United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Office of
Public Awareness (A-107)
Washington DC 20460
Volume 6
Number 10
Nov/Dec 1980
JOURNAL
-------
Decade
of the
Environment
Anew government
organization, the
U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, was
born on December 2,
1970. In this issue EPA's
present and past leaders
review significant contri-
butions to the sweeping
advances in environ-
mental consciousness
and progress that
marked the 1970's.
The Agency appeared
on the national scene at a
time when environmental
pollution had become so
critical that getting started
was described by William
Ruckelshaus, the Agen-
cy's first Administrator,
as like trying to remove
your own appendix while
running the 100-yard
dash.
From its inception, EPA
has been a lively, dynam-
ic, and inevitably, some-
times controversial
institution.
Its approximately
10,000 full-time em-
ployees serve a cause
that rises above any po-
litical party, stretches be-
yond national boundaries,
and will protect genera-
tions yet to draw their
first breath. Conservative
and liberal, we are locked
together in our battle
against the great waste—
pollution—which hurts
us all.
The Agency owes its
existence to the thou-
sands of citizen activists
who began working to
curb environmental ills
long before EPA was
established. It has been
sustained by the deep
and continuing support of
the public.
In addition to com-
mentary by EPA's past
and present leaders, this
issue includes:
A survey of national
leaders in a wide spec-
trum of activities reporting
their opinions about the
most significant environ-
mental accomplishments
in the past decade.
A report on a new pub-
lic opinion survey which
shows that strong support
for environmental protec-
tion continues.
A photo essay showing
some of the major envi-
ronmental problems of the
past decade.
A report on the land-
mark National Environ-
ment Policy Act by
William Hedeman, Direc-
tor of EPA's Office of
Environmental Review.
An article on EPA's
new consumer program
and a fact sheet on eight
major laws that give the
Agency its authority.
For the cover of this
issue of EPA Journal
marking the Agency's
10th Anniversary, we
have used a photograph
of our planet to help re-
emphasize the point that
we have only one livable
Earth.
Contemplating what
happens if we irreparably
foul our only supply of air
and water should, as
Samuel Johnson remarked
about the prospect of
being hanged, help con-
centrate our minds
wonderfully.
Indeed, our very best
thinking will be required
to cope with national as
well as international prob-
lems such asacid rain
and ozone protection that
affect the peoples of the
world. For, as the poet
Archibald MacLeish
wrote, we are all "riders
on the earth together." n
!
-------
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Office of
Public Awareness (A-107)
Washington DC 20460
Volume 6
Number 10
November/December 1980
&EPA JOURNAL
Douglas M. Costle, Administrator
Joan Martin Nicholson, Director. Office of Public Awareness
Charles D. Pierce, Editor
Truman Temple, Associate Editor
John Heritage, Managing Editor
Chris Perham, Assistant Editor
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.
The Next Decade 2
An interview with EPA
Administrator Costle.
A Challenge to EPA 6
A 10th Anniversary
message from EPA's first
Administrator, William D.
Ruckelshaus.
EPA's Task /
An anniversary message
from the Agency's second
Administrator, Russell E. Train.
Believing in the
Future 8
A clean environment in
a revitalized economy, by
EPA Deputy Administrator
Barbara Blum.
Landmarks 1 i
A wide spectrum of America's
leadership assesses progress
in the past decade.
Environmental Support
Still Strong 16
The results from
recent polls.
Help for Problems 19
A fact sheet on seeking aid
for environmental ills.
Aiding Consumers
A new EPA program to
strengthen the consumer's
environmental role.
A Look Back 23
A photo essay on some major
environmental events of the
past decade.
The Global
Connection
27
A report on a recent
Washington, D.C. conference
on global environmental issues.
The National
Environmental
Policy Act
An interview with William
Hedeman, Jr. on this key
legislation.
Making the Rules 31
Tradeoffs and innovations in
environmental rule-making
are discussed by Elvis J.
Stahr, Jr.
Departments
Around the Nation
Update 40
People 42
Almanac 44
News Briefs 45
Front cover: A view of the United
States through cloud cover, with
the Gulf of California in Mexico in
left foreground, photographed by
the 1972 Apollo 16 cr.ew as
they entered the moon's orbit
after being rocketed into space
Opposite: American and EPA flags
rippling in the breeze at Agency
headquarters in the Nation's
Capital.
Photo credits:
National Aeronautics and Space
Administration. Tennessee Valley
Authority; Division of Tourist
Development, Maryland Depart-
ment of Economic and Commu-
nity Development: Denver
Convention and Visitors Bureau:
Stephen C. Delaney; Gerald S.
Ratliff, West Virginia Department
of Commerce; Paul De Georges;
Utah Travel Council; DeAngela
Mitchell; Chen/jr. United
Nations; City of Detroit; Frank
Wolfe; Jack E. Boucher, National
Park Service, and Dennis Hart.
Design Credits Robert Flanagan,
Donna Kazamwsky and Ron Farrah
Fhc ERA Journal is published
monthly, with combined issues
July August and November Dec em
b«jr, by the U S Environmental
' on Agency Use of funds for
printing ihis periodical has b<;""
approved by tile Director of (hi:
Office of Management and Budget
Views expressed by authors do not
' EPA policy Con-
tributions and inquiries shot,Id b-
addressed to the Editor (A 107),
Waterside Mall. 401 M St.. S W .
Washington. D C 20460 No per
mission necessary to reproduce
contents except copyrighted photos
anil other materials Subsci iptiun
SI 2 00 a year. S) 20forsiny!e
copy, domestic. Sib 00 if mailed to
dress No charge to
employees Send check or money
order to Siv denl of Docu
rnents, U S Government Printing
Office Washington. DC 20402
Text printed on recycled paper
-------
The Next
Decade
An Interview With
Douglas M. Costle
EPA Administrator
Q
With a new Administration
coming to Washington in a few
weeks, do you feel the role and
mission of EPA will undergo major
changes in the next four years?
What have the taxpayers
received with the approxi-
mately $40 billion of their
money spent by EPA since it
was created ten years ago?
f\ I believe it's important to
remember that the mission of EPA
is directly tied to a number of very
real environmental problems facing
this country. Those problems will
remain, as will the challenge to find
constructive solutions.
The new Administration
undoubtedly will have new
approaches and new policies for
dealing with environmental issues.
In addition, there probably will be
revisions to some environmental
laws, such as the Clean Air Act,
which will dictate new directions
for the Agency.
But I am hopeful that the
fundamental philosophy of pro-
tecting environmental values will
remain steadfast.
A
The bulk of that money,
obviously, is in the construction
grant program where EPA is
helping subsidize the construc-
tion of municipal waste treat-
ment plants all across the coun-
try. There are now almost
1 2,000 projects at various
stages of completion. Where
they've been completed, we've
seen a dramatic improvement
in water quality.
There have been concomitant
gains in air as well, though it's
harder to show the results.
From 1972-1978 ambient
levels of particulates (smoke
and dust) were reduced 10 per-
cent, sulfur dioxide by 1 7 per-
cent, carbon monoxide by 35
percent, and lead by 26 percent.
Ozone levels remained essen-
tially stable over this period
with 1979 showing a 3 percent
decrease from 1978 levels. In
the case of automobile-related
pollution, the reductions have
occurred in the face of a 33 per-
cent increase in vehicle miles
traveled.
The job is being done both at
the public and private levels,
of course. The Department of
Commerce has estimated that
the business sector spent about
$160 billion (in 1980 dollars)
during 1972-78 for pollution
cleanup.
So what I think the American
people have gotten is a pretty
solid initial achievement in
reversing the environmental
degradation that was seriously
getting out of hand ten years
ago.
LJ. Will EPA be needed for
another ten years?
A
EPA will be needed well
into our future. As we have be-
gun aggressively dealing with
pollution, we're discovering a
whole generation of environ-
mental problems, mostly related
to the legacies of the chemi-
cal revolution, whether it's
dump sites, hazardous waste
disposal, our increasing knowl-
edge of the potential chronic
health effects of exposure to
chemicals, or contamination of
groundwater. We've also made
a start in focusing on hazardous
air pollutants.
V_) Suppose they had de-
cided not to create a Federal
EPA ten years ago. Where do
you think we'd be today?
A
don't think that that was
an option. Things had gotten
so bad.
One thing to remember is
that Congress usually acts to
mobilize the Government's
efforts well after the need for it
has become apparent. It usually
takes a crisis atmosphere to get
them to act, and it usually
comes on the heels of demand
for more and better Government
action. Because of the public
and Congressional recognition
of the environmental problem, I
believe if we hadn't created an
EPA, we would have had some-
thing like it.
Q
Would you say the most
difficult task in cleaning up
has been substantially
accomplished?
/-\ Yes, in terms of the most
conventional pollutants that we
were preoccupied with ten
years ago—in water that's
oxygen-demanding wastes,
suspended solids, etc., and in
air it's particulates, sulfur di-
oxide, and carbon monoxide.
I'd say in water we have more
than turned the corner. In air,
it has been harder, and the
gains there have been more
hard fought and less dramatic.
But, even as we've pro-
gressed, a whole new set of
issues has arisen—toxic pol-
lutants in the water and in the
groundwater, in landfills, in the
air, the legacy of the chemical
revolution.
The science of solving these
problems is much more uncer-
tain and our learning curve is
very steep, both in terms of the
effects of these pollutants, as
well as the kinds of technol-
ogies that will be required to
reduce the burdens that we're
putting on our air, water, land,
and, ultimately, on human
health.
V ) On the proposed revitali-
zation of the Nation's infra-
structure, the industry and
highways, etc., do you think
there are useful opportunities
there for environmental
improvement?
A
Oh, absolutely. To the ex-
tent that we are going to rebuild
and modernize industry, it gives
A West Virginia stream.
EPA JOURNAL
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S--;
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Douglas Cost/e
us a real opportunity to do it
right, just as when we now build
a new power plant, it is built
with the best available control
technology. In fact, I was told
by one representative from an
Indiana power company that
they have a 2,000-megawatt
power plant that today is
cleaner than a 200-megawatt
power plant not 40 miles away.
That 2,000-megawatt power
plant is a new plant, built with
scrubbers. It shows you what
can be done when you have an
opportunity to build right.
Similarly with new steel-mak-
ing processes, and virtually
every industry you can name,
when you modernize or replace
an obsolete plant, you have an
opportunity to include controls
that will turn out by and large to
be more cost effective because
you get productivity gains from
the new plant. Including con-
trols in modernization will be
far more cost effective than go-
ing back and trying to retrofit
older plants and, technologi-
cally, easier than trying to go
back where you've got to work
around old plumbing.
So when you look at some of
our basic industries—particu-
larly industries that are dirty,
using inherently dirty processes
—you almost without exception
get substantial gains by replace-
ment with modern plants—sub-
stantial gains in environmental
protection. It's just clear that
this time around, as we build
our industrial base, it would be
an incredible failure of political
foresight to not do it right, and
that means solving not just the
community pollution problem,
but occupational safety and
health problems as well.
Q
Can you cite some exam-
ples where doing it right in
the first place could have
avoided environmental dam-
age and saved a lot of money?
Q
A
Yes. Here are three:
• The chemical waste dumped
into Love Canal could have been
secured in an environmentally
sound landfill for S4 million;
instead, the State and Federal
Governments will have to spend
more than $50 million to con-
tain that mess; lawsuits pend-
ing against Hooker Chemical
run into the billions; and the
lives of nearly 1,000 families
have been scarred—in some
cases, permanently.
• Similarly, RGB's illegally
sprayed along North Carolina
roadsides by a "midnight
dumper" could have been dis-
posed of safely for $100,000;
instead, the State may have to
spend between $2 and $1 2
million . . . and the dumpers,
now bankrupt, have gone to
jail.
• The Kepone disaster at Hope-
well, Va., could have been
prevented by an investment at
the Life Sciences plant of
$200,000. So far, known judg-
ments against the company—
paid by Allied Chemical—total
$13 million; payments to work-
ers for nerve damage in out-of-
court settlements are unknown;
and it is doubtful whether a
Federal investment of several
billion dollars could suffice to
clean up the James River and its
once-thriving shellfish industry.
What will be the most
useful role a citizen can play
in the future to help prevent
environmental degradation?
A
While we'll continue to
fight a lot of battles in Washing-
ton, particularly when it comes
to setting national standards,
the real environmental battles
are in the local trenches, where
new factories are being built
and new power plants are being
sited. There, the insistence of
local people that it be done
right, and that they be built as
clean as possible is crucial. The
fastest way to an informed citi-
zenry is participation by that
citizenry in decisions that affect
them, that are important to their
own lives. So I think that in-
volvement, that is, getting in-
volved in local issues, is still
the most important thing citi-
zens can do, because that is
self-educating and has a direct
bearing on the outcome of their
own lives. It's tangible. It's not
like trying to follow a debate
2,000 miles away in the halls
of Congress.
The second most important
thing will be to continually im-
press upon the politicians they
elect, whether it's County Coun-
cils or Governors or Congress
that environmental protection is
very much a part of our political
value system now. There is
growing pressure from organ-
ized interests to resist the im-
position of environmental laws,
and it is a more organized and
financially backed effort than
existed ten years ago.
Frankly, the elected repre-
sentatives will bear a substan-
tial part of the burden of resist-
ing incursions by narrow, spe-
cial interests in the area of
environmental protection, and
they can only do that if they feel
the people who sent them to
office in the first place really
care and are watching how they
behave. Sounds like Civics 1,
but it's true. And I think, inci-
dentally, that it's going to
happen that way because, when
llookatthepolls, in the most
recent polls, particularly, I see,
not only a growth in the number
of people who are concerned
and care about environmental
protection, but I also see that it
cuts across the political spec-
trum. You find it from conserva-
tives, liberals, and progressives.
When you look at the demo-
graphics of those polls, they
indicate how young people feel.
These are young people who
will be taking over our institu-
tions as time goes on, and they
care even more intensely than
the generation that they will
.succeed. Environmental pro-
tection is bedrock in their
political values. In terms of fun-
damental change in our political
value system, environmental
concern has basically taken
hold now, and that's an irresist-
ible political phenomenon.
Q
Do you think State and
local government will assume
a more significant role in
environmental protection?
i\ Oh, I think they are even
now. The bulk of the laws that
were passed in the decade of
the 1970's contemplated a part-
nership between Federal, State,
and local government, with
EPAJOURNAL
-------
State and local government
having a pivotal role. The mu-
nicipalities are building the
waste treatment plants. State
governments are regulating
pollution sources across the
board.
We come back to the basic
reality that EPA does not by
itself have anywhere near ade-
quate numbers of people and
resources to go out and do the
job itself. We have to rely on
amplifying those resources
through State and local
government.
One other comment on this.
One of the things we've tried to
do, obviously, since the Agency
started, was to support the de-
velopment of strong environ-
mental programs at the State
and local level, and then, as
those programs reach maturity,
delegate more authority and re-
sponsibility, too. Nowhere is
that more clear than in the
water program and construction
grants, where we're going
through a transition of delegat-
ing more and more responsibil-
ity to State and local govern-
ment. With that delegation, of
course, comes political ac-
countability, which ties back
to what I said earlier about the
need for local people to become
involved because they can hold
State government accountable
even more readily than they can
hold a distant national govern-
ment accountable.
V^/ Would you comment on
the recent trip you took down
the Colorado River? Did it
give you any insights or
inspiration?
A
It reminded me that there
is a lot of open country left, but
even so, it's feeling pressure
from man's intrusion. The area
I visited is very close to that
which will be subjected to in-
tense energy development pres-
sure. I drove through the Pice-
ance Creek area on my way up
to Dinosaur National Monu-
ment, and there is a fragile char-
acter to the ecology of that re-
gion. It will take real determina-
tion and judgment to ensurethat
that area is not ruined in the
process of developing energy
resources. There is a lot that
can be done that will mitigate
the effects of industrial
development.
My trip reminded me of how
magnificent some of the country
is in terms of just sheer gran-
deur. Thattrip included several
days in the Colorado Rockies
and down to Dinosaur which is
at an entirely different eleva-
tion. Of course, in that region
the ecology changes dramat-
ically with every few thousand
feet of elevation, and there is
suddenly very barren, rugged
country in parts of Utah, after
the very lush mountains in
Colorado, and then as you
climb another thousand feet
out of the Dinosaur area, you
find yourself suddenly in the
Flaming Gorge National Recrea-
tion Area which is all mountain
land again, and then you drop
down in elevation past sage-
brush country, vast expanses
of it.
Then, as you move north to
the Teton Mountains, you rise
in elevation again; you see
Bridger Range that's converging
right there close to Jackson
Hole, and then you're in that
magnificent area, the Bridger
Park National Forest, Grand
Teton National Park, and Yel-
lowstone National Park which
represents about 20,000 square
miles now that are contiguous
in one way or another—land
running everywhere from fairly
well-developed parks that get a
lot of visitor pressure to real
wilderness areas that very few
people ever set foot in. It is a
magnificent national heritage
for this country. And then we
drove back to Denver. So in that
loop, we really captured what is
unique about the West—-the
thing that struck me so force-
fully is the diversity even in
that fairly limited piece of
geography.
The area near Dinosaur is
rich in history. It is right be-
tween Robber's Roost and Hole
in the Wall, which is where
Butch Cassidy and his gang
used to hang out. Then, coming
back from Yellowstone and the
Tetons, you go through the
Overland Stage Route across
the sagebrush plains, then
through Bridger and Laramie
and down to Fort Collins. That
is an area that is going to be
stressed by energy develop-
ment, and we're going to have
to be very careful that we're not
going to lose the essential
uniqueness of that area and its
historical and natural resource
heritage.
Would you comment on
what you think are the most
serious international environ-
mental problems?
Probably the most serious
problem is that we lack suffi-
ciently developed international
institutions for resolving prob-
lems that are here and now.
We're increasingly finding that
environmental problems are
transnational in character. Air
pollution is one example. Pollu-
tion of the oceans is clearly
multinational and transnational
in scope. In a sense we live on a
shrinking globe with the actions
of one nation impinging on an-
other and possibly impinging
on an international resource.
Our international institutions
often appear terribly sluggish
in trying to cope with these con-
cerns. It took six years rea!ly to
debate and discuss and get to
the point where last year we
could sign an international con-
vention for the first time to deal
with trans-boundary air pollu-
tion . Now we see a lot of re-
gional international efforts to
deal with water quality. Medi-
terranean nations, for example.
have banded together in an
explicit program to begin to
clean up water pollution in the
Mediterranean that threatens
that sea. I think nations are re-
sponding to the threat of envi-
ronmental degradation, but it
seems, oftentimes, a slow
process, and we are at the same
time discovering specific prob-
lems — chlorofluorocarbons,
trans-boundary air pollution,
the longer range problem of
carbon dioxide buildup, the
greenhouse effect, desertifica-
tion and loss of tropical forests.
Cont."!..
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1980
-------
A Challenge
to EPA
By William D.Ruckelshaus
While ten years have passed since
EPA was launched, my memory
of its beginning is still strikingly
vivid. At 20th and "L" Street, our first
headquarters, we were a mixture of politi-
cal and career government employees
charged with excitement and challenge.
The issue of the environment had exploded
on the country like Mt. St. Helens. A com-
bination of factors like the disillusioning
effect of the Viet Nam war, Rachel Carson's
"Silent Spring," the inescapable visibility
of air and water pollution, the advent of
color television, the tendency of Americans
in the 1 960's and 70's to embrace causes,
and it needs to be said, the underlying
substance of our concern about the impact
of man's activities on the essentials of life,
all led to the explosion. The result was EPA
and counterpart agencies in most of the
States, a flood of environmental and health
related laws and regulations, and the in-
evitable conflict that accompanies social
change.
My own view of the nature of the envi-
ronmental problem changed rapidly during
the early months of my tenure at EPA.
Given my background as a lawyer in and
out of government, and my limited expo-
sure to the lack of scientific certitude about
pollution while trying to enforce rather
crude air and water pollution laws in the
Slate of Indiana, I entered EPA with some
basic assumptions. I thought we knew what
the bad pollutants were, where they came
from, at what levels they caused harmful
environmental or health effects, how to
measure pollutants in the air and water and,
finally, how to control pollution to accept-
able levels at reasonable costs. The core of
the problem, I felt, was that we had dele-
gated to the States the enforcement respon-
sibility and, since they compete so fiercely
for the location of industry within their
borders, they weren't very good enforcers.
Centralizing the enforcement responsibility
in the Federal Government would soon
solve our environmental problems. It might
have, if my basic assumptions had been
correct, but it soon became clear to me that
none of them were.
We had identified only some of the bad
actors. With disturbing regularity we un-
covered "new" pollutants that harm us or
our surroundings. We do know a great deal
about the origins of pollution, but too much
of it comes from nonpoint sources to make
its control simple. Our ability to pinpoint
the adverse health or environmental effects
at a given concentration, or measure those
adverse concentrations in the air or water,
varies greatly with the individual pollutant
and media in which it is found. Lastly,
while we can technologically virtually elim-
inate pollution, the costs to the society are
enormous and in some cases prohibitive.
All this is to say things weren't as they
seemed to me at the creation.
Unfortunately, many of our pollution
laws passed in the flush of our early con-
cern embodied many of my erroneous
assumptions. For both air and water clean-
up, we created a standard enforcement
process which, by law, mandated for the
whole Nation perfectly healthy air by 1 975
and waters that would be "fishable and
swimmable" shortly thereafter with 1 985
as the date by which no pollutants would
be discharged into our streams and lakes.
I have become increasingly disenchanted
with our society's tendency to set for itself
goals which are either impossible to
achieve or unwise to pursue. Leaving that
bias aside, which I recognize is challenged
by those who believe inspiration and
progress only come from reaching beyond
our grasp, the promise by law of more than
EPA could deliver has taken its toll.
In the last decade, great progress has
been made in improving our environment
by any standard. And it has been made in
the face of continued industrial and popula-
tion growth—the two great contributors to
pollution. Setting for ourselves unachiev-
able goals of perfection has greatly in-
hibited our ability to measure progress and
thus to reassure the American people that
we are grappling successfully with our own
complexities. Clearly we have not reached
the miliennium in our efforts to guarantee
a global future. New and vexing problems
like toxic dumps and acid rain, to mention
only two, crop up almost daily. But we have
awakened to the darker side of viewing air
and water as free, limitless commodities
and to the thoughtless application of new
technology. We are striving mightily to
cope. From that effort we should take pride
and instill public confidence that all is not
lost. The time for hand-wringing has long
since passed.
The American people do understand that
we have a problem in cleaning up our envi-
ronment and protecting public health.
They overwhelmingly support efforts to
address this problem. It is my conviction
that if the public better understood both the
complexity of our undertaking and the ten-
year determination of our government to
successfully respond to the public will,
they would support the rationalization of
our environmental laws. It is not my pur-
pose here to dive into the morass of argu-
ments about what changes are needed in
our laws to make them better serve the
public interest. At the least they should
conform our goals to social reality and
provide EPA with a framework within
which continued progress can be made and
measured by the Congress and the
American people.
Since leaving government rather sud-
denly one Saturday night, and finally light-
ing in my present position with Weyer-
haeuser, I've often been asked, "How does
it feel to have changed sides?" The notion
that our government and American industry
are on opposite sides is one of the most
socially corrosive perceptions in America
today. I never thought of myself in govern-
ment as being on the "other side" of Amer-
ican industry. I wns a servant of the people
charged with the responsibility of acting in
their interest. The public interest is compli-
cated enough for a government official to
divine without further confusing his
thought process by depicting the industrial
segment of our society as the adversary.
No other developed nation in the Free
World pits its government against its in-
dustry quite the way we do. I believe it is a
stance we must drop in the future if our
society is to continue to prosper and suc-
cessfully compete. It will take restraint,
Continued to paga 'W
EPAJOURNAL
-------
EPA's Task
By Russetl E. Train
There were those at the start of the
1 970's who predicted that, as soon as
times got tough and the bills came
due, the country's commitment to environ-
mental improvement and integrity would
evaporate as swiftly and suddenly as it
had seemed to emerge. Yet, as the polls
have shown, EPA's experience over the
years has only strengthened that commit-
ment. The energy crisis, together with the
mounting evidence that pollution is even
more widespread and harmful than the
Nation had realized, has increasingly
brought home the fact that "environment"
is not simply another problem to be solved
or crisis to be surmounted. As William
Shannon, formerly of the New York Times
and currently U.S. Ambassador to Ireland,
once said, it is the overall and underlying
context within which we must weigh and
deal with the various economic, energy,
and other crises and problems that con-
front us.
