Times
NEWS FOR AND ABOUT EPA EMPLOYEES
INSIDE:
~	Prime Time
~	Floors and Phones
~	Bronze Medals
VOLUME 1 NUMBER 4 JANUARY 20, 1984
Special Report:
Using Computers at EPA
The many demands placed on
Agency employees for processing in-
formation quickly and accurately
would be difficult to meet efficiently
without the electronic assistance pro-
vided by numerous computers and
computer programs. Within the next
few months, a greatly expanded com-
puter center will officially open in the
Waterside Mall area. In anticipation of
this event, a look at how employees
use computers at EPA seems appropri-
ate.
EPA's mission as a regulatory agen-
cy requires the use of computers in
monitoring, keeping inventories,
tracking, and modeling environmental
events as well as assisting in per-
sonnel and facilities administration.
The STORET team, located on the
ninth floor of the East Tower at head-
quarters, maintains the system that
contains monitoring information about
the nation's waterways. Users of this
system enter, store, retrieve, and an-
alyze data on the quality of water for
use by EPA, the states, and other
federal agencies. As part of the Data
Processing and User Assistance
Branch, the Staff answers users' ques-
tions and provides training and docu-
mentation.
The Hazardous Waste Data Man-
agement System is a good example of
the use of computers to keep in-
ventories. Within the Office of In-
formation Resources Management, the
Hazardous Waste team operates this
system which contains a list of all
facilities which the Agency regulates
because they generate, transport, treat,
store, or dispose of hazardous wastes.
Another big listing job which is
aided by electronic data processing is
keeping tabs on permits issued for
discharging and disposing of wastes.
For example, the Permit Compliance
System contains data on permits
which establish effluent limitations on
the discharge of pollutants into navig-
able waters. The system not only lists
the limitations, but also compares the
measurements and limits to detect
potential violations.
The use of computers in tracking
complex programs is exemplified by
The Grants Information and Control
System. Developed in 1972 as a tool
to help administer the Agency's grant
programs, it has evolved to support
the needs of the regions and state
agencies as well. The major portion of
the system is devoted to tracking the
construction of wastewater treatment
plants.
Enforcement is another area with
complex tracking requirements. The
Agency's DOCKET system is used by
enforcement personnel to keep abreast
of criminal and civil enforcement ac-
tions.
While most inventories and tracking
could be done "by hand" given suf-
ficient time and personnel, other jobs,
such as environmental modeling,
would be almost impossible without
(Continued on back page.)
Tape drives at
EPA's National
Computer Center
in Research
Triangle Park
Jim Powell of the
Of/ice of
Information
Resources
Management
uses a computer
terminal while
writing a
program to
retrieve
information for a
payroll office
report.

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People
Congratulations on 30 years of service to: Carl A. San-
dine and Earl E. Price, Administration and Resources
Management . . . Leonard Siu, Environmental Monitoring
Systems Lab, Las Vegas. . . Edward B. Lamar, Region 4 . . .
Joyce M. Cox, Region 6 . . . Nelson R. Cooley, Environ-
mental Research Lab, Gulf Breeze ... A. Bartlett Hauge
Jr., Region 1.
EPA's Distinguished Career Award presented to Don R.
Goodwin by Administrator Bill Ruckelshaus at a ceremony
in Research Triangle Park. Goodwin, who began his
government service in 1964, retired last year as Director,
Emission Standards and Engineering Division, Office of
Air Quality Planning and Standards.
Bronze Medal awards to Paul Pan, Allison Duryee, John
Lishman and Barry Burgan, Office of Water, and Gail
Cooper, Office of General Counsel, for their accomplish-
ments on the intra-agency taskforce implementing Section
301(h) of the Clean Water Act.
Special Act Awards go to: David Malloy, Charles Mfl
ell, Wade Talbott and Michael Moore, Research and ¦
velopment . . . Anne M. Mangiafico, Frank McCormicwP
Loretta A. Marzetti, Cynthia Puskar, Joseph D. Panetta,
Cleora J. Scott, Stanley Meiburg, Eleanor McCann,
Charles Kent, Shelley Allen, Helga Butler, Kerry Calla-
han, Gainor Eisenlohr, Anna Hachenbracht and Sylvia
Malm, Policy Planning and Evaluation . . . Ernestine R.
Hall and William W. Heglund, Air and Radiation.
Continued Superior Performance Awards go to: Thelma
Beverly, Office of the Administrator . . . Perter H. Wyck-
off, Air and Radiation.
Agency Snapshots
Of six federal agencies sampled, EPA has lowest percentage of
administrative personnel
EPA

