EPA Progress Report 2002
Pacific Southwest Region
ฉEPA
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Pacific Southwest / Region 9
EPA-909-R-02-001
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Dear Readers,
Growing up in Southern California, I learned early in life about the human cost of an unhealthy
environment. The brown cloud that covered the Los Angeles Basin for too many days each
summer affected everyone who worked and played there.
But over the years I've also watched the skies grow clearer and smog alerts become a thing of
the past. In 2001, the Los Angeles area met national health standards nine out of every ten days
the cleanest year since smog measurements began over 40 years ago. While there is much more
work to be done, we've come a long way.
I am honored to introduce this EPA Progress Report, the first
that we have issued since I joined EPA as Regional Administrator
in October 2001. The past year's accomplishments are full of
promise for meeting the public health and environmental chal-
lenges we face in the Pacific Southwest, and I am eager to to
continue our progress in this important mission.
EPA's Pacific Southwest Region is truly diverse, encompassing
the states of Arizona, California, Hawaii and Nevada; 147 tribal
nations and communities; and Pacific islands such as American
Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands.
The problems we confront here are complex, interconnected,
and resistant to traditional solutions. As we move to meet these
challenges, we are fortunate both in our own strengths and in the
capacity and will of our partners the states, tribes, industry and
the environmental advocacy communities. The test will be to maintain clarity about priorities,
stay focused on results, and promote creativity and collaboration in environmental stewardship.
We are encouraging innovative, cost-effective ways of preventing pollution - for example,
working with scientists and farmers to demonstrate ways to reduce toxic pesticide use, while
cutting production costs. We are emphasizing partnerships with states and tribes, the private
sector, and a multitude of other stakeholders. We are working to ensure that the nation's environ-
mental laws are consistently enforced across state and tribal boundaries. We are giving special
attention to new challenges such as bioterrorism preparedness, and to the unique needs of areas
such as the U.S.-Mexico Border and Lake Tahoe. And we are making EPA's vast information
resources more accessible than ever, through avenues like our Web site and the new Environmen-
tal Information Center at our San Francisco office.
In 2002,1 hope you will join us in striving to protect public health and our exceptionally
beautiful Pacific Southwest environment. We all have an important stake in it.
Wayne Nastri
Regional Administrator
EPA Pacific Southwest Region
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CONTENTS
Letter from Wayne Nastri Inside Front Cover
Clean Water 2
Clean Air 10
Clean Land 16
Preventing Pollution 24
Environmental Information 34
Contacts 36
This report is also available on the Internet at www.epa.gov/region09/annuaJreport
Cover photos: Vernal pool wetlands in California's Central Valley in winter (top); Monument Valley on the Navajo Nation
(below left); downtown Stockton waterfront Brownfields project, after redevelopment (below right; see story, p. 18). Photos by
Tim Vendlinski, Michael Feeley, Kitty Walker.
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chapter 1
CLEAN WATER
Thirty years after passage of the
federal Clean Water Act in 1972,
EPA continues to make progress to-
ward safe and clean water. Here are
just a few of the projects underway in
the Pacific Southwest.
Partnerships
Whitman Renews EPA Commitment to Lake Tahoe
EPA Administrator Christie Whitman spoke at Lake Tahoe on August
21, 2001, with Nevada Senators Harry Reid and John Ensign, Governor
Kenny Guinn, and federal, tribal, state and local officials to highlight
efforts to protect the sensitive alpine lake.
"The federal government has played an important role in the Tahoe
region for more than 100 years, and I can assure you that the Administra-
tion remains committed to restoring and protecting this precious natural
treasure," said Whitman, speaking at the annual Lake Tahoe Summit
Conference. "We will continue to pursue the goals of the Lake Tahoe
Restoration Act by providing the technical expertise, monitoring and
research that are crucial to succeed."
EPA has provided more than $17 million from 1997 through 2001 to
improve water quality in and around the lake, and has assigned a full-
time staff person, Jane Freeman, to work with other officials on lake
issues. In 2002, there will be $19.7 million in new funding for federal
agencies to continue these efforts, such as the restoration of wetlands
that filter out pollution from runoff in the Upper Truckee River and
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CLEAN WATER
Meeks Creek watersheds. These issues are
especially urgent because over the past 35 years,
Lake Tahoe has lost about one-third of its
exceptional clarity due to pollution, which
stimulates algae growth.
This year, U.C. Davis is completing an
EPA-funded water clarity forecasting model
that will allow - for the first time - scientific
predictions of the pollutant reductions needed
to attain the desired water clarity in Lake
Tahoe. This model will enable Tahoe Basin
officials to decide which types of projects in
which locations will yield the greatest gain in
the lake's clarity.
The U.C. Davis effort has found that
pollutants reach the lake from a variety of
sources, and that over half the nitrogen
pollutant loading to the lake is from air
pollution. Research is now underway to predict
runoff and soil erosion within specific Tahoe
Basin watersheds, to guide development of
strategies for the entire Tahoe Basin.
Tahoe's Environmental Improvement
Program, a local/state/federal partnership,
leverages three dollars for every federal dollar
spent. In addition to addressing lake clarity, the
program focuses on health of the basin's forests,
and air quality and transportation issues.
Monitoring Finds Southern California
Beaches Cleaner
Ongoing analysis of bacteria levels at 365
monitoring stations along Southern California
beaches in 2001 showed progress toward
cleaner beaches, particularly in Los Angeles
County, where 82% of the beaches received
very good to excellent ratings, compared with
68% in 2000. Overall, 84% of Southern
California beaches received these ratings
from the environmental group Heal The Bay,
which uses weekly data provided by county
health agencies.
From 1999 to 2000, California beach
advisories and closings due to pollution
increased by 63%, but much of this increase
was attributed to the start of monitoring at
beaches that had never been monitored earlier.
Chronically-polluted beaches were identified,
giving beachgoers a chance to avoid them.
Sewage spills and urban storm drains are the
leading causes of contaminated beach waters.
Summer flows in storm drains are often
contaminated with lawn fertilizer, pet feces,
motor oil, and other contaminants swept off
lawns and streets into waterways.
Opposite: Waterway
surrounding Brown's Isiand
in the Sacramento/San
Joaquin Delta. Photo by
Phillip Ramsey.
Below: Christie Whitman and
Washoe tribe members at
Lake Tahoe, August 2001.
Photo by Leo Kay.
EPA has been working for several years
with the State of California, environmental
groups, and local governments to increase
beach monitoring, prevent sewer overflows, and
divert summer storm drain flows to sewage
treatment plants (see Enforcement, page 5).
Last year, with EPA funding, the Surfrider
Foundation, San Diego County Department of
Environmental Health, Southern California
EPA has provided more than $17 million from 1997 through 2001
to improve water quality in and around Lake Tahoe.
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CLEAN WATER
Above: Restored tidal lagoon
at Crissy Field,
San Francisco, is one of over
100 habitat restoration
projects completed or under
way in the San Francisco
Bay/Delta watershed.
Below: Boogie boarding at
Santa Monica Beach, Calif.
Photos by David D. Schmidt.
Coastal Water Research Project, and Earth's
911 established free public access to real-time
information on beach water quality. Using both
an Internet site, www.earthOl 1 .org, and a
bilingual, toll-free phone system
(1-800-CLEANUP), beach-goers can use
their zip code to access beach status informa-
tion. On the Internet, the Earth's 911 Web
site offers point-and-click maps that provide
the most current beach advisory information,
along with related environmental information.
Other coastal states, including Georgia and
New Jersey, have also begun using the Earth's
911 system.
San Francisco Bay/Delta
Restoration Efforts Continue
From the 1960s through the 1990s, the spring
salmon spawning run on Northern California's
Butte Creek averaged about 1,000 fish, and in
some years, it dipped as low as 10. Since 1999,
however, the spring spawning run has increased
to an average of about 6,000. This dramatic
rebound is a success for the CALFED Bay-
Delta Program, a collaborative water planning
effort by EPA, federal and state agencies and
other stakeholders.
The CALFED Bay-Delta Program, possibly
the world's largest ecosystem restoration effort,
has over a hundred projects like the Butte
Creek salmon restoration already in progress,
and many more planned.
The salmon recovery project on Butte
Creek is an example of the cooperation
CALFED brings to government agencies and
disparate urban, agricultural, and environmen-
tal interests. The 1998 -1999 removal of four
small dams that had hindered salmon passage
on Butte Creek was funded by the local
Western Canal Water District and Southern
California's Metropolitan Water District.
Funding for the hundreds of CALFED projects
comes from water users, a $1.97 billion bond
measure passed by California voters in 2000,
and federal funds.
For an update on the latest CALFED
projects, check the CALFED Web site, at
http://calfed. water, ca.gov,
New Monitoring of Bay Area Wetlands
Further downstream in the Bay-Delta water-
shed, EPA's Paul Jones is leading a team of
scientists from state and federal agencies who
are creating a Wetlands Regional Monitoring
Program (RMP) for the San Francisco Bay
Area. Every year, millions of dollars of public
funds and thousands of hours in agency staff
time are spent on protecting and restoring
wetlands around the bay. The monitoring
program will ensure that the funds are well-
spent, by assessing the ecological health and
trends of the wetlands, and measuring and
comparing the progress of restoration projects.
The wetlands monitoring program, funded
by EPA and the California Coastal Conser-
vancy (a state agency), builds upon existing
monitoring for toxic substances, underway for
the past five years, by the non-profit San
Francisco Estuary Institute (on the Web at
www.sfei.org). Participants include other public
agencies, colleges and universities, volunteers,
and environmental groups who collect and
analyze the data, and publish the findings.
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CLEAN WATER
Good News for Delta: San Joaquin Farms
Cut Selenium Drainage 25%
In the early 1990s, EPA helped negotiate a
solution to the problem of selenium contamina-
tion in San Joaquin Valley and Delta waterways
the Grasslands Bypass Project Use Agree-
ment, which took effect in 1995. Selenium is a
toxic, naturally occurring mineral in soils of the
western San Joaquin Valley. By 2001, selenium
loads in downstream waterways had been
reduced by at least 25%, or 1,300 pounds/year.
This was a significant improvement from the
1980s, when selenium in agricultural drainage
water was the cause of deformed duck embryos
and hatching failures at the Kesterson National
Wildlife Refuge.
The agreement is a contract between the
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which owns the
San Luis Drain, and farmers in the Grasslands
drainage area (west side of San Joaquin Valley)
that allows farmers to discharge water into the
drain as long as they are continually decreasing
the selenium in it. Agencies, farmers, and
environmental groups are unanimous in
praising the success of the project. Selenium
reductions resulted from water conservation
(drip irrigation of perennial fields), on-farm
management of drainage water, changing crops,
use of salt-tolerant crops, and economic
incentives (such as load trading within districts,
and tiered water pricing).
Southern California Wetland
Recovery Program
Southern California's coastal urban and
industrial development have left very little
wetland acreage in the region. To help protect
and restore the remaining wetlands, EPA is
participating in the Southern California
Wetland Recovery Program (SCWRP). This
five-county effort, in partnership with federal,
state, and local agencies and other groups, has
spent $30 million - $26 million in state funds;
$3 million in federal funds; $1 million from
other sources - on acquiring (990 acres),
restoring (825 acres), and mapping (150 square
miles) coastal wetlands. A penalty for illegal
placement of dredged material has added to the
funding (See Enforcement, page 7).
Dairies: Preventing Water Pollution
Preventing water pollution from concentrated
animal feeding operations, especially dairies,
continues to be a major priority. Downstream
waterways can be polluted by rainy-season
runoff sweeping manure into the nearest ditch
or stream. To prevent this pollution, EPA is
working with California dairy operators, U.C.
Davis, and others in the voluntary California
Dairy Quality Assurance Partnership.
