Transportation
-------
Transportation and The Environment
n this issue EPA Journal
reviews the impact of
various forms of transpor-
— tation on the environment.
While the automobile will
continue to play a major role in
American life for years to come,
Administrator Costle predicts
that in the future people will
begin to live closer to their
place of employment and will
turn to walking, bicycling, and
mass transportation. Increased
use of mass transit lines will
help revive the Nation's major
cities, he forecasts.
Meanwhile, the Administra-
tor notes that substantia I prog-
ress is being made toward
starting auto Inspection and
Maintenance programs in the
urban areas of 29 States where
air quality conditions require a
reduction in auto fumes. He
adds that in general transpor-
tation policies are changing so
that they will help in the
achievement of environmental
goals.
Secretary of Transportation
Neil Goldschmidt agrees in an-
other article, emphasizing that
he has directed that urban
transportation planning include
analysis of urban, energy, and
environmental concerns.
Goldschmidt notes that his
department and EPA are work-
ing together on such programs
as controlling bus emissions
and testing fuel economy.
Other articles on air quality
and transportation include:
A review by Deputy Admin-
istrator Barbara Blum on what
EPA is doing to help American
cities reach their air quality
goals without sacrificing urban
growth or adequate transpor-
tation.
An interview with David G.
Hawkins, EPA Assistant Admin-
istrator for Air, Noise, and
Radiation, in which he explains
the Agency's program to curb
pollution from automobiles.
A report on the growing num-
ber of companies that are pay-
ing all or part of the mass
transit fares for employees who
commute.
An explanation of how EPA
checks on the claims by inven-
tors that their cars can get 80 or
more miles per gallon of
gasoline.
An examination by analysts
from WorldWatch on alterna-
tives to the automobile, an
explanation of new carpets
designed to hold down road
dust, a report on two West
Coast companies which are
advertising the need for better
air, and a piece on cars of the
future.
Other articles in this issue
are:
An explanation by William
Drayton, EPA Assistant Admin-
istrator for Planning and Man-
agement, of major new innova-
tions in approaches to pollution
control.
The first in a series of articles
examining the status of water
quality in some of the Nation's
major rivers. This article by
John Heritage is on the
Delaware River.
An appraisal by Administra-
tor Costle of contributions to
the national welfare made by
Federal employees.
-------
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Office of
Public Awareness (A-107)
Washington DC 20460
Volume 6
Number 2
February 1980
c/EPA JOURNAL
Douglas M. Costle, Administrator
Joan Martin Nicholson, Director, Office of Public Awareness
Charles D. Pierce, Editor
Truman Temple, Associate Editor
John Heritage, Chris Perham, Assistant Editors
Articles
EPA is charged by Congress to
protect the Nation's land, air and
water systems. Under a mandate
of national environmental laws
focused on air and water quali-
ty, solid waste management and
the control of toxic substances,
pesticides, noise and radiation,
the Agency strives to formulate
and implement actions which
lead to a compatible balance be-
tween human activities and the
ability of natural systems to sup-
port and nurture life.
Transportation: On the
Road to Environmental
Responsibility 2
Administrator Costle writes on
how transportation policies can
help achieve environmental
goals.
Miracle Autos 4
What happens when EPA tests
cars whose inventors claim
huge gains in miles per gallon
of gasoline.
Smarter Regulation 6
Assistant Administrator William
Drayton outlines promising
alternatives in pollution control.
The Delaware 9
John Heritage takes an in-depth
look at water quality in this
scenic and industrial river.
Traveling into the
Future 12
An interview with Secretary of
Transportation Neil Goldschmidt
on the present and future impact
of Federal transportation policy
on the environment.
Transit Fare Subsidies 15
A growing number of employers
are helping their staff to use
mass transit.
Cars of the Future 16
Transportation expert
C. Kenneth Orski on the
changing role of automobiles
in our society.
Biking Saves 17
EPA supports the energy and
environmental benefits of two-
wheeled transport.
Moving Toward
Clean Air 18
Assistant Administrator David
Hawkins discusses changes that
can help reduce the impact of
auto travel on air quality.
EPA, The Auto, and
Air Pollution 20
Excerpts from a discussion of
Agency policy on the automobile.
Clean Air and
the Cities
Deputy Administrator Blum
explains what EPA is doing to
aid urban areas.
Running on Empty 24
Excerpts from a new book that
lists some of many ways that
people can get around without
depending solely on cars.
Clean Air Message 29
Two West Coast companies
agree to advertise the need for
purer air,
Road Dust Control 30
A recent development in carpets
can help keep dirt in its place.
Quiet Service in a
Noisy Time 34
A reminder of the contributions
made by government workers.
Departments
Almanac 31
Around the Nation 32
Update 36
People 38
News Briefs 39
Front Cover: Snow contributes to
traffic snarls in many cities. EPA
is working with local, State and
Federal officials from other agencies
in a joint attempt to ease traffic
congestion, improve air quality and
save energy. (See Article on P. 2).
Opposite: The highly successful
Amtrak train, the San Diegan,
traveling southbound from Los
Angeles to San Diego along the
Pacific coast (See story on P. 1 2).
Photo credits: Dan McCoy,' Bernie
Boston/Washington Star, Nick
Karanikas, Erik Calonius*. Wil
Blanche", Chester Higgins, Jr.",
Thomas Sennett", The Beacon
News, Four by Five, Amtrak,
Yoichi Okamoto", Charles O'Rear,
DOT. Johnson Wax Co.
"Documerica
Design Credits: Robert Flanagan,
Donna Kazaniwsky and Ron Farrah
The EPA Journal is publishrd
monthly, with combined issues
July-August and November-Decem-
ber, by the U S Environmental
Protection Agency Use of funds for
pi inting this periodical has been
approved by the Director of the
Office of Management and Budget
Views expressed by authors do not
necessarily reflect EPA policy Con-
tributions and inquiries should be
addressed to the Editor (A 107),
Waterside Malt, 401 M St , S.W.
Washington. D C 20460 Noper
mission necessary to reprod.ici-
contents except copyrighted photos
and other matfi liils Subscription
SI 2 00 a year. S1 20 for single
copy domestic; SI 5 00 if m...
a foreign address No charge to
employees. Send check or money
order to Superintendent of Docu-
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Office, Washington. D C 20402
Text printed on recycled paper
-------
Environmentally Speaking
TMNSPORMTION
On The Road to Enviromnental Responsibility
By Douglas M. Costle
EPA Administrator
TRAIN STOP
EPA JOURNAL
-------
T 'ast summer, motorists across the
United States waited in long lines to
obtain gasoline. These gas lines
J were particularly long in Los Angeles
and the national TV news reported that
driving in L.A. was down 20 percent. Air
pollution levels were back to healthful
levels, better than the national standard,
and the sky looked clear.
Barely three months later gas was avail-
able, driving had returned to normal and
the mid-September news dispatches from
Los Angeles declared:
"Scores of people checked into hospitals
withfespiratory problems as Southern
California choked and wept for the seventh
straight day under a dirty yellow blanket
of the worst smog In 25 years."
.The Los Angeles example tells me that
it's time for encouraging Americans to
rethink their use of the private automobile,
and to move ahead with Transportation
Control Plans. Energy conservation and
automobile air pollution controls are two
important national goals that are jointly
addressed by getting lone drivers out of
their cars and into a bus, a carpool, or
a vanpool.
EPA took a lot of lumps for advocating
a break-up of the American love affair with
the car back in the early 1970's. But now
more and more people believe that trans-
portation policies must be geared to help
our mobile society turn away from practices
that consume tremendous quantities of
energy and create severe air pollution
problems. We must turn instead to those
practices that will give us all the advan-
tages of easy mobility but in a responsible
fashion.
The future mobile society that I can
foresee will first of all have people living
closer to their workplace and turning to
walking and bicycling as their principal
travel modes. Energy-conscious new home
seekers will establish communities along
mass transit lines. Taking a bus to work or
shop will be almost as fast as driving your
car—and less expensive. Vanpools and
carpools will be given priority treatment
in our parking lots. Central city shopping
will be regenerated by improved mass
transit and many cities will turn large
sections of their downtowns over to
pedestrians.
We at EPA know, from sometimes bitter
experience, that when you have to deal
with the driving habits of millions of motor-
ists you must tread very carefully. Follow-
ing the 1977 Amendments to the Clean
Air Act, there now is a keen public aware-
ness of the need to change commuting
habits, and we are getting a lot of help in
promoting transportation control plans.
We're getting help from the Department
of Transportation. Sometime ago,
I signed a Memorandum of Understanding
with DOT, which should ensure that local
transportation plans and programs are
compatible with the State Implementation
Plans that the Clean Air Act requires.
DOT has taken an active role in the State
Implementation Planning process and
stands beside EPA in our resolve to make
Transportation Control Plans work this
time around.
There is increasing support from the
local elected officials. The 1977 Clean Air
Act recognizes the key role that they play
in transportation decisions. Under the
Act, lead agencies composed of local
elected officials have been designated by
Governors and funded by EPA. These
agencies work with their States to deter-
mine a division of responsibility for prepar-
ing the State Implementation Plan. For the
most part, the transportation control
planning is conducted by the local lead
agencies since these are the same agencies
designated by DOT to prepare transporta-
tion plans and programs.
In other words, now the transportation
control planning responsibility is resting on
the appropriate shoulders of the local
elected officials. And they are responding.
The 1979 State Implementation Plans that
have been submitted to EPA contain
commitments to implement transportation/
air quality projects that have been studied
and additional commitments to analyze a
full range of transport control measures
including bus lanes, vanpools, parking
management, and auto-free zones.
For example, we see progress towards
starting Inspection and Maintenance (I/M)
programs in the urban areas of 29 States
where air quality conditions dictate that a
program to identify and correct high-
polluting automobiles will be necessary.
Maladjustment and incorrect maintenance
can cause significant increases in hydro-
carbon and carbon monoxide emissions of
vehicles. Auto Inspection and Maintenance
has been shown to be effective in reducing
both pollutants, and ongoing programs in
Arizona, New Jersey, and Oregon have
demonstrated that the program is practical.
The first step in setting up an I/M
program is to pass enabling legislation at
the State or local level. To date 22 States
have existing legal authority to establish
programs, and we expect that there will be
legislative consideration in the remaining
States in the upcoming 1980 sessions. This
is important, because unless legal authority
exists for an I/M program for those areas
which need it, EPA cannot fully approve a
State's Implementation Plan.
I recognize that this Inspection and
Maintenance program touches every auto
owner in large, heavily polluted cities.
But I've examined the need for this program
time and time again, and I'm convinced
that it's necessary. EPA studies have
shown that I/M is effective. Congress has
examined it and passed the Clean Air
Act, which required I/M for areas severely
polluted with ozone or carbon monoxide.
The General Accounting Office has also
examined I/M and recommended imple-
mentation. Twenty-two out of 29 States
have completed the first key step towards
implementation. This is an impressive
record and one that should encourage the
last few States to move forward. With
successful implementation of I/M pro-
grams, Transportation Control Plans, and
new car emission standards, pollution
from automobiles can be decreased
significantly. However, emissions from
trucks, buses, and motorcycles will
become a larger proportion of the total
pollution burden in the future.
To combat this trend, EPA has estab-
lished emission standards for light duty
trucks and the heavy duty engines used in
both trucks and buses. Additional regula-
tions are in the pipeline to establish
schedules for further emission reductions
from trucks. In addition, 1978 model
motorcycles had to meet new emission
standards and the 1980 models have even
lower emissions levels.
We know that noisy trucks can also be
environmentally intrusive in quiet residen-
tial neighborhoods. EPA has issued regula-
tions to cut down on the noise from new
trucks and is working with communities to
apply local noise control techniques to
reduce traffic noise. EPA scientists have
concluded that enforcement of local noise
ordinances together with careful planning
of truck routes, stop sign locations, and
speed zones can help protect residential
neighborhoods from excessive traffic noise
and we are trying to share this information
with as many communities as possible.
Transportation facilities do have the
potential to be obnoxious neighbors. Have
you ever tried to carry on a normal conver-
sation when you're in a direct flight path
to a major airport? Even the trains, that
(for some of us) evoke nostalgia for a
carefree youth, can jangle your nerves
when they congregate in railroad yards.
Our Noise Program is working with the
various components of DOT to develop
regulations and planning approaches that
will make these useful modes of trans-
portation quieter neighbors.
In summary, I think our total transporta-
tion system—that is, all the components
of surface and air travel, both urban and
rural—is on the road to environmental
responsibility. I can sense a quickening in
the pace of this progress with the appoint-
ment of Neil Goldschmidt, the former
Mayor of Portland, Ore., as the new
Secretary of Transportation. Neil is noted
for his commitment to revitalizing the city,
improving mass transit, and protecting
the environment. I think the time has
finally come when our transportation
policies can help us to achieve our
environmental goals. Q
FEBRUARY 1980
-------
MIIUCLE
AUTOS
By Truman Temple
T ast May a former racing mechanic,
Ralph Moody, and his associate,
a promoter named Mike Shetley,
J drove into Washington amidst much
fanfare in a vehicle called the Moody-
mobile.
They claimed the diesel-powered car got
84 miles per galion. At a time when gas
lines were becoming a politically explosive
issue, Moody and Shetley found no trouble
gaining an audience. Senator Howard M.
Metzenbaum of Ohio, a member of the
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Com-
mittee, held hearings on their invention.
Representatives from EPA, the Department
of Transportation, and the Department of
Energy testified. Shetley told Senators the
car would be delivered to EPA's Motor
Vehicle Emission Laboratory within two
weeks for certification testing.
It all looked very promising. At last, it
seemed, the United States had produced a
vehicle that could compete in mileage
claims with those German and Japanese
imports.
But then things began to go awry. EPA
officials had offered to test the car at no
cost to the developers, but by June, Moody
and Shetley split up their partnership. Their
car never reached the laboratory. EPA was
unable to reach Moody by phone or letter.
In the meantime, Shetley had not been idle.
In July he approached EPA to certify a new
and completely different car, claiming it got
110 miles on a gallon of diesel fuel.
EPA JOURNAL
-------
Although EPA waived a number of cer-
tification requirements for Shetley to speed
the process, the tests did not bear out his
claims. The new "Shetleymobile," actually
a modified 1979 Mercury Capri powered by
a turbocharged four-cylinder Perkins diesel
engine, was a system almost identical to
the earlier Mqodymobile and came nowhere
near the mileage claimed by its promoter.
It also failed the 1980 Federal emissions
standards for hydrocarbons and nitrogen
oxide emissions.
Shelley's reaction was statements to the
effect that EPA had rigged the tests on his
car and had entered into a "conspiracy"
against him. EPA spokesmen replied that
the tests were accurate and denied any
conspiracy. Shetley declined the opportu-
nity for a retest, although EPA procedure
allows this option. He left the Michigan
scene for Florida, vowing to be back with
new models. In late 1979 he succeeded in
having a car with an Avco four-cylinder
engine certified for 1979 emissions stand-
ards and said he planned to seek certifica-
tion for 1980 standards later.
Although the publicity surrounding these
cars was unusual and heightened by public
frustration over fuel shortages, the case
was by no means unusual. EPA performs
fuel economy and emission tests on many
engines whose inventors claim all sorts of
"breakthroughs" in fuel consumption. And
contrary to some public statements by
promoters, EPA officials welcome innova-
tion in engine designs.
Dick Harrington, Director of EPA's cer-
tification division, said after the Shetley-
mobile episode last July, "We are indeed
disappointed that the high-mileage claims
that had been anticipated by the developer
were not achieved and that it wasn't better
than it was."
What the public sometimes fails to un-
derstand is that for environmental along
with energy reasons, EPA is highly inter-
ested in seeing autos get better mileage,
since gas guzzlers produce more pollution
than efficient, fuel-stingy engines do. In-
deed, EPA for years offered technical
assistance to developers of advanced auto-
mobile systems until this program was
transferred to the Department of Energy.
"We have everything to gain if someone
comes in with a new vehicle getting good
emissions and good fuel economy,"
explains George D. Kittredge, Senior Tech-
nical Adviser in EPA's Mobile Source Air
Pollution Control Division.
"We tend to be skeptics about new
inventions to boost auto mileage," he adds,
"because we've tested so many of these
gadgets and found them not up to the
claims being made for them."
Nevertheless, the Nation's private in-
ventors keep on trying in the hopes of hit-
ting a bonanza. One of the best-publicized
efforts last year was by an inventor named
Pat Goodman of Winchester, Va., whose
ideas interested CBS so much that they
provided him with money to modify a
Ford Fiesta in any way he chose to improve
fuel economy. Last June Harry Reasoner
interviewed Goodman and his wife, Suzie,
on "60 Minutes" and left the impression
that the Goodman engine might offer big
fuel savings.
One of the features of the engine is a
water injection system. EPA subsequently
arranged for Goodman to come to the Ann
Arbor laboratory and install this system on
a suitable EPA test car. The results at press
time were still being evaluated. Since the
information under the law is confidential,
test results cannot be disclosed, but EPA
engineers have seen water injection sys-
tems before, and they were not overly
optimistic that a major breakthrough had
occurred. (Water injection can help an
engine by cooling the combustion chamber,
thereby reducing nitrogen oxide emissions
and cutting back octane requirements.)
During the CBS interview, Goodman said
he had contacted major manufacturers
about his device and a number of their
representatives had visited his shop. But
he complained that "the NIH factor" had
impeded negotiations.
The initials in this case stand for "Not
Invented Here." With large corporations,
he explained, if an outside inventor sells
his device to them, the stockholders ques-
tion why they should approve millions of
dollars for company research when man-
agement turns around and buys an idea
elsewhere. So there is a tendency to dis-
credit or avoid any invention not produced
in-house.
However, there is another reason that
individual inventors outside the auto indus-
try are finding it harder to develop devices
that will effectively cut fuel consumption.
EPA engineers note that the major com-
panies have evolved today's new cars into
tightly coordinated systems involving fuel
octane, air-fuel mixtures, combustion tem-
peratures, compression ratios, and other
factors. To substitute one new part on such
systems and make the whole thing function
smoothly is very difficult.
"What's happened," said Kittredge, "is
that the combined pressures of the fuel
economy and emission standards have
caused the auto manufacturers to overtake
the ability of most private inventors to come
up with new concepts that can succeed."
EPA will of course continue to welcome
new ideas and test them at its Ann Arbor
laboratory. Since the Agency was founded
in 1970, approximately 200 separate
studies involving countless tests have been
performed there, including emissions from
steam cars, vehicles burning natural gas,
and even a privately-owned car that gave
off a mysterious odor of rotten eggs (later
found to be hydrogen sulfide).
Over the years, two of the best-known
applicants at government laboratories have
been the LaForce brothers, Robert and
Edward. As early as 1965, engineers from
the U.S. Public Health Service Division of
Air Pollution were meeting with LaForce,
Inc. personnel to examine an experimental
carburetor and variable compression en-
gine. Based on their investigation, they
recommended no further consideration of
the inventions, citing their impractical and
crude design and the lack of support data.
In 1971 EPA engineers found themselves
evaluating another LaForce vehicle, this
time a Ford Falcon with various modifica-
tions. The car met 1973 emission stand-
ards, but many features were considered
ineffective. Then in 1974, at the request of
the Senate Public Works Committee, EPA
engineers carried out extensive tests of
widely publicized claims made for an
American Motors Hornet with an engine
modified by the LaForce brothers, who
claimed better fuel economy, lower emis-
sions of pollutants, and increased power.
In brief, the final report said the cars
showed about 30 percent better fuel econ-
omy than an unmodified one, but substan-
tially reduced power and increased air pol-
lutants. In fact, the report said the engine
failed to meet 1975 emission standards on
all three pollutants, and with respect to
1977 standards its emissions were "ap-
proximately 600 percent too high in un-
burned hydrocarbons, 565 percent too high
in carbon monoxide, and 65 percent too
high in oxides of nitrogen."
On an equal performance basis, the
report added, the fuel economy of the car
"would not be significantly different from
the economy available with conventional
engines."
Will private inventors ever come up with
a "super-car" that gets fantastic mileage
with clean emissions? EPA engineers
would like to think that might happen
some day. The Agency does provide free
evaluation of engines and related devices in
order to keep government, industry, and the
general public abreast of developments in
auto fuel economy and pollution control.
However, preliminary testing is performed
at private laboratories at the expense of
the applicant, and there are other detailed
requirements before the Agency will launch
a study of any new product. D
(Anyone wanting further information on
an EPA evalution of a fuel economy retrofit
device, exhaust emission controls, fuel
additive, or new engine may request an
application form from: Director, Emission
Control Technology Division, EPA, 2565
Plymouth Road, Ann Arbor, Michigan
48105.)
Truman Temple is A ssociate Editor of EPA
Journal.
FEBRUARY 1980
-------
Smarter
Regulation
By William Drayton, Jr.
Assistant Administrator for
Planning and Management
1 very year our environmental prob-
___ lems get worse. Our population con-
tinues to grow, and so does the size
of the economy supporting each
person. On the other hand, the quantity of
air, water, and land is fixed. Thus, even
before we consider the impact of our
mushrooming chemical and technological
creativity, environmental quality must
deteriorate if we stand still.
Throughout the 1970's we have been
doing anything but standing still. Birds that
have not been seen for decades have begun
to reappear. Salmon have begun to swim up
the Connecticut River again, and Washing-
ton, D.C. officials are debating whether
people can safely swim in the Potomac
River again next year.
But the 1970's were relatively easy years
for environmental cleanup. We were able to
regain a lot of lost ground because we had
relatively easy targets—a limited number
of sources that could remove a great deal
of pollution for relatively modest per-pound
costs. Moreover, the problem we set out to
address was simpler than the one we now
face. For example, we set out to control a
few gross pollutants such as basic oxygen
demand and particulates, not hundreds of
toxics—let alone the cumulative impact of
various mixes of pollutants.
In order not to lose ground, we will be
steadily pushed to do two increasingly dif-
ficult things: First, we must ask those we
have already regulated to tighten their con-
trols further—forcing them in many cases
up the steep outer extremities of their cost
curves. The incremental pounds of pollu-
tion removed when a company moves from
90 to 97 percent control will almost always
cost very much more than the average cost
of the pounds already being removed. As
we push further up these cost curves,
resistance will understandably increase.
Second, we must reach out and regulate
ever larger numbers of smaller and smaller
sources. This effort entails much greater
administrative effort for every pound of
pollution removed because the payoff from
each interaction is small. And it involves an
ever increasing number of voters in what
they commonly perceive as regulatory
hassles. This second path, consequently,
also increases public resistance to environ-
mental regulation.
We are going to have to be innovative to
escape this trap.
First, we must stimulate a sharp increase
in the rate of control technology innovation.
That is the chief, in the long term the only,
way we can protect environmental quality.
If we cannot find a steady and rapid stream
of new ways of controlling more pollution at
lower costs, our society will be forced to
choose between environmental deteriora-
tion and ever rising control costs.
If we allow this to be the choice, everyone
will lose. That is why I believe that finding
new ways of stimulating new control tech-
nologies is essential for the environmental
movement and very important for our
economy.