11 %

non-administrative
Federal Trade
Comm.

14 %
Consumer
Product Safety
Comm.

14 %
Nuclear Reg.
Comm.

14 %
Internat'l.
Trade Comm.

16 %
Nat'l, Bureau
of Standards
administrative
19 %
Source: Consumer Product Safety Commission study.
EPA has one supervisor for every 5.5 non-supervisory workers.
Source: EPA Program Operations Support Staff.
Don R. Goodwin responds to presentation of
Distinguished Career Award.
Q & A's: Floors and Phones
Q. Why can't employees use their own telephone cred-
it cards to make necessary personal long-distance calls?
Many of us would prefer this option to the inconvenience
of using outside pay phones or the guilt of being illegal
users.
A. The ability to make dial-9 calls involving an oper-
ator was removed from EPA telephones during 1981-82 as
part of the Agency's effort to contain escalating telephone
costs. As a result, the Agency's annual telephone bill was
reduced by $250,000. Since there is always a need for
some international and emergency dial-9 calls, un-
restricted telephones have been retained in each EPA com-
ponent. Check with your Administrative Officer to de-
termine which telephone can be used to make emergency
calls using your personal telephone credit card.
Q. Why do some areas of the Waterside Mall offices
get new carpet while in others the floors remain bare?
A. Most all of the program offices in Waterside Mall
have carpeted floors. If a program office has a tiled floor,
Facilities and Support Services will consider covering the
floor with carpet. Most of the public area floors are tiled
because tile is more durable and easier to maintain than
carpet. Some of the public area floors are carpeted because
individual program offices decided to pay for the installa-
tion of carpet.
The EPA Times is published 24 times per year to provide news and information for and about EPA employees. Readers are encouraged 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 opin-
ion must be signed and accompanied by submitter's office location and telephone number.