EPA also issued a discharge permit for
Arizona dairies, requiring each facility to
prepare a manure management plan to protect
water quality. Arizona has over 200 dairies,
with 140,000 dairy cows. Each cow produces
about 120 pounds of wet manure per day.
The permit was written by EPA with
assistance from the Arizona Department of
Environmental Quality (ADEQ), the state's
Cooperative Extension, the federal Natural
Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), and
Dairy in ChowcMla, Calif.
Photo by Jamie Liebman.
dairy industry groups. EPA also worked with the
state's Agriculture Department (ADA) to
develop a producers notebook to explain the
new requirement to dairy operators. EPA,
NRCS, ADEQ, and ADA conducted four
informational workshops to provide guidance
for producers to comply with the permit.
For more information on preventing
pollution from animal waste, go to
www. epa.gov/region09/animaJwaste.
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CLEAN WATER
Infrastructure
U.S. - Mexico Border Clean Water Projects
On December 7, 2001, EPA Regional
Administrator Wayne Nastri joined San Diego
Mayor Dick Murphy at the dedication of the
newly completed South Bay Water Reclamation
Plant, near the U.S.-Mexico Border. The
secondary treatment facility recycles water,
converting up to 15 million gallons of sewage
daily into water clean enough for irrigation and
industry. EPA contributed $27.3 million in
federal funding for the $110 million project.
Nastri praised the city for completing its
reclaimed water system in advance of a deadline
set by federal law. With another reclaimed water
facility already operational, San Diego can
produce 45 million gallons of reclaimed water
per day, which help meet the area's needs
without importing more costly drinking water.
EPA works with the International Bound-
ary and Water Commission (IBWC), the
Border Environment Cooperation Commission
(BECC), the North American Development
Bank (NADBank), and local governments to
build drinking water and wastewater treatment
facilities for communities up to 100 km (62
miles) north and south of the Border. This
combined effort has 38 projects underway,
benefitting six million people. Congress has
appropriated $50-$ 100 million each year since
1995 for this program. EPA manages these
funds via grants to the BECC and NADBank.
EPA has also begun long range binational
planning to identify future needs. EPAs
planning effort for Tijuana will identify the
fast-growing city's future needs for water and
wastewater infrastructure. EPA awarded the city
a $2 million grant via NADBank to fund this
effort. Scheduled for completion by the end of
2002, this planning process may become a
model of how Border infrastructure is planned,
designed, and constructed in the future.
For information on other clean water
projects in the Border area, go to www.epa.gov/
region09/border.
Above: San Diego's new
South Bay Water Reclama-
tion Plant converts 15 million
gallons of sewage daily into
reclaimed water clean enough
for industrial and irrigation
uses. EPA Photo.
Below: Vernal pool wetlands
in California's Central Valley
in winter (left) and spring
(right). These seasonal
wetlands provide habitat for
rare and endangered species
of fairy shrimp and native
wildflowers. Photos by
Tim Vendlinski.
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CLEAN WATER
EPA Funds Drinking Water Projects for Tribes
Last year, EPA's Pacific Southwest Region
awarded $10.8 million for 12 projects to supply
drinking water to six Indian tribes. This year,
EPA plans to fund 36 new drinking water
projects for Indian tribes, worth approximately
$5 million. The increased number of projects
results from an EPA-funded assessment of
infrastructure needs for the Navajo Nation,
which confirmed that 40% percent of Navajo
homes still lack running water.
Enforcement
EPA Takes Action to Halt LA Sewage Spills
In January 2001, EPA and the Los Angeles
Regional Water Quality Control Board
(RWQCB) sued the City of Los Angeles in
federal district court for over 2,000 sewage spills
stemming from problems with the city's
wastewater collection system over the past
several years. EPA's action was joined with an
existing suit filed by the environmental group
Santa Monica BayKeeper to address the same
issues. Local residents' groups, raising environ-
mental justice concerns associated with the
sewage spill issues, also subsequently joined
the suit.
Los Angeles reported 2,065 spills between
December 1995 and August 2000. Frequently
raw sewage has ended up on city streets, in
storm drains and in the Pacific. The city has
taken action in recent years to reduce its spills,
but is still averaging over 50 spills per month.
Responsible Parties Spend $90 Million
on MTBE Cleanup
Spurred by a series of EPA enforcement actions
against more than a dozen parties responsible
for leaking gasoline underground storage tanks,
the nation's largest cleanup of soil and water
tainted by the gas additive MTBE is now well
underway. The contamination forced Santa
Kathy Baylor collecting a
water sample for lead and
cadmium analysis, from a
natural sinkhole near an
industrial site on Oahu,
Hawaii. Photo by Paul
Kalaiwaa.
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CLEAN WATER
Stream in Great Basin
Nationai Park, Nevada.
Photo by David D. Schmidt.
Monica to shut down wells that formerly
provided 40% of the city's drinking water.
EPA, working in partnership with the Los
Angeles Regional Water Quality Control
Board, successfully compelled the parties to pay
over $5 million for replacement drinking water,
treat over 100 million gallons of contaminated
ground water, remove over 4,100 cubic yards of
contaminated soil, remove over 17,000 Ibs of
hydrocarbons using soil vapor extraction, drill
over 400 groundwater monitoring wells, collect
over 4,000 ground water samples, collect over
10,000 soil samples, and conduct pilot treat-
ment tests of eight different technologies. By
late 2001, they had collectively spent about
$90 million on this effort.
For more information on this project and
MTBE in general, go to www.epa.gov/region09/
mtbe/charnock.
Dredging Penalty Helps Save Wetlands
Early last year, Orange County and its dredging
contractor, Soli-Flo Partners LP, paid a
$735,000 penalty for ocean dumping violations
during the Upper Newport Bay dredging
project. A recurring contractor error caused 975
barge loads of dredged mud and sand to be
illegally dumped outside the ocean site ap-
proved by EPA.
The county paid $270,000 of the penalty to
the California Coastal Conservancy to help
purchase key coastal wetlands owned by
Southern California Edison. Protecting the 17-
acre Edison property, part of the Huntington
Beach Wetlands, is a high priority for the
Southern California Wetlands Recovery
Project.
Routine dredging of shipping lanes is
essential to the West Coast economy, with
thousands of ships entering and leaving
California ports each year. Harbors routinely fill
with silt, and need to be deepened. EPA
oversees the permits for disposal of dredged mud
and sand to minimize harm to the environment.
In the San Francisco Bay Area, EPA in the
1990s worked with the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers, the Bay Conservation and Develop-
ment Commission, and the Regional Water
Quality Control Board to adopt a "Long Term
Management Strategy" for dredged material.
The strategy, now in effect, emphasizes benefi-
cial re-use of dreged material, as an environ-
mentally preferable alternative to in-bay
disposal.
EPA Science
Scientists Study Delta Cross Channel
Impact on Fish
Scientists from eight state and federal agencies,
including EPA fisheries biologist Bruce
Herbold, are cooperating in a three-year study
of how the opening and closing of a movable
dam in the northern Sacramento-San Joaquin
Delta affects migrating salmon, and water
quality in the South Delta, where water is
pumped into canals and sent to farms and cities
farther south.
The dam controls water flows from the
Sacramento River into the man-made Delta
Cross Channel, which was built in 1953 to
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CLEAN WATER
EPA People
Amy Wagner and EPA's Regional Lab
Amy Wagner is a marine biology expert with
EPA's Regional Laboratory in Richmond, Calif.
She has been with EPA for 11 years, and is
responsible for conducting marine toxicity tests,
providing technical assistance, and coordinating
field sampling.
For three years, Amy has also been the
Volunteer Monitoring Coordinator for EPA's
Pacific Southwest Region, assisting citizen water
monitoring groups in California, Arizona,
Nevada, Hawaii, and Pacific Island territories as
far away as Guam. She has established an
equipment loan program and provides technical
training for volunteers. Amy recently made a
presentation on microbiological analyses and
data communication at the EPA-sponsored Volunteer Estuary Monitoring Confer-
ence in Tijuana, Mexico.
The Regional Lab conducts microbiological and pesticide testing of water
samples from citizen monitoring groups. Over the past three years, the lab has
analyzed over 700 samples from East Bay creeks and Oakland's Lake Merritt. Results
have shown that bacteria levels typically increase as water flows downstream through
urban areas, and sewage leaks or spills are readily identified in the samples. Last year,
the lab analyzed samples for the common household pesticide diazinon, in addition to
bacteria. The pesticide failed to show up in samples from all 25 East Bay locations
tested - a good sign for the health of the creeks.
Amy has a B.A. in Aquatic Biology from the University of California at Santa
Barbara and a Masters Degree in Marine Biology fom Moss Landing Marine Laborato-
ries on Monterey Bay. To learn more about volunteer water monitoring projects, call
Amy Wagner at 510-412-2329.
send clean, relatively salt-free Sacramento
River water into the South Delta. If the dam's
movable gates are closed during a dry fall
season, water in the South Delta gets saltier,
but salmon get a quicker, safer passage to and
from the ocean - or so fish experts had assumed
until 1999.
Under the auspices of CALFED (the state
and federal agencies working to improve water
quality in the Delta), the agencies' scientists
tracked fish four ways: by dyeing 120,000 small
hatchery salmon bright colors, putting them in
the water upstream of the Cross Channel, and
then trawling for them downstream; putting
traps in the river to trap migrating adult fish;
putting tiny radio transmitters on young
downstream migrants; and putting sonar-like
devices in the water to count large fish as they
swim by.
Results of the first fall-season (2000) data
showed that the relationship between the dam's
gates closing and salmon survival is more
complex than previously assumed. Further
research will focus on how different schedules
for opening and closing the gates can ease
salmon migration.
EPA biologist Amy Wagner
taking a sediment sample from
a streambed. Photo by Kathy
Baylor.
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chapter 2
CLEAN AIR
Despite ever-increasing population
and urban growth, the Pacific
Southwest's biggest urban areas, in-
cluding Los Angeles, continued to
make progress in the ongoing struggle
to protect tens of millions of residents
from ground-level ozone (smog), as
well as other air pollutants that can
be just as harmful - particulates (dust
and soot), nitrogen oxides (which add
to smog), and carbon monoxide.
Clean Air Progress Continues in Major Urban Areas
LA. Improves, but Regains Title of Smoggiest
The 2001 smog season concluded as the cleanest on record for
California's South Coast air district (the metropolitan L.A. area), with
only 36 days of smog levels exceeding the federal health standard. The
good news is that the area had healthy air on 329 days the best record
in over 40 years. The bad news is that although this continues a steady
trend toward cleaner air, the South Coast recaptured from Houston,
Texas the title of smoggiest area in the nation. In 2001, the South Coast
Air Quality Management District began putting its new "clean fleet"
rules into effect, covering buses, trash trucks, street sweepers, cars and
trucks, and airport ground vehicles. These landmark rules require public
and private vehicle fleet owners to purchase only the cleanest-burning
new vehicles.
Meanwhile, San Diego County achieved the federal health standard
for ozone every single day in 2001- the first time since the standard took
effect in 1971, when unhealthy air was recorded there about 25% of the
time. The achievement is all the more impressive in view of the fact that
local population - and motor vehicles - have more than doubled there
since 1971.
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CLEAN AIR
EPA Downgrades San Joaquin Valley
Smog Status to "Severe"
In October 2001, EPA reclassified the San
Joaquin Valley from "serious" to "severe" status
because the area failed to meet the ozone
(smog) health standard. This move triggers
further action by the San Joaquin Valley
Unified Air District, including the creation
of a new clean air plan demonstrating that
the area will meet the health standard by
November 15, 2005.
Phoenix Meets Ozone (Smog) and
Carbon Monoxide Health Standard
The Phoenix area has had over four years of air
quality that meets the ozone and carbon
monoxide health standards, demonstrating that
pollution control measures adopted by the
community have worked. The Arizona Depart-
ment of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) and
the Maricopa Association of Governments are
cooperating to develop workable plans to
maintain this clean air status.