If EPA's efforts seem to reach out and
touch the lives of every American, that is
because the health and well-being of every
American is directly affected by the condi-
tion and quality of his or her environment.
The Agency has, as its constituency, not a
single, separate segment of our society
actively involved in environmental causes,
but every American who lives and breathes
—as well as millions upon millions of
Americans who have yet to take their first
breath. It is precisely for that reason—be-
cause environmental concerns are such a
vital and inescapable fact of every Ameri-
can's life—that the job at EPA is so de-
manding, so difficult, so controversial, and
so well worth doing. It is that sense that the
environment is something really worth car-
ing and doing something about that has
seen the Agency through some very rough
experiences.
It is worth reminding ourselves that the
environmental effort did not spring up over-
night and out of nowhere, and that we had
air and water and other environmental laws
on the books long before the start of the
1 970's. It was not just a few activists, but
a broad cross-section of the American
people as a whole, who decided that these
laws just had not worked adequately, that
we could no longer afford halfway meas-
ures, and that environmental hazard and
harm had reached levels we could no
longer tolerate. It was in response to this
gathering public consensus that the Con-
gress began to construct a comprehensive
set of programs that would, as a matter of
national policy, make environmental con-
cerns an important part of our lives.
Long-Term Damage
We knew that such an effort would be
costly. But we also understood that society
was already bearing heavy costs in one way
or another—in the loss of recreational uses
of rivers and beaches, in the increased
treatment costs of our drinking water, in
the cost of managing the mounting volume
of solid wastes in and around our cities, in
the damage from air pollution to buildings,
farm crops, and forests, and most impor-
tantly in human suffering and death, medi-
cal and hospital bills, and time lost on the
job because of illness. We were also begin-
ning to understand that pollution frequently
imposes long-term damage to entire eco-
systems with costs that could well be
enormous in terms of future human wel-
fare, although largely unquantifiable in any
immediate sense. As a result, the Nation
fashioned a set of programs that, by re-
quiring the reduction and control of pollu-
tion at the source, would not only shift the
costs of pollution from the shoulders of
society as a whole onto those of the pol-
luter, but would encourage the develop-
ment of processes and practices that gen-
erate less pollution in the first place.
Americans have since run into not only
very real and rising economic and fiscal con-
straints, but other kinds of constraints as
well—energy, agricultural, and social,
among others. Nor should that come as any
surprise: the more society succeeds in
taking environmental concerns and costs
into account in its activities and institu-
tional arrangements, the more the environ-
mental effort itself must take other im-
portant concerns and costs into account.
There are, however, those who continue to
argue that environmental regulation, in and
of itself, is an undesirable constraint on
growth and to ignore the fact that it is pollu-
tion, not its regulation, that constitutes the
real constraint on economic or any other
human activity that raises the level of harm-
ful environmental pollution. If pollution
with its adverse effects on human health
were to be unchecked, I am convinced that
even current levels of industrial activity
would soon prove unacceptable. Our so-
ciety simply would not accept economic or
other growth at the expense of widespread
harm to human health and a degraded
quality of life.
Reckoning Environmental Costs
It should be clearly understood that EPA is
an entirely different "animal" from such
traditional regulatory agencies as the
Interstate Commerce or Federal Power
Commissions, whose job is to get rid of
obstacles and inefficiencies that keep mar-
ket forces from operating freely. EPA was
established not to keep these forces from
operating, but to make certain that they
operate in the public interest by insuring
that the market increasingly takes into ac-
count environmental costs that it would
otherwise exclude from its calculations.
Left unregulated in a highly advanced in-
dustrial society, most of the normal eco-
nomic incentives of a competitive, free
enterprise system tend to work to encour-
age the disposal of vast volumes of wastes
into the environment, at the rapidly in-
creasing expense of the public health and
welfare. Regulation (or an alternative or
complementary system of economic
changes) is required to internalize this
expense, thus utilizing the free market sys-
tem to achieve pollution abatement with
greater efficiency and at least cost.
EPA could make no greater mistake as
an Agency than to behave as if it were
simply and solely an advocate for the envi-
ronment in an adversary proceeding. In
Continued to page 38
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1980
-------
-------
Believing
in the Future
By Barbara Blum
EPA Deputy Administrator
The greatest opportunity for a clean
American environment lies in a
healthy, revitalized economy.
If we are going to retoo! our automobile
factories or rebuild steel plants, that's a
tremendous opportunity to build in better
environmental protection.
Rebuilding America's industrial capital
base provides a big chance to attain eco-
nomic as well as environmental goals. It is
far easier and cheaper to build a new plant
in an environmentally sound and occupa-
tionally safe way than to retrofit later.
To put it another way, given the Nation's
commitment to ecological and economic
goals, a policy which does not address
environmental health and safety problems
in the course of rebuilding or revitalizing
industry would be unconscionable. Such a
policy would almost guarantee that our
existing environmental problems would be
with us for the long term while plaguing
the economy with wastes, health bills, and
obsolete industrial processes.
To help gain a healthy environment and
a healthy economy through reindustrializa-
tion, we need a strong partnership between
industry and environmental forces. A com-
mon vision and a common effort are
needed, a dream of an American economy
that works, producing a good life at reason-
able cost, in an American environment that
is safe and clean.
Acceptance of reasonable environmental
and health regulation can actually speed up
the process of bringing industries back to
health. Phillip Caldwell, Chairman of the
Board and Chief Executive Officer of Ford
Motor Co., has applauded the "opportu-
nities" governmental regulation has pro-
vided for initiating major changes in auto
design that are creating a "new market."
In fact, national environmental concern
and cleanup efforts have been a key catalyst
for the great American awakening over the
past decade to the need for a fresh ap-
proach in some of our industries, such as
autos and steel, in energy consumption and
and in urban development.
The current hazardous waste problem
illustrates what it has cost not to pay atten-
tion to the environmental dimension in the
Nation's activities. The results of improper
disposal of toxic and hazardous wastes are
now evident in every part of the Nation.
Public drinking water supplies and irre-
placeable aquifers have been destroyed,
surface waters have been rendered un-
usable, fires and explosions have threat-
ened whole communities, and the health
of substantial numbers of people has been
threatened by exposure to toxic pollutants
in the air and water. The damage could
have been avoided by preventive measures
that would have cost a pittance compared
to the hazardous waste cleanup bill the
Nation faces now.
EPA has established hazardous waste
enforcement, cleanup, and control as its
first priority. This sense of urgency also is
reflected in State programs and in the
efforts of concerned citizens and environ-
mental groups.
The payoff from environmental protec-
tion is becoming more and more evident.
According to a recent review, the most
reasonable estimate of benefits to Ameri-
cans in 1978 from improvements in air
quality since 1970 was $21.4 billion. This
included reductions in pollution-related
death and illness, savings in cleanup
costs, increases in agricultural production.
The review concluded that the most rea-
sonable estimate of the annual water pollu-
tion benefits that will be accruing by 1985
is $12.5 billion. Benefits include recrea-
tion, reduced waterborne disease, and
lowered municipal waste treatment costs.
Meanwhile, pollution control is one of
the fields in which Yankee ingenuity can
pay off big for the creators and the public
—where one can do well by doing good.
Here are some examples from the Environ-
mental Industry Council:
—An $8 million pollution abatement
system installed by the Great Lakes Paper
Co. reduced the plant's operating costs by
$4 million a year.
—Burners to reduce air pollution at a
Florida power plant lowered operating
costs and reduced fuel consumption by
4,000 barrels of oil a year.
—The Glass Containers Corp. of Day-
ville, Conn., developed a large glass re-
cycling program after discovering that 50
to 100 percent of a batch of molten glass
could consist of used glass. During 1978,
the firm reused more than a billion glass
containers.
—Garden State Paper Co., an affiliate of
Media General, Inc., of Richmond, Va.,
annually recycles about 600,000 tons of
used newspapers to produce 14 percent of
all newsprint manufactured in the U.S. The
system is less energy-intensive than the
virgin newsprint manufacturing process.
Some have argued that environmental
programs will stop economic growth. But
as these examples show, just the opposite
may be true. Pollution cleanup can stimu-
late innovation and growth. It is pollution
that threatens growth. In the 1950's and
1960's pollution was spoiling the quality of
our cities, our recreation, and our goods
and services. Our economic "progress"
was illusory, because the price we were
paying for uncontrolled waste was draining
away the benefits of growth.
The Nation's cleanup effort has led to
the creation of a whole new industry that is
making money from protecting the environ-
ment and employs about two million
people. Annual sales growth for the indus-
try is about twice the nine percent annual
Electrostatic precipitators have been added
to help TVA's Bull Run power plant control
pollution. The eastern Tennessee plant
burns coal.
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1980
-------
growth for all manufacturing in the U.S.,
according to a study by Arthur D. Little, Inc.
EPA has launched a series of programs
to encourage innovation and dollar-wise
environmental cleanup. We believe indus-
try's aim of economic efficiency is indeed
compatible with the goal of a clean environ-
ment. Here are some EPA steps:
We're working closely—more so than
ever before—with other agencies to co-
ordinate efforts and to avoid duplication
and overlapping programs.
We're consolidating pollution control
permits required to build new plants.
We're devising new regulatory strat-
egies, using market approaches to pollution
control.
For example, to bring cities into compli-
ance with national air quality standards,
EPA's "offset" policy is the driving force.
It allows construction of new facilities,
but there is a clincher. The firm could move
in—if more existing pollution is cleaned up
than the newcomer will introduce, So far,
EPA has 650 documented cases of offset
transactions.
To carry this a step further, EPA also
permits, as a matter of policy, "banking"
of extra reductions in air pollution—which
later can be transferred to new firms in the
area.
Then there is EPA's "bubble" policy.
Under this policy, a company draws up
plans to clean up its own polluting proc-
esses, keeping in mind that the total pollu-
tion from any single facility must not
exceed the sum of EPA's source-by-source
requirements.
Late last year, an analysis by Du Pont
showed that, by employing the bubble con-
cept, the company could save $81 million
a year.
In spite of EPA's best efforts, environ-
mental requirements do impose costs that
adversely affect some firms and commu-
nities. In these instances, we try to respond.
Our economic assistance program in-
volves identifying both industries and indi-
vidual firms that have difficulty complying
with our requirements, informing them that
loans, favorable tax treatments, and other
forms of aid may be available through Fed-
eral agencies such as the Small Business
Administration and the Economic Develop-
ment Administration, and holding seminar
series to offer them solutions to economic
and technical problems. In some cases,
EPA does special studies of individual
threatened plants. These studies examine
problems and suggest remedies that can
relieve the situation.
These, then, are some of the regulatory
approaches that EPA has developed to pro-
mote environmental protection and a
healthy economic climate.
Of course, the cost of protecting public
health and the environment has not been
cheap.
It is an expense well worth it to the
American public, recent surveys indicate.
A full page ad in the Washington Post
recently underscores the point.
Paid for by the Union Carbide Company,
the ad stated that the company had com-
missioned a public attitude survey on
economic growth. Not surprisingly, the poll
found strong public support for economic
growth, even if it meant cuts in government
programs that would hurt them personally.
It was a paragraph in the middle of the text
that caught my eye. Let me quote it
verbatim:
"An exception to this is government action
to protect human health and the environ-
ment. The survey shows that Americans
continue to assign a high priority to these
goals and support government programs to
achieve them."
Barbara Blum
It is obvious that the public continues to
believe that the Nation must have both a
healthy economy and a healthy environ-
ment. As Deputy Administrator of EPA, I
believe that they are right. Study after
study on various sectors of the economy
indicate that both of these national objec-
tives are desirable—and possible.
A recent study done for EPA and the
Council on Environmental Quality found
thatthe GNP has been marginally higher
because of pollution control expenditures.
By 1986, America's unemployment rate
will be about 0.2 percentage points lower
because of environmental activities.
Finally, the study showed that environmen-
tal regulation increases consumer prices by
a small amount, so small that relaxation of
the controls would hardly dent the annual
rate of inflation.
What we are striving for is environmen-
tal protection—the kind that industry can
live with, government can live with, and,
most of all, the American people can live
with.
Bob Cahn, in his book "Footprints on
the Planet: A Search for An Environmental
Ethic," underscored the point:
"It makes no sense to preserve the environ-
ment at the cost of national economic
collapse. Nor does it make sense to main-
tain stable industrial productivity at the
cost of clean air, clean water, parks and
wilderness."
America doesn't have to have a spoiled
environment. We don't have to have a weak
economy. With ingenuity, cooperation, and
a national dream, we can have the healthy
economy and the clean environment that
we want. D
EPA JOURNAL
-------
LANDMARKS
"What is
the most significant environmental achievement
of the past decade?"
EPA Journal asked this question of a broad spectrum of
American leaders. The diverse responses reflect the different
perspectives of the participants.
The answers follow:
Skaters on the C and 0 Canal in Washington County. Maryland.
-------
John R. Quarles, Jr.
Former EPA Deputy and Acting Administrator
Partner, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius
Author of "Cleaning Up America"
What a difference a decade makes. It is hard now to take
our minds back to those first days of EPA when everything
was popping loose and nothing clearly organized. It was, as
Bill Ruckelshaus quipped, like running the 100-yard dash
and having your appendix out at the same time.
Today EPA is solidly established as a major organization
in the institutional structure of our country. EPA has vastly
expanded statutory authorities, strengthened staff capabil-
ities, a larger budget, and a regulatory impact that touches
industrial practices and individual lifestyles throughout the
Nation.
The record of achievement is impressive—and not just in
terms of regulations jamming the Federal Register, or even
in dollars spent on pollution control. The important point is
that real progress has been made to control pollution.
Trends of degradation have been reversed. The water and
the air are getting cleaner. Much more is being learned, and
done, to protect our health and the environment.
Yet the challenge before EPA is still enormous. Ten years
ago we were unsure whether the public would support tough
environmental programs. Today we know they will, but the
awesome challenge is to design programs that are efficient,
fair, and effective. The future success of both EPA and the
national environmental effort depends on how well that
challenge can be met.
Through it all, the great strength of EPA has been its
people. EPA attracted an extraordinary pool of talent at all
levels and across its many programs. Despite the inevitable
turnover, the level of commitment and the level of capability
have made EPA an extraordinary Federal agency. Like its-
many other alumni, I am deeply proud to have been a part
of it.
Robert W. Fri
Former EPA Deputy and Acting Administrator
President, Energy Transition Corporation
Any number of individual events could qualify as the most
significant environmental achievement of the past decade.
But I believe that an even more significant, and certainly a
more lasting, accomplishment has been the shaping of the
institutions that will continue to protect our environment in
the years to come.
The Environmental Protection Agency is one such institu-
tion, but there are many other groups. Regional, State, and
local agencies, citizens' groups, and industry all contribute.
These institutions do not always agree on how best to do
the job—nor, in our society, should they—but they share the
common goal of environmental protection.
What is perhaps most important is that these institutions
function throughout the country, where the action is. Even
the Federal agency operates through strong regional offices,
a source of considerable pride for those who advocated the
regional system 10 years ago.
In short, the most significant environmental achievement
of the decade is people committed to continuing progress.
EPAJOURNAL
-------
E. M. Estes
President
General Motors Corporation
Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson
The most significant progress is
that we have been able to elim-
inate, without any doubt, new
gasoline automobiles as a ma-
jor contributor to air pollution.
At Federal statutory levels,
1981 model cars emit 96 per-
cent fewer hydrocarbons than
an uncontrolled car of the
1960's, 96 percent less carbon
monoxide and 76 percent fewer
oxides of nitrogen.
Achieving this reduction—
while at the same time improv-
ing fuel economy—required the
development of a number of
new technologies. The most
notable was the catalytic con-
verter, which is one of the ma-
jor developments in U.S. auto-
motive history.
Introduced on 1975 models,
the catalytic converter is now
used by foreign manufacturers
as well as domestic ones, and it
has a proven record of de-
pendable, effective, trouble-free
service.
For 1981, General Motors is
teaming a new, three-way cata-
lyst with an on-board computer
on our gasoline cars. Called
Computer Command Control,
this system is the latest advance
in emissions control technol-
ogy. It allows General Motors
to achieve the lowest emissions
ever and the highest average
fuel economy in our history—
a projected 23.1 mpg for 1981.
It would be difficult to pick and
choose the one most important
achievement over the past ten
years in improving the quality
of life as a result of environ-
mental protection legislation. I
think of the strides that have
been made in cleaning up many
of the Nation's rivers, the im-
proved "breathing capacity" of
some of our large cities, and
the increasing amount of land
that has been set aside for parks
and recreation areas.
But having had a front row
seat when the environment be-
came a part of my husband's
agenda early in his term of
office and a worker in that
"vineyard" ever since, I have
watched with a growing sense
of excitement and hope a sig-
nificant outgrowth of these ef-
forts—the evidence that our
national consciousness of envi-
ronmental problems has greatly
expanded and along with it our
ability to affect preservation
measures through the many
avenues of participation open
to citizens.
Richard A. Snelling
Governor of Vermont
Ten short years ago, as EPA
was born, I attended another
birth here in Vermont. It was
an event of such consequence
to the Vermont environment
that this year we gathered to-
gether to celebrate its 10th an-
niversary, in the same spirit
that America commemorates
the first decade of EPA. It was
the passage of Vermont's pre-
mier environmental law, Act
250.
These two still very young
legal entities sprang from the
same inspiration—a respect for
the natural environment. We be-
lieved, quite prudently as it
turns out, that the environment
should have a voice in the deci-
sions we made about our future.
We believed that the environ-
ment had rights too.
Both EPA and Act 250 were
suspected, from the moment of
their births, of being spoilers.
"They will turn back the clock,"
their critics claimed, "they will
return our land to wilderness."
Ten years later, most of
those critics are silent. Our ex-
periments in environmentalism
have proved to be quite rational
exercises in human and natural
relations.
Vermont is proud of its envi-
ronmental record over those 10
years, and equally proud of the
productive relationship it has
enjoyed with EPA. EPA's pro-
grams, especially those which
have been designed in partner-
ship with State environmental
officials, have provided Ver-
mont with good support for its
own commitment to sensible
environmental planning.
The world has changed mark-
edly since 1970. So much of
what we believed 10 years ago
has been abandoned, or for-
gotten, or proved wrong. To our
credit, our faith in our environ-
ment remains strong today in
no small part because of EPA.
The Vermont environment,
and its boon companion, Act
250, wish EPA a very pleasant
birthday, and many happy re-
turns of the day.
Charles McC. Mathias, Jr.
U.S. Senator
(R-Md.)
The most significant environ-
mental achievement over the
past 10 years may also be the
environment's most important
challenge in the years to come.
The greatest achievement I
have noticed over the past dec-
ade is the change in attitude
of people toward how we treat
the environment. On April 22,
1970, Americans for the first
time celebrated Earth Day. On
that historic day everyone was
talking about protecting the
quality of life. We made the
protection of our natural and
man-made environment a na-
tional priority.
Since then much of this talk
has been translated into action
by government and by citizens.
The decade of the 1970's saw
standards for clean water and
clean air set for the first time.
We had finally realized what the
byproducts of an industrial so-
ciety can do to the environment.
The past 1 0 years have also seen
the creation of groups and agen-
cies, such as the Environmental
Protection Agency, charged
with safeguarding the Nation's
environmental health. Citizens'
groups like the Chesapeake Bay
Foundation have come to play
an increasingly important role
in working with government.
This effort was the result of a
national resolve and the realiza-
tion that a clean environment is
in all of our interests.
Nowhere is this change in
attitude more visible than on
the Chesapeake Bay. On a re-
cent tour of the Bay, ! was
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1980
13
-------
struck by the very positive in-
terest in the Bay's problems and
in finding solutions to those
problems. Watermen, farmers.
developers, government offi-
cials, and people in the recrea-
tion business, all now seem to
know about the Bay, its prob-
lems, and the fact that their
lifestyles affect the future of the
Bay.
The greatest challenge then
will be whether these attitudes
will be able to prevail into the
1980's in the face of mounting
economic pressures to relax en-
vironmental standards. Today,
two urgent domestic problems
—our need for energy inde-
pendence and the necessity to
control inflation—dominate the
national consciousness and the
national agenda. Will the envi-
ronment be a casualty in the
rush to meet these great chal-
lenges? The most significant
change in the environment in
the next ten years may be our
minds. We must then work hard
to maintain the positive atti-
tudes developed since 1970 to
insure what has been accom-
plished in the past decade is
not undone in this decade.
Jennings Randolph
The decade of the 1970's was
one of great accomplishment in
the environmental area. The
passage of laws, the establish-
ment of government agencies,
the corporate decisions, the
activities of citizen groups all
were but components of what
I consider the most significant
achievement of the past 10
years: the emergence of an en-
vironmental consciousness and
the adoption of an environmen-
tal ethic throughout our Nation.
The cumulative result of this
activity has added a new di-
mension to our pursuit of the
American dream. We know now
that the quality of life is of
equal importance with the ma-
terial goods that have given us
our high standard of living and
national wealth. We realize that
our air, water, and other nat-
ural resources are finite and
must be protected to assure the
kind of future we envision.
The acceptance of environ-
mental values in the years im-
mediately past constitutes a
commitment to the future and
is one of the strongest indi-
cators of the maturing of the
American society.
Gladwin Hill
Envif
The; New York Times
I think the most significant en-
vironmental development of the
last decade has been the Amer-
ican public's recognition of en-
vironmental imperatives, and
the impetus and sustained sup-
port the public has given to
environmental enhancement.
Without that grass-roots sen-
timent, the National Environ-
mental Policy Act could not
have passed and become a legal
keystone for environmental re-
form; Congress would not have
felt the pressure for the basic
environmental legislation; the
Environmental Protection Agen-
cy might have been impotent;
and the Council on Environ-
mental Quality could not have
achieved its stature as an influ-
ential national 'conscience.'
Opinion polls have consist-
ently shown continuing public
concern for environmental qual-
ity, and the public has never
quibbled about the considerable
costs, even though it is the pub-
lic that ultimately pays all the
bills.
This public sentiment has
been massive enough to offset
the fact that it has been to a
great extent amorphous and un-
focused. But the essence of the
Environmental Revolution is cit-
izen participation in public de-
cision-making. Public support
is not the same thing as public
participation. Citizen participa-
tion has made a significant start.
But it needs to develop rapidly
to meet the challenges of the
decade ahead.
Jessie M. Rattley
Councilwoman
Newport News, Va.
President
National League of Cities
Since the early 1970's, the
National League of Cities has
advocated a national policy of
urban conservation to improve
the quality of life in our Na-
tion's cities. This policy recog-
nizes that the future of Amer-
ica's urban areas depends in
large part on how effectively
they can compete as desirable
places in which to live and
work, and that much of their
attractiveness is determined by
the quality of their environment.
For municipal officials, a major
accomplishment of the past
decade was the integration of
environmental programs as a
major building block in a na-
tional strategy of urban con-
servation.
For cities, the payoff from
pollution control efforts has
been remarkable. Our rivers
and lakes, once smothered by
communityand industrial waste,
are again becoming suitable for
recreation. City waterfronts are
experiencing a physical and eco-
nomic renaissance, and many
urban areas are beginning to
reverse the longstanding deteri-
oration of their air quality.
These achievements did not
come easily. They involved bil-
lions of scarce local tax dollars
and, for local elected officials,
choices which often were po-
litically unpopular.
As we enter a new decade,
city officials are committed to
preserving and enhancing the
environmental gains of the
1970's and to working in part-
nership with citizens, the pri-
vate sector, and other levels of
government to meet the new
challenges posed by energy de-
velopment, hazardous waste
disposal, and the sweeping im-
pact of accelerated technologi-
cal change on the environment.
Thomas L. Kimball
National Wildlife Federation
When the National Environ-
mental Policy Act (NEPA) was
signed into law on January 1,
1970, it marked the decade as
one in which a consideration for
environmental quality became
an integral part of living in the
United States.
Actually, NEPA was a re-
markable legislative response
to an increasing concern ex-
pressed loudly by millions of
Americans awakened to the
dangers of environmental deg-
radation. The idea behind NEPA
was a simple, but far-reaching
one: 'Look to the future.' By
requiring Federal agencies to
spell out a proposed project's
environmental consequences,
the Act signalled an end to the
myth that all development
amounts to progress.
