Si!Em
Times
NEWS FOR AND ABOUT EPA EMPLOYEES
INSIDE:
*	Pay Changes
*	Who's on First?
*	Party Time - December 2
VOLUME 1 NUMBER 1 DECEMBER 5, 1983
the plan which best meets their needs.
Headquarters employees who want to
change their coverage may obtain the
appropriate forms from Room 3013,
WSM; employees in regional and field
offices should contact their personnel
offices for forms. Completed forms must
be received in the personnel office no
later than December 9. Changes made
during the open season will be effective
January 8.
Time to Think About Health Care
EPA employees have until December
9 to change their health insurance en-
rollment, or to enroll in a health bene-
fits plan if they do not have coverage
now.
This year, the Office of Personnel
Management did not issue new Federal
Employees Health Benefit (FEHB)
brochures. Instead, changes in benefits
for 1984 were announced in addendum
pamphlets. To assist employees in mak-
ing comparisons, a complete set of 1983
brochures is available in the main head-
quarter's library, at each personnel
office, and from headquarter's adminis-
trative officers.
In addition, employees received a
comparison chart displaying major fea-
tures of each plan and a rate chart
showing 1984 premiums for each plan.
The charts should help employees to
review available benefits and to select
Leave Year
Ends On
January 7
The official 1983 leave year ends Jan-
uary 7, 1984. Employees may carry over
a maximum of 240 hours of annual
leave from one leave year to the next.
Any unused annual leave in excess of
the 240-hour maximum is forfeited at
the end of the leave year.
Supervisors and managers are respon-
sible for scheduling the use of annual
leave during the year so employees can
avoid forfeiture of any leave.
Restoration of unused annual leave
may be considered under three con-
ditions (administrative error, exigencies
of the public business, and illness) only
if the annual leave is formally sched-
uled, and approved in writing, before
the start of the third pay period prior to
the end of the leave year.
SES employees are exempt from the
240-hour maximum during the period
of their SES appointments.
Detailed information concerning an-
nual leave is available in the EPA
Leave Manual, or from your servicing
personnel officer.
A Message From the Administrator
When I returned to EPA last May
after a 10-year "vacation," it seemed to
me that restoring public trust in the
Agency had to be our No. 1 priority. I
believe we have made progress toward
that goal, progress made possible be-
cause the people who are EPA—the
employees—are dedicated to their work
and fully merit the public's trust.
To keep that momentum going, we
must continue and improve our efforts
to let the public know what EPA is
doing and why we are doing it. But
good communications, like charity,
must begin at home. That is why I am
taking this opportunity to express my
personal interest in better com-
munications within EPA. If we aren't
talking with one another, we certainly
can't do a good job of talking to the
world outside.
At my request, the Office of Public
Affairs initiated publication of Man-
agement Memo, a newsletter intended
to give Agency supervisors and man-
agers information they need to help
them work more effectively. But, as 1
noted in the EPA-wide goals dis-
seminated in October, our employees
are "the lifeblood of this Agency," de-
serving of trust and respect. It is impor-
tant then that all employees, not just
managers, have access to information
about the Agency. To contribute to this
end, I have asked that EPA Times re-
turn to a twice-a-month schedule to re-
port on activities of the Agency and the
work each of us is doing.
Certainly, all of us are interested first
and foremost in our own particular
jobs. But I think we also like to know
how our own duties fit in with the
work of the Agency as a whole.
That's one purpose of EPA Times.
More broadly, EPA Times is to provide
information for and about employees. It
is to be your publication. This means
employees should be contributors as
well as readers. And you should not be
reluctant to let the editors know how
they can do a better job of meeting your
interests.
It's difficult in, an Agency as large
and diverse as ours to build the com-
fortable kind of community feeling that
makes it easy to think of EPA as "we,"
rather than "they." But we surely
should try, and EPA Times is a good
first step.
Bill Ruckelshaus

-------
People
Retirees at Headquarters: Roger L. Williams, 25 years,
Office of Intergovernmental Liaison ... Richard C. Hoffman,
20 years, Office of Public Affairs ... Bern Wright, 20 years,
Municipal Construction Division of the Office of Water Pro-
gram Operations ... Carol G. Alexander, 21 years, Man-
agement Information Support Services, Library Systems Staff
... Kathryn N. Chidlaw, 35 years, Program Management Op-
erations, Office of Air and Radiation ... Ervin Belleck, 40
years, Criteria and Standards Division, Office of Drinking
Water.