Tucson Particulates Action Plan
In 1999, Tucson failed to meet the clean air
standard for particulates (dust and soot).
Pima County air officials then began working
with EPA, ADEQ, and community members to
develop a Natural Events Action Plan under
EPAs Natural Events Policy. The policy allows
a community to adopt voluntary measures to
control particulates if the measures can take
effect sooner that way. The Pima County
Department of Environmental Quality submit-
ted it's plan to EPA in June 2001. The agency is
now working with the local stakeholders to
develop dust control measures for the area.
Las Vegas: EPA Proposes to Approve
Carbon Monoxide Plan
EPA is planning to propose approval of the Las
Vegas Valley's carbon monoxide (CO) clean air
plan in early 2002. To clear the way, EPA staff
have been working with the Nevada Depart-
ment of Environmental Protection and Clark
County to resolve issues related to vehicle smog
11
checks, fuels and permits for new facilities that
would add to CO pollution. The plan relies on
emission reductions in all three areas to attain
the national health standard for CO.
On November 9, 2001, EPA made an
official finding that the vehicle emission
estimates in Clark County's particulate clean
air plan are adequate. The plan covers 2001,
2003 and 2006.
Partnerships
Children's Health and Indoor Air:
EPA's "Tools For Schools"
Opposite: Monument Valley,
Navajo Nation, Arizona.
Photo by Michael Feeley,
Below: EPA Administrator
Christie Whitman with fifth-
grade class from San
Francisco's Clarendon
Elementary School. Photo by
David D. Schmidt.
At many schools, maintenance and custodial
staffs are inadequate, school districts have
deferred maintenance, and indoor air quality
has declined. Asthma has increased in students
and teachers, as have complaints of "sick
buildings," absences, workmen's compensation
claims and even lawsuits blaming schools for
making teachers and children ill. EPA's Indoor
Air Quality Tools for Schools kit shows how
school staff can work together to ensure healthy
indoor air for everyone. Benefits include
improving the health, attendance, and
San Diego County achieved the federal health standard for ozone
every single day in 2001.
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CLEAN AIR
Windmffis generate electricity
at Altamont Pass, Alameda
County, Calif. Photo by
Christy Shake.
attention of asthma-prone students, and better
academic performance.
EPA developed this simple, common-
sense guide in partnership with the American
Lung Association and several school organiza-
tions. The Tools for Schools kit contains
educational materials and checklists for
evaluating typical activities, to show how all
members of the school community, from
teachers to maintenance staff, can help assure
healthy indoor air.
Using the kit, school staff learn
to recognize what contributes to indoor air
pollution, and understand their building's
ventilation, as well as the importance of
working cooperatively with the custodial and
maintenance employees.
Tools For Schools Results
The San Francisco School District's
Indoor Air Quality Committee tried
out Tools for Schools at several schools.
At one in the Bayview/Hunters Point
area, known for high rates of asthma, the
nurse reported a dramatic drop in office
visits for asthma inhalers after the
school's indoor air quality team con-
ducted walk-throughs and solved
problems that caused poor ventilation.
The Saugus School District in Southern
California used Tools for Schools
district-wide after the indoor air
concerns of teachers and parents almost
sparked a school boycott. The district
corrected many typical indoor air
problems and now has a solid relation-
ship with its community.
The Visalia School District in
California's Central Valley, which is
known for its high asthma rate, also used
the kits district-wide, and won a national
Tools for Schools Excellence Award.
For more information go to www.epa.gov/
iaq and click on the "Tools for Schools" button,
or call EPA's Shelly Rosenblum at 415-947-
4193.
Owens Valley: LA. Helps Clear the Air
For generations, dust rising each winter from
the dry, windy bed of Owens Lake, in the
Eastern Sierra's Owens Valley, has created the
nation's worst particulate air pollution problem.
Today, clean air is on the horizon. On Novem-
ber 17, 2001, the Los Angeles Department of
Water and Power (LADWP), began irrigating
the dust-prone lakebed to reduce dust storms.
Los Angeles began diverting the Owens
River in 1913. By 1930 Owens Lake, once an
expanse of (very salty) water 18 miles long and
10 miles wide, was a gigantic salt flat.
EPA became involved in the Owens Valley
air pollution issue in the 1990s, encouraging
Los Angeles and the local Great Basin Air
Pollution Control District to develop a plan
for the lakebed. In 1999 they reached an
agreement to bring the Valley's air quality up
to the national health standard by 2006.
California suffered no blackouts in the summer of 2001, and is
continuing its efforts to reduce the environmental impacts of
generating electricity.
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CLEAN AIR
During 2000 and 2001, the LADWP built
a network of pipes and irrigation "bubblers"
(outlets) on 10 square miles of the lakebed. The
network is being expanded in 2002 and 2003.
By the time the $150 million, L.A.-funded
project is finished, the air should be safe to
breathe year-round for the first time in over
70 years.
Western Regional Air Partnership
Gets $4 Million EPA Grant
EPA is investing $4 million in grant funds, as
well as policy and technical assistance, in the
Western Regional Air Partnership, a coalition
of western state governments, Indian tribes, and
federal agencies working to improve visibility at
federal wilderness areas, including the Grand
Canyon. Visibility has suffered in recent
decades due to haze resulting in part from fossil
fuel-burning power plants.
Sierra Army Depot Ends Open Burning/
Open Detonation of Munitions
The Sierra Army Depot in Lassen County,
which has destroyed more unwanted munitions
through open burning and open detonation
than any other installation in the United States
in recent years, last year ceased the practice
when the Lassen County Air District changed
the Depot's burn permit.
Local communities, including the Pyramid
Lake Paiute Tribe protested the open burning
and detonation because it caused air pollution.
EPA, responding to these concerns, directed
the Lassen County Air Pollution Control
District to change the Depot's operating permit
under the federal Clean Air Act, by adding a
ban on open burning and detonation when safe
alternatives exist. The Depot is now seeking to
install technology for the reuse, recovery, and
recycling of munitions, and is evaluating
options for alternative disposal methods for its
current stockpile.
After lengthy negotiations with EPA, the
Department of Defense also submitted signifi-
cantly revised Toxics Release Inventory reports
for the Depot. The updated reports for 1999
and 2000 show for the first time that the
majority of toxic releases are to the land, and
that air emissions are a much smaller amount
than previously reported.
Infrastructure
Pacific Southwest Responds to Energy Crisis
EPA's Pacific Southwest regional office has
been working diligently with other federal,
state and local agencies to craft energy solu-
tions that protect human health and the
environment. As a result of these collective
efforts, California suffered no blackouts in
summer 2001, and is continuing its efforts to
reduce the environmental impacts of generat-
ing electricity.
In the summer of 2000, retail electricity
prices in parts of Southern California reached
all-time highs, and shortages of generating
capacity created temporary power outages in
Northern California into early 2001. Many
factors were involved, including a booming
economy, growth in population and electricity
demand, deregulation of electricity production
in some states, drought in the Pacific North-
west reducing electricity from dams, and too
few new power sources.
13
Pittsburg, Calif, power plant
burns natural gas to generate
electricity. Photo by Christy
Shake.
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CLEAN AIR
EPA Expedites Permitting
for "Peaker" Power Plants
Working cooperatively with the California
Energy Commission, the California Air
Resources Board, and local air pollution control
districts, EPA developed a permit template for
California air pollution control districts to
speed up permitting of new power plants to
meet daily "peaks" in demand. EPA also issued
consent orders to several applicants, which
allowed immediate construction while assuring
compliance with federal clean air requirements.
In 2001, EPAs Pacific Southwest office re-
viewed applications and draft permits for 15
"peaker" projects totaling approximately 1,320
megawatts (MW) of generating capacity.
Larger New Power Plants
President Bush on February 15, 2001 directed
federal agencies to "expedite" federal permits
for power plants in California. Since then,
EPA has issued final construction permits for
five major new power plants in California,
totaling 2,390 MW: Elk Hills, 500 MW; High
Desert, 700 MW; Pastoria, 750 MW; Midway
Sunset, 500 MW, Blythe, 520 MW, and
Sunrise, 320 MW. All will use state-of-the-art
emission controls to minimize air pollution.
Flexibility for Existing Power Plants
EPA also worked with the state of California
to allow the use of emergency backup genera-
tors if necessary to avert blackouts, and with
Southern California's South Coast Air Quality
Management District to allow power plants to
operate at full capacity during the summer
months, when demand for power was highest.
Nevertheless, environmental impacts were
minimized.
Enforcement
New Chrome Compliance Tool
EPAs Pacific Southwest office developed a
Manual to Aid Compliance and Enforcement of
the Chromium Electroplating MACT (Maximum
Achievable Control Technology), to help state
and local agencies develop their own MACT
stardards for chrome platers. This manual
represents a comprehensive approach, by not
only dealing with the technical and practical
aspects of compliance, but also encouraging the
use of pollution prevention and other innova-
tive techniques. The manual is also used by
EPA for compliance training and outreach, and
to support EPAs Air Toxics and Environmental
Justice initiatives.
Chevron Cuts Air Pollution in Hawaii
Under an agreement reached with EPA in May
2001, Chevron will pay a $650,000 penalty and
spend at least $150,000 toward converting all of
the loading racks at its Port Allen bulk gasoline
terminal on Kauai, which will significantly
reduce air pollution emissions. This settlement
with Chevron resulted from its failure to install
air pollution controls and limit emissions at its
Hilo and Kahului bulk gasoline terminals, and
its failure to inspect and file reports on equip-
ment leaks and wastewater systems at its
Kapolei petroleum refinery. This settlement is
expected to achieve an annual emissions
reduction of 230 tons of smog-forming volatile
organic compounds.
EPA Science
How Much Water Pollution Comes
from the Air?
From 1999 through 2001, EPA toxicologist
Pam Tsai worked with other scientists from the
non-profit San Francisco Estuary Institute on a
cutting-edge project to estimate how much of
San Francisco Bay/Estuary's contamination
with five different heavy metals, PCBs (poly-
chlorinated biphenyls), and PAHs (polycyclic
aromatic hydrocarbons) is coming from the air.
The scientists analyzed substances in the air
from three locations using a high-volume air
sampling device equipped with glass fiber filters
and polyurethane foam. They also analyzed rain
samples.
The scientists found that substantial
amounts of all the pollutants except PCBs were
entering the water directly from the atmosphere
- 1,900 kg/year of copper, 930 kg of nickel, 93
kg of cadmium, 1,600 kg of chromium, and 27
kg of mercury. To put this in perspective, more
than 10 times as much of these substances
enters the bay/estuary in stormwater runoff.
As for PCBs, the scientists found that
a greater amount of PCBs was leaving the bay
as vapor, than entering the bay through
atmospheric deposition. PAHs, however,
proved to be the opposite: A greater quantity
entering the bay by atmospheric deposition
than leaving the bay as vapor.
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CLEAN AIR
EPA People
15
Jack Broadbent, New Director
of Regional Air Division
Jack P. Broadbent, former deputy executive officer of
California's South Coast Air Quality Management
District, became director of EPA's Pacific Southwest
Air Division in April 2001. At the South Coast
district, Broadbent developed landmark regulatory
programs that significantly contributed to cleaner air
in the greater Los Angeles area. At EPA, he collabo-
rates with other federal, state and local agencies,
tribal governments, school districts, universities, the
private sector, and community groups. Among his responsibilities as division director,
Broadbent oversees grants to state and local agencies, reviews air quality plans,
decides on permits, accomplishes rulemaking, determines compliance and enforce-
ment of federal clean air regulations, and provides technical support.
