "silent" leaks by placing food color-
 ing in the tank and seeing  if it leaks into the bowl
• Install a low-flow shower  head and water-saver dam in the
 toilet tank

 Water Conservation  in Your Home
 Heating and pumping water requires energy. Energy, in turn,
 creates pollution such as acid rain and mercury emissions.
 If we can reduce the energy we use to pump and heat water,
 we can reduce pollution—and save money.
                                                                   things you can do...
                                                                                pollution prevention tips
                                                                       Kitchen or Laundry
                                                                      • Make sure your dishwasher and washing machine
                                                                        only run with full loads
                                                                      • Compost your food scraps rather than using a garbage
                                                                        disposal
                                                                      • Wash vegetables in a pan of water rather than under the
                                                                        faucet
                                                                      • Use that same pan of water to pre-clean dishes after eating
                                                                      • Keep a gallon of drinking water in the refrigerator rather
                                                                        than running the tap for cold water.
                                                                      • Insulate your water pipes to save hot water


                                                                       Outdoors
                                                                      • Wash your car with a bucket of soapy water rather than
                                                                        running the hose
                                                                      • Keep a spring-loaded nozzle on the hose
                                                                      • Wash your car less often or wash it at a car wash where
                                                                        they clean and recycle the water
                                                                      • Use a broom instead of a hose to clean off your driveway
                                                                        or sidewalk
         May 1997
         EPA New England Issues Unprecedented
         Order Halting Military  Training  at
         Massachusetts Military Reservation on Cope
         Cod due to groundwater protection concerns.
                                                           February 1998
                                                           EPA Announces Clean Water Action Plan
                                                           emphasizing collaborative watershed-based
                                                           strategies to attain fishable and swimmable waters.
1997
EPA  Establishes Children's  Health
Protection Office to make protection
of children's health a fundamental goal.
                           January 1998
                           Eklof Marine Pays a $7 Million Criminal Fine for the
                           1996 North Cape Oil Spill off Rhode Island's coast -
                           the largest oil spill fine ever in the continental United States.

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   promoting environmental  stewardship


 Ensuring compliance with environmental laws and regulations is a foundation of our work. Whether it's a
 large corporate polluter or a small municipal garage, EPA New England will never let anyone shirk their
 responsibilities for environmental protection and will use all means possible to bring civil and criminal viola-
 tors to justice. Our commitment to strong enforcement was clearly evident in our 1 999  enforcement
 results, which included more judicial referrals and more administrative penalty actions than at any time in
 the past eight years.

 But we also realize that legal action is but one in an armory of tools to reach our ultimate goal of a cleaner
 and safer New England. One of our newer tools is to nurture and promote an environmental  ethic in
 corporate America, an increasingly important activity as pollution sources become more diffuse and more
 difficult to regulate. We're also putting more emphasis on integrated strategies that  link enforcement with
 compliance assistance tools.

And, lastly, we're targeting specific sectors where compliance is particularly nettlesome, and  specific geo-
graphic areas where environmental improvements would provide an especially big public benefit. With all of
these tools, we are committed to finding innovative solutions that will combine strong environmental protec-
tion with smarter, more efficient regulation.

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Tackling  Tough  Cases
EPA New England and EPA's Criminal Investigation Divi-
sion have invested significant resources in large complex
cases with important environmental benefits for our natural
resources. A  few of the cases are particularly noteworthy
for advancing our protection of estuaries, air quality and
drinking water supplies. Among those successes:

•Northeast Utilities pleaded guilty last year to 25 felony
counts for widespread environmental and nuclear violations
at two of its power plants in Connecticut. The criminal vio-
lations, including the discharge of toxic chemicals into Long
Island  Sound and submitting misleading monitoring data.
resulted in $6.7 million in fines, the largest criminal env iron-
mental fine in Connecticut history.