EPA's Distinguished Career Award goes to Andrew W.
O'Keeffe. O'Keeffe retired in 1981 as Science Advisor for the
Environmental Sciences Research Laboratory, Research
Triangle Park ... At the same award ceremony Charles R.
Hosier receives 30-year length of service certificate. Hosier
has been director of the laboratory's Technical Planning and
Review Office since 1977.
The Instrument Society of America presents the Kermit
Fischer Environmental Award to Joseph F. Roesler for his
implementation of novel applications of automatic control
systems in wastewater treatment plants. Roesler is an engi-
neer at EPA's Environmental Monitoring and Support Lab-
oratory, Cincinnati.
EPA Special Achievement Awards go to: George W. Ala-
pas and Clark Hening. Administration and Resources Man-
agement ... Ralph Rizzo, James Makris and Craig Annear,
Solid Waste and Emergency Response ... Janet Auerback,
Thomas Ellwanger, Dennis McLane, Thomas Johnston and
Richard Lee, Pesticides and Toxic Substances ... Charles
Nauman, David Kelly, Donald Cook, Shirley Thomas, Mary
Dogdan, Keely Keelan and Gary Foley, Research and De-
velopment ... Ilene Stein, Office of Administrator ... Pauline
Snell, Air and Radiation ... Douglas Henderson, Office of
General Counsel.
Statler
Scurry
Q& A: Who's On First?
Q. I thought that the area on the first floor of the West
Tower was being converted into conference facilities. Now
there are offices occupying the space. What happened?
A. One plan for the former exhibit area included con-
ference facilities, but that was back when our numbers were
shrinking. With the current growth in personnel, the greatest
need was for additional office space. The east gallery of the
first floor now houses support staff for the Office of General
Counsel and the Office of Enforcement Counsel. The Facili-
ties and Support Services staff says that a new master plan
being developed for all EPA headquarter's space will include
"adequate conference and press facilities." Additional space
will be occupied as it becomes available from GSA.
Office CFC managers at headquarters meet with Vice Chair Howard Messner to plan this year's campaign.

-------
Around EPA
Appointments: Jean Statler is now director of the Office of
•iblic Affairs. A native of Jacksonville, Illinois, Statler began
lr government career as chief speechwriter for Sen. Charles
Percy. She received a B.A. in journalism from SMU in 1976.
Statler, 32, and her husband, Stuart, live in Arlington ... Nat
Scurry is named to head the Office of Civil Rights. Scurry
was bom in Sanford, Florida, in 1945. A graduate of Clark
College in Atlanta, Scurry was a senior manager in the Office
of Information and Regulatory Affairs at OMB.
Social Security coverage is extended to several new groups
of federal employees by the Social Security Amendments of
1983 (Public Law 98-12). To be included in Social Security
(as well as the federal employees retirement system): em-
ployees first appointed on or after 1/1/84; former federal em-
ployees who return to service in 1984 after a break of more
than 365 consecutive days; and noncareeer employees in the
Senior Executive Service.
President Reagan's alternative pay raise plan for federal
white collar employees provides a 3.5 percent pay raise
effective the first pay period in January ... A new method for
determining the hourly rate of pay of salaried employees,
changed from 2080 hours to 2087 hours, takes effect at the
same time. The change will cost employees about $3.20 per
pay period.
EPA 1983 Honor Awards Day is December 16. The annual
ceremony will be at 10 a.m. in the Dean Acheson Au-
ditorium of the State Department. Bus transportation will be
provided to and from the ceremony from EPA Washington
area offices.
"A Salute to EPA Employees" will be the theme of an
Agency-wide celebration of EPA's thirteenth anniversary. Ad-
ministrator Bill Ruckleshaus will visit employees'parties at
headquarters and make a special videotaped keynote
talk to other employees at celebrations planned at other
Agency installations ... Assistant Administrators, Regional
Administrators, lab directors and other managers are expected
to host individual parties on the afternoon of December 2.