Air Planning and Permits Chiefs Named
Steven Barhite joined the management team of EPA's Pacific Southwest Region
as chief of the Air Planning office, and Gerardo Rios was named chief of the Air
Permits office, in October 2001. Barhite came to EPA four years ago after working in
research at San Francisco General Hospital. At EPA, he has worked on New Source
Review and Clean Air Act Title V permits and programs, with a focus on the South
Coast area. He took the lead on several key enforcement cases in the wood and metal
coating industry involving precedential technology decisions. Recently, Barhite led
the Air Division's efforts to address the energy crisis and construction of power plants.
Gerardo Rios has been with EPA for 12 years, starting in the permits office. He went
on to manage the U.S.-Mexico air program, where he established critical relation-
ships between U.S. and Mexico partner agencies and stakeholders, and helped
develop the first air quality plan for Mexicali and Tijuana. He also led EPA's Pacific
Southwest Mexico Border Team and has been instrumental in establishing a
borderwide air monitoring program. To reach Steven Barhite, call 415-972-3980. To
reach Gerardo Rios, call 415-972-3974.
Yucca Mountain Regulatory Development
EPA developed, and on June 5, 2001 released,
public health and environmental radiation pro-
tection standards for Yucca Mountain, Nevada,
the Department of Energy's chosen site for high
level nuclear waste. The standards limit indi-
vidual annual radiation exposure to no greater
than 15 millirem per year for the first 10,000 years
following disposal of the waste. The separate
groundwater standard for radiation is set at a level
of 4 millirem per year.
Real-time Air Quality Conditions Now
Available on EPA's AirNow Web Page
EPA's Ozone Mapping Project has air pollution
forecasts, health information, and real-time
ozone (smog) maps for San Francisco, Sacra-
mento, Los Angeles, and other urban areas
around the nation. The site provides people in
our most populated areas with information
about how we can protect our health and take
action to reduce air pollution. To find out
more, go to www.epa.gov/aimow.
Above: Jack Broadbent.
Photo courtesy of South
Coast Air Quality
Management District.
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chapters
CLEAN LAND
The Superfund enforcement program
reached legal settlements for past and
future toxic site cleanup costs total-
ling more than $1 billion in Fiscal
Year 2001, the largest one-year total
ever in the Pacific Southwest. To
reach this milestone, EPA employed
several legal tools: unilateral orders,
administrative settlements, judicial
settlement, and litigation.
Polluters to Pay Over $1 Billion for Toxic Cleanups
in Pacific Southwest
Four settlements of particular note, involving the Iron Mountain Mine,
Operating Industries Inc., Stringfellow and Montrose Superfund cleanup
sites in California marked the conclusion of several years of enforcement
effort and restored millions of dollars to EPA's Superfund Program for
cleanup of other sites.
Partnerships
Reuse of Closing Military Bases
EPA worked with the U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force to continue
transferring clean portions of closing military bases to local communities,
helping revitalize local economies while cleanup of toxic contaminants
continues on other portions. Local reuse authorities at McClellan Air
Force Base in Sacramento County, Calif., estimated that companies
leasing space at the former base have created 2,400 jobs. By late 2001,
there had been 36 leases of property that included 51 buildings, with a
total area of 1.8 million square feet. At Monterey County's Ford Ord,
EPA approved the transfer of 70 acres to the city of Marina for reuse. In
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CLEAN LAND
17
San Francisco, EPA and the Navy laid the
groundwork for the first transfer of clean land
from the former Hunters Point Naval Shipyard
to the city.
EPA Emergency Response Tackles Toxics
When toxic waste poses an imminent threat to
public health or the environment, state and
local governments can call for assistance from
EPA's emergency response program. In early
2001, for example, EPA removed and safely
disposed of 1,500 drums of toxic dry cleaning
chemicals at an abandoned facility in Vernon,
Calif, (near East Los Angeles), at a cost of
approximately $600,000.
The AAD Distribution and Dry Cleaning
Services site was a storage facility for perchloro-
ethylene, a toxic chemical used in dry cleaning.
The facility's warehouse and open lot were
filled with 1,500 corroding drums of waste,
many of which were precariously double-and
triple-stacked. EPA's on-scene coordinator
removed these drums, cleaned the facility, and
supervised the removal of 240 drums of hazard-
ous waste associated with AAD from six other
California locations. The city of Vernon and
the California Department of Toxic Substances
Control had revoked the facility's permits and
asked for EPA's cleanup assistance. AAD's
owner/operator has been indicted on criminal
charges for violations of state and federal
hazardous waste regulations; EPA is also
pursuing restitution of cleanup costs.
EPA and Tribal Partners
EPA's Pacific Southwest regional office works in
partnership with 147 federally-recognized
Indian tribes, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and
the Indian Health Service to carry out federal
environmental laws and programs on Indian
lands. Nearly 50% of the tribal land in the U.S.
is within EPA's Pacific Southwest Region. Last
year, EPA cooperated with tribes on the
following land cleanup projects, among others:
Navajo Abandoned Uranium Mines
Wenona Wilson and Andy Bain of EPA's San
Francisco office travelled with tribal officials
to inform 30 Navajo communities of the
results of EPA testing of local water sources.
EPA also demolished and removed two hogans
(Navajo traditional earthen dwellings) that
were found to have been built with radioactive
mine tailings.
Opposite: Downtown
Stockton waterfront area was
redeveloped with assistance
from EPA's Brownfields
program. Photo by Gregory
Blore, courtesy of Gregory
Blore Photography,
Sacramento, Calif.
Below: Removing hazardous
waste from drums at AAD
site in Vernon, Calif.
EPA photo.
There are more than 1,150 abandoned
uranium mine sites on the vast landscape of the
Navajo Nation, whose territory includes the
Four Corners, where Arizona, Utah, Colorado,
and New Mexico intersect. These sites, and the
unseen radiation and heavy metal contamina-
tion that remains in soil and water near many
of them, are the legacy of Cold War Era
uranium mining.
To learn more about EPA's land reuse and redevelopment
partnerships in the Pacific Southwest, go to
www.epa.gov/region09/waste/brown.
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CLEAN LAND
Above: EPA and the
Navajo Tribe demolished and
removed this traditional
dwelling on the Navajo
Nation because it was made
of radioactive rock and
soil from a uranium mining
area. It was being used
for storage. Photo by
Andrew G. Sowder.
Beiow: Suppfy Creek Open
Dump before closure, on
Hoopa Valley tribal land,
Northern California.
Photo courtesy of Hoopa
Valley Tribe.
Over a three-month period, the EPA/tribal
team reached 1,028 individuals, most of whom
lived near, or had family living near, abandoned
uranium mine sites. At each community, the
team explained in most cases, in the
Navajos' native language the findings of the
water sampling and how to reduce exposure to
the contaminants. The team also informed
residents about other abandoned uranium mine
issues, such as radiation exposure, physical
hazards and miner compensation claims.
Closing Down Open Dumps on Tribal Lands
Eighty open dumps were closed on tribal lands
last year, 70 of them on the Navajo Nation
alone. Open dump closures also included sites
on lands of the Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk in
Calif., the San Carlos Apache Tribe, Ariz., and
the Duckwater Reservation, Nev. EPA contrib-
uted $2.8 million towards cleaning up the
highest risk sites and providing alternative
disposal options. With EPA technical assistance
and training, almost half of all tribes in the
Pacific Southwest Region have drawn up solid
waste management plans.
Tuba City Cleanup Progress
Cleanup at Tuba City, where leaking under-
ground fuel storage tanks from two gas stations
have contaminated soil and groundwater on the
Navajo Nation and Hopi tribal lands, got a
boost in September 2000 with the installation
of a pilot subsurface volatilization and ventila-
tion system (SVVS). The SVVS injects air into
the ground, which then bubbles up through the
contaminated ground water and soil, volatiliz-
ing and removing chemicals along the way.
These volatalized chemicals are then removed
by soil vapor extraction. The SVVS pilot
system, paid for by responsible parties in
compliance with an EPA order, has removed
over 250 Ibs. of benzene, over 1,200 Ibs. of
toluene, over 200 Ibs. of ethylbenzene, over
1,800 Ibs. of xylene, and over 350 Ibs. of
MTBE, and significantly reduced groundwater
contamination in the test area.
To find out more about EPA's work with
Indian tribes, go to www.epa.gov/region09/
indian.
Redevelopment Partnerships
Brownfields
Brownfields are abandoned industrial properties
where suspected toxic contamination may scare
away potential purchasers and developers,
hindering redevelopment. In some cases, a
relatively inexpensive site assessment can
remove this roadblock by demonstrating that
the site is clean. More often, money provided
by Brownfields grants is used to assess and clean
up the property, and speed redevelopment.
EPA's Pacific Southwest office has issued dozens
of grants to local and tribal governments in the
past few years, including:
Stockton, Calif., where two EPA grants
totalling $400,000 triggered cleanup
of property which has been key to
redevelopment of the city's historic
downtown/waterfront area, including
creation of a major new waterfront park.
Emeryville, Calif., where an EPA revolv-
ing loan provided $300,000 for a private
developer to complete a cleanup leading
to commercial office development.
Oakland, Calif., which received a
$100,000 EPA grant to assess abandoned
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CLEAN LAND
19
sites where suspected petroleum contami-
nation from leaking underground storage
tanks may have thwarted redevelopment.
West Hollywood, Calif., which leveraged
$10 million in redevelopment funds from
the Department of Housing and Urban
development (HUD).
The Ely (Nevada) Shoshone tribe, which
obtained a $50 million commitment from
the Public Health Service to clean up
their abandoned landfill.
EPA and state agencies conducted
brownfields assessments that will clear
the way for a day care center in Watts
(Los Angeles); a community business
incubator on Molokai (Hawaii); future
park sites in Hawaii, Long Beach, and
Kingsburg, Calif.; and an inter-modal
transit site in Pasadena, Calif.
Santa Fe Springs, Calif., which received
a $100,000 EPA redevelopment grant to
fund an industrial/office plan for the
Waste Disposal Inc. Superfund cleanup
site. The grant is also helping to relocate
several landowners and tenants during
cleanup.
For more information on EPA's redevelop-
ment partnerships, go to www.epa.gov/region09/
waste/brown.
Prospective Purchaser Agreements Ease
Revitalization
In some cases, EPA can ease redevelopment of
polluted properties by ensuring that prospective
purchasers aren't forced to pay an unfair share
of the cleanup costs. For a fair share, negotiated
in a Prospective Purchaser Agreement (PPA),
the purchaser receives a release from Superfund
liability. Last year, EPA in the Pacific South-
west entered into PPAs with:
Northrop Grumman Systems Corp.,
which purchased a 70-acre electronics
facility at the San Gabriel Valley
Superfund site in Azusa, Calif. Northrop
is taking over the current Aerojet defense
contracts there and plans to expand
operations for the design and manufac-
ture of satellites.
Home Depot, which intends to build a
retail outlet on a 10-acre parcel at the
Glendale portion of the San Fernando
Valley Superfund site.
The City of Phoenix, which is planning a
400-acre runway expansion to its Sky
Harbor International Airport, which lies
partly within the Motorola 52nd Street
Superfund site.
The Nature Conservancy, which acquired
Palmyra Atoll, a group of coral islets in
the mid-Pacific Ocean, as a wildlife
refuge. This property was used as a U.S.
naval air base during World War II, but
retains its unique biological diversity,
being one of the few unpopulated atolls
left in the tropical Pacific.
Partners Join Forces For Low-Income
Community
Just as cleanup work was about to begin at the
Purity Oil Superfund site near Fresno, Calif.,
California Rural Legal Assistance, a nonprofit
group, raised an environmental justice concern
on behalf of residents of the Tall Trees Trailer
Park, adjacent to the contaminated site. The
whole area is zoned as "heavy industrial" by
Fresno county. An auto wrecking yard, a
recycling firm, a scrap metal lot, and a propane
business were in close proximity. The trailers
Suppfy Creek Dump after
closure, on Hoopa Valley
tribal land, Northern
California. Photo courtesy of
Hoopa Valley Tribe.
