United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Enforcement and
Compliance Assurance
Mail Code 2201A
EPA 300-N94 008
Winter 1998
&EPA OECAEcho
Enforcement and Compliance Assurance for a Cleaner Environment
IN THIS ISSUE:
. Historic settlement
with diesel engine
makers...Page 1
. OECA's Y2K
strategy and
message—Page 1
. Nine compliance
assistance centers
now on
Internet...Page 3
. OECA opens
docket center...Page
3
. NETI offering
computer-based
training—Page 3
. National initiative
underway to clean
up Mississippi
River...Page 4
. DuPont gets
largest
administrative
penalty—Page 5
. EPA, pork
producers agree on
compliance audit
program...Page 5
. Environmental
justice program
publishing a
newsletter—Page 5
. Sector Notebook
data updated...Page
6
. Sector facility
index data on
Internet—Page 7
. Guilty plea entered
in homeless abestos
worker case—Page 7
New optical
sensing device being
used...Page 7
. Largest Superfund
cost recovery at
Vertac site—Page 8
. GE agrees to $200
million Superfund
settlement—Page 8
From the Assistant Administrator
Steven A. Herman
Clean Air Act Settlement With Diesel Engine Makers
Is Historic In Size, Scope, and Environmental Impact
On October 22, Attorney General Janet
Reno and EPA Administrator Carol Browner
announced what they described as a "truly significant,
truly historic" settlement with seven manufacturers
of heavy duty diesel engines. The settlement means
much cleaner and safer air for the American public.
In the largest enforcement action in Clean
Air Act(CAA) history, the manufacturers Caterpillar,
Inc., Cummins Engine Company, Detroit Diesel
Corporation, Mack Trucks, Inc.,Navistar
International Transportation Corporation, Renault
Vehicules Industriels, s.a., and VolvoTruck
Corporation — will spend more than $1 billion to
settle charges that they illegally poured millions of
tons of Nitrogen Oxide (Nox) pollution into the air.
The settlement includes an $83.4 million civil penalty,
the largest ever assessed under any EPA statute.
The landmark settlement, culminating
months of exhaustive investigation and negotiations
by EPA's Air Enforcement Division and Office of
Mobile Sources, the Department of Justice (DOJ), and
the State of California, resolved charges that the
companies, which make up 95 percent of the U.S.
(Continued on Page 2)
OECA's Year 2000 Compliance Strategy and Message
By Michael Stahl
Deputy Assistant Administrator
It has become almost an axiom in these final
years of the 20th century: Fix the computer problem or
the 21 st century will get off to a rough start—or worse.
Organizations of nearly every size, public and private,
realize this and are trying to make necessary changes.
What kind of fixes are needed and how is EPA
managing its enforcement and compliance assurance
program to make the necessary changes?
A Government-Wide Problem
The year 2000 problem, or Y2K as it is
generally known, involves computers that use two
digits to keep track of the date. On January 1, 2000,
those computers will recognize "double zero" not as
2000 but as 1900. This glitch could cause them to stop
running or to start generating erroneous data. The
problem poses a serious threat not only to the economy,
per se, but to all aspects of it, including environmental
data and information.
Federal government agencies have been
working on the year 2000 problem for a number of
years, some beginning as early as 1989. Internally,
they are trying to ensure that their own mission-
critical systems are year-2000 compliant. Externally,
they are making inventories of all theirdata exchanges
with outside partners — for example, state and local
governments with which the federal government
works - to minimize year 2000-related disruptions.
For high risk areas, agencies are developing
contingency plans to ensure they will be able to conduct
normal operations even if their systems or the outside
services on which they depend are not available.
With the help of the President's Council on
Year 2000 Conversion, agencies are reaching out to
domestic and international organizations that are part
of the economic sectors in which they operate to
increase awareness of the problem and tooffer support.
For EPA and its mission to protect the
environment, the problem is of specific and vital
importance. Information technology is an essential
component in protecting the environment. It is not
only important in fulfilling EPA programs and
initiatives; it also has significance for the various
sectors on which the public, the economy, and the
environment depend. If not handled properly, the
problem could have serious ramifications on the
preservation and protection of the environment.
Harmful environmental and human health
effects could occur if computer-dependent pollution
control systems are not compliant. Systems which are
noncompliant may cause drinking water
(Continued on Page 6)

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United SUM*
Environments Protection
Agency;
Carol M, Browner
Administrator
Enforcement
and Compliance Assurance;
Steven A. Herman
Assistant Administrator
Enforcement Capacity
and Outreach:
Pete Rosenberg
Acting Director
Editorial Staff;
Roger Allan
Robert Banks
Julie Klaas
Gerard Kraus
Sherty Milan
Ruth Miller
touts Paley
Shirley Pate
Shonn Taylor
United State* EPA
401 M St., SW (2201 A)
Washington, DC 20460
(202) 564-2621
OECA Echo/Winter1998
$1 Billion Settlement	Is Largest
(Continued from Page 1)
heavy duty diesel market, violated the C A A by installing
"defeat devices" that stymied emission controls and
resulted in illegal amounts of Nox pollution.