Second, we should look for other ways of
getting more for less. Whenever we can get
a pound of pollution removed for fifty cents
rather than a dollar (or two pounds removed
instead of one for that dollar), we are mov-
ing in the right direction. Because we have
been operating with relatively crude "com-
mand and control" regulatory tools, enor-
mous opportunities seem available.
In pursuing both these objectives, we
need to be rigorously realistic. A good
theory is not enough. We must have practi-
cal, implementable programs. Most
especially, they must be as administrable
and as enforceable as what we have now.
A "reform" that becomes a loophole (1 )
isnohelpand (2) will undercutthewhole
effort to innovate.
Over the last two years EPA has been
developing a closely interrelated set of
reforms that will, I believe, allow us to
escape the trap, to get more for less. These
reforms represent the first realistic comple-
ment, or perhaps alternatives to "command
and control" regulation. They can be
adapted to many non-environmental fields
of regulation as well.
"Command and
Control" Crude
Traditional environmental regulation sets
very specific emissions or discharge limits
for each class of process it regulates. Thus,
for example, we will tell asphalt producers
that they cannot emit more than 5.7 pounds
of particulate per million cubic feet of air
from their drying process. And then that
same standard applies to their loading and
transfer operations, 5.7 pounds of particu-
late per million cubic feet. This sort of reg-
ulation does not leave those it regulates
much room to find more efficient ways, or
combinations of ways, of meeting society's
objectives.
Central commands are likely to be poorly
and belatedly informed; they are certain to
be ignorant of the specifics of each case. A
general standard for drying asphalt prod-
ucts—or any other process—can never
take into account the age, condition, degree
of use, etc. of any particular equipment or
process. Only those who operate the plant
have this information.
Further, those who write central com-
mands can only make relatively crude
tradeoffs regarding how much control to
ask of sources of the same pollutant. They
commonly seek to apply a rough measure
of comparable technological effort, some-
times reinforced by a local ambient or
water quality modeling effort. Both ap-
proaches use economics in only the crudest
way, if at all. Such attempts at central plan-
ning simply cannot deal with the enormous
variation and flux of case specifics, let
alone the infinite possible combinations of
actions that could be used to meet any
particular environmental objective.
We can improve the quality and sensitiv-
ity of centra! commands—but only within
a very fundamental set of limits. The more
we try to adapt them to real world varia-
tions, the more detailed, cumbersome, and
restrictive they become. On the other hand,
the more general we make them, the more
wasteful their inattention to specifics
becomes."
Winning Allies:
The Strategic Alternative
The key to doing a better job—and to
escaping the trap we are now entering—is
to form an alliance. We need those we
regulate to put their case-specific knowl-
edge, their technical and managerial exper-
tise, and their energy and imagination to
work to solve the environmental and
economic dilemma we share.
If plant engineers felt it were in their and
their firm's interest to find more efficient
ways of abating pollution, we would have
more control technology innovation than
we have ever imagined. (Further, by thus
involving these engineers we would over-
come one of the chief reasons we have such
trouble getting plants that have installed
control equipment to operate and maintain
it properly—the fact that, uniquely, the
' This paper really only considers the "command"
side of our two-part "command and control"
regulatory system. Once we have adopted sensible
requirements, we must move on to the second
half of t he regulator's job: making sure that every-
one does his or her part to comply. This part of
our traditional system has also worked very poorly.
The economic approach to enforcement embodied
in the "Connecticut Enforcement Plan"that I
discuss in my forthcoming Harvard Journal of
Legislation article "Economic Law Enforcement"
is, I believe, how we can best fix this second half
of our dilemma.
EPAJOURNAL
-------
plant engineers do not feel that this equip-
ment is theirs.)
If an engineer finds a way of getting more
particulates out of a plant kiln's emissions
at a low cost, we can let him (or her) in-
crease his (or her) particulate emissions
from another part of the plant where it costs
more to remove a pound of particulate.
Or we can let the management sell that
reduction above and beyond what is
required by law to another firm in the same
area that otherwise could only meet part of
its particulate control requirements at much
higher costs, if at all. Before either trade
could be effected, we would have to be
convinced that we could administer and
enforce the new arrangements easily.
These arrangements, and a host of vari-
ants, give managers and engineers a power-
ful incentive to find more efficient forms of
control and more cost-effective mixes of
control. They create a market in which busi-
ness can make a profit by producing clean
air and water.
As with most other markets, trading must
take place within a set of agreed and
policed rules. I have consequently dubbed
the set of interdependent reforms we are
now reviewing "controlled trading." The
following several sections briefly discuss
some of the specific reforms that EPA plans
to develop together into this overall com-
plement to traditional "command and
control" regulation.
Offsets
Offsets are EPA's first application of the
idea that one source can meet its environ-
mental protection obligations by getting
another source to take additional control
actions. In "non-attainment" areas pollu-
tion from a proposed new source—even
one which controls its emissions to the
lowest level possible—would aggravate
existing violations of ambient air quality
health standards and trigger the statutory
prohibition. Our offset policy lets new
sources build under such circumstances
if they
• control emissions to the lowest achieve-
able level; and
0 persuade an existing source(s) to reduce
emissions by an amount at least equal to
the pollution the new source will add.
The existing source's reduction is sup-
posed to offset the impact of the new
source's emissions on air quality. EPA must
approve each proposed offset to ensure that
the total amount of pollutants emitted is
actually less than before the offset trans-
action opportunity. In seeking an existing
source of emissions that could be reduced
to offset new emissions, the owner of the
new source will probably look for the most
cost-effective pollution reduction available.
For example, in Oklahoma City, General
Motors worked out an offset agreement
with local oil companies so that it could
30
EPA's alternative approach to emission reduction, called the bubble concept, places an
imaginary dome over air pollution sources at a plant. Managers can control pollutants of a
like kind from each source within the plant at their discretion so long as the total emissions
are within set limits.
build a new auto assembly plant. The oil
companies agreed to install either floating
roofs (a very economical type of control)
or vapor recovery systems on their storage
tanks and GM agreed to use a new painting
process. The expected reduction of hydro-
carbon emissions (a major ingredient in
smog) was enough so that GM could build
a $400 million plant that eventually will
employ several thousand people.
A similar offset transaction made it pos-
sible for Volkswagen to open its first U.S.
assembly plant at New Stanton, Pa. The
offset came when the State highway
department substituted water-based for
hydrocarbon-based asphalt in its road
construction program for western Penn-
sylvania.
The offset policy lets a new source meet
ambient health standards by turning to
another source to find needed extra emis-
sion controls. There is no reason to confine
this flexible arrangement to new sources in
areas violating air quality standards.
The Bubble
The bubble policy explicitly encourages the
owners of plants facing high marginal costs
of pollution control to meet their emission
reduction requirements by putting extra
controls on discharge points within the
plant with lower control costs in exchange
for easing the pollution control require-
ments for discharge points in the plant with
high control costs. The bubble policy is so
named because it gives business managers
the flexibility to think of reducing total
emissions from an imaginary canopy, or
bubble, placed over all the emission
sources of a plant. If they find it is cheaper
to tighten the control of a pollutant at one
point and relax controls at another, they
can do so as long as the total pollution from
the plant does not exceed the sum of the
current limits on individual sources of
pollution in the plant.
There are some restrictions, of course.
Trades must be made between discharges
of the same pollutant. We would not, for
instance, allow a firm to emit more of a car-
cinogenic pollutant in return for an equal
volume reduction in a more innocuous one.
Plants with several industrial processes
and many emissions sources are the best
candidates for "bubbling." Chemical com-
panies, steel mills, and petroleum refineries
are among those now studying ways to
implement the bubble.
Union Carbide may realize a savings of
more than $5 million by using the bubble
at a West Virginia metal fabricating plant.
To meet current State regulations for par-
ticulate control, the company would have
to replace its high-energy scrubber with a
new control device, called a bag collector.
This could cost between $5 and $6 million.
Because they now have alternative ways of
reducing particulates within the plant,
Union Carbide is proposing to reduce emis-
Contmued on page 40
FEBRUARY 1980
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f
r
/
•
re
i
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1HE
DEL4WHRE
By John Heritage
Fred Lewis and his friends
pulled in the net full
of jumping, wiggling,
glistening shad from
the Delaware River 11 miles
above Trenton, N.J.
Lewis had a big year in
1979. He caught 2,000 of the
fish, the best haul since 1963.
"There's been more shad in
the 1970's," said Lewis.
"I think it's because of cleaner
water. As long as pollution
can be curbed the shad will
multiply and the runs will
increase."
It was once much different.
In the 1940's and 1950's the
pollution in the Delaware
soared, with wastes pouring in
from a massive industrial-urban
complex that helped sustain
a Nation at war and then
supported a booming post-war
economy. The pollution con-
sumed the oxygen in the river,
making it difficult for fish
to survive.
The recent shad upturn
helps foster Lewis's affection
for the river, an affection
developed over 48 years of
fishing the Delaware. "There's
more joy than sorrow in it.
It can be beautiful and serene
at times. However, it can also
be restless and wild, doing
more damage than you ever
thought possible," he says.
The shad plays a special
role in the Delaware. It is an
indicator of the river's health.
It helps measure from year to
year the well-being of a water-
way that flows from the Catskill
Mountains of southeastern
New York, then shapes the
border of eastern Pennsylvania
and western New Jersey before
dropping out of the uplands
Opposite: Shad fishermen with
their catch.
FEBRUARY 1980
to pass by cities such as
Trenton, N.J., Philadelphia, Pa.
and Wilmington, Del. It empties
into the Atlantic between Cape
May, N.J., and Cape Henlopen,
Del., after crossing the coastal
plain.
Even in colonial days the
Delaware basin was a major
center of American commerce
and industry. Flour, leather,
textiles, and paper were pro-
duced above Wilmington. The
river was also the Nation's
ship-building center, as well as
a busy shipping area with an
extensive network of ports
along the upper estuary. Started
in 1802, the gunpowder mills
of E.I. duPont grew into the
massive chemical empire that
is still one of the key industries
in the estuary.
The Delaware Basin had all
the natural assets needed to
spur industrial growth. It was
rich in the essential resources
—water, coal, wood, and iron
—and occupied a prime loca-
tion that westward expansion
did little to undermine. "What
makes a Nation is a good piece
of geography," poet Robert
Frost once said.
Today, an 85-mile stretch of
the estuary serves a population
of about 3.5 million people,
part of the East Coast mega-
lopolis. The estuary also is the
site of one of the largest
concentrations of oil refineries
in the world and major steel,
energy, food, processing,
paper, and chemical industries.
Although it has a heavy
workload, the Delaware is
relatively small among the
Nation's major rivers. It ranks
17th in length nationally,
stretching 330 miles. In con-
trast to the Mississippi, which
drains 40 percent of the U.S.,
the Delaware Basin drains onfy
1 percent of the land, 1 3,000
square miles.
The industrial growth over
three centuries has left the
Delaware a special legacy—
the reputation as a smaller
river that does a big job. But
the legacy also has its darker
side—a river polluted in much
of the estuary by municipal
wastes, oil, toxic substances,
and other leftovers, a waterway
historically treated as a sewer
on the mistaken assumption
that the river had the limitless
capacity to absorb waste.
Writing in the log of the Half
Moon—a Dutch ship sailing up
the Delaware in August 1609—
explorer Henry Hudson de-
scribed the waterway as "one of
the finest, best, and pleasant
rivers in the world." But as re-
cently as 1975, wastes with an
oxygen demand of about 800,-
000 pounds per day were being
discarded into the estuary from
the cities and industries that
line its shores. During the sum-
mer months when flow is low
and temperatures high, oxygen
in a 20-mile reach has often
been reduced by sewage and
other waste below the level that
fish need. During rainstorms the
sewers of Philadelphia and
other cities often overflow and
bypass treatment plants. Mil-
lions of gallons of raw sewage
and the runoff of city streets
pour directly into the Delaware.
Toxic wastes enter the river
from industry, inadequate sew-
age treatment plants, urban
storm water runoff, and even
from air pollution fallout. From
N.Y
Pa
Del w Wilmington
CapeHenlo
tlantic Ocean
ire in Nr\v York St,i:
Vew Jersey
and Pennsylvania south into
Bay
-------
Trenton to Wilmington, about
90 industries and municipalities
discharge into the river.
Instead of immediately wash-
ing these wastes away, the
estuary acts like a giant bath-
tub, the waters sloshing back
and forth with the ebb and flow
of the tide, concentrating the
pollution from hundreds of
industries and millions of
people. It takes three months or
more for water to move the 130
miles from the head of tide at
Trenton to the Atlantic. By
contrast it only takes about a
week for water to flow the 200
miles from the Delaware's
headwaters to Trenton.
When conditions were worst,
as much as 85 percent of the
waste in Philadelphia's sewage
was entering the river even after
treatment. "You can stand on
Broad and Chestnut Streets and
smell the river," complained a
local editor during the 1940's.
The shad runs were poor during
those years.
Even now, the river near
Philadelphia bears the scars of
past neglect. EPA Regional
Administrator Jack J. Schramm
sees this as he passes over the
Delaware every day on the way
to his office next to Independ-
ence Hail. "Unfortunately,! see
the worst of the river here," he
says. "Light oil sheens are often
seen on the surface. Flotsam
and jetsam wash in and out of
derelict piers. Mudflats and oil-
soaked earth line some of the
shore and heavy loads of sedi-
ment turn the color of the water
into a grayish green."
But the outlook is getting
better. In a major improvement,
Philadelphia is putting a 200
million gallon-a-day, upgraded
waste treatment plant on line.
A river quality difference is ex-
pected by the summer of 1980.
Under a recent agreement with
the EPA, Philadelphia—by far
the river's biggest discharger—
will also upgrade its two other
plants by 1983.
Overall, Philadelphia has
agreed to spend $692 million
to improve its waste treatment
plants, with EPA providing
$519 million of the costs.
EPA's Schramm says of the
agreement, "This is a milestone
event in the cleanup of the
Delaware, and one of our most
important accomplishments
since I've been Regional Admin-
istrator. It binds the city to a
major pollution control effort
which is essential if we are to
see future improvement of the
river."
In another major improve-
ment, Trenton in the next two
years will install a system to
eliminate most overflows from
combined sewers. Also, Tren-
ton and€amden, N.J., have
recently begun upgrading their
waste treatment plants.
On the industry side, most
plants in the estuary area have
met the waste clean-up stand-
ards for daily oxygen demand.
In the past ten years industry
has cut by 91 percent its dis-
charge of oxygen-consuming
wastes into the river, according
to the Delaware River Basin
Commission. Industry costs for
construction of cleanup facili-
ties total $100 million, the
Commission estimates.
There has been some real
progress as a result of munic-
ipal and industrial cleanup
efforts. Schramm says, "The
river is no longer black from
coal wastes, odors have been
eliminated, and fish have
returned."
Ironically, the quality of the
water is already good for 90
percent of the length of the
Delaware and its tributaries.
The clean stretches are largely
in the upper and lower parts of
the basin that are mostly rural.
In these sections the challenge
is protection rather than the
cleanup job in the soiled
estuary.
The upper Delaware River
passes through a pleasant land
of tiny villages, lowland and up-
land farms, and forests recover-
ing from previous cutovers.
With the exception of several
pools, the river from Hancock
75 miles downstream to Port
Jervis, N.Y., can be waded or
breasted at many points during
low flow periods in summer
and fall.
The upper reach includes the
Sullivan County, New York, site
of the largest single bald eagle
winter gathering in the North-
eastern U.S., with a population
of over 30 birds from November
through March. The upper Dela-
ware includes the legendary
Junction Pool near Roscoe,
N.Y., where trout rise in clear
cold waters—a haven for trout
fishermen.
With its natural and historic
treasures, the upper Delaware
has become a popular recrea-
tion area. The valley is a favor-
ite playground for metropolitan
New York and Philadelphia.
An indication of the river's
drawing power is the fact that
about 30,000 boating and
recreation maps of the 200-mile
upper river have been sold by
the River Basin Commission
since 1966.
Congress included a 110-
mile stretch of the upper river
in the National Wild and Scenic
River System in 1978, recog-
nizing and protecting it as a
valuable resource for canoeing,
fishing, camping, and picnick-
ing. The section reaches from
Delaware Water Gap, a break
in part of the Appalachian
Mountain chain, north to Han-
cock. Parts of the waterway
have become such an attraction
that potential conflicts have
arisen with other uses, say
National Park Service officials
who administer the Wild and
Scenic River section. Dangers
include litter, sewage from in-
tensive second home develop-
ment, clashes between uses
such as boating and fishing,
and degradation of some
natural areas.
Pollution is generally not a
serious problem in the Delaware
above Trenton except for dis-
charges from steel mills and
other heavy industries flowing
from Easton, Bethlehem, and
Allentown, on the Lehigh River,
a major tributary in Pennsylva-
nia. Acid mine drainage has
seeped into and polluted the
Lehigh in coal mining areas of
eastern Pennsylvania, although
State programs are reducing the
flow, according to River Basin
Commission officials.
"The river's pretty good
from Trenton up," says Gerald
Hansler, executive director of
the Delaware River Basin Com-
mission. "The problem is to
keep it that way." The Commis-
sion is the chief governmental
instrument for cleaning up and
protecting the river. The group
is one of two Federal-State river
basin commissions in the coun-
try. Its members are the U.S.
Secretary of the Interior and the
Governors of Delaware, New
Jersey, New York, and Pennsyl-
vania. The efforts of the Basin
Commission and the States to
clean up the Delaware are sup-
ported by Region 3 of the EPA.
Confirming Hansler's assess-
ment of conditions on the upper
river, an EPA study in the sum-
mer of 1978 found good water
quality in the popular recreation
area including tiny Tocks Island
located above the Delaware
Water Gap. (Tocks Island be-
came the center of a national
controversy in the 1970's. The
issue was whether to build a
large dam and reservoir there
mainly for water supply and
flood control. Environmentalists
favored preserving the river in
its free flowing state. Congress
tentatively dropped the dam
proposal in 1978 and made that
stretch part of the Wild and
Scenic System.)
In the lower portion of the
Delaware, below Wilmington,
the river's water quality is also
good though tainted with the
treated wastes of the megalop-
olis. Here the river widens into
the broad reaches of Delaware
Bay. The countryside is a
serene expanse of salt marshes,
farmlands, villages, and waters.
In places, the marshes reach
inland for many miles, provid-
ing shelter and food for a wide
variety of waterfowl, fish, and
other wildlife. Waterfowl and
shore birds by the hundreds of
thousands winter in the bay and
continue north and south from
the numerous wildlife refuges
along its shores. By late spring
the birds are gone and the bay
begins the warming process
that makes it a spawning and
nursery ground for fish and
shellfish, including oysters.
But environmental decay is
hurting oystering, long a way of
life of the bay. Decades of pol-
lution, super-efficient harvest-
ing techniques, and shellfish
disease have depleted the beds.
Only about 40 oyster boats now
sail out of the town of Bivalve,
N.J. In 1920 there were more
than 350.
The oyster downturn is a
warning of the kind of changes
and conflicts threatening Dela-
ware Bay. After years as a back-
water largely ignored by inter-
national shipping and by thou-
sands of city dwellers flocking
to Atlantic Ocean beaches, the
10
EPA JOURNAL
-------
Bay is suddenly attractive to
nearly everyone. The deep nat-
ural channels of the bay and its
closeness to existing refining
capacity make it attractive to
industry. At the same time, the
people of New Jersey and Dela-
ware are recognizing the great
recreation potential in a clean
and swimmabfe Delaware Bay.
These two new circum-
stances—the immediate pres-
sure for refineries and other
industries and the long-term
potential for recreation—
require a major planning and
regulatory effort, concluded a
report by the President's Coun-
cil on Environmental Quality
called "The Delaware River
Basin." The permanent changes
that these new pressures may
bring to the bay country could
seriously degrade the natural
and manmade environment that
has grown up there, the report
warned.
The Delaware's pollution
problem has been analyzed by
a special approach since 1967,
using a computerized model of
the river. The model is so
refined that the latest version
will be able to predict water
quality in the river hour by hour,
as well as the effects of various
waste quantities from each
source on the river.
Based on a 1960's version of
the model, cleanup standards
were set in 1967. Maximum
allowable waste volumes were
set for each of more than 90
major dischargers in the stretch
from Trenton to below Wilming-
ton, with a 10 percent reserve
to accommodate new facilities.
The wastes were measured in
terms of oxygen-consuming
materials that could choke off
the river's capacity for balanced
life. Compliance schedules
were established, and monitor-
ing was provided.
The Delaware River Basin
Commission set the standards
and is carrying them out. The
Commission was created in
1961, six years after the worst
flood in the Delaware River's
history. The flood led to a com-
prehensive study of the basin,
including flooding, water sup-
ply, recreation, and salt levels
in the river from sea water.
In a separate study, pollution
of the estuary was analyzed.
This was conducted by the U.S.
Public Health Service and the
Department of the Interior,
EPA's predecessors in water
quality control. The study cost
more than $1 million over three
years to develop what was the
first cleanup mode! for a tidal
body of water. The Commission
used this model in its program
for the Delaware.
In a key difference from a
previous Delaware River advi-
problem in continuing the clean
up job. From 1967 until now,
the goal has been treating the
organic waste loads being dis-
charged by point sources—
industry pipes and municipal
waste treatment plants. This
task is well under way. The next
hurdle—and it is a big one—is
to treat the organic wastes from
nonpoint sources such as agri-
cultural and municipal drainage.
The price tag for treating
pollution from nonpoint sources
could be hundreds of millions
clean-up item being pressed by
EPA. An increasing concern is
preventing the exhaustion of
groundwater under the Dela-
ware River Basin. A persistent
problem is keeping the Dela-
ware's flow high enough during
droughts to hold back salt water
in the estuary, preventing sod-
ium contamination of drinking
supplies for Philadelphia as
well as Camden, N.J., and
towns in Burlington, Camden,
continued to inside back cover
••*
sory group, the Commission
was given powers to enforce
the standards it set, including
the waste discharge limits.
Where both EPA and Commis-
sion requirements were in-
volved, the more rigid stand-
ards have been applied.
Will the Delaware ever be as
clean as when the Lenni Lenape
Indians lived along its shores,
fishing, hunting, and cultivating
crops? No, says Hansler. "With
the wastes from 3.5 million
people going into the estuary,
even after treatment the river
won't have the same pristine
purity as when the Indians were
there."
"We recognize the realities
of an urban industrial complex
withcombined sewers built over
50 to 100 years ago," Hansler
says. "We might have enough
problems just keeping up."
Parts of the estuary will not
meet the national goal of swim-
mable, fishable water quality by
1983, he added.
Hansler points to a major
of dollars. It often would in-
volve massive construction to
separate the storm and sanitary
sewers built underground de-
cades ago. Storm overflow from
combined sewers dumps a lot
of waste into the river. Most of
the sources are nonpoint—run-
off from streets and gas sta-
tions, and eroding soil.