Following NEPA, which also
created the Council on Environ-
mental Quality, came more than
two dozen other environmental
improvement and protection
laws, from the Federal Water
Pollution Act to the Resource
Conservation and Recovery Act.
The EPA was established. All
these new laws emphasized the
important change in the manner
of doing business in the United
States established by NEPA.
Perhaps we can begin this
new decade by seeing the final
approval of a bill that enhances
NEPA's policies: an Alaska
lands bill allowing for economic
development as well as for con-
servation of priceless natural
resources.
Tom Bradley
Mayor, Los Angeles
In the largest sense history
must truly look back at the
decade of the 1970's as that
pivotal time when the leading
nations on Earth—the most
affluent, the most educated, and
the most fortunate of people—
chose to examine the true im-
plications of their actions for
future generations.
In the 1960's, we were liv-
ing in a very different world. At
that time, it was standard prac-
tice to schedule freeway and
EPA JOURNAL
-------
wastewater treatment plants
construction to match straight-
line population growth projec-
tions, to build new model air-
liners simply because they
could go faster, and to approve
subdivisions if they included
proper building setbacks and
the significant number of curb
cuts.
The enactment of the Nation-
al Environmental Policy Act
signaled the beginning of the
new era, prescribing a simple
process for a simplistic view of
a newly recognized problem.
The Clean Air Act Amendments
of 1970 required us to measure
the whole problem, the degree
of air pollution everywhere, and
then to discover how to solve
the problem—and to keep it
solved. The Federal Water Pol-
lution Control Act of 1972
built upon and improved this
approach. These were all im-
perfect first attempts in an area
still imperfectly understood.
But, if there was any doubt that
the convictions of the Nation
were firmly set for success, en-
actment of the Clean Air and
Clean Water Acts of 1977
should have laid this to rest.
Americans have clearly made
the decision to live, work, and
play with a sense of propriety.
If the systems we have legis-
lated for this new value are still
imperfect, perhaps ponderous,
let us work to perfect them in
the next decade. In the mean-
time, history will recognize
these last ten years as the time
when the first Nation in history
chose to accept a degree of re-
sponsibility for its actions.
James B. Hunt, Jr.
Governor, North Carolina
It's just an old river. A very old
river. And in North Carolina
we're proud we saved it.
On May 17, 1980, the New
River—the oldest river on the
continent and the second oldest
in the world—was dedicated as
a scenic river under both State
and Federal Acts. This meant
that the gently meandering riv-
er's 26.5-mile corridor through
North Carolina would be pro-
tected in its natural state—now
and for the generations to come.
The dedication capped a 14-
year struggle to keep the New
River as it is and ended the
threat that a power company's
system of dams and reservoirs
would destroy it, inundate
42,000 acres and displace
3,000 people. Citizens of North
Carolina and concerned individ-
uals from across the United
States rallied to the defense of
the river, gained State and Fed-
eral Government support, and
won.
Saving the New River is an
important environmental ac-
complishment in itself. Beyond
that, it is a powerful example of
effective citizen action. In North
Carolina the lesson of the last
10 years is that valuable re-
sources can be safeguarded
when the people and their lead-
ers persevere. The commitment
and determination of our people
is, perhaps, our greatest natural
resource and the key to meeting
the environmental challenges of
the coming decade.
Odessa Komer
Vice President and Director,
Conservation Department
International Union
United Auto Workers
I believe, in the years ahead,
the environmental benefits ac-
cruing from Sun Day 1978 may
even compare favorably with
the incredible impact of Earth
Day 1970 and all its success in
creating awareness/impetus for
enactment of legislation to cur-
tail pollution. The United Auto
Workers contributed initial
funding and assisted Denis
Hayes, et al, in organizing Sun
Day, as we had the first Earth
Day. We felt that by utilizing
environmentally-cleaner solar
power, rather than continuing
total dependence on conven-
tional pollution-causing energy
sources, we could tremendously
benefit the environment.
We first became enthused
about solar power from the
personal experience gained
through constructing our own
solar projects in 1974-1975 at
the United Auto Workers Family
Education Center on Black Lake
at Onaway, Mich., but were
also convinced that a big na-
tional push was needed to get
the country moving to solar
power. The week-long Jobs-En-
vironment-Justice Conference
held there in 1976 (to combat
the slowing of environmental
progress due to environmental
blackmail) reinforced our con-
viction that solar power would
also serve as the much-needed
vehicle to bring trade unionists,
consumer organizations, and ur-
ban groups together with envi-
ronmentalists.
Many organizations and peo-
ple got together for the first
time on May 3, 1978, and suc-
cessfully advocated the in-
creased use of solar power. A
lot of the folks are still working
together today, too, but on vari-
ous pro-environment programs
and projects in addition to solar
power.
Significant, environmental
achievement in the last 10
years? SUN DAY!
Henry W. Maier
The dramatic decline in nation-
al energy consumption growth
patterns has been the most sig-
nificant environmental achieve-
ment in the last decade. There
has been an actual decrease in
our daily consumption of gasc
line and a very sharp decrease
in the annual growth rate of
electric power consumption.
This turnabout will have major
second order effects in main-
taining and improving envi-
ronmental quality. Declining
growth rates in the consump-
tion of fossil fuels should prove
beneficial to the urban as well
as the national environment.
The conservation trend will
serve to improve our economy
along with our environment.
In Milwaukee we have known
for quite some time that energy
conservation and environmental
conservation are tightly bound
to one another. The Mayor's Of-
fice has recently requested a
volunteer group—the Science
and Technology Utilization
Council—to develop a long-
term energy management plan
for our public and private sec-
tors. We see energy conserva-
tion as an economic and envi-
ronmental investment. Milwau-
kee has already achieved some
significant reduction in energy
usage in both the public and
private sectors. This project
can and will bring about further
improvements in conservation
and in resulting environmental
quality.
Lloyd McBride
President
United Steelworkers
of America
The 1970's saw a national com-
mitment brought into being by
legislation to the protection of
our environment and the pro-
tection of the health and safety
of American workers.
The passage of such bills as
the Clean Air Act, the Toxic
Substances Control Act, and
the Occupational Safety and
Health Act gave us a total pack-
age to address the problems of
the environment. It was recog-
nized that there is a bond be-
tween the protection of workers
in the plant and the protection
of the community at large.
The enterprise and the com-
munity in which it is located are
linked in a variety of economic
ways. They are also linked en-
vironmentally. The economic
good to the community of the
enterprise should not be de-
stroyed by any adverse impact
it might have on the health of
its workers and the health of the
general population surrounding
the plant. Economic welfare
cannot be achieved at the price
of health disintegration. Fur-
thermore, health protection is a
continuum. It would be of little
value to see the worker in the
plant protected from a toxic
substance only to find that his
family, his neighbors, and him-
self are exposed to the same
substance outside the plant
gate.
This binding of the work-
place and the community under
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1980
-------
-1 I
•»'
EPA JOURNAL
-------
V«tt$, ^"•""'•'
~*«MhtjS
Environ-
mental
Support
Still Strong
Although the state of the environment
is no longer viewed as a crisis issue,
strong support for environmental
protection continues, according to a recent
poll by Resources for the Future. The poll
found no sign of a backlash which had been
predicted once the costs of significant envi-
ronmental protection became known. The
overall impression given by the survey and
by other polls at the end of the 1970's is
that, far from being a fad, the enthusiasm
for environmental improvement which
arose in the early 1 970's has become a
continuing concern—a concern which
shows every sign of remaining for the
foreseeable future.
Asked about the seriousness of the pol-
lution problem in this country, 7 in 10
respondents to the 1980 Resources for the
Future survey answered that it is "some-
what" or "very serious"; only 8 percent
felt that it is not a serious problem. One-
half the respondents believed air pollution
to be a serious problem in their own com-
munities. Similarly, 39 percent were wor-
ried "a great deal" and 44 percent "a fair
amount" about water pollution. Forty-six
percent were very worried about toxic
chemicals in the environment, and 64 per-
cent of those answering expressed deep
concern over the disposal of hazardous
wastes.
A wide range of Federal agencies sup-
ported the survey by Resources for the
Future (RFF). They included the Council
on Environmental Quality, the Department
of Agriculture, the Department of Energy
and the EPA. The EPA supporting offices
included Congressional Affairs, Public
Awareness, and Toxic Substances. The
polling was done by personal interview in
January-February and March-April, 1980.
The interviews were done for Resources for
the Future by the Roper Organization and
Cantril Research, Inc.
Hagernian Peak and Snowmass Lake near
Aspen, Colo.
.tr* v - V v. -.">' • v • *fv*a$
5<- >,* .,:^ r^ mrrfa* W?S
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1980
-------
Resources for the Future also analyzed
other environmental polls, and included
the results and its own poll findings in a
report entitled "Public Opinion on Environ-
mental Issues," which was prepared for the
sponsoring agencies.
Judged by answers in several of the
polls analyzed by Resources for the Future,
most of the population is willing to pay for
the environmental protection. In 1980, for
example, in answer to the University of
Chicago's National Opinion Center's oft-
repeated question whether the spending on
domestic programs is too much, too little,
or about right, 50 percent of the respond-
ents said that spending on environmental
problems was "too little"; only 15 percent
answered that the amount was "too much."
Despite the very large sums spent in the
1970's on environmental protection and
despite public preoccupation with economic
and energy concerns, a plurality of respond-
ents to the 1980 Resources for the Future
poll thought environmental protection was
too important to consider the cost. Present-
ed with three alternatives, 42 percent chose
the one which read: "Protecting the envi-
ronment is so important that requirements
and standards cannot be too high, and
continuing improvement must be made
regardless of cost" (emphasis in the
original).
Meanwhile, a September 1979 Roper
poll asked whether environmental protec-
tion laws and regulations have gone "too
far, or not far enough, or have struck about
the right balance." Sixty-five percent of the
respondents in the Roper survey said that
the balance was right (36 percent) or that
environmental protection has not gone far
enough (29 percent). Only 24 percent said
that environmental laws and regulations
have gone too far. Roper's polls have
shown that the percentages of those ap-
proving the balance or wanting more pro-
tection have remained the same from 1973
to 1979. The percentage of those who
believed that the government has gone too
far has gradually increased from 13 in
1973 to 24 in 1979, with the percentage of
"don't know" declining proportionately.
Since 1970, the government has in fact
devoted a great deal of attention to envi-
ronmental problems, and it appears that the
state of the environment is no longer
viewed as a crisis, according to the Re-
sources for the Future study. When the
question was asked in the 1980 Resources
for the Future survey, unemployment had
risen to second place as an immediate gov-
ernment priority, and air and water pollu-
tion had dropped to sixth place. Cutting
crime was first. But the answers to a broad
range of probing questions show abiding
public support for national efforts to pro-
tect environmental quality. Environmental
issues seem to have become an enduring
social concern, much like health care, edu-
cation, and other basic issues, the study
found.
In the Resources for the Future poll, 73
percent of those questioned said that the
term "environmentalist" applies to them
"definitely" or "somewhat." The percent-
age of people who regard themselves as
"active participants" in the environmental
movement has shrunk from 13 percent in
1978 to 7 percent in 1980. Yet the propor-
tion expressing sympathy with the environ-
mental movement remains the same, 62
percent. Only 4 percent are unsympathetic.
Moreover, support for the environmental
movement is not limited to the affluent,
the well educated, or the young; it cuts
across most demographic categories.
The poll results also showed the
following:
• Blacks are much more concerned than
whites about the purity of drinking water
and noise pollution. Two out of three
blacks are concerned "a great deal" about
drinking water purity, compared with one
in three whites.
• People who live in cities of 250,000 or
more and in their suburbs are much more
concerned about air pollution, toxic chem-
icals in the environment, and drinking
water purity than those who live in rural
areas.
• Older middle-aged people (55-64) are
particularly concerned about the disposal
of chemical wastes; the 18-34 age group is
significantly more concerned about air
pollution than its elders.
In various polls asking energy-environ-
ment tradeoff questions in the late 1970's,
a plurality chose energy, the Resources for
the Future study found. For example, in
September 1979, an NBC News poll found
that 47 percent of respondents considered
"building a needed refinery or pipeline"
more important than "protecting the envi-
ronment"; 40 percent said that protecting
the environment was more important. Yet
in answer to questions about future energy
sources, the environmentally benign energy
choices such as solar energy and conserva-
tion came out on top in all the polls, includ-
ing the Resources for the Future survey.
One of the consequences of the rise of
environmental awareness has been a
reconsideration of economic growth.
Prior to the 1970's, growth was widely
regarded as the driving force behind in-
creased prosperity and an ever increasing
standard of living. Growth is still regarded
very favorably by most people, but there
is far wider recognition that rapid growth
may entail environmental costs.
The polls now indicate that, forced to
make a choice, a strong majority of people
will choose environmental quality over
growth, according to the Resources for the
Future study. A Harris survey for the Soil
Conservation Service in October 1979 gave
people the choice between a country which
believes that economic growth is more
important than protecting the environment
and one where the environment is more
important than growth. Two to one the
sample preferred the environment (52 to
24 percent) and 21 percent was neutral.
At the close of the first environmental
decade—when anxiety about taxes, regu-
lation, energy supply, and the state of the
economy is high—it seemed appropriate
to take stock of the public's views on envi-
ronmental issues, as measured by the
polls. To make the Resources for the Future
survey as realistic a test of public opinion
as possible, the poll included a number of
questions with difficult tradeoffs. More-
over, it began with questions that required
respondents to compare the environment
with a wide range of other concerns.
Because of this unusual polling technique
and because the poll was conducted at a
time of exceptional concern about both
economic and international issues (Afghan-
istan'and Iran were much in the news), the
RFF survey may be regarded as an especi-
ally strict test of support for environmental
issues.D
{This article is adapted from the Resources
for the Future report, "Public Opinion on
Environmental Issues." Limited copies of
the report are available by writing Joan M.
Nicholson, Director, Office of Public
Awareness'(A-107), EPA, 401 M Street,
S.W., Washington, D.C. 20460 or to the
Council on Environmental Quality, 722
Jackson Place, N.W., Washington, D.C.
20006. Please send a self-addressed
mailing label.).
18
EPAJOURNAL
-------
ffii.
Help for Problems
EPA was created on Dec. 2.1970,
by a Presidential Reorganization
order to mount a coordinated
attack on the environmental
problems of air and water
pollution, noise, pesticides,
radiation, solid waste
management, and toxics.
The Agency uses several methods
to deal with pollution, including:
standard setting, enforcement,
monitoring, research and
development, financial
assistance, technical assistance,
and provision of manpower and
general education. EPA also
shares domestic environmental
responsibilities with State and
local governments, and
international environmental
responsibilities with the
governments of many Nations
around the world.
EPA Headquarters in Washington
has the jurisdiction to handle
problems and questions on a
national level, while local and
State governments, working with
EPA's Regional Offices, deal
directly with environmental
problems in communities. The
chart on the following pages
offers guidance on how to cope
with some typical pollution
problems. Changes in personnel
shown in the chart will be reported
by EPA Journal when President-
elect Ronald Reagan announces
appointees for his Administration.
While this chart lists mainly
government contacts, citizen
organizations can often play a
major role in correcting
environmental ills. The dedicated
work of conservation and other
citizen groups has helped to score
major gains in pollution control.
Office of Inspector General
Inez Reid
Office of Administrative Judges
Herbert Perlman
Office of Civil Rights
Eduardo Terrones
Office of Environmental Review
William Hedeman, Jr.
Office of General Counsel
Michele Corash
Office of Intergovernmental Relations
Alan Magazine
Office of International Activities
F. Allen Harris
United States Environmental Protection Agency Organization Chart
Administrator
Douglas Costle
Deputy Administrator
Barbara Blum
Office of Legislation
Susanne Wellf ord (Acting)
Office of Pubjic Awareness
Joan Nicholson
Office of Press Services
Marlin Fitzwater
Office of Regional Liaison
Brenda Greene (Acting)
Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business
Bob Knox (Acting)
Executive Officer
Marylouise Uhlig
Science Advisory Board
Richard Dowd
j__
Asst. Administrator
for Air, Noise,
and Radiation
David Hawkins
1 (
Asst. Administrator
for Planning
and Management
William Orayton, Jr.
I
Asst. Administrator
for Enforcement
Jeffrey Miller (Acting)
I 1
Asst. Administrator
for Research
and Development
Stephen Gage
1 '
Asst. Administrator
for Pesticides and
Toxic Substances
Steven Jellinek
Asst. Administrator
for Water and
Waste Management
Eckardt C. Beck
Regional Administrators
Region 1 Region 2 Region 3 Region 4 Region 5 Region 6 Region 7 Region 8
Boston New York Philadelphia Atlanta Chicago Dallas Kansas City Denver
William R.Adams Charles Warren Jack J.Schramm Rebecca Hanmer John McGuire Adlene Harrison Kathleen Q. Gamin Roger Williams
Region 9 Region 10
San Francisco Seattle
Sheila Prindiville (Acting) Donald DuBois
-------
PROBLEM
THE LAW
ERA'S ROLE
You're experiencing a lot of respiratory
irritation lately, and you've also noticed
more aid more smog building up in
your area.
Clean Air Act
• establishes national air quality standards for important pollutants; sulfur oxides, particulates
such as dust and smoke, carbon monoxide, ozone Isrnog), nitrogen oxides, and lead;
• sets limits on air pollutant emission levels from stationary sources and motor vehicles
• oversees the development of State air standard implementation plans
• conducts research, especially on the health and welfare effects of poor air quality
Constant noise from passing traffic
disturbs your relaxation, thinking, and
sleep, especially noise from large
trucks.
Quiet Communities Act
• sets noise emission levels for new products that are major noise sources
• conducts research to further identify the impact of noise on human health and welfare
• requires labeling of selected new products with respect to their noise-generating or reducing
characteristics
• submits advisory recommendations and proposes regulations to the Federal Aviation
Administration to control aviation noise
• provides technical and financial assistance to State and local communities for the development
and improvement of local noise control programs
The pesticide spray you're using on
your rosebush seems to be hurting the
flowers more than the bugs.
Federal Insecticide,
Fungicide and
RodenticideAct
• regulates pesticides based on a balancing of risks against benefits
• registers all pesticides marketed in the U.S., after a premarket screening for potential adverse
health effects
• classifies the most hazardous pesticides for restricted use and sets standards for certification
of applicators to apply restricted products
• cancels or suspends the registration of products which pose unreasonable risks to humans,
animals, or the environment
You've heard about recent foreign
nuclear testing resulting in fallout
around your area, and are worried it
may have reached the grounds where
your cattle graze.
Atomic Energy Act • provides overall guidance to other Federal agencies on all radiation matters that could affect
public health
• sets generally applicable environmental standards
EPA is also responsible under several other authorities (Ocean Dumping Act, Safe Drinking
Water Act, Federal Water Pollution Control Act, Clean Air Act and the Uranium Mill Tailings
Radiation Control Act) to develop a variety of radiation regulations to protect the public
health and safety.
Neighborhood children have dug up an
old container that you think might have
been part of an industrial waste
dumpsite.
Resource Conservation
and Recovery Act
• sets standards for handling of solid and hazardous waste
• makes national inventory of open dumps of solid and hazardous waste, and sets standards for
upgrading and controlling dumping facilities
• initiates development and demonstration projects in solid waste technology, such as recycling
You suspect your child's school was
soundproofed with materials
containing asbestos, linked to lung
disease. When building materials dete-
riorate they can release asbestos.
Toxic Substances • has assembled the Nation's most comprehensive inventory of existing chemical substances in
Control Act U.S. commerce
• requires testing of potentially hazardous chemicals by their manufacturers and processors
• screens new chemical substances through a "premanufacture notification" program
• controls chemical substances found to pose an unreasonable risk to human health or the
environment
You notice more and more dead fish
floating downstream in a creek behind
your house.
Clean Water Act • provides guidance to industry on appropriate pollution control technologies
• assists in State and local water quality management planning
• issues discharge permits to municipal and industrial dischargers
• conducts extensive research on health effects and application of appropriate technological
controls
• provides construction grants for public wastewater treatment plants
• coordinates cleanup of spilled oil and hazardous materials into inland waters when the
responsible party is not taking proper cleanup actions.
Your drinking water has a noticeable
taste and smell.
Safe Drinking Water Act
• sets minimum safe drinking water standards
1 assumes primary enforcement authority if a State does not
1 designates sole source aquifers
• controls discharge of pollutants into groundwaters
20
EPAJOURNAL
-------
WHAT YOU CAN DO
CONTACT POINT
Look for major air pollution sources. Are heavy industries or power plants nearby properly
controlled? Find out if they are meeting air pollution emission standards. In most cases EPA has
transferred primary enforcement powers to the State government. Let local and State officials know
you care about clean air. Perhaps vehicle pollution is a big contributor. You can support local auto
inspection programs. Give your car an emissions test and encourage your friends to keep their
vehicles tuned for clean air. Try a car pool to conserve gas, your nerves, and your lungs.
Ride the bus or subway whenever possible.
Protect your peace of mind; trees, fences, home insulation, and heavy drapes are just a few of
the ways you can muffle outside noises. Eliminate as many home noises as you can; buy quieter
appliances, place them on surfaces that absorb sound, use rugs and curtains to dim the racket.
Write for EPA booklets on noise control. Does your town have a noise ordinance? Is it being
enforced? EPA's Quiei Communities Program helps local governments tailor noise ordinances to
meet changing requirements. Call your EPA Regional Office for more information. See list on P 37.
Read the pesticide label first and follow the user instructions. Make sure you're using the right
weapons against pests. Some problems respond to simple measures such as hand removal of
insects or application of non-toxic mixtures like soap and water. Check with your county agricultural
extension agent for advice. General rules for pesticide safety exist in many EPA pamphlets,
write for them at the address in the last column on this page.
EPA maintains a nationwide network of monitoring stations that record radiation levels in the
environment. This Environmental Radiation Ambient Monitoring System is often operated by State
and local health agencies. Scientists check samples of air, water, human bone tissue, and milk
(in cooperation with the Food and Drug Administration.) Some Regional Offices publish reports on
radiation levels annually. You can obtain specific readings for a time period and area from the
Radiation Program in the Regional Office.
People across the country are participating in "Waste Alert," an EPA project that involves a wide
range of citizens in hazardous wastes management through regional conferences with government
officials at all levels. If you suspect there is a hazardous waste dump in your area contact the
EPA Regional Office to find out which State officials should be informed. They can also tell you how
to get involved in Waste Alert and give you information materials about hazardous waste control.
EPA has a program to help schools check for asbestos-containing materials and to correct any
hazardous conditions that may exist. Recent Federal legislation established a multimillion-dollar
grant and loan program to aid in rectifying this health hazard. There are asbestos coordinators
and technical field advisors in the 10 EPA Regional Offices who train State officials to deal with
the problem. They can loan you an asbestos information videotape and put you in touch with local
officials who can help.
Check upstream for major sources of pollution such as a city or a company. In most cases EPA
has given the primary enforcement authority for water discharge permits to the States, so call your
local health department or State environmental agency first. Perhaps runoff from construction sites
or farmlands is causing the problem. Locate the agency responsible for water quality management
planning in your area and tell them about your concern. If an oil spill or spill of certain chemicals into
navigable waters is causing the problem, report it by dialing 800-424-8802 if you are outside the
Washington, D.C., metropolitan area or 426-2675 if you are inside it. The long distance number is
toll free. If the company responsible for the spill does not clean it up, Federal authorities are
authorized to do so, with the discharger liable for the cost. The EPA Regional Office can tell you
who to call and can supply booklets and films on water quality. See list on P 37
• Local health department
•State environmental
agency
•EPA Regional Office-
Air program
•Local government
•State environmental
agency
•EPA Regional Office-
Noise program
•County Agricultural
Extension Service
•State environmental
agency/agriculture
department
•EPA Regional Office-
Pesticide program
•Local health department
•State environmental
agency
•EPARegional Office-
Radiation program
• Local health department
•State environmental
agency
•EPA Regional Office-
Solid waste program
•Local health department
•State environmental
agency
•EPA Regional Office-
Taxic substances program
•State environmental
agency
•EPA Regional Office-
Water program
Directory
For information about how the
Agency is organized, and also the
names, addresses and telephone
numbers of key EPA officials, write
for the "Topical Directory."