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CLEAN LAND
Acidic runoff treatment pond
at Leviathan Mine Superfund
site, Alpine County, Calif.
EPA Photo.
themselves were very old, in disrepair, and
unmoveable. The county government allowed
the trailer park to stay because the residents
could not afford to move. All of the residents
were low-income families of farm workers or
retired farm workers, many from Oaxaca,
Mexico, whose first language was Mixtecan. To
overcome this language barrier, EPA broadened
its usual bilingual (English and Spanish)
community outreach efforts to include
Mixtecan.
EPAs Purity Site Team decided to re-
examine the cleanup plan. They brought
together staff of federal and state elected
officials, the federal Department of Housing
and Urban Development, Fresno County, the
site's responsible parties (including Chevron),
and others. With perseverance and patience,
the group developed an innovative solution: to
come up with funding levels above and beyond
what could be mandated for the Superfund
cleanup, making it possible to relocate the
entire community. Funding from private and
public sources was pooled. The Mixtecan
community has been relocated, as a group, to
new housing in the Fresno area. Cleanup of the
Purity site is underway.
Broad-Based Partnership at Leviathan Mine
Gets Results
Since the 1950s, acidic runoff from sulfur
mining had rendered Leviathan and Bryant
Creeks bright orange, very acidic and virtually
lifeless, throughout their course from the mine
site high in the Sierra Nevada, through
National Forest land and Washoe tribal land. In
2001, EPA coordinated water treatment efforts
by California's Lahontan Regional Water
Quality Control Board, former mine owner
Atlantic Richfield (ARCO) and the University
of Nevada-Reno, dramatically improving the
creek's water quality. By August, trout were
populating the clear, clean water two miles
downstream from the mine.
Partnerships were also key to resolving
EPAs claim that ARCO had failed to achieve
goals set in a 1998 cleanup agreement. In
November 2001, EPA announced a settlement
with ARCO in which the company paid
$720,000 for 480 acres of meadows, streams,
and forest north of Stampede Reservoir in
Sierra County, California. The Washoe Tribe
now holds title to the land, and the Nature
Conservancy holds a conservation easement on
it, assuring that it will remain undeveloped.
The tribe plans to operate a summer program
there to educate their children about the
Washoe culture.
"We thought that the community that had
been most damaged by Leviathan and the
pollution should be the community that most
benefits," commented EPA attorney Joshua
Wirtschafter, who negotiated the settlement.
Infrastructure
Groundwater Treatment Plant Completed
at Motorola Site in Phoenix
In arid Arizona, where groundwater is a
precious resource, EPA, Arizona, Motorola Inc.
and Honeywell International Inc. officials in
October 2001 celebrated the opening of a new
treatment plant designed to decontaminate
groundwater at the Motorola 52nd Street
Superfund Site in Phoenix (see photo, next
page). The new groundwater treatment plant is
part of an ongoing cleanup which started in
1992, when the site's first treatment plant
began operating. Both will need to operate
continuously for the next ten to twenty years.
The new treatment plant will remove
chlorinated solvents, mainly trichloroethylene,
or TCE, first discovered in the groundwater in
1982. The clean water will be used for agricul-
tural irrigation. Motorola and Honeywell built
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CLEAN LAND
21
the second groundwater treatment plant under
an EPA order. Construction took 18 months.
The two companies are paying for construction,
operation, and maintenance of these facilities.
Cleanup Finished at Oroville Site
Just over ten years after EPA placed the
Western Pacific Railroad site in southern
Oroville, Calif., on the Superfund National
Priorities List for cleanup, the job is complete.
Groundwater cleanups often take much longer.
From 1920 through 1982, Western Pacific
used a portion of the property to fuel, repair and
maintain rail cars, which resulted in soil and
groundwater contaminated with waste solvents,
oils, grease and heavy metals. Under separate
orders from the state and EPA, the site's current
owner, Union Pacific Railroad Co., removed
contaminated soils in 1989 and again in 1998.
Based on a decade of groundwater monitor-
ing data, EPA determined in 2001 that an
on-site groundwater treatment system had
cleaned up the water to acceptable levels.
Land use controls now in place allow for
commercial and industrial uses, so the site can
be redeveloped.
Enforcement
$340 Million Settlement
to Clean Up ON Landfill
EPA negotiated a $340 million settlement last
year with over 160 companies to pay for further
cleanup work at the Operating Industries Inc.
(Oil) site, a 190-acre landfill in Monterey
Park, California, about 10 miles east of down-
town Los Angeles. From 1948 to 1984, the
landfill accepted municipal, commercial and
industrial solid and hazardous wastes, including
at least 300 million gallons of liquid waste. EPA
found that nearly 4,000 different parties sent
wastes to the landfill. Over the past two
decades, EPA has reached settlements with
more than 1,250 of them to pay for cleanup
work. The recent $340 million settlement
brings the responsible parties' commitments for
cleanup costs to more than $600 million, one of
the largest sums ever raised for a toxic cleanup.
Under the federal Superfund law, any and all
responsible parties must pay for cleanup - tax
funds are used only as a last resort. This is
known as the "polluter pays" principle.
The landfill towers hundreds of feet over
the community of Montebello. There are
approximately 53,000 homes near the landfill,
including many adjacent to it. Earlier problems
at the site have included leachate (contami-
nated water) runoff into neighborhoods,
unstable slopes threatening to slump onto
houses, and methane and odors migrating to
nearby homes.
Past cleanup work has included installing a
leachate containment and treatment system,
building gas extraction and destruction systems,
and capping the landfill with geo-textile fabrics
along the slopes for stability and a clay quilt on
top to reduce formation of leachate. The
settlement covers future operation and mainte-
nance needs, and continued groundwater
monitoring.
Below: Left to right - EPA's
Viola Cooper, Nadia Hollan,
Brent Maier, Keith Takata,
and Sean Hogan at the
October 2001 opening of a
new groundwater treatment
plant at the Motorola 52nd
Street Superfund Site in
Phoenix, Ariz.
State to Reimburse EPA
for Stringfellow Cleanup
Last summer, the State of California agreed to
reimburse EPA $99 million for cleanup costs
associated with the Stringfellow Acid Pits
Superfund site, in Riverside County. The
agreement is also significant because the state
consented to take responsibility for future
cleanup work at the site with EPA oversight.
The Stringfellow site had served as a
repository for industrial liquid hazardous wastes
for over 15 years before it was shut down in the
1970s, when residents of the neighboring
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CLEAN LAND
Confluence of dean water in
Mountaineer Creek (ieft) and
acid-tainted water in
Leviathan Creek (right), two
miles downstream from
Leviathan Mine in September
1999, before water treatment
system began operating.
EPA photo.
community of Glen Avon became increasingly
vocal about their polluted well water. Over the
past two decades, numerous cleanup actions
have stopped wastes and groundwater contami-
nation on the Stringfellow site from migrating.
Gilo River Tire Fire Site Cleaned Up
In 1997, a fire burned a pile of over two million
used tires on Gila River Indian Community
land near Phoenix, Ariz.. When the fire was
out, it left a gooey mess of hundreds of thou-
sands of unburned and partially-burned tires,
and contaminated soil. The Indian community
was having trouble getting responsible parties
to clean up the site, so they called EPA for
backup. EPA issued an order to the 14 Arizona
county governments that were the sources of
the used tires, informing them that as poten-
tially responsible parties they would have to pay
for the cleanup.
EPA negotiated with the counties, and
reached an agreement in which Final and
Maricopa Counties, the sources of most
of the tires, and Blackwater Industrial Develop-
ment Corp., which had overseen the tire dump,
paid for the cleanup. The site has now been
restored to its original (pre-tire) condition.
EPA Science
U.S.-Vietnam Joint Study of Agent Orange
Though the Vietnam War ended over 25 years
ago, there are still places in Vietnam so
contaminated with the U.S. military's chemical
defoliant Agent Orange that even weeds won't
grow. And the extremely toxic dioxin that was
a contaminant in Agent Orange may be a
continuing cause of health problems there. In
July 2001, Vance S. Fong, P.E., Quality Assur-
ance Manager for EPA's Pacific Southwest
Region, travelled to Vietnam as part of a U.S.
negotiating team, and came back with a U.S.-
Vietnam Agent Orange Research Agreement
that commits both countries to cooperate in
scientific research on monitoring technologies
and the health effects of Agent Orange.
Under the Agreement, the two countries
will collaborate on research to find the fastest,
most economical ways to find dioxin hot spots,
and evaluate various cleanup, containment,
and risk management methods, to reduce
human exposure to the toxins and improve
public health.
McFarland Air Study
As part of a comprehensive environmental
investigation in McFarland, an agricultural
community in California's San Joaquin Valley,
EPA is studying whether local residents are
exposed to pesticides and other chemicals in
the air they breathe. EPA has installed air
monitoring stations at two schools in separate
residential areas. Air sampling is being con-
ducted 24 hours a day during four three-week
intervals at different agricultural seasons of the
year. With over 150 chemicals being moni-
tored, this is one of the most comprehensive
community air toxics studies ever done.
Data will be used to assess health risks to
children and others in the community. This
study is expected to have significance for other
agricultural communities throughout the
Pacific Southwest. Scientific benefits include
improved air sampling and analysis methods for
a wide range of airborne contaminants.
Leviathan Mine Stream Monitoring
At the Leviathan Mine Superfund site in
Alpine County, Calif., where EPA's goal is to
prevent acid runoff from polluting streams, EPA
is monitoring the chemical and biological
health of the surrounding watershed to assess
the impacts of acid mine drainage. Chemical
levels in streams can vary tremendously in
response to daily and seasonal weather changes,
such as rain, sun, temperature, and snowmelt
rates, so samples are taken hourly.
-------
CLEAN LAND
EPA People
23
Jeff Dhont and the Montrose Cleanup
The Montrose Chemical Company
operated the West Coast's largest DDT
manufacturing plant in Torrance,
California, from 1947 to 1982. DDT-
contaminated runoff went into a
stormwater ditch which ultimately left
contaminated soil buried in the front
yards of a two-block residential area on
Kenwood Avenue, near the former DDT
plant. Jeff Dhont, EPA project manager
for this site, worked with a team of EPA
staff and contractors in 2001 to clean up
and restore the yards of 22 homes.
Jeff has been a project manager with
EPA since 1983. While focused on the
Montrose site for the past six years, he
has also worked on many other toxic cleanup sites. Jeff is known for his excellent
planning skills, tireless attention to detail, perseverance, and the ability to work
effectively with a large team of contractors and EPA staff, as well as community
members. He has superior knowledge of Superfund technical and regulatory require-
ments, and takes innovative approaches to problem-solving.
These qualities were essential for the yard excavation project. Jeff's team carried
out an extensive dust suppression and air monitoring program. They removed 1,500
truckloads of contaminated soil and replaced it with clean soil. They made sure
residential yards were re-landscaped according to plans that EPA developed with the
residents of each house. They kept residents informed every step of the way, and
provided them free housing in local hotels during the construction work.
By January 2002, the job was done, and EPA Regional Administrator Wayne
Nastri called it"... a huge success. We have left this neighborhood cleaner and safer
by permanently removing the possible health threat from DDT and making the yards
as clean or cleaner than yards elsewhere in Los Angeles." For more information on
the Montrose cleanup, call Jeff Dhont at 415-972-3020.
Ecosystem health is also being assessed
through analysis of water, sediments, and
aquatic invertebrates. This bioassessment work
is done by University of California researchers.
Combining field ecology and chemical analysis
this way is expected to give EPA a better
understanding of ecological risks and potential
ecosystem recovery after cleanup.
-------
chapter
PREYEN1INGPOLLU1ION
It's easier, cheaper, and more effective
to prevent pollution than to clean it up
after it's produced. EPA has a number
of voluntary pollution prevention part-
nerships with states, local governments
and businesses, involving recycling,
waste minimization, energy efficiency,
and much more. For details, go to
www.epa.gov/region09/p2.