•Saybolt Inc., a petroleum testing laboratory, was convicted
for falsifying test results on reformulated gasoline and home
heating oil, thereby undermining  efforts to achieve clean
air. The case was notable both for its S4.9 million fine - the
largest criminal environmental  fine in Massachusetts his-
tory - and for signaling increased scrutiny of the petroleum
testing and inspection  industry.

•Pfizer Inc., a pharmaceutical manufacturer based in Groton.
CT, agreed to settle a civil enforcement action alleging vio-
lations of hazardous waste, clean water and right-to-know
requirements.  Under the settlement, Pfizer paid a penalty of
         S625.000. and will spend approximately S150.000 on two en-
         vironmental projects aimed at improving hazardous waste
         management at schools and universities.

         Sector-Based Strategies
         A key component of our compliance strategy is integrating
         enforcement, assistance and pollution prevention in order
         to maximize environmental results.  We're focusing these
         efforts on specific sectors where non-compliance is perva-
         sive and the environmental benefits would be  highest.

         Among the sectors  we've targeted is the region's univer-
         sities and colleges. Upon  noticing a widespread pattern of
         non-compliance during inspections, we decided last year
         to launch a coordinated  enforcement.compliance assis-
         tance effort aimed at reaching all 258 universities and col-
         leges in the region.  We kicked off the initiative with a si-
         multaneous announcement of a major enforcement action
         against the University of New  Hampshire and mailing of
         enforcement warning letters to all of the region's univer-
         sity presidents. Apparently our message has  been heard:
         more than 300 participants attended two assistance work-
         shops we co-sponsored last year for university environ-
         mental managers.

         We're also applying  this targeted approach to the metal and
         wood finishing industries, auto body and repair shops and
         public agencies. Our auto sector initiative has relied heavily
  Consent Decree with General  Electric
   Berkshire County and the City of Pittsfield have long struggled with the legacy of PCBs left by General Electric. To address this
  serious public health and environmental problem, EPA New England steadfastly pursued a negotiated agreement for a comprehensive
  cleanup of Pittsfield and the Housatonic River. Last fall, those efforts paid off.

  After two years of intense negotiations, EPA. GE and various other parties signed a landmark settlement that will assure the cleanup
  of the Housatonic,  GE's 250-acre property in Pittsfield, Silver Lake and floodplain properties along the river.  Spelled out in a
  proposed Consent Decree lodged in federal court, the settlement also requires GE to fund a S21 million natural resource damage
  package. GE has also agreed to spend S45 million for the cleanup and revitalization of its Pittsfield property - among the largest
  investments of its kind in the nation. The settlement with GE has received widespread notoriety both as a mediation model for
  complex cleanup cases and for showing the benefits of strong public involvement in cleanup decisions.
                                   AA\ERIO\N HKKITAC.I-: K1VHRS
1998
7,500lh  Underground
Storage Tank Cleanup
completed in New England.
                   July 1998
                   Designation of 14 American  Heritage Rivers,
                   including the Blackstone,  Woonasquatucket and
                   Connecticut Rivers in New England.
      1998
      350th Emergency Removal Action
      completed in New England.
June 1998
Transportation Equity Act For the 21" Century, TEA-21,
provides record levels of funding to continue rebuilding highways
without compromising environmental protection.
                                                       29

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on technical assistance and pollution prevention. In just
the past year, we've held 32 workshops, conducted 88
on-site visits and sent 45,000  mailings targeted at the
auto industry.

We've also expanded assistance programs for public agen-
cies. One assistance program aimed at DPW facilities in
New England reached about 240 municipal officials. In a
survey of attendees after several workshops in Massachu-
setts, 88 percent indicated greater awareness of environ-
mental problems, 50 percent took some kind of compliance
related corrective action and 25 percent implemented a pol-
lution prevention activity. To make sure public agencies are
complying, we've continued our aggressive campaign of
inspections and enforcement actions. In just  the past six
years,  we've taken more  than 300 enforcement  actions
against municipal, state and federal agencies for environ-
mental non-compliance.