As an example of this pollu-
tion problem, organic wastes
from nonpoint sources in the
upper 25 miles of the Delaware
estuary total 1 70,000 pounds
a day, compared to 34,000
pounds daily from point
sources, Hansler estimates.
Other tasks are rising higher
on the Delaware water clean-up
list as the organic wastes from
point sources are controlled.
They include handling 1,000
tons a day of sludge left over
from waste treatment, a tougher
job with an approaching Federal
ban on sewage sludge dumping
at sea. Treating hazardous and
toxic wastes from the indus-
trialized Delaware is another
Hauling in the nets along the
Delaware River during the shad
run.
FEBRUARY 1980
1 1
-------
Traveling
into the
Future
Interview With
Neil Goldschmidt,
Secretary,
Department of
Transportation
Transportation policies
can play a key role in affect-
ing our environment. How will
policies under your Admin-
istration respond to our social
and environmental goals?
A
I think a study of the re-
cord will show that DOT has
been increasingly conscious of
national social and environ-
mental goals in recent years.
Several statutes passed in the
early 1970's—especially the
National Environmental Policy
Act—sensitized us to the need
to consider environmental im-
pacts along with general trans-
portation objectives. Most re-
cently, in the President's 1979
Environmental Message, we
were given additional direction
to respond to urban and social
objectives and I am making
every effort to do so.
In particular, I have directed
that urban transportation plan-
ning—which is the basis for
many of the transportation pro-
grams likely to have significant
social and environmental im-
pacts—specifically include an-
alysis of urban, energy, and
environmental concerns. Energy
conservation, preservation of
our center cities, and consist-
ency with national air quality
standards—to name just a few
—are now explicit goals of our
planning processes.
Individual projects will also
have to be evaluated on the
basis of their contributions to
overall social, economic and
environmental objectives. In
keeping with our traditions,
I will place heavy emphasis in
our decisions on any consensus
which has been reached at State
and local levels. But I will also
assure that national standards
and priorities will be met.
Q
DOT and EPA are work-
ing together to develop policy
and programs under the 1 977
Clean Air Act Amendments in
many different transportation
areas such as planning and
programming transportation
networks, controlling bus
emissions, testing fuel econ-
omy, and instituting inspec-
tion and maintenance pro-
grams. How well are
coordination efforts working?
XiWe have negotiated, jointly
signed, and issued several
documents to carry out trans-
portation requirements under
the Clean Air Act. The 1977
Amendments have three sec-
tions that directly affect trans-
portation planning.
When the Clean Air Act
Amendments were passed in
1977, DOT was advised
through the Office of Manage-
ment and Budget that the Presi-
dent wanted the new require-
ments of the Clean Air Act
integrated into transportation
planning. As a result five docu-
ments were jointly signed by
EPA and DOT.
This has meant a significant
step forward. It assures that
transportation objectives and
clean air objectives do not pull
in opposite directions. The re-
sponsibilities of the two agen-
cies are implemented under
single, rather than separate,
guidelines. The most significant
result may be the designation
of institutions headed by elect-
ed officials to carry out inte-
grated planning (Clean Air Act
Section 174).
For State and local govern-
ments that must ultimately
carry out these programs, joint
rather than separate DOT/EPA
actions are welcomed because
they greatly reduce redun-
dancy, inconsistency, and red
tape. While it does take longer
to get the approvals necessary
to issue joint rather than uni-
lateral documents, we are
pleased with the results.
fid
lEnergy conserva-
tion, preservation of
our center cities, and
consistency with
national air quality
standards are now
goals in our planning
processes. • •
Do you foresee any areas
where conflicts between the
two agencies will emerge?
Some conflicts, I suppose,
are inevitable. These conflicts
reflect the differing missions of
our agencies, the diverse and
complex society in which we
live and which we reflect, and
different expectations that the
people and their elected rep-
resentatives impose upon us.
For example, there are likely
to be conflicts between our
statutory obligation to pro-
vide fast, safe, and efficient
transportation for the American
people and air quality, noise,
and water quality standards
which may point toward slower,
less direct, and possibly less
efficient transportation. The
shortest highway route between
two points may be through a
water supply reservoir, to cite
one recent example of an un-
fortunate conflict. As in all such
conflicts, we must rely upon
good judgment, compromise,
and fair and open public proc-
esses to arrive at decisions
which best reflect the overall
public interest.
In short, conflicts may be
inevitable but not insoluble.
Q
Some major urban areas
with severe air quality prob-
lems need to improve their
transit systems dramatically
to help reduce pollution
levels. Do you believe that the
current Urban Mass Trans-
portation programs and funds
will be adequate to improve
transit services significantly?
A
We have made substantial
progress in urban mass trans-
portation in the last 10 years.
The decline in transit ridership
has buen reversed. Transit
ridership is actually increasing
in many cities for the first time
in the post-World War II era.
The Federal investment in
public transit in the past 1 0
years has exceeded $15 billion
and helped more than 250 com-
munities. And I think we have
made significant strides in
integrating urban mass trans-
portation needs into the overall
planning processes of our local
1?
EPA JOURNAL
-------
communities. This is a far cry
from where we were 10 years
ago, but in many ways the big-
gest challenge is still ahead.
Despite our growing aware-
ness and concern for energy
conservation, we have man-
aged to take very few cars off
our highways during commuter
rush hours—and millions of
those cars still carry a single
occupant. Nationwide, only
nine percent of the American
people use mass transit to get to
and from work. To improve this
situation is going to take a
major commitment of time,
talent, and cold, hard cash.
That is why President Carter's
proposal for a windfall profits
tax is so important. This tax
would make additional billions
available over the next decade
to enable cities to buy buses,
improve or extend existing
transit lines, and improve facili-
ties and equipment. The trans-
portation energy initiatives
which are part of the Presi-
dent's overall program for the
windfall profits tax would also
make funds available for car-
pool, vanpool, and separate
transit lane programs to save
energy. These programs will
also produce a net gain in air
quality, by thinning out the traf-
fic stream and reducing con-
gestion. The beauty of the
windfall profits tax is that it will
enable us to do more fully the
job that must be done, without
adding to the public's tax
burden.
Do you think that the
provisions that allow Inter-
state highway funds and
urban highway system funds
to be spent for transit will be
used to make a significant
contribution to transit
improvements?
A
The Interstate Transfer
provision allows States and
communities to substitute pub-
lic transit projects for any
planned highway projects that
are no longer wanted or may no
longer be necessary. That pro-
vision is one of the brightest
lights in our national transpor-
tation policy. It gets to the root
of the issue—local discretion.
A community should be free to
determine its own transporta-
tion future—free, for example,
to say "no" to more highways
and "yes" to a transit alterna-
tive without losing Federal
dollars as a result of that
choice. The Interstate Transfer
provision already has benefited
a number of cities, including
my own city of Portland. The
Portland Transit mall project,
an important stimulus of the
revitalization of the downtown
area, would not have been pos-
sible without the transfer of un-
used Interstate allocations to
the project. Washington, D.C.
also has profited from the trans-
fer provision. Much of the
Metro rapid transit system is
being built with unneeded Inter-
state money, and economic
development projects are fol-
lowing the subway's path.
Would you encourage
local governments to make
these transfers?
A
I encourage local govern-
ments, along with State govern-
ments, to explore fully every
available transportation option,
and to develop a plan that is
best for that particular individ-
ual community. Certainly, Inter-
state Transfer is one option
that I encourage States and
local governments to investi-
gate. In fact, we are publishing
new guidelines that make the
various alternatives clear to any
community that may not want
to build a freeway but neverthe-
less wants to invest in improved
transportation. I have also put
a team of top staff people "on
the road" visting city officials to
help them understand their
choices.
EPA has had some suc-
cess persuading major em-
ployers to develop programs
that encourage the use of car-
pools, vanpools, mass transit
fare reductions, and bicycle
facilities, in order to cut pollu-
tion. Will DOT join in this
effort in the pursuit of energy
conservation?
ii. The Department of Trans-
portation already has an active
program aimed at encouraging
carpooling, vanpooling, and
other energy-efficient transpor-
tation alternatives. The Federal-
aid Highway Program provides
funds which can be used for
carpooling and vanpooling proj-
ects. Ride-sharing activities
don't have to be restricted to
the Federal-aid highway sys-
tem, and Federal-aid funds can
be applied to 75 percent of the
project cost, for everything
from the computers required to
set up the program, to the traf-
fic control equipment to channel
the movement of traffic, to the
acquisition of the vehicles
needed for a vanpool program.
State division offices of the
Federal Highway Administra-
tion have a wealth of specific
and helpful information avail-
able for persons, organizations,
businesses, or local communi-
ties interested in ride-sharing
programs. These division offices
fifi
iThe Federal Gov-
ernment has an obli-
gation for the safety
of its citizens and the
public welfare. • •
will help set-up ride-sharing
programs in local communities.
We also provide Federal funds
to help pay transit operating
costs, so that cities are better
able to offer reduced fare
incentives. Finally, the Depart-
ment has a number of bicycle
assistance programs in effect,
to encourage biking where it
is safe.
Q
Both EPA and DOT have
been criticized by auto manu-
facturers for imposing regula-
tions which they feel have
had an adverse effect on the
industry. How do you respond
to that?
A
The Federal government
has an obligation, I believe, for
the safety of its citizens and
the public welfare. Auto safety
regulations were established in
the light of alarming increases
in highway fatalities, and a
seeming reluctance on the part
of the industry to promote auto
safely voluntarily. As a result
a lot of lives have been spared,
and no apology is needed for
that. Congress, with the support
of successive administrations,
has imposed mileage as well as
safety standards on the auto
manufacturers, to save fuel as
well as lives. I don't believe
that the standards have been
excessive or unrealistic. In fact,
the government, as it turns out,
has done better at foreseeing
the market than Detroit. With-
out the progressively stiffer
mileage standards, the auto-
makers might be at an even
greater competitive disadvan-
tage than they are today, when
domestic sales—overall—are
dropping while import sales are
climbing. If there has been an
adverse effect on the Nation's
auto industry—which is debat-
able—it has been the result of
a complacent industry unwill-
ing to take the lead in encourag-
ing the American public to
accept smaller, more energy-
efficient cars. Let me add that
I believe that situation is now
behind us. Based on my conver-
sations with industry leaders,
I anticipate a new, more co-
FEBRUARY 1980
13
-------
operative and more productive
relationship between the gov-
ernment and the auto industry.
Q
It seems now when we
need a rail system more than
ever for both passengers and
freight, our railroads are dis-
appearing. What role do you
see for rail systems in the
future?
A
Well, for one thing, I don't
see rail service disappearing.
We're working hard to prevent
that. What is disappearing is
rail service that is inefficient,
unneeded, or redundant—so
that the resources available can
be invested in a rail system
streamlined considerably from
what we have been accustomed
to in the past—a system geared
to operate on the basis of com-
petitive market forces rather
than artificially imposed gov-
ernment regulations. I support
the recent cutbacks on the Am-
trak system, which trimmed
something like 30 percent from
the route structure by dropping
little-used or redundant trains.
It was a necessary move, and
one which, in time, wiil lead to
a national rail passenger system
that serves the needs of the
American public without over-
burdening the taxpayers.
On the freight side, we have
heard for years about the crisis
in the railroad industry. This
crisis isn't over. The encourag-
ing financial reports for a few
railroads this year can't offset
the worsening plight of some of
the Northeast and Midwest
carriers.
Three years ago with the
"4R" Act Congress took a ten-
tative step toward reform in the
major areas of regulation affect-
ing the railroads. But we have
not achieved the freedoms that
law was designed to give to the
railroads. We hope the rail
deregulation legislation now
before Congress will correct
that situation, encouraging
competition and greater inves-
tor confidence. For too long the
railroads have depended on
signals from the ICC in setting
rates and managing their opera-
tions. It is time the Federal
Government stopped dictating
answers to questions which
should be answered by the
marketplace.
Without a doubt, there is a
role for both passenger and
freight trains in our future, and
there is good reason to support
them even if, in some cases and
in some amount, a subsidy is
required. But the line must be
drawn somewhere on subsidiza-
tion. The crucial test rests on
our ability, and the ability of
the industry, to improve the
management operations of the
railroads.
works well in Portland may
not work as well some place
else. That is why I believe
that whenever possible we must
provide the opportunity for
local communities to experi-
ment in line with the special
needs and resources of the
particular community involved.
There are no set answers, no
iron-clad formulas—and we
are certainly far less likely to
find the right solutions in
Washington than we are to find
them in individual communities.
How do you see trans-
portation needs being met for
people who live in rural
areas?
A
fit
.we are cer-
tainty far less likely
to find the right solu-
tions in Washington
than...in individual
communities. • •
I'm not sure there is an
easy answer for that. My
experience in the suburban and
rural parts of Oregon is that
the non-profit organizations
that have some stability
generally have been quite suc-
cessful at operating equipment
and providing a real service
that cannot realistically be met
by a mass transit system
operating within traditional
patterns and restraints. In fact,
in Portland the transit agency
exercised its authority to apply
for Federal capital grants to
get the necessary equipment
and then, in turn, farmed it out
to be operated by church groups
or other responsible organiza-
tions. It's an approach that
has worked well. But what
Steam, methane, gaso-
hol, and electricity are
occasionally mentioned as
alternative fuel sources for
transportation. Do you think
these fuels offer substantial
benefts for energy
conservation?
.ii. Well, yes, some—of
course—more than others.
The United States today gets
approximately 96 percent of
its energy from only four
sources, all of which, eventu-
ally, will be exhausted: oil,
natural gas, coal, and uranium.
Each suffers from one or more
environmental, safety, cost, or
supply problems which, com-
bined with the political and
economic uncertainties of the
international marketplace,
make it imperative that we
reduce our dependence on
energy sources that are beyond
our immediate control. Presi-
dent Carter strongly supports
alternative energy research
and development, and a sub-
stantial portion of the revenues
from the windfall profits tax
are earmarked for that purpose.
Gasoho! already is being pro-
duced and marketed to a
limited extent in the Midwest,
and has a tremendous potential
for reducing transportation's
consumption of petroleum,
which currently accounts for
more than half of our petroleum
use. In Brazil, gasohoi in a
blend of 80 percent gasoline
and 20 percent agriculturally-
derived alcohol has been the
standard transportation fuel for
years. It is environmentally
sound, with fewer pollutants
than straight gasoline, and
appears to give better engine
performance.
I believe potential alterna-
tives should be explored, with
appropriate Federal support.
It is not unrealistic to project
that in the year 2000 alterna-
tive energy sources—those
known today and maybe some
yet to be discovered—could
collectively contribute more
than 25 percent of this Nation's
energy needs.
Air transportation has
been growing, with the
resulting increased problems
of noise around airports.
Since the Federal Aviation
Administration is under your
jurisdiction, what steps can
be taken to reduce this
problem?
The Department of
Transportation has been pur-
suing a number of ways to
reduce the problem of airport
noise. As you know, we have
been moving toward more
stringent noise abatement
standards for the past decade,
raising these standards as
technology increases our
ability to produce aircraft
engines that are quieter and
less harmful environmentally.
The FAA is working under
regulations which will bring
all airlines and aircraft opera-
tors into full compliance with
strict noise abatement stand-
ards by Jan. 1,1985.The
FAA also is enforcing new
operating procedures and rout-
ing patterns. In addition we
are working with local com-
munities to assist in the
development of local airport
noise abatement planning.
This program goes beyond
providing technical assistance
to the actual funding of land
acquisition around airports
to provide noise buffer zones.
Airport noise is a serious prob-
lem, and we're never going to
solve it completely. But new
jetliners are coming along,
planes that will be noticeably
quieter, and I think airport
noise is an environmental
problem that is going to get
better, not worse, in the
1980's.D
EPA JOURNAL
-------
Transit
Subsidies
A growing number of
companies around the
country are subsidiz-
ing mass transit
fares for their employees to
help conserve gasoline and re-
duce urban air pollution.
Congressional Quarterly,
the news research organization
in Washington, D.C., that re-
ports on Congress, recently
joined more than 100 major
companies in dozens of cities
—including Los Angeles,
Dallas, Chicago, Seattle, Hart-
ford, Kansas City, and Minne-
apolis—that already are paying
part or all of their employees'
bus and rapid transit fares.
Those providing transit rider
subsidies include 11 major em-
ployers in Hartford, Conn.; 51
companies in Seattle, including
the First National Bank; 168
downtown Dallas employers,
such as Fidelity Union Life
Insurance; 15 Chicago com-
panies, including Combined
Insurance Company of America;
the city of Kansas City and the
Commerce Bank in Kansas City,
Mo., and the Los Angeles
Times, Arco, the California
Bank, and two other firms in
Los Angeles.
The transit rider subsidies
drew support from David
Hawkins, Assistant Adminis-
trator at EPA for Air, Noise, and
Radiation. "It's very encourag-
ing to see employers demon-
strate a concern for improving
air quality and saving energy by
giving incentives to their em-
ployees to cut down on single
person auto commuting,"
Hawkins said. "EPA has been
advocating programs for em-
ployers to subsidize transit
riding rather than parking, spon-
sor van pool and car pool pro-
grams, give priority parking to
carpools and van pools, and
provide bicycle storage
facilities."
"If the commendable actions
of Congressional Quarterly and
the other business firms across
the country represent a signifi-
cant trend, cities will find it
much easier to solve their auto
pollution and energy prob-
lems," he added.
Meanwhile, the idea of Fed-
eral agencies also providing
transit rider subsidies for their
employees received support
from Ron Sarros, Assistant Di-
rector of Transportation Plan-
ning for the Metropolitan Wash-
ington Council of Governments.
Pointing out that many Federal
agencies in the Washington,
D.C. area are now charging
parking fees for use of their
lots, Sarros said, "We would
hope they would use some of
that revenue for transit sub-
sidies."
The Congressional Quarterly
action drew favorable comment
from several sources in the
Washington area. Spokesmen
for several large Washington,
D.C. companies said that they
would consider offering mass
transit subsidies to their
employees.
Richard Brown, a vice presi-
dent of Riggs National Bank,
Washington's largest bank with
more than two dozen branches
and 1,800 employees, said,
"We used to give street car
passes and still give bus tokens
for employees on downtown
business trips and I think we
would definitely consider this."
Spokesmen for Garfinckel's and
Perpetual Federal Savings and
Loan, two prominent Washing-
ton establishments, also said
their firms would consider such
subsidies.
"This (Congressional Quar-
terly) is the first Washington
company I've heard of" that
will subsidize the use of Metro
public transit, said Metro
spokesman Cody Pfanstiehl.
"And I say hooray for them."
Congressional Quarterly will
pay 25 percent of public trans-
portation costs for the 60 to 70
percent of its employees who
commute on Metro, according
to John Angier, the company's
comptroller,
"Here at CQ we feel we have
a national obligation to con-
serve gasoline and a community
obligation to support Metro
public transportation," Angier
said.
CQ's Metro subsidy plan in-
cludes buying bus tickets, fare-
cards, and special passes, and
then reselling them to em-
ployees at a discount, Angier
said. The passes, good for two
weeks of unlimited Metro bus
use and up to S6 in subway
travel, can save commuters "at
least $8.25 over regular fares,
and more for long-distance
commuters," a Metro spokes-
man said.
For years, car travei and
especially parking for com-
muters has been subsidized by
both private firms and the Fed-
eral Government.
Until last November 1 an
estimated 27,000 places were
reserved for free or cut-rate
price parking for Federal em-
ployees in downtown Wash-
ington, nearby Rosslyn. Va.,
and at the Pentagon.
On that date, an order signed
by President Carter required
the Federal employees to pay a
fee determined by the General
Services Administration,
initially about half the going
rate at nearby commercial lots.
The policy also applies to
Federal agencies nationwide.
The support of public transit
by private business began dur-
ing the Arab oil embargo in
1973-74 and surged last year
when gasoline shortages devel-
oped again around the country,
according to the American Pub-
lic Transit Association, trade
organization for the Nation's
bus and subway operations.
"Seattle is considered the
leader in this," said Ron Hart-
man, the Association's director
of planning. "They've now got
more than 50 firms giving bus
discounts or even free bus
tickets to over 10,000 em-
ployees." P
President Carter recently signed a bill authorizing $1.7 billion in
Federal funds to help complete construction of the Metrorail mass
transit system in the Washington, D.C,, area. The President noted
that the money going into the subway system would help stem
urban decay, improve air quality, reduce traffic, and save energy.
FEBRUARY 1980
1!)
-------
lormer Secretary of
Transportation Brock
Adams warned us that
the existing fuel economy
standards for new cars will
not suffice in the long run. By
the late 1980's the effect of
raising the average fuel
economy of new cars from the
current 19 miles per gallon to
27.5 will have been largely
realized, and petroleum demand
will spurt once again. Beyond
1985, even a one-mile-per-
gallon improvement in fuel
economy per year for new cars
may not be sufficient to offset
the projected increases in
automobile travel.
To confront the basic
problem, Mr. Adams told us,
we must be prepared to do
more: We must "reinvent," as
it were, the car. The industry
has to take a giant technologi-
cal leap forward so that, by
the end of the century, the
fuel economy of all new cars
produced in any one year would
average 50 miles per gallon.
To help us reach the 50-mpg
goal by the year 2000, the
Secretary proposed to launch
a massive government-funded
program of basic automotive
research. The price tag may
eventually reach the level of
$100 million per year.
Is an Apollo-like crash pro-
gram for the automobile really
necessary?
According to many automo-
bile experts, small, lightweight,
highly efficient cars that would
average 50 miles per gallon will
soon be within our technologi-
cal capability. The Volkswagen
Rabbit diesel model already
gets 42 miles to the gallon,
while both the Ford Fiesta and
the Japanese Honda are in the
35-to 40-mpg range. Improved
automatic transmissions, light-
er weight materials such as
fiber-reinforced plastics, so-
phisticated small engines and
better matching of the engine's
power to the car's weight could
place the goal of 50-mpg fuel
economy within our grasp.
But such an achievement
would come only at a price. A
50-mpg car would be signifi-
cantly smaller and lighter than
today's subcompacts—perhaps
even smaller than the Honda
"We may be past the point where we can
afford the all-purpose automobile. We may be
on the threshold of an era that will require
sharper specialization of automobiles."
Civic. The car might carry only
two passengers in comfort and
have little space left for lug-
gage. It would have modest
acceleration compared to
today's automobiles. It might
even have limited cruising
range to save on the weight of
its fuel payload. In short, the
50-mpg car of the future would
be essentially a "city car"—a
low-performance vehicle in-
tended for commuting and for
local, intrametropolitan travel,
which nevertheless typically
accounts for up to 80 percent
of auto travel in metropolitan
areas.
But what of the other 20 per-
cent? Men and women do not
live by commuting alone. Of
what use is a car that could not
take a family on a 3,000-mile
vacation trip to the Rockies; or
pull a boat or trailer; or carry an
extra load of camping gear?
The beauty of the automobile is
that it can serve a multiplicity
of functions.
We may be past the point
where we can afford the all-
purpose automobile. We may
be on the threshold of an era
that will require sharper spe-
cialization of automobiles. Al-
ready now there is a family of
differentiated vehicles: station
wagons and limousines; vans
and sports cars; recreational
vehicles and pick-up trucks.
