EPA PROGRESS REPORT 2004
PACIFIC SOUTHWEST REGION
®EPA
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Pacific Southwest/Region 9
EPA-909-R-04-001
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Dear Readers,
When it comes to the environment, one thing is certain: We are all in this
together. No single person, or agency, can do the job of protecting public health
and the environment alone.
EPA is firmly committed to building and enhancing our partnerships with states,
tribes, local governments, industry, and the agricultural and environmental commu-
nities. Collaboration is essential in securing real environmental results.
Here in the Pacific Southwest, the results of these joint efforts are everywhere.
In California last year, state and local agencies carried out over 91,000 haz-
ardous waste, emergency readiness, and fuel tank facility inspections to prevent oil
spills and toxic leaks.
In Indian Country, tribal governments in 2003 made significant improvements
to drinking water and wastewater infrastructure serving some 20,000 homes, bring-
ing better health protection to their tribal communities. Of the 146 tribes in the
Pacific Southwest, 131 are developing their own environmental programs.
In Arizona, the Phoenix area has met health standards for carbon monoxide
and ozone for six years in a row, thanks to state and local air quality measures.
California's San Joaquin Valley, where air quality has become an urgent health
issue, is in the early stages of a similar effort that calls upon everyone to contribute.
In Nevada, the state's four largest gold mining companies have taken voluntary
measures to reduce their air emissions of mercury by 40%. In Hawaii, representa-
tives from across the Pacific gathered to plan new strategies for protecting coral
reefs and other endangered resources.
EPA supports efforts like these with funding, coordination and collaboration.
For example, last year EPA's Pacific Southwest Regional Office issued over $341
million to states and tribes in grants and loans for water programs, from drinking
water infrastructure to enforcement of clean water laws. These funds leverage even
greater amounts from state and local governments.
In those areas where EPA has the leading role, we are proud of our accomplish-
ments in the Pacific Southwest. In 2003, through compliance assistance and a strong
enforcement presence, we significantly reduced pollution and helped ensure a level
economic playing field for industry. Cleanup work continues to reduce health threats
related to the 123 Superfund sites in our region. In this report you will find countless
other efforts to make our air cleaner, our water purer, and our land better protected.
As our population and economy grow, so do the environmental and public
health challenges. Together, we can create innovative solutions that protect our
health and provide for future generations.
Wayne Nastri
Regional Administrator
EPA Pacific Southwest Region
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CONTENTS
Clean Air 2
Clean Water 8
Clean Land 14
Communities & Ecosystems 20
Compliance & Stewardship 26
Map of EPA's Pacific Southwest Region 32
Contacts/Organization Chart Back Cover
This report is also available on the Internet at www.epa.gov/region09/annualreport
Photo credits: Cover photo of Sedona, Ariz., courtesy of Dominic Oldershaw; photo of coral reef courtesy of National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration/U.S. Dept. of Commerce. Page 2 photo courtesy of National Resources Conservation Service/U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (USDA).
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CLEAN AIR
The Central Valley's air pollution
problems stem from a variety of
sources, including diesel engines,
dust, cars and trucks, smoke, and
the valley's topography and weather,
which traps pollutants close to the
ground in winter. Solutions will
need to address all these factors.
Coming Together to Improve Air Quality
in California's San Joaquin Valley
The San Joaquin Valley has some of the worst air pollution in the nation.
Airborne particulates (dust and soot) and smog pose a significant health
threat to everyone who lives there, especially children, seniors, and people
with respiratory problems. The valley is classified as a "serious" non-attain-
ment area for particulates and a "severe" non-attainment area for ozone
(smog) because it fails to meet national health standards set by EPA under the
Clean Air Act. The valley's air agency, the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution
Control District, has requested reclassification to " extreme" for smog, which
would allow more time to achieve the health standard.
While this reclassification calls for tighter emission controls, there's no
question that reaching the goal of clean air will also require innovative,
collaborative action to identify voluntary measures and other strategies to
reduce air pollution.