Preventing Pollution Through Incentives, Enforcement
EPA also works with state and tribal governments to encourage
voluntary pollution prevention efforts and enforce federal regulations
that prevent pollution, such as rules to prevent leaks in underground fuel
storage tanks; hazardous waste storage, tracking, and disposal regulations;
and public disclosure of toxic releases and use (the Toxics Release
Inventory, available on the Web at www.epa.gov/tri).
Regulated facilities, from military bases to oil refineries to the corner
gas station, are subject to surprise inspections by EPA and state, county,
or tribal environmental inspectors. Penalties are adjusted to fit the
seriousness of the violation and the responsible party's ability to pay.
Fines can add up quickly for major facilities with multiple violations.
Last year, for example, a joint EPA/Hawaii Department of Health case
against the University of Hawaii resulted in a record $1.7 million penalty.
The University had numerous violations of hazardous waste regulations
and was storing the wastes in ways that endangered students and staff.
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PREVENTING POLLUTION
Partnerships
EPA's Pacific Southwest Agriculture
Initiative
Agriculture is an extremely important eco-
nomic sector in the Pacific Southwest. It
accounts for the majority of land use and has
major impacts on public health and natural
resources. EPA's regional Agriculture Initiative
supports sustainable farming methods that are
economically viable, environmentally sound,
and socially responsible. Since 1994, EPA
has been working with growers, the U.S.
Department of Agriculture, state agencies,
universities, and nonprofits on dozens of EPA
grant-funded projects. Highlights include:
EPA Agriculture Grants in 2001
Last year, EPA awarded $454,200 in new grants
to fund nine California projects to reduce
pesticide use and support environmentally
responsible farming practices, including new
pest management strategies that minimize use
of toxic pesticides such as organophosphates,
carbamate and other carcinogens.
"This funding represents the EPA's con-
tinuing commitment to work with the farming
community, academia, other government
agencies and nonprofits to lessen pesticide use
and risk in California," says Enrique
Manzanilla, a division director in EPA's Pacific
Southwest office in San Francisco. "Ultimately
these projects will result in improved environ-
mental and health conditions for everyone from
the field workers who apply pesticides to the
consumers who enjoy the produce." EPA
awarded grants to:
University of California (Davis) Sustain-
able Agriculture Research & Education
Program (UCSAREP), $200,000 for the
Biologically Integrated Farming Systems
Project, which conducts research and
development on biologically-based
practices and reduced pesticide use,
through public-private partnerships with
growers of commodities such as prunes,
25
almonds, apples grapes, dairy products,
and strawberries.
Organic Farming Research Foundation
(Santa Cruz), $84,000 to support the
research and development of organic
methods for pest and disease
management.
Center for Agricultural Partnerships,
$30,000 for on-farm trials of pheremones
and other integrated pest management
methods to reduced pesticide use on
walnuts.
Opposite: EPA awarded a
$30,000 grant last year to
the Sonoma County Grape
Growers for on-farm
demonstrations of pest
management alternatives
for wine grapes. Photo by
Gerald F. S. Hiatt.
Beiow: Jamie Liebman of
EPA's regional agriculture
team, at a cotton gin near
ChowcMla, Calif. EPA Photo
Minor Crops Council (Visalia), $30,000
to identify pest management priorities
and strategies for 10 commodities.
Sonoma County Grape Growers (Santa
Rosa), $30,000 for on-farm experiments,
education, and demonstrations of pest
management alternatives for wine grapes.
UC Riverside Entomology Department
(Coachella Valley), $30,000 for research
EPA's regional Agriculture Initiative supports sustainable farming
methods that are economically viable and environmentally sound.
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PREVENTING POLLUTION
and development on alternatives to
pesticides for ant control on table grapes.
California Prune Board (Fresno), $22,000
to develop a pest management strategy
and a database to track its results.
UCSAREP (Davis), $20,000 for on-farm
research and demonstration of the use of
weather models for disease management
in strawberries, which can potentially
reduce fungicide use.
California Tree Fruit Agreement growers,
$8,200 for outreach to farmers and
demonstrations of methods to reduce
pesticide risks and use on peaches, plums
and nectarines.
Agriculture Grants Get Results
The results of EPA's support of UCSAREP's
Biologically Integrated Farming Systems (BIFS)
and similar agricultural projects over the past
few years are impressive. Among them:
By 2000, 27 cotton growers participating
Summary of Impacts of Biologically Integrated Farming Systems (BIFS) Projects*
Prunes
Walnuts
Apples
Rice
Dairy
6,303
3,430
1,540
14,000
5,500
33
12
19
was eliminated on
all BIFS farms
83% of BIFS
orchards
eliminated OPs
in 2000
19 BIFS orchards
reduced OPs by
59% and car-
bamates by 92%
BIFS growers use
less than half the
amt of herbicides
compared to avg
Reduced use of
synthetic
Fertilizers
water reduced
on nearly all BIFS
prune farms
BIFS growers
reduced Nitrogen
Fertilizer use by
53 Ibs per acre
(avg)
Use of all
traditional
pesticides was
reduced by 72%
in BIFS orchards
Alternative
practices include
non-chemical
weed methods
Demonstrate
improved liquid
manure
management
* Soim: UCSAREP. Conplm data !i ovoilibb ot: miw.iorip.iidovli.idi ** OP= orgoiophniphoti; BIFS = llologiiolly litigrotid For.ing SyiHn
in the nonprofit Sustainable Cotton
Project's Biological Agriculture Systems
in Cotton (BASIC) program reduced
their use of insecticides and miticides by
83%, thereby reducing production costs
by as much as $150 per acre.
Results of the Biologically Integrated
Farming Systems project include
reductions in the use of organophos-
phates and other toxic pesticides,
prevention of water pollution, and
adoption of integrated pest and soil
management methods. (See specifics in
the chart below).
Whitman Praises Scottsdale, Arizona
and Intel for Environmental Excellence
On a January 9, 2002, visit to Arizona, EPA
Administrator Christie Whitman praised the
city of Scottsdale's government and the Intel
computer chip manufacturing facility in
Chandler for their environmental achieve-
ments in two EPA voluntary pollution preven-
tion programs,
Performance Track
and Project XL (for
eXcellence and
Leadership).
Performance Track is
a voluntary program
for business, industry,
and local govern-
ments in which
members commit to
improving their
environmental
performance over a
three-year period,
then track their
progress toward the
goals they set. From
1997 to 2000, the city
government of
Scottsdale improved
its energy efficiency
by nearly 20%, thus
preventing an
estimated 3.3 million
tons of air pollution
and saving local
taxpayers $80,000 in
energy costs. The city
meetings reached
1,100 people in
2000
Cover crops
increased from
60% in 1999 to
75% in 2000
Actual cost is
$296/acre which
is only $10 more
than conventional
Also includes
reduced use oF
chemical
Fertilizer
Controlled use
of water
nutrients help
prevent water
contamination
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PREVENTING POLLUTION
27
also tripled its use of compressed natural gas,
which burns cleaner than gasoline, to fuel
vehicles.
EPA's Pacific Southwest Region has 30
participants in Performance Track, including
the cities of Berkeley and San Diego, Calif.
All have made specific commitments to reduce
the amounts of solid waste they generate, the
electricity and water they use, and reach other
environmental goals. EPA is helping the latter
two cities set up Environmental Management
Systems to identify opportunities for improve-
ment.
Whitman called the Intel XL program a
model for the nation. In five years, the Chan-
dler facility has recycled 2.5 billion gallons of
water, and now recycles 65% of its waste. For
details on this and other innovative projects, go
to www.epa.gov/Region09/cross_pr/innovations.
EPA Grants Fund State, Local Initiatives
Last year, EPA's Pollution Prevention program
in the Pacific Southwest managed over $3
million in active grants, including funding for:
The California Department of Health
Services to conduct waste audits as six
hospitals participating in EPA's Hospitals
for a Healthy Environment partnership.
The hospitals achieved substantial
reductions in waste materials such as
mercury, plastic blue wrap, janitorial
chemicals, and cardboard. One hospital
alone reduced plastic waste - which
formerly went to an incinerator by 13
tons annually.
The Nevada Small Business Develop-
ment Center's Business Environmental
Program, which responded to 793 calls
for assistance, trained 419 people and
conducted 85 on-site consultations,
reducing waste by 139,108 pounds, and
saving businesses $48,280.
The California State Water Resources
Control Board, to train 100 inspectors on
pollution prevention for metal finishing
in Sacramento, San Jose, San Francisco
and San Diego. The training was based
on EPA-developed tools and approaches.
Western Nevada Community College, to
establish a STAR (Spray Technique
Analysis and Research) training
program and trained painters to use
efficient techniques.
The Arizona Department of
Environmental Quality (ADEQ) to work
with seven companies to reduce their
generation of persistent, bioaccumulative,
toxic wastes. They eliminated a com-
bined total of 8,1911bs. of chrome,
113,000 Ibs. of lead, 615 Ibs. of nickel,
36,279 Ibs. of copper and 120 Ibs. of
mercury from their waste streams.
ANGER PELIGR
Nevada Mines Partnership Aims
to Reduce Mercury Emissions
Since a new toxics disclosure regulation took
effect in 1998, Nevada gold mines have
reported releasing more than 13,000 pounds of
vaporized, highly toxic mercury each year. EPA
has been working with the mine operators to
drastically reduce these emissions.
Mercury affects the nervous system and has
long been known to have toxic effects on
humans and wildlife. It also accumulates in the
tissues of animals and is very persistent in the
environment. Because mercury dissolves in
water, it can have devastating effects on aquatic
ecosystems.
"Once the reporting began, the amount of
mercury emissions reported by Nevada gold
mines really shocked us," says Dave Jones,
Waste Division Associate Director in EPA's
To protect workers, warning
signs like this must be posted
in agricultural fields during
and immediately after
pesticide application. EPA
photo.
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PREVENTING POLLUTION
EPA1 s Nancy Rumrill
inspects a hazardous waste
storage area. EPA photo.
Pacific Southwest office. "One facility had a
total of over 9,400 pounds of mercury in their
emissions while another had over 2,200
pounds. By comparison, an average coal-fired
power plant emits only about 250 pounds of
mercury per year. These data really pinpointed
an area that needed immediate attention."
EPA and the Nevada Department of
Environmental Protection (NDEP) approached
the mining industry, which expressed interest
in voluntarily reducing mercury emissions.
Then, over the past two years, the gold mines
tracked down their mercury sources, and
developed mercury control strategies. EPA,
NDEP, and the mines are now working together
in a voluntary partnership to establish specific
goals for mercury emission reductions. Proposals
to reduce mercury emissions by 33 percent by
the end of 2002 and 50 percept by the end of
2003 are under discussion.
EPAs national database of toxic releases
and use, the Toxics Release Inventory, is on the
Web at www.epa.gov/tri. It is searchable by zip
code, to provide local data to users nationwide.
Jewelry Mart Partnership Looks
to Reduce Toxics
Some of Nevada's gold production ends up in
downtown Los Angeles, whose jewelry manu-
facturing district is the nation's second largest,
with more than 30 high-rise buildings provid-
ing space for about 700 businesses, mostly
small, that employ 15,000 workers. Many of
them are exposed to toxic heavy metals in the
air they breathe. EPA, in partnership with state
and local governments, jewelry manufacturers,
and building owners is creatively solving the
"Jewelry Mart" district's pollution problems.
Emissions produced by each individual
business typically do not exceed legal limits, but
the emissions they produce collectively are
dangerous. Tests by the California Department
of Toxic Substances Control have confirmed
hazardous levels of cadmium, chromium, lead,
copper, nickel, silver, and zinc in the air,
threatening the health of workers, as well as
people simply walking by.