We have devised personal ve-
hicles to accommodate virtually
every need, except our single
largest need—an efficient and
economical means of commut-
ing to work.
A "city" car would not dis-
place conventional automo-
biles. We would still need
high-performance cars for driv-
ing on the open highway. But
they would come to be viewed
as "special-purpose" vehicles,
as, say, vans are viewed today.
Those who could afford them
would own them in addition to
their everyday "city" car. For
those without, there would be
an alternative: a vastly im-
proved system of renting and
leasing automobiles.
Urban areas would fill up
with small, super-efficient "city
cars." The goal of 50-mpg aver-
age fuel economy would be-
come a reality without the help
of a billion-dollar Apollo pro-
gram to "reinvent" the auto-
mobile.
From the very beginning of
the automobile age, we have
regarded the car as an article of
personal possession to be used
exclusively for the satisfaction
of the owner's private mobility
needs. While farmers have long
ago learned to cooperatively
own and use expensive farm
machinery, the notion of shar-
ing possession of automobiles
somehow goes against the
American grain. We tend to
have too much emotional in-
vestment in our cars to treat
them in a matter-of-fact way,
like an ordinary chattel.
And yet there are tentative
signs that our attitudes are
changing. The practice of
"time-sharing" vacation homes,
boats, and resort condominiums
is spreading. Neighbors band
together into informal coopera-
tives to acquire and own a
whole range of equipment and
facilities, from lawn mowers
and power tools to swimming
pools. Car rental agencies no
longer cater exclusively to out-
of-town visitors, but to local
residents as well. All this sug-
gests a growing public inclina-
tion to divorce the issue of
automobile usage from auto-
mobile ownership. Only after
we have fully conditioned our-
selves to this dichotomy and
institutionalized it throughout
the economy will we have truly
reinvented the automobile.
The writer is vice president of
the German Marshall Fund of
the United States.
EPA JOURNAL
-------
BIKING
SHIES
By Nina Dougherty Rowe
-p ast summer's short energy crisis
produced another bike boom. Many
shops sold out of bicycles in early
J summer. Scores of people bicycled
to work while motorists waited in long gas
lines.
The new bicycle commuters may find
incentives other than long gas lines for
using their energy efficient and non-
polluting vehicle. Congress, State agencies
and EPA now give bicycle programs more
recognition and higher priority. In the
Clean Air Act, as amended in 1977,
Congress says bicycle parking facilities,
bikeways, and employer incentives to
encourage bicycling are valid measures for
States to encourage reducing transporta-
tion-related pollution.
A total of 29 States and 91 urban areas
included bicycle measures to reduce auto
travel in the transportation portion of
their 1979 State Implementation Plan.
New Jersey's State Plan proposes to imple-
ment 80 bikeways in 17 urban areas as
well as bicycle parking facilities in some
areasand 46 bicycle lockers in Union, N.J.
Now EPA has a part-time bicycle
co-ordinator to promote bicycle measures
in the State Implementation Plans and to
see that they are implemented. EPA's
bicycle program partly came into being be-
cause of efforts by the Agency's bicyclists.
The initial issue of EPA Journal in January,
1975, carried an article about EPA bicycle
commuters and their problems. Later that
year a headquarters group called Bike
Commuters of EPA was formed.
The bike commuters documented theft
problems to underscore the need for
better bicycle parking facilities at EPA.
As a result 60 bicycle storage lockers
were installed at EPA headquarters in
Washington, D.C. The group developed
by-laws and procedures for assigning
lockers. (An application and $5 deposit
is required, but there's a waiting list.)
At the request of the bike commuters
showers were provided in the West and
East Towers of EPA headquarters a year
later. The next year David Hawkins,
Assistant Administrator for Air, Noise, and
Radiation, also a bike commuter, saw the
need for someone to promote biking on a
national level and created the position of
bicycle coordinator in the Air program .
The bicycle coordinator found bicycle
contacts or coordinators in each Regional
Office. The Agency then encouraged each
Regional Administrator to install secure
bicycle parking facilities for EPA employees
and to provide shower facilities if needed.
Nine of the Regions now have bicycle
parking facilities. Region 3 has 1 2 bicycle
lockers which are used 100 percent of the
time. Region 8 purchased 30 bolt-cutter
resistant locks, which employees may
check out. Region 1 and Region 2 formed
task forces to institute better bicycle
parking and shower facilities.
EPA's bicycle program promotes bicycle
measures in the State Implementation
Plans at bicycle conventions, conferences,
rallies and through publications such as:
Bicycle Strategies to Reduce A ir Pollution,
Bicycle Programs and Urban Air Quality
Grants, and Bicycle for a Better
Environment.
The Bicycling and A ir Quality Information
Document, the most recent publication, is
directed to State and local officials,
planners, and bicycle activists, as required
by the Clean Air Act as amended in 1977.
It discusses all the components of a
successful comprehensive bicycle program
and the air quality, energy, and economic
impacts of a comprehensive bicycle
program. The document tells how to
implement a bicycle program through the
existing transportation planning and other
procedures and details funding sources
and current legislation related to bicycling.
Five case studies show how successful
bicycle programs are implemented. A
model bicycle ordinance or legislative
measure for setting up a successful pro-
gram is also included.
The bicycle information document will
help States to prepare their bicycle portions
of the 1982 State Implementation Plans,
to develop their analysis of bicycle
measures, and to implementthe bicycle
plans. Although many States included
bicycle measures in their State Plans, few
have a full or part-time bicycle coordinator.
The information document stresses the
need to have one person responsible for
bicycle programming and implementation.
The bicycle coordinators in the EPA
Regions will track the State Implementation
Plans' bicycle measures and the bicycle
projects funded by EPA's 1 75 urban air
quality grants. For example, EPA Region 3
will ensure Baltimore develops a handbook
for bike commuting, provides basic bicycle-
related roadway improvements (i.e. bike-
safe storm grates, wide urban lanes,
paved shoulders), installs bicycle parking
at selected sites, institutes cyclist and
motorist education programs, and builds
selected priority bikeways in the Regional
bikeways plan. (All these projects are
cited in the Baltimore plan.)
The role of bicycling in transportation
will be affected by two recent pieces of
bicycle legislation, which EPA helped
shape. Section 141 of the Surface
Transportation Assistance Act of 1978, the
Bikeway Program, authorizes $20 million
a year for bicycle projects to States and
localities for each of four years. Although
only $4 million has been appropriated by
Congress to date, the Act has several other
important provisions. It requires the
Department of Transportation to develop
bikeway design standards. Many bike paths
today are inadequate in width, location,
design, and maintenance. Section 141
also requires that no bikeway be destroyed
due to new road construction unless an
equally good bike route is constructed.
The bicycle section in the National
Energy Conservation Policy Act, another
significant piece of bike legislation, re-
quires the Department of Transportation to
develop a report about the energy conser-
vation potential of bicycling and to prepare
a comprehensive program to promote its
use. EPA commented on the report, which
should be released soon. If the program is
implemented, bicycling projects and
programs could significantly increase.
EPA is working with the Department of
Transportation to promote bicycling and
to follow-up on the implementation of
bicycle measures in the State Implementa-
tion Plans. In addition EPA plans several
projects to promote bicycling. A video-tape
to encourage bicycle commuting will be
sponsored, complementing a handbook on
employer incentives for bicycle commut-
ing, to be developed by Region 8. The
Agency will sponsor commuting seminars
around the country covering riding
techniques, parking, routes, ways to carry
clothes, lunches, and paperwork, as well
as changing, clean up and all the variables
related to bicycle commuting.
EPA plans to co-sponsor a National
Bicycle Conference followed by Regional
workshops on Energy/Environment and
Transportation/Recreation.
For more information about EPA's
bicycle program contact Nina Dougherty
Rowe at headquarters: 202-755-0570
(Tuesdays and Thursdays) Office of
Transportation and Land Use Policy, Air,
Noise and Radiation (ANR-445) 401 M
Street S.W., Washington, D.C. 20460.
Nina Rowe is EPA's bicycle coordinator.
FEBRUARY 1980
17
-------
Moving
Toward
QeanAir
Interview with
David G. Hawkins,
Assistant Administrator
Office of Air, Noise,
and Radiation
Q
How much air pollution
is transportation-related?
That depends on which
pollutant you're talking about.
The one contributed most
by transportation sources is
carbon monoxide; in some
cities you have 80 percent or
more of the carbon monoxide
pollutant associated with the
automobile. Hydrocarbons,
which are the principal ele-
ments in smog or ozone, are
also predominantly from auto-
mobiles, but in some areas the
stationary sources of hydro-
carbons approach that of the
automobile. So in places like
Houston you may have a 50-50
split or close to it. In other
places you may have slightly
more from the transportation
sector, t think the split national-
ly is something like 45 percent
of the overall emissions are
hydrocarbons from mobile
sources. But those national
figures really don't tell the pic-
ture. You have to look at it city
by city.
Does it hold true in the
major urban areas that one
pollutant in particular is the
problem, or does it vary
depending on whether you are
in Los Angeles or New York?
There is some variation;
some of the colder weather
cities have more severe carbon
monoxide problems than ozone
problems. The warmer weather
cities will often have an ozone
problem but not a carbon mon-
oxide problem. And then there
are places like Los Angeles that
have both.
Is there any relationship
between air pollution levels
and the number of cars on the
road with pollution control
devices?
A
Yes, in terms of emissions
there is most definitely a con-
nection. We have seen a de-
crease in emission levels as the
new car program has resulted
in more cars coming on the road
equipped with pollution control
devices. In terms of ambient air
quality, we believe that in the
few areas where scientists have
done long-term studies relating
emissions to air quality trends
that you can also see a down-
ward trend air pollution. In
Los Angeles and San Francisco,
they've done studies spanning
a decade that show this rela-
tionship. New Jersey has seen
a drop in ambient air quality
levels as well, although for
ozone it's hard to prove that it
is statistically significant at
this point.
Q
Q
How would you sum-
marize EPA's attack on the
transportation air quality
problem?
A
It's multi-faceted. The
earliest part of our attack was
on new cars, making the manu-
facturers build cars which when
new would be a lot cleaner than
the cars they used to build were
when new. The second line of
attack is to ensure that late-
model cars continue to be clean
in use. A major element of the
program is the automobile
emissions inspection program;
that wilt go a long way to im-
prove in-use performance. And
the third line of attack is to deal
with the amount that the public
depends on automobiles. This
requires transportation plan-
ning to use environmental pro-
grams to help people recognize
that an excessive dependence
on the automobile in major
metropolitan areas is not a good
idea and to push the process to
look for alternatives. We have a
program where we work with
the Department of Transporta-
tion to help urban areas
evaluate alternatives that will
result in greater dependence on
transportation forms other than
the automobile and evaluate
land use patterns that are
amenable to these transporta-
tion systems. When I say other
than the automobile I don't
mean there won't be automo-
biles and that people won't be
depending on them, but rather
than near total dependence on
the automobile we want a more
balanced kind of relationship.
Do EPA studies show
major air quality gains as a
result of some of this
planning?
A
No, because not many
plans have actually been
implemented in the U.S. We
do have some studies from
Europe which show on a
localized basis that setting up
things like car-free zones, as
you might expect, does result in
a very noticeable drop in air
pollution and noise levels. On
an area-wide basis it isn't likely
that we'll have proof of the
environmental improvements
that are associated with a new
way of designing transportation
systems for another 10 or 20
years because it takes that long
to get the process moving.
And we have just started
thinking about it in the last
five or six years.
How many transporta-
tion alternatives to the auto-
mobile do we have?
A
There are a wide range
of alternatives; public trans-
portation, car pooling, arrang-
ing living patterns so people
are close enough to shopping
areas and jobs that walking and
bicycling are possible. Trans-
portation in and of itself is not
a thing that is desired in the
American standard of living.
People don't feel that they have
a better quality of life if they go
•farther every day. What they
feel is that they have a better
quality of life if they are able to
get from where they
live, to where they work, shop,
and play—and spend a minimal
amount of time and money
doing it. One of the patterns
that we have seen with people
trying to improve their quality
of life is that in the past 20
years they tend to move farther
and farther away from the cities
and they have been willing to
spend more time and more
money in order to do that. They
have tried to keep the time
that they spent relatively con-
stant by engaging in a massive
highway building program so
they could drive farther faster.
With the oiJ price increases I
think it isn't going to be possible
EPA JOURNAL
-------
for the government to come up
with that kind of answer, so
keeping the amount of dollars
one spends on transportation
constant is just not going to
be possible. Even with the
improvement in fuel economy,
people are paying more. They're
paying fifty percent more this
year for gasoline than they
were a year ago.
'Oc In the future would you
say that the benefits of the
automobile will continue to
outweigh the drawbacks for
most people?
A
I would say that most
people in the U.S. believe that
an automobile is an essential
part of their life or at least some
part of their life. The question
is whether it will be something
they want and need to use in
all of their activities or some-
thing which is available for
some occasions but not needed
for others.
Do you feel that the
catalytic converter is still
the best pollution control
alternative for gasoline
engines?
A
Yes, the catalytic con-
verter is something which De-
troit chose as the technique to
meet the standards within the
deadlines imposed by Con-
gress. It was preferable to the
alternative of changing the
operation of the engine to try to
reduce emissions, because that
approach would reduce fuel
economy and performance. As
long as one is not going to
change the basic engineering
of the engine the catalyst is a
good approach for reducing
emissions.
Q
Are we going to stay
with the catalyst?
A
The one possible major
engine change that is on the
horizon domestically is Ford
Motor Company's programmed
combustion engine, which
they may or may not develop
on a large scale in early 1980.
If they do, it will be a major
new engine approach domesti-
cally. That general kind of ap-
proach, stratified charge, is
already found in some of the
foreign cars such as the Honda.
Q
What makes programmed
combustion different?
A
JT\ It is what's known as a
stratified charge engine.
Basically it is a modification of
the gasoline engine where
you change the way that the
gasoline is exploded in the
cylinders. It is still an internal
combustion engine, but it has
a different way of injecting
the gasoline and the air. The
geometry of the cylinders is
different and divided into a
couple of different chambers,
usually. So it's a major change
to the gasoline internal com-
bustion engine, one that results
in better gas mileage and less
pollution. The diesel engine is
another route that some of the
manufacturers are taking.
There are other things that are
farther along and it's possible
that there might be some
breakthroughs, things like the
Sterling engine, an external
combustion engine, but I don't
think they're in the manufactur-
ers' plans for the next ten years.
Beyond the catalyst, the
technology being considered
by the manufacturers tends to
be approaches that will both
get good fuel economy and
good pollution control
performance.
Will the turn to diesel
engines add considerably
to the air pollution load?
A
Unless diesel engines are
well-controlled their emissions
will result in increased
particulate concentrations in
the major urban areas and that
is something that does con-
cern us. We have proposed
regulations for passenger car
diesels, which would tighten
down substantially on the
emissions of particulates. I
should say something addi-
tionally about the diesels. The
other area of concern is the
question of whether there is a
cancer risk associated with a
large number of diesel auto-
mobiles being operated and if
so, how great a risk. We are
evaluating that, we have a major
research program underway
and we're also trying to do
some analysis even before all
the research results are in to
try to get a feeling for what
could happen.
If fuel becomes scarce
later in the year, what can be
done to discourage drivers
from fouling their catalytic
converters by using leaded
rather than unleaded gas?
A
A variety of things; first
we can try to get the message
across to drivers of what they
risk when they use leaded
gas in a catalyst-equipped car.
They need to understand that
using leaded gas just a few
times can have a serious effect.
It's as though they were taking
a ten-year step backwards in
the amount of emissions
their cars put out. If enough
individuals do that, then the
whole area or country will be
taking a ten-year step back-
wards. We must make clear to
people the magnitude of the
damage that they're doing. It
isn't that air pollution would
just get a little bit worse, it
would get much worse. We're
not going to have policemen at
every gas station so we're
going to be asking people to
accept the responsibility for
their health, to take time to find
a place that has unleaded gaso-
line rather than to jeopardize
their health and that of their
neighbors and children.
We're doing our best to
minimize the shortages. We
allowed the additive MMT,
which can be used in gasoline
instead of lead, to be used over
last summer during the peak
driving season. We extended
to October, 1980, the schedule
on phase-out of lead from
gasoline so that more unleaded
gasoline supplies could be
produced.
Q
The Clean Air Act
Amendments have set specif ic
deadlines for State plans
regulating pollution. Do the
State Implementation Plans
have provisions that will
affect auto use?
Yes. Most of the major
metropolitan areas are sub-
mitting plans that call for
automobile inspection pro-
grams and most States now
have adequate legal authority
from their State legislatures
to proceed to adopt those
programs. Those programs will
be in operation in most
jurisdictions between now and
1982. So that will be a major
change. The other activity that
most major metropolitan areas
have underway is the program
to emphasize the air quality
issue in transportation
planning. One of the things that
we do in the transportation
planning process is to carry out
a large number of special
studies on air quality impacts
of transportation planning
choices. We try to identify can-
didates, transportation planning
measures, such as car pools or
bus lanes or restricted parking
or charging more for parking,
things like that. We try to iden-
tify alternatives that may have
a beneficial air quality impact
and then we try to study that
impact so that local decision-
makers are armed with informa-
tion on the costs and benefits of
these different techniques.
Since the Federal
Government has raised park-
ing rates and required car-
pooling as a prerequisite for
parking, is there any plan to
study how that's going to
affect air quality in D.C.?
JC\, Yes. There have been
some theoretical studies that
were done already in D.C. on
Continued on page 28
FEBRUARY 1980
19
-------
EPA,The Auto, and Air Pollution
Joan Nicholson, director of
EPA's Office of Public A ware-
ness: "The automobile is a
major source of pollution in the
air we breathe and we breathe
over 10,000 quarts of air every
24 hours. 'Therefore, we must
do as much as we can to reduce
auto pollution to protect our
health and welfare, and that of
future generations.
"There are many things we can
do. We can improve public
transportation. We can reduce
vehicle use in our big cities. We
can continue the development
of cleaner, more efficient cars.
And we can ensure that these
cleaner cars stay clean. EPA is
charged with responsibilities
in all of these areas. To provide
you with information about
some of the things we're
doing, my office has put to-
gether a televised discussion
with some of the EPA officials
most involved in these Agency
programs."
Williams: Good morning, I am
Tom Williams, Deputy Director
of the Office of Public Aware-
ness of EPA, and with me today
are Mike Walsh, Deputy Assist-
ant Administrator for Mobile
Source Air Pollution Control;
Ben Jackson, Deputy Assistant
Administrator for Mobile
Source and Noise Enforcement,
and Barbara Bankoff, Special
Assistant to the Administrator.
We would like to start with a
statement by Mr. Walsh, to give
us an overview of what this
issue is really all about.
Walsh: We have had a Federal
motor vehicle control program
for about 12 years now, with
the primary focus on develop-
ing a set of standards for car-
bon monoxide, hydrocarbons,
and nitrogen oxides, first for
cars and then for trucks.
We are coming to the con-
clusion of that process for cars
very shortly, are well along for
trucks, and are now grappling
with the difficult issue of how
to have those vehicles meet the
standards that they are de-
signed to meet in use as you
and I drive them.
Also we're beginning to
wrestle with the very difficult
issue of unregulated pollutants,
which is foremost in our minds
with diesel vehicles, as we look
to diesel cars becoming a much-
expanded portion of the car
population over the next 10 or
1 5 years, primarily because of
the energy crisis.
Williams: How does Enforce-
ment see that?
Jackson: We think that as far
as the cars meeting the stand-
ards, auto companies have done
a fairly good job. We have sev-
eral programs that we believe
are doing the job of getting the
auto companies to meet the
standards when the cars are
new.
But we have found over the
last several years that as cars
get in use such things as tam-
pering and fuel misuse have
caused us to lose some of the
gains we thought we had
achieved by getting the auto
companies to meet the
standards.
Our focus now is to deal with
those problems which are really
the most significant as they re-
late to the automobile right
now.
Williams: How much tamper-
ing is there? Who does it?
Jackson: Our surveys have in-
dicated that approximately 19
percent of the fleet since 1972
has been tampered with. We
think that the preponderance of
that tampering is done by com-
mercial repair facilities, not
individuals, because generally,
individuals don't have the tech-
nical knowledge to tamper with
an automobile.
Bankoff: Does tampering cover
a whole range of activities? It
doesn't necessarily mean de-
stroying the effectiveness of the
catalyst, per se, does it?
Jackson: We generally cate-
gorize improper maintenance
as a term that includes tamper-
ing, misadjustment, misuse of
fuel. In other words, the car is
not being used or maintained
like it was intended to be,
whether it be purposeful or
accidental.
Bankoff: Tampering is the
whole umbrella. . . .
Walsh: It covers the entire
emission control system, which
really encompasses almost
everything that's under the
hood of a vehicle. The condi-
tion of the engine and the
things that impact on the way
the vehicle performs also affect
the emission levels of that
vehicle.
So it can cover carburetors
and pieces of equipment on the
vehicle that are fundamental to
the way the vehicle runs, as well
as strictly emission control
devices.
Jackson: I think you can put
the problem in perspective if
you consider that in 1981 we
will probably spend, as a
Nation, approximately $5
billion for auto emission con-
trols, and another S3 billion
to provide cars with unleaded
gas, over and above the cost of
leaded gas.
So we're talking about, in
that year alone, an investment
of something like $8 billion
that could be risked by fuel
switching and misuse of fuel
and tampering.
Williams: Recently I read in
Fortune magazine a letter to
the Editors by a Vice President
of General Motors, taking the
magazine to task for having
written an article that was criti-
cal of catalysts. What's hap-
pened that the Vice President
of General Motors would come
to the rescue of a regulation
that EPA has to implement?
Walsh: Well, I think that over
the last year or year and a half,
as the concern with fuel avail-
ability has become heightened
there has been some inappropri-
ate emphasis by some manu-
facturers on the advantages of
leaded gasoline. The argument
is made that leaded gasoline is
more available and is somewhat
cheaper than unleaded gaso-
line, and, therefore, you should
buy cars that can use leaded
gasoline. It also implies that
cars that require unleaded gaso-
line, which primarily means
cars with catalytic converters,
are at a disadvantage.
Williams: And that's not true?
Walsh: It's not true, for several
reasons. I think the first point to
make is that lead is a public
health hazard. Lead emissions
are a serious problem in this
country. EPA recently set
.'0
EPA JOURNAL
-------
an ambient lead standard, with
a primary objective of protect-
ing children in urban areas who
are largely exposed to lead
emissions.
The second factor is that
when you compare vehicles that
operate with leaded gasoline
and vehicles that operate with
unleaded gasoline, you find that
the fuel economy (the actual
miles per gallon of the same
vehicles, tuned differently for
the use of these different fuels)
is substantially better, 10 and
12 percent better than the fuel
economy of the leaded cars.
And on top of that, the main-
tenance requirements are sub-
stantially different.
So I think that General Mo-
tors is responding to that kind
of concern, and I think that the
concern that they're raising is
one that we endorse very
strongly.