The hospital insurance portion of the FICA tax for Medi-
care coverage of federal employees is 1.3 percent of annual
wages. In 1984, the maximum tax will be $510.90, figured on
a maximum wage base of $39,000. Employees who make less
than $39,000 a year will pay a smaller amount into Medi-
care. Questions should be directed to the Customer Assis-
tance Section of the Financial Management Division, 382-
5116 ... Employees who transferred to EPA this year may
have incurred Medicare deductions exceeding the 1983 max-
imum of $464.10. Those who overpaid can claim a refund on
their 1983 tax return.
President Reagan has extended the Combined Federal
Campaign until December 2. So far, progress is good at head-
quarters: 83 percent of our goal as of November 17 ... The
Office of the Assistant Administrator for Enforcement and
Compliance Monitoring is the current frontrunner with con-
tributions and pledges amounting to 145 percent of its goal.
Our apologies: The October EPA Times mistakenly put
EPA's Office of International Activities within the Office of
External Affairs. It's the Office of Intergovernmental Liaison
that's in OEA. International Activities functions in-
dependently under the direction of Associate Administrator
Fitzhugh Green.
Agency Activities
In the Federal Register: Final water quality standard reg-
ulations include revisions that strengthen protection of
streams, rivers and lakes. The Senate Environment and Pub-
lic Works Committee commends EPA for the changes ... An
Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking starts the process to
establish National Revised Primary Drinking Water Regula-
tions for microbiological contaminants, inorganic chemicals
and pesticides ... New laboratory standards are set for testing
pesticides and toxic substances. The Good Lab Practices
were proposed in the wake of allegations that a Chicago lab-
oratory provided falsified data to the Agency ... New rules
proposed for secondary treatment of wastewater would
make it easier for smaller communities to meet Clean Water
Act standards without adversely affecting water quality ...
Public comment is invited on the Agency's assessment that
seven pesticides used for termite control do not pose unrea-
sonable risks to public health when properly applied.
Other Action: EPA conducts public hearings in Browns-
ville, Texas, and Mobile, Alabama, on issuing special and re-
search permits to transport and incinerate hazardous wastes
on ships in the Gulf of Mexico ... EPA completes emergency
cleanup action at 153 hazardous waste sites in the first 33
months of Superfund. Emergency action is in progress at 53
Kier sites; $47 million is obligated for the 206 removal ac-
ns ... Fitzhugh Green, Associate Administrator for Interna-
tional Activities, leads a delegation to San Diego for meetings
to seek solutions to sewage pollution problems originating in
Tijuana and Mexicali, Mexico.
On Capitol Hill: Administrator Bill Ruckelshaus presents
Administration position on revision of the Clean Water Act
in testimony before a House Public Works and Transporta-
tion subcommittee. Commenting on the "toughest issue" in-
volved, Ruckelshaus recommends against pretreatment waiv-
ers for industry at the present time ... EPA will announce de-
cisions within the next two years on the need for regulating
some 20 substances as hazardous air pollutants, Ruckelshaus
tells a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee. Com-
prehensive health assessments will begin on eight to ten
additional pollutants in FY 84 ... The Federal Insecticide,
Fungicide and Rodenticide Act is "basically a sound and
workable statute" that provides adequate authority to deal
with current controversies and problems in pesticide regula-
tion, Ruckelshaus says in testimony before a House Agricul-
ture subcommittee.
Speaking Out: "We have to stop playing 'who struck John'
around the issue of responsibility for hazardous waste sites.
We have to go beyond public relations and the legal niceties.
The public is not going to stand still when representatives of
a multibillion-dqllar industry and government officials at all
levels dance a minuet around cleaning up a site that has
some little town scared half to death" — Administrator Bill
Ruckelshaus at the semi-annual meeting of the Chemical
Manufactures Assn., New York City ... "The 'experts' who
thought the Great Lakes couldn't be saved from dying were
dead wrong. We ought to learn something from that exercise.
If someone tells you that the problem of acid rain or hazard-
ous waste is insoluble, I urge you to remember the lesson of
Lake Erie. It was pronounced dead a dozen years ago. Today
it is alive and well." — Ruckelshaus before the International
Joint Comission and the Great Lakes Governors, Indianapolis.