Environmental inspectors often found that
workers were not using protective gear. They
also discovered that some manufacturers may
have discharged acid and cyanide solutions into
drains, which can combine to create deadly
hydrogen cyanide gas.
Changing the situation is complicated by
the fact that many of the artisans and workers
speak languages other than English. Neverthe-
less, this government-business partnership has
developed guidelines to ensure that jewelry
makers can safely reduce, recycle, store, and
dispose of jewelry manufacturing wastes.
"The partnership is providing these small
businesses with clear guidelines and technical
and financial information to make them safe for
workers and the environment," says Kathy
Kaplan, Industry Partnership Coordinator for
waste programs in EPAs Pacific Southwest
Region. "The size of these operations, and their
economic importance to Los Angeles, call for
creative, partnership-oriented solutions."
Integrated Pest Management in Schools
EPAs Pacific Southwest pesticide program is
making a concerted effort to introduce inte-
grated pest management (IPM) projects in
schools, to reduce children's exposure to toxic
pesticides. IPM minimizes use of toxics while
still keeping schools free of pests. The following
are highlights of several IPM projects currently
underway. These projects, together with other
IPM efforts EPA supported in the region, have
the potential to benefit over a million children.
Los Angeles Unified School District
(LAUSD): This gigantic school district,
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PREVENTING POLLUTION
29
with approximately 800,000 students and
75,000 employees, used EPA Buy Clean
for Schools grant funds to train school
personnel in IPM approaches, such as
low-risk alternatives to pesticides. Since
the district's IPM policy was initiated,
LAUSD has reduced the number of
pesticides used on school grounds from
120 to 35 products. LAUSD will also
develop an IPM manual for all staff, and
training procedures to be shared with
other districts.
Kyrene School District, Tempe, AZ: This
partnership of universities, the private
sector, and state and federal agencies
initially involved three pilot schools,
where a 90% reduction in pesticide use
was achieved. It was so successful it will
be expanded to cover the whole district,
which includes 25 schools serving
approximately 20,000 students. The
partners produced a brochure describing
the Kyrene model. EPA provided
additional funds to study the use of
organic acids to reduce fire ant and
mosquito populations.
Recycling
EPAs national goal is for recycling and
composting to divert at least 35% of municipal
solid waste from landfills and combustion, by
working in partnership with state and local
governments and the private sector. California
has already far exceeded this, recycling 46% of
its trash by 2000, thanks largely to a 1989 state
law, sponsored by State Senator Byron Sher,
that required local governments to achieve a
50% waste reduction goal within ten years (a
subsequent law extended the deadline to 2005).
EPA catalyzes local waste reduction efforts
through grants. Over the last three years, EPA
support for recycling in California included:
A grant to Solana Recyclers in Encinitas,
San Diego County, which trained 218
community college students to conduct
waste audits, reduced waste by 3,500 tons,
conducted audits that saved local
businesses more than $500,000, and
expanded the Recycled Product Purchas-
ing Cooperative nationwide. The
cooperative sells low cost recycled paper
to 150 organizations and has become self-
sustaining (for details, go to
www. recydedproducts. org).
A grant to the San Francisco-based
Materials for the Future Foundation for
five building deconstruction pilot
projects that provided job training to 221
people, diverted 2,119 tons of lumber and
steel from landfills, and leveraged more
than $600,000 in outside funding.
Reusing and recycling these building
materials reduced greenhouse gas
emissions by 898 metric tons of carbon
equivalent, equal to a year's emissions
from 675 cars.
EPAs California Jobs Through Recycling
grant helped start nine recycling busi-
nesses in Alameda County, creating 60
localjobs and diverting 37,177 tons of
waste per year from landfills. One of
these, Bay Area Tire Recycling in San
Leandro, processes 7,500 tons of tires per
year to produce rubberized asphalt for
road surfacing. The company expects to
reach 15,000 tons per year. This grant
also supports:
St. Vincent de Paul, a nonprofit that
recycles mattresses, box springs, couches,
recliners, and hide-a-beds, producing
polyurethane foam, shredded spring steel,
shredded mixed fiber, and shredded
wood. The group recycles 1,440 tons per
year of materials that would otherwise
end up in landfills.
Kat/iyBayiorofEPA's
regional waste division (left),
with contract personnel taking
samples of hazardous waste
on Guam. EPA Photo.
-------
PREVENTING POLLUTION
Sign on Pyramid Lake Paiute
land. EPA Photo.
Other states have farther to go. Nevada, for
example, recycled only 11% of its waste in
2000. To help jump-start recycling in Nevada,
in March 2001 EPA co-sponsored the Nevada
Recycling Forum in Las Vegas with the Nevada
Department of Environmental Protection
(NDEP) and Clark County (Las Vegas area)
Health District. Nearly 100 people attended
the forum, which focused on recycling opportu-
nities.
EPA's support of recycling in Nevada,
Arizona, and Hawaii included grants to:
The Clark County Public Education
Foundation, to establish a materials reuse
warehouse and conduct recycling and
reuse education in Clark County, Nev.
Stardust Building Supplies in Phoenix,
Ariz., for a model residential demolition
permit review program and will recover
reusable building materials from 90
homes prior to demolition.
Maui Recycling Group in Pukalani,
to expand a comprehensive Web-based
electronic reuse database for Hawaiian
nonprofit organizations and the public.
Making EPA and Federal Agencies Greener
Last year, employees at EPA's Pacific Southwest
Regional Office in San Francisco recycled over
190 tons of cans, bottles, and paper worth
$16,000 from their offices. But EPA's efforts to
make the federal government "greener" didn't
end there. Last year EPA also:
reviewed and commented on 63, or
100%, of federal agencies' Draft Environ-
mental Impact Statements (EISs) in the
Pacific Southwest. In EISs, the agencies
must analyze the environmental impact
of a proposed action. Examples include
permits for mining, or constructing
freeways and federally-funded water and
flood control projects. EPA reviews of
Draft EISs are done when projects are
still in the planning stage, and EPA can
raise issues that reduce environmental
impacts. EPA's comments last year
brought about major changes to protect
the environment in the Colusa Basin
(Calif.) Integrated Resources Manage-
ment Plan, the East Bay (Calif.) Munici-
pal Utility District Supplemental Water
Supply Project, and the Salton Sea
(Calif.) Restoration Project.
conducted Environmental Management
Reviews at General Services Administra-
tion (GSA) facilities in San Francisco and
Tucson, and the Naval Base Point Loma in
San Diego. These reviews analyze oppor-
tunities to reduce waste and pollution by
changing standard operating procedures.
For major facilities like military bases, the
environmental benefits can be huge.
Results are tracked by comparing EPA's
recommendations with a follow-up report
prepared by the facility.
held pollution prevention workshops for
environmental managers at military bases,
and for other federal facilities, such as hos-
pitals, on minimizing medical waste, green
building practices, and purchasing environ-
mentally preferable products.
Preventing Pesticide, Lead Poisoning
on Tribal Lands
To assist tribes in the Pacific Southwest with
preventing pesticide and lead poisoning on
tribal lands, EPA has issued 29 grants (one to a
consortium of four tribes) with a total annual
funding level of $2.4 million. EPA has also
provided training to tribal environmental
agency staff, as well as growers, on compliance
with federal pesticide regulations, including the
Worker Protection Standard.
The grants support a variety of efforts on tribal
lands, such as:
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PREVENTING POLLUTION
31
Enforcement of federal pesticide
regulations.
Conducting reservation-wide pesticide
use assessments to identify problem areas.
Educating school staff, tribal parks and
wildlife departments, and tribal
communities about the use, misuse, and
risks of pesticides.
Sampling for pesticide contamination in
water and in plants used for basketry.
EPA has also been providing funds and
training to tribes for several years to help them
develop their own lead poisoning prevention
programs and assess lead hazards on tribal lands.
Last year EPA also awarded grants seven tribes
for educational outreach and blood screening.
Soledad Prison Tries Nontoxic Wet Cleaning
for Uniforms
EPA and California Department of Corrections
(CDC) officials visited Soledad State Prison in
June 2001 to announce the nation's first prison
program where inmates will use wet cleaning,
an environmentally responsible alternative to
dry cleaning (which uses toxic chemicals), as
part of its vocational training program.
The program, made possible by a $10,000
federal grant from the Vocational and Technical
Education Act, $12,000 in CDC vocational
funds, and a $40,000 EPA grant to the Environ-
mental Finance Center in Hayward, Calif.,
allows Soledad inmates to process 23 tons of
laundry per year while learning a new trade.
Prisoners clean officers' uniforms, prison
employees' clothing, and laundry for local non-
profit organizations, such as school band
uniforms and graduation gowns.
Infrastructure
Over 100 Tribes Now Have Own
Environmental Programs
Environmental infrastructure isn't just pipes and
concrete. It's also state, local, and tribal govern-
ment agencies with trained staff enforcing
environmental laws. Since state governments
have no jurisdiction on Indian lands, the job
falls to EPA and the tribes. Of the 572 feder-
ally-recognized tribes in the nation, 147 (26%)
are located in the Pacific Southwest. These
reservations make up nearly 50% of all Indian
land in the United States, and have approxi-
mately 26% of the total tribal population.
Since the 1980s, EPA has been working
with the tribes to build their own environmen-
tal agencies to carry out federal environmental
laws. Ten years ago, only a handful of tribes in
the Pacific Southwest had such programs.
Today, about 90% of Pacific Southwest tribes
have one, or are developing one.
Sunset in the Monument
Valley, on the Navajo
Nation. Photo by Gerald
RS. Hiatt.
While many of these programs are still in
their initial stages of development, improve-
ments in reservation environments in the last
decade have demonstrated the effectiveness of
the EPA/tribal partnership. One example is the
closing of dozens of open dumps on tribal lands.
Tribes in the Pacific Southwest have also made
great strides in developing partnerships with
other federal and state agencies, as well as with
neighboring communities.
To find out more about EPA's work with
Indian tribes, go to www.epa.gov/region09/
Indian.
Enforcement
Illegal Household Pest Products
Pose Hazards
Last year, EPA assessed penalties totaling over
$200,000 against 15 businesses caught selling or
distributing illegal, unregistered household
pesticide products in violation of federal law.
Businesses in California, Nevada, Hawaii, and
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PREVENTING POLLUTION
These illegal multicolored
mothballs are a hazard to
children because they look like
candy. Photo by Jim Grove.
Guam were penalized for selling illegal products
such as insecticidal chalk and moth balls (see
photo, this page), which are a hazard to
children, who may ingest their poisons.
Between 1992 and 1995, Poison Control
Centers nationwide received 668 reports of
poisoning incidents involving insecticide chalk,
which is indistinguishable from regular white
blackboard chalk. EPA is cooperating with
states and tribes in an effort to stop the sale and
use of this hazardous product.
How to Identify Illegal Pest Products
If you use such common products as flea and
tick repellents for your pets, antibacterial
cleansers, mothballs, or other household pest
products, take a close look at their labels. Some
of these products may be illegal and endanger
your children, your pets, or yourself.
Most of the illegal products are also
available in legal, registered versions. The main
safety concern with these illegal products is
that though they may look similar to, and make
the same pesticidal claims as, their legal
counterparts, the illegal versions have not been
thoroughly tested for efficacy and toxicity.
Their ingredients often remain unknown. And
since the products are unregistered, their labels
have not been reviewed for adequate directions
and safety warnings.
For example, foreign-labeled, unregistered
versions of the common pet products Advan-
tage and Frontline, though registered in other
countries, have omitted important warnings,
especially those
pertaining to chil-
dren. For versions
imported from
England and Austra-
lia, doses are often
given in metric units,
which can lead
Americans to
unwittingly overdose
or under-dose pets.
Illegal naphthalene
moth repellents
(mothballs) pose an
attractive hazard to
young children.
Mothballs can easily
be mistaken for candy,
or simply tempt young children to touch and
play with them. Recent studies have linked
naphthalene to illnesses, including nasal
cancer.