CLEAN AIR
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Last year SB700 was passed, ending California's agri-
cultural exemption to the Clean Air Act requirement that
major air pollution sources go through the permitting
process to limit their emissions. EPA held six workshops
to help farmers determine whether they need to apply for
such permits, and received 26 permit applications for sta-
tionary diesel irrigation pump engines. After SB700 took
effect, on January 1, 2004, the state's air districts became
the permitting authority.
Also in 2003, the air district adopted, and the state
submitted to EPA, a plan for meeting the PM10 particu-
late health standard. EPA proposed to approve it in
January 2004. "This plan ensures everyone will contribute
to the solution," commented EPA Regional Administrator
Wayne Nastri. "In particular, the agricultural community
stepped up to develop ways to cut on-field emissions." EPA
is also involved in a number of related efforts to clean up
the valley's air.
Operation Clean Air
EPA is providing funding and technical support to public
agencies and nonprofits in the context of a clean air strat-
egy that strengthens partnerships among federal, state, and
local agencies and community groups, which are working
together as the Central Valley Task Force.
As part of the task force, EPA cosponsored the April
2003 kickoff conference for Operation Clean Air, a new
collaborative effort to promote voluntary anti-pollution
measures. EPA's Nastri gave the keynote address at the
conference. To ensure that the effort included diversity
among its participants, EPA funded scholarships for 30
nonprofit groups in the valley to attend the conference.
Cutting Pollution from Diesel Engines
One effort that already benefits valley residents is USDA's
Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), which
provided nearly $2.7 million last year to replace 250 diesel
irrigation engines on valley farms. Replacing these engines
with newer, cleaner-burning ones eliminates approximately
one ton of smog-forming nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions
per year, per engine. Thus far, the program is estimated to
have already reduced NOx emissions by 470 tons per
year. EPA worked with USDA to make the funding avail-
able. Building on the California Air Resources Board's
similar, highly successful Carl Moyer Program, EQIP
helps farmers and ranchers do their part to clean up the
valley's air. Over the next several years, USDA plans to
provide $12 million for EQIP, which could potentially
eliminate 1,000 tons per year of NOx from the valley's air.
Another voluntary but highly effective anti-pollution
measure is the Locomotive Anti-Idling Project. EPA, in part-
nership with the San Joaquin Valley air district and the two
major West Coast railroads, Burlington Northern Santa Fe
and Union Pacific, plans to retrofit several switching loco-
motives used only in the San Joaquin Valley. The railroads
are providing $75,000 in matching funds to install anti-
idling devices on at least 10 of these locomotives to reduce
NOx, sulfur dioxide, and diesel particulate emissions from
these relatively dirty engines during extensive periods of
idling. The microprocessor technology automatically shuts
down and restarts the engine as needed, while reducing
idling time by as much as 50 percent. The project is expected
reduce annual NOx emissions by 1.53 tons, while saving
over 10,000 gallons of fuel, per locomotive.
One more example is EPA's Clean School Bus USA
program, which reduces children's exposure to diesel
exhaust and the amount of air pollution created by school
buses. Last year, EPA awarded Clovis Unified School
District in Fresno County $286,700 to retrofit 53 buses
with diesel oxidation catalysts and test their performance
on emulsified diesel fuel. In addition, the district will retro-
fit nine buses with particulate filters and fuel them with
ultra-low-sulfur diesel. The school district operates a bus
fleet with 54 routes serving 33,418 children. The fleet is
EPA's Indoor Air Quality Tools for Schools exhibit at the
Operation Clean Air event in Fresno, April 2003.
CLEAN AIR
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Air Quality Trends in Larger Population Areas, 1994 - 2003
OZONE (Smog) Exceedances • National 1-hour Standard
Number of days exceeding the national ozone standard
(0.12 parts per million 1-hour concentration)
at one or more monitors.