Nox contributes to the formation of ground level
ozone (smog) and particulate matter (soot). These
pollutants can cause premature death, asthma attacks,
bronchitis, reduced lung functions and other breathing
problems especially in the elderly, children, and other
vulnerable populations. Nox causes acid rain, which
damages agricultural crops, pollutes drinking water, and
causesaciddepositioninwater bodies liketheChesapeake
Bay.
Motor vehicles generate about one-half of the 23
million total tonsof Nox air pollution in the U.S. annually,
while the other half comes from stationary sources such
as coal-fired power plants. About one third of the motor
vehicle pollution — 3.5 million tons — comes from heavy
duty diesel engines. The settlement is expected to prevent
75 million tons of air pollution over the next 2/ years.
That number of tons is more than the total U.S. Nox
emissions for three years.
The seeds of this case began a decade ago, when the
engine manufacturers did not invest the funds necessary
to develop more advanced Nox control technologies
when more stringent Nox emissions went into effect.
Rather, they chose to control Nox emissions by the less
expensive method of controlling fuel injection timing,
which had the negative feature ofreducing fuel economy.
To avoid the fuel economy penalty, the complaint
against the companies alleged that they began to
manufacture and sell heavy duty diesel engines equipped
with "defeat devices"— software that alters an engine's
pollution control equipment under highway driving
conditions. The engines meet the emission limits when
they run on the EP A's 20-minute Federal Test Procedure,
but when running on the open road, they emit up to three
times the legal limit of Nox. In effect, the engines were
able to meet EPA emission standards during testing but
not during normal highway driving. This violated the
C A A, which prohibits any manufacturer from selling any
new motor vehicle engine equipped with any device
designed to defeat the engine's emission control system.
The companies arealleged to have sold an estimated
1.3 million of the affected engines, which range from the
type used in tractor trailers and bus fleets to large pick-up
trucks. The affected engines emitted more than 1.3 million
tons of excess Nox in 1998 alone, which is six percent of all
Nox emissions and equivalent to the Nox emissions from
an additional 65 million cars being on the road. If the use
of defeat devices had not been detected and eliminated,
more than 20 million tons of excess Nox would have been
emitted by the year 2005.
In settling the case, EPA and DOJ have followed a
basic principle: in addition to paying penalties, polluters
will be required to mitigate the damage they cause, and
to prevent future damage. Besides the $83.4 million
penalty, EPA estimates the companies will spend
collectively more than $850 million to introduce cleaner
new engines, rebuild older engines to cleaner levels,
recall pickup trucks that have defeat devices, and conduct
new emissions testing.
Under the consent decrees, the companies will begin
reducing emissions from new heavy duty diesel engines
during the rest of 1998, including engines that have their
emissions cut in half by January 1999. Last year, EPA
proposed tighter emissions standards for diesel
engines. Under the settlement, subsequent engines
will meet these upcoming federal emissions standard s
by October2002, a full 15 months before the standard s
are scheduled to take effect. The companies also will
ensure that when older heavy duty diesel engines are
rebuilt, their excess emissions will be reduced. They
will also move up the date for meeting certain Nox
emission standards applicable to non-road engines
such as construction equipment. As a result of these
measures, the total Nox emissions from diesel engines
will be reduced by one-third as of the year 2003.
In addition to reducing Nox emissions, the
companies will undertake a number of supplemental
projects to lower Nox emissions, including research
and development projects to design and demonstrate
new emissions control technologies for low-emitting
engines that use cleaner fuels. Collectively, these
projects will cost $109.5 million.
To keep the situation that gave rise to the
violations from recurring, the engine companies also
have agreed to use an expanded emissions testing
procedure in addition to the federal test procedure
currently in use. This dual approach will make the
simulated test conditions more representative of the
highway driving of most diesel trucks and ensure
that emissions from diesel engines manufactured in
the future will fully comply with federal standards.
The settlement demonstrates the advantage of
negotiating with the seven manufacturers together,
rather than company-by-company. It avoided lengthy
individual legal battles and, by resolving the
violations on an "industry-wide" basis, allows the
public to begin to realize the benefits more quickly.
We have made significant progress since the
CAA was passed 28 years ago to protect the public by
reducing Nox emissions from both stationary and
mobile sources of air pollution. We still have work to
do. Last month, for example, EPA issued the final
rule which will reduce Nox levels from industrial
power plants and other stationary sources by 28
percent for 138 million people in 22 states and the
District of Columbia.
A strong environmental enforcement program
is a critically important component of EPA's efforts
to reduce air pollution by correcting problems and
resolving noncompliance now and for the future.
