United States Issue No 1 Environmental Protection May 7, 1982 Agency Page 1 vvEPA TIMES A PUBLICATION FOR EPA EMPLOYEES • New Mobile Hazardous Waste Incinerator • Civil Rights Realignment • Myths and Realities • Three Key Appointments Personnel Tips EPA Launches Employee Newsletter HEALTH BENEFITS OPEN SEASON "Open season" under the Federal Employee's Health Benefits (FEHB) program is now underway! It gives EPA employees eligible for health benefits the op- portunity to enroll or change their current enrollment by submitting changes to their personnel officer no later than May 28, 1982^ Headquarters employees should send their completed forms to Room 3013, Waterside Mall. Changes made during this open season will become effective on July 11, 1982--the start of the first ful1 pay period in July. Premiums and bene- fits wi11 remain at their current levels, and em- ployees who elect to change plans at this time will be able to apply medical expenses incurred in the first half of the year to the deductible of their elected plan Plan comparison and rate booklets are being distributed at each EPA location. Individual plan brochures are available from Administrative Officers. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management re- ports that a second "open Continued on page 4 This EPA employee newsletter has been started in recognition of the important role all employees play in the success of the agency. This twice-monthly newsletter will provide you with important personnel news and information about agency programs and activities. We will include, from time to time, information about the regions and labs as well as headquarters news. The underlying goal, however, is to improve communications within the entire EPA family across the nation. This administration came to EPA committed to making changes-- to stimulate more efficiency, eliminate wasteful expenditures and ensure that EPA is responsive to the public. It is important to state in this inaugural issue that President Reagan and 1 are unreservedly committed to maintaining and improving the quality of the environment. 1 point this out only because there are some who persist in refusing to accept that it is my sworn duty which 1 will faithfully fulfill. It is nonsense to think that when we take an action to make a federal program more efficient that it lessens our protection of the environment. One thing that all Americans have in common is the air we breathe and the water we drink. When accepting the Administrator's position at EPA, I did so because 1 share the President's judgment that preserving the quality of our natural resources is among our most important responsibilities. At the same time, 1 am-deeply concerned that the federal government has grown far too dominant as an influence over our lives. We must transfer appropriate decisions back to the most appropriate levels of government-- the states and local governments. This does not imply that there is not an appropriate role for the federal government. But its influence must be brought into an appropriate balance. With your support, we will carry out our mission to protect the environment by correcting environmental maladies without smothering state and local government responsibilities and individual rights. Anne M. Gorsuch EPA Administrator ------- 2 WASTES New Mobile Hazardous Waste Incinerator A new mobile hazardous waste incinerator, which can destroy pesticides, toxic organic substances and PCB's, has been built by EPA and industry. "The mobile incinerator is designed to be sent directly to abandoned hazardous waste sites or to chemical spills anywhere in the country," EPA Administrator Anne'M. Gorsuch said. "Now we hope industry will take the ball and run with it." The incinerator, which cost $2.2 million to develop and build, is the first and only one of its kind. However, EPA estimates that industry should be able to reproduce the incinerator for approximately $1 million each. The mobile incinerator consists of three trailers holding specialized equipment. Substances will be incinerated at 2200°F, which is expected to provide greater than 99.9 percent destruction. An air pollution control system will prevent the discharge of toxic gases. Any residual ash will be analyzed and properly disposed of. The incinerator, which is based at the EPA laboratory in Edison, N.J., can treat up to 100 tons of dry hazardous waste or six tons of liquid hazardous waste per day. For further information, contact Ira Wilder, Municipal Environmental Research Laboratory, Edison, N.J., (201) 321-6635. CIVIL RIGHTS Realignment Approved for Civil Rights EPA has recently approved a realignment of the Headquarters Office of Civil Rights to reduce the workload of the Discrimination Complaints Staff and to eliminate the potential for conflict of interest caused by the fact that this staff had responsibil- ity in discrimination cases for counseling, investigating, adjudication, and hearing and making the final decisions. Under the realignment the responsibilities are distributed to the Agency units best qualified to perform these duties: • The Discrimination Complaints Staff retains responsibility for counseling and investi gation; • The adjudicatory responsibi1ities are transferred to the Agency Administrative Law Judges experienced in carrying out such duties, detached from other manage- ment officials, and regarded as highly objective; • The Agency Judicial Officer, a member of the Administrator's staff, who is skilled in the legal process and involved in final Agency decisions in a number of areas, reviews all EEO complaints, examiner's decisions, and final Agency decisions. By separating this final step from the Office of Civil Rights, the Agency eliminates the possibility of the conflict of interest which might arise from the same staff making the initial decision and then being asked to review appeals to that decision. Under the realignment, the EEO Program Activities Staff has been combined with the Discrimination Complaints Staff. This newly formed staff will be con- centrating on bolstering the counseling and investigative stages in discrimination complaint cases. In keeping with these realignments, the Assistant Regional Administrators (or Management Division Directors) are now designated as the Directors of Civil Rights for their respective regions. EEO Officers will serve as the principal advisors to these assistant regional administrators and will be responsible for day-to-day operations of the program and serve as the EEO counselors-at-large. The objective in taking this action is to strengthen, elevate, and put more account- ability into the counseling program by infusing higher level management involvement into the EEO process. These steps should result in improved service to our employees. ------- APPOINTMENTS 3 Three Key Appointments Three high-level