It is refreshing to see the
people in industry, in large
corporations in this country,
supporting and seeing that they
have something at stake
themselves in emission control
devices.
Bankoff: Is there any move-
ment by the auto companies to
get some kind of cooperation
from the oil industry in terms
of supply of unleaded gas?
Jackson: I do think they are
concerned about it, but I think
they say that they made a
contract with government, so
to speak, to provide a car that
will meet emissions standards
under certain conditions, those
conditions being the use of
unleaded gasoline. The refiners
have had the responsibility to
provide the unleaded fuel and
that's where this system be-
comes very frail, in that it does
require two industries working
together.
The refining industry has
responded; it has made
unleaded gasoline. But it's got
to make enough so that the
system will continue to work.
And it's a real dilemma about
having enough and not having
enough, because if we don't,
people will use leaded gasoline.
People have to get around.
We in EPA are very concerned
about gasoline policy for this
country. We affect gasoline
policy, because of our responsi-
bilities that relate to lead
additives and other additives
in gasoline.
We are concerned about its
availabiljty, and we work very
closely with the Department
of Energy on the quality of the
gasoline, its octane rating.
because if the octane rating
is too low, then cars ping. If
cars ping, people are prone to
tamper with them, because
they think they can get them to
stop pinging if they use leaded
gas.
I'd like to follow up on a
point that Mike made, though,
about the maintenance require-
ments of a car requiring
unleaded. Many people think
that if they use leaded gasoline
they can continue to maintain
the car as intended by the
manufacturer.
Manufacturers claim that
maintenance on late model cars
is substantially reduced. It's
not through their own efforts,
however, it's because the cars
use unleaded gas.
Unleaded gas is better in a
car because it doesn't leave
deposits in the engine and
doesn't cause the oil to gunk
up as quickly. So they've
extended the oil replacement
intervals, they've extended the
sparkplug life, and they've
extended the muffler life; not
by any design changes, but by
the fact that they are using
unleaded gasoline. If someone
starts using leaded gasoline in
a car that requires unleaded,
they're going to have to com-
press their maintenance
intervals, or they're going to
put that car in jeopardy.
The oil will have to be
replaced more frequently, back
in the 4-5,000 mile range,
instead of the 22 and 25.000
mile range that manufacturers
are recommending. The oil just
won't last that long, because
it will have leaded deposits
in it, which takes away from its
lubrication ability. So using
leaded gas in a car that requires
unleaded is really false econ-
omy. We are concerned, as is
the Department of Energy and
the Administration as a whole,
about the availability of gaso-
line. And we are watching very
closely the crude oil stocks,
gasoline stocks, gasoline sales,
and other products to be in
a position townake policy
decisions aK>ut gasoline as we
approach the spring and
summer of this year. But we're
not in a position now to say
what is going to happen.
Walsh: I think an interesting
perspective on that is, are the
auto manufacturers talking to
the petroleum industry, and
the petrofeum refiners?
If you look at the last 50
years, the auto industry either
directly or indirectly largely
dictated to the energy industry
what kind of energy and what
quality of energy they wanted.
When they decided that
they wanted higher octane
fuel to drive large compression
cars in the late 1950's, the
petroleum industry responded.
In the early 1970's, I vividly
remember Ed Cole, the
President of General Motors,
standing up and saying, "We
are moving to unleaded cars
and we want unleaded
gasoline."
The oil industry responded,
just as they had in the 1920's
when the auto industry said,
"We want lead and we will
design around the use of lead
in our engine."
The situation is changing,
though. As we get into a short-
age energy situation, as
opposed to an excess energy
situation, I think that we are
now going to see cars designed
around the kind of fuels that
are going to be available and
the kind of additives, as Ben
was referring to, that are going
to be needed more and more
in the future to prevent the
shortage,
Bankoff; What happens to the
fleet if there is a shortage? We
haven't even begun to talk
about Inspection and Main-
tenance programs yet. What if
in the next year or so there is
enough a shortage of unleaded
gasoline so that cars which
are being inspected in the next
few years can't pass a test?
It isn't the owner's fault,
necessarily, but that's simply
the way it is. What happens
then?
Walsh: I think in the first
instance, it would be good if
we had as many Inspection
and Maintenance programs
as we could have in areas that
particularly need the air
quality benefit of the emission
controls because one of the
things that we have found is
that where you have an Inspec-
tion and Maintenance program,
there does seem to be less fuel
switching and less tampering.
Less inclination for those
kinds of things occurs I think,
for two reasons. One is obvious
risk to the individual of
possibly having to face major
repair costs if they do take a
chance on some of those
inappropriate activities.
Part of it is the concern on
the part of the vehicle owners
that they may have to face
extra repair costs to undo what
they've done. So in areas that
we have Inspection and Main-
tenance programs compared
to other areas of the country
that don't, there is a dramatic
difference.
In part, though, it's a better
overall state of vehicle main-
tenance when you have Inspec-
tion and Maintenance.
And that has a whole broad
spectrum of implications, not
the least of which is in the
tampering area. I think a third
aspect of it is that the public
becomes much more aware of
the fragile nature of the
emission controls and of the
investment they've made in
those emission controls.
And they become more
conscious that if they go in and
pump leaded fuel into that car
or foo! with some of the
emission control devices, they
are undoing something that
they have a commitment to, a
financial commitment, among
other things.
They realize it may require
greater efforts in the future on
their part if they are going to
clean up their air. . . .
It's a serious public health
problem that we are attempting
to address. This is why each
of these steps is so critical.
We all have families, we all
have children and parents and
grandparents and when we
look at it on that personal level,
Continued on page 28
FEBRUARY 1980
21
-------
CLEAN AIR
AND THE CITIES
By Barbara Blum
EPA Deputy Administrator
I he EPA is part of the
solution to what's ailing
the cities, not the prob-
-J- lem. Perhaps nowhere
is the spirit of our approach
more evident than with the
issue of clean air.
Some people seem to be
trying to convince the Ameri-
22
EPA JOURNAL
-------
can public that the Clean Air
Act will bring economic growth
in the Nation's cities to a
screeching halt.
Let me respond by saying:
Not if we at EPA can help it
and not if companies, com-
munity groups, and local, State
and Federal officials will work
together.
The issues the Clean Air Act
addresses are complex, and
significant costs for both the
public sector and the private
sector are involved.
But the real problem is not
the Clean Air Act. The real
problem is that more than 100
million Americans are living
in metropolitan areas where
health related air quality stand-
ards are not being met.
The Act, put into place
because Congress determined
that dirty air threatens the
health of the American people,
requires that the Nation's air
must.be cleaned up by 1982,
with extensions possible for
carbon monoxide and ozone
until 1987. EPA is charged
with making certain that the
goal is achieved. We are
serious about getting the job
done. But we also are serious
about doing it in a way that
government can live with,
business can live with, and most
of all, the American people can
live with.
For example, EPA recognized
a long time ago that we
couldn't simply tell the cities,
"Sorry. No clean air, no more
growth." As a result, we
developed an emissions offset
policy, subsequently endorsed
by Congress and now a major
feature of most of the State
Implementation Plans for air
quality that EPA has received.
The offset concept is an
important one for communities.
It allows new construction if
the air pollution a newcomer
will introduce can be compen-
sated for by cleaning up
pollution at an existing facility.
Local governments and Cham-
bers of Commerce have helped
companies locate offsets—
with the result that General
Motors can build two plants,
in Louisiana and in Oklahoma;
Volkswagen can build one in
Pennsylvania, and Phillips
Petroleum can expand a
refinery in Texas. In each case,
air quality should be as good
or better after construction of
the new facility. To carry the
idea a step further, EPA afso
allows, as a matter of policy,
localities to "bank" extra
reductions in air pollution,
which later can be transferred
to other new firms moving in.
Controversial? Yes. But
concepts like these also can
loosen any straightjacket on
industry. They can help urban
areas attract new businesses
and hold on to older ones.
Most of all, concepts like these
give everybody added incentive
to meet air quality standards—
a national promise we all
have a stake in keeping.
Another major feature of
many of the State plans is an
Inspection and Maintenance
program for automobiles. As a
matter of sound environmental
policy and as a matter of equity
to States that have made the
effort to improve air quality in
this way, EPA has no choice
but to disapprove plans sub-
mitted by those States where
auto emissions are a significant
source of air pollution and
whose legislatures have had
the opportunity but failed to
enact authorizing legislation.
Many local Chambers of
Commerce and local officials
view auto inspection and
maintenance as another way to
protect public health and to
permit industrial growth.
EPA—working with the
Department of Transportation
—is helping Dallas/Ft. Worth,
Nashville, and other cities plan
how to reconcile the air quality
goal with the full range of local
transportation needs.
There are other ways EPA
is moving to achieve air quality
without sacrificing urban
growth.
We've made a special effort,
for example, to stop any
unnecessary delay companies
may encounter in obtaining
pollution control permits. In
fact, EPA is moving to speed up
and simplify the process under
the Clean Air Act and other
laws as well. Already, we have
named a single point of
contact in each of our 10
Regional Offices to coordinate
the work, according to strict,
new self-imposed deadlines.
Eight cities are exploring
other ways to assure that clean
air and economic development
go hand in hand, as a result of
a $3.5 million program spon-
sored by EPA, Commerce,
HUD, and DOT. The program is
significant—for the cities
involved and as much or more
so for other communities that
pick up on the new approaches,
adapting them to fit their
own needs.
Finally, the new economic
assistance program announced
by President Carter last August.
EPA is taking the lead, but the
resources of many Federal
agencies are involved. The
point is this: to minimize the
economic impact of environ-
mental regulations on com-
munities and plants by advising
them that assistance is avail-
able and by assuring a
coordinated Federal response
to specific problems that may
arise. As the President said,
"The fact that there have not
been a large number of eco-
nomic dislocations does not
suggest that those that do
occur are unimportant."
Where do we go from here?
Let me put it this way. The
answer lies more with the
public than EPA.
Years ago. Congress passed
the Clean Air Act. Why?
Because, after countless
studies and public hearings.
Congress determined that the
Nation's air had become unfit
to breathe and that something
must be done to protect public
health.
In 1977, again after careful
deliberation, Congress made
mid-course corrections, correc-
tions which strike a balance
between environmental and
economic goals.
But in striking the balance.
Congress insisted that the
drive to clean up the air must
move forward and that any
retreat from the commitment
would be dead wrong—dead
wrong for government, for
industry, and most of all for the
health of the American people.
The challenge—and I be-
lieve, the opportunity—is to
move forward.
What all of us want is a
situation where the environ-
ment and the economy are not
locked in mortal combat.
EPA and a host of other
Federal agencies are working
to avoid that mortal combat.
The alliance is a potent one.
But neither President Carter
nor any of us in this Adminis-
tration believe that the Federal
Government alone can do
the job. Clearly, everyone who
cares about the future of the
cities must be involved.
This is the cornerstone of
our work at EPA. Our efforts
took a mighty leap forward
with announcement of the
President's national urban
policy. I have been appointed
to the White House Council to
coordinate it.
To be sure, this Administra-
tion's policy does not ignore
the need for Federal aid to the
States and cities, or for new
programs and new legislative
initiatives aimed, as the
President said, at "making
cities healthier and at improv-
ing the lives of the people who
live in them."
But above all. President
Carter zeroed in on what many
people have been saying all
along. Tear down the Federal
roadblocks to sound local
planning and management, he
urged. Use limited government
resources as a lever to
strengthen city life and to
attract private investment.
Involve people from all walks
of life, voluntary and neighbor-
hood associations. Governors,
Mayors, county officials, and
the business community. It is
vital, the President said, for the
Federal Government "to provide
the leadership, the commitment
and the incentives which will
encourage all sectors of our
country to build and maintain
the quality of America's
communities."
Thus, the responsibility
shifts to the local and regional
level so that meaningful solu-
tions can be found, solutions
that fit the full range of each
community's needs.
There are no quick fixes, no
easy solutions. But I believe
there are solutions that will not
foreclose the future—environ-
mentally or economically. Q
Excerpted from a speech given
before the U.S. Conference of
Mayors in New Orleans, La.
FEBRUARY 1980
23
-------
ne of the principal selling points
of the automobile is the mobility
it provides. Unfortunately, as the
number of cars on the road in-
creases, particularly in urban areas, this
advantage begins to disappear. Excessive
reliance on automobiles can lead to extreme
congestion, cause dangerous levels of air
pollution, and act as a serious drain on pub-
lic coffers—all substantial reasons for con-
sidering alternatives. But the one reason
that is beginning to dwarf all others is the
prospect of scarce and costly automotive
fuels.
Public transportation is naturally the
centerpiece of most alternative schemes.
But public transport is not an automatic
cure for the fuel-efficiency ills of auto-
mobiles. Though well-designed bus and rail
networks can achieve levels of efficiency
far above those of today's cars, the reality
sometimes falls short. Mass transit systems
that are improperly designed can waste
prodigious amounts of energy.
Buses have several inherent efficiency
advantages over automobiles, including the
use of diesel engines, a lower weight and
less wind resistance per seat, and a mod-
erately sized engine that is designed to give
adequate performance but not to accelerate
rapidly at the whim of the driver. Trains are
also blessed with efficient diesel or some-
times electric engines and have even better
weight and wind resistance advantages
than buses have. These characteristics give
urban buses and trains a potential fuel effi-
ciency when fully loaded of over 1 50
passenger miles per gallon. Outside cities,
buses can get well over 200 and trains
close to 400 passenger miles per gallon.
Under some circumstances, the auto-
mobile can match or exceed these efficient
uses of fuel. Some of today's small cars,
when carrying four people, can manage 100
passenger miles per gallon in the city, and
close to 1 80 between cities. But American
commuters on the average carry only 1.4
passengers per car, and so achieve a
meager 16 passenger miles per gallon.
The important point is that efficiencies of
both public and private vehicles depend on
how they are used. Trains and buses can
exceed the efficiency of even the most
economical automobile—but only if the
fares are cheap, and service is convenient
enough to attract passengers.
Trains and buses do not, however, have
a monopoly on fuel economy. Vans or mini-
buses when fully loaded can get nearly as
much fuel efficiency as buses—over 100
passenger miles per gallon by most cal-
culations. Such vehicles obviously have
great potential for offering some of the con-
veniences of the automobile along with the
fuel economy of the bus. Whether used in
private car pools or operated by local transit
authorities, the minibus may be an attrac-
tive alternative for many commuters. In
many developing countries, it is already an
important means of transport.
Japan is the world leader in public tran-
sit, and unlike Europe and North America,
its public transport ridership increased
throughout the 1960's and 1970's.
Subway use in Tokyo has increased tenfold
since 1955, while commuter railroads have
tripled their ridership. Twenty-one million
riders per day now travel on Tokyo's public
trains, subways, and buses, straining even
this very good system close to the breaking
point. Public trains there are so fully loaded
with commuters that trained "packers" are
necessary to achieve sardine-like concen-
trations of passengers before the doors are
fully closed. Only 7 percent of the city's
workers commute by private automobile,
and though car ownership is growing, few
Japanese would consider driving their cars
into the central city. Even without heavy
use of automobiles, congestion is severe
and parking limited, so mass transit is
much more convenient.
Public transportation between cities and
within rural areas has never been as wide-
spread nor as efficient as that in urban
areas. And it too has been on the wane.
Automobile use between American cities
has doubled since 1960, and now con-
stitutes 85 percent of intercity travel. Air
travel has grown even more rapidly, and
commands 12 percent of between-city
traffic, leaving trains and buses with a
meager 3 percent of the total—most of it
by bus.
In Europe, intercity travel by train is
much more prevalent. European trains are
generously subsidized by taxpayers, and
account for close to one-quarter of traffic
between cities. In contrast to the United
States, trains are fast and convenient and
carry far more passengers than planes do.
But Europe, like the United States, has
been on a highway-building spree, and
today more people are using automobiles
for business and recreational trips than
ever before. In recent years, two-thirds of
European travel between cities has been
by car.
Public transportation is improving its
image and is likely to be a major area of
public innovation during the 1980's.
Public officials must realize, however, that
massive funding alone will not suffice.
There are abundant examples of expensive
public transport systems that fail to provide
convenient service for a sizable segment of
the population, or even to alleviate con-
gestion on city streets. Given many of the
economic constraints that lie ahead, a
change of emphasis is in order. Those sys-
tems that provide a flexible service and
require relatively little capital expenditure
will probably be the most successful in
serving local needs.
As governments begin to focus on
energy-conserving yet convenient alterna-
tives to the automobile, the bicycle must be
placed near the head of the list. Requiring
no petroleum-based fuel, and nearly as fast
as a car for short urban trips, the bicycle's
attraction is obvious. Furthermore, bikes
can travel on existing roads and do not
need the major capital expenditure of new
mass transit systems. However, the bicycle
is unlikely to fare well without government
encouragement, as the experience in many
countries since World War II has shown.
Increasing levels of automobile traffic have
encouraged suburban development in areas
that are too distant from downtowns to be
reached by bike.
Since 1 973, however, people's seem-
ingly rational decisions to give up their bi-
cycles in the 1950's and 1960's have been
appearing less than visionary. In the last
five years, consumers throughout the world
EPA JOURNAL
-------
have been buying bikes in unprecedented
numbers. In both North America and
Europe, bicycle use is on the rise for the
first time since World War II; use has also
increased rapidly in the Third World, where
the bicycle has been important for decades.
In recent years, sales of bicycles have
exceeded those of automobiies in many
countries. In the United States, 103 million
bicycles were sold between 1969 and
1979, compared with 102 million cars. In
West Germany, bikes have outsold cars by
an even wider margin. The British Trans-
port and Road Research Laboratory reports
that 20 years of decline in the use of the
bicycle was arrested in 1 974 and that its
use increased some 25 percent over the
next three years. The Netherlands, a coun-
try favored by a relatively mild climate and
flat terrain, now has nearly as many bi-
cycles as it does people. Each morning
some five million men, women, and children
depart for work, school, or shopping on
bicycles. In some Dutch cities, nearly half
of all commuting is by bike.
Paralleling the recent popularity of the
bicycle has been that of the closely related
moped. As its hybrid name implies, the
moped is a cross between a motorcycle and
a bicycle—retaining some of the features
of each. A typical moped weighs less than
100 pounds and can be powered with a
one- or two-horsepower engine as well as
by foot. Capable of perhaps 30 miles per
hour, the moped is used by many people
who seek the fuel economy and conveni-
ence of the bicycle, but who lack the phy-
sical stamina to pedal long distances at a
rapid pace.
Mopeds have been widely used in Europe
since the 1950's, but only recently have they
become popular in other parts of the world.
Today there are between 22 million and
25 million mopeds worldwide—half of
them in Europe and four million in Japan.
Growth since 1974 has been rapid in these
areas, but has also spread to North America
and to some Third World countries. There
were only 50,000 mopeds in the United
States before 1975; current projections are
that one million will be in use by early
1 980, between three and five million by the
mid-1980's.
FEBRUARY 1980
25
-------
Bicycles and mopeds clearly have an
important role to play, particularly in urban
and suburban areas where short commuting
and shopping trips represent the main
transport needs. In the U.S. as a whole, 80
percent of automobile trips are less than
ten miles, a quite reasonable distance by
bicycle or moped. In modern suburbs, a
dearth of public transport and a high pro-
portion of local shopping trips have encour-
aged particularly rapid bike and moped
growth. As one moped enthusiast says,
"Why use a gallon of gas to buy a gallon
of milk?"
Among the many laudable attributes of
the bicycle and moped, fuel efficiency has
caught the eye of most recent converts.
Mopeds average 135 miles per gallon—
three times as much as the most efficient
cars. One recent study estimated that the
bicycle could travel 1,000 miles per gallon
of gasoline equivalent but its real attraction
is that gas is not required at all. An often
neglected renewable energy resource—the
calories contained in food—supplies all
the needed power. The bicycle is in fact the
most energy-efficient means of transport
ever known, more than tripling the effici-
ency of walking. In addition, bikes and
mopeds address many of the other prob-
lems associated with the automobile—air
pollution, congestion, and urban space
constraints.
In the Third World, the large urban popu-
lations expected in the future make the
space and congestion arguments for bi-
cycles and mopeds overwhelming. Road
systems will simply never be able to handle
the quantities of automobiles that would be
needed to transport so many people. In
addition, capital expenditure, always a
problem in the Third World, would be
greatly reduced with two-wheeled trans-
portation as opposed to either the auto-
mobile or mass transit. Finaily, very few
developing countries have domestic petro-
leum reserves and so will be hard put to
afford the fuel inefficiency of automobiles
as industrial nations bid up the price of oil.
As public transport and cycle travel
become the focus of public policy, planners
must take care to integrate them with the
daily life of cities. Unless transit lines and
bicycle routes conveniently serve commu-
nity needs, they will not be fully used.
Laissez faire traffic policies have not served
transportation alternatives well. In many
counties, a lack of restrictions on inner-city
automobile travel has so clogged streets
with cars that bus and bicycle traffic are
severely impaired. Bus travel has become
inconvenient, and cycle traffic has become
dangerous in many cities—a strong disin-
centive to bus and cycle use. Only a com-
prehensive approach to transport planning
will be able to lure people back out of their
EPA JOURNAL
-------
Far left: A passenger train pulling in to the
station in Tacoma, Wash.
Left: This street in Vienna, Austria is closed
to auto traffic much of the day but horse
carriages make a picturesque replacement
cars. Fortunately, many city governments
are beginning to restrict downtown areas to
pedestrian travel, to reserve street lanes for
buses and bicycles, and to charge fees for
cars to enter the city.
In general, European cities have done
the most to limit automobile traffic to rea-
sonable levels—largely out of necessity.
In Europe, twentieth century growth has
often been superimposed on medieval
street design. And even the more recently
designed cities are relatively densely
settled because of space limitations. Many
have found it desirable to restrict the move-
ment of automobiles severely, but to allow
easy access for buses, bicycles, and pedes-
trians, a policy that has met with popular
approval.
An approach pioneered in Europe is the
separation of buses and bicycles from
automobile traffic. In most cases bus
and bicycle traffic have become speedier
and more convenient, and automobile
traffic less so. In England, the university
towns of Oxford and Cambridge have ex-
cluded automobile traffic from certain
streets. This does not entirely prevent cars
from entering central areas, but it does
serve to discourage them. Other cities have
proceeded more tentatively in reserving
particular lanes for buses, streetcars, and
bicycles, in some cases only during peak
traffic hours. London, Paris, and even
Washington, D.C., have variations on this
scheme. In these cases, the efficiency of
public transit has been improved, but auto-
mobile traffic has not been substantially
reduced.
From the cyclist's point of view, there is
something to be said for constructing spe-
cial bike paths from which buses are ex-
cluded as well. The recent surge in bicycle
use has spawned strong lobby groups in
many countries, and these have pushed
through numerous bikeway construction
programs. In some cities, urban parks as
well as unused highway shoulders are
being used for bike paths. And many city
planners have taken the comprehensive
approach that is crucial to the success of
these schemes by ensuring that bicycle
path networks provide access to the central
city for most residential neighborhoods.