The diesel engines settlement is the third significant
Clean Air Act settlement with the auto industry in the
past three years. In June 1998, EPA and DOJ settled
charges against American Honda Motor Company
for $267 million and Ford Motor Company for $7.8
million for selling vehicles with a device that defeats
emission control systems. In 1995, EPA and DOJ
settled with General Motors Corporation for $45
million for putting defeat devices in 500,000 Cadillacs,
increasing carbon monoxide emissions when the
climate control system was on.
As Administrator Browner said when
announcing the diesel engine consent decree, "if you
illegally pollute, you will pay...the American people
can rest assured that this administration is doing
everything in its power to reduce pollution, clean the
air and enforce our environmental laws for today, for
tomorrow, for all generations to come."
Page 2

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OECA Echo/Winter1998
EPA Announces New Compliance Assistance Centers
Total of Nine
Now on Internet
EPA announced on October 20 the availability of
four new compliance assistance centers whose purpose
is to assist small businesses, local governments and
communities in understanding and complying with
environmental regulations. The new centers focus on
the paints and coatings industry, the transportation
industry, small and medium-sized chemical
manufacturers, and local governmental agencies. Each
center will offer web sites, telephone assistance lines,
document fax-back systems, and e-mail discussion
groups.
The four new centers bring a total of nine to the
Internet. Other centers cover the metal finishing,
automotive service and repair, printing, printed wiring
boards, and agriculture industries. All of the centers
are operated in partnership with industry, academic
institutions, environmental groups, and other federal
and state agencies.
More than 100 people attended the October 20
event at Washington, D.C.'s Union Station at which
the opening of the four new centers were announced.
In addition to EPA staff, attendees represented trade
associations, state and local governments, industry
and small businesses.
In the first six months of 1998, the web sites of the
existing centers during that period logged nearly75,000
distinct visits. The centers responded to more than
2,000 calls and questions through e-mail and telephone
assistance lines. Private users account for about 53
percent of web site traffic, international usage is about
10 percent of the total, and government usage accounts
for about 5 percent. Projections for the nine centers are
for 250,000 annual visitors to the web sites.
Established centers suchasCCAR-GreenLink and
the National Metal Finishing Resource Center receive
about 4,000 user sessions per month. A CCAR-
GreenLink user has commented that the site is "easy to
navigate and easy for the common user to understand."
Another user comments that "After years of waiting
for this type of resource, I find the National Metal
Finishing Resource Center to be a valuable part of
our daily business."
Centers are selected to serve sectors in which
there are a large number of small entities that come
underfederal environmental regulation. The
centers make information available to those who
want to do the right thing, but need answers to
their questions. Since not all small businesses
have access to the Internet, the centers also provide
information through toll-free telephone lines and
fax mail.The nine EPA compliance assistance
centers provide regularly updated compliance
policies and guidelines, pollution prevention
information, sourcesof additional information and
expertise, summaries ofregulationsand initiatives,
access to e-mail discussion groups, vendor listings
and directories, environmental management
software and benchmarking tools that can be
downloaded from the Internet. Someof thecenters
also contain "expert help" features that guide a
small business to information, "virtual shops" that
allow a user to click on any facet of an illustrated
operation and see what regulations apply, and
online access to relevant state regulations.
The web addresses of the compliance
assistance centers are:
. Agriculture: http://www.epa.gov/oeca/
a8
. Automotive service and repair: http://
www.ccar-greenlink.org
.Chemicalindustry: http://
www.chemalliance.org
. Local governments: http://
www.lgean.org
. Metal finishing: http://www.nmfrc.org
. Paints & Coatings
wwwjpaintcenter.org
. Printing: http://www.pneac.org
. Printed wiring boards: http://
wwwjpwbrc.org
. Transportation: http://
www.transource.org
OECA's National
Enforcement Training
Institute (NETI) now
offers computer-based
training (CBT) courses
that deliver information to
desktop PCs in the form
of text, sound, animation,
video, and graphics. The
courses cover a range or
topics and provide
interactive exercises and
quizzes. CBT courses
are on CD-ROM and can
run on a standard
multimedia Windows PC
(a PC with a CD-ROM
reader, sound card,
speakers or headphone,
and either Windows 3.1
or Windows 9.5). Users
can take OECA-
supported courses at
their desk, a computer
lab, library, or on their
home computer.
Available course titles
are listed on NETI's web
page at www.epa.gov/
oeca/neti or by calling 1-
800-EPA-NETI and
requesting a course
catalog.
OECA Opens Docket and Information Center
OECA has opened a docket and information center
to provide the public and EPA staff with a central
location for retrieving rulemaking docket materials,
OECA policy and guidance documents, and other
public information that support EPA's enforcement
and compliance activities. Identified as the Enforcement
and Compliance Docket and Information Center
(ECDIQ, it is located in Room 4033 of the Ariel Rios
Building, at 12th and Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.,
Washington, DC.
