United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Issue No. 25
April 18, 1983
Page 95
SffA TIMES
A Publication for EPA Employees
EPA Oil Experts Fly to Middle East to Help Cleanup
Two EPA officials, Kenneth biglane, Director
of the Hazardous Response and Support Div-
ision, and Steve Dorrler, Chief of the Envi-
ronmental Response Branch, have flown to
the Middle East to iielp provide technical
counsel on controlling a spreading oil slick
in the Persian Gult.
They are part of a U.S. team which made the
trip in response to an urgent request from
the Government of the United Arab Emirates.
Other members of the team include Capt.
Charles R. Corbett, Chief of the Environ-
mental Response Division of the U.S. Coast
Guard, a co-chairman of the U.S. National
Response Team, a permanent interagency
organization responsible for responding
to marine spills of oil or hazardous sub-
stances. Biglane is the team's alternate
co-chairman.
The purpose of the trip by the U.S. team
is to advise the United Arab Emirates on the
best means of mitigating the worst effects
of the oil spill should it threaten this
country's Gulf Coast.
While in the Gulf area, members of the
team will be available to consult with other
governments that might seek their advice and
with the Regional Organization for the Pro-
tection of the Marine Environment (based in
Kuwait).
The vast oil slick, fed by thousands
of barrels of oil a day frcm two leaking
Iranian wells, began, according to news
dispatches, as a result of bombs dropped in
the war between Iraq and Iran.
Biglane, a veteran official of EPA and
its predecessor Federal pollution control
agencies, has traveled over much of the
world to provide expert counsel in dealing
with such major oil spills as the Union Oil
Co. offshore well leak near Santa Barbara,
Calif., in 1969, and the wreck of the Torrey
Canyon oil tanker in 1967 oft the coast of
England.
Persian Gulf Map on Page 97
Kenneth Biglane at a major oil fire and
spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 1971.
OPM Proposes Revisions
For Personnel Management
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM)
has proposed major changes to several of its
personnel management policies, and has
published four Federal Register issuances to
describe the changes. Proposed changes are
in the areas of Performance Management,
Reduction-in-Force, Pay Administration under
the Fair Labor Standards Act, and Management
Rights in Labor-Management Relations.
Highlights of the proposed changes may be
summarized as follows:
Performance Management System
The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 intro-
duced a pay-for-performance system for those
employees now known as "Merit Pay" managers.
To apply consistently the pay-for-perform-
ance principle throughout the government,
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96
OPM (continued)
OPM has proposed regulatory changes known as
the "Performanee-Based Incentive System"
(PBIS), which will introduce pay-for-per-
formance for GS employees at all grade
levels. The PBIS is designed to:
® ensure uniform application throughout
government	. . - . .
•	eliminate the automatic nature, of' within-
grade pay increases by requiring that an
"acceptable level of competence" be.
attained in order for an employee to
receive such an increase. "Acceptable
level" is defined as "fully successful"
for steps 1 through 7 of each grade level.
The higher steps in each grade level will
be reserved for those rated "exceeds
fully successful" or higher.
o reserve "quality step increases" for
those who are rated at the "outstanding"
level.
guarantee full comparability (the annual
pay raise given to Federal employees to
keep their salaries on a par with private
sector pay) to Merit Pay employees who
are rated "fully successful" or higher.
Reduction-In-Force
OPM proposes to change its RIF regulations
to give greater weight to performance than
to seniority in determining RIF retention
standing. The proposed change is consistent
with Chapter 23 of Title 5 USC, which states
that "employees should be retained on the
basis of the adequacy of their performance."
Highlights of the proposed changes would
include:
•	placing employees in each subgroup on the
basis of their performance rating of
record, and then by seniority
•	retention of the current emphasis on
tenure and veterans preference
« limiting the process known as "bump and
retreat" to just one grade, and allow an
employee to retreat to a previously held
position only if the position change had
occurred within the past five years.
® providing for a notice period to employees
affected by a RIF of 30 days, and double
the specific notice period frcm 5 to 10
days
•	allowing agencies to establish smaller
"competitive areas" in a RIF in order to
broaden the scope of competition
•	limiting, RIF appeals to separations and
reductions-in-grade. Demotions resulting
frcm job reclassification would no longer
be subject to RIF procedures.
Pay Administration under the Fair Labor
Standards Act
In 1974, Congress enacted changes in the
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) in order to
make Federal overtime rules as consistent as
possible wit)! the Department of Labor's
administration of the FLSA for the private
sector. The proposed OPM regulations presume
that all employees properly classified at
GS-11-and above have primary duties which
are executive, administrative, or profes-
sional in nature.
OPM proposes to bring the Federal over-
time standard closer in line with private
sector standards by revising the Federal
"cut-off" point from its current GS-10 to
GS-7, or a level of $318 per week. The new
Federal standard will be closer to, but
still more generous than, the private sector
standard. Federal Wage System employees are
not affected by the proposed change.
Management Rights in Labor-Management
Relations
The Management Rights section of the law
(5 USC 7106) was enacted by Congress to pro
tect essential management prerogatives,
and to ensure that Federal sector collective
bargaining be conducted in a manner con-
sistent with providing an effective and
efficient government operating in the public
interest.
OPM issues management guidance in the area
of Federal labor-management relations, and
is publishing proposed policy guidance on
the scope of bargaining and protection of
management rights in the Federal Register as
a "notice" item. The OPM proposal is de-
signed to:
•	describe in detail reserved management
rights, as defined in the statutes and in
case law
o describe additional items which fall
under the "agency option" category
•	encourage managers and employee repre-
sentatives to seek ways of solving prob-
lems in the work place through^construc-
tive consultation.
OPM expects to issue more detailed inform-
ation on the proposed changes to the Heads
of Agencies very shortly and comments will
be considered before the regulation changes
are put into effect. Employees may contact
their servicing Personnel Office to review
copies of the Federal Register proposals, or
reference copies may be reviewed in the EPA
Library.