In Davis, California, some 28 miles of bike
paths have been built in the past few years
and it is estimated that cycling accounts for
one-quarter of all travel there. In Vasteras,
Sweden, 70 bicycle tunnels were recently
constructed at intersections and have vastly
improved the convenience and safety of
cycling. And West Germany is considering
the construction of bike paths along 30 per-
cent of all city streets.
Some of the most restrictive automobile
traffic-control programs have recently come
from the Third World. Planners in industrial
countries have long contemplated the
establishment of areas in cities where
special licenses would be required for
entry. But few have been able to muster the
political will to enact such a plan, as it
would entail considerable restrictions on
the freedom of drivers. However, Singa-
pore, Kuala Lumpur, and Bangkok are now
in various stages of implementing such
a scheme.
Plagued with mounting levels of urban
congestion, the Singapore government
decided in 1975 to require a license to
enter the inner city by car during the morn-
ing rush hours. Licenses cost S1.50 per day
—which somewhat reduces the appeal of
urban driving. Automobile traffic has
dropped by two-thirds during the morning
rush hour, and the local bus service has
enjoyed increased patronage. The Singa-
pore program has received much attention
from the World Bank, which previously had
put most of its transportation efforts into
road construction projects. Today, the
Bank is helping to finance similar schemes
in Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur, and the
initial results appear equally successful.
Each country has its own transportation
needs as well as political constraints.
Clearly, the bike path that works well in
Dodoma may be neither feasible nor work-
able in Singapore. Light rail, heavy rail,
large bus, minibus, bicycle, and moped are
all likely to play important roles in the
years ahead. Fortunately, recent experi-
ence with these alternatives in many indus-
trial as well as developing nations should
help countries as they consider various
options. In few countries, however, is
single-minded encouragement of automo-
bile travel likely to increase mobility in the
future as it did in the past. In an oil-short
world, failure to plan for alternative forms
of transportation will lead to problems that
are much worse than simple congestion.
This article is excerpted from Running on
Empty: The Future of the Automobile in an
Oil-Short World, by Lester Brown, Christo-
pher Flavin, and Colin Norman, A World-
watch Institute book, W. W. Norton & Co.
Inc., 500 Fifth A venue. N. Y., N. Y. 70036.
FEBRUARY 1980
27
-------
Moving Toward
Clean Air
Continued from page 19
the effects of raising the park-
ing rates and there are others
that will probably be done
after the parking rates have
been in effect for a while.
Are Inspection and
Maintenance programs ex-
pected in most of the problem
urban areas?
A
Yes. The response of the
States has been very posi-
tive and virtually all of the
States that we have identified
as needing Inspection and
Maintenance agree and are
proceeding to develop pro-
grams. There are a few States
that don't yet have the neces-
sary legal authority and we are
working very hard to get that
legal authority adopted.
Q
Does it appear EPA will
have to use the sanctions that
were included in the Act, such
as cutoff of highway construc-
tion funds, if State Implemen-
tation Plans are not satis-
factory?
A
The sanctions probably
are going to be used in a few
instances but not on a wide-
spread basis across the country.
Q
Do you think that there
will be a need for further
diversion of highway trust
fund money into urban transit
in order to meet clean air
standards?
A
** I think that urban trans-
portation systems generally are
in need of additional money
and the President recognized
that in his energy message.
One of the uses to which
windfall profits legislation
would be put would be to help
urban transportation systems.
Public transportation systems
and highway trust fund monies
are there as a near-term avail-
able resource and we're
certainly encouraging State and
local governments to look at
them as a way of moving ahead
more rapidly on improving
public transportation and
improving air quality as well as
reducing energy consumption.
EPA, The Auto, and
Air Pollution
Continued from page 21
Q
Do you have any other
thoughts to share with
Journal readers?
A
Sometimes the question is
asked "Should we really do
all these transportation
planning activities for air pollu-
tion alone?" Because it doesn't
seem to make all that much
difference in pollution levels,
especially in the short run.
The answer is no, you shouldn't
do it for air pollution alone.
There are many reasons to
look at improving public trans-
portation and overall metro-
politan area transportation
systems. Environmental quality
happens to be one of them
and in the short run the im-
pact is not as large as it can
be in the long run. The same
thing goes for energy conserva-
tion. There was an article in a
major newspaper recently
asking: "Does public trans-
portation save energy?" The
point of the article was that
public transportation doesn't
necessarily save energy in the
first few years of operation of
the system. However, energy
is saved in the long run by
making possible land use pat-
terns which are inherently more
energy-efficient, because peo-
ple will tend to develop land in
ways that can be more easily
served by mass transit and not
require the kind of automobile-
dependent system that a more
sprawl-oriented land use
pattern demands. The relation-
ship between air pollution and
public transportation is very
similar. D
This interview was conducted
by Chris Perham, Assistant
Editor, EPA Journal.
as a health problem, I find that's
when that message gets across
to people. They are much more
concerned about things like
tampering and fuei-switch'ng
and emission controls, and
much less concerned with the
other problems that
people see when they refer to
emission control devices.
Williams: Some State environ-
mental people are concerned
that you can actually run a
vehicle through an Inspection
and Maintenance program, and
pass,but the carstiil might
have been tampered with.
Jackson: Well, there are things
that you can do to a car that
would be classified as tamper-
ing, for example, removing
the evaporative emission
control, and still pass an idle
test. But the margin is getting
narrower, as the emission
controls get more sophisti-
cated, and the person is always
taking a risk of failing that test
if the car has been tampered
with.
With I and M, where we may
lack precision, per se, we will
have a deterrent to that kind of
activity on the part of indi-
viduals as well as the commer-
cial repair facilities.
One other point I'd like to
make before we leave this is
that some of the doomsday
folks would like to think if we
do have a serious gasoline
shortage then we ought to throw
up our hands with regard to
the Federal motor vehicle
control program.
It could be a possibility
if we had a very severe
differential shortage; a short-
age of unleaded gasoline
compared to leaded. That
should not happen.
It should not happen because
the refiners have in place the
capacity to make the appro-
priate amount of unleaded
gasoline. We have their
commitments.
Now we may have a shortage,
but we should have a shortage
that's spread among leaded
and unleaded. If we have a
dramatic differential shortage,
it wiil be on purpose. It will
be because the refiners have
decided to do that, because
the facilities are there. So my
answer to the question about
should we expect a dramatic
problem is: we shouldn't.
Williams: There is an extra-
ordinary protective and
apparently very good warranty
that consumers have when
they buy an automobile, with
regard to any of the air pollu-
tion control equipment.
I don't think that's very
widely understood and I don't
think those warranties are
probably used as much as they
ought to be; is that true?
Jackson: | agree with you.
We have recently published a
pamphlet that explains to an
owner the nature of the
warranty as it relates to
defects in emission controls.
In other words, if you take
your car into a garage and
the dealer says that he has
replaced your air pump and he
charges you for it, nine times
out of ten that's under
warranty, and he shouldn't
have charged for it.
We have a pamphlet which
describes the statutory
warranty that is available to all
consumers. Beyond that, there
is a warranty that will be
associated with the 1 and M
failure.
That is, if you should fail an
I and M test, and you have
properly maintained your car;
not used leaded gas and not
tampered with it, it's the
responsibility of the manufac-
turer to make it meet the
standards.
And you will not have to
bear that responsibility. That's
something that's coming.
That's not in effect now, but it
will be in the very near future. D
This article is excerpted from a
videotape, EPA and the Auto-
mobile, produced by the Office
of Public Awareness. More
information on the videotape
can be obtained from EPA's
regional public information
offices. See //sting on Page 39
28
EPA JOURNAL
-------
MESSAGE
More than 1,000 cars
and trucks of two
West Coast cou-
rier services will
carry clean air slogans along
with their packages in 1980 as
part of an unusual settlement in
an EPA enforcement action.
Gelco Courier Services, Inc.
has promised to promote
"Breathe Easier. . . Use Un-
leaded Gas" on its messenger
vehicles. Loomis Courier Serv-
ice, Inc. will display the mes-
sage, "Unleaded Gas Keeps Air
Clean" on armored cars belong-
ing to the firm. EPA had accused
the companies of illegally using
leaded gas in vehicles designed
for unleaded fuel from their
pumps in Seattle, Wash., and
Portland, Ore.
The companies must also pay
fines of $ 10,000 apiece and re-
place the "poisoned" catalytic
converters in the 66 damaged
cars and trucks. The public
service aspect of the settle-
ment, which was suggested by
the companies themselves, re-
quires both firms to emblazon
all their service vehicles
throughout the U.S. for one
year with slogans designed to
create public awareness of the
importance of unleaded
gasoline.
The settlement provides for
further penalties of $80,000 if
the two firms fail to have the
slogans on their cars and trucks
by a set deadline or fail to re-
place promptly the fouled pollu-
tion control devices.
Terms of the settlement
were announced in Seattle by
EPA's Region 10 Administrator
Donald P. Dubois. "Use of the
slogans by Loomis and Gelco
will be more of a deterrent for
other vehicle owners who are
tempted to illegally use leaded
gasoline than a large monetary
penalty," Dubois declared.
"Between them, Loomis and
Gelco operate more than 1,000
cars and trucks—many of them
in crowded downtown areas
where they are seen by literally
thousands of people every day,
and they will all be carrying a
message that is vital to our na-
tional efforts to clean up air
pollution from cars and trucks."
The best estimate of the ad-
vertising value of the messages
on the sides of the vehicles,
said Dubois, is about $20 per
month per vehicle. Since almost
exactly 1,000 Loomis and Gelco
cars and trucks will be required
to have the slogans on their
sides for a full year, Dubois
calculated, the messages are
worth approximately $240,000.
As for the 66 damaged pollu-
tion control devices, their re-
placement—at about $225 a
vehicle—is estimated to cost
close to $15,000.
All the vehicles on which
restorative work must be done
were equipped with catalytic
converters, the devices that re-
quire the use of unleaded gaso-
line. Repeated use of other
grades of gasoline in those
"unleaded gasoline only" ve-
hicles will destroy permanently
the ability of the catalytic con-
verter to reduce harmful emis-
sions of air pollutants. Cars
with catalytic converters are
equipped with small filler inlets
on their gas tanks so that wider
nozzles on "regular" or "pre-
mium" pumps cannot fit.
Last August, when EPA
issued the complaints against
Loomis and Gelco, it
charged that the two firms'
vans, station wagons, trucks
and passenger cars were sup-
plied with leaded gasoline in
Seattle and Portland from two
company-owned pumps with
nozzles designed to fit only
pumps that contained unleaded
fuel. Additionally, one of the
pumps was not posted with a
required notice that would warn
people not to use it for "un-
leaded gas only" cars.
The reason for complaints
against both Loomis and Gelco
is that the violations appear to
have occurred both before and
after last April 30, the date on
which Loomis Courier's assets
and operations were taken over
by Gelco. The vehicles cited in
the Loomis complaint were
among the assets transferred to
Gelco. Because its messenger
service now belongs to Gelco,
Loomis has agreed to display
the slogans on its armored cars,
which weren't included in the
original allegations.
The two pumps with the im-
proper nozzles and the missing
label were also among the
assets transferred by Loomis to
Gelco. They are located in
Seattle and in Portland.
According to information
given to EPA, only leaded gaso-
line was dispensed at the
Seattle and Portland fueling
stations. Purchase records
failed to show that unleaded
gasoline was available to
Loomis or Gelco vehicles at the
two stations until after EPA in-
spectors visited the premises
in May. D
FEBRUARY 1980
29
-------
By Julianne Knight
"se of specially-constructed syn-
thetic carpets may help provide
better and cheaper stability con-
trol on unpaved roads than con-
ventional methods now used.
Employed for the last 10 years in road
stabilization, these carpets recently have
been discovered as a tool for controlling
pollution.
EPA's industrial Environmental Research
Laboratory at Research Triangle Park, N.C.,
has evaluated the use of road carpets for
control of "fugitive emissions" (dust) from
unpaved industrial hauling roads.
Paved roads also are great contributors
of suspended particulates, especially in
urban areas where heavy traffic stirs up the
dust. Many metropolitan areas are not
meeting National Ambient Air Quality
Standards for particulate matter because
of these fugitive emissions. Thus, EPA is
encouraging the application of a number of
new concepts for controlling inhalable
urban dust.
Fugitive emissions from sources such as
roads comprise an appreciable part of the
pollution from suspended particles in this
country.
The road carpet study, conducted for
EPA by the Monsanto Research Corpora-
tion of Dayton, Ohio, concluded that stable,
water-permeable, rot-resistant carpet of
polyester fabric is an effective control
technique for unpaved roads.
"Historically, emissions from unpaved
roads have been controlled by watering,
oiling, or chemical soil stabilization," said
Dr. Dennis Drehmel, EPA project officer for
the study. "Economic evaluations show
that use of the fabric on roads is cheaper
for emissions control than conventional
control methods."
Dr. Drehmel said environmental and
safety problems also could result from
conventional control methods. Surface
agents, such as oil, could leach into
streams or make roads slippery and danger-
ous. High initial cost and subsequent
maintenance and repair costs make other-
wise effective control measures, such as
paving, impractical.
"The road carpet concept," Dr. Drehmel
said, "has potential for preventing virtually
all emissions from unpaved roads by
eliminating the sources of fine dust. This
tough fabric separates fine soil particles in
the roadbed from the coarse gravel overlay.
Any dust which falls to the road would be
washed from the gravel during rainfall,
passing through the fabric into the subsoil."
"This technique keeps dirt from reaching
the tires, where it can be picked up and
dispersed. It also prevents moisture from
eroding the graded area," he said. "Use of
road carpet results in no health or safety
hazards, or in any other unfavorable
environmental impact."
Research on the effectiveness of control
is continuing. A short-term test of the dust-
control capabilities is in progress on a haul
road at a quarry near Dayton, Ohio. A one-
year demonstration is planned (in coopera-
tion with EPA's Region 8 office in Denver)
on a light-duty vehicle road within Fort
Carson near Colorado Springs, Colo.
A technique for measuring suspended
particulate emissions from paved and un-
paved roads is necessary to the develop-
ment of effective strategies for control
and thus for achievement of particulate
standards.
"Suspended particulate emissions have
been found to vary in direct proportion to
traffic volume and the amount of fine ma-
terial on the traveled portion of the street,"
Dr. Drehmel said.
The Midwest Research Institute of
Kansas City, Mo., is developing and testing
a sampling plan for expanded measurement
of particulate emission factors for paved
roads. Eight sampling sites have been
selected in Kansas, Missouri, and Illinois.
The areas represent a range of typical road
traffic, geographical and environmental
conditions, and cover residential, commer-
cial, and industrial land uses.
An exposure measuring device, consist-
ing of a portable tower supporting sampling
heads at four different levels will be oper-
ated alongside a sampler at each of the
selected sites. "We need the technology to
measure air quality improvements resulting
from control of fugitive emissions," Dr.
Drehmel said, "so we can see what prog-
ress we are making."
Other methods being tested to control
dust include an improved street sweeper.
A pilot SCAT (Spray, Charge, and Trap)
system will be added onto a commercial
street sweeper in a study to be done for
EPA by Air Pollution Technology, Inc., of
San Diego, Calif.
The SCAT system uses fine water sprays
to collect suspended dust particles, Dr.
Drehmel said. "Data from field observa-
tions, dust sampling tests, and laboratory
experiments will be used as the basis for a
preliminary economic evaluation of the
system. The second phase of the study will
be the pilot demonstration. Results will be
used to design an optimum system for
commercial applications."
Another technique—attracting dust
particles with positively-charged water
droplets sprayed behind the wheels of
trucks and other large vehicles—will be
applied by AeroVironment, Inc., of Pasa-
dena, California. "A key to this new appli-
cation," Dr. Drehmel said, "is the 'Spinning
Cup Fog Thrower', which dispenses the
charged droplets in a volume and pattern
that avoids clogging, and conserves water
and electrical power.
"Because sources of urban dust have an
important impact on ambient air quality,
problems arise with selecting locations for
new industry. We expect increasing pres-
sure on EPA to provide guidance for bring-
ing urban areas into compliance. Control
of fugitive emissions will be the focus of
that activity." D
Julianne Knight is an Information Specialist
with EPA 's Office of Public A wareness at
Research Triangle Park, N.C.
30
EPA JOURNAL
-------
Environmental Almanac: February 1980
A Glimpse of the Natural World We Help Protect
Who Killed
the
Cardinal?
Aaucous clamoring of
crow calls arose
from a pine woods
in West Virginia's
Jefferson County on a recent
sunny winter morning.
The commotion attracted our
attention and we took a jeep
road through the woods to
investigate the noise.
By the time we reached the
site, the crows had gone and
the only sound breaking the
silence was a breeze murmuring
through the pine boughs. On the
ground, however, we spotted
an irregular circle of immacu-
late red cardinal feathers—too
many to be caused simply by a
molt. Yet there were no bones,
no blood, no other indications
of violence.
So opened the case of a card-
inal killing, one of many which
occur in an average year but
still worth examining for what
it might tell us about the
natural world.
Some of the possible sus-
pects considered in this cardi-
nal death included the
following:
A weasel, a domestic or wild
cat, a shrike, a snake, an owl
or a hawk. With the aid of
William Wylie, a crack field
biologist from West Virginia
University, we reached the
following tentative conclusions:
Weasel or cat? Not likely.
An attack by members of these
families would almost invari-
ably have left some blood.
Shrike? This loveiy and
masked bird, often called "the
butcher," resembles a mocking-
bird in appearance but is a
fierce attacker of small birds
and mammals. However, a
cardinal ordinarily would be a
little too large for a shrike.
A snake? While most were
hibernating this time of year, a
sunny day such as this one
could have induced two bird-
eaters like the black racer
or the black rat snake to venture
forth for food. Both these
snakes are tree climbers but
more often feed on nestling
birds than adults. When they
do succeed in surprising a
mature cardinal on its nest they
consume the entire animal,
feathers and all, a characteris-
tic that would seem to rule out
a snake in this killing.
An owl? A promising suspect,
but the killing occurred during
daylight hours and most owls
are nocturnal hunters. The
larger owls such as the Great
Horned would probably eat a
cardinal, feathers and all. These
owls assimilate the flesh of a
victim while their digestive
system transforms bones, feathers
and other indigestible parts
into compact pellets which they
later regurgitate to make room
for another meal. Also when
owls remove feathers from a
bird victim they cut the feathers
with their beaks. No cuts were
detected on the feathers in this
killing.
A hawk? This is the most
likely suspect. Professor Wyiie
suggests that a sharp-shinned
hawk could well have been the
killer, although the Cooper's
hawk, a slightly larger model
of the sharp-shinned, might also
be a possibility. The sharp-
shinned, unlike the larger soar-
ing hawks which spot their
targets from high in the sky
and then dive to make the kill,
is a highly maneuverable speed-
ster that waits on a perch and
darts out around or above trees
and bushes to swiftly pounce
on its prey.
After seizing its victim in the
air, the sharp-shinned hawk
kills the bird by piercing it with
its talons and then carries its
meal to the ground or to a
FEBRUARY 1980
nearby tree where it plucks the
feathers.
But back to the noisy crows.
Crows frequently gang up on
hawks or owls because they
recognize them as possible
threats to themselves or to their
young. In this case, the crows
may have started their clamor
when they spotted a hawk
devouring the cardinal.
While the hawk's actions
may seem cruel, predators
serve a useful purpose in the
animal kingdom by dispatching
the weak and unfit, thus helping
to ensure the vigor of future
prey animals and checking ex-
cessive population growth.
Although some people are
tempted to shoot all hawks be-
cause they apparently serve no
useful purpose for humans,
Aldo Leopold in his classic
work, "A Sand County
Almanac," noted that "preda-
tors are members of the com-
munity, and that no special
interest has the right to exter-
minate them for the sake of
benefit, real or fancied, to
itself."
The scientist, he pointed
out, knows that "the biotic
mechanism is so complex that
its working may never be fully
understood."
Leopold said that to demand
that everything in nature have
an economic value "assumes,
falsely, I think, that the econom-
ic parts of the biotic clock
will function without the
uneconomic parts."
In any case, there is no doubt
that hawks add drama to the
living stage of nature, an arena
that offers dazzling variety—
sometimes bloody and violent,
occasionally joyous and inspir-
ing, often beautiful and moving,
but always mysterious and
wondrous.-—C.D.P.
31
-------
Around the Nation
Highway Opposed
EPA Region 1 has asked
the U.S. Department of
Transportation to
withdraw its approval of
lnterstate-84 in eastern
Connecticut. EPA says
that the highway project
will have unacceptable
environmental and public
health impacts. This ac-
tion follows DOTapproval
of environmental impact
statements which would
have allowed design to
begin on two segments of
I-84, from the Manches-
ter/Bolton town line to
Columbia, and from
Windham to the Rhode
Island border. These
segments are scheduled
to connect with a sixteen
mile segment in Rhode
Island which is currently
planned to cross the
Scituate Reservoir and
fourteen miles of its
watershed. EPA feels that
it was unacceptable to
approve the design prior
to adequate impact
evaluation and agreement
on an environmentally
sound corridor for I-84 in
Rhode Island,
EPA sees DOT's ap-
proval as a commitment
to construction, initiating
an irreversible chain of
events that would
channel interstate traffic
to the western boundary
of the Scituate watershed.
In addition, there would
be bias against selecting
alternative corridors in
Rhode Island that would
bypass the watershed.
The proposed highway
could degrade the sole
source of drinking water
for more than half the
people in the State in
four ways: (1) greater
risk of spills of hazardous
substances from truck
traffic that would not
otherwise travel through
the watershed, (2) run-off
of salt, de-icing chemi-
cals, and other pollutants
from the road, (3)
secondary development,
and (4) siltation during
construction.
EPA has asked the
Council on Environmental
Quality to resolve the
disputed issues relating
to the proposed highway.
CEQ is an executive-level
office charged with
resolving differences
between Federal agencies
relating to environmental
matters.
New Timetable Set
A consent agreement has
been signed by New York
City and Region 2 for a
new timetable for com-
pletion of two major sew-
age treatment facilities to
end the discharge of 195
million gallons of raw
sewage into the East and
Hudson Rivers around
Manhattan. The new
schedule was aided by
the recent round of EPA
grants to the City totalling
more than $171 million
to speed completion of
the treatment facilities.
The funds will also help
the City by generating
nearly 8,000 construc-
tion-related jobs.
Clean Air Violation
EPA's Region 2 has filed
an administrative com-
plaint against the Town of
Greece, N.Y. for violating
Federal regulations under
the Clean Air Act. The
complaint alleges that the
Town's Police Depart-
ment used leaded gaso-
line in a number of its
vehicles which are de-
signed to use unleaded
fuel only. A civil penalty
of $64,300 was assessed
against the Town for the
violations found by EPA
inspectors. This amount
was based on a formula
contained in the Act.