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Around EPA
A Recruitment Task Force has been established to coor-
dinate hiring in accordance with EPA's increased per-
sonnel ceiling for 1984. Headed by Kenneth Dawsey, Dep-
IV Director, Office of Administration, the Task Force is
inposed primarily of representatives of the Division of
*sonnel Management and the Office of Civil Rights . . .
Accomplishments: a nationwide network of recruiting
coordinators which includes each of EPA's 15 personnel
officers, an inventory of recruitment sources, a recruitment
brochure and a system for tracking all applications
throughout the Agency . . . Future focus: re-establishing
summer hiring and cooperative agreement programs, re-
cruitment of Presidential Management Interns, and contin-
ued monitoring of overall hiring efforts.
Remember, this month brings changes to your paycheck:
base salary increases due to pay raise of 3.5 percent . . .
gross bi-weekly salary will show less than 3.5 percent in-
crease due to new 2087-hour work year . . . new health in-
surance rates will be in effect . . . some employees' checks
will reflect changes due to recent retirement/social security
legislation.
February is National Black History Month. This year's
theme: "Black Americans—the Struggle for Excellence in
Education (Black Inventors and Scientists—America's He-
source)". EPA's offices of Civil Rights and Public Affairs
and the Agency chapter of Blacks in Government plan a
series of activities. The schedule so far—an art exhibit,
panel discussions involving employees, a luncheon, fea-
tured guest speakers, and other activities to entertain and
educate . . . For further information contact Dwight Doxey,
Office of Civil Rights, on 382-5669.
A program to twin school classes in the U.S. with
classes in Canada for exchanging information and project
ideas on acid rain is sponsored by the non-profit National
Survival Institute. If you want your children involved,
have their teacher contact the Institute at 229 College
Street, Third Floor, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Telephone
416-593-1299.
Agency Activities	
Regulatory: EPA considers emergency suspension of
EDB use on stored grain and grain milling machinery . . .
Also, action initiated to revoke an FDA exemption issued
in 1956 that prevents EPA from setting tolerances or resi-
due limits for EDB in a variety of grains . . . Testing
accelerated to determine levels of EDB in food products.
Final rule published to improve efficiency of pesticide
I;istration process, reduce paperwork required of man-
cturers, and allow them to get products on the market
ter. The rule eliminates requirements for Agency
approval of final printed labeling and supplemental reg-
istrations, and modifies child-resistant packaging require-
ments to eliminate mandatory testing requirements by the
Consumer Product Safety Commission protocol ... In a
separate action, EPA proposes to exempt bulk pesticide
containers (used primarily by service personnel) from
child-resistant packaging requirements . . . Public hearings
are conducted in three cities to solicit comments on possi-
ble revisions in regulations covering emergency ex-
emptions for pesticide use.
Cancellation of the registration of dibromochloropropane
(DBCP] proposed based on new evidence of contamination
of groundwater in Hawaii where chemical is used as soil
fumigant in pineapple fields.
Enforcement: Fines totaling $550,000 proposed against
17 Detroit area fuel blenders who allegedly sold gasoline
containing excessive levels of alcohol at 43 retail stations
. . . EPA seeks $630,000 in penalties from Greenville Coun-
ty, S.C., because of 90 alleged instances of using leaded
gasoline in county vehicles requiring unleaded fuel . . .
Philadelphia is asked to pay $327,500 in penalties for
alleged tampering with emission control devices on 131
police vehicles.
Occidental Chemical Corp. (formerly Hooker Chemicals
and Plastics Corp.) agrees to $30 million settlement on the
cleanup of the S-Area landfill in Niagara Falls, N.Y. The
kreement, subject to 30-day public comment period, is
Hsigned to prevent further migration of the chemicals
m)m the landfill and to protect the drinking water supply
of nearly 50,000 Niagra Falls residents . . . The company
disposed of approximately 63,100 tons of chemical wastes
at the S-area landfill between 1947 and 1975 ... In addi-
tion, Occidental agrees to pay $2.5 million to New York to
cover oversight costs, and $3.6 million to the City of Niag-
ra Falls for past cleanup costs and future monitoring . . .
Status of other "Hooker" sites: EPA continues working
through Superfund to complete cleanup at Love Canal and
with Occidental to clean up the Hyde Park landfill. Dis-
cussions on the cleanup of the 102nd Street site have be-
gun.
Issues: EPA staffs hotline in the office of the mayor of
Brownsville, Texas, to handle questions from area resi-
dents on ocean incineration of hazardous waste . . . Jack
Ravan, AA for Water, travels to Brownsville to moderate
televised scientific forum on the subject.
Sdensce on a Regulatory Agency
At a lunch-time meeting sponsored by the Agency's
chapter of Women in Science and Engineering, Dr.
Bernard D. Goldstein, the new AA for Research and
Development, spoke to a standing-room-only crowd
of EPA employees on issues confronting scientists in
a regulatory agency: ". . . There is an inevitable ten-
sion between the stability a research program must
have, to plan and then carry projects through to com-
pletion, and the flexibility needed to change direc-
tion, as sometimes must be done despite some cost,
to respond to new and unforeseen problems . . .
There is inherent tension between the scientist who
in his conservatism wants to further refine and prove
the results of his experiments, to 'carry the decimal
to the next place,' and the regulator who pressures
him for a 'reasonable number now' . . . There is a dif-
ficulty in discerning from among top priority prob-
lems those which are 'do-able' that is, those for
which we are at a point where we can make best use
of resources, as opposed to those for which we must
look further ahead . . . There is conflict between long-
term and short-term research and a requirement for
focusing on those crucial experiments which will
give us really new information, regardless of the
length of time needed to complete the research.