Fostering  Creative Solutions
By focusing more attention on the environmental outcomes
of our work, we've learned that creative alternatives to tra-
ditional regulatory approaches can often yield far better
environmental results at less cost. Three examples of this
are worth noting:

•Tackling CSOs in New  England - Finding innovative
solutions will be critical in tackling one  of New England's
biggest remaining water quality challenges—a requirement
that cities and towns eliminate thousands of miles of com-
bined sewer overflow pipes. Built to carry both sewage and
storm water, CSOs overflow directly into our waterways
after heavy rains, causing widespread pollution  problems.
Cities from Hartford to Providence to Chicopee have all been
ordered to eliminate or treat hundreds of millions of gallons
of untreated sewage from these combined  sewers that
discharge into our rivers. EPA New England recognizes the
significant financial burden these CSO abatement programs
will place on communities—about $4 billion in New England
alone—and is working with communities to develop cost
effective plans. EPA's CSO agreement with Manchester, NH
is a good example of what we're trying to accomplish. The
             By allowing the CSO work
               to be done  in phases,
             EPA was  able  to negotiate
              another $5.6 million in
                other  environmental
                    improvements.
      agreement, which has received the enthusiastic support of
      environmental groups as well as state and local leaders,
      requires the city to invest $52 million in the first phase of a
      project to control CSOs along the Merrimack River. By
      allowing the CSO work to be done in phases, EPA was able
      to negotiate another $5.6 million in other environmental
      improvements, including nonpoint pollution controls along
      the river, the purchase of important wetland areas in the city and
      a program to reduce childhood asthma and lead poisoning.

      •The University Lobs XL Project - Project XL, which stands
      for "excellence in Leadership," is a national EPA program
      designed to experiment with new regulatory schemes that
      could achieve better environmental results at less cost. With
      seven XL projects in various stages of implementation, EPA
      New England has been a national leader in this effort. One
      of our more exciting projects is the New England University
      Labs XL Project aimed at finding more efficient ways of
      regulating and managing hazardous waste at university labo-
      ratories.  Our University Labs project will give the  three
      participating universities - Boston College, U-Mass Boston
      and  the University of Vermont - more latitude in managing
      hazardous waste materials which, in turn, will better enable
      them to  boost recycling efforts and slash the amount of
      hazardous waste they generate. A key piece of the project is
      the adoption of a new site-specific rule, applicable only
      to the three universities, that allows  changes in the fed-
      eral requirements for storing and handling hazardous
September 1998
EPA Adopts Rule calling for 22 eastern states
to substantially reduce nitrogen oxide emissions
to address ozone transport problems.
April 1999
Charles River Receives  an
Improved Grade of "B-"  on
Water Quality Conditions.
    February 1999
    EPA Launches a Smart Growth
    Initiative to combat sprawl in
    New England.
              July 1999
              Edwards Dam is Removed from the Kennebec River in Maine -
              the first hydroelectric dam in the country ordered removed by the U.S.
              government due to environmental protection concerns.

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            waste materials. The project's goal is to increase recycling
            by 20 percent and cut the amount of waste generated by
            10 percent.

            •StarTrack - Our StarTrack Program has been enormously
            successful in encouraging  companies and  agencies to
            voluntarily assess and improve their environmental perfor-
            mance. Fourteen companies and  organizations in New
            England are currently participating in StarTrack. All have
            agreed to audit their environmental  management and
            compliance performance each year, prepare and publish a
            comprehensive environmental performance report annually,
            and have their audit results reviewed and certified by an
            independent third party every three years.
            STARTRACK
             Certified Environmental
                  Performance
            StarTrack Participants in 1999
            BOC Gases
            Clairol
            Dexter Corporation
            EG &G Electro-Optics
            Environmental Soil Management, Inc.
            GAP Materials Corporation
            International Paper Company-Androscoggin Mill
            Sanders, A Lockheed Martin Co.
            Spalding Sports
            Texas Instruments, Materials & Control Group
            Toray Plastics
            U.S. Coast Guard Air Station
            U.S. Postal Service
            Unilever HP
    Supplemental  Environmental  Projects
    (SEPs)
    EPA New England has a strong commitment to negotiating
    innovative environmental projects - known as  Supplemen-
    tal Environmental Projects (SEPs) - in settling enforcement
    cases with violators. Last year, we negotiated 18 SEPs that
    funded more than S7.7 million of projects, including a mer-
    cury reduction program at Massachusetts hospitals  and a
    statewide lead abatement initiative for Rhode Island daycare
    centers. Under any settlement that includes a SEP, the vio-
    lator has to pay a cash penalty and correct the violation in
    addition to performing projects that will produce concrete
    environmental and human health benefits. Among the SEP
    projects negotiated last year:

    •Tackling Mercury Emissions
    In settling a case against a North Andover-based trash  incin-
    erator, Massachusetts Refusetech, EPA allowed the company
    to spend S91,000 to reduce mercury from the waste stream at
    a dozen hospitals and health clinics north of Boston.  Such
    reductions will, in turn, reduce mercury emissions from area
    incinerators. The project includes a specific goal of substan-
    tially reducing mercury-containing products used in hospi-
    tals and health care clinics within one year. The company will
    work with hospitals and clinics to promote the use of mer-
    cury-free equipment and to recycle mercury-containing items
    that cannot be replaced.

    •Exploring  Innovative Technologies &  Restoring
     Tidal Marshes
    In settling an  enforcement case involving violations at mul-
    tiple facilities around the region, the United Technologies Cor-
    poration (UTC) agreed to spend more than 5500,000 over the
    next two years to perform two environmental improvement
    projects. One project involves a full-scale test of an environ-
    mentally-friendly technology that could replace current
    chrome-plating operations at a manufacturing plant in Con-
    necticut. If successful, the technology could be used in other
    chrome-plating industries as well. The company also agreed
    to work with The Nature Conservancy to restore 200 acres of
    tidal marsh along the  Connecticut River in Old Lyme, CT.
    The agreements stem from independent environmental audits
    completed by UTC under terms of an earlier enforcement
    settlement and reflect  major environmental strides made by
    the company  in  the  1990's.
      October 1999
      U.S. vs. Morelite Development and Construction, Inc.
      of  New   Haven,  CT.  results  in  nine  criminal
      convictions stemming from Mexican immigrants being ordered
      to remove large quantities of dry asbestos, which was later
      dumped in poor New Haven neigborhoods.
January 2000
EPA New England Orders the National Guard to Clean
Up Unexploded Ordinances and other contamination at the
Massachusetts Military Reservation.
                                                          2000
October 1999
EPA  New England Finalizes Proposed
Consent Decree requiring General Electric
to undertake cleanup of PCB contamination in
the Housatonic River and Berkshire County.
           February 2000
           Centredale   Manor  and  Portions  of
           Woonasquatucket River Added to Superfund
           NPL, the 100th NPL site in New England.
                                                                   31

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    challenges  in  the  next  century
New Englanders should be proud of their environmental
protection achievements over the past 30 years. From
Lubec to Lakeville, we have cleaner water, air, land-
scapes and neighborhoods. We're also seeing the eco-
nomic benefits of these improvements - benefits such
as flourishing tourism along the Blackstone and Con-
necticut Rivers and urban vitality in  Bridgeport and
Lowell, both cities where residents are flocking to mi-
nor league baseball stadiums built on former contami-
nated industrial parcels.

As EPA and our many local partners look to the fu-
ture, we see plenty of challenges ahead. We are con-
fronted with environmental issues that know no bor-
ders - interstate air pollution, regional growth challenges
and, most daunting of all, the specter of global climate
change. We're also confronted with local  challenges
like abandoned properties, polluted stormwater and
lead-contaminated soils.

