United States
                         Environmental Protection
                         Agency
Office Of The
Administrator
(A-101ED)
March 1990
&EPA    Earth    Day
                         1990   Project
                         News
                              &EPA

      PRESIDENT PROCLAIMS APRIL 22 AS
                    EARTH DAY
    At a White House ceremony January 3, President Bush
    proclaimed Sunday, April 22, as "Earth Day, 1990." The
    proclamation had been authorized by a joint resolution
    approved by Congress which the President signed Novem-
    ber 28. Among those attending the ceremony were Council
    on  Environmental Quality  Chairman Michael  Deland;
    USEPA's Administrator Reilly and Earth Day Coordinator
    Ann Boren; NASA Administrator Richard H. Truly and
    representatives of non-profit organizations sponsoring Earth
    Day activities.
    "In deciding to make this Earth Day proclamation the first
    proclamation of the new year - and the new decade, I might
    add," the President said, "I want to make this point:  Earth
    Day — and every day - should inspire us to save the land
    we  love, to realize that global problems do have local
    solutions, and to make the preservation  of UK- planet a
    personal commitment."
    In his proclamation, the President called upon Americans
    "toobserve this day with appropriate programs, ceremonies,
    and activities designed  to promote greater understanding
    of ecological issues.  I also ask the  American people  to
    rededicate themselves -- in their practices as consumers and
    citizens -- to protecting the environment."
    He  also declared that  the nation must  "go beyond  the
    traditional regulatory  role of government and continue to
    seek solutions  that embrace  all sectors of society  in
    preventing pollution and ecological damage before they
    occur," Pollution prevention is the key theme of EPA's Earth
    Day, 1990, efforts.
       Think Globally...Act  Locally
        You  Can Make a Difference
        EPA EARTH DAY PROJECTS
               MULTIPLYING

 Over  150  Agency  projects  are being  undertaken  in
 conjunction with the 20th anniversary of the first Earth
 Day. Eighteen headquarters divisions, every one of the 10
 regional EPA offices and all nine major EPA laboratories
 are sponsoring these special activities.

 Since the EPA Earth Day Steering Committee held its first
 meeting May 4, EPA staff have pitched in by organizing
 activities ranging from publishing citixen pollution preven-
 tion handbooks (by  such offices as Air, Pesticides and
 Pollution Prevention) and helping coordinate a household
 chemical disposal day (Cincinnati lab) to  holding open
 houses  at EPA laboratories around the country, making
 presentations at schools, sponsoring poster contests and
 hosting workshops.

 Some of these exciting projects:

   • The first National Minority Environmental Career
     Conference is  being held  April 9  and  10  in
     Washington; it is being sponsored by the Office of UK-
     Administrator in conjunction with  the CHIP Fund,
     Inc. (formally the Center for Environmental Intern
     Programs).

   • "Alternatives to Pesticides" is a new brochure being
     published by Pesticides. Did you know marigolds in
     a garden deter rabbits, slugs and several insect pe-

   • The Athens, Georgia, lab and Region 6 (Dallas) arc
     both sponsoring  grade  school poster contests  to
     highlight pollution prevention.

   • OECM  employees are  operating an international
     registry  of Earth Day  1990 tree planting and
     maintenance projects.

 More EPA Earth Day projects will be featured in  the next
 issue of EPA Earth Day News.
                                                                             Printed on Recycled Paper

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              YOU  CAN MAKE A  DIFFERENCE!
Get involved in Earth Day activities in your community!

You might suggest to your club, religious organization or
community  group that it  conduct a clean-up project, for
example. Or, you could do something in conjunction with
a  school's  science  fair  relating to  pollution  control
technology.

A long list of ways in which you can help is available from
our Earth Day Office, which also has a sample Earth Day
speech. Also available for  short-term loan from the Office,
as well as from Regional Office and Laboratory Earth Day
contacts, is  an 11-minute video which reviews environ-
mental conditions at the time of the first Earth Day, progress
made, challenges we face and what individuals and groups
can do on Earth Day and every day to protect and improve
the environment.

If you organize a project, please send a note to your office's
Earth  Day  coordinator so  that your activities  will be
recognized by EPA.

Headquarters staff can find out what activities  such as
cleanups, tree-plantings and other volunteer opportunities
are planned in the Washington area by contacting  the EPA
Public Information Center staff, which has compiled a local
volunteer sourcebcok. They can be reached at 475-7751,
or stop in -- they're on the S.E. Garage level by the Safeway.

Regional  and lab staff might get ideas for  community
activities in which they can participate from their Earth Day
coordinators.
BIRTHDAY PARTY
Planning for events to mark the Environmental Protection Agency's 20th birthday on December 2 is
already under way. Please give your ideas for celebrating that occasion to your Earth Day coordinator.