After a settlement con-
ference, the penalty was
subsequently reduced,
but additional require-
ments were placed on the
Town. These included
replacement of all catalyt-
ic converters made in-
operative on police cars
through the use of leaded
fuel and an education
program voluntarily sug-
gested by the Town to
inform other local munic-
ipalities of their respon-
sibilities concerning un-
leaded gas regulations.
must now be reduced
to 2,600, 2,000, 1,500,
and finally 1,000 barrels
respectively by 1983.
Failure to do so will con-
stitute breaking the parole
and could result in
additional penalties.
Pipeline Fined
Eureka Pipe Line com-
pany has been fined
$25,000 and placed on
probation for four years
for failure to notify
Federal authorities about
15 oil spills in West
Virginia. The 1 5 spills,
which occurred in
August and September,
1977, were located in
Clay, Jackson, Kanawha,
Lincoln, Roane, and
Walton Counties. Region
3 referred the case to the
Justice Department in
January, 1979. It did so
under the authority
mandated by the Clean
Water Act, which requires
persons responsible for
oil spills to contact both
State and Federal gov-
ernments. Responsible
parties are subject to fines
and assessment costs for
the cleanup operation.
All money raised from
the fines and assessments
is turned over to the
Federal oil spill cleanup
fund.
In addition to the
fines, Eureka's probation
requires it to reduce the
amount of oil spilled from
its pipelines during each
of the next four years.
In 1979, this amounted
to approximately 3,200
barrels of oil. This figure
Noise Agreement
Kingsport, Tenn., has
become the first city in
Region 4 to obtain a
cooperative agreement
under the Quiet Com-
munities Act of 1978,
which provides for
financial assistance to
local communities. The
City has appointed an
advisory committee to
develop the framework
for a motor vehicle noise
control program and also
borrowed instruments
from the Regional EPA
office to evaluate various
measuring procedures.
Local Help
Region 4 has actively
supported the ECHO
program (Each Com-
munity Helps Others), an
EPA project that uses
the expertise of local
officials to help solve
noise problems in other
areas. There are three
Community Noise
Advisors to help in the
five communities which
are part of the ECHO
program in the southeast.
Cumberland, N.C., a
recipient community in
this program, has
expressed a willingness
to serve as a pilot by
placing noise educational
materials in primary and
secondary school sys-
tems. Other cities in the
ECHO program are:
Charlotte, N.C., Chatham
County/Savannah, Ga.;
Macon, Ga., and Kings-
port, Tenn.
Seek and Find
Region 5 has launched a
new citizen participa-
tion program to locate
dangerous, illegal haz-
ardous wastes, and in
conjunction with State
agencies, eliminate any
threat they present to
human health and the
environment. Called
"Seek and Find," the
new program uses a toll-
free hotline to help con-
cerned citizens reach
EPA specialists trained
in hazardous wastes in-
vestigation. Since EPA
gave hazardous waste
control top priority in
February, 1979, more
than 200 hazardous
waste dumps, spills, and
storage areas have been
investigated by EPA's
hazardous waste task
force in the six States of
Region 5. The Agency has
filed 32 cases in Federal
and State courts against
owners and operators of
dangerous waste sites,
and 25 additional cases
are in preparation. EPA
estimates that there are
perhaps 1,800 hazardous
waste sites in the Mid-
west alone. Regional Ad-
ministrator John Mc-
Guire, in emphasizing the
threat of these materials,
said, "Without the con-
centrated help of citizens
the problem can only get
worse." Help can come
from a variety of sources.
Fire departments can re-
port abandoned ware-
houses; road crews might
spot oozing drums; hunt-
ers may find barren spots
in the woods, and hikers
may come upon foul-
smelling chemicals
dumped in swamps. Peo-
ple are urged to call the
"Seek and Find" line if
they suspect illegal dump-
ing, but are cautioned not
to attempt to investigate
32
EPA JOURNAL
-------
a hazardous site them-
selves. Many such wastes
are in the form of liquids
or sludges that can be
toxic or explosive and
should be handled only by
experts. EPA estimates
that only 10 percent of
the 30 or 40 million tons
of hazardous waste pro-
duced annually in the U.S.
is being adequately con-
trolled. In Illinois the hot-
line number is 800-620-
3191. In Indiana, Ohio,
Michigan, Wisconsin,
and Minnesota the num-
ber is 800-972-3170.
Transit Aid
The Houston-Galveston
Area Council of Govern-
ments' approval of six
additional transportation
control measures has
cleared the way for final
EPA approval of the Texas
State Implementation
Plan. The measures fulfill
a Federal requirement for
areas which cannot attain
the ozone standard by
1982, and include five
park-and-ride systems
and CarShare, a program
which provides a com-
puterized matching
service for persons seek-
ing carpool information
in the Harris County
metropolitan area.
Hazardous Waste Sites
Region 6 is now evaluat-
ing 445 hazardous waste
sites in Arkansas,
Louisiana, New Mexico,
Oklahoma, and Texas
after combining its list of
sites with those on
Congressman Bob Eck-
hardt's subcommittee
list. After the evaluation
phase, EPA and the States
will have a clear picture
of those sites that need
further investigation and
sampling—and those that
need to be cleaned up
or closed down. While
awaiting final regulations
and additional funding,
the regional office is
working closely with
State agencies. The task
force expects this pro-
gram to be in full
operation during the first
quarter of 1980.
Federal Initiative
Applauded
The first phase of the
Federal Clean Air Initia-
tive was termed "most
successful" by Charles
H. Yaws, Jr., Acting Re-
gional Administrator of
the General Services
Administration (GSA), in
a congratulatory letter to
EPA Regional Administra-
tor Dr. Kathleen Q.
Camin. Several officials
of the sponsoring Federal
Executive Board (FEB) in
Kansas City echoed this
observation after the pri-
vate cars of Federal em-
ployees from 1 5 agencies
were checked as part of a
voluntary inspection and
maintenance (I&M) pro-
gram. The Federal Clean
Air Initiative was original-
ly proposed to FEB by
Dr. Camin who comment-
ed, "We need to practice
what we preach." She
said, "It is designed to
inspect the private ve-
hicles of Federal employ-
ees and the government-
operated fleets in the hope
that it will result in the
reduction of air pollution,
improve fuel economy,
and extend auto life, it is
hoped that this example
will demonstrate that
I&M results in benefits
that outweigh any costs
and inconvenience."
"At first participation
by Federal employees was
low, but the number of
vehicles being inspected
multiplied as the word
got out that the test took
only a few minutes,"
according to Mickey
Marshall, Region 7 I/M
coordinator. Marshall
added that "77 percent"
of these autos passed the
analysis.
Plans have been com-
pleted to test government
fleets at GSA and the
Corps of Engineers in the
latter stage of the federal
initiative. Dr. Camin re-
marked that "voluntary
I/M for the public will go
into full swing in Mis-
souri, this year, and we
are hoping to get enabling
legislation passed soon
in Kansas."
requirements; expand
communication and
coordination with other
levels of government,
industry, and citizens;
advocate phased, orderly
synthetic fuels develop-
ments; advocate selection
of energy development
options which minimize
consumptive use of water
in the arid West; and
actively promote energy
conservation measures
in issuance of permits
and grants.
merit which applies paint
more evenly and
efficiently.
Energy Policy
EPA's Region 8 has just
completed work on an
energy policy draft that is
committed to helping
the Nation achieve energy
self-sufficiency while
protecting the quality of
the environment enjoyed
by residents and visitors
to the region. The policy,
first released in 1979, is
aimed at the huge re-
serves of coal, oil, natural
gas, uranium, and oil
shale, which lie beneath
the lands of Colorado,
Montana, North Dakota,
South Dakota, Utah, and
Wyoming.
Under the policy the
Region will assure that
environmental standards
and objectives are not
violated by energy facili-
ties; expedite regulatory
decision-making on all
energy projects including
an objective to review all
energy facility permit
applications within six
months; consolidate
procedures, reviews, and
issuance of energy-re-
lated permits and
Air Agreement
Region 9 and General
Motors have reached an
agreement which brings
the corporation's
assembly plant in Fre-
mont, Calif., into com-
pliance with Federal air
quality standards. A
proposed order would
require GM to reduce
organic solvent usage at
two paint spray booths by
August 31, 1981. These
booths currently emit
five tons of hydrocarbons
per day into the air.
EPA will require
schedules, incremental
reductions, and progress
reports from GM until
1981. The first reduction,
set in early 1980, should
decrease hydrocarbons
emissions by 5 tons per
day. When final com-
pliance is achieved,
engineers expect a reduc-
tion of 11.6 tons per day.
This action could serve
as a model for other GM
auto assembly plants
across the Nation where
health-based air stand-
ards are violated, and
result in less energy
consumption than con-
ventional technology.
Energy can be saved by
allowing newly painted
cars to bake or dry at
lower temperatures. GM
will also save money
through the use of equip-
Minority Contracting
Public hearings were held
last month in Anchorage,
Boise, Portland, and
Seattle to obtain fresh
ideas on how to help
minority businesses pro-
vide services and supplies
on ail grants and contracts
paid for with EPA
money. A major purpose
of the hearings was to
review the goals used by
Region 10 for participa-
tion by minority firms
in the sewage treatment
construction program.
In the past three years,
using the goal system,
nearly 1 5 per cent of the
approximately $200
miltion-a-year planning,
design, and construction
work in the Region has
been awarded to minority
architectural and engi-
neering consultants and
construction contractors.
Refinery Permit
Region 10 has begun
evaluating public com-
ments received on EPA's
proposed water pollution
control permit for a major
refinery and petrochemi-
cal complex in Valdez,
Alaska. The refinery,
planned by the Alaska
Petrochemical Company,
has been designed to
process 150,000 barrels
a day of the State's oil
from the North Slope. Its
daily output would supply
West Coast markets with
75,000 barrels of un-
leaded gasoline and
another 70,000 barrels of
other petroleum
products. D
FEBRUARY 1980
33
-------
Remarks By Administrator Douglas M. Costle at the EPA Awards Ceremony, Dec. 19,1979
ack in 1936, the Fish and Wildtile
Service in Washington hired a
young graduate of Johns Hopkins
University as a "junior aquatic biol-
Because the new recruit had once
B
ogist.'
hoped to be a poet, and had done a lot of
writing, she was assigned to prepare a
series of weekly radio broadcasts. They
were referred to by her colleagues as
"seven-minute fish tales."
She did well atthisforaboutayear.. .
but then she ran into trouble. While at-
tempting to write another broadcast about
the sea, she found the material taking on a
life of its own; it stubbornly resisted her
efforts to cram it into the regular format.
It became much more lyrical and even
mystical a text than any Commissioner of
Fisheries would be comfortable delivering.
Troubled, the young biologist took the
manuscript in to her boss. He confirmed her
doubts. "I don't think it will do," he said.
"Better try again. But send this one to the
Atlantic."
The A t/antic Monthly accepted the piece
—and Rachel Carson was on her way.
I tell this story today for three reasons:
first, because probably no single book did
as much to supply an intellectual under-
pinning for the environmental movement as
did Miss Carson's Silent Spring; second,
because the seeds of that book were sown
during Miss Carson's Federal service dur-
ing World War II, when she had read early
studies on the effects of DDT; and third,
because Miss Carson worked for the Fed-
era) Government for 1 6 years. She was, by
most standards, a bureaucrat.
QUIET
SERVICE
INA
NOISY
TIME
"Bureaucrat" . . . the term has become
one of disparagement. Never more is it so
used than during political campaigns, when
one candidate after another offers his diag-
nosis of what's wrong with the United
States of America. A considerable number
invariably decide that Federal employees
are high up on the list of national problems.
And of all Federal employees, those who
seem to come in for the most criticism to-
day are those who work for regulatory
agencies. Inasmuch as EPA does the most
regulating in the Federal Government, I
want to offer you my sympathy.
But I want to offer much more than sym-
pathy. I want to offer you my appreciation;
most important of all, I want to lodge a stiff
protest against the routine American
stereotype of government workers as
stodgy, unimaginative time-servers. Apart
from the fact that this characterization is
wrong, I'm just plain fed up with it.
Recently the Washington Post had some
nice things to say about EPA. The subject
was two of our proposals: the "bubble"
concept for giving industrial plants the
greatest possible latitude in deciding how
to control emissions, and the "offset"
policy to permit industrial expansion in
non-attainment areas. The Post concluded
its editorial by saying, "EPA deserves con-
gratulations for that governmental rarity—
a creative and practical new idea."
Grateful as I am for such unaccustomed
compliments, I take issue with the Post's
belief that creative and practical new ideas
area "governmental rarity."
On the contrary, government employees
come up with new ideas at an absolutely
astonishing rate. The Office of Personnel
Management, which used to be the Civil
Service Commission, keeps track of such
things—and its figures are eye-opening.
During fiscal 1 978 alone, the government
adopted 42,512 suggestions proposed by
Federal employees—about one of every
four ideas contributed. The tangible, first-
year benefits to the government from those
suggestions are calculated to exceed $132
million. In addition, measurable benefits
from outstanding service by Federal em-
ployees saved another $185 million. The
total savings to the government, in excess
of $318 million, represent an amount equal
to the average income taxes of 128,500
citizens.
The Federal Incentive Program, under
which both suggestions and special
achievements are recognized, was created
in 1954. I am happy to point out that, in the
25 years of that program, the highest
amount of dollar benefits in a single year
for special achievements—$78 million—
was contributed by EPA employees in 1978.
"Suggestions" is a rather humble term,
connoting ideas for saving paper clips and
cutting down on the telephone bill. And
"special achievements" may imply conning
to work on Saturday every now and then. In
fact, suggestions and special services con-
tributed by Federal employees over the
years go far beyond such mundane matters
and touch nearly every aspect of our corn-
EPA employees at work.
M
EPA JOURNAL
-------
mon life, in war and peace. You may be
interested to know what some of those
contributions were.
« A World War II weapon widely recog-
nized as second in importance only to the
atomic bomb was invented by two Federal
employees. This was the radio proximity
fuse—a device that senses a target and, if
the projectile is slightly off the mark, trig-
gers an explosion at the moment it w.ll do
the most damage. Another weapon invented
by a Federal employee is the "Sidewinder"
missile—a heat-seeking weapon so sen-
sitive it can sniff out and home in on a
smoldering cigarette from 100 yards away.
• In the early 1950's, a government engi-
neer warned the aircraft industry that its
prototype supersonic fighter planes would
not break the sound barrier; its designs,
he said, inaccurately computed the effect of
air drag. The industry ignored him—until
it found that its own prototypes, despite
millions of development dollars, would not
even approach the speed of sound. In des-
peration, Convair adopted the Federal
engineer's design; on its first trial, the new
prototype broke the sound barrier while it
was sti/l climbing and flew more than 100
miles per hour faster than expected.
• Similarly, both radar and modern sonar
were pioneered by government scientists;
though developed for wartime application,
both have found peacetime uses for guid-
ing air traffic and for underwater acoustic
communications.
• While seeking a faster, more accurate
method of testing vision than the traditional
eye chart, two Navy scientists developed a
process using an electrode coupled with a
computer that translates brain responses.
The process makes it possible for the first
time to test the vision of small children, the
linguistically handicapped, and the men-
tally retarded.
• All these achievements concern ideas
that became realities. But one of the most
memorable achievements of a Federal em-
ployee concerns something that did not
happen: that was the registration in this
country of the drug thalidomide, which had
been approved in several other nations with
equally advanced screening processes.
Despite heavy pressure both from the phar-
maceutical industry and from her own
superior. Dr. Frances Kelsey stubbornly
refused to approve this drug for sale in the
United States—and, when the side-effects
of thalidomide were demonstrated through
the birth of deformed infants, Dr. Kelsey,
who is still an employee of the Food and
Drug Administration, received the Presi-
dent's Award for Distinguished Federal
Civilian Service. This is the highest honor
that the Federal Government can grant a
civilian.
The vast majority of civil service con-
tributions do not, of course, involve such
drama. Often they are not easily explained,
and rarely are they publicized. They run the
range of daily Federal concerns, most of
them unknown by the general public—from
the testing of gun barrels to the straighten-
ing of ship propellers, from bailing out a
reforestation project bungled by a private
\
contractor, to the preparation of a water-
sampling manual now in use throughout the
United States. The government employees
who have been recognized for noteworthy
contributions include not only Ph.D.'s
working at the farthest reaches of science,
but also a contract administrator in Phila-
delphia who holds his agency's record of
78 award-winning suggestions, and an Air
Force master sergeant who has had 367
ideas adopted.
Award ceremonies are an imperfect, in-
adequate attempt to recognize Federal
employees who go far beyond earning their
salary. I wish those politicians and
editorial-writers who yammer so easily
and endlessly about "bureaucrats" had
some idea of the dollars that have been
saved and the lives protected by civil serv-
ants who rarely receive any public thanks
for their work.
I do not want to make these remarks a
paean to the value of Federal regulations or
the glory of those who write, explain, and
enforce them. Some laws and regulations,
concocted in other times to suit other
needs, are obsolete and need to be thrown
out; our current criminal code, for example
—now undergoing revision by Congress—
makes it a penal offense to shoot Federal
carrier pigeons; should the proposed revi-
sions be voted into law, you can shoot all
the Federal carrier pigeons you want.
Continued on page 40
FEBRUARY 1980
35
-------
Update
A review of recent major
EPA activities and devel-
opments in the pollution
control program areas.
SOLID WASTE
Hazardous Waste Suits
In one of the largest envi-
ronmental complaints
ever lodged by the Fed-
eral government against a
major corporation, EPA
recently announced that
the Department of Justice
—acting on behalf of
EPA—has filed four suits
against Hooker Chemical
Co., and its parent cor-
poration, Occidental Pe-
troleum Corporation, re-
questingthatthe company
clean up four chemical
waste dumpsites in
Niagara Fails, N.Y., which
are posing substantial
danger to residents of the
area.
The suits seek a total
of $117,580,000 in clean-
up costs from Hooker as
well as reimbursement for
more than $7 million
spent by Federal agencies
in emergency measures at
Hooker's Love Canal
waste disposal site, and
unspecified civil penalties.
The sites involved,
each the subject of sepa-
rate actions, are Love
Canal, Hyde Park, 102nd
Street and the "S" Area
landfill. All four were
used by Hooker Chemical
Company to dispose of its
chemical wastes.
One of the suits also
charged Olin Corporation,
another chemical pro-
ducer, with similar viola-
tions at a disposal site
adjacent to Hooker's
102nd Street facility.
In announcing the suits,
EPA's Deputy Administra-
tor Barbara Blum said the
actions "should serve
notice to those who gen-
erate or handle hazardous
wastes that these kinds
of dangers no longer will
be tolerated by the Ameri-
can public. The day of
discarding hazardous ma-
terials indiscriminately
and haphazardly is over.
The relief being requested
by the government from
these chemical companies
represents one of the
most significant and
costly environmental
remedies ever sought in
a judicial action. It is well
warranted in our estima-
tion. None of the dumps
is still used but they have
left a frightening legacy."
EPA scientists found
82 toxic chemicals in air,
water, and soil samples
near the dumps, Blum
said. The numerous toxic
chemicals—a dozen of
which are carcinogenic—
discarded at Love Canal
over the past 30 years
have triggered several
health problems, includ-
ing miscarriages, among
the area's residents and
have transformed whole
sections of this once
pleasant community into
a ghost town.
The suits brought are
a result of a 10-month in-
vestigation by EPA scien-
tists and EPA and Justice
Department lawyers. This
investigation is just one
of many going on at
dumpsites across the
country as EPA and the
Justice Department pre-
pare to challenge the dan-
gerous disposal practices
which have directly af-
fected millions of Ameri-
cans by polluting their
air, soil and water sup-
plies," said Blum. "Many
sites used in the past for
waste disposal have been
found to contain toxic
chemicals and other haz-
ardous substances. The
full scope of the threat to
human health and the en-
vironment is still being
uncovered."
WATER
Clean Lakes
Millions of city residents
will benefit from grants
recently awarded by EPA.
The grants of up to
$100,000 each will be
used by States to help ten
cities find ways to make
their urban lakes more
useable and healthful.
The first ten Urban
Initiative Clean Lakes
grants are being awarded
to: the town of Arlington,
Mass., near Boston; New-
ark, N.J.; Baltimore, Md.;
St. Petersburg, Fla.; Mil-
waukee, Wis.; Pine Bluff,
Ark.; St. Louis, Mo.; Den-
ver, Colo.; Oakland/
Alameda County, Calif.;
and Seattle, Wash.
The grants are intended
to pay 70 percent of costs
for conducting studies
and developing proce-
dures to improve water
quality in the lakes, there-
by increasing their recrea-
tional and aesthetic po-
tential. The grants will
extend over a two-year
period; the projects will
then be eligible for 50
percent EPA cost-sharing
grants to finance the ac-
tual clean-up and revitali-
zation work.
"These ten pilot grants
constitute the first phase
of our urban clean lakes
program and are a con-
crete expression of the
Administration's policy to
promote the revitalization
of our inner city areas,"
said Deputy Administrator
Barbara Blum.
Sewage Treatment
EPA has released a plan
for bringing thousands of
municipalities into com-
pliance with Federal regu-
lations on sewage treat-
ment by July 1, 1983.
The Agency said that
its new National Munici-
pal Policy and Strategy
was prompted by findings
of a recent analysis of
publicly-owned treatment
works which showed that
more than 10,000 muni-
cipalities are not comply-
ing with the July, 1977,
Federal deadline on sec-
ondary sewage treatment
or even State require-
ments.
EPA said that in draft-
ing the plan it took into
consideration the many
jurisdictions that could
not comply with the law
because of their inability
to obtain Federal con-
struction funds. These
communities will be eligi-
ble for extensions of com-
piance deadlines under
the Clean Water Act.
However, other commu-
nities with access to Fed-
eral construction funds
that have not complied in
a timely manner to satisfy
provisions of the Act will
be subject to enforcement
actions, including poten-
tial prosecution.
Rubber Industry
The rubber industry will
be relieved of millions of
dollars in additional wa-
ter pollution clean-up
costs under new rules
proposed by the EPA.
The new rules are de-
signed to protect public
health and the environ-
ment at costs less than
those anticipated when
clean-up targets were
originally set by the
Agency five years ago.
Savings to the industry
would be about $65 mil-
lion in capital that would
have been needed to buy
and install new equip-
ment, plus about $14
million annually to oper-
ate and maintain the
equipment.
The Agency's propos-
als, if adopted following
public review, mean that
many rubber plants across
the country would not
have to install additional
clean-up equipment that
was required by 1984.
EPA says that new infor-
mation on the industry
shows that present clean-
up levels that had to be
met by mid-1977 are
adequate; therefore, the
additional equipment is
not needed.
Computer Design
For less than $20, com-
munities can generate
computer-designed plans
for new wastewater treat-
ment plants and estimate
how much they will cost
to build and maintain.
The procedure, called
CAPDET (Computer
Assisted Procedure for
Design and Evaluation of
Wastewater Treatment
Systems), was created by
the EPA and the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers.
The program can quick-
ly produce alternative
planning level designs
that meet specified
criteria and rank
these alternatives accord-
ing to their cost effective-
ness. CAPDET can assist
in the preparation of
facilities plans for waste-
water treatment projects
built under EPA's section
201 and 208 programs as
well as those planned by
the Corps of Engineers in
urban and recreation
areas and military
installations.