-------
Five New AAs Confirmed by Senate
Ravan
Cannon
Goldstein
Moore
Russell
The U.S. Senate has confirmed five
new Assistant Administrators: Jack
Ravan, Water; Joe Cannon, Air and
Radiation; Bernard Goldstein, Research
and Development; John Moore, Pesti-
cides and Toxic Substances; and Milton
Russell, Policy, Planning and Evalua-
tion.
Jack E. Ravan, Assistant Administra-
tor for Water, was Administrator of Re-
gion 4 from 1971 to 1977.
Ravan, was born in Easly, S.C., and
was graduated from West Point in 1959.
He served eight years in the Army and
rose to the rank of captain.
Since 1982 Ravan has been Vice
President, project development, for the
Signal Clean Water Corporation of
Atlanta. From 1980 to 1982, he was Di-
rector of the Alabama Department of
Energy. He served as director of busi-
ness development for Jordan, Jones &
Goudling of Atlanta from 1977 to 1980.
Ravan and his wife, Roberta, have set
up temporary residence in Alexandria.
Joseph A. Cannon. Assistant Ad-
ministrator for Air and Radiation, pre-
viously served for two years as EPA's
Associate Administrator for Policy and
Resource Management. He has been the
Acting AA for Air and Radiation since
July.
Cannon has served as EPA policy
chief and as a special assistant and
legal advisor for regulatory reform to
the Administrator. Prior to joining EPA,
Cannon practiced law in Washington,
D.C.
He received his undergraduate and
law degrees from Brigham Young Uni-
versity, where he was an editor of the
school's law review.
Cannon, his wife, Janeal, and their
four sons live in Vienna, Va.
The new Assistant Administrator for
Research and Development, Bernard D.
Goldstein, has served as scientific advi-
sor to EPA since 1978. He has been
chairman of the agency's Clean Air
Scientific Advisory Committee since
1982.
Goldstein, who received his M.D.
from the New York University School
of Medicine in 1962, is one of the
country's leading authorities on en-
vironmental medicine. He has been
chairman of the Department of Environ-
mental and Community Medicine, Rut-
gers Medical School, since 1980. During
the same period he served as chief of
the Division of Environmental and
Community Medicine of Middlesex
General Hospital and as an associate
professor in the Department of Environ-
mental Medicine at the New York Uni-
versity Medical Center.
Goldstein is married and has two
children.
John A. Moore, Assistant Administra-
tor for Pesticides and Toxic Substances,
is a board certified toxicologist who has
served on a variety of national and
international scientific panels on di-
oxin.
Since 1978, Moore has been Deputy
Director of the National Toxicology Pro-
gram in the U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services. He served at the
same time as Director of Toxicology Re-
search and Testing at the National In-
stitute of Environmental Health Scien-
ces in N.C.
Moore received a doctorate in vete^
inary medicine from Michigan State I
University in 1963. He and his wife
will be moving to Washington from
Raleigh, N.C.
The new Assistant Administrator for
Policy, Planning and Evaluation, Milton
Russell, comes to EPA from Resources
for the Future, a public policy research
institution. He has been director of the
group's Center for Energy Policy Re-
search since 1979.
Russell received his doctorate in eco-
nomics from the University of Okla-
homa in 1963. He has taught at several
universities, including Southern Illinois
University at Carbondale where he was
chairman of the Economics Department.
From 1974 to 1976, Russell served as
senior staff economist for the Council of
Economic Advisors. He worked as a
staff economist for the Federal Power
Commission during 1966-1967.
Russell, who was born in Corpus
Christi, Texas, lives with his wife in
Washington, D.C.
The EPA Times is published 24 times per year to provide news and information for and about EPA employees. Readers are encd^
aged to submit news of fellow employees, letters of opinion, questions, comments, and suggestions to: Miles Allen, Editor, The
EPA Times, Office of Public Affairs (A-107). Telephone 382-4371. Information selected for publication will be edited as necessary
in keeping with space available. All letters of opinion must be signed and accompanied by submitter's office location and tele-
phone number.

-------