OA:
OHRM:
OAR:
OAQPS-RTP:
OCEM:
OFA:
OIA:
OPPB:
PPO:
OCPA:
OW:


R.T.P.:
Cincinnati:
Las Vegas:
Corvallis:


Boston:
New York:
Philadelphia:
Atlanta:
Chicago:
EPA EARTH DAY COORDINATORS
EPA Earth Day 1990 Project Office
Mail Code A101-ED
245-4150
Doug Cooper- A 106 OARM:
Clarice Gaylord - PM224 OARM Recycling:
Kale Fay - ANR443 OCLA:
Melissa McCullough OIG:
Lolelle Guthrke - A 1 0 1 1-6 OECM :
Judith Troast- A 104 OGC:
Adam Stem -A106 OTO:
Jamie Hill - PM219 OTS:
PriscillaHauery-PM219 OPP:
Carol Singer - A 1 08 OSW ER:
Alice Walker - WH556 OROSLR:
ORD-HQ: Jane Lovelace - RD672
LABORATORIES
Rhoda Ritzenberg Duluth:
Robert N. Carr Natragansett:
Marianne Carpenter Gulf Breeze:
Thomas A. Murphy Ada:
Athens: Robert C. Ryans
REGIONAL OFFICES
Brooke Chamberlain-Cook Dallas:
Ann Rychlenski Kansas City, Kansas:
Pete Bentley Denver:
Jane McConathy San Francisco:
Gail Cummings Seattle:




Dwight Doxey -PM212
GailWray-PM215
Leslie Goss - A 103
Madeline Nawar - A 109
George Aldcrson - LF.133
Linda Murray- LH130
MaryLouise Uhlig - TS788
Allison Freeman - TS799
Ellen Lawsoii-1 1750<>C
JulieKlaas - A101F.D
Brenda Greene - A108


Robert Drummond
Rick Lapan
Robert Men«:r
Barbara Wilson


Phil Charles
Rowena Michaels
Charles Gomez
Deanna Wieman
Ms. Jean Baker
   2   EPA Earth Day 1990 Project.
                                                                                             March 1990

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           FESTIVE  EVENT  KICKS OFF  EPA
                       EARTH  DAY  PROJECT
Earth  Day  1990 activities  by the  EPA  were officially
launched December 1, with Administrator Reilly and special
guests participating  in a festive ceremony at  EPA head-
quarters. Joining the  Administrator  on  stage were  the
honored guests, former Senator Gaylord Nelson, "Father of
Earth Day;" EPA Earth Day Coordinator Ann Boren; CNN
vice president  for environmental programming  Barbara
Pyle; and ocean explorer and Executive Vice President of
The Cousteau Society Jean-Michel Cousteau.

Entertaining the audience with  music and song were the
EPA Dixieland Band,  children  from  the "Early Environ-
ments" child care center and the EPA Men's Chorus. The
event  and  the office's move were made possible by the
cooperation of the Facilities Management and Services stall
and many others in the Agency.

Here are excerpts from the remarks of Mr. Cousteau and the
Administrator:

Jean-Michel Cousteau:
Often, people ask me and ask my father ...'In light of what
we know today, where do we  stand, and do  we have a
chance to make it, or what are the chances to make it?' If
you reason, if you use your head, ... then unfortunately we
                                have to say it's not going to work. We are still in the process
                                of applying tremendous demands on our resources.... That's
                                the mind talking.

                                If you speak out of your heart, ... we are going to make it,
                                no matter what. And I'll give you  as an example the very
                                fact that if you'd asked me or anyone in the world two or
                                three months ago the future of the  Berlin Wall, n
                                could have predicted that,  because of the heart, out of the
                                need, out  of this tremendous drive to protect and improve
                                our quality of lives, the Berlin Wall has come down. ...

                                We  are going to  celebrate next year not only the 20th
                                anniversary  of Earth Day but, I hope,  "the  decade of
                                solutions." It has taken us 20 years - and this  Agency is
                                here to know that better than anyone else -- to comprehend
                                our problems,  to figure out what  they were, to do some
                                research. Now we need to roll up  our sleeves, to become
                                ambassadors and spread the word and go out there and
                                provide solutions. It has to be the decade of solutions, and
                                we as ambassadors will do just that.