For information on
CAPDET or the training
course, contact Dr. Wen
Huang, Priorities and
Needs Assessment
Branch (WH-595), U.S.
EPA, 401 M Street, SW,
Washington, D.C. 20460,
telephone(202)426-4443
or John Cullinane, USAE
Waterways Experiment
Station, P.O. Box 631,
Vicksburg, Miss. 29180,
telephone (601) 636-
3111,ext. 3723.
Drinking Water
The EPA has issued a
standard for chloroform
and related chemicals in
community drinking water
supplies. It is the first en-
forceable regulation to
control cancer-causing
organic substances in
drinking water.
The regulations set a
limit for chloroform and
related organic chemicals
of the trihalomethane
(THM) group of 0.10 mil-
ligrams per liter of water,
or 100 parts per billion.
EPA is concerned about
those substances because
chloroform has caused
cancer in test animals and
may pose a risk to
humans.
A total of approximately
2,700 public water sys-
tems serving 167 million
people are covered by the
36
EPAJOURNAL
-------
regulations; this includes
nearly 80 percent of peo-
ple served by community
water systems. EPA sta-
tistical estimates show
that 515 of these systems
are expected to exceed
the THM standard and
willtherefore modifytheir
treatment processes.
Total national capital ex-
penditures are estimated
to be $85 million with
annual costs of $19 mil-
lion. The typical annual
water bill for a family of
three is expected to in-
crease no more than an
average of $ 1.40 as a re-
sult of these regulations.
TOXICS
Chemicals Proposal
EPA has proposed requir-
ing chemical companies
to submit all unpublished
studies known to them on
health and environmental
effects of 61 chemical
substances and categories
of chemical substances.
EPA would then use the
data, along with data ob-
tained from other sources,
to determine if there is a
need to require testing of
the chemicals for health
and environment effects
or to take other appropri-
ate regulatory action.
Among the substances
of interest to EPA are
asbestos, chemicals used
in dye-making, plastics,
wood preservatives, pes-
ticides, and paints. Test-
ing of some of the chemi-
cals based on the extent
of exposure and potential
adverse effects has been
recommended by an
interagency committee.
Examples of the infor-
mation that would be re-
quested include: (1) the
existence of health or
medical records main-
tained on workers ex-
posed to these chemicals;
(2) animal studies on
biological effects of the
chemicals; and (3) esti-
mates of concentrations
of a substance in the
workplace or the envi-
ronment.
AIR
Pollution Standard
Tailpipe standards set re-
cently by EPA should
reduce emissions by 90
percent from gasoline and
diesel-powered trucks
and buses, beginning with
1984 models. The 90 per-
cent reduction is from
1969 emission levels.
The new standards will
control hydrocarbon and
carbon monoxide emis-
sions for vehicles over
8,500 pounds gross
weight.
Extensive air quality
analysis conducted by
EPA shows that the aver-
age urban level of ozone
will be two percent lower
with the new standards
and carbon monoxide air
quality will improve seven
percent.
Diesel Strategy
The EPA has re-empha-
sized its concern that par-
ticulate emissions from
diesel automobiles be
reduced by waiving the
nitrogen oxide emission
standard for five models
of diesel autos in 1981
and 1982. The Clean Air
Act requires gasoline and
diesel cars to meet a
nitrogen oxide standard
of 1.0 gram per mile be-
ginning in 1981. The Act
allows auto manufac-
turers to apply for a waiver
of the standard up to 1.5
gpm for diesel vehicles
built in 1981-84 if the
waiver is needed to use
diesel technology.
Administrator Douglas
M. Costle said the deci-
sion to waive the standard
for diesels in 1981-82
represented a balancing
of risks between a more
gradual decline in emis-
sion reductions if granted
and the possible increase
in particulate emissions
if denied.
EPA plans to promul-
gate, in the near future,
diesel particulate stand-
ards requiring application
of best available technol-
ogy, and to continue an
extensive research pro-
gram on the health dan-
gers from diesel exhaust.
Conversion to Coal
EPA has issued an order
allowing New England's
biggest power plant to
convert from foreign oil
to coal now, rather than
several years in the future
as originally planned. This
conversion will reduce
that region's dependence
on oil used for electricity
generation by over 400
thousand barrels a month,
according to Deputy Ad-
ministrator Barbara Blum.
Last May, EPA ap-
proved a change in the
Massachusetts air pollu-
tion control plan which
would allow New Eng-
land Power Company's
Brayton Point power plant
in Somerset, Mass., after
installation of appropriate
air pollution control
equipment, to phase in
conversion from oil to
coal from 1982-84. Since
that approval, however,
the company asked EPA
for a temporary waiver of
particulate emission
standards, and submitted
information showing that
such a waiver would per-
mit Brayton Point to im-
mediately convert to coal
burning without endan-
gering public health. EPA
has therefore issued an
order temporarily sus-
pending particulate stand
ards for Units 1 and 2 of
the Brayton Station
through August, 1980,
with a possible extension
—for good cause—to this
November.
Blum said, "I want to
emphasize, however,
that clean air will not be
sacrificed. Based on ex-
tensive analysis, the
Massachusetts Depart-
ment of Environmental
Quality Engineering and
EPA are confident that
coal burning at Brayton
Point will not violate at-
mospheric air quality
standards protecting pub-
lic health."
PESTICIDES
Pesticide Hearing
Hearings to determine
whether to ban all uses of
the pesticides 2,4,5-T
and Silvex on grounds
that they are hazardous to
unborn children and
human health will be
conducted by EPA.
The hearings will be
held at EPA Headquarters
in Washington, D.C., be-
ginning February 13, by
an EPA administrative
law judge.
The hearings will con-
sider two issues: whether
to make permanent a tem-
porary ban on the use of
these pesticides in forests
and on pastures and util-
ity and highway rights of
way and whether to halt
remaining uses of the two
herbicides on rangeland,
rice, certain non-crop
treatments and, in the
case of Silvex only, on
orchards and sugar cane.
Both of these pesti-
cides contain the highly
toxic contaminant tetra-
chlorodibenzo-p-dioxin
(TCDD) and have caused
birth defects, miscar-
riages, and cancer in
laboratory animals.
Rat Poison
The EPA has approved a
new poison that can kill
rats immune to the lethal
effects of the commonly
used rodenticide, War-
farin. This immunity
occurs in some rats in
many cities.
The new toxin, made
by ICI Americas of Wil-
mington, Del. and brand-
named "Talon," is used
in four different bait prod-
ucts for controlling rats
and mice in homes, indus-
trial buildings, ships,
trains, aircraft, and port
and terminal buildings.
Despite its effective-
ness against rats. Talon is
in the category of pesti-
cides considered least
toxic by EPA. Still, the
label directions, like those
for other pesticides, warn
that it must be kept away
from children.
Pesticide Proposal
Under an EPA proposal,
farmers would be allowed
to continue using the pes-
ticide dimethoate, pro-
vided they adhere to a
number of new restric-
tions to protect the health
of the person mixing and
applying it.
The Agency has deter-
mined that if farmers
were to lose the use of
dimethoate against in-
sects their annual income
would drop by millions of
dollars.
Growers use dimetho-
ate for such crops as corn,
sorghum, wheat, safflow-
er, soybeans, cotton, fruit,
nuts, many vegetables,
and tobacco. In 1978, it
was one of the pesticides
used against a major out-
break of grasshoppers in
Central and Western
States.
On the other hand, EPA
said that a two-year in-
vestigation into the bene-
fits and risks of the pesti-
cide showed that it can
cause birth defects to the
fetus in animals. Also,
evidence suggests—but
is not conclusive—that it
can cause cancer.
To protect the health of
applicators, EPA will pro-
hibit the use of air blast
equipment for the treat-
ment of citrus fruits,
pecans, pears, and apples,
and direct that all prod-
ucts containing dimetho-
ate used with the equip-
ment bear a special
warning for women
against exposure during
pregnancy. Protective
clothing will be required
as well as respirators for
pilots of spray airplanes
and mixer-loaders of
dimethoate. Automatic
flaggers to guide planes
spraying the pesticide
will be used as an added
precaution.
EPA also proposes to
cancel the registration of
dust formulations of the
pesticide to reduce risk
of inhalation exposure to
anyone handling it. D
FEBRUARY 1980
37
-------
People
David R. Andrews
He is leaving EPA to accept the
position of Deputy General
Counsel at HEW. The Segal staff
at HEW is the third largest in
the government with over 450
lawyers and a total staff of over
1,000. Since October, 1977, he
has been the Legal Counsel and
Special Assistant for Policy to
the Deputy Administrator. In
that capacity, he supervised and
coordinated all Agency activi-
ties regarding urban matters,
hazardous waste enforcement,
and certain energy issues. He
also chaired the Agency Indian
Work Group which is respon-
sible for developing an overall
policy on Indians. He was an
Agency representative at the
Governing Council of the
United Nations Environmental
Program in Nairobi. He was
also a member of the EPA dele-
gation that visited the Federal
Republic of Nigeria in 1978 and
Counsel for the U.S. in negotia-
tions with Nigeria on an envi-
ronmental assistance program.
In 1975 Andrews was appoint-
ed Regional Counsel for EPA's
Region 9. In 1974, while on
sabbatical leave from his
law firm, he was a visiting Pro-
fessor of Law at the University
of Heidelberg and a visiting
Fellow at the Max Planck
institute for Comparative Public
Law and International Law. He
also served as a special advisor
to the Council of Europe in
Strasbourg, France. He has pub-
lished articles in the U.S. and
Europe on environmental,
antitrust, and international law.
He is a graduate of the Univer-
sity of California at Berkeley
and its law school.
Donald T. Oakley
He has been named Acting
Director of the Office of
International Activities. More
recently Oakley was the
Director of the Bilateral Divi-
sion in the same office.
Previously he held the position
of Deputy Director of the
Field Operations Division in
the Office of Radiation Pro-
grams, where he was respon-
sible for the management of
EPA's radiation monitoring
and data analysis. Prior to
coming to EPA in 1971, he
served 11 years with the U.S.
Public Health Service, five of
which were spent in training
activities and six in environ-
mental protection management.
He earned a bachelor's degree
in electrical engineering from
the University of Maryland in
1960, a master's in Environ-
mental Health Sciences from
the University of Michigan in
1967 and a doctorate in the
same field from Harvard in
1972. He is a Registered
Professional Sanitary Engineer
(Mass.) and a Diplomate in the
American Academy of Environ-
mental Engineers.
Ambassador Peter Hermes of the Federal Republic of Germany
bestowed the German Order of Merit on EPA Administrator
Doug/as M. Costle and Deputy Administrator Barbara Blum for
their environmental work in a ceremony recently at the Ambas-
sador's residence in Washington. The award was established
nearly two decades ago by Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and
President Theodor Heuss. In their acceptance remarks, Costle and
Blum paid tribute to German State Secretary Guenter Hartkopf,
who has worked closely with EPA in joint environmental projects
between the two countries.
Frances Phillips
She has been named Deputy
Regional Administrator for
EPA Region 6. She had been
serving as Assistant Adminis-
trator for that region. Previously,
she was the Associate General
Counsel for Grants, Contracts
and General Administration
in Washington, D.C. She also
had served EPA in Region 4
in the Regional Counse! Office.
Before joining EPA she set
up an environmental law
department for the faw firm of
Bracewell and Patterson of
Houston, Texas. She graduated
cum laude from Baylor
University in 1969 and received
her law degree from the
University of Texas in 1972.
Douglas MacMNIIan
He has been named as the
Acting Director of the Hazard-
ous Waste Enforcement Task
Force. The newly-formed task
force, which reports to the
Assistant Administrator for
Enforcement, is responsible for
the technical and legal develop-
ment of enforcement actions
aimed at the improper disposal
of hazardous chemical wastes.
The task force functions include
working with the Regions and
Department of Justice per-
sonnel in the preparation of
cases. Prior to this appointment
MacMillan was a Congressional
Fellow, working with Senator
John Culver and Congressman
James Florio on the Resource
Conservation and Recovery
Act reauthorization and
"Superfund" legislation. He
has also served as Director of
the Management and Organiza-
tion Division, 0PM, at EPA
headquarters and in Region 1 .
He earned a law degree from
Georgetown University and a
master's in public administra-
tion from Harvard.
38
EPA JOURNAL
-------
News Briefs
Earth .Day
Anniversay
April 22 will mark the 10th anniversary of Earth
Day. Elaborate plans are being made by the Citizens
Committee for the Second Environmental Decade to cele-
brate "Earth Day '80." Mike McCabe, the committee's
executive director, says that the "focus of Earth Day
'80 will be at the community level where the strength
of the environmental ethic has its roots." In addition
to celebrating achievements already made, the committee
hopes to help forge a new commitment to environmental
goals for the 1980's. The committee has offices at 1638
R Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20009.
Hazardous
Spills
Conference
The fifth National Conference on the Control of
Hazardous Material Spills, sponsored jointly by the
EPA, U.S. Coast Guard and Vanderbilt University, will be
held May 13-15, at the Gait House Hotel, Louisville,
Kentucky. Special features of the conference will in-
clude a panel discussion on hazardous chemical emergen-
cies, a groundwater contamination symposium, training
programs, film festival, and exhibits of the latest
technological, service and equipment advances. For more
information contact the Hazardous Materials Conference
Coordinator, Center for Environmental Quality Management,
Box 6067, Station B, Nashville, Tenn., 37235.
States Served by EPA Regions Region 1 (Boston)
Connecticut. Maim-
Massachusetts. New
Hampshire. Rhode Island,
Vermont
617-223-7210
Region 2 (New York
City!
New Jersev. New York,
Puerto Rico, Virgin
Islands
212 264-2525
Region 3
(Philadelphia)
Delaware, Maryland.
Pennsylvania. Virginia,
West Virginia. District of
Colutr
215-597 3814
Region 4 'Atlanta)
Alabama. Georgia.
Florida. Mississippi
North Carolina. South
Ciiiolina. Tennessee.
Kentucky
404-881-4727
Region 5 (Chicago)
Illinois, Indiana. Ohio.
Michigan, Wisconsin
Minnesota
312 353-2000
Region 6 (Dallas!
Arkansas I CH.IM.IIUI,
Oklahoma. Texas. New
Mexico
214-767-2600
Region 7 (Kansas
Cily)
! Kansas. Mr
Nebraska
816374-5493
Region 8 (Denver)
Colorado. Utah,
Wyoming. Montan.i
North Dakota Scuih
Dakota
303837-3895
Region 9 (San
Francisco)
IMevail.i H.UV.MI
!320
Region 10 (Seattle)
Alaskj. Idaho. 0-
Wash-
206-442 1 2.20 •
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FEBRUARY 1980
39
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Smarter Regulation
Continued from page 7
sions in another way. The company would
shut down two furnaces elsewhere in the
plant to reduce particulates by more than
three times the level achieved by replacing
the scrubber. Thus, the people of West
Virginia and Union Carbide both get cleaner
air at lower cost.
The DuPont Corporation tells us that
applying the bubble to one of its largest
plants will allow it to remove 89 percent of
that plant's hydrocarbon emissions for $5
million. Otherwise it estimates that it would
have to pay S20 million to remove 84 per-
cent of these emissions.
The offset and bubble approaches allow
increased pollution to be balanced by
compensating decreases of the same pollu-
tant from other sources. Because business
firms have considerable freedom to choose
the polluting operation from which to
reduce emissions, these approaches can
accomplish pollution reduction at the low-
est possible cost.
Banking and Brokerage
Many new firms locating in urban areas will
need to find offsets. We want to encourage
established firms to anticipate the demand
for offsets by controlling emissions more
than the law requires and "banking" the
extra for later sale to another firm, or for
their own future use. Firms with lower con-
trol costs will be able to sell their offset for
less and are more likely to attract custom-
ers. Such firms will have a considerable
incentive to find the most effective, efficient
control systems.
To help this still small-scale market be-
come more fluid and efficient, we will also
need brokers to arrange trades between
new firms and firms with banked (or bank-
able) emissions reductions. We will need
such brokers if we are to get smaller firms,
which generally cannot afford the sort of
in-house trading expertise that such spe-
cialized markets will require, to participate
in any number.
In the Oklahoma offset case, for example,
it was the Chamber of Commerce, anxious
to attract new jobs for the city, that served
as a middleman. The Chamber sought out
oil companies in the area that were willing
to create the offsets and brought them
together with General Motors and the reg-
ulatory agencies. In some areas State or
city governments are taking on this func-
tion; in a few others private for-profit firms
have begun to function.
To encourage the activities of these
brokers, EPA is working to set up informa-
tion clearinghouses so that firms seeking
offsets can easily locate firms wanting to
sell them. Part of their assistance includes
improved computer models to assess how
sources contribute to air pollution and to
estimate the effects of new sources of
pollution.
Some of the grants EPA has recently
awarded to cities for air quality technical
assistance will be used for developing
emissions trading markets in urban areas
that have not attained air clean enough to
meet national standards.
Marketable Rights
Under contract to EPA, the RAND Corpora-
tion is studying the use of marketable per-
mits as a way of first allocating and then
letting permit holders transfer to others
some or all of their rights to emit pollution.
RAND's study focuses on permits to emit
fluorocarbons, but the concept clearly has
broader potential application. With modifi-
cations the idea might eventually
strengthen the controlled trading market
discussed above.
Further Steps
Now we need to work hard at implementing
this new framework. We need State and
local agencies and individual companies to
work together and with us to refine this
promise and turn it into the fundamental
alternative I believe it can and should
become.
There is a great deal of refining still to
do. We need to find possible loopholes and
close them. We need to see how far we can
extend offset trading geographically and
how big geographically we want to make
bubbles grow. We need to see how far we
can go in linking the several controlled
trading pieces together into one "market."
Can we, for example, allow trades between
bubbles and offsets? And so on.
This testing will help make clear what
legislative changes may make sense when
our air and water acts next are reviewed by
the Congress—as they are every four to
five years. Already I believe it is clear that
we should press to allow new sources to
participate as fully as old sources in this
controlled trading. (New sources cannot
now participate in most of these activities.)
By giving those we regulate incentives to
propose better ways of getting the job
done, we can avoid leaving society with the
disastrous choice of environmental deterio-
ration or ever-rising costs. By releasing and
directing their energy and skills to finding
new control technologies and other ways of
getting more done for less, we will accom-
plish many times more than we ever could
by trying to do the job better ourselves. Q
Quiet Service
Continued from page 35
Nor do I want to argue that all Federal
employees are a superior breed of human
being, laboring selflessly around the clock
for the greater good of the Nation. We
have our drones, our time-servers . . . our
people who punch in as late as they can,
punch out as early as they can, and exhibit.
zest and enthusiasm only on payday. But in
this—as anyone who has worked in a large
corporation can testify—the Federal serv-
ice is not unique. A senior member of the
DuPont family was once asked how many
employees worked at the company's
Wilmington headquarters. He paused a few
moments to reflect, then answered, "About
half."
Civil servants are not archangels . . . nor
are they the faceless, mindless robots so
easily conjured up by vote-seekers reaching
for a cute phrase. On balance, I would say
we represent a cross-section of all Ameri-
can workers: most of us competent, a few
of us lazy or dull, anda few of us brilliant
and devoted.
EPA was born out of a sense of national
outrage; during the Agency's infancy we
were often sheltered from political criti-
cism by the intensity of citizen anger over
the continuing degradation of our air,
water, and soil. Today our infancy is over
and, while environmental concern remains
as lively as ever, our fellow-citizens have
discovered that restoring and maintaining
ecological integrity will require more than
bumper-stickers and an enthusiasm for
green plants.
The high passions of Earth Day have had
to be translated into the sober profession-
alism of guidelines, scrubbers, and en-
forcement actions. Further, that profession-
alism must be able to withstand challenge
by industries that have 20 lawyers to our
one, and by politicians whose only science
often comes from a close reading of the
Gallup polls.
I want to thank each of you for your con-
tribution to that often tedious, always diffi-
cult, rarely recognized task. EPA, like any
other Federal agency, sometimes merits
the criticism it receives; we make mistakes,
too.
But in my explanation and defense of
EPA actions I have found, time and time
again, that our professionals were right,
and our critics were wrong. You and your
colleagues have created a new line of de-
fense for which the Nation already has
cause to be grateful. Since such gratitude
is so rarely forthcoming, however, let me
offer my own: your quiet service in a noisy
time is our best protection against the
apocalyptic day Rachel Carson imagined;
it is our best protection against a silent
spring. As one bureaucrat to another, I am
proud to be associated with you. D
,10
EPAJOURNAL
-------
The Delaware
Continued from page / /
and Gloucester counties in
New Jersey.
Another problem—pollution
runoff in rural areas—is being
attacked in a cattle and poultry
farming area on the Delaware's
West Branch in New York. EPA,
the Basin Commission, and
New York are involved in this
cooperative pilot effort. Mean-
while, a titanium dioxide plant's
dumping of highly acidic
wastes from the New Jersey
side into the river near Phila-
delphia has caused concern.
The firm is formerly New Jersey
Zinc, owned by the Gulf and
Western Corporation. EPA, the
Basin Commission, and New
Jersey are developing an abate-
ment schedule, Hansler says.
Control priorities are not
only shifting as organic wastes
from point sources are better
treated, the techniques Dela-
ware River managers use to
deal with water quality prob-
lems are also changing. Their
new approach is emerging in
the aftermath of the turndown
of the proposed Tocks Island
dam by Congress and the Basm
Commission. It is reflected in
the Commission's level B study,
a comprehensive look at the
river basin and options for man-
aging it. Public hearings were
held on the study last November
and a final report with Commis-
sion recommendations is the
next step. The Level B study
considers alternatives in con-
trolling floods, providing water,
protecting water suppiy from
high salinity, and insuring good
water quality.
"We're trying to figure how
to provide minimum flows for
the Basin's needs without a dam
and reservoir at Tocks Island,"
Hansler says. The new strategy
could involve a greater empha-
sis on water conservation, flood
plain zoning, and highly effi-
cient waste treatment, and less
emphasis on water solutions by
huge dams and reservoirs on
the main stem of the Delaware,
since it is now hard to win ap-
proval for big dams, which are
opposed by many
environmentalists.
With the Tocks Island con-
troversy on the shelf, old prob-
lems—such as flood control—
may find new answers. The
river's quality is expected to im-
prove. The Delaware, although
not big in miles, will continue
to do a major job in meeting the
needs of industry, the canoeist,
the trout fisherman, and the
shipper. And if the massive
cleanup now under way suc-
ceeds, more shad will return
each year, showing by their
numbers that a busy and useful
waterway can also be clean
enough for the fishing and
recreation for which the river
has long been noted. Cl
John Heritage is an Assistant
Editor of EPA Journal.
Fisherman in his boat on the
Delaware Bay under a wintry
sky.
Back Cover: Special lanes for
bus and car pool commuters
ease rush hour traffic on Shir ley
Highway south of Washington,
D.C. Some employers are
encouraging bus and other mass
transportation. (See article on
P. 15).
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