SitEBl Trnies NEWS FOR AND ABOUT EPA EMPLOYEES INSIDE: ~ Ravan to 4 ~ Giving Credit ~ W.I.C. Openhouse VOLUME 2 _____ NUMBER 11 March 27. 1985 The Satisfaction in Saving Swamps By Margherita Pryar Most of us want to leave our work lives at work, but Bill Sipple of EPA's Office of Federal Activities is an ecologist for pleasure as well as by profession. When he's not officially reviewing dredging permits or developing technical guidance for the regions, he can be found teaching courses in wetlands ecology or carrying out the field studies he no longer does for the office. One of Sipple's more sat- isfying accomplishments is his discovery of some in- land wetlands near Salis- bury, Md. Though close to the Chesapeake Bay, they contain freshwater and are found in natural open grass- lands that are very rare in the eastern part of the United States. Since they occur in a farming area, it's possible that many such wetlands have been filled in or drained. But because of Sipple's interest and field work, the owner of these wetlands has pre- served them by donating 190 acres to the Maryland Chapter of the Nature Con- servancy. Sipple's leisure time ac- tivities also have helped identify several unique ecological sites along the Chesapeake Bay and Del- marva coastline; redefined the range of the carpenter frog; and rediscovered Can- by's Dropwort—a rare plant that hadn't been sighted since the 1800's. The biologist and the bog Accomplishments like these don't just happen; the field work is often tedious and time-consuming. And spending six months of weekends in places like Pocomoke Swamp, Round Bay Bog, or an Eastern Shore pothole is no picnic, either. But it's this kind of effort, frequently by volun- teers, that pays off in the preservation of vital habi- tats. Sipple's undergraduate degree is in biology, and he earned a graduate degree in regional planning from the University of Pennsylvania. He came to EPA by way of the State of Maryland's wet- lands program. Sipple has always had an interest in nature, and has spent two winters writing a memoir of his youthful ex- periences learning about natural history in New Jersey. One way that Sipple now helps to protect wetlands is by acting as an expert wit- ness in enforcement cases. Not only does this give him a chance to get back into the field work he enjoys, he also gets to do some scientific research. Recent- ly, for example, he de- veloped an innovative tech- nique for demonstrating that wetlands areas have been filled in. Traditionally, enforce- ment cases have relied on historical evidence, such as before-and-after aerial photographs, to show that violations have occurred. With Sipple's new tech- nique, prosecutors can an- alyze core samples from the suspected fill areas for peat content that proves the prior existence of wetlands. It's a technique that has been used successfully in four cases in Maryland and Virginia. Despite these forays into actual wetlands, Sipple admits that his work now is somewhat deskbound. "But I teach two or three courses a year," he says, "and that does get me out, gives me a chance to brush up on things. My course is heavily field-oriented, and I always tell them to bring their hip boots; that they're going to get wet. You literally get a feel for the areas. You just don't appreciate them if you're always gazing from the boardwalk." ~ ------- People Quality Step Increases awarded to. Doris Hohinger, Office of the Administrator . . . Pauline Snell, Air and Radiation . . . Deborah Martin, Administration and Re- sources Management . . . John Maxted and Elwood Forsht, Water . . . Doris Dyson and Pamela Yowell, Pesticides and Toxic Substances. Special Act Awards presented to: Susan Butler, Office of General Counsel . . . Kenneth Wilk and John Zacharias, Office of the Inspector General . . . Joan Kuchkuda, San- dra Lee, Eleanor Merrick, Ronald Wilhelm, James Wal- ters, and Judy Kosovich, Pesticides and Toxic Substances . . . Frederick Allen, Stuart Sessions, Samuel Napolitano, Frank McCormick, Robert Raucher, Ralph Luken, Tho- mas Kelly, John Hoffman, and Alexander Cristofaro, Poli- cy, Planning and Evaluation . . . Ross Robeson, Las Vegas. Sustained Superior Performance Awards presented to: Florice Farmer and Teresa Gorman, Policy, Planning and Evaluation . . . Thomas Fielding, Allison Duryee, Dena Caldwell, and Lisa Myers, Water . . . Candace Brassard, Lynda Carland, Candace Bynum, Cheryl Scott, Samuel Sasnett, Anita Schmidt, JoAnne Folks, Alice Watson, Kathleen Kennedy, Juanita Herman, David Brooks, Lor- raine Randecker, Marion May, Milwina Slappey, Donald Rodier, Annett Nold, Tammy Boulware, Karen Hammer- ston, Kia Williams, Betti Sterling, Sherrell Sterling, Karen Hoffman, Vincent Giordano, Phyllis Bennett, Mary Mil^r, Paul Hayes, Lawrence Culleen, Ruth Woodruff, Valeri^B Bael, and Raymond Landolt, Pesticides and Toxic Sub- stances . . . Janine Scoville, Air and Radiation . . . Julius Barth, Beverly Basham, Mary Bates, Billie Jo Bellegia, Kenneth Brown, Larry Butler, Faye Cromar, Max Davis, Gail Dawson, Anders Denson, Betty Elliott, George Flat- man, Valerie Furlong, Kenneth Giles, Brian Grimmesey, Donald Gurka, Stephen Hern, Robert Holloway, Paulette Huff, Patsy Huggins, Susan Jackson, Lorraine Kaine, Ed- ward Kantor, Howard Kelley, David Lane, Patricia Laska, Kimberly