We can't predict what New England's  environment
will be like in 30 years, but we do know our progress
will be based on many of the lessons we've learned so
far. Among the most important lessons we've learned
is the value of a strong commitment to public involve-
ment and close collaboration with our partners. We've
also learned the importance of sharing public informa-
tion and making sure that information is useful for New
Englanders trying to lead healthier lives - especially
our children. Science and technology have opened huge
doors to increase public knowledge,  but we've only
touched the tip of the iceberg.

With our experience and hard-won knowledge, we
are confident that together we'll find new and suc-
cessful ways of protecting our health and the envi-
ronment in the next century.
Global  Climate Change:
Finding Solutions in New England
In 1987, widespread concerns about ozone-destroying
CFCs prompted the first truly global response to a glo-
bal environmental problem. Thirteen years later, we
face  another global air challenge - the prospect of
worldwide climate change caused by the accumula-
tion of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere.

While scientists do not know the exact causes of cli-
mate change, we do know that humans  are contribut-
ing to the proliferation of greenhouse gases through
the widespread burning of fossil fuels. Carbon dioxide
from burning fossil fuels is a chief component of green-
house gases.

Three years ago, EPA New England launched an
ambitious plan to increase public understanding of cli-
mate change and reduce actual greenhouse gas emis-
sions across the region. Through such programs as
Green Lights, EnergyStar Buildings and Climate Wise,
we've greatly expanded voluntary energy efficiency
and pollution prevention efforts around the region to
curb  greenhouse gas emissions. These voluntary pro-
grams have already resulted in a reduction of 1.3 mil-
lion pounds of carbon dioxide emissions, the equiva-
lent of taking 46,000 vehicles off the road. Participat-
ing companies also lowered their energy bills by more
than $22 million annually.

EPA  funding has enabled five New England states to
complete greenhouse gas emission inventories and two
of the states are moving forward with climate change
mitigation plans—a step-by-step set of measures to
reduce greenhouse emissions. EPA is also committed
to educating New Englanders on this important issue.
This  spring, as part of Earth Day 2000, dozens of EPA
staffers will be visiting our elementary schools to teach
students about climate change and what they can do
at school and at home to reduce the pollution that may
be causing it.
                                              32

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If your family followed the tips below, you could cut CO2 emissions by more
than 11,000 Ibs/year!  You can get more information on what you can do at
www.epa.gov/globalwarming/actions/individual
             global warming tips:
             10 ways you can help
            O Plant two additional trees around
              your home...

            © Use a push lawn mower instead
              of a power mower...

            © Replace your home's refrigerator
              with a high-efficiency model...

            O Buy food and other products
              with reusable or recyclable pack-
              aging instead of nonrecyclable
              packaging...

            © Replace your current washing
              machine with a low-energy, low-
              water use machine...

            © Install a solar hot water system
              to help provide your hot water...

            © Recycle all of your home's waste
              newsprint, cardboard, glass, and
              metal (recycling plastic will
              further increase the reduction)

            © Leave your car at home two days
              a week by carpooling, walking,
              biking or using public transpor-
              tation to. get to work...

            © Insulate your home, tune up your
              furnace, and install energy-
              efficient shower heads...

            © Purchase a fuel-efficient car
              (rated at 32 mpg or more)  to
              replace your most frequently
              used automobile...
                                          CO2 reduction
  20Lbs/Year
  80Lbs/Year
 220Lbs/Year
 230Lbs/Year
 440 Lbs/Year
 720Lbs/Year
 850Lbs/Year
1,590 Lbs/Year
2,480 Lbs/Year
5,600 Lbs/Year
Protecting  Communities from Sprawl
Among the region's most daunting challenges is reju-
venating our urban centers and reversing the spread
of sprawl, which is devouring open space, clogging
highways, worsening water pollution and eating away
at the sense of community that helps define us as New
Englanders.

EPA New England has  taken a lead in tackling the
sprawl issue. Our smart growth conference last year
in Boston attracted more than 1,000 environmental-
ists, civic leaders, planners and developers from across
the region. At the conference, we unveiled a S1.5 mil-
lion action plan aimed at preserving open space, revi-
talizing urban areas, and empowering communities and
local groups to better manage growth.