Requests should be addressed to:
Printing Management Office, EPA
(PM-215), Washington, D.C.,
20460.
Publications
EPA produces and distributes a
variety of non-technical
publications on environmental
topics to promote public
awareness anrj understanding of
the laws the Agency is responsible
for carrying out. "The Guide to
General Publications on the
Environment" is available from the
Publications Office, EPA (A-107),
Washington, D.C., 20460.
EPA also maintains a mailing list
for people who would like to
receive these publications. If you
wish to be added to this mailing
list, please write to: Mailing List
Manager, Office of Public
Awareness (A-107), EPA,
Washington, D.C., 20460, for an
application form.
Films
Two EPA films, Serpent Fruits and
Water Passages, are available to
the public on free loan from:
Modern Talking Pictures,
Distribution Office, 5000 Park
Street North, St. Petersburg, Fla.,
33709. Other films can be
obtained from EPA Regional
off ices, or by contacting the
Constituency Coordinator, EPA
(A-107), Office of Public
Awareness, Washington, D.C.,
20460.
Mailing address
U.S. EPA
401 M Street, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20460
Phone number
The phone number for EPA's
Public Inquiries Center is
202-755-0707.
Call the water company first about your problem, it may be a temporary condition due to weather
conditions or repairs to the water system. Let your local health department know, as well,
since most States have primary enforcement responsibility for maintaining safe drinking water.
You can write to EPA for pamphlets and films that explain the health standards protecting
drinking water and the responsibilities of water suppliers.
•Water supplier
• Local health department
•State environmental
agency
•EPA Regional Office-
Water supply branch
Alistof EPA Regional Offices
appears on P. 37
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1980
21
-------
Aiding
Consumers
By Rhea Cohen
The EPA has set up a program to
provide consumers with more ac-
cess to agency decision-making
procedures. In June EPA published its
consumer program, which the Office of
Public Awareness (OPA) will implement
in compliance with Executive Order
12160, "Providing for Enhancement
and Coordination of Federal Consumer
Programs."
The consumer affairs program is
under the direction of Joan M.
Nicholson, the Administrator's Special
Assistant for Consumer Affairs, and
director of OPA. Oversight responsibil-
ities rest with the Consumer Affairs
Coordinating Council, composed of rep-
resentatives of the major EPA offices.
The groups meet quarterly to make
recommendations on the Agency's
public information and participation
activities, and to issue an annual prog-
ress report.
With C. William Carter, Deputy As-
sistant Administrator for Resources
Management, Nicholson co-chairs the
council and will be responsible for as-
suring that consumers have access to
regulation development and implemen-
tation. The OPA Associate Directors
and Constituency Development Unit
provide full-time support for consumer
affairs activities. While EPA has had an
active public participation focus for
many years, its consumer affairs pro-
gram is one more means of enhancing
these particular activities: complaint
handling; provision of education and
training opportunities for consumers
and staff; publication of information
materials; support of public partici-
pation activities; and, oversight of the
consumer program.
To shorten response time and to pro-
vide systematic information about com-
plaints for Agency officals who set
priorities and policy, a feasibility study
is underway to explore new options for
complaint handling. Although com-
plaint handling is primarily the respon-
sibility of the Public Inquiries Center,
many other sections of EPA also act on
complaints, including the ten regional
offices around the country.
In the field of consumer education
and training, EPA will consider more
simplified procedures for financial as-
sistance to nonprofit organizations, for
preparing information materials about
Agency programs, conducting work-
shops and conferences, and in other
ways encouraging people to partici-
pate effectively in the decision-making
process. Early next year such a pro-
posal will be published in the Federal
Register anA comments will be solici-
ted, before any new practices are
adopted. EPA also offers workshops
and professional consumer affairs
training to its public information staff.
Joan M. Nicholson conducted the firs!
such workshop in Kansas City, Mo.,
last month.
With the assistance of regulatory
program staffs, the Office of Pualic
Awareness prepares annual plans to
develop necessary written and audio-
visual materials.Routinely included in
the Agency's distribution network are
the ten EPA regional Public Awareness
Offices, the 27 EPA laboratories, and
the ten EPA regional libiaries, as well
as individuals and organizations on
mailing lists that cover more than 100
special subjects.
Before issuing a regulation, EPA
takes a number of steps to encourage
consumers' understanding and partici-
pation. For every significant regulation,
EPA:
• draws up a plan for the public to
participate in developing the reg-
ulation;
• gives early notice, including Federal
Register publication, that rulemaking
development is beginning;
• meets with numerous special in-
terest groups (such as consumer,
minority, trade, public health, labor,
scientific, education) to discuss issues
and alternatives;
• provides background information
and holds open conferences, work-
shops, hearings, and/or meetings, and
arranges direct mailings;
• allows at least 60 days for comment
on published proposed actions;
• summarizes outside comments and
responds to major points, then distri-
butes information to interested and
affected groups and individuals.
The Office of Public Awareness is
preparing a consumers' guide to partic-
ipation, both in rulemaking and in other
Agency activities. Considerable ad-
vances have been made by EPA's
Public Participation Task Force, which
was created in April 1978, and is
headed by Sharon Francis, the Admin-
istrator's Special Assistant for Public
Participation. The Task Force recently
proposed in the Federal Register a new
public participation policy to satisfy
these objectives: promote citizen in-
volvement in implementing environ-
mental laws; help people understand
official programs and proposed
actions; keep citizens informed about
significant issues and changes in pro-
posals; help government understand
public concerns and be responsive to
them; demonstrate that the Agency con-
sults with interested or potentially
affected segments of the public and
considers their views when decisions
are made; foster a spirit of mutual trust
and openness between EPA and the
public. The Policy includes a five-step
plan to accomplish the following:
1. Identify groups or individuals who
may be interested in or affected by
a forthcoming action. This means the
responsible official should develop a
contact list for each program or project
and add to the list whenever members
of the public request it.
2. Disseminate pertinent and timely
information on issues and pending
decisions.
3. Develop dialogue between EPA of-
ficials and the interested and affected
members of the public, possibly in the
forms of briefings, workshops, news-
letters and hearings.
4. Assimilate citizens' viewpoints into
final Agency decisions. The Agency
must publish a summary listing of the
comments received and the conclu-
sions of the Agency.
5. Inform participants and interested
parties about the outcome of public
involvement.
Comments on the proposed public
participation policy are now being re-
viewed and a final policy should be
published by early 1981. ( }
Cohen is a former consumer affairs
co-ordinator for EPA's Office of
Public Awareness.
22
EPA JOURNAL
-------
A Look Back
Several catastrophes in the
United States and abroad
helped fuel the crusade against
pollution during the Decade of
the Environment. They included
explosions of chemical wastes,
the improper handling of dan-
gerous pesticides, a massive
oil well blowout in the Gulf of
Mexico, the poisoning of people
and animals by toxics, and the
threat of radioactive contamina-
tion from a malfunctioning
nuclear power plant. These and
earlier disasters spurred the
passage by Congress of laws to
curb abuses. As a result, the
1970's became known as the
Decade of the Environment, an
era of progress celebrated at
the 10th anniversary of Earth
Day last April.
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1980
-------
n
-------
c*
XV
>
V
.*t
>' fl
« I
1 1
'
MA Child victims of dioxin
exposure after a chemical ex-
-* plosion in Seveso, Italy.
r^T ""*
' ' ' (B). Guarded by a face mask, a
workman uses his machine to
dig the poisonous pesticide.
I Kepone, from the ground in
Hopewell. Va. „
j (C). Fire hoses quench ruins
left after hundreds of drums of
waste chemicals exploded at
storage site in Elizabeth, N.J.
(D). Michigan dairy farmers
shooting cattle contaminated by
the toxic chemical, PBB.
-------
EPA scientists check
equipment to monitor radiation
at Three Mile Island nuclear
power plant.
Runners in front of the -
Natiorfs Capitol in Washington
help celebrate Earth Day
last April.
EPAJOURNAL
-------
The Global
Connection
By Chris Perharn
Food scarcity, dwindling natural re-
sources, population growth, economic
instability, and the environment were
key concerns raised recently at a three-day
conference called "Environment: The
Global Connection" in Washington, D.C.
Representatives of 36 nations attended
the meeting to review environmental issues
and comment on the implications of two
major studies, The World Conservation
Strategy and Global 2000. The conference
was sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund,
the Department of State, the United
Nations Environment Program, EPA, the
Council on Environmental Quality, and the
World Bank.
Diplomats, economists, scientists,
environmentalists, and government repre-
sentatives met to listen to experts such as
Russell Train, Mostafa Tolba, Elliot
Richardson and Lester Brown. They
brought information about programs in
their countries and compared notes about
problems and solutions. The conference
devoted a day to each of three major
themes: Land Use, Water Systems, and
Economic Development.
Russell Train, President of the World
Wildlife Fund-U.S., chaired the sessions
on Land Use and the Environment. He told
the conferees that the World Conservation
Strategy is a blueprint for global protection.
Train argued that environment and de-
velopment a re not mutually exclusive. He
said that future success of the international
effort requires the marriage of these two
forces. Tram also commented that lack of
power for enforcement is a key problem
for international environmental bodies.
Thomas Pickering and Gus Speth shared
a session on Global 2000. Speth is Chair-
man of the Council on Environmental
Quality. Pickering is Assistant Secretary of
State for the Bureau of Oceans and Inter-
national Environmental and Scientific
Affairs. They told the assembly that the
interconnections of global ecosystems are
underlined by the snowball effect of prob-
lems as they increase. Pickering noted that
dislocations in the supply of food and fuel
are related to the rise in world population
and the movement of the world's poor from
countries of "have-nots" to "haves." He
emphasized the threat of a shrinking
genetic reservoir of economically valuable
plant and animal species that results from
destruction of tropical forest habitat and
suggested that unanticipated pressures
can make "renewable" resources
non-renewable.
Speth said the Global 2000 Report is a
view of what could happen not what will
happen. He emphasized that people can do
something and that we have time to correct
the problems if we move now. "No one
nation can respond, we all must respond.
The problems are amenable to coopera-
tion," Speth said. He announced that the
U.S. has 1 3 interagency groups as part of
a special task force developing recommen-
dations for the President on concerns
ranging from toxic chemicals to the de-
struction of wetlands, renewable energy
resources, and protection of farmland.
The President of the International Union
for the Conservation of Nature and Natural
Resources (IUCN), Dr. Mohammed El-
Kassas, spoke to the conference about the
implications of desertification. Dr. El-
Kassas detailed the types and extent of
deserts in world geography. He asserted
that Global 2000 did not deal strongly
enough with the problem of deserts that
human actions create and that cannot be
reclaimed without human help. "All fresh
water available to us from all sources is
less than .01 percent of global water," said
EI-Kassas. "It requires the development of
ambitious programs to increase our share
from .01 percent to .02 percent. This is a
simpler project and less expensive than
sending a man to the moon and bringing
him back."
Many speakers mentioned tropical
rainforest ecosystems and the problems of
deforestation. Dr. Thomas Lovejoy, Vice
President for Science of the World Wildlife
Fund-U.S., gave depth to these discussions
by his presentation on the wildlife and
plants that inhabit tropical environments.
Lovejoy showed slides of the enormous
variety of flora and fauna that coexist in
the tropics. He noted that half to three-
quarters of the world's species occur in
tropical forests, but their distribution is
very different from temperate climes. For
example, 10 to 20 different types of trees
may be the norm on a 1 2-acre plot in
Connecticut, but in the Amazon 5 hectares
of forest (approx. 1 2 acres) can have up
to 250 species of trees with few individuals
of each type. Similarly, one South Ameri-
can township hosts 450 different birds in
low numbers. This population distribution
makes the ecosystem very vulnerable to
change. Lovejoy told the conference that
some forests are already close to dis-
appearance, especially along Brazil's
Atlantic Coast.
Some participants said they had diffi-
culty finding appropriate information and
locating the necessary "experts" when
dealing with environmental issues. Dr.
Whitman Bassow, Executive Director of
the World Environment Center, gave them
pointers on finding and using international
environmental information.
Bill Long, Director, Office of Food and
Natural Resources at the Department of
State, chaired the sessions on Water
Systems and the Environment. Long em-
phasized that all water systems are becom-
ing increasingly vulnerable to human
activities and that nations are developing
new policies to protect the seas.
A result of international concern about
the fate of the oceans has been the Law of
the Sea Conference, which Elliot Richard-
son described as "not just a collection of
pious resolutions." Richardson compared
it to a bill in Congress. He said it is a
legislative codification of the principles of
international law for the conduct of
commerce and navigation on the ocean.
Richardson, who is the former Special
Representative of the President to the Law
of the Sea Conference, noted that the
articles of the conference cover the impact
of ships' pollution, environmental effects of
deep-sea mining for manganese nodules,
and the need for protection of marine
mammals.
Dr. Mostafa Tolba, Executive Director of
the United Nations Environment Program,
spoke to the conference about UNEP's
Regional Seas Program. Tolba called UNEP
"the environmental conscience" of the
world, with a responsibility to monitor and
assess conditions, develop proposals for
management of pollution, and promote
education and awareness. He declared that
the survival of mankind depends upon
water, yet 80 percent of the people in rural
lesser-developed countries have no access
to clean, safe drinking water. Tolba
asserted that in developing countries more
people drink dirty water now than in 1975.
Tolba also reviewed the ocean activities
of UNEP. He pointed out that the environ-
ment suffers most where people and indus-
tries cluster; estuaries often succumb first.
The effects of chronic pollution of ports
may be a bigger problem than oil spills in
the long run, according to the UNEP
executive.
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1980
2 7
-------
Dr. Sylvia Earle, Research Associate at
the California Academy of Sciences, San
Francisco, enlightened the conferees about
the complexity of the marine environment.
She showed slides of underwater biota
and discussed the effects of use and abuse
of ocean ecosystems.
The question of marine fish as a renew-
able resource was addressed by Dr. Lee
Talbot, Director-General of the IUCN.
Taibot declared that the world fish catch
peaked in 1 970 and has gone downhill
since then despite the rising number of
nations fishing and their advancing tech-
nology. He noted that the rich coastal areas
where fish congregate and breed are an
impact point for pollution and are acces-
sible easily by boat, thus allowing for
overfishing. Talbot said the idea that fish
are an unlimited resource is a myth;
commercial fishermen are going farther
down the food chain than ever before. He
pointed out that as much as 7 million
metric tons of fish are discarded annually
because they get caught in the wrong nets
(i.e. porpoises caught by tuna fishermen).
Talbot also noted that much of the fish
harvest goes for fertilizer and animal feed,
not for human food.
Making people aware of the shore as an
area that merits attention was the goal of
the Coast Alliance, a coalition of American
conservation groups. Rafe Pomerance,
President of Friends of the Earth, told the
conference about the strategies the group
used to gain media coverage and focus
government action to protect the coast.
He cited as evidence of success an
improved coastal zone management bill,
several new coastal wildlife refuges, and
a Federal commitment to review coast-
related projects.
Also speaking on the subject of water
systems was Dr. George Woodwell, Direc-
tor of the Ecosystems Center at the Marine
Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Mass.
Woodwell declared that the problem of
toxic substances in the oceans is not being
addressed effectively by scientists or
politicians. He cited the existence of iso-
topes and PCB's in the deepest parts of the
oceans and warned that people now are
capable of changing the chemistry of the
seas in fundamental ways. Woodwell
reminded the conference that anything
released into the atmosphere can be trans-
ported and washed into the oceans. Ocean
biota are sensitive to substances in
infinitesimal quantities, Woodwell con-
tinued.
The importance of freshwater ecosys-
tems in the world environment was the
concern of Dr. Ruth Patrick, Senior Curator
of Limnology, Academy of Natural
Sciences, Philadelphia. Patrick pointed out
that conservation, planning, and reuse are
crucial to our freshwater systems because
demand will increase 200-300 percent
by the year 2000. She emphasized the need
for new irrigation methods, because 70
percent of the future water demand will
come from agriculture. Patrick called for
increased reuse of household water and
for further investigation of recycling waste
molecules that now pollute industrial
water. She noted that researchers have
isolated new organisms that thrive on
substances like mercury and cyanide,
which could be used for waste control.
Dr. Patrick underlined the importance of
communication and environmental educa-
tion in the battle against pollution.
The final day of the conference focused
on Economic Development and the
Environment. Dr. James A. Lee, Director
of the Office of Environmental Affairs for
the World Bank, told the assembly that the
international economic situation is difficult.
He noted however, that the capital invest-
ments that will solve the problems outlined
in Global 2000 (fuel shortages, deforesta-
tion, water pollution) must be made in
the next five years, so there is not much
time left to decide how to go. Lee said that
the main thrusts of the World Bank pro-
gram are people, public health, and social
well-being.
Marshall Green of the Population
Crisis Committee addressed the question
of population growth and its effects on the
environment and human well-being. Green
stated that population control will take
more than demographers and doctors—it
will require the work of diplomacy, es-
pecially as masses of poor people cluster
in cities. He called the millions of residents
of urban slums "the dry tinder" of revolu-
tion. Green declared, "Poverty is not the
possession of little, it's the non-possession
of much." He blamed desperate efforts to
increase food and fuel production as
sources for pollution-erosion, foul
water, poor air, decimated forests. He
pointed to social development and family
planning as crucial. Green concluded,
"Human rights are important but human
responsibilities are uppermost. You have
to start thinking about the other guy."
Looking at the effect of industrial
development on the environment of third
world countries, Edmundo Ossio showed
slides of both benevolent and destructive
technology. Ossio is the director of a
private, non-profit environmental organiza-
tion in Lima, Peru. He pointed out that the
effects of industrial development on the
environment depend on the amount and
type of development and the individual
situation. Ossio said, "The industrial
development process often assumes that
Nature can be mined endlessly without
impairment and can absorb wastes without
impact.
Lester Brown, President of Worldwatch
Institute, outlined an alternative future as
he addressed the question of developing a
sustainable society. Brown accused
modern culture of consuming biological
capital along with interest as soils wash
away, biological systems deteriorate, and
oil wells run dry. He claimed wood has
become a primary and secondary heat
source for almost 8 million U.S. homes and
is burning in the boilers of 5 to 7 percent
of U.S. industry. Last year's Buick is being
recycled into two of this year's Toyotas,
Brown continued. He noted that the
Chinese have advanced technology for
generating methane from animal waste and
West Germany is using urban wastes as a
fuel source. Brown foresees a new wave
of plant domestication to tap biota for
hydrocarbons to replace oil. He said that
solar, hydro, and wind power are more
competitive as technology improves and
costs drop. This generation has the opportu-
nity," he concluded, "to participate in the
establishment of a sustainable culture."
John Sewell discussed the environmental
implications of the Brandt Commission
Report, which examined the relationship of
the developed nations to the Third World
countries. Sewell, who is president of the
Overseas Development Council, said we
must take lesser-developed countries
seriously; their participation in the world
economy is increasing. He pointed out that
50 of the Fortune 500 multinational cor-
porations now are headquartered in Third
World countries. He said the Report noted
the need for restructuring the world eco-
nomic system, eliminating absolute
poverty, and taking short-term actions to
transfer resources, revamp institutions,
and deal with food/energy crises. Sewell
felt, however, that such initiatives could
only come from the private sector, not
from government.
The role of non-governmental organiza-
tions in environmental protection was
examined by Tom Stoel of the Natural
Resources Defense Council. He told the
delegates that these organizations perform
a wide range of activities that impact
heavily on value changes. Stoel noted that
non-governmental organizations are found
in most nations and that some, especially
in Sweden and the Netherlands, are much
stronger than their U.S. counterparts.
Joan Nicholson, Director of the Office
of Public Awareness at EPA, summed up
the conference for the delegates. She
reminded them that the cultural histories of
many nations, including taboos and cus-
toms, reflect recognition of the carrying
capacity of the land. Nicholson concluded,
"The reality of living, breathing, eating,
and drinking are all affected by environ-
mental matters. This is the global
connection. It is true no matter where
you live." D
Chris Perham is Assistant Editor of EPA
Journal
EPA JOURNAL
-------
The National
Environmental
Policy Act
An Interview with
William Hedeman, Jr.
Wi/liarn Hedeman is Director of
EPA s Office of Environmental
Review.
I J The National Environ-
mental Policy Act has been in
effect for ten years. How does
it look to you in retrospect?
A
Very strong. It's significant
that with one minor exception
NEPA has enjoyed ten years
without any amendments by
Congress to its requirements.
The statute is still respected and
still capable of offering much
opportunity to protect the envi-
ronment in the future.
Q
NEPA has been described
by the President's Councii on
Environmental Quality,
among others, as perhaps the
most influential of our envi-
ronmental laws. Do you agree?
A
I think its enactment
served as the cornerstone of the
environmental programs which
were built by the Federal Gov-
ernment, the States, and local
governments in the decade of
the 1970's. NEPA has a number
of basic purposes: a desire in
its goals to maintain conditions
in which man and nature can
co-exist in productive harmony;
a desire for early public involve-
ment in government decision-
making; and a desire for com-
plete disclosure of the environ-
mental consequences of any
proposed action before a deci-
sion is made that will affect our
environment. We also see in the
statute a recognition that we
should consider as many prac-
ticable and appropriate alterna-
tives as may be possible before
we make a decision, and that
we must try to mitigate the im-
pacts on the environment of
whatever decision we make. AM
of those basic concepts were
embodied in the subsequent
environmental statutes that
were passed by the Congress.
Q
Can you give us some
specific examples where this
Act has made a significant
contribution to preserving
environmental quality?
A
Yes. Here are some cases:
First, in Montgomery County,
Maryland, the county govern-
ment proposed a 20-million-
gallon-a-day wastewater treat-
ment facility estimated to cost
from between $60-S80 million.
It was predicted that the facility
would encourage rapid growth
with significant environmental
impact.
In contrast, an EPA recom-
mendation developed through
the environmental impact study
process under NEPA would cost
about $25 million. County offi-
cials still seem determined to
build the larger plant and al-
though no final decision has
been made, they are consider-
ing building the facility with
their own funds.
Regardless of the final out-
come, it can be said that the
environmental impact study
undertaken on the Montgomery
County facilities planning has
assured that EPA funds will not
be used to promote intensive
development with its related
environmental impacts. In addi-
tion to preventing urban sprawl,
EPA's proposed alternative
could save the taxpayer millions
of dollars compared to what
the originally planned facility
would have cost.
Second, in July 1977, EPA
selected seven Midwestern lake
cleanup projects for analysis by
environmental impact state-
ments. Sewage treatment sys-
tems were proposed for the
lakes. All projects involved sub-
stantial evironmental con-
sequences and all had a high
treatment cost per dwelling to
be served.
The study staff considered a
wide variety of alternative
treatment techniques in devel-
oping alternative designs that
would protect the lakes while
also considering the commu-
nities' economic well-being.
The results of the impact
study were impressive: the staff
found that total costs couid be
reduced 30-50 percent. Local
costs could be cut 60-80 per-
cent. The total potential savings
identified so far on the seven
projects are $30 million.
EPA is now preparing a gen-
eralized impact statement to
deal with similar situations. The
approaches and solutions de-
veloped in the seven-project
study will then be used in hun-
dreds of other cases. That could
easily save taxpayers—Federal
and local—millions of dollars.
Third, Yarmouth, Mass., like
many of its neighboring towns
on Cape Cod, does not have any
sewerage facilities; its waste-
water flows to the groundwater
through septic systems. Since
the groundwater is also the
source of its drinking water,
Yarmouth is very much aware
of the necessity for protecting
its underground water re-
sources. A consultant was re-
tained by the town in 1974 to
develop a facilities plan to
study its wastewater situation.
The resulting plan recom-
mended sewers and centralized
treatment for the southern part
of Yarmouth and construction
of a separate facility for dis-
posal of wastes pumped from
septic tanks for the rest of
the area.
In its review of the facilities
plan for construction grant
funding, EPA decided an Envi-
ronmental Impact Statement
was warranted because of
the potential for groundwater
degradation, local controversy
over system costs, and ques-
tions regarding the extent of
sewering that was necessary.
The Environmental Impact
Statement has outlined an alter-
native approach which will
produce substantial cost sav-
ings. In addition, the impact
study will result in mitigation of
several environmental problems
associated with the previously
proposed projects.
Q
How has NEPA contrib-
uted to environmental protec-
tion in Federal programs in
general ?