Lee, Julie Lokken, Linda Lund, John Lutschkin, Herbert Maunu, James McElroy, Victoria Niemann, Wil- liam Phillips, Lorma Pickett, Sabine Melton, Richard Mil- ler, Shirley Mudra, Ann Pitchford, Gilbert Potter, Barbara Queen, Bonita Ronshaugen, Douglas Seastrand, Gerald Shadel, Terry Sluss, Rodney Stebbins, Richard Titus, Ata- nasia Trujillo, Harold Wright, Patricia Wunder, Marianne Carpenter, Jennie Christie, and Wayne Crane, Las Vegas. Bronze Medals awarded to Dorothy McGinty, Llewellyn Williams, Patricia Wunder, Leslie McMillion, and Jeffrey van Ee, Las Vegas. ~ Agency Activities The proposed Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act Amendments of 1985 would triple resources available to carry out Superfund activities through fiscal year 1990 to approximately $5.3 billion. In addition, the bill would target resources on hazardous waste sites and augment Agency enforcement capabilities by increasing all civil and criminal penalties. Final reporting levels announced for 340 hazardous substances whose accidental spill or release into the en- vironment must be reported to federal emergency response authorities. Reporting levels are also being proposed for an additional 105 hazardous substances. Under the Superfund law, spills of 698 hazardous substances currently require reporting to federal authorities. Rule proposed to regulate the incineration of liquid hazardous wastes at sea. The proposed regulation would provide specific criteria for the Agency to use in reviewing and evaluating ocean-incineration permit applications. System proposed to allow manufacturers to pay penal- ties instead of meeting the future, more stringent Clean Air Act emission standards if they do not have the tech- nological capability to build heavy-duty trucks that meet the standards. The proposal is EPA's first under an ex- perimental rulemaking process, called Regulatory Negotia- tion, which allows industry, states, and other public inter- est groups an opportunity to participate in the regulation development through face-to-face negotiations. Compliance with the Clean Water Act has shown signifi- cant improvement at many wastewater treatment plants, thanks to a training program for plant operators made possible by special funding from Congress since 1982. The gains have been especially marked at small treatment facilities which are the focus of state attention. Forty-nine states and Puerto Rico are now participating in the train- ing program. ~ Conferences, Etc. The Conservation Foundation and the U.S. Soil Con- servation Service are co-sponsoring a symposium on the off-site costs of soil erosion on Mav 6 and 7, 1985, in , " I Washington, D.C. For more information write to: Conse' tion Foundation, 1717 Massachusetts Avenue, NW., Wash- ington, DC 20036. Telephone: 202-797-4300. The Hazardous Waste Treatment Council and the En- vironmental Defense Fund are sponsoring a conference titled The RCRA Rewrite, on April 18, on the immediate impacts of the new hazardous waste law. For more in- formation contact: Richard C. Fortune, HWTC1, 1919 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20036. Tele- phone: 202-387-3500. Government Institutes, Inc. is conducting a course titled Hazardous Wastes Regulations, on April 24-25, in Wash- ington, DC. For more information call: 202-251-9250. A conference on Hazardous Waste Litigation 1985, sponsored by the Practising Law Institute, will be held April 25 and 26 in New York. For more information call: 212-765-5700. The "World Congress & Exposition for Disaster & Emer- gency Management," sponsored by Information Services, will be held April 28 through May 1 in Indianapolis. For more information call: 800-428-9247. The National Association of Attorneys General will hold a two-day seminar on Hazardous Waste Litigation, April 17-18, in Cleveland. There will also be a spring meeting of the Association's Environmental Control Committee April 19, immediately following the seminar. For more informa- tion, contact the Association at 444 North Capitol Street^ Suite 403, Washington, DC 20001. The National Water Well Association will sponsor the" Fifth National Symposium and Exposition on Aquifer Restoration and Ground Water Monitoring, on May 21-24, in Columbus, Ohio. For more information contact- Paula Williams, NWWA, 500 W. Wilson Bridge Rd., Worthing- ton, OH 43085. Telephone 614-846-9355. ~ ------- Around EPA EPA Headquarters employees will have an outstanding opportunity to learn about the many existing and new in- fermation resources and available management activities at Open House on April 3 and 4, in the Washington In- formation Center in Waterside Mall. Co-sponsored by the Office of Information Resources Management and the Washington Information Center, the Open House will fea- ture dozens of exhibits. Highlights include demonstrations of library information services, including online database searches; GEOMAP, a geographic mapping system; in- formation management for the Chesapeake Bay program; STORET; computer color graphics; PRIME minicomputers and telecommunication; GEMS, a graphical exposure mod- eling system; and microcomputer applications. Facilities and Support Services has invited Lt. Jim Bul- lard to present once again his demonstration and lecture on self-defense techniques. All employees are invited to this