The program is off to a  good start. Our Brownfields
and Urban Environmental Initiative  (UEI) programs
are making our cities more livable and economically
vibrant and  we recently awarded our  first round of
Livable Community  Grants—a package of seven
grants totaling $226,000. We're also  moving forward
with a training program  for community officials and
with a federal agency partnership that will identify smart
growth solutions in such areas as Hartford, the
Woonasquatucket River  and Boston's South Shore.
                                                       33

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                                                          Protecting the  health
                                                              of our children
                                                             is one  of  our top
                                                                  priorities.
Lastly, we continue to use our regulatory authority to
fight poorly planned development projects. Last sum-
mer, we opposed a rwo-million-square-foot "super"
retail mall in South Weymouth due to traffic and water
shortage concerns. We also threatened to veto an ill-
conceived highway  in Conway, NH, an action that
prompted the town to approve various environmental
controls to protect wetlands and limit sprawl in the
area. Creating truly livable communities for all of New
England's  residents will take a tremendous effort by
all of us, but we have made a good start.

Children's Health
Protecting the environment and health of our children
is one of our top priorities. Children are more vulner-
able to environmental risks than most adults  and we
need to be mindful of this every time we apply our
rules and regulations. Such was the case, for example,
when we turned up the pressure on General Electric
to move more quickly to clean up the PCB-contami-
nated Housatonic River. We  will continue to  expand
innovative projects such as our award-winning lead
testing and abatement programs, our healthy schools
air quality programs, and our Manchester, NH Child
Health Champion pilot project, an initiative to train lo-
cal residents to help families  change their home envi-
ronments so they  are safer for children. And, lastly,
we'll rely on education and empowerment to protect
our youngsters. As a kick-off to this commitment, we
are planning a "Youth Summit" for Earth Day 2000,
which will bring together 500 of the region's young
environmental leaders from area high schools  for a
day of learning and training. All participants will be
encouraged to sign a pledge card to protect the  envi-
ronment through their work.

Getting Quality Information to the  Public
Citizens must be informed about environmental condi-
tions that can impact their health - conditions such as
high smog levels that increase respiratory problems,
water bodies that are unsafe for swimming and  lead-
contaminated soils that compromise children's learn-
ing abilities. EPA New England will use any and all
means to meet this challenge whether it's door-to-door
pamphlet drops, neighborhood meetings or posting in-
formation on the World Wide Web. Strong science must
also be the foundation for all of our work. We will con-
tinue to use high-quality science and the latest available
technologies in measuring our environmental results and
in rapidly reporting that information to local communi-
ties. Many of our most promising efforts in this regard
have been through Environmental Monitoring for Pub-
lic Access and Community Tracking (EMPACT), a new
national program providing select New England cities

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with "real-time" information about local water quality
conditions, local air conditions and, in some cases, local
soil conditions. Already we're using EMPACT to train
Boston residents on using hand-held sensors  to do
on-the-spot lead soil sampling in residential backyards.
We're also using EMPACT to keep swimmers, boaters
and fishermen on Long Island Sound updated daily and
hourly about changing water quality.

Partnerships  for the  Future
Perhaps the most important characteristic of the
environmental protection work we do over the next
30 years will be the partnerships we create.  Quite
simply, EPA New England cannot do it alone.  Much
of our  success so far is due to  the dedication and
effectiveness of the many New Englanders who have
worked with us in finding smart and effective environ-
mental  solutions. In the years ahead, we will be build-
ing on these relationships to find other innovative ways
for protecting our shared environment.

EPA New England owes a debt of gratitude to tribal
governments, state and local  agencies,  and private
businesses throughout the region who are raising the
bar for environmental protection. We also are grateful
to residents in all corners of New England who have
joined us in the  common goal  of a  healthy
environment.