Opened in January, the center currently houses
over 600 policy and guidance dockets, 100 individual
publications now current in the agency and several
dockets pertaining to regulatory matters developed in
OECA. Specific holdings include the Audit Policy
Docket, Supplemental Environmental Projects
(SEP) Policy and the annual Enforcement
Accomplishments Report.
The ECDIC was created as part of EPA's
overall efforts to improve public accessibility to
agency records and information. It also serves as
a public reading room with photocopying, facsimile
and mail distribution services available.
The center is open each work day from 8 AM
to4PM. Contacts at the ECDIC are Lee Carothers,
(202)564-2614 or Donna Williams, (202) 564-2119.
They can be contacted by email at
docket.oeca®epamail.epa.gov. The ECDIC also
hasawebsiteathttp://es.epa.gov/oeca/polguid/
efdock.html.
Page 3

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OECA Echo/Winterl 998
Federal, State, Local Forces Combine in Major
National Effort to Cleanup Mississippi River
Citing the Mississippi River as a national treasure
that should be restored and protected, EPA
Administrator Carol Browner and Attorney General
Janet Reno announced on September 9 that Shell Oil
Company will pay to expand water quality and wildlife
protection on the Mississippi River as part of an
agreementto resolve allegations thatit violated national
pollution laws. They also announced a new Justice
Department complaint filed that day against Clark
Refining and Marketing, a St. Louis-based firm, for
illegally polluting a Mississippi River tributary.
Both cases are part of a comprehensive,
coordinated federal effort, known as the Mississippi
River Initiative, to keep illegal pollution ranging from
raw sewage to industrial waste out of the river and to
restore the river and surrounding communities to
historic grandeur. The initiative has produced the
conviction of 54 criminal defendants, over $10 million
worth of criminal penalties and restitution, and over
eight years in prison terms, as well as 18 civil judicial
actions worth over $18 million in civil penalties and 93
administrative cases involving 104 facilities worth
$900,000 in civil penalties. The cases addressed
violations which included illegal dumping from barges,
illegal filling of wetlands, spills of oil and other
hazardous materials, sewer overflows, and discharges
of chemicals such as cyanide, heavy metals, and
hydrofluoric acid into the Mississippi River or its
tributaries.
Administrator Browner said that the initiative
sends "a clear signal that this Administration will take
the necessary steps to protect public health and the
environment, especially when it involves one of
greatest national resources like the Mississippi River.
We have made tremendous progress, but must
continue to ensure the protection of water quality and
wildlife through the river and surrounding
communities."
Attorney General Reno noted that "the
Mississippi River is part of our national heritage. We
have a responsibility to restore and protect it not just
for this generation, but also for all of those to come. To
those who think they can get away with illegally
polluting our river, we say this: we will work together
at all levels of government to find you, prosecute you,
and make you clean up the mess you've made. You
could even go to prison."
After hundreds of environmental violations at
Shell Oil Company's Wood River oil refinery (located
on the banks of the Mississippi in Roxanna, IL, near St.
Louis), Shell and its affiliates have consented to a
judicial decree that will require Shell to achieve and
certify compliance with all environmental laws at the
Wood River refinery, perform supplemental
environmental projects valued at over $10 million
(and including added protections of Mississippi River
water quality), and pay $1.5 million in civil penalties -
- of which $500,000 will be paid to the U.S. co-plaintiff,
the State of Illinois.
Environmental problems at Wood River included
illegal levels of sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide
air emissions, violations of emission standards for
benzene, violations of solid waste labeling, reporting,
and manifesting requirements, untimely reporting of
emissions of extremely hazardous substances such as
ammonia and chlorine, and violations of Illinois water
regulations.
One of the supplemental environmental projects
required by the consent decree requires Shell to expand
water quality and wildlife protection on the
Mississippi. Under the decree. Shell must purchase
$500,000 worth of land adjacent to the river and must
then transfer ownership of that property to the state
of Illinois. The land must be appropriate for wetlands
preservation, water quality protection, and wildlife
conservation purposes. Another project will reduce
airs emissions of sulfur dioxide by 7700 tons per year
and nitrogen oxides by 940 tons per year.
Shell and several affiliates, recently including
Texaco Corporation, have owned and operated the
Wood River refinery for many years. Wood River has
been in operation since 1917 and today the facility
covers over 2,000 acres. The refinery can process
approximately 250,000 barrels of crude oil per day
into end-products including propane, gasoline,
aviation fuel, diesel oil, heating and lubricating oils,
heavy fuel oil, and asphalt.
In the enforcement action against Clark Refining
and Marketing, the government alleges that the
company's Blue Island petroleum refinery, located in
Blue Island, IL, near Chicago, violated four federal
statutes: the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and the
Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Kno w
Act. The complaint asks the court to enjoin the
company from further violations of environmental
laws at Blue Island and assess appropriate civil
penalties.