                                So I congratulate many of you who, way behind the scenes,
                                                                   Continued on page 4
         EARTH DAY OFFICE STAFF

                     Ann Boren
            Special Assistant to the Administiator
          and EPA Earth Day & Birthday Coordinator
Secretarial and
General Support:

Speakers Bureau
EarthDay Poster

State and Local
Governments

Liaison with EPA HQ
Offices

Community, Labor and
Religious Groups

Business and Trade Groups


Environmental Groups


Press Officer
        Jean Harding (OAR)
  and Johnanika Battle (OARM)

       Janette Petersen (OTS)
                382-7532

Marion "Trinky"'l"hompson (OW)
                382-7239

       Julie Klaas (OSWER)
                382-2923

      ScoU McMurray (ORD)
                382-7223

         Amy Dcwey (OAR)
                245-3600

       Dexter Mead (OARM)
                475-8425

     Bob Jacobson (Region 10)
                382-7221
                HELP WANTED
Headquarters staff: As the big day draws nearer, the Earth
Day Office's need for general assistance is becoming more
pressing. If you can spare any amount of time, particularly
after 4:30 p.m., please consider helping to make Earth Day
1990 a success by helping out at the Office. Sign  up with
Marion Thompson at 382-7239.
To be more accessible to the public, the EPA Earth Day
1990 Project Office moved in December from the Mall to
a storefront office on the courtyard on the north side of the
Agency's Waterside Mall headquarters.

Available at the office are a variety of Earth Day  items
prepared by the EPA and by other organizations, including
lists of ideas for individual and group activities, school
materials and, of course, the EPA Earth Day 1990 brochure
and EPA's  "Recycle" brochure. We're on the east side of
the courtyard. Stop by!
March 1990
                                                           EPA Earth Day 1990 Project   3

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Continued from page 3
     "orking very hard, I know. I think you deserve much
     ^ than you've received in terms of praise. ...

So we have a major, major responsibility,  and I'd like to
see  celebrations  like  these  attract tens  of  thousands,
hundreds  of thousands of people.

Administrator Rellly:

You may have seen, some of you, the "Murphy Brown"
television show.... You may recall that in that show the cast
decided to accept a challenge to devote two weeks to, well,
recycling  their waste; carpooling  to work; and purchasing
only "green," or environmentally benign, products. And it
turned out to be tough.  It meant disruptive changes in their
lives. They got into fights. They were tempted to cut corners
and eat just one take-out meal out of a styrofoam container.

Well, it is going  to be  tough.... But each of us has got to
make a conscious choice to adopt this  ethic of individual
responsibility in our own lives. The President said, back in
an important speech in Spokane in September,  President
Bush  said, "Through  millions  of  individual  decisions
--simple, everyday, personal choices -- we are determining
the fate of the Earth. So, the conclusion is also simple:
We're  all  responsible, and it's surprisingly easy  to move
from  being part of the  problem  to being part of  the
solution."  ...

The slogan for Earth Day is "Think Globally ... Act Locally:
You  Can Make a Difference." The ethic, the idea that  we
want to infuse in all of our work, is pollution prevention. ...

I don't believe, myself, that Earth Day should be an occasion
for long faces, even though the problems we have to address
are very, very sobering. I think it ought to be  a  cause  for
celebration, and joy, and excitement — a day for passion and
renewal of our sense of, as Jean-Michel Coustcau said, of
love for the Earth and all of the life that's in it.
      EPA  EARTH DAY  1990 PROJECT: MAJOR ACTIVITIES
      A half-million EPA-prinicd Earth Day brochures are being
      distributed. These recount  the history of Earth Day  and
      encourage citizens to prevent pollution and to participate
      in Earth Day.

      Tens of thousands of the Pollution Prevention Office's new
      pamphlet, based on  Region 3"s work, entitled "You Can
      Make a Difference," which lists a .variety of ways pollution
      can be prevented, are being distributed. A new Pollution
      Prevention Office video is being distributed.

      A special Earth Day  edition of the EPA Journal has been
      published and includes an article by the President as well
      as one by the Administrator emphasizing the necessity of
      adopting pollution prevention measures.

      Earth Day posters will be  printed, featuring the winning
      design from  an EPA-sponsored contest among graphic  arts
      students; these will be available beginning in mid-March.
      Pollution prevention education in the nation's schools, from
      kindergarten through high school, is being initiated by:


      •  Developing  an elementary-level  teacher activity guide \vhkh
        will be distributed to 40,000 schools which have lien l;r:jnklin
        Stamp Clubs through a joint project by the USPS and !


      •  Providing EPA's Earth Day poster and a teacher-student activity
        guide to junior and senior high schools by publishing them in
        the National Science Teachers As^ illation's Journals.


      •  Distributing copies of the special Earth Day EPA Journal issue
        and the new pollution prevention pamphlet to junior and senior
        high school science teachers nationwide by April.


      •  Copies of the new teacher's guides for use in elementary and
        in junior and  senior high schools will be given to lil'A's
        Regional Offices for distribution.
United States
Environmental Protection Agency
Office of the Administrator
(A101-ED)
401 M Street, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20460

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