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Special Report
(From front page.)
our electronic assistants. Many em-
ployees are involved in creating and
using mathematical models which are
used in making decisions
regarding water quality, water runoff,
air quality and economics. For ex-
ample, a model may be used to eval-
uate coastal water or lakes under con-
sideration as disposal sites. Another
model may be used to determine the
distance required to adequately dilute
a proposed discharge in order to com-
ply with water quality standards.
All employees, of course, are
affected by the Agency's heavy re-
liance on computers for printing
paychecks, performing cost analyses,
keeping telephone directories, and
other personnel, budget, finance and
facilities administration tasks.
Few computer systems remain stat-
ic. A primary force for change within
EPA systems stems from basic en-
vironmental legislation, which often
requires more information from reg-
ulated entities as time passes. Thus,
computer programs regularly need up-
dating and modification, a task which
is undertaken by numerous highly
skilled Agency employees.
Of course, the people and the sys-
tems would be severely handicapped
without top quality hardware.
EPA's National Computer Center
(NCC) at Research Triangle Park, N.C.,
is a large high-speed electronic com-
puter facility. Originally established
as the Research Triangle Computing
Center in 1971, its mission was to
provide a centralized service for the
Air Quality Research and Enforcement
Program. In 1980, EPA consolidated
all of its large mainframes and mini-
computers under NCC.
The number of people working with
this equipment is demonstrated by the
fact thai there are over 3300 users
assigned identity codes for the IBM
system alone.
Computer support services for head-
quarters' personnel have been pro-
vided by the Washington Service Cen-
ter on the second floor of the mall.
Space was cramped, however, and air
conditioning and power fluctuations
were frequent. Now a larger facility,
renamed the "Washington Information
Center," is being established in space
vacated by the old Safeway. The EPA
Times will report on the opening and
operation of this new facility in a fu-
ture issue.
Profile:
The Prime Computer
As new Prime computer systems be-
gin appearing throughout the Agency,
many employees in both headquarters
and regional offices will be initiated
into the wonders of office computing.
At least 25 Primes have been installed
or ordered for installation at EPA faci-
lities.
Requirements—The Primes were
ordered under a contract calling for: a
device which could fit into an ordin-
ary office environment (no separate
computer room needed), a system
which could be used effectively by
workers without special automatic
data processing training or skills
(user-friendly software), and a system
that could support ten users simulta-
neously.
Hardware—At EPA, the Prime
hardware package (i.e. the physical
equipment) for each Prime office sys-
tem includes one central processing
unit (cpu), two disk drives which
make up the system's memory, two
letter-quality printers and a fast-line
printer which is capable of drawing
graphs, ten terminals consisting of
keyboard and display screen, two tele-
phone lines for incoming calls from
outside users, and one for dialing out
to other systems.
Software—Packages of special in-
structions to the cpu (called software)
provide capabilities for: word process-
ing, internal electronic mail, data
management (tracking, listing, ^
budgeting, etc.), and telecommuj
tions which can link the Prime tn^F
other computers and Lexitrons within
and without the Agency.
When offices have developed sys-
tems for accomplishing certain tasks,
the programs and/or data can he trans-
ferred to other offices. This important
feature reduces duplication of effort
among programs and regions.
Currently, four offices have Prime
systems installed: Information Re-
sources Management; the immediate
office of Administration and Resource
Management; Policy, Planning and
Evaluation; and Procurement and
Contracts Management. Delivery of
systems to each of the regions is
scheduled to begin in February. Other
offices designated to receive Primes
are: Solid Waste and Emergency Re-
sponse, Facilities and Support Ser-
vices, Water Program Operations, Air
and Radiation, Public Affairs, and the
Washington Information Center.
The procurement of a Prime system
requires a justification, an analysi^of
requirements, and the initiation
procurement procedures by the
of Information Resources Man-
agement.
For further information contact
Steve Schilling, Chief, Office Systems
Group. Telephone 382-5624.
Components of the Prime computer system (left to right) Terminal, central proc
unit and printer
GPO 904-1 35

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