A
The Act has made a con-
tribution from a national per-
spective in three different kinds
of Federal programs: programs
in which the Federal Govern-
ment is directly involved, such
as in the direct construction of
projects; programs in which the
Federal Government is funding
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1980
-------
projects through grants-in-aid;
and in the regulatory area where
the Federal Government must
issue permits for projects.
The Federal construction
agencies, such as the Corps of
Engineers and the Department
of the Interior, can cite you hun-
dreds of examples of projects
that have either been modified
or abandoned because the
NEPA analysis revealed that the
project as originally proposed
or authorized by Congress sim-
ply was not a wise course of
action.
EPA's efforts in the construc-
tion grant program have led to
a number of changes in pro-
posed projects as a result of
preparing Environmental Impact
Statements under NEPA. Over
70 percent of these changes
provided improvements in
water quality from that pro-
posed by the original project.
Nearly 50 percent of these
curbed excessive community
growth and a significant per-
centage of the Environmental
Impact Statements brought
about a reduction of the direct
adverse impacts of the project
on sensitive areas including
archeological and historic sites,
wetlands, flood plains, and
prime agricultural lands.
Finally, with respect to per-
mit programs, very early in
NEPA's history we found the
courts telling Federal agencies
that, in their review of permit
applications, there is an oppor-
tunity through NEPA to con-
sider and, indeed, modify or
deny permits when the environ-
mental considerations raised in
the NEPA analysis reflect that
there are better alternatives
available to pursue a proposed
course of action.
Q
Part of the Act recog-
nizes the need to protect the
land from unwise exploita-
tion, yet land use legislation
seems to get not very far on
Capitol Hill. Why do you
think that is so?
A
There was some iand use
legislation enacted by the Con-
gress in the early 1 970's, not-
ably the Coastal Zone Manage-
ment Act of 1972. I believe that
the enactment of that Act was
successful because of the rec-
ognition of the sensitive eco-
system that exists on the
coastal zone, and the need to
examine proposed projects in
that zone from an areawide
planning perspective. So we
find Congress enacting legisla-
tion that allows an areawide
land use type of review to occur
in coastal areas to determine a
project's compatibility with
State and local land use plans.
The NEPA process allows us to
integrate those areawide con-
cerns into environmental im-
pact analysis.
Land use planning has tradi-
tionally been a matter of direct
State and local concern and
responsibility, just as much as
the allocation of water re-
sources. From a political stand-
point, there is an extreme sen-
sitivity on the part of the Con-
gress to injecting the Federal
Government into these areas of
traditional State and local con-
trol. However, the Federal Gov-
ernment already is involved in
this, directly or indirectly,
through its various regulatory,
construction, and grant pro-
grams that affect the use of
land. And decisions are being
made by the Federal Govern-
ment in the use of land all over
this country without being able
to apply the broader land use
planning programs that, thus
far, the Congress has been un-
willing to encourage in areas
other than the coastal zone.
Q
Are there any other
countries with the equivalent
of these impact statements, or
is the U.S. unique in requiring
them ?
A
There are a number of
countries, industrialized or in
the process of developing, that
have procedures to assess envi-
ronmental impact. Many of
them met at the invitation of
the Economic Commission of
Europe last year to compare
their approaches. Some have
stronger programs than others.
For example, many of them
have assessment procedures
that are required only by an
Executive Order established by
the country's present governing
authority, rather than by statute.
We also are receiving a great
deal of inquiry and interest on
the part of developing countries
to gain the benefit of EPA exper-
tise as they move to develop
their own environmental as-
sessment procedures. I have
met with environmental officials
from Kenya, Malaysia, and
most recently, the People's Re-
public of China, all ofwhom
are extremely interested in in-
formation technology ex-
changes with the United States
to implement similar programs
for environmental assessment.
Q
Q
Are there any areas
where NEPA might be
changed or improved further
in the future?
A
feel that much of NEPA's
problem in the past has been
the manner in which it has been
interpreted by the courts. In
a large part, that has been
caused by the litigants who
have sought that interpretation,
their motives, and the way in
which they have framed the
issues before the courts. Un-
fortunately, most of this liti-
gation has focused on proce-
dural compliance with the re-
quirements of NEPA rather
than getting to the basic sub-
stantive mandates of the Con-
gress as reflected in NEPA's
goals and policies.
I don't necessarily feel that
a change to focus on the sub-
stance of NEPA need be
brought about through legis-
lation. Instead, I think this can
occur through a commitment
by the Federal agencies
charged with implementing it
through the opportunities pro-
vided in the changes brought
about by the new Council on
Environmental Quality regula-
tions.
So, my answer is, yes, I
think there are areas where
NEPA can be changed. But the
opportunity to bring about that
change and improvement exists
through the processes that are
afforded in the new CEQ reg-
ulations rather than a change
in the statute itself.
Should there be state-
ments to measure other kinds
of impacts—on health or the
economy, for example?
A
Impacts such as these are
being considered increasingly
in the environmental impact
process itself. Social/economic
impacts, for example, are very
much a concern in projects un-
der consideration such as the
MX missile and the construc-
tion of the trans-Alaska gas
pipeline.
Q
Some critics have argued
that the environmental impact
review process might be com-
promised to death so that it no
longer seriously considered
environmental effects. Do you
believe that this is a possibil-
ity or that it is happening ?
A
No. I think the tide has
turned. Initially, the process
was being compromised. If you
analyze the ten-year history of
NEPA you see several stages—
an initial stage in which Federal
agencies resisted its applica-
tion by arguing that it was not
applicable to most of their ac-
tivities. As a result of litigation,
that stage ultimately evolved
into a second stage in which
agencies admitted that it was
applicable, but prepared envi-
ronmental impact statements
that were written more toward
responding to anticipated court
litigation. The emphasis was on
justifying the project rather than
writing a statement for planning
that could be used to assist in
making a decision.
We're now in a stage in
which the full reasons for the
enactment of NEPA and the
benefits that it can offer are
now being recognized by all
Federal agencies. It's a stage in
which there is a focus on mak-
ing the process analytical rather
than defensive and encyclo-
pedic. And it's recognized as
a very valuable tool in the entire
planning process. D
This interview was conducted by
Charles Pierce, Editor, EPA
Journal and John Heritage.
Managing Editor.
•:,<
EPA JOURNAL
-------
Making
the Rules
Elvis J. Stahr, Jr.
It has become virtually a matter of con-
ventional wisdom that the United States
economy is overregulated. This is rarely
disputed nowadays, and I should like to
make it clear at the outset that I, as an
environmentalist, share this nearly uni-
versal opinion.
At the same time, it is my opinion that
a great deal of the current rhetoric about
environmental overregulation is overblown
and therefore inhibits rather than helps
bring about sensible regulatory reform.
What has happened, I think, is that the
many environmental constituencies insist-
ing upon tight or tighter regulation of this,
that or the other aspect of doing business,
have collectively, even though separately,
pressed their several cases over many
years to the point eventually of provoking
severe backlash.
What really is the fussing about? Surely,
the most serious fussing is not about
whether, but about how much—about
where to draw the line and how to achieve
the right "balance." And just as surely, this
involves trade-offs and thus boils down
eventually to value judgments. But whose
values?
It is my profound conviction that what is
good for the environment is good for
people! Moreover, and more to the point,
I believe that what is good for the environ-
ment is also good for the economy—cer-
tainly in the long run, and probably in the
short run. In fact, economic health and
environmental health are fundamentally
and increasingly dependent upon each
other.
Environmental protection (i.e., a healthy
life support system and the conservation of
natural resources) is quite clearly in the
interest of everyone, long range. But there
is frequent controversy about whether it is
being overdone in the short range. Some of
the people who think it overdone have
overreacted in curious ways.
A recent example was provided by the
conflict between a small fish, the snail
darter, and a big government construction
project, TVA's Tellico Dam. Many of the
same businessmen who (almost) con-
stantly inveigh against "wasteful govern-
ment spending" supported the spending of
many millions of dollars to complete the
dam even after that was clearly demon-
strated to be economically unjustified and
destructive of thousands of acres of pro-
ductive farm lands to no very useful pur-
pose! Those in the Congress who were
gleeful about winning the fight to squander
more government (i.e., taxpayers') millions
on perpetuating that particular environmen-
tal mistake are at this moment supporting
another couple of dozen socialistic, pork-
barrel projects which are ecologically
destructive and economically wasteful!
Excessive Regulation
Nonetheless, despite the abuses entailed
in so many government construction
projects, I recognize—and strongly argue
—that regulators, and proponents of regula-
tion take very, very seriously the argument
of the regulated: not only can there be too
much regulation, but today, too often, there
is too much. "Just remember," a wise man
once said, "you can overdo anything." I
have not yet discovered an exception to
that.
But you can underdo, too. And there is
persuasive evidence that resource protec-
tion was grossly underdone during the first
centuries of development on this continent.
The enormous environmental failures, for
instance, to require reforestation in the
wake of timbering and reclamation in the
wake of mining, and the failure to restrict
grazing on the public lands in the West to
the level of the lands' ability to renew the
grass continuously, have proven far more
costly, in purely economic terms, than any
conceivable set of sensible regulations
would have been.
Exploiting Complex,
Cumbrous Regulations
To a conservationist, a wasteful system of
conserving resources is ironic indeed.
Moreover, the point has been largely over-
looked that complexities and redundancies
are often harder on environmentalists try-
ing to support the underlying regulatory
purpose than on the regulated enterprise
itself. That is because the enterprises are
likely to have more resources to bring to
bear: more staff, more money, more experts
on technical questions, more ways to cover
simultaneous hearings at widely separated
places, more people to analyze bulky envi-
ronmental impact statements, and so on.
Thus, there is good reason that the environ-
mental community should support reforms
which would streamline the regulations
and regulatory processes which affect their
central concerns.
Too Many Regulatory Agencies
It is also frequently charged that there are
too many regulators. I agree: there is
staggering evidence that there are! I know
of a recent instance in the West in which 14
permits were required to construct a non-
controversial eight-inch feeder pipeline
only 16 miles long. Each permit had to be
sought from a different agency, at a differ-
ent time and place. Why? Because the
route traversed lands of two States, one
Indian reservation, three local jurisdictions,
and two Federal agencies (in addition to
several private properties).
The remedy? Alfred Kahn last January
at a White House meeting of high level
Federal officials with some 200 State and
local administrators, legislators, regulators
and attorneys-general outlined what must
be done to develop "one-step" procedures.
He noted that by giving one agency author-
ity over all environmental rules, the State
of Georgia had managed to act upon all
requests for permits to build major indus-
trial facilities within 90 to 100 days. In
other States, that has been known to take
two to three years. (Kahn, deeply con-
cerned about inflation, of course decried
the "infinitude of local regulations of
housing and occupational licensing.")
Once again, let me stress that environ-
mental regulation is not the only or the
main contribution to productivity problems,
even in the short run. In the mid term and
beyond, virtually everything done within
our society that wastes or abuses our nat-
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1980
•11
-------
A vista in BrycK Canyon National Putk, Utah. Regulations have been proposed to protect visibility in pristine areas.
ural resources ordains declines in
productivity.
"Productivity" vs.
"Environmental Protection"?
Actually, the apparent conflict between
"productivity" and "environmental protec-
tion" arises, I think, from two related mis-
takes in viewing the matter.
First, productivity is usually defined too
narrowly by applying it only to the direct
(internalized) costs per unit of the output
of products which a particular enterprise
produces for sale and profit.
Second, environmental protection is
usually assigned no economic value, even
though its economic value is frequently,
perhaps even usually, very great!
For example, as long as Kepone, say, or
PCB's (or whatever) could be manufac-
tured and sold for profit (either by ignoring
environmental costs or by forcing others
to bear them), these activities were said to
be "productive." But it finally became
abundantly clear that passing the costs of
disposal of toxic wastes on to society at
large by dumping them into public waters
(e.g., Kepone into the James River, PCB's
into the Hudson) did not mean that those
costs were not real. Grossly compounding
the error, direct losses of productivity did
result—to others: fishing industries, muni-
cipal waterworks, recreation industries,
wildlife.
Some may deem that we need a particu-
lar factory's product more than we need
cleaner air in the vicinity (or better crops
far away where the acid rain falls). Others
may deem otherwise.
But before plunging into confrontation,
isn't it legitimate to ask, "Can we not have
both?" In most cases we can, and my
thesis is that when we can, we should. I
urge," Let's produce, but let's produce in
the better rather than the worse way."
Environmental Protection
Creates Jobs
In campaigning against measures needed
to protect the environment, some charge
that environmental protection produces
unemployment. Well, it simply is not so. A
nation wide survey in 1976 revealed that
the number of closings of polluting plants
for any reason since enactment of the first
Federal Clean Air and Clean Water Acts
was very small and that the number of
those whose closings were in fact due to
either the cost, or the impossibility of com-
pliance with environmental regulations,
rather than to other factors such as ob-
solescence and inefficiency, was downright
negligible.
In fact, the Environmental Industry
Council, the new trade association of
manufacturers of pollution control equip-
ment, reported in February 1 980 that two
million jobs had been created in that
industry. That does not include the many
jobs in the construction industry involved
in the building of sewage treatment plants
and the like. Nor does it include the jobs
involved in reclaiming strip-mined lands,
in reforesting cut-over lands, etc.
No doubt there will be job displacement,
from time to time, in one place or another,
as a result of needs to replace outmoded
capital facilities. But rarely will a plant
closing be attributable primarily to environ-
32
EPAJOURNAL
-------
mental regulations—except, perhaps, in
the case of closing of nuclear power plants.
Business Conflict of Interest
The fact is that there is a built-in conflict
of interest, one that is inescapable and
strong in this situation. The primary goal
of the company and its management is
profit, and that is as it should be. It is not
at all a bad thing. Profit drives the whole
economy and produces much good (as
well as goods) for the whole society. But,
the primary concern being profit, anything
that appears to conflict with it at a given
moment is likely to get secondary, even
short, shrift, if there are no outside con-
straints whatever. The economic history of
the Nation bears that out fully, and it prob-
ably comes as no surprise to anyone today.
It is simply asking too much of anyone or
any company to carry the whole burden of
that conflict alone. Even if there are some
executives who could and would do so with
the same degree of commitment to the
public's interest in environmental values as
to the company's interest in the bottom
line. ! am positive (and so, by the way, is
every industrialist I know) that by no
means do all executives have such a deep
and abiding concern for the environment!
And not to regulate the unconverted would
be to give them competitive advantages
which could destroy the converted, self-
regulating company.
Mere Aesthetics?
We've heard quite a few heads of regulated
industries pooh-pooh the value of an
attractive environment. Some speak of
aesthetics, for instance, as if that were an
"emotional" concern of "impractical" do-
gooders, something to be scorned by hard-
headed businessmen. Curiously, however,
I've noticed that that very same hard-
headed businessman will spend a great
deal of his own money to acquire a house
in beautiful surroundings for his own
family and spend quite a lot also just to
get an aesthetically pleasing environment
for his vocation. These simple acknowledg-
ments of the economics of environmental
values speak, at least to me, louder than
does the pooh-poohing.
Because greed is, alas, still a frailty of
some human beings, there are times when
the body politic must regulate. Otherwise,
it would be necessary for it to forfeit any
claim to wise stewardship of resources
which are important to everyone now and
which will become increasingly important
to everyone's posterity.
My underlying thesis, then, is that
economic health and environmental health
are both necessary and, far from being
mutually exclusive, or in some kind of
conflicting relationship, must be at bottom
interdependent and mutually supportive.
To cast economic strength and environ-
mental care in opposing roles polarizes
discussions which ought to be focused on
the fact that both are needed. Champions
of each shouid be working together to
achieve a wise and productive balance.
That a well-tended environment is sup-
portive of a healthy and sustainable
economy, I have argued in several ways
thus far. Now to turn it around: how can it
be said that a healthy economy is suppor-
tive of a well-tended environment?
Environmental Desolation in
Have-Not Nations
Lacking space to exhaust the subject, I
must rely upon illustration. Probably the
most rapidly deteriorating natural ecosys-
tem (environment) on Earth is the tropical
rainforest. It is being massively destroyed,
hour after hour, year after year—by poor
people! The economy of virtually every
nation with significant acreages of tropical
forest is in wretched shape. Their escalat-
ing human populations are cutting the
forests at an almost incredible rate for
firewood and to create what they hope will
be arable land. These forests are literally
irreplaceable; instead of renewing after
their destruction, they turn into deserts.
Nature assigned them vital roles to play,
now and over the long future, as producers
of oxygen for Earth's atmosphere, as habi-
tat for the most diversified species of
wildlife on Earth, as retarders of erosion,
as storers of fresh water.
Stronger economies would make it much
more practicable for governments to pro-
tect these forests. We often call them
jungles, and some of the ignorant among
us resent their being left in a state of non-
"development." The scientific community,
however, is virtually unanimous in worry-
ing deeply about their destruction, for the
consequences could be felt globally and
could be cataclysmic. Unfortunately, not
much can be done today except by the
governments of the political jurisdictions
in which these forests happen to be
located. And, even more unfortunately,
almost all of those are in economically
underdeveloped countries which lack
means to do much of anything.
There may be even more at stake, by the
way, than a sustainable economy and a
healthful and attractive environment.
Despite some anti-environmental extrem-
ists' ridicule of environmentalism as the
"doomsday lobby," it may not be to tally
un-American to worry occasionally about
simple survival. Or so it seems to me, when
I reflect upon the fact that oil is organic,
not inorganic, matter, and the oil in the
Middle East lies beneath a desert. That oil
wouldn't, couldn't possibly be there unless
that desert had once been fabulously rich
in vegetation and animal life. Oil is a fossil
fuel, after all, and sand is not the stuff of
fossils! Yet sand isabout all that is lefton
the surface, where people have to live.
Voluntary Pollution Control ?
Is it realistic, is it rational, is it even fair to
expect many (or any) operators of smoke-
stacks to volunteer to cut off the guilty
emissions? Consider the cost of doing so.
Consider the disadvantage if the competi-
tor doesn't volunteer. Who would volun-
teer? No one has as yet.
Regulation is the only practical solution
—in this instance—or so it seems to me,
granting that research should be stepped
up rapidly so that regulation can be as
sound as feasible.
The United Nations Environment Pro-
gram (UNEP), founded as one result of
the great United Nations Conference on
the Human Environment held in Stockholm
in 1972, to which I was a delegate, has
identified a sobering number of comparably
grim and awesome threats to the biosphere.
I shan't recite them here; not only is there
insufficient space, but it is not my purpose
to risk the paralyzing of action by making
it appear hopeless.
I do want to emphasize, however, that
many of the worst problems are rooted in
the so-called developing nations and stern
from runaway population growth and ignor-
ance. Both of these are the almost inevi-
table products of weak economies. Yes,
environmental health is dependent on
economic health!
Environmental regulations which burden
the economy (and some do, at least in the
short term) should therefore never be
purely obstructive, except in extreme cases
such as prohibiting the pouring of poison-
ous effluent into drinking water.
Every regulation should be based on the
simple principle that there are better or
worse ways of doing just about anything.
Regulation should clearly lead to the
better, or not be used. Further, there must
be a recognition that just about anything,
including regulation, can be oi/erdonel
In fact, ot-erregulation can destroy the
very balance that might have made sound
regulation the better way! [j
This article is excerpted from a piece by Dr.
Stahr in The Journal I The Institute for Socio-
economic Studies. Dr. Stahr is Past President
and senior counsellor to the President, the
National Audubon Society.
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1980
33
-------
The Next Decade
There has been a heightening
of global awareness. Attitudes
have changed since the 1 972
Stockholm Conference, where
environmental protection was a
preoccupation of the industrial
nations that were trying to
fight their way through polluted
air to get to work or had lost the
ability to use water for recrea-
tion. Now even developing na-
tions are realizing there are
serious environmental problems
associated with development,
and there's just a growing sen-
sitivity, and I think, as time
goes on, a growing impatience
with the pace of international
institutions in trying to solve
real problems in time.
In the last ten years an inter-
national network of scientists
has grown up who are worrying
about and wrestling with envi-
ronmental problems, and they
talk to one another, and it cuts
across traditional political
boundaries between East and
West. I think that's a very
healthy sign. We now have bi-
lateral agreements with China,
as well as the Soviet Union,
Poland, and, of course, with
many of the Western nations.
We're in the process of estab-
lishing agreements now with a
range of developing nations in
areas such as Latin America and
Africa. Richard Dowd, EPA's
Science Advisor, recently re-
turned from a visit to several
African nations with which we
have bi-lateral relations, all of
whom expressed a very particu-
lar interest in developing
stronger relationships on envi-
ronmental issues. The develop-
ing nations most acutely feel
environmental problems where
natural resource systems on
which they rely for survival are
threatened in some way by
desertification, pollution, etc.
The problems vary around
the globe in terms of what's on
the top of a particular nation's
agenda. But there is a growing
awareness and there is a grow-
ing list of environmental prob-
lems, as well as concerned
public opinion. I think global
environmental affairs will move
increasingly to a more promi-
nent place on the international
geo-political agenda.
Q
How would you rate
EPA's overall performance?
A
We'd have to rate it pretty
good. In terms of an institution
that has influenced our lives in
a very significant way in a very
short period of time, it's prob-
ably had an extraordinary im-
pact. The greatest impact will
be felt in the future as the
standards we've adopted, the
technologies that we are forcing
to be put in place have a real
effect on the air, water, and
land.
As an institution, EPA has
gone through as steep a learn-
ing curve as any institution that
government has ever had.
When you think about it, ten
years ago our knowledge about
these problems was pretty thin,
and we started with a very
anemic intellectual bank ac-
count. When I compare where
we were ten years ago with
where we are today, I see a re-
markable growth in our ability
to do the job.
But I still see a very steep
curve ahead of us, in part, be-
cause of the changing nature of
the problems we're dealing
with; in part, because our sense
of the adequacy of the tools we
have is changing.
We have not yet reached a
plateau. And our growing
knowledge of environmental
issues and the changing envi-
ronmental problems will be the
most important source of in-
stitutional renewal for EPA. I
don't see this institution ever
going to sleep. I could see it
being politically put to sleep,
but I think it's a dynamic, alive
place to be intellectually and in
terms of working with people
who have a real sense of pur-
pose and intelligence about
these problems.
Another important facet is
that the Agency is doing its
homework better and is able to
handle its mission, in general,
more effectively than it was
ten years ago. So I think that
EPA has been maturing as well
in terms of the quality of its
analysis and its policymaking.
What is the most signifi-
cant environmental achieve-
ment in the last decade?
A
Building environmental
protection into our political
value system with the institu-
tional capacity to deal with the
problem—that is really the bot-
tom line of environmental
efforts this past decade.
Q
What are the biggest
jobs that are going to be
facing EPA over the next ten
years?
A
Coming to grips with the
legacy of the chemical revolu-
tion. It will be made all the
more difficult because our
knowledge is not expanding at
a rate that is exactly commen-
surate with the demand for us
to take action. That is, there arc
still going to be potholes in our
knowledge of science in issues,
which will make some of the
policy dilemmas very acute.
The other challenge will be to
be flexible, to reassess the tools
that we have to get the job
done, to be sure that we're
using the most appropriate, in-
novative mix to get the job
done. That will mean refining
and improving the tools that we
use. The more rigid the ap-
proach, the more likely will the
results be limited over any
period of time.
Q
How is EPA doing in the
face of pressure to compro-
mise environmental programs
to make way for industry?
A
think we've been doing
pretty well. To sum it up is very
difficult because these tradeoffs
are rarely black and white. A
g.ood example is the steel in-
dustry, where they simply don't
have enough capital to both
modernize and complete the
environmental job they've
started, and there's a statutory
deadline, and it's forcing them
to make capital decisions right
now. Modernization is one of
the ways they can clean up, of
course, but, if they are forced
to hav^ the pollution cleanup
job completed at every single
facility by 1982, in air, for
example, then they would have
to invest a substantial amount
to retrofit old facilities. That
money could be better spent on
modernizing. It would update
the steelmaking facilities and
improve the environment, too.
So, what it boils down to,
in terms of maintaining the en-
vironmental standards, is that
we've done very well in demon-
34
EPAJOURNAL
-------
strating flexibility on how those
standards are met in the most
cost effective way.
And we haven't been afraid
to step up and reassess the
standards themselves and make
our decisions to modify them if
data do not exist to support
the standards originally set.
