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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." ~

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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. ~

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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. ~

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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

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