The water-related violations alleged against
Clark's Blue Island refinery include illegal discharges
into the Cal-Sag Channel West of Chicago, uie
channel's waters flow into the Mississippi. Other
violations of the Clean Water Act alleged at Blue
Island include dozens of discharges of illegal levels of
pollutants to the local, publicly owned, wastewater
treatment plant. The government also believes that
the Blue Island refinery has illegally bypassed
wastewater treatment equipment and introduced into
sewer systems dangerously high levels of pollutants
that posed risks of fire or explosion. The government
alleges that the refinery has discharged oil and
hazardous substances into navigable waters of the
United States on more than 15 different occasions
between October 1993 and October 1997, including a
1,000 gallon spill into an adjoining waterway in 1994.
Blue Island has been in operation since the 1920s.
Ithasoperated under the Clark name since it was sold
to Emery Clark in1943. St. Louis-based ClarkRefining
and Marketing, Inc. has owned and operated the
facility at all times relevant to this enforcement action.
The facility processes approximately 80,000 barrels
of crude oil per day. Principal end products include
gasoline, liquid petroleum gas, jet fuel, diesel fuel,
heating fuel, and asphalt.
Browner and Reno were joined at the September
(Continued on Page 5)
Page 4

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OECA Echo \Winter1998
National Initiative Underway to Cleanup Mississippi River
(Continued from Page 4)
14 event by more than 10 U.S. Attorneys representing
cities all along the Mississippi River. The Mississippi
River Initiative is one of several recent administration
efforts designed to enhance and protect the nation's
waterway. It employs the cooperative efforts of the
Department of Justice, EPA's civil and criminal
enforcement groups, the U.S. Customs Service, other
U.S. Attorneys, the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service, state attorneys general, state
environmental agencies, the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, and other state and local leaders to stop
illegal point-source pollution of the river. Point-
source pollution is discharged material that can be
traced to a specific original source usually a public or
private sewer system or industrial discharge.
The initiative began as a way to address the
unprecedented amount of pollution currently
contaminating the river. In September 1997,
representatives from affected U.S. Attorney's offices
met in St. Louis for two days with officials from the
Justice Department to discuss the state of the
Mississippi River and how best to work together to
stop point-source pollution and clean up the river.
While the Mississippi River Initiative addresses
point-source pollution, EPA and the Department of
Agriculture are leading an administration-wide effort
to address nonpoint-source pollution through the
President's Clean Water Action Plan. Nonpoint-
source pollution is all other pollution in the river,
comprising mostly agricultural runoff. The plan
builds on the administration's commitment to
providing clean, safe water for all Americans by
strengthening existing clean water programs and
proposing new actions to enhance efforts that restore
and protect water resources.
Dupont Gets EPA's Largest
Administrative Penaity
In a landmark decision on April 30, DuPont
was ordered to pay $1.89 million for ignoring EPA
orders to stop shipping pesticides with labels that
did not adequately state that protective eyewear is
required when using the product. It was the largest
penalty in the agency's history imposed by an EPA
administrative law judge.
DuPont shipped pesticides on 379 occasions
with labels that omitted the protective eyewear
warnings required by the Worker Protection
Standard rule enacted under FIFRA in 1992. It is
the first case to be tried under the rule. DuPont was
charged with improperly labeling four herbicides
sold and distributed under its Bladexand Extrazine
II product lines. Based on information from DuPont,
EPA calculated that the company made more than
$9.4 million from the sale of the mislabelled
pesticides.
The worker protection rule requires that all
pesticide products sold and distributed after April
21,1994 display proper warning labels. The rule
covers more than 3.5 million farm workers and
other pesticide handlers. EPA estimates that tens of
thousands of acute illness and injuries occur each
year to agriculture workers because of occupational
exposures to pesticides.
EPA and Pork Producers Agree To Nationwide
Environmental Compliance Audit Program
EPA and the National Pork Producers Council
announced on November 25 a nationwide
environmental compliance audit program that will
reduce environmental and public health threats to
the nation's waterways from runoff from pork
producing operations. Under the initiative,
participating pork producers will have their
operations voluntarily assessed for Clean Water Act
violations by certified independent inspectors.
Producers who promptly disclose and correct
discovered violations from these audits will receive
a much smaller civil penalty than they might
otherwise be liable for under the law.
EPA Administrator Carol Browner called the
program "an example of government and industry
working together to find common-sense solutions to
protect public health and the environment." She
commended the pork producers for working with
EPA to address "one of our nation's most serious
environmental problems."
The Clean Water Action Plan, which is the
Administration's blueprint for finishing the job of
cleaning up the nation's rivers, lakes, and streams,
has identified polluted runoff from agriculture as a
leading source of water pollution. The amount of
animal manure and wastewater generated from animal
feeding operations can pose risks to water quality and
public health. Potential impacts include the absence of
or low levels of dissolved oxygen in surface water,
harmful algal blooms, fish kills, and contamination of
drinking water from nitrates and pathogens. Excess
nutrients in water can also result in outbreaks of
microbes such as Pfiesteria piscidida found in the
Chesapeake Bay and in North Carolina waters.
The compliance audit program provides an
incentive for pork producers to take the initiative to
find and correct Clean Water Act violations and prevent
discharges to waterways without compromising the
ability of EPA or states to enforce the law.
The NPPC, a national association representing
pork producers in all states, plans assessments for
more than 10,000 pork production facilities. NPPC
developed the assessment program at a cost of $15
million, and will fund the training of independent
inspectors and the program's oversight. EPA has
provided a $5 million grant to America's Clean Water
Foundation to assist with the assessments.
Additional information about the compliance
audit program can be found at: http://www.epa.gov/
oeca/ore/porkcap.	
Environmental
Justice
Newsletter
OECA's Enforce-
ment Capacity and
Outreach Office in
conjunction with the Office
of Environmental Justice
recently published the
inaugural issue of EJ
Quarterly, an environmen-
tal justice newsletter. The
newsletter includes feature
articles, conference and
meeting reports, updates
on cases, regulations and
rules affecting environmen-
tal justice, consumer
information and much
more. The current issue
contains an update on EPA
Tribal Programs and an
article on pesticide misuse.
The newsletter is free and
is available by mailing list.
To add your name to the
mailing list, receive a copy
of the present issue or to
submit articles for inclusion
in the newsletter, contact
Robert Banks, (202) 564-
2572 or e-mail
banks.robert@epamal.epa.gov.
Page 5

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The "Sector
Notebook Data Refresh
-1997," which revises
the emissions and
compliance data
presented in the sector
notebooks that were
published in 1995, has
been completed. This
supplement to the
notebook series includes
information from the
newest notebooks
published in 1997, which
allows readers to make
rough comparisons
between the industries in
the notebook series.
Electronic files are
available on the
Notebook Website at
www.epa.gov/oeca/
sector/index.html.
Government employees
can order a free printed
copy by calling (800)
490-9198. Refer to
publication number EPA
310-R-97-010. Contact:
Seth Heminway, (202)
564-7017
OECA Echo/Winterl 998
OECA's Year 2000 Strategy Outlined
(Continued from Page 1)
contamination, the release of harmful pollutants
into the air, and the distribution of chemicals and
toxins into the community. As one potential
example, publicly owned treatment works, many
of which are largely automated, may have
dependent embedded chips that help run the
pumps, valves, and chemical feed operations. If
these chips fail because of a Y2K problem, they
could cause either a complete shut down of a
facility or a high-level safety hazard which, in turn,
would cause other problems leading to shut down.
Steps Toward Y2K Compliance
Over the next year, EPA will be involved
in various outreach efforts with ind ustry operators,
manufacturers, state and local government officials,
private companies, and non-governmental groups
to urge their commitment to focus on the compliance
of systems, monitoring and lab equipment, and
operational processes that could be impacted by a
year 2000 failure.
In line with the federal government
objective of making the public aware of the
problem and ensursing that the various sectors of
the economy carry out their respective part in
dealing with it, OECA has drafted an action plan to
promote timely resolution of issues related to
potential year 2000 problems. The plan relies on a
coordinated approach of direct outreach to relevant
stakeholders in the enforcement community and
cooperartion with EPA's media program offices to
assure that the enforcement year 2000 message is
articulated on an integrated, agency-wide basis.
Simply put, OECA's message is this:
Those regulated by EPA have the responsibility to
take whatever steps are necessary to ensure
continued full compliance with environmental laws
and regulations, including undertaking appropriate
actions to assure the accuracy of information and
data required to be reported to EPA and state
programs.
This responsibility includes assessing
possible vulnerabilites in data, in monitoring and
operating systems, and in embedded computer
chips relied upon for business operation or used as
part of the data gathering and reporting processes.
A failure to comply with environmental
requirements because of year 2000 problems may
be considered violations and may result in
enforcement actions.
At the same time, agencies that are co-
regulators on environmental matters with EPA
should also communicate with the facilities they
regulate to emphasize their responsibility to update
data systems and replace embedded chips to ensure
continued compliance with environmental
requirements. This is a shared responsibility for
agencies that have delegated regulatory authority
under federal laws. Co-regulating agencies should
prepare contingency plans if facilities are either not
able to comply with proper environmental controls
or are unable to submit required reports.
OECA is taking the following steps to
ensure Y2K compliance:
First, we are assuring that the information
and operating systems we control are year 2000
compliant beforetheyear2000 gets here. For example,
modifications have already been completed on the
wastewater Permit Compliance System (PCS) to make
in compliant and we are in the final stages of testing
this program. EPA has already determined that the
Safe Drinking Water Information System is compliant.
Other mission-critical enforcement and compliance
systems, including OECA's DOCKET and IDEA
systems, are on track to achieve year2000 compliance
by EPA's March 1999 deadline. Smaller single-user
tracking systems are being evaluated to determine
what, if any, modifications are needed. We are
working with other media programs, including the
Office of Solid Waste, the Office of Water, the Office
of Prevention, Pesticides, and Toxic Substances, and
the Office of Air and Radiation, to assure that the
databases they manage, which contain compliance
and enforcement data (like RCRIS and AIRs), are on
track and meet all compliance deadlines.
Second, in conjunction with the Department
of Justice, OECA is carrying the compliance message
to its state and local regulatory compliance partners
to ensure that the information systems and monitoring
data they use are also in compliance before the year
2000 arrives. It is important to recognize, for example,
that some state and local governments begin fiscal
year 2000 on April 1,1999; others begin it on July I,
1999. We are spreading the outreach message through
the media, through speaking engagements, with
brochures, compliance assistance literature, website
postings, and by working with those who transmit
electronic data to us to assure us that the transmission
process will function properly.
Third, in conjunction with the various EPA
environmental media offices, we are targeting our
message to industrial sectors and other members of
the regulated community through speaking
engagements and other communicationsand outreach
methods. We are stressing the need for them to be
personally responsible for identify ing and fixing the
vulnerabilities in their data systems and for
monitoring and operating the systems they rely on as
part of their data gathering and reporting process.
It must be emphazized that violations
resulting from a failure to achieve year 2000
compliancecan cause serious environmental problems
and deprive the public of vital information about
environmental conditions. EPA will provide
compliance information and outreach to prevent these
violations, but may take enforcement action in
response to violations which actually occur. In short,
we expect ourselves—and those we do business with
- to be in compliance with environmental regulations
before, during, and after the year 2000. It is an issue
to be taken seriously. The time to address it is now.
Page 6

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OECA Echo/Winter1998
Sector Facility Data Put on the Internet
Information gathered under OECA's pilot Sector
Facility Indexing Project (SFIP) on the environmental
performance of hundreds of facilities in five major
industries is now available through the Internet. Sectors
covered are automobile assembly, pulp manufacturing,
petroleum refining, iron and steel production, and the
primary smelting and refining of aluminum, copper, lead
and zinc (nonferrous metals).
The new database includes approximately 650
facilities within the five sectors, and for the first time
collects in one place information that the facilities must
provide under a number of federal environmental statutes.
The data include information on past inspections and
enforcement actions, the size of the facilities and their
annual releases of chemicals into the environment, and
demographic data about communities near the facilities.
The database has multiple uses. Facilities can
benchmark their data against similar facilities, or simply
monitor their own regulatory performance; environmental
and community groups have easier access to information
they can use to learn about the environmental performance
of individual facilities; government agencies can use the
information as a planning tool.
EPA stakeholders, including environmental
and community organizations, have commented on
the project. Each facility included in the pilot project
received a copy of its compliance and enforcement
data and was given an opportunity to submit
comments. State agencies also received the
information for review, since a large portion of the
data is provided to EPA by state governments.
EPA modified the data as appropriate, but found
most of the data to be accurate. The agency will
continue taking comments as the pilot project evolves.
The database is available at Internet address
http://www.epa.gov/oeca/sfi. In the first five and a
half months of its availability, the website was
accessed with approximately 46,000 user sessions
and 250,000 hits, an indication of the interest in the
project. In keeping with SFIP's policy to incorporate
current environmental information as it becomes
available, the data included within the project has
been updated twice since the project's release.
Another update is anticipated in January 1999.
Guilty Plea In Case Involving Use of Homeless Workers
A guilty plea was announced on October 14 by the
U.S. District Attorney in Madison, WS of men charged
with using untrained homeless workers to remove
asbestos from an aging Wisconsin manufacturing plant.
One of the men also pleaded guilty to conspiring to use
false social security account numbers to obtain asbestos
worker certifications from the Wisconsin Department of
Health and Family Services for the untrained workers
and faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison,
without parole, and a $250,000 fine.
The case was brought to wide public attention at a
May press conference involving EPA Administrator
Carol Browner, Attorney General Janet Reno, and Mary
Anne Gleason, executive director of the National
Coalition for the Homeless. They used the occasion to
announce a nationwide cooperative effort to warn the
homeless about the dangers of illegal asbestos-removal
schemes which exploit the plight of the homeless. The
coalition Gleason heads, a non-governmental
organization whose goal is to find housing and jobs for
homeless men and women, worked with local shelters
nationwide to put up a warning sign to alert homeless
individuals not to take dangers asbestos demoliton jobs
if they have not been given special training and safety
equipment.
Asbestos is regulated under the Clean Air Act as
a hazardous air pollutant. Studies have shown that
exposure to it can cause life-threatening diseases,
including asbestosis, lung cancer, and a rare cancer
of the thin membrane lining of the lungs, chest,
abdomen, and heart, known as mesothelioma. Under
Clean Air Act regulations, asbestos in building
materials must be removed from demolition and
renovation sites without releasing asbestos fibers
into the environment. Among other things, workers
must wet asbestos insulation before stripping the
materials from pipes, and seal asbestos debris in leak-
tight containers while still wet to prevent the release
of asbestos dust. Wisconsin law requires all asbestos
workers to have training in these and other applicable
rules, and to carry identification cards indicating
they have received such training.
The guilty plea was the result of an investigation
by EPA's Criminal Enforcement Division and the
Social Security Administration's Office of Inspector
General, with assistance from the Wisconsin
Department of Natural Resources and the Wisconsin
Department of Health and Family Services.
Optical Remote Sensing Device Used For Enforcement
OECA has acquired a transportable optical remote
sensing instrument known as UV DOAS (ultra violet
differential optical absorption spectrometer) to measure
criteria and hazardous air pollutants near industrial
facilities. Its primary use is to support traditional
enforcement actions with data on the exposure of local
populations to air pollutants. The instrument has been
used to target facilities for investigation and to provide
community groups with source-specific pollution data.
In the field, an ultraviolet emitter is mounted on a
tripod and the light is aimed at a receiver located up to
1,312 feet away. The receiver is connected to a spectrometer
that measures the specific absorption of light by the target
compounds. The concentration of pollutants is
presented on a computer screen in near real-time.
The system also monitors wind speed and direction,
allowing the field team to locate the direction from
which pollution is highest.
The UV DOAS has been used at 15 facilities
ranging from landfills to chemical manufacturing
plants. Additional facilities have been targeted for
measurement in 1999, with an emphasis on pollutants
such as benzene and formaldehyde, which are known
human carcinogens, and pollutants such as S02
which can cause adverse respiratory effects. Contact:
Cary Secrest (202)564-8661
Page 7

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OECA Echo/Winter! 998
One of Largest Cost Recoveries Under Superfund
EPA Recovers $102 Million of Cost To Cleanup Vertac
In a major victory that affects the cleanup of
hazardous waste sites across the country, a federal
court ruled on October 23 that Hercules, Inc. and
Uniroyal Chemical Ltd. will pay the U.S. government
$102 million for the costs it incurred in cleaning up the
Vertac Superfund site in Jacksonville, AR - a site
where Agent Orange was once produced.
Described as one of the largest cost recoveries
under the Superfund program, the judgment of the
U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Arkansas, in the
case of United States v. Vertac Chemical Corporation, et.
al, requires Hercules and Uniroyal to pay for the costs
incurred by EPA to clean up dioxin-contaminated
hazardous wastes at the site. Under the law, the
money must be returned to the Superfund where it
can be used to clean up other hazardous waste sites.
The site was one of the worst dioxin-contaminated
sites in the country. Hercules and Vertac Chemical
Corporation operated a herbicide manufacturing plant
on it from the 1960s to the 1980s. Facility operations
caused widespread contamination of soil,
groundwater ana surface waters on the site and in
surrounding areas. When the facility closed in 1987,
more than 28,000 leaking drums of corrosive, ignitable
hazardous wastes were left on the site.
EPA incurred approximately $105 million
costs in cleaning up and incinerating the drummed
dioxin waste and in supervising Hercules'
performance of a series of remedial actions. Arkansas
incurred an additional $10.7 million for incineration
of the drum waste, which was paid for by a trust fund
created under a prior settlement with Vertac Chemical.
Other defendants in the case also reached earlier
settlements totaling $7.6 million.
The two remaining defendants, Hercules
and Uniroyal, declined to settle and challenged the
governments' right to recover EPA's costs. They
argued that EPA had overestimated the health hazards
of dioxin, that a less thorough cleanup should have
been done, and that they shouldn't have to pay
cleanup costs. The court overruled these arguments
and awarded a summary judgment for the full
amount of costs EPA has incurred to date. The
court also awarded the government a declaratory
judgment for future costs, estimated at
approximately $5 million.
GE Agrees To $200 Million
Superfund Settlement
In another major Superfund settlement, General
Electric has agreed to an over $200 million settlement
in principle of environmental claims resulting from
pollution of the Housatonic River and other areas by
chemical releases from its plant in Pittsfield, MA. The
claims result from a long history of GE's use and
disposal of polycholrinated biphenyls (PCB's) and
other hazardous substances at the plant.
Under the settlement, GE will remove
contaminated sediments from the one-half mile of the
Housatonic River nearest the plant. And, through a
cost-sharing agreement, will fund much of the
anticipated cost of another one-half mile cleanup to be
conducted by EPA. The settlement also addresses
claims that releases from the plant injured natural
resources in the river downstream from the plant
extending through Massachusetts and into
Connecticut.
Page 8
SEPA
U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency- 2201A
Washington, DC 20460
Official Business
Penalty for Private Use -
$300
FIRST CLASS MAIL
Postage and Fees Paid
EPA Permit No. G-35
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