One of the things that my pred-
ecessors told me was that, in a
way, the Agency job during my
tenure was going to be more
difficult because a lot of the
initial standards that were set
were based upon pretty sketchy
scientific underpinning. It was
the best that was available, and
they did the best job they could
with what was available. When
that scientific data base got
filled in, it would mean making
adjustments. Some would be
toward more strict standards.
in other instances, it would be
toward relaxing standards that
were too strict when they were
initially set. I think the fastest
way to obsolescence is rigid
adherence to past conventional
wisdom, when you have new
knowledge and new facts that
have eroded the underpinnings
of those initial decisions. Put
very simply, this Agency can-
not afford to be afraid to change
its mind when facts warrant it.
Failure to have that kind of
flexibility will tend to make it
less and less relevant to a
changing world.
V ) Is there an anti-regula-
tion backlash that could hurt
environmental cleanup
efforts?
f-\ There's been a real build-
up in the anti-regulation rhetoric
in this country. But there was
an interesting poll published
in the New York Times. It was
done by Union Carbide, who
asked people if they thought
standards were too strict or not
strict enough. A series of
questions was asked about oc-
cupational exposures to cancer-
causing chemicals. Seventy
percent of the people in that
poll said they thought that
standardsshould be more strict.
The poll covered a whole list
of concerns. For example, 60
percent of those polled thought
that water cleanup rules should
be stricter, 65 percent wanted
stricter controls on consumer
products that could cause dis-
eases such as cancer, and 70
percent favored a tightening of
regulations to protect workers
from on-the-job health risks.
Those surveyed held these
opinions even though they
agreed that each of these types
of regulation increase con-
sumer costs.
We see these poll results in
support of the environment in
spite of the fact that the gen-
eral public reaction is that we
have too much regulation. Part
of it is that there has been a
growing frenzy about regulation
which got somehow detached
from the facts, a fear that envi-
ronmental cleanup is hurting
the economy. In fact, environ-
mental expenditures will add
something like 0.1 percentage
points to the consumer price
index this year. So we can
hardly be said to be causing
inflation. And that is before you
even try to quantify the environ-
mental benefits that—I'm con-
vinced—offset by a wide mar-
gin the costs that are imposed.
We have created far more
jobs than we cost the economy.
Figures still show that the un-
employment rate would be 0.4
percentage points higher were it
not for environmental expendi-
tures. And there are all kinds of
benefits that we can't calculate
yet in terms of more efficient
use of raw materials, less waste
of resources, as well as more
sophisticated, subtle determi-
nations of the effects of pollu-
tion on public health in terms of
morbidity and mortality.
We'll have a much more so-
phisticated understanding of
the benefits of cleanup efforts
as time goes by. Look at the
effect we have on capital
spending plans in this country.
On the average, environmental
spending next year for U.S. in-
dustry, measured as a percent
of capital expenditure, will
amountto something on the
order of 3.9 percent, which is
pretty modest. Now that figure
masks the fact that in certain
industries the percentage is
much higher. Steel is a good
example: it will run maybe
about 20 percent. But that is an
anomaly in a way. That is a very
dirty industry with a huge cap-
ital investment to make, and in
some respects the steepest hill
to climb in a relatively short
period of time.
The concern I have is that
the problems of a steel industry
will warp the general public's
perception of the effects of en-
vironmental requirements on
industry as a whole. The story
there is really much better than
people tend to recognize, given
the anti-regulatory rhetoric that
they're exposed to every day. In
fact, 92 percent of the major
sources of industrial pollution
in this country are in compli-
ance with the initial require-
ments of the Clean Air and
Clean Water Act or are meeting
our timetables. The sure expec-
tation at this point is that they'll
complete the job. And that's a
major success story.
In comparison to other na-
tions that make environmental
expenditures, the Japanese
steel industry not only outspent
us for environmental protection,
but outspent us for moderniza-
tion as well. And they did this
during the height of the 1974-
1975 recession.
So, the facts just don't sup-
port the generalized accusation
that regulation, whether it's
environmental or occupational
safety and health, is at the root
of our economy's problem. That
has tended to be political hyper-
bole. I think increasingly that
the issue of reindustrialization
will focus on a whole range of
concerns, not the least of which
will be quality in corporate
management—I think that'll
become an issue in the 1980's.
And look again at the demo-
graphics. The generation of
Americans coming along now
will be the politically dominant
influence.
And it is not a generation
that's about to walk away from
the new social contract in effect
that Congress legislated,
whether it's in consumer safety
or environmental protection or
occupational safety. Q
This interview was conducted by
Charles Pierce. Editor. EPA
Journal, Truman Temple, Associ-
?te Editor, and John Heritage,
Managing Editor
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1980
35
-------
Around the Nation
Hispanic
EPA Region 1 has
launched a program to
improve the Region's out-
reach to Hispanic commu-
nities in New England.
Norma Berio, a native of
Puerto Rico, has been
hired to inform and in-
volve Hispanic persons in
environmental affairs in
the region. Specifically,
Berio wilt be responsible
for identifying Hispanic
groups in the region, de-
termining environmental
issues of concern to His-
panic communities, and
translating information
pieces for the Spanish-
speaking public.
Offshore
Four applications for ex-
ploratory oil drilling per-
mits on Georges Bank un-
der the National Pollutant
Discharge Elimination
System are being re-
viewed and others are ex-
pected. Public notices
will be issued in Decem-
ber and final permits
should be issued by
March 1981. Permit mon-
itoring requirements re-
lated to any discharge of
drilling muds are being
developed to complement
the biological monitoring
program being prepared
by the Georges Bank Bio-
logical Task Force. Con-
sultation with the Coastal
Zone Management agency
and the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Admin-
istration on endangered
species such as whales is
underway. Pending legis-
lation could have a bear-
ing on the drilling muds/
monitoring issues. Region
1 has designated priority
energy permits or ap-
provals and expects to
have the schedule track-
ing and management sys-
tem for these projects in
place soon.
36
Citizens
Region 1 planned to hold
its 9th annual Citizens'
Briefing on December 5 at
the Colonial Inn in Lynn-
field, Mass. Citizens from
all six New England States
were expected to attend.
Regional Administrator
William R. Adams Jr. and
other environmental lead-
ers were to present high-
lights of the progress
made in cleaning up the
New England environ-
ment during 1980. Envi-
ronmental merit awards
were also to be presented
to 10 individuals who
have made significant
contributions to the New
England environment
during the past year.
Suits
The Justice Department
on behalf of EPA has filed
suit against the Non-
Ferrous Processing Cor-
poration in Brooklyn, N.Y.
The suit charges that the
lead smelting operation
has been allowing signifi-
cant amounts of lead to
escape uncontrolled into
the atmosphere. This is a
violation of city, State,
and Federal clean air reg-
ulations. The suit asks
that the company be fined
as well as required to im-
mediately purchase and
install all the pollution
control equipment neces-
sary to bring it into com-
pliance with applicable
laws. The maximum pen-
alty provided by law is
$25,000 per day.
The Department of
Justice on behalf of EPA
has also filed suit against
Bridgeport Oii and Rental
Service, Inc. in Logan
Township, New Jersey, as
well as its owners, charg-
ing that the storage and
disposal of hazardous
waste at their oil reclama-
tion facility has polluted
the groundwater beneath
the facility and surface
waters nearby.
EPA is asking the Court
to order the defendants to
stop the leakage and dis-
posal of hazardous waste
into the ground and water,
and to undertake a pro-
gram to clean up and re-
move the pollutants. EPA
is also asking the Court to
require the defendants to
monitor the groundwater
to determine the extent of
the migration of contami-
nants toward local drink-
ing water sources and to
take further action as may
be necessary to ensure
that no further contamina-
tion enters the local
drinking water supply.
Pollution Charges
The Department of Jus-
tice, on behalf of Region
3, issuing the city of
Hopewell, Va.; Continen-
tal Forest Industries; and
Hercules, Inc. for viola-
tion of the Clean Water
Act involving discharges
to the James River. The
Commonwealth of Vir-
ginia has joined in the
suit against the city.
The suit alleges that
Hopewell has violated its
National Pollution Dis-
charge Elimination Sys-
tem discharge permit
limits and has accepted
wastes that interfere with
the treatment process at
its wastewater treatment
facility. As a result, the
plant is discharging or-
ganic and solid wastes
into Gravelly Run Creek,
a tributary of the James
River, in concentrations
which exceed the limits in
the city's permit.
Also, the Department
of Justice, on behalf of
Region 3, has filed suit
against the Stanley Kess-
ler Company, located in
King of Prussia, Pa.,
charging that the storage
and disposal of hazardous
waste has polluted
groundwater beneath the
facility, contributing to
the contamination of a
nearby reservoir.
Cleanup Pact
Shenango, Inc. recently
signed a consent agree-
ment with Region 3 and
Allegheny County, Penn-
sylvania, to bring the com-
pany's Neville Island coke
and iron plant into com-
pliance with air pollution
control regulations by
December 31, 1982. The
company also agreed to a
civil penalty of $500,000
for past air pollution vio-
lations. All but $6,000 of
this penalty has been
credited toward a past
penalty and the use of
pollution control equip-
ment which is more effi-
cient than that required in
present regulations. The
agreement ends several
years of negotiations.
Okeechobee. There were
believed to be some 40
containers holding about
32 tons of mercury. An
initial search turned up
nothing.
Island Study
The Region 4 staff is
working with officials of
Hilton Head, a resort
island off the South Caro-
lina coast, on a major
study of nonpoint source
pollution. The study em-
phasizes the management
of island water resources
in order to minimize the
adverse impacts of future
development on nearby
waters, especially fragile
shellfishing areas and
bathing beaches. Island
officials say they are will-
ing to regulate develop-
ment through stricter
standards for building
permits.
Barge
The Region 4 Environ-
mental Emergency Branch
was called on recently to
investigate reports that a
wooden barge, carrying
mercury-filled casks, was
lying on the bottom of
south Florida's Lake
Great Lakes
A photographic exhibition
entitled "Great Lakes,
America," exploring the
recreational and commer-
cial uses of the five great
inland seas and their trib-
utaries, opened recently
at Chicago's Museum of
Science and Industry. The
62-picture photographic
essay is sponsored by the
Great Lakes National Pro-
gram Office, headquar-
tered in Region 5.
The Program Office
was established in 1977
to help implement the
Great Lakes Water Qual-
ity Agreement between
the United States and
Canada, first signed in
1972 and updated in
1978. Implementation of
the Agreement, the objec-
tive of which is to pre-
serve the delicate land,
air, and biological eco-
system of the world's
greatest freshwater re-
source, involves protec-
tion of the Great Lakes
and the rivers and streams
which flow into them from
direct discharge of con-
taminants into their
waters and from agricul-
tural runoff and air
pollution.
The exhibit is being
sponsored to remind
Americans and Canadians
who live around the Great
Lakes not only of their
beauty and richness as a
resource but also of their
frailty and vulnerability,
and the urgent need to
protect them from degra-
dation. The exhibit was
scheduled to close in
Chicago December 14,
EPAJOURNAL
-------
then travel to other major
institutions in Region 5
States, to Washington,
D.C., and to Great Lakes
shore cities in New York,
Pennsylvania, and
Ontario.
Hurricane
Following Hurricane
Allen, Region 6 sent six
teams of engineers to the
Texas coast area at the
request of the Federal
Emergency Management
Agency. The teams looked
at the effects of the hurri-
cane on public water and
sewage facilities along
the coast and assessed
the cost of repairing these
facilities. The preliminary
estimate for rebuilding
the storrn-damaged facil-
ities is $5.5 million.
Toxics
The Department of Jus-
tice, on behalf of Region
6, has filed a suit seeking
the clean-up of a hazard-
ous waste site at Criner.
Okla. In its complaint, the
Agency charged that toxic
chemicals are entering
Criner Creek, a tributary
of the Washita River, and
are escaping into the air,
groundwater and sur-
rounding soil. Chemicals
found on the site include
dioxin, chlorinated phe-
nols, chromium, toxa-
pherte, asbestos, lead and
cyanide.
AMOCO in U.S. District
Court. The complaints
asked for civil penalties
which could amount to as
much as $10,000 per day
of violation and for an in-
junction to permanently
stop the refinery, located
at Sugar Creek, from dis-
charging excessive
amounts of various pol-
lutants at two points
along the river.
EPA alleges that
AMOCO released exces-
sive amounts of several
categories of pollutants
during 51 of the 54
months since a permit
was issued for a waste-
water lagoon at the facil-
ity in January, 1976.
Cleanup Suit
EPA has charged Ameri-
can Oil Company
(AMOCO) with polluting
the Missouri River east of
Kansas City, Mo. At
EPA's request, the Justice
Department filed suit
September 3 against
Air Quality
Helping Indian tribes and
Pueblos interested in
planning and developing
their own reservation's air
pollution control pro-
grams was the focus of a
two-day meeting held in
Denver recently. This Air
Quality Workshop was
presented by Region 8's
Air Branch and the Coun-
cil of Energy Resource
Tribes' Environmental
Analysis Office. The
Council has contracted
with Region 8 to provide
technical assistance for
air program matters to
Indian tribes and Pueblos
during fiscal year 1981.
In a related matter, the
Region issued a $ 1 5,000
grant to the Montana sec-
tion of the American
Water Works Association
for the training of Indian
operators of drinking
water treatment systems
on reservations in Wyo-
ming and Montana. The
systems in which the
operators work provide
drinking water to an esti-
mated 1 5,000 people on
eight reservations.
Agreement
Top officials of U.S. Steel
and EPA have reached an
agreement on a compre-
hensive pollution control
plan for the company's
plant at Prove, Utah. The
pact is subject to the ap-
proval of the U.S. Justice
Department, Utah's
Health Department, and
the U.S. District Court in
Salt Lake City, Utah.
EPA Regional Admin-
istrator Roger Williams
said the plan will bring
paniculate emissions
down from a 1977 level
of about 17,000 tons per
year to an estimated
3,000 tons per year by
December 31, 1982.
Emissions from the
plant have been the prin-
cipal contributor to
health standard viola-
tions for particulates in
Utah County. The reduc-
tion will mean that health
standards will be met
consistently if other
sources in the county
are also controlled
adequately.
Noise
Twenty incorporated
cities and six agencies,
representing an estimated
five million people, par-
ticipated in a city-county
noise awareness confer-
ence sponsored recently
by the Los Angeles De-
partment of Health Serv-
ices. The conference was
inspired as a follow-up
to an EPA-assisted survey
of noise pollution in Los
Angeles County taken by
the county. The EPA pro-
vided conference partici-
pants with access to sur-
vey equipment to assist
cities to form a general
plan—the prerequisite to
zoning and noise ordi-
nances, and the first step
to a quiet environment.
California
The California Tomorrow
Organization, whose
goals are to explore, dem-
onstrate, and educate the
pubic on major Cali-
fornia environmental
problems, has initiated
the California 2000 proj-
ect. Region 9 will provide
relevant information and
serve as a liaison with the
project.The project will
seek to develop a program
and consensusfor improv-
ing the planning proce-
dures by which mid- and
long-term problems of sig-
nificance can be identified
and managed.
Refinery
Construction is underway
in Valdez, Alaska, on the
Alaska Petrochemical
Company (ALPETCO)
refinery and petrochemi-
cal complex that will
process 100,000 barrels
a day of crude oil from
Alaska's North Slope into
unleaded gasoline and
other petroleum products.
A)l Federal and State en-
vironmental permits were
issued to ALPETCO with-
in 19 months from the
time that EPA agreed to
prepare an environmental
impact statement on the
project.
"EPA's permitting
process did not cause
ALPETCO to lose a single
day in moving toward the
start of construction,"
said Donald P. Dubois,
EPA's Region 10 Ad-
ministrator.
"EPA and ALPETCO
worked on parallel
tracks," he said, "with
EPA performing all its
environmental reviews at
the same time ALPETCO
conducted geological
assessments, made a final
site selection and com-
pleted its plant design.
We worked fast and still
managed to produce per-
mits with environmental
integrity."
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1980
As an example, Dubois
noted the EPA air quality
permit. It calls for only 48
tons of sulfur dioxide to
be emitted annually from
ALPETCO's fluid catalytic
cracker, as opposed to
963 tons a year that
ALPETCO proposed in
its original permit appli-
cation. Similarly, the per-
mit allows two tons of
hydrocarbon emissions
from the refinery's prod-
uct loading terminals;
originally, ALPETCO had
proposed that the terminal
be allowed to emit 200
tons a year. D
States Servod by EPA Regions
Region 1 (Boston)
Mass
617 2237210
Region 2 (New York
City)
Islands
212 264 2t>25
Region 3
(Philadelphia)
,nd
Pi>nr: x i ,;• na.
West Virginia Disr
•HI 4
Region 4 (Atlanta!
North Carolina S<
Kent'..
404 881-4
Region 5 (Chicago)
Illinois InJiHiia Ohio
sin
Minnea
312 363?
Region 6 (Dallas)
\IVV\
I'M 7H7 7600
Region 7 {Kansas
City)
lowd i.
Net)' ,1
816374 6493
Region 8 (Oenverl
Wyoming M
Nor!1 . ;th
Dakota
303-837-3895
Region 9 (San
Francisco)
'Vi/n;i
-------
A Challenge to EPA
Continued"
dedication and wisdom by people in and
out of government if the current chasm
between the public and private sector is to
be closed. I believe it is well worth the
effort because not only the future of the
environment but of free institutions is at
stake.
The essential question for us to answer
in America today is: Are we a wise enough
people to achieve our environmental goals
and minimize the impact on other legiti-
mate social concerns — all within the con-
text of freedom? To the extent we are
capable of answering that question in the
affirmative, we will have shown the rest of
the world, in the best way possible, that
the path of freedom is the one to which all
should repair. It is very much the job of
every employee at EPA to show our country
how the environment can be protected with-
out doing violence to freedom.
My experience at EPA convinced me
that we had the capacity to attract the best
and the brightest our country could pro-
duce. I have seen no diminution of that
capacity in the intervening years. It is very
much up to you — the best and the brightest
— to ensure that brilliance and wisdom
coincide. You remain in the forefront of
change in our country. Work always to
effect that change in the public interest you
serve, and don't lose sight of the need to
preserve certain enduring values like free-
dom and justice in the process.
If you do that you will earn and deserve
the undying gratitude of your fellow
countrymen. D
Ruckclshaus was EPA's first Administrate!
and is now Senior Vice President of tln>
EPA's Task
Con!
this connection, there is a growing recogni-
tion in our society that over-reliance on
adversarial approaches to the resolution of
issues can be excessively costly in eco-
nomic terms as well as productive of what
sometimes seems almost endless delay in
decision-making. EPA has a particular re-
sponsibility and opportunity, it seems to
me, to take a public lead in pursuing alter-
native modes of conflict resolution in the
environmental area. Effective regulation
must include prompt resolution of issues.
Our society needs to innovate in this re-
gard. The Agency should be alert to counter
the bureaucratic tendency to resist innova-
tion and "stick by the book."
The American people have made it clear
that they are willing to pay the price for a
clean and healthy environment. But this
willingness could be jeopardized if they are
not fully informed of what the trade-offs are
or lose their confidence that the costs are
no larger than they need be and that the
benefits are worth those costs. EPA has
demonstrated its determination to mini-
mize the social and economic impacts of
its efforts—to do all it can to meet its re-
sponsibilities in ways that will not put
people out of business or out of work or
impose excessive and unreasonable costs.
When I was Administrator, we were con-
fident that the Agency had the most open
and rigorous process of economic impact
analysis in the entire Federal Government.
I have no reason to think that this situation
has changed, and I hope EPA will continue
to improve that process.
EPA also has undertaken a major effort
to simplify and streamline its regulations.
To carry out its regulatory responsibilities
EPA has issued a significant body of com-
plex regulations. But it must also recognize
that its success in the future will be meas-
ured by how clean the air and water be-
come, not by the quantity and complexity
of its regulations, and it has been com-
mitted to a continuing program of regula-
tory review.
Action-Forcing Standards
It has been suggested that Congress in its
environmental legislation set standards
and timetables for their implementation
that were simply not achievable, that EPA
had been given an impossible mandate to
carry out. I certainly agree that EPA in the
past has had a very difficult mandate to
carry out, one not fully achievable in all
respects within the statutory timetables
even if it had all the resources it might
want. At the same time, I have been in full
agreement with the Congressional approach
of setting standards and timetables which
are action-forcing and technology-forcing.
To do otherwise would be to require only
the lowest common denominator of what is
currently achievable. Such an approach
would secure the best compliance record
and the least overall progress. The ap-
proach actually adopted, particularly in the
Clean Air Act, has forced technology and
brought about strong progress. The dis-
advantages of such an approach are that a
certain amount of nonattainment on sched-
ule will inevitably occur and that there will
be increases in economic cost and tech-
nological inefficiency in some cases. In my
opinion, these disadvantages are far out-
weighed by the advantages.
The Agency has had the most success in
carrying out those parts of our environmen-
tal laws that involve the control of specific
sources of emissions or effluents by the
application of technology. It has had the
least success in trying—often under dead-
lines imposed by the courts—to require
pollution control measures that have impli-
cations for changes in lifestyles and land
use patterns. These are changes that can
take place only over a period of time. They
entail very basic social and economic and
environmental choices and trade offs that
can only be made by the people involved
through the political process at the State,
local, and regional levels.
One of the major challenges to our so-
ciety, and specifically to our States and
localities, is to deal effectively with what
might be called the issues of growth—the
issues involved, for example, in trying to
preserve and maintain air quality, to con-
trol nonpoint source water pollution, and
to relate and reconcile different environ-
mental concerns such as clean air and
clean water with each other and with social
and economic concerns such as housing,
and jobs, and energy. These issues will
involve an increasing shift in emphasis
from the abatement to the prevention of
pollution. In terms of technology, we need
to seek over the coming years not simply to
encourage the development of more sophis-
ticated kinds of "add-on" controls, but to
push as effectively as we can for basic
changes in the processes themselves.
The Need For Preventive Action
As we move to put increasing emphasis
upon the prevention as well as the control
of pollution, there is a growing body of evi-
dence that some of our most effective
"health care" dollars may well be the
"disease prevention" dollars we spend to
cut and control pollution and other agents
we introduce into our own environment.
The Department of Health, Education and
Welfare (now the Department of Health
and Human Services) a few years ago esti-
mated that 88 percent of our total national
health bill goes for cure and care rather
than prevention. In a recent year we spent
around $1 billion on research into cures
and causes of cancer. The National Cancer
Institute has estimated that the actual cost
of cancer to people amounts to tens of
billions of dollars a year. Yet the World
Health Organization has estimated from 60
to 90 percent of all cancer is the result of
"environmental factors" in the broadest
sense of that term. As the Forward Plan for
Health prepared by HEW has stated: "In
recent years, it has become clear that only
by preventing disease from occurring,
rather than treating it later, can we hope to
achieve any major improvement in the
Nation's health."
All of this has underscored the urgency
of measures such as the Toxic Substances
Control Act to give us better information
EPA JOURNAL
-------
,v covera: 'mid high an the
slopes of Mount Rainier in Wfia/iiugton.
Jhe peak is part of Mount Rainier Nniiunut
^•""^ <
and regulatory capacity for coping with the
many new chemical compounds that we
have been introducing into the commercial
market each year. It also underscores the
fact that the struggle against disease must
increasingly be waged, not simply in the
hospitals and the doctors' offices, but on
our farms, in our factories, and in our per-
sonal lifestyles. And it suggests that, if—
in the words of one medical authority—
"environmental disease is becoming the
disease of the century," then environmen-
tal protection, in the broadest sense of the
phrase, must increasingly become the most
important ingredient in any national health
program.
If there have been doubts that "envi-
ronment" is truly a global concern, and that
all nations have a very real stake in the
development of effective international
efforts in any environmental protection and
improvement, they should have been dis-
pelled by the growing awareness of the
international scope and seriousness of the
pollution of the marine environment, the
spread of chemical contaminants, the prob-
lem of acid rain, and the depletion of the
layer of ozone that shields mankind from
harmful solar rays by the release of fluoro-
carbons into the environment, among other
problems. The build-up of atmospheric
carbon dioxide from the combustion of
fossil fuels has enormous potential signifi-
cance for global climate and world food
production.
Sharing Control Technology
We can expect, in the years ahead, in-
creasing pressures on EPA. to share its
know-how on pollution control with a
developing world faced with extraordinary
problems arising from population growth.
food demand, and industrial development.