Insecticide chalk has been imported
illegally, primarily from China. It is illegal in
any form. The toxic chalk poses a particular
risk for children because it looks like regular
chalk, and lacks child-proof packaging. For
more details, go to www.epa.gov/region09/toxic/
pest/chalk.
Sale and distribution of these types of
unregistered products continues to be wide-
spread. If you have any in your house, or see
them on sale, call Pam Cooper of EPAs Pacific
Southwest Pesticides and Toxics Section, at
415-947-4217.
Lead Hazards, Disclosure, Contractor
Certification
Lead poisoning is one of the most serious
environmental threats to children. Elevated
blood lead levels can retard young children's
mental and physical development. EPA and
other state and federal agencies are working to
protect children from exposure to lead-based
paint (present in most homes built before
1978), which is the most common source of
lead poisoning.
Sellers and landlords of all homes built
before 1978 are required to disclose the
presence of lead paint to prospective buyers and
tenants. If the seller, landlord, or buyer will
want to make the property safe, they should
hire a contractor certified for lead paint work.
EPA and state agencies certify trained workers
and firms who are qualified, as well as people
and firms qualified to do the training.
For certified trainers in California, go to
www. dhs.ca.gov/childlead/html/CRTcrse. html.
For certified trainers in Arizona,
Nevada, Hawaii, Pacific islands, and tribal
lands, go to www.epa.gov/region09/toxic/Jead/
training.html.
EPA Science
Using GIS for Environmental Justice
Geograpic Information Systems (GIS) is a
computer mapping technology that can display
any number of variables simultaneously. Last
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PREVENTING POLLUTION
EPA People
33
Tag Team Spreads Green Message
To Auto Repair Shops
EPA's Leif Magnuson and John Katz have
reduced smog and other pollution in the
Pacific Southwest through an innovative
partnership with the auto and fleet
maintenance industries.
The Auto Repair and Fleet Mainte-
nance Pollution Prevention Project,
which involved training staff from 24
vehicle fleet facilities and 400 auto
shops, last year prevented an estimated
720 tons of pollution and saved over $1
million for participants. This program is
a national model for an industry com-
prised of thousands of small businesses
that have a serious cumulative impact on the environment.
There are more than 40,000 auto repair shops in EPA's Pacific Southwest Region.
California's South Coast air district (the Los Angeles area) was so concerned about air
emissions from solvent sinks in auto shops and similar operations that they banned the
use of these sinks, preventing nearly 20 tons of smog-causing air pollution per day. Plus,
about 10% of the shops in California are not connected to public sewer systems, so
washwater, oil, degreasers and solvents end up contaminating land and groundwater.
Magnuson and Katz developed 15 fact sheets and two videos which directly addressed
the needs of shop owners. The materials, available on-line at www.epa.gov/region09/p2/
autofleet, provide complete technology descriptions, how-to tips, compliance informa-
tion, and case studies with cost and payback analysis. California, Arizona, Nevada,
Tennessee, the U.S. Department of the Interior and several cities are already using the
materials.
Magnuson and Katz helped trade associations and state and local agencies reach a
point where they can sustain the program on their own. The California Department of
Toxic Substances Control, for example, took over the training task for that state,
conducting 25 workshops, and training 800 shop owners, workers, and local agency staff
in 2001 alone. For more information, call Magnuson, at 415-972-3286, or Katz, at 415-
972-3283.
year, EPA used GIS to target an inspection
sweep of hazardous waste facilities near schools
in low-income, minority neighborhoods in
Vernon, Los Angeles County, California.
The goal was to send inspectors to facilities
with the greatest potential risk to the largest,
most vulnerable populations. The GIS em-
ployed census data showing income and
ethnicity by zip codes, and ranked hazardous
waste facilities based on their proximity to
schools. Then, inspectors from EPA, the state
Department of Toxic Substances Control, and
the city and county fanned out to inspect the
facilities closest to schools.
The sweep found violations of state and
federal hazardous waste regulations at 14
facilities, which resulted in fines and opera-
tional changes to ensure safe handling,
storage, and transport of hazardous waste.
Leif Magnuson and John
Katz of EPA's regional
pollution prevention team.
EPA photo.
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chapters ftVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION
EPA's customer service efforts in the
Pacific Southwest take a big step for-
ward in spring 2002 with the opening
of our Environmental Information
Center, and the startup of its toll-free
number: 866-EPA-WEST.
EPA Opens Environmental Information Center
In spring 2002, EPA's Pacific Southwest office is opening its new Envi-
ronmental Information Center, with a toll-free number for public
inquiries: 866-EPA-WEST. The center has consolidated EPA's visitor
reception area, call center, and public library. The center's staff assist
callers and visitors to the San Francisco regional office, who typically
include concerned citizens, students, educators, members of the regulated
community and others, answering their questions and providing access to
EPA's extensive environmental information resources. It's located on the
13th floor of our regional office at 75 Hawthorne St. in downtown San
Francisco, within walking distance of five public transit systems: BART,
Muni, AC Transit, SamTrans, and CalTrain.
EPA's Web Site
The Pacific Southwest area of the EPA Web site, www.epa.gov/region09
continues to provide the public with essential information about protec-
tion of air, water, and land in the region. Web site visitors can keep up on
Superfund site cleanups, participate in public comment opportunities on
important regulatory actions, learn more about recycling and waste
reduction, obtain technical assistance, and find out about job openings.
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35
Our regional home page has a new look
that reflects a transformation occurring
throughout EPA's Web site, including new,
standard features for all EPA Web pages. The
new elements significantly aid browsing,
searching, and returning to relevant EPA
topics. For EPA's main portal to environmental
information, go to www.epa.gov. For environ-
mental information specific to the states and
territories in the Pacific Southwest, go to
www. epa.gov/region09.
Environmental Education
Last year, EPA awarded 25 environmental
education grants totalling $398,418 to fund
projects in California, Arizona, Hawaii, and
Nevada.
Grantees included:
Food, Land & People, for an environ-
mental and agricultural curriculum now
used by nearly 12,000 teachers nation-
wide, reaching more than 300,000
students annually.
The California Coastal Commission, for
"Boating Clean and Green Campaign,
Phase III," to educate boaters and marina
operators on pollution prevention.
Adopt-A-Watershed, for an eight-day
summer training institute for 2,400
teachers, who will reach 61,000 students
in the first year.
Northern Arizona University, to train
teachers in tribal K-12 schools to do
environmental monitoring involving
atmosphere, remote sensing, land cover/
biology, and soils.
Hawaii Nature Center, to field test a
wetland education program for third
grade students at an O'ahu marsh
recently purchased by the state as a bird
sanctuary.
Champions of the Truckee River
(Nevada), to educate riverside communi-
ties on watershed management, water
quality, quantity, flooding and habitat.
To learn about EPA's environmental
education programs, go to www.epa.gov/
enviroed.
Opposite page: Students from
"Marine Mania" at George
Washington High School on
the Pacific island of Guam
received an EPA award last
year for protecting the marine
and shore environments of
Guam. The "MarineMania"
group, headed by teacher
Linda Tatreau, used school
outings to prevent oil spills,
clean up trash, and educate
others on the need to protect
coral reefs. Photo by John
McCarroll.
EPA People
Vicki Tsuhako and EPA's Pacific Islands Contact Office
Vicki Tsuhako has been working at EPA's Pacific Islands
Contact Office (PICO) in Honolulu for over 35 years. She
began working at the Honolulu office of EPA's predecessor
agency, the Federal Water Pollution Control Administration,
when it was established in 1966. In 1970, it became part of
the newly-formed EPA.
In 1975, EPA's regional administrator transferred everyone in the Honolulu office to
San Francisco - except Vicki, whose task was to serve as EPA's public information officer
and liaison with Hawaii's state and local governments, as well as governments of far-
flung Pacific islands like American Samoa, Saipan, and Guam. For the next twelve years,
she was EPA's lone pair of eyes and ears in the Pacific.
As EPA's responsibilities grew in the 1970s and 1980s as a result of new environmen-
tal laws, Vicki's workload grew. So in 1987 EPA hired another Oahu resident, Dean
Higuchi, to assist. Since then, Vicki and Dean have worked as a team. In recent years,
PICO has also had a receptionist, Alma Elmer; two people from EPA's regional Water
Division; and a visitor's cubicle for other EPA staff who come to Hawaii on brief
assignments for meetings, conferences and compliance monitoring. The PICO office, in
Room 5-152 of Honolulu's federal building, at 300 Ala Moana Blvd., can be reached at
808-541-2721.
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The Pacific Southwest area of
EPA's Web site, at
www.epa.gov/region09.
vvEPA Pacific Southwest/Region 9 Organization Chart
Office of the Regional Administrator: 415.947.8702
Regional Administrator: Wayne Nastri
Deputy RA: Laura Yoshii
Associate RA: Keith Takata
Office of Planning/Public Affairs
415.947.8700
Director: Solly Seymour
Public Information/News Media Relations
" Strategic Planning
Partnerships: State, Congressional Liaison
Fostering Innovation
Compliance Assurance Coordination
Air Division
415.947.8715
Director: Jack Broadbent
Planning Permits Rule Making
Enforcement Technical Support
' Radiation & Compliance Assurance
Water Division
415.947.8707
Director: Alexis Strauss
Clean Water Act
Safe Drinking Water Act
Marine Sanctuaries Act
U.S. Mexico Border Program
Waste Management Division
415.947.8708
Director: Jeff Scott
Pollution Prevention
Solid Waste Program
RCRA Permits/Corrective Action
RCRA Inspections & Enforcement
RCRA State Program Development
Underground Storage Tank Program
Superfund Division
415.947.8709
Acting Director: Jane Diamond
Site Cleanup Brownfields Oil Pollution
Federal Facilities and Base Closures
Emergency Response & Planning
Community Involvement Site Assessment
Office of the Regional Counsel
415.947.8705
Regional Counsel: Nancy Marvel
Legal Counsel
Enforcement
Cross Media Division
415.947.8704
Director: Enrique Manzanilla
Federal Facilities Coordination
Agricultural Initiative
Pesticides Toxics MERIT Partnership
Policy and Management Division
415.947.8706
Director: Nora McGee
Budget, Finance/Grants/Contracts
Superfund Cost Accounting Science Policy
Laboratory & QA/QC Facilities
Information Resource Management
Health & Safety Human Resources
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U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Pacific Southwest/Region 9 Contacts
Phone inquiries:
415-947-8000 or
866-EPA-WEST (toll-free)
Email inquiries:
r9.info@epa.gov
EPA Web site:
www.epa.gov
For Pacific Southwest issues:
www.epa.gov/region09
Offices
EPA Pacific Southwest Region
75 Hawthorne Street
San Francisco, CA 94105
EPA Pacific Islands Contact Office
300 Ala Moana Blvd., Room 5124
Honolulu, HI 96850
808-541-2721
EPA San Diego Border Office
610 West Ash St., Suite 703
San Diego, CA 92101
619-235-4765
To Obtain This Report
Order from EPAs Environmental Information Center
at 415-947-8000, or 866-EPA-WEST (toll-free),
email r9.info@epa.gov or view and print from the Internet at
www.epa.gov/region09/annualreport
Progress Report Production
Editor: David D. Schmidt
Email: schmidt.david@epa.gov
Design: Juliet Blackwell, www.julietblackwell.com
ฎEPA
Printed on 100% postconsumer recycled paper using vegetable-based inks.
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* Indian Reservations, Colonies
EPA's Pacific Southwest Region includes the States of Arizona, California, Hawaii and Nevada; 147 tribal nations and
communities; and Pacific islands such as American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands. Map shows
boundaries of states, counties and tribal lands.
ฉEPA
U.S. EPA Pacific Southwest/Region 9
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San Francisco, CA 94105
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