In the past 30 years, we have  helped to  bring about
significant improvements in our environment. We are
ready to face  the challenges of the next century and
find new ways of reaching our environmental goals.
But only by working together will we succeed. The
environment  is not just in the hands of EPA New
England. It is  in the hands of all of us.
  Tread Lightly: Getting Our Own  House in Order
  On Earth Day last year, EPA New England announced our Tread Lightly Project, an effort designed to
  address the environmental impacts of our office operations, with a special emphasis on reducing green-
  house gas emissions. In order to set annual goals for our Boston office, we converted the environmental
  impacts of our activities (such as electricity and heating usage for our offices, solid waste produced by our
  offices, and employee travel) into units of carbon dioxide emissions, the principal greenhouse gas. Before
  the program began, EPA New England was produc-
  ing 14,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions per
  person per year from heating, cooling and lighting our
  offices, paper consumption, travel and other activi-
  ties. We set a goal of a 20% reduction by Earth Day
  2002. During the first two quarters of last year,
  the project achieved an impressive reduction  of
  nearly 1'A million pounds a year of CO2 emissions,
  a 13% cut,  due largely to a new office recycling
  program that resulted in a 23% increase in recycling.
           TREAD
 Reducing Our Environmental Footprint
                                               35

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                                   .credits
   For general information, customer assistance, to
   report a tip or complaint about a potential environ-
   mental violation or to request assistance from the New
   England Environmental Assistance Team:
   Customer Assistance Line:
   (888)EPA-REG1 (888-372-7341)

   Emergency Response:
   (for reporting spills/environmental incidents):
   (800)424-8802

   Criminal Investigation Division (24 hours):
   (617)-918-2300

   EPA New England Library:
   (888) EPA-LEBR(888-372-5427)

The 2000 State of the New England Environment Report
is published by:
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
New England
1 Congress St. Suite 1100
Boston, MA 02114-2023

Project Managers
Maureen Hilton, Diane Switzer and Carol Wood

Editors and Public Affairs Coordinators
Andrew Spejewski and Peyton Fleming

Editing
Tatiana Brailovskaya, Nereus Communication, Inc.

Graphic Design
LizPucci,SES,Inc.

Initial Design Concept
Munroe Creative Partners
Philadelphia, PA

Library Services
Peg Nelson, Garcia Consulting, Inc.
All data is from EPA or individual New England states
unless otherwise noted.

Special thanks to the following:
The Nature Conservancy
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Charles River Watershed Association

Thanks  to EPA's New England Office staff for their
contribution, including the following members of the
2000 Workgroup:
Lois Adams, Margery Adams, Rob Allison, Peggy Bagnoli,
Andrea  Beland, Norm Beloin, Joel Blumstein, Richard
Burkhart, Jim Cabot, Theresa Carroll, Lucy Casella, Bob
Cianciarulo, Tim Conway, Dave Conroy, Brooke Chamberlain
Cook, Don Cooke, Mel Cote, Roy Crystal, Martha Curran,
Jane Downing, Valerie Ferry, Paula Fitzsimmons, George
Frantz, Lynn Gilleland, Don Grant, Nancy Grantham, Cynthia
Greene, Dave  Guest,  Brenda Haslett, Mona Haywood,
Dennis Huebner, Kira Jacobs, Roger Janson, Robert Judge,
Amelia  Katzen, Susan Kulstad, Michael Kenyon, Peter
Kenyon, Rob Koethe, Ted Lavery, Matt Liebman,  Lisa
Marchant, Katie Mazer, Bob McConnell, Wendy McDougall,
Rosemary Monahan, Thelma Murphy, Josh Nemzer, Tom
Olivier, Bryan Olson, Margo Palmer, Dwight Peavey, Kristi
Rea, Marv Rosenstein, Andrea Simpson, Gina Snyder,
Maggie Theroux, Bill Torrey, Andy Triolo, David Turin, Alan
VanArsdale, Eve Vaudo, Mike Wagner, Bill Walsh-Rogalski,
Fred Weeks, Norman Willard, Paul Wintrob

Photographs  courtesy  of:
U.S. EPA employees, Documerica, and the City of Lowell

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