The growing global demand for food will
require us to establish a more precise policy
on how best to control the global release of
bioaccumulative, persistent pesticides.
Developing nations will increasingly dis-
cover human health problems associated
with the vast array of chemical compounds
currently in use and under development.
We will, as a result, face growing requests
from developing countries for EPA experts
to help in the establishment of environmen-
tal programs and to deal with specific
environmental problems.
EPA can head into the 1980's with a
clear sense of accomplishment and with a
far better idea than we had ten years ago
of the problems that we face and of the
things we need to do.
EPA can take great pride in the fact that,
faced with an extraordinarily complex
array of issues and statutory mandates, it
has put in place much of the regulatory
machinery needed to ensure the eventual
achievement of a sound and heafthy envi-
ronment for all.
I foresee a major chalfenge in the next
year or two to our whole environmental
protection system, particularly to the Clean
Air Act. EPA should welcome constructive
review. EPA should take the lead in seeking
out and correcting cases of excessive or
ill-founded regulation. EPA should, as I
suggested earlier, be innovative and open
in finding ways to expedite environmental
decision-making, such as is involved in the
siting of plants and other facilities. I have
always believed that we need greater room
•for administrative flexibility and the exer-
cise of discretion — always subject to
active Congressional oversight — -in the im-
plementation of environmental statutes.
But our society must firmly resist efforts to
roll back our historic environmental pro-
tection achievements. We must never for-
get that a healthy environment and the con-
tinued healthy functioning of the natural
systems of the Earth are the foundations
upon which all human activity, progress,
and welfare must ultimately depend.
EPA has a proud and vital mission. Envi-
ronmental problems are world-wide. They
can be expected to become tougher rather
than easier. The World Conservation Strat-
egy developed by the International Union
for the Conservation of Nature with World
Wildlife Fund support and the Global 2000
Report of the Council on Environmental
Quality help outline the problems, set pri-
orities, and recommend national and inter-
national action strategies. The United
States must undertake a leadership role in
addressing these issues worldwide, and
EPA must assume a major part in that
critical task, D
Train was EPA's second Administrator and is
now President of the World Wildlife Fund, U.S.
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1980
-------
Update
A review of recent major
EPA activities and devel-
opments in the pollution
control program areas.
AIR
Bubble
In a regulatory reform
move with national impli-
cations, EPA is proposing
approval of a New Jersey
program which will make
the Agency's air pollution
bubble policy more attrac-
tive to industry in that
State. The bubble policy,
established by EPA in
late 1979, allows industry
management to figure out
the best way to clean up
air pollution at individual
plants, provided overall
clean air requirements are
met, EPA is now propos-
ing in New Jersey to put
final approval of a bubble
plan in the hands of State
officials, a time-saving
action. The proposed step
would apply only to hy-
drocarbon emissions, a
prime factor in the forma-
tion of smog.
Power Plant
EPA Region 8 is propos-
ing to deny a construction
permit to the Nevada
Power Company because
the company failed to
show that it could build
the proposed Warren
Valley Power Plant with-
out harming the air qual-
ity in nearby Zion National
Park. Air impact analyses
done by the company
were deficient, according
to EPA, and failed to
show the legally required
protection for air quality
in Zion. EPA analysis of
the company's data
showed there would be
violations of sulfur di-
oxide limits at Zion. Offi-
cials in Region 8 said they
will consider a new appli-
cation from Nevada
Power offering alternate
sites farther from Zion
though, with a new site,
the plant will have to have
the best available equip-
ment for controlling air
pollution.
Fuel
The U.S. auto industry is
offering more fuel effi-
cient cars for sale than
ever before, according to
the 1981 EPA mileage
estimates released re-
cently by EPA.
Although Volkswagen
of America's Rabbit
diesel topped the list at
42 miles per gallon
(rnpg), U.S. manufac-
turers produced seven
cars with better gas mile-
age than the highest do-
mestic car in 1980, which
was rated 26 mpg.
In 1981 the Chevrolet
Chevette, Ford Escort,
and Lincoln-Mercury Lynx
are all rated at 30 mpg.
The Dodge Omni and the
Plymouth Horizon are
tied at 28 mpg. A Dodge
024/De Tomaso and a
Plymouth TC3/Turismo
also tied at 27 mpg.
The only mid-size cars
to appear in the top rank-
ings this year are the
new Dodge Aries and
Plymouth Reliant. These
cars are rated at 25 mpg.
Control Dropped
The EPA is dropping an
emission control require-
ment for 1982 and later
model cars and light
trucks that might have
cost automakers millions
of dollars a year to meet.
Specifically, the Agen-
cy will not require that
1982 and later vehicles
meet exhaust cleanup
standards at all possible
idle-speed settings of the
carburetor.
An Agency spokesman
said that new data on cars
built in the last few years
showed that idle speed
changes were less likely
to increase exhaust emis-
sions than EPA originally
believed.
ENFORCEMENT
Message
Sears, Roebuck, and
Company, Inc., the
world's largest retailer,
will issue a nationwide
environmental message to
consumers as the result of
a settlement with the EPA.
Sears will mail a mes-
sage to its approximately
25 million credit card
customers about how the
use of unleaded gasoline
results in reduced air
pollution; a similar mes-
sage will be carried on
more than 1 6,000 Sears
vehicles across the
Nation.
Agreement
EPA has signed an agree-
ment with U.S. Steel Cor-
poration that will bring all
air pollution sources at
the company's Lorain,
Ohio, plant into compli-
ance with applicable
pollution control regula-
tions by December 31,
1982.
Recall
General Motors Corpora-
tion will voluntarily recall
approximately one million
of its 1977 and 1978
passenger cars because
they may be failing to
meet Federal tailpipe air
pollution standards for
nitrogen oxides, accord-
ing to an announcement
made recently by EPA.
The vehicles to be re-
called (except for those
built for sale in Califor-
nia) have 231 cubic inch
displacement V-6 en-
gines. Those in the model
years not having this type
of engine are not subject
to the recall.
HAZARDOUS
WASTE
Cleanup Suits
On behalf of EPA the De-
partment of Justice has
taken the following
actions:
• filed a suit against the
operator and owners of a
hazardous waste dump
in Gary, Ind. The gov-
ernment's suit contends
the 20-acre dump, which
contains more than 500
drums of toxic chemicals,
poses an imminent and
substantial danger to hu-
man health and the envi-
ronment.
• filed suit against the
owners and operators of
two hazardous waste dis-
posal sites in southeastern
Illinois, charging that the
sites are discharging toxic
chemicals into nearby
waterways. One facility is
in Greenup and the other
in Olney.
• filed a suit against
BASF Wyandotte Corpo-
ration charging that a
chemical and industrial
waste dump formerly
owned by the company is
contaminating ground-
water and the Detroit
River near Riverview,
Mich.
• filed suit seeking clean-
up of the Conservation
Chemical Company's
hazardous waste site
in Kansas City, Mo.,
and an end to illegal toxic
discharges from the site.
The suit was filed against
the Conservation Chemi-
cal Company, owners and
operators of the site, as
well as Kansas City
Power and Light Com-
pany and Mobay Chemi-
cal Company. The latter
two own property adjoin-
ing the site and are named
to ensure that remedial
actions requested by EPA
can be fully implemented.
• filed suit against the
ReillyTarand Chemical
Company of St. Louis
Park, Minn., for pollut-
ing groundwater. Much
of the groundwater be-
neath the site is used as a
source of drinking water
for the city. The plant at
the site has been closed
since 1972.
NOISE
Airports
In spite of the costly and
unnecessary high noise
experienced by people in
areas near large airports,
little is being done to pre-
vent similar occurrences
in areas near expanding
general aviation airports,
according to a Noise Con-
ference Report released
recently. General aviation
airports are those lacking
commercial air service.
The conference was spon-
sored by EPA and the
Georgia Institute of
Technology.
PESTICIDES
Fire Ants
An insecticide called
Amdro has been given
conditional approval by
EPA for use against fire
ants. The stings of fire
ants are painful to people
and their mounds can dis-
rupt farming operations in
the nine Southern States
affected.
The registration came
in timefort he aerial and
ground application
against fire ants which
had been planned in the
fall in the States affected
by the ants—Alabama,
Arkansas, Florida,
Georgia, Louisiana, Mis-
sissippi, North Carolina,
South Carolina, and Texas
—in conjunction with the
U.S. Department of
Agriculture.
Herbicide
Rohm and Haas Company
of Philadelphia has
agreed with EPA to stop
selling and to recall from
its dealers, distributors,
and users all existing
stocks of a herbicide
called TDK.
Evidence from a study
supported by the com-
pany and in other studies
shows the weed killer
causes birth defects, mu-
tagenic damage (altera-
tion of inherited genes),
and cancer in test animals.
The company advised
EPA that it will not sell
the product again untfl it
can demonstrate to the
satisfaction of EPA and
affected States that TDK
can be applied under con-
ditions that do not present
an unacceptable risk to
persons handling it, to
field workers, and to con-
sumers. EPA said the
40
EPA JOURNAL
-------
people at greatest risk are
women workers exposed
toTOK in the field.
RESEARCH
Incineration
Incineration looks tike
the most promising near-
term technique for dis-
posing of hazardous
wastes, according to
EPA's Office of Research
and Development. That is
the conclusion reached in
its research summary,
Controlling Hazardous
Wastes, which contains
an overview of the current
projects dealing with this
problem and possible
solutions. Copies are
available from ORD Pub-
lications, U.S. EPA, CER1,
Cincinnati, Ohio 45268,
or call (513) 684-7562.
The report number is
EPA-600/8-80/017.
Fuel Savings
EPA recently announced
the results of a study for
cutting fuel costs by using
warm water from electric
generating plants to heat
commercial greenhouses.
Agency officials say
that the results showed an
estimated savings of
$13,000 in overall oper-
ating costs per acre and
50,000 to 60,000 barrels
of oil per year in a north-
ern U.S. climate. These
savings are based on
1 978 fuel costs. Because
fuel costs for 1980 would
be approximately twice as
high, savings would be
even greater.
The three-year, mtllion-
dollar study was a joint
effort of EPA's Industrial
Environmental Research
Laboratory in Research
Triangle Park, N.C., and
the Northern States Power
Company of Minneapolis,
Minn.
Nuclear Tests
EPA has released its an-
nual report on radioactiv-
ity from underground
nuclear tests. Among
other things, the results
show that underground
nuclear tests conducted
by the Department of
Energy at its Nevada Test
Site released no measur-
able radioactivity in 1979
to public and private
areas surrounding the
test site.
Single copies of the
report, "Offsite Environ-
mental Monitoring Report
for the Nevada Test Site
and Other Areas Used for
Underground Nuclear
Detonations: January
through December 1979,"
can be obtained from the
Environmental Monitoring
Systems Laboratory, P.O.
Box 15027, Las Vegas,
Nev. 89114.
Film Award
EPA's Kerr Environmental
Research Laboratory in
Ada, Okla., received an
international award for
the film, "Hold This
Land."
"Hold This Land" re-
ceived the award of the
Federal Ministry of Agri-
culture and Food Industry
at the 7th International
Film Festival of Environ-
mental Problems held in
Ostrave-Poruba, Czecho-
slovakia, earlier this year.
The film concerns irri-
gation-reiated soil erosion
and sedimentation water
pollution problems.
Long Term
EPA recently announced
the establishment of three
new exploratory research
centers to focus on long-
term environmental prob-
lems. They include an
Ecosystem Research Cen-
ter to be developed at
Cornell University under
the direction of Dr. Simon
A. Levin; an Intermedia
Transport Research Cen-
ter to be developed at the
University of California at
Los Angeles under the di-
rection of Dr. Sheldon K.
Friedlander, and a Waste
Elimination Research
Center to be developed at
the consortium of the
Illinois Institute of Tech-
nofogy and the University
of Notre Dame under the
direction of Dr. James W
Patterson of the Illinois
facility.
Pollutant
The EPA has published a
research summary, Con-
trolling Nitrogen Oxides,
which details research
efforts to improve control
technologies to limit
nitrogen oxide emissions.
According to an Agency
official, recent research
indicates that nitrogen
oxides could be one of the
most troublesome air pol-
lutants of the 1980's.
Copies can be obtained
from the U.S. EPA, Center
for Environmental Re-
search Information, 26
West St. Clair Street,
Cincinnati, Ohio 45268.
The report number is
EPA-600/8-80-004.
TOXICS
Asbestos
Proposed new rules from
EPA's Office of Toxic Sub-
stances would require all
primary and secondary
schools to inspect their
facilities for potential
asbestos hazards. Sam-
ples would have to be
taken from likely sources
of contamination, such as
crumbling insulation, so
that the severity of the
problem can be assessed
through laboratory test
ing. EPA estimates that
over 10,000 public and
private school buildings
contain asbestos that
could cause health
problems.
EPA Aid
Some small firms may ex-
perience difficulty provid-
ing EPA required informa-
tion on new chemicals
because they lack ade-
quate manpower and
resources to meet report-
ing requirements passed
by Congress in 1976. To
help solve this problem,
EPA decided recently to
try out an assistance pro-
gram for small firms with-
in 250 miles of Chicago,
III., and Summit, N.J.
If the tria I projects prove
successful, the Agency
will consider setting up
simiiar programs in other
parts of the country.
Chemical
EPA has proposed to
block the commercial in-
troduction of a new
chemical pending the
development of additional
information on its human
health risks. This infor-
mation is needed to ad-
dress concerns that the
chemical might cause
severe skin reactions
amongthose exposed to it.
The Agency estimates
that over a million people
could come into contact
with the substance under
the proposed manufac-
turer's production and
use plans.
Under terms of the 1976
Toxic Substances Control
Act, the name of the man-
ufacturer, the exact use
proposed for the new
chemical and its specific
chemical identity cannot
be revealed publicly by
EPA because the company
involved claims this to be
"confidential business in-
formation." However, the
substance may be broadly
described as "substituted
benzene, reaction prod-
ucts of C22-C30 alkenes"
for use as a lubricant
additive.
Prevention
EPA has proposed new
rules that would allow the
Agency to evaluate possi-
ble health and environ-
mental problems from
new uses of certain chem-
icals that are now exempt
from safeguards con-
tained in the Toxic Sub-
stances Control Act.
The proposed rule
would require that, if a
substance not normally
covered by the law's safe-
guards is processed for a
new use or end-product
not exempted by this law,
it will be subject to EPA
review so that possible
future health and environ-
mental problems can be
anticipated and avoided.
WATER
Wastewater
EPA is conducting a
series of studies with
local governments across
the country using waste-
water to create or pre-
serve wetlands for wild-
life and migratory water-
fowl.
Wastewater provides
valuable nutrients for
marsh plants, which in
turn provide homes for
wetland animals. Prelimi-
nary findings to date indi-
cate no problems with
accumulation of toxic
materials in plants or
animals.
New Manual
EPA has announced the
publication of a 43-page
manual entitled, "Recrea-
tion and Land Use: The
Public Benefits of Clean
Waters." The manual is
.free. Copies can be ob-
tained from EPA's Public
Inquiries Center (PM-
215), Washington, D.C.
20460,(202)755-0707,
and through the Depart-
ment of Interior, at the
Office of Heritage Conser-
vation Recreation Service,
Division of Community
and Human Resources
Development, Washing-
ton, D.C. 20243, (202)
343-5571, or from any
regional office of either
agency.
Filters
A new report on the effec-
tiveness of home drinking
water filters is now avail-
able from the EPA, Sev-
eral different types of
filters, ranging in cost
from $ 10 to more than
$400, were tested for
their effectiveness in con-
trolling various contami-
nants in drinking water.
Copies of the filter study
and a related fact sheet
may be obtained from
EPA's Public Inquiries
Center (PM 215), 401 M
Street, S.W., Washington,
D.C.20460.D
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1980
41
-------
People
Clinton Hall
He has been named director of
EPA's Robert S. Kerr Environ-
mental Research Laboratory in
Ada, Okla. He was most
recently Associate Deputy
Assistant Administrator for
Environmental Processes and
Effects in Research and Devel-
opment at headquarters. Hall
takes over his new position at
a period when both the public
and Congress are interested in
the investigation of ground-
water, which is the primary
concern of the laboratory.
He received his bachelor's
degree in geology from the
University of Delaware, and his
master's degree in groundwater
hydrology from the University
of Connecticut.
He succeeds William Galegar,
who stepped down after 10
years as director of the facility
to accept an Intergovernmental
Personnel Act Assignment with
East Central University in Ada.
In Galegar's new role, he will
work at strengthening the rela-
tionship between the laboratory
and the school, where he is a
Visiting Professor of Environ-
mental Science. In addition, he
will engage in various research
endeavors.
Jeffrey G. Miller
The President has approved
and sent to the Senate for con-
firmation Miller's nomination as
Assistant Administrator for
Enforcement. He is currently
serving in an acting capacity in
that role. The Assistant Admin-
istrator is responsible for
enforcement of EPA's programs
involving water, air, hazardous
and solid wastes, toxics, pesti-
cides, drinking water, and noise.
Prior to assuming his current
position, he was the Deputy
Assistant Administrator for
Water Enforcement. He served
in that position for four years,
and was responsible for manag-
ing the National Pollutant
Discharge Elimination System
including the issuance of per-
mits and assuring compliance
with the Clean Water Act. He
has held several other adminis-
trative positions within EPA
including the top enforcement
job in EPA's Boston regional
office.
Before joining the Agency,
he was associated with a Boston
law firm, and helped develop a
consumer rights program with
the Boston Legal Assistance
Projects.
He received his bachelor's
degree in political science from
Princeton University in 1963,
and his law degree from
Harvard University Law School
in 1967.
William J. Librizzi
He has been named Director of
the Surveillance and Analysis
Division for Region 6. He was
most recently Deputy Director
of the Air and Hazardous
Materials Division for Region 2.
He has also held several pro-
fessional and managerial
positions with EPA in the areas
of water resources and toxic
substances. In his new position,
Librizzi will direct a staff of 86,
whose responsibilities include
emergency response to oil and
chemical spills, field inspection
of hazardous waste sites, and
general data-gathering to
support the administration and
enforcement of EPA programs
in the region.
A registered professional
engineer, Librizzi is a graduate
of Newark College of Engineer-
ing and received his master's
in civil engineering from New
York University.
Region 2 Gets Award
The Utility Contractors Asso-
ciation of New Jersey presented
its 1980 Public Service Award
to the EPA Region 2 New
Jersey/Caribbean Water Pro-
grams Branch in recognition of
its exemplary record in
processing New Jersey's clean
water construction grants.
During fiscal year 1980, Region
2 obligated $207.6 million for
1 21 projects in New Jersey
alone.
V
Joseph J. Zedrosser
He has been named Regional
Counsel for EPA Region 2.
He was most recently with the
New York State Department of
Law Environmental Protection
Bureau where he served for
six years as Assistant Attorney
General. He also has served
with several private law firms,
the Legal Aid Society, and the
Bedford-Stuyvesant Commu-
nity Legal Services Corporation.
Zedrosser has served as a
member of several bar associa-
tion committees on energy and
the environment, and has
lectured on environmental
regulation of hazardous sub-
stances and oil. He received
his bachelor's degree from
Marquette University in 1959
and his law degree from
Harvard Law School in 1963.
A new $3.5 million laboratory
was dedicated in Annapolis,
Md. in October by EPA. Assist-
ing in the ceremonies were
(from left) jack Schramm, Re-
gion 3 Administrator; Maryland
Governor Harry R. Hughes, and
Orterio Villa, Director, EPA
Central Regional Laboratory.
The new facility is staffed by
40 persons and is one of the
most modern in the country for
environmental analysis.
•1.'
EPAJOURNAL
-------
Letters
Dear Editor:
I read with interest the article in the October issue of the EPA Journal
on Environmental Science in the 1980"s.
What emerged from this article is the preoccupation of the scientists
with the technical aspect of specific problems, as they should be. But
it is astonishing that not a single scientist alluded to the need to
communicate with the public about these issues. Nowhere was mentioned
the importance of the news media as an available and indispensable channel
of communications, nor did anyone mention the critical role played by
public opinion in supporting national policies that are influenced by the
work of the scientists.
There's not much point if scientists through their research propose more
effective ways to deal with hazardous waste or groundwater contamination
if the public does not understand these problems. It is only an informed
and motivated public that will support the political and economic action
designed to mitigate the effects of these toxics on human health and
environment. When will scientists understand this basic fact of political
life?
Dr. Edward Wenk does mention the need for scientists to "help a confused
public," but only in passing. What is needed is for scientists to cooperate
actively with the news media in educating the public on the issues. This
can be done only if scientists are available to the reporters and editors
writing about the vast range of environment and health issues that directly
affect the lives of all Americans.
You may be interested to know that the Center is dealing with the problem
of scientist/media communications. We have organized a national network
of over 1,000 specialists on toxic substances which is available to re-
porters and editors writing about the subject. The specialists are drawn
from government, industry, labor unions, universities, and environmental
organizations. They have agreed to answer media queries as a public
service. In December, CONTACT; Toxics, a guide to these specialists,
will be published and will be offered to over 2,000 daily newspapers and
radio and TV newsrooms. It will contain the name, address, affiliation,
biographical information, and a telephone number. All the reporter has
to do is pick up the phone.
Funding support for this project has been provided by the National Science
Foundation, corporations, and foundations.
At the Center, we find the Journal an interesting and useful source of
information. Keep up the good work.
Whitman Bassow, Ph.D.
Executive Director
World Environment Center
300 East 42nd Street
New York, N.Y. 10017
October 24, 1980
43
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Environmental Almanac: November/December 1980
A Glimpse of the Natural World We Help Protect
The Approach of Winter
On a recent golden
autumn afternoon a
sudden thump sounded
at the window of a house high
on North Mountain near Win-
chester, Va.
An inspection outside dis-
closed that a small bird, lying
dead on the ground, had ap-
parently crashed into a pane.
The brilliant yellow-green
breast and white mid-tail stripe
helped identify it as a magnolia
warbler, one of the many of
these butterflies of the bird
world that migrate hundreds
of miles every fall seeking
warmer climates.
These extraordinary birds,
often marked by stunning color
patterns, follow the ancient
imperative for much of the ani-
mal world as winter approaches:
migrate, hibernate, or starve.
Like humans, they are usually
not designed for the cold tem-
peratures winter will bring when
it arrives in December on the
great wheel of time.
The degree of cold varies
each year, and about once in
every decade we have what
scientists call a "test" winter
when the temperatures are un-
usually harsh.
In the animal world thou-
sands of creatures can freeze to
death or perish from starvation.
Tiny feathered corpses litter
the ground when the stinging
winds of an early blizzard catch
song birds by surprise and bury
their seed food under mounds
of snow.
Huge numbers of waterfowl
also die when ice seals off their
aquatic plant food, and the fish
below perish when the thickep7
ing ice reduces their supply i
of oxygen.
White-tailed deer
often starve to
death when
heavy
snow imprisons them in the
deep woods where they have
taken refuge. Their sharp
hooves punch through the deep
drifts when they are chased by
predators such as wild dogs
which can bound over the
crusted surface.
The strategy used by deer to
survive a winter is to hide and
conserve as much strength as
possible. A chase by dog packs
or snowmobiles can exhaust
their limited energy.
Unlike elk, deer have great
difficulty digesting hay that
people provide to help them
through the winter. Since deer
need the micro-organisms from
woody plants for digestion,
some conservation agencies
knock over trees and bushes to
provide natural browse for
these animals. Many deer also
fall on ice, sometimes sliding to
their death over cliffs or down
hills and onto highways.
Yet, after millions of years of
life on Earth, wild creatures
have learned ways to con-
quer the challenge of winter.
Survival in nature demands ex-
cellence in the animal and a
livable environment. Ice and
snow help eliminate the unfit,
thus leaving more of the avail-
able food for the survivors.
Approximately two thirds of
the birds in the northern United
States and Canada fly south in
winter, many going to Central
and South America.
Great flocks of hawks, geese,
and waterfowl are among these
birds threading their way
through valleys 05 the rtjajor
flyways to the south. Hundreds
of bald eagles desert Canada
every winter for warmer hunting
grounds in the United States.
Some butterflies, bats, and
whales also head for the tropics.
Among the animals that re-
main in the north during winter,
frogs and turtles bury them-
selves in the ooze of mud at the
bottom of ponds, lakes, and
swamps.