SOUTH COAST. CA
S. E. DESERT, CA
SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY, CA
VENTURA COUNTY. CA
^^f SAN DIEGO COUNTY. CA
SACRAMENTO METRO. CA
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA. CA
PHOENIX, AZ
^^^^ TUCSON. AZ
LAS VEGAS, NV
HONOLULU. HI
For an air district to attain the national health standard for ozone, it must have no more than three days with ozone exceeding
the standard during the previous three years.
Pacific Southwest Air Districts
That Have Not Attained National
Health Standards for Air Quality
Areas Not Attaining Air Quality
Standards in 2004*
C3 Ozone (1-hour standard)
mn Paniculate Matter (PM10)
EZ3 Carbon Monoxide
o
GUAM
'Areas shown on map are nonattainmenl areas without a finding of attainment by 2004.
Shaded areas on map show districts where air does not meet national health standards for ozone
(smog), particulates (dust, soot, and aerosols), or carbon monoxide.
CLEAN AIR
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fully committed during the school year, and operates at
about 50% capacity during the summer.
Indoor Air Quality and Air Toxics
EPA's Indoor Air Quality Tools for Schools program pro-
vided a $57,000 grant to the University of Tulsa to help the
Fresno Teachers Association and the Fresno Unified School
District's 89 schools identify, correct, and prevent indoor
air quality problems. EPA also offered training to staff and
teachers and performed school walk-throughs in Fresno
and other Central Valley districts. EPA also gave Clovis
Unified School District (37 schools) a Tools for Schools
Excellence Award for reducing indoor air hazards, includ-
ing pollutants that trigger asthma attacks.
In 2004, EPA is planning to award $150,000 in
Community Air Toxics grants for projects that reduce toxic
emissions in urban areas. Proposed projects will focus on
two issues of concern: implementation of reduction activi-
ties that have been identified through a community-based,
collaborative process, and which address stationary,
mobile, and area pollution sources; and diesel exhaust
reduction strategies.
Progress in Coastal, Desert
Population Centers
The trend in air quality for most of the Pacific South-
west's metropolitan areas continues to be positive. On the
California coast, the San Diego and Santa Barbara air dis-
tricts have both achieved the national health standard for
ozone (smog) for several years, so EPA officially redesig-
nated them as "in attainment" of the standard. Based on
the most recent three years of monitoring data in the San
Francisco Bay Area, through 2003, EPA announced a
"finding of attainment" for ozone in early 2004.
After years of steady improvement, the number of
unhealthy air days has begun to rise in California's most
populous air basin, the greater Los Angeles area (see ozone
trends graph, facing page). EPA is working with the South
Coast Air Quality Management District and others to
assess these developments and strengthen progress toward
healthy air.
EPA also worked with the state Air Resources Board,
local air agency, tribes, and the city of Los Angeles to
update a dust control (PM10) plan for rural Owens Valley,
east of the southern Sierra Nevada. For decades, the valley
had been plagued by dust storms rising from the dry
Owens Lake bed that gave it the nation's worst PM10
problem. EPA helped bring together the valley's govern-
ment agencies, tribes, and the Los Angeles Department of
EPA's Clean School Bus USA program awards grants to school
districts to reduce pollution from diesel buses.
Water and Power (owner of most of the valley's water
rights) to hammer out a plan to curtail the dust storms by
re-flooding and planting salt-tolerant grasses on 29.8
square miles of the dry lake bed. These measures are now
well underway.
In Arizona, the Phoenix area has now had six straight
years of air meeting the health standards for carbon
monoxide and ozone. The area has not yet attained the
health standard for particulates, but is expected to do so
by 2006, under a plan EPA approved in January 2002.
The Las Vegas area (Clark County, Nev.), has recorded
three straight years of clean data for carbon monoxide
(CO), though PM10 - primarily dust from unpaved roads
and construction sites - is still a problem. EPA proposed
to approve the local air district's PM10 and CO plans, and
the area began requiring cutting-edge dust control measures
on large construction sites.