presentation on warding off attackers which will be held April 4, at Crystal Mall II, Room 1112, from 3:00 un- til 4:00 p.m. Lt. Bullard has taken his "Memphis Message," originally developed for the Memphis Police Department, across the country. While sometimes described as con- Letters . . a means for Agency employees lo communicate to other employees whatever messages of criticism, praise, opinion, or explanation they so de- sire Brevity and constructive suggestions are encouraged, obscenity and rudeness are disallowed. Letlers vvi/f be published as space alloivs and may be edited for clarity and conciseness No attempt is made by 1 he editor to ^11/1rm any data presented by correspondents and the opinions expressed ould not be taken to represent Agency positions, unless signed by the head of the appropriate office All letters must be signed and accompanied by submitter's office location and telephone number. Dear Editor: 1 noticed that the February 20, 1985, issue of the EPA Times carries, under the heading "Agency Activities," news on three important environmental actions all related to the air program. I was struck by the fact that there is no identification whatsoever of which office is responsible for these actions. Elsewhere in the Times there is profuse recognition of em- ployees and organizations, except where the environmen- tal work of the Agency is reported. Much work, under short deadlines and trying circumstances, goes into achiev- ing the results reported. Recognition should be provided, at least in an EPA publication. Rest assured that General Motors will not publicize the EPA personnel's achieve- ments in recalling 225,000 vechicles! (The organizations responsible for the recall and the waiver for Dupont are the Manufacturers Operations Divi- sion and the Field Operations and Support Division, re- spectively. They are part of the Office of Mobile Sources. I am not aware of who worked on the bubble issue). Laszlo H. Bockh Office of Mobile Sources Every day, EPA employees perform thousands of tasks which impact this nation and the entire globe in some way. Were we to attempt to recognize every achievement, the Agency Activities section would certainly fill the en- tire paper. A selection process must, therefore, be im- troversial, his approach is also unforgettable. The Administrator has appointed five new members to the Science Advisory Board. They are: Dr. Richard A. Griesemer, Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Dr. Nancy K. Kim, New York State Department of Health; Dr. Robert G. Tardiff, Environ-Corporation; Dr. Lenore Clesceril, Rens- selaer Polytechnical Institute; and Dr. Charles F. Reinhardt, E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company. The Office of Civil Rights is looking for volunteers to serve on the Planning Committee for Black History Month 1986. Anyone interested in serving on the Committee to help plan next year's program, please contact Jim Maes on 382-4569. The Procurement and Contracts Management Division (P&CMD) has established cutoff dates for the receipt of procurement actions which must be processed before the end of the fiscal year or processed at the beginning of FY 1986. The FY 1985 cutoff dates for receipt of complete and fully approved procurement actions range from April 30 to September 1, 1985. For more information, contact your servicing procurement office, or see the March 1 issue of EPA's Management Memo. posed. Ours involves mentioning only those stories which have exceptional news value: such as a new regulation or an unusual enforcement action. (These items are selected from headquarters and regional press releases.) We feel that citing the people and offices responsible for these newsworthy events would not be fair to the thousands of equally dedicated and hardworking employees whose efforts result daily in a multitude of less glamorous, but equally important, Agency accomplishments. Available Information Parting Gifts. When William Ruckelshaus was preparing to leave the Agency, he sent to the headquarters library ap- proximately 100 books that had been sent to him from publishers, authors, and other administrators. His donation of recent titles on land use, environmental policy, energy and public finance is very much appreciated by the library staff, who suggest that other employees follow his ex- ample. If you have books and reports at home or in your office that you don't use often, consider sending them to the library where they will be accessible to all EPA staff. Please call Brigid Rapp at 382-5921 to arrange for your donations. EPA Library holdings which may be of general interest to employees Are Environmental Regulations Driving U.S. Industry Overseas? By Jeffery Leonard. HC79. D5L45. 1984. Healthy Living in an Unhealthy World. By Edward J. Calabrese and Michael W. Dorsey. RA566. C26. 1984. The McGraw-Hill Environmental Auditing Handbook A Guide to Corporate and Environmental Risk Management. Ed. by L. Lee Harrison. HD69. P6M33. 1984. Our Food, Air, and Water: How Safe arc They? Ed. by Carol C. Collins. RA566. 3.093. 