Each fall animals, such as
the ground squirrel and wood-
chuck, gorge themselves to
prepare for the trance-like state
known as hibernation.
A butterfly that hibernates,
rather than migrating south like
many of its kind, is the mourn-
ing cloak. It is able to survive
because of chemical changes
in its body that provide a type
of anti-freeze.
Other animals, such as the
skunk, raccoon, and black bear,
spend the winter in a dormant
state, a deep sleep, which per-
mits them to wake up and
search for food on mild days.
Among those who stick it out
during winter weather, the
beavers, minks, and muskrats
grow thick coats, and the
ptarmigans, snowshoe hares,
and longtaif weasels all develop
white plumage or fur for
camouflage.
The fall migration of animals
and birds from northern lati-
tudes occurs all over the world.
In Europe storks begin their
annual trips from Holland
across the Mediterranean to the
northern coast of Africa. Some
high-flying geese reportedly
. :
cross Mount Everest to reach
warmer climates.
The migrating birds can
sometimes be seen silhouetted
against a full moon in the night
sky, where the rising of Orion,
brightest of constellations,
higher and higher in the east,
is also one of the harbingers of
winter.
With the arrival of the cold
season, our forests will be en-
veloped by the quiet of winter.
Few birds sing. The silence is
broken only by the booming of
ice splitting on some nearby
lake or the muffled roar of a
mountain stream bank full with
snow melt.
While winter can bea time of
harsh testing for many plants
and animals, others benefit. The
predators easily can find the
tracks of their prey in the snow,
and some plant seeds must be
nipped by cold or they will not
sprout.
Although a winter landscape
after an ice storm may appear
beautiful but sterile, life en-
dures. The ice-enshrouded and
glittering trees and shrubs are
supported by the food made in
their leaves in the summer and
now stored in their roots and
stems. Under the bark and in
the wood are billions of insect
eggs and larvae, part of the
food chain which supports us
all and another sign of to-
morrows to come.
Even on the first day of win
ter on December 21, the buds
already swelling on tree
branches promise the arrival
of yet another spring. And, after
this winter solstice, each day
will be a little longer as the
life-giving sun begins its slow
i .,fclimb to the zenith of June.
—C.D.P.G
EPA JOURNAL
-------
News Briefs
EPA Scientist
Honored
EPA Sets
Standards
EPA Proposes
Restr ictions
Waste Burning
Congress recently passed a law that names a major
research facility after an EPA scientist. The measure
officially designates the Environmental Research Center
in Cincinnati, Ohio, the "Andrew W. Breidenbach Environ-
mental Research Center." Breidenbach, who died earlier
this year, was an internationally recognized environ-
mental scientist. He had served EPA in many posts,
including Assistant Administrator for Water and Hazard-
ous Material.
Final air pollution standards set by the EPA will cut
particulate emissions from new glass manufacturing
plants by approximately 90 percent. If left uncon-
trolled, pollution emissions from new furnaces would
total about 5400 tons per year. The new EPA standards,
however, will limit particulates or dust material to
about 600 tons annually. The particulates emitted by
glass melting furnaces endanger public health and welfare
The EPA has proposed to impose restrictions--and in
some cases, bans--on the use of strychnine to control
rodents and other animals and birds that feed on farmers'
crops. The use of strychnine as a rodenticide, said
EPA, carries too great a risk of killing unintended
animal victims to allow its unrestricted use to continue.
The EPA and the Department of Commerce's Maritime Admin-
istration have announced an inter-Agency program to
develop the Nation's capacity to destroy hazardous
wastes by burning them at sea in incinerators aboard
specially-equipped ships.
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Landmarks
Condi
the various laws passed in the
last ten years is an essential
approach to environmental pro-
tection. Any weakening of this
comprehensive program for the
environment, either inside or
outside the plant, is bound to
have on adverse effect on the
health of both workers and the
communities in which they live.
We must maintain our re-
solve that the laws we have
passed for worker and environ-
mental protection are not di-
minished. A lessening in any
area of environmental protec-
tion would mean an eventual
lessening in all.
David M. Roderick
Chairman, Board of Directors
United States Steei
Corporation
The most significant environ-
mental achievement of the last
decade has been the progress
made in industrial pollution
control, and I am especially
proud of the progress which
has been made by U.S. Steel
Corporation and the entire steel
industry. The steel industry is
controlling 96 percent of its
emissions to the air. Control of
water pollutants is now over 90
percent and will be at about
96 percent within the next few
years. In steelmaking areas air
quality and water quality have
improved dramatically. Air pol-
lution alerts and fish kills are
comparatively rare.
With this much progress be-
hind us, we must now look to
the future. With environmental
quality high, we must now give
greater attention to other envi-
ronmental problems — unem-
ployment, inflation, decreased
productivity, the energy crisis
and national security. We are
dedicated to continuing envi-
ronmental progress necessary
to meet health-related environ-
mental requirements, but once
health needs are met, a balance
must be struck between mar-
ginal environmental improve-
ments and the attainment of
other national economic and so-
cial goals. Capital, which is in-
volved in attaining these goals,
is limited. There is not enough
to go around. Choices must be
made, and the mechanisms for
making these choices must be
developed if we are to remain
a strong, secure, and free
Nation.
Michael McCIoskey
Executive Director
The Sierra Club
The most significant achieve-
ment lies in the profound
change which has taken place
in public thinking over the last
decade. This underlies changes
in public policy and makes them
possible. Following 1970, vari-
ous surveys of public opinion
have repeatedly returned to the
same questions to test public
sentiment, and they have con-
sistently shown majority sup-
port for strong environmental
programs. A recent survey for
Resources for the Future showed
62 percent of the public count-
ing themselves as sympathetic
to the movement, with 42 per-
cent of the public favoring en-
vironmental protection regard-
less of the cost. Some 30 per-
cent were neutral, with only 4
percent unsympathetic. Other
surveys generally show over
half to two-thirds of the public
favoring strong programs. De-
viations from this norm only
occur occasionally in polls that
pose extremely tough questions
of trade-offs involving jobs or
energy availability-—questions
that usually depart from reality
in the starkness of the choices
posed.
The general trend in the polls
also shows that there are major-
ities sympathetic to the move-
ment in all income and edu-
cational classes. Surprisingly
enough, the RFF poll even
shows slightly more blacks than
whites sympathetic to the move-
ment. This is a profound change
from the early 1970's. Over 60
percent of both liberals and
conservatives and Democrats
and Republicans are sympathet-
ic. In truth, environmentalism
has become a central value in
the thinking of most Americans.
John Carlijn
Governor, Kansas
In the last ten years new laws
have been implemented to con-
trol air pollution and water pol-
lution. Major amendments to
the Clean Air Act have required
the-State to develop regulations
that will have a significant im-
pact on air pollution sources.
Changes in State law resulted in
extensive development of regu-
lations and standards dealing
with public water supply sys-
tems. Water supplies are also
being developed and upgraded
under a new incentive by the
Kansas Department of Health
and Environment. Kansas has
been a leader in the Nation in
the area of solid and hazardous
waste management. Improve-
ments in State regulations dur-
ing the 1970's have virtually
eliminated most solid waste
problems and have laid the
groundwork to eliminate others.
Advances were made in the
1970's to deal with hazardous
wastes, but the greatest impact
will likely be made in the
1980's.
The largest project of the
decade, and the one that would
have to be considered the most
comprehensive, is the develop-
ment of the Kansas Water Qual-
ity Management Plan. This plan
deals with every aspect of water
management. All sources of
water pollution in the State were
addressed. Many studies were
made and are still in progress
that will be the basis for new
regulations and control meas-
ures. This document will also
be a foundation for an overall
environmental plan for Kansas.
R. O. Anderson
Chairman of the Board
Atlantic Richfield Company
Over the past ten years, we
have witnessed an outpouring
of legislation and regulation
aimed at protecting and en-
hancing the human environ-
ment—the air we breathe, the
water we drink and use for rec-
reation, and the land on which
we live and work. These laws
and rules evolved from a grow-
ing realization and concern that
most human activity impacts
our environment. I believe this
growth of environmental aware-
ness has been the most notable
environmental achievement in
the last decade.
Even with the increased in-
dustrialization during the pe-
riod, significant progress has
been made in checking the rate
of environmental degradation
and in the reduction of some
pollutants. Our streams and
rivers are cleaner and our air
contains less sulfur dioxide.
While the environmental task is
not complete, we are headed in
the right direction. We have a
challenging task in balancing
our environmental concerns
with the economic vitality that
is so necessary to the well-
being of our citizens.
Anthony Mazzocchi
Director of Health and Safety
Oil, Chemical, and Atomic
Workers International Union
AFL-CIO
The greatest achievement is
the elevated consciousness and
extreme concern over the mag-
nitude of the environmental
problems confronting mankind.
Linkages are better understood.
We see that contaminants at
work affect workers, and subse-
quently the community through
diverse pathways. There is an
understanding that the toxic
grave is not the end, but the be-
ginning of even more devastat-
ing damage. We have an aware-
ness that the ultimate insult is
now probably the irreversible
damage to a yet unborn genera-
tion. We understand the fact
that cancer and other major dis-
eases, including senility, can be
attributed for the most part to
the environment and therefore
are preventible. This holistic
perception that seems to have
settled upon the people of our
country and increasingly among
other populations is to me the
single most important environ-
mental event to date because of
the possibility there now exists
to go from awareness to signifi-
cant change.
EPAJOURNAL
-------
Gus Speth
Chairman
President's Council
on Environmental Quality
The most important environ-
mental achievement in the last
ten years is that we have dem-
onstrated our national capacity
to care and to act. Our environ-
mental protection laws and pro-
grams at all levels of govern-
ment and the private organiza-
tions that help make them work
are an historic accomplishment
and testament to this capacity.
As with the civil rights move-
ment and with the women's
movement, we have proven
again that America can still
learn big lessons.
The capacity to care and to
act will be put to another great
test in the 1980's. Our domestic
environmental efforts of the
past decade have given us the
experience we badly need to
face the unprecedented global
challenges of population growth,
loss of natural resources, and
environmental contamination.
Edward I. Koch
Mayor, New York City
The greatest environmental ac-
complishment of the last ten
years has been getting people
to be conscious of the need
to conserve the environment,
based on the fact that it is lim-
ited and the air does run out
and the water does become less
available and energy sources
do become depleted. People
now understand the need for
conservation and for the resto-
ration of those sectors of the
environment, such as the air,
the water, and the land, that
have been desecrated. This
has created expectations which
weren't there before and which,
if not realizable as quickly as
we would like, nevertheless
have become real goals.
Franklin Wallick
Co-Chairman, Urban
Environment Conference
The awakening of the American
people to the dangers and haz-
ards of the workplace environ-
ment is, in my judgment, the
outstanding accomplishment of
the past environmental decade.
The skills and insights of
environmental scientists have
made this more than a super-
ficial event. Millions of Ameri-
can working men and women in
all kinds of work—in offices, in
mines, in factories, in hospitals,
and on farms—have come to
realize that what they touch,
breathe, hear, and see at their
workplace affects their lives
and their longevity.
Today—except for the Nor-
dic countries of northern Europe
—there is no other place in the
industrial world besides the
U.S.A. where there is more con-
sciousness or more being done
to make the workplace safe and
healthful.
EPA, OSHA, and the Con-
sumer Product Safety Commis-
sion stand as enlightened guard-
ians of health and safety. What
they do to carry out the law is
often not as important as what
they do to raise the level of sen-
sitivity and information — so
that people on and off their jobs
can grapple with the complex-
ities of their total environment.
We care about their enforce-
ment, and we cherish their
insights.
Coleman A. Young
Mayor, Detroit
Significant environmental activ-
ities over the last decade have
been concerned with air, water,
solid waste, pesticides, radia-
tion, and noise. However, since
Michigan is the focal point of
the Great Lakes Basin—having
one-fifth of all the fresh water
in the Nation, one-fifth of the
U.S. population, and one-fourth
of U.S. industry—water and
pollution control have been pri-
orities here in southeastern
Michigan.
The Detroit Water and Sew-
erage Department is responsi-
ble for control and treatment of
waste water for over 75 com-
munities of southeastern Michi-
gan, essentially responsible for
the protection of public health
and for the removing of sources
of pollution from the surround-
ing rivers and streams.
Detroit has the largest single
treatment facility in the Nation,
and the Detroit River carries
one of the Nation's largest flows
of water. Its exceptional qual-
ity and quantity continues to be
an extraordinary asset to the
Detroit Metropolitan area.
Since the early 1970's, the
water quality has improved dra-
matically. This achievement has
had a major effect on our rec-
reational facilities, especially
in the once-polluted waters that
are now swimmable and fish-
able. This significant achieve-
ment has played a major role on
the Detroit River and in the sur-
rounding Great Lakes.
These improvements are di-
rectly attributed to improved
sewage treatment processes. As
a result, there will be more
treatment stages, longer reten-
tion of wastes during treatment
to improve the removal of pol-
lutants, additional aeration and
secondary cfarifier capacity,
and plant effluent will receive
additional chlorination and ad-
ditional sludge thickening ca-
pacity.
It is important to acknowl-
edge the presence of problems
when environmental pressures
are posing unusual challenges.
However, I believe that during
the 1980's our technology will
have advanced far beyond to-
day's know-how.
We are in the environmental
business because it is con-
cerned with the fundamental
requirement of everyone's ev-
eryday living.
I intend to continue to meet
these responsibilities in the
decade just beginning.
David R. Brower
Chairman and Founder
Friends of the Earth
It is likely that for the first time
in the Earth's history natural
hazards to humanity have
slipped into second place, and
within the past ten years have
been topped by hazards of our
own invention. It was not
enough to have to cope with
avalanche, coastal erosion,
drought, earthquake, flood,
frost, glaciers, hail, hurricane,
landslide, lightning, pestilence,
tornado, tsunami, volcanic erup-
tion, and wildfire. With a
strange determination to achieve
a quicker life through chemistry,
human beings have devised
substances with which the en-
vironment itself cannot cope,
which have become toxic bread
cast upon the waters, not fit for
human use when it returns. We
have denied ourselves the
chance to say "as right as rain"
because of the acids and toxic
metals we have added to the
cloud's burden and to the
aquifer's, too. Finding back-
ground radiation not hazardous
enough, we have found uncon-
trolled ways to augment it and
to top that off with genetic en-
gineering and the Pentagon
computer!
Not yet content, we have
made substantial progress to-
ward blocking our own best ef-
forts to correct our errors. We
opened the decade with a Na-
tional Environmental Policy
Act. an Environmental Protec-
tion Agency, and a Council on
Environmental Quality—moves
that were exemplary in the glo-
bal view. We proceeded through
the decade trying in various
ways to disassemble this
achievement. Realizing that the
way a society governs itself is
through coercion willingly ac-
cepted (laws and regulations),
rather than waiting until volun-
tary good will takes effect uni-
versally, we wrote good laws
and regulations, and then went
to Madison Avenue to have
them tried and executed -- in
the gas chamber of media sat-
uration.
The good news for the
1980's is that people are the
best bet for correcting problems
they have created. There is still
an opportunity to reduce the
tension those problems are cre-
ating. The Global 2000 Report
points to the dire need. But it is
not an opportunity that will last
much longer.
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1980
47
-------
Jerry Wurf
International President
American Federation of
State, County, and Municipal
Employees
I believe the Occupational Safe-
ty and Health Act of 1970 con-
tains a provision that represents
an important environmental
gain for public employees. The
OSHA Act itself, which estab-
lished a worker's right to a safe
and healthy workplace for the
first time, specifically excluded
public employees. But it also
included a provision that low-
ered this onerous double stand-
ard, allowing States to establish
their own occupational safety
and health programs. Three
years ago, the Department of
Labor took another progressive
step in this direction when it
issued rules giving States the
option of establishing OSHA
plans for public employees
only, where State plans did not
exist.
Two-thirds of the one milion
public employees AFSCME rep-
resents are covered by such
plans in 1 6 of the 21 States that
have them. The importance of
these progressive environmen-
tal rules to public employees
can be gauged in several ways.
First, State and local employees
represented more than 14 per-
cent of the total work force in
1975, a 33 percent increase
since 1965. Second, the num-
ber of State and local employ-
ees increased more than 50 per-
cent between 1965 and 1975,
from 7.7 million to 12 milion
workers. Finally, AFSCME's
growth has doubled from a half-
million to 1.2 million since
1972.
With the growth of public
employment, particularly at the
State and local level, these
workers are increasingly ex-
posed to many of the same oc-
cupational and environmental
hazards as private sector em-
ployees (and some others that
the latter are not). Public em-
ployees are the victims of acci-
dents three times as frequently
as private employees, and their
injuries are twice as severe.
Today, when productivity is
on the lips of public employers
across the country, an under
tone of hostility is discernible:
improving workplace conditions
is seldom mentioned as a cen-
tral factor in getting more for
the public's money. A costly in-
dulgence? Only if you make the
victims of paltry innovation the
culprits of industrial obsoles-
cence. Such myopia is what
threatens the environmental vic-
tories won by workers in the
1970's.
The provisions under the
OSHA Act pertaining to public
employees begin to address a
problem shared by all workers:
making employers — whether
public or private — realize that
a safe and healthy workplace is
a human right.
John J. O'Leary, Jr.
Mayor, Portland, Maine
It was Portland's deep protected
inner harbor and its closeness
which in 1623 brought our first
European settlers to the "Neck"
or "Falmouth Neck" as it was
then called. When Portland was
incorporated as a city in 1832,
most of its population of 13,000
was clustered along the 22.45
miles of tidal water frontage,
the hub of the city's commerce
and industry. As the city en-
tered the mid-19th century, it
gained preeminence as one of
the country's leading seaports.
There is little wonder why I,
as Mayor of the city of Port-
land, Maine, when asked what
was the greatest achievement
in the city in the last 10 years,
would answer 'cleaner water, of
course.'
In 1965 the city financed its
first comprehensive wastewater
planning study which recom-
mended interception and treat-
ment. Since passage of Public
Law 92-500 in 1 972, with finan-
cial assistance from EPA and
the State of Maine, the Portland
Water District, our regional
treatment authority, has con-
structed most of the planned
system with only Phase III, a
project to service the Stroud-
water Area, still awaiting fund-
ing.
The first two phases included
the treatment plant, six pump-
ing stations, and interceptors
along Back Cove, the Fore Riv-
er, and the Presumpscot Estu-
ary with a total construction
cost of about $55 million with
75 percent of the eligible cost
assumed by EPA, 1 5 percent by
the Maine Department of Envi-
ronmental Protection and 10
percent by the local commu-
nity.
On June 14, 1980, only nine
months after the dedication of
the new treatment plant, our
citizens realized their first real
benefits of this treatment sys-
tem which was not only expen-
sive to build, but also expensive
to operate and maintain through
the required user charge sys-
tem. This was the date on which
we were able to reopen our East
End Bathing Beach which had
been closed for 16 years due to
the deteriorated water quality.
Our deep protected and once
again clean inner harbor is our
most valuable natural resource,
and our future is as dependent
on it as our history has been.
David C. Treen
Governor, Louisiana
I believe the raising of the con-
sciousness of both the public
and elected officials to the need
for protecting the environment
and the renewable resource
values of our ecology is the
most significant environmental
accomplishment of the past
decade.
Howard D. Samuel
President
Industrial Union Department
AFL-CIO
From the point of view of the
industrial worker, the most not-
able environmental achievement
of this past decade is the Toxic
Substances Control Act(TSCA),
passed in 1976 in large part
through the efforts of a coali-
tion of labor and environmental
groups.
This law marked the first leg-
islative attempt to attack envi-
ronmental problems at their
source. The strategy was to con-
trol chemicals before they enter
the manufacturing process and
contaminate the environment.
Before TSCA environmental ef-
forts were geared to treating
symptoms—as was the case
with air pollution, water pollu-
tion, and hazardous wastes.
By stimulating pre-market
testing and notification of
chemicals,TSCA slowly is forc-
ing companies to manufacture
chemicals that pose fewer risks
to workers. In effect, this legis-
lation has become a tool for
dealing with the chemical revo-
lution. The bill also has had the
effect of directing foreign gov-
ernments and companiesto look
at their own toxic chemicals.
There are already 55,000
chemicals in commercial pro-
duction or use, with hundreds
more added each year. The
concern of the Industrial Union
Department is to protect those
workers who are exposed to
them. While the struggle to
achieve workplaces free from
safety and health hazards is far
from over, we're moving for-
ward step by step, as evidenced
by TSCA.
Victor Atiyeh
Governor, Oregon
The environmental achievement
of significance in the 1970's
was the realization by both law-
makers and citizens that we
have been squandering our lim-
ited air, water, land, and energy
resources and that we have to
do something about it. Environ-
mental goals that the United
States has today were built up-
on a solid foundation in the
past decade. Without being self-
righteous, Oregonians like to
point out that much major na-
tional environmental legislation
was patterned after laws craft-
ed in Oregon during the middle
1960's. Oregon's early experi-
ence with environmental laws
demonstrated that, with reason
and common sense, environ-
mental improvements can result
without major economic prob-
lems.
The emphasis in our State
has been on public support
EPAJOURNAL
-------
through understanding of need.
When Oregonians are shown
there is a serious problem to
solve that affects the quality of
their lives, they will construc-
tively respond. As a result, Or-
egon has been able to put into
effect statewide land use plan-
ning, return deposits on bottles
and cans, public ownership of
beaches, a mandatory vehicle
inspection program, strict con-
trols on hazardous wastes (in-
cluding operation of chemical
disposal sites) and on chemi-
cals such as RGB's and certain
spray propellents, and early in-
vestments by industry to clean
up their discharges.
The Oregon approach has
worked well to cause real envi-
ronmental improvements in the
past decade. The air is cleaner,
a major river has been restored,
roadsides are cleaner, and
wastes are being treated as they
should. The challenge of the fu-
ture is to maintain support for
these gains through sensible,
sensitive administration and
lawmaking.
Hikers atop West
Virginia's Spruce Knob survey
tl^^urroi//Hling valleys of the
Allegheny Mountain^.
Bobby L. Chain
Mayor
Hattiesburg, Mississippi
The city of Hattiesburg, Miss.,
has seen during the last 10
years significant environmental
achievement while meeting the
increasing needs of a growing
urban area. The most important
achievement, I believe, in our
city is the fact that our peo-
ple now realize the importance
of protecting the environment
around us. This spirit of pro-
tecting our environment exists
even though the measures re-
quired are almost always costly
and cause significant sacrifices
on the part of our people for
that protection. Cooperation
such as we realize in Hatties-
burg normally allows us as city
officials to enforce violations, to
achieve the best technological
solutions to our problem areas,
and to plan our future with our
environment in the forefront.
I believe this spirit has grown
from seeing the mass destruc-
tion of the environment in other
urban areas and growing con-
fidence that the environmental
protection agencies, local, Fed-
eral, and State, are moving to a
more common sense approach
to resolve and to prevent these
problems. It is my sincere wish,
now that our people are coop-
erating, that we, as elected and
appointed officials in this coun-
try, will continue to develop our
technology in a common sense
manner to reduce the cost in-
volved and to achieve as nearly
as possible, complete environ-
mental protection.
WilliamS. Sneath
Chairman of the Board
Union Carbide Corporation
Perhaps the most significant
environmental achievement of
the last decade has been the
commitment of American in-
dustry to the cleanup of our
waterways. Ninety percent of
industry met the 1972 Water
Act's "best practicable technol-
ogy" provision while less than
half of our cities and smaller
municipalities met this goal.
By 1979 the member com-
panies of the Chemical Manu-
facturers Association (CMA)
had invested $3.7 billion to
control water pollution. And,
while these costs have been
significant, no one can argue
that they were not worthwhile.
Technology proved respon-
sive to the intent of the law
which was designed to meet
urgent and feasible goals. And,
without arguing the fine points,
one can hold similar expecta-
tions for the Resource Con-
servation and Recovery Act
(RCRA).
The legislative and regu-
latory framework which has
evolved in the environmental
area during the last decade is
unprecedented. Never before
have such sweeping changes
occurred in such a short pe-
riod of time, with such visible
results. D
Back cover: The winner of the
EPA Region 6 Earth Day 1980
poster c --itest by third grader
DeAngela Mitcnertof the David
Crockett E/C'VC:;:J '••hoot'/>'
Da/las. Tex.
-------
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Environmental Protection
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Washington D C 20460
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