Collaboration Toward Cleaner Air
EPA Funds Monitoring and More
Under the Clean Air Act, state, local, and tribal govern-
ments in areas with unhealthy air are responsible for
planning how they will attain national health standards,
and putting their plans into effect. The law recognizes
that these governments need money for these efforts. In
2003, EPA's Pacific Southwest Region issued over 200
grants totaling more than $35 million for clean air plan-
ning, air monitoring, research and related purposes. EPA
also funds the states of Arizona and California's air moni-
toring in cities on the Mexican side of the U.S.-Mexico
CLEAN AIR
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EPA People:
Colleen McKaughan
More than anyone
else, Colleen
McKaughan, associ-
ate director of the
EPA Pacific
Southwest Region's
Air Division, is the
face of EPA in the
state of Arizona.
This is a geographic
area with a diverse set of cultures, from Indian nations to
the U.S. Mexico border; from the urban to the growing
suburban and all the rural areas in between.
Commuting between Phoenix and Tucson,
McKaughan represents the EPA air program, but tries to
assist all of EPA's major programs in the Pacific Southwest.
Having a person within the state with Colleen's back-
ground, who regularly participates at public meetings,
stakeholder events and presentations, allows Arizona resi-
dents direct access to EPA.
McKaughan gets results by working directly with a
wide variety of people in regulatory agencies, industry
groups, the environmental community and the news
media. In one example, she has been instrumental in
addressing the concerns of the community of Rillito, Ariz.
For many years, Rillito residents have been affected by
emissions from the Arizona Portland Cement facility. It
became clear that in order to address this problem, EPA
would have to force the issuance of an appropriate air
permit with needed emission control requirements, and
rectify past permit problems through an enforcement
action. Colleen worked with the permitting, enforcement
and legal staffs at EPA's Pacific Southwest Regional Office
to move these actions forward. She engaged senior man-
agers to help reduce sensitivities resulting from EPA's
actions. In addition, she met with community residents
frequently to explain what was going on and answer
questions about EPA's plans.
McKaughan's tireless work has allowed EPA to form
a stronger relationship with the citizens of Rillito and is
helping to bring a major facility into compliance with the
Clean Air Act.
Border, in an effort to determine relative air pollution
contributions by both countries.
In 2003, $3 million of these grants went to 21 tribes
for their air quality programs. Among the results were new
air monitoring stations for the Walker River Paiute Tribe,
whose lands are in Nevada, and the Gila River Tribe,
whose lands are in Arizona. In addition, EPA provides an
instructor at the Tribal Air Monitoring Support Center of
the Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals at
Northern Arizona University.
Western Regional Air Partnership
Arizona was one of five western states to submit the first
regional haze plans to improve visibility in national parks,
and wilderness areas near the Grand Canyon. The other
states that submitted plans in December 2003 were New
Mexico, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming. The WRAP, a
stakeholder effort funded by EPA, has coordinated the
efforts of states, tribes, federal agencies, industry, and
environmental groups to conduct research and develop
policies to reduce haze. The western United States has
116 of the 156 federally-protected parks and wilderness
areas under the regional haze program.
Improving Facility Permits
Under Title V of the 1990 Clean Air Act, major existing
stationary sources of air pollution such as oil refineries
and fossil fuel-burning power plants are now required to
have operating permits that specify not only their emis-
sions limits, but how they will monitor and report emis-
sions, and who at the facility will be accountable for
ensuring compliance. Last year, EPA's Pacific Southwest
Air Division staff reviewed draft permits issued by air
districts throughout the region, including California's Bay
Area and South Coast air districts, and Maricopa County,
Ariz., and made over 500 recommendations to clarify
what each facility must do to ensure compliance. As these
recommendations are added to permits, the result will be
better monitoring and better compliance.
For example, refinery permits should include monitor-
ing to ensure that electrostatic precipitators, which can
reduce thousands of tons of particulate emissions per year,
are working correctly. Routine flaring, or burning of gases
at refineries, should be prohibited to reduce emissions of
smog-