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Employees Who Developed
Lead Regulations Honored	Persian Gulf Map
EPA employees who worked on the Agency's
regulations to reduce the amount of lead in
pasoline recently received special achieve-
ment awards for their efforts.
The awards were given by Kathleen M.
Bennett, Assistant Administrator for Air,
Noise and Radiation. The regulations,
promulgated last fall, will result in a
significant decrease .in emissions of lead
from motor vehicles thereby improving
protection of public health from the
adverse effects of lead exposure.
The employees recognized for their work
are:
Office of Mobile Sources—Winston Burt,
James Caldwell, S'neena DuPre, Robert
Gelman, Denise Glick, John Holley, Robert
Kenney, Cheryl Kenny, Richard Kozlowski,
Marilyn McCall, Reynold Meni, Brenda
Meadows, Michael t Junto*, Barry Nussbaim,
Anita O'Brien, John Ott, and Robert
Weissman.
Office of Policy Analysis—George
Sugiyama and Joel Schwartz.
Office of General Counsel—Ralph Colleli,
Gerald Gleason and Samuel Gutter.
Office of Comptroller—Selma Attidore.
Office of Administrative Law Judges—
rothy Woodward.
Contracts Management Division—Mary
Rogers.
Job Recruiting Continues
Nearly 200 employees have registered with
EPA's Intra-Agency Mobility Coordinating
Office to seek jobs in the regional
offices and elsewhere in the Agency.
Seven of EPA's 10 regions sent
recruiters to a recent Job Fair held by
the Agency at its Waterside Mall head-
quarters in Washington. Job offers have
been made to several employees as a
result.
All permanent employees, Grades 15
and below, are encouraged to register
in the Mobility Coordination Office,
Room 2111 at Waterside Mall. Additional
information on vacancies around the
Nation can be obtained by phoning
8-382-7067.
The United Arab Emirates is concerned
that oil spillinq from damaqed off-shore
wells(*) in the Persian Gulf will drift
to the shoreline of this country.
Freed Named to Key
Air Planning Post	
Charles N. Freed, Director of the Manufac-
turers Operations Division, in EPA's Office
of Mobile Sources, has been named Deputy
Director of the Office of Air Quality
Planning and Standards.
This was announced by Kathleen M.
Bennett, Assistant Administrator for Air,
Noise and Radiation.
Freed, who will be deputy to Sheldon
Meyers in the new post, has been with
EPA since 1972. In the Manufacturers
Operations Division he had been respon-
sible for implementing the Agency's
program of testing cars on the assembly
line to measure the emissions from new
production vehicles. He also had been
responsible for the unleaded gasoline
programs.
Freed received his B.S. in metallurgical
engineering from Pennsylvania State Uni-
versity, his M.S. in metallurgy from
Technion, Israel Institute of Technology,
and his Doctor of Jurisprudence from
George Washington University.

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98
Aerial Monitoring Used to Protect Environment
Aerial monitoring and remote sensing tech-
niques are playing a significant role in
helping EPA to assess the impact of en-
vironmental pollution, EPA's research
program reports.
These techniques are often cheaper, more
timely and more precise than surface
monitoring, Agency scientists have found.
EPA's Environmental Monitoring Systems
Laboratory in Las Vegas, Nev., and
its field station, the Environmental
Photographic Interpretation Center in
Warrenton, Va., are responsible for use of
this technology.
Aerial monitoring is useful for a wide
variety of purposes such as assessing
hazardous waste site problems, documenting
spills of oil, checking aerial pollution
plumes, and tracking discharges to water-
ways.
In some cases, EPA scientists report,
aerial surveillance can supply information
which would be prohibitively expensive or
impossible to obtain by conventional
ground-based monitoring.
Infrared photography is sometimes used to
make surveys of septic tank failures and to
detect vegetation changes that may indicate
damage by airborne, surface or subsurface
contaminants.
The study of historical land photographs,
gathered from the National Archives, U.S.
Geological Survey and the Department of
Agriculture, also sometimes proves useful
in revealing the impact of environmental
changes over a long period of time.
Relatively new techniques such as digital
imagery which uses a multispectral scanner
are also employed. A multispectral
scanner, a substitute for a camera, detects
reflected visible and invisible energy in
various wavelengths. These measurements,
taken both from space satellites and
planes, can be interpreted by computers.
Lidar, a laser system, is another tech-
nique used to check air pollution par-
ticulates. Measurements are made by
observing the relative backscattering
of intense pulses of laser light as it
interacts with suspended particles and
droplets in the air below a plane.
Data obtained by this method can be used
to track long-range transport of polluted
air masses.
Aerial view of hazardous waste site at
Kingston, N.H.
Coates Serving As
Region 10 Administrator	
Dr. L. Edwin Coates, EPA's Region 10
Deputy Administrator, is serving as the
region's Acting Administrator until a
replacement is named for John R.
Spencer, who recently resigned.
Spencer left the region's top post to
accept a position as Senior Vice President
of Reidel International, Inc., a Portland,
Ore., corporation. EPA's Region 10, head-
quartered in Seattle, encompasses the
States of Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and
Washington.
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 EPA employees. It is
punched with three holes for binding for future reference.

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