1984. ~ ------- Ravan to Become Region 4 Administrator By Marilyn Rogers Jack Ravan, currently the Assistant Administrator for Water, has been selected as Administrator of Region 4, headquartered in Atlanta. The appointment is ex- pected to become effective in late April. Ravan, 47, previously served in the Atlanta post from 1971 to 1977. Ravan will succeed Charles Jeter, who has been named Special Assistant for EcoJogy, Office of Policy, Planning and Evaluation. Administrator Lee Thomas said he was "pleased that we will continue to have Mr. Jeter's valuable ex- pertise in water quality pro- grams available to us in his new position." Since Ravan was appointed to his present po- sition in 1983, he has reorganized the Office of Water and administered a number of programs of national importance, in- cluding proposed at-sea in- cineration regulations, reauthorization proposals for the Clean Water Act, and creation of the Office of Ground-Water Protection and the Office of Marine and Estuarine Protection. He was special assistant to the federal co-chairman of the Coastal Plains Re- gional Commission from 1970 to 1971, and was ad- ministrative assistant to Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina from 1969 to 1970. "We are fortunate to have this experienced, pro- fessional manager take over once again a region where his home and roots are, and where he has served EPA so ably in the past," said Tho- mas. "Jack's integrity and his sympathetic under- standing of community en- vironmental problems have been extremely valuable to the agency in fulfilling its mission." ~ Ravan Jeter 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 themselves and of fellow employees, letters of opinion, questions, comments, and suggestions to: Miles Allen, Editor, The EPA Times, Office of Public Affairs (A-107). Telephone 382-4359. Information selected for publication will be edited as necessary in keeping with space available. Environmental News "Efforts to remove asbestos from schools, homes, hospi- tals, government buildings and factories may soon grind to a halt across the nation because contractors can't get thM liability insurance they need. The $20 billion asbestos- ^ removal industry is facing a mounting wave of insurance cancellations because insurers simply don't want to have anything to do with the insulation material that has been linked to cancer. Some industry officials predict a crisis that eventually will throw the issue into the lap of the federal government and, ultimately, taxpayers."— Baltimore Sun, 2/3. "Maryland's Department of Natural Resources moved to do something about hydrilla, but hydrilla-haters will be disappointed to learn that what DNR wants to do is pro- tect the noxious underwater weed from uncontrolled harvesting. The state agency is backing a bill to control mowing of the submerged grass in the Potomac. Will C. Baker of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation said, 'Hydrilla does the same things all aquatic grasses do. It buffers against erosion, screens sediments, reoxygenates and clar- ifies the water, and serves as habitat for aquatic species and as food for waterfowl.'"—The Washington Post, 2/20. "Every winter, Florida beckons seductively. Come to the Sunshine State, America's fantasy land, a place of sand and palm trees, oranges and shuffleboard, alligators and Mickey Mouse, the haven of the Social Security set. Come to Florida, but be ready for the realities of the 1980's. Be ready for traffic jams and tackiness, drug busts and pollu- tion, eroding beaches and water shortages, 30,173 bill- boards and 374,254 mobile homes, high rises and real es- tate hucksters. Growth has caught up with Florida, and many here fear the state is rapidly becoming a paradise I lost. Florida, for example, has 29 toxic waste sites on the federal 'Superfund' list, a number surpassed only by the industrial northern states of New Jersey, New York, Penn- sylvania and Michigan. It also has serious water quality and supply problems."—American Journal, as reprinted in The Washington Post, 2/15. "Fairfax County, Virginia, which is rapidly running out of space to dump its garbage, won permission from the state Senate to build a inultimillion dollar trash-burning facility that would also generate electricity. The measure, approved 33 to 4 by the Senate, has been opposed strongly by the influential trash haulers lobby, which argued that local government will now have monopoly control over the lucrative garbage business."—The Washington Post, 2/2. "Warning that leaking petroleum storage tanks could destroy 'vast portions of New England's groundwater in the next five years,' a conservation group yesterday re- leased a manual to help communities protect their drink- ing water. Douglas Foy of the Conservation Law Founda- tion urged Massachusetts cities and towns to begin their own monitoring programs, because this state is 'several years behind the other New England states' in addressing a widespread threat."—Boston Globe, 2/13. "Standard tests used to measure the quality of drinking water significantly underestimate the amount of bacteria in the water, say scientists at the University of Missouri at Columbia. The scientists' study challenges the validity o£j federal standards for drinking water and also raises ques^ tions about the effectiveness of treating water with chlor- ine to kill bacteria. Water that appears clear and meets cloudiness standards may still be full of bacteria."—St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 2/5. ~ GPO 9\ 3-869 ------- |