appointments have been made at EPA recently. President Ronald Reagan appointed Rita M. Lavelle and Frederick "Eric" A. Eidsness as Assistant Administrators, and Administrator Gorsuch selected Robert M. Perry to serve as EPA's Associate Administrator for Legal Counsel and Enforcement. Lavelle will direct all EPA's work on hazardous and other solid wastes. Lavelle has initiated, directed, and managed several programs for Aerojet-General Corp. subsidiaries, including ones for divisions which manufacture chemicals and various industrial and chemical products, nuclear and chemical waste treatment systems, liquid rocket engines for the aerospace industry and high-speed marine propulsion systems defense applications. She also worked for Intercontinental and Continental Chemical Corporation as director of market- ing and had previously worked for the State of California as director of consumer edu- cation and as publications assistant in the office of then-Gov. Reagan. Eidsness, a former employee in EPA's Atlanta regional office in the early 1970s, is the new Assistant Administrator for Water. He had served since Sept. 1981 until his appointment as a consultant to the EPA Administrator on water issues. Prior to serving in this capacity, he had been a partner in a management consulting firm in Boulder, Colo. Previously he had been director of water and air qua-lity planning of the Larimer-Weld Regional Council of Governments in Loveland, Colo. From 1973- 75 he was a staff consultant for the Biomedical and Environmental Systems section of Arthur D. Little, Inc., of Cambridge, Mass Perry, 46, served as a trial attorney in the Land and Natural Resources Division of the Department of Justice from 1964 to 1969. From 1969 to 1981, Perry worked as trial counsel for Exxon Corp. Commenting on the appointment of Perry to his new post, Administrator Gorsuch said, "The position of Associate Administrator for Legal and Enforcement Counsel was created to bring together all of the legal functions within the agency. A better job can be done with fewer resources by integrating our legal shop and eliminating duplication. Bob Perry is a lawyer's lawyer who will ensure that top legal and policy judgment is applied to strong enforcement and legal programs." ENFORCEMENT Prosecuting " Environmental Offenders Improved procedures for prosecuting environ- mental offenders have been developed by EPA in consultation with the Department of Justice. Robert M. Perry, EPA Associate Administrator for Legal and Enforcement Counsel, said the procedures were worked out to improve the agency's enforcement capability, "particularly with regard to litigation." The new approach was developed in discussions with Carol E. Dinkins, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department's land and natural resources division, which is responsible for prose- cuting EPA civil and criminal suits. Dinktns said that Justice is ready to "deter unlawful conduct, and remove any incentive to non- compliance by firmly and fairly punishing violators of environmental laws." AIR EPA Adopts New Emissions Trading Policy A new policy that will make it easier for industry to clean up air pollution and for states to attain national standards for clean air has been adopted by EPA. States will be authorized to approve—without time-consuming federal'review--most actions necessary to implement the policy. The policy is an improvement on EPA's original "bubble" program—a concept in which an imaginary "bubble" is placed over an entire industrial plant, allowing reduced control of emissions from some expensive-to-control stacks as long as total emissions from the plant do not exceed control limits. The revised program allows broader use of the "bubble" to achieve fast compliance in industrialized urban areas. ------- 4 Myths and Realities (Periodically, the EPA Times will carry a report on "myths and realities" which will examine a particular misconception about EPA and report the facts provided by EPA's Office of Management Systems and Evaluation.) MYTH "THERE ARE WHOLESALE FIRINGS GOING ON AT EPA, RESULTING IN A TREMENDOUS LOSS OF CAREER PROFESSIONAL STAFF, A SO-CALLED M 'TALENT HEMORRHAGE1 (OR 'BRAIN DRAIN'). REALITY • EPA has the same responsibility as other civilian agencies to bring staffing levels into conformance with the President's budget. We have been able to do this princi- pally through the normal process of attri- tion and without resorting to wholesale RIFs. For example, in all of calendar year 1981, only 91 employees departed the Agency involuntarily as a result of a reduction-m-force. Further, Administrator Gorsuch recently announced that no EPA employees will be involuntarily separated due to a reduction-in-force from the Agency in fiscal Year 1982. Our attrition rate has actually been slightly less than that in the previous fiscal years. • There is no "brain drain" at EPA in which our most talented and technically- trained people are being lost to the Agency. • For example, Technical staff remains one of the Agency's greatest strengths - For the five major groups of scientific or technical personnel, staff reductions from all causes since October 1980, averaged only 5.5 percent per year. Scientific and technical jobs represent a greater proportion of Agency staff now than in October 1980: Occupation Oct. 80 Feb. 82 Environmental Engineers 10.1% 11 1% Physical Scientists 7.3% 8.0% Chemists 4.8% 5.0% Biologists 4.6% 4.8% Environmental Protection Specialists 6.2% 7.0% News Briefs • Cleanup contract funded in Washington State...Commencement Bay site given $1.6 million to clean up abandoned hazardous waste sites. • EPA establishes small business ombudsman...Marc D. Jones appointed as the agency's first ombudsman to represent small business interests. • Niagara river report...calIs for corrective actions to be taken by EPA in cooperation with New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to correct pollution problems. • Agreement reached with pesticide manufacturer...for registered uses of PCNB as a soil fungicide and for seed treatment on a variety of crops. PERSONNEL TIPS (CONTINUED) season" is now scheduled for November 1982. Changes made during this period would take effect in January 1983. Premiums then wi11 probably rise from their current level and benefits will change. Consideration is also being given to holding "open seasons" only once every two years following this November 1982 oppor- tunity. As further infor- mation on the future of the health benefits pro- gram becomes available, the Personnel Office will inform you In the mean- time, you can review your health insurance coverage and make any desired changes during "open season " The EPA Times is published every two weeks by EPA's Office of Public Affairs, A-107, Washington, D.C. 20460, to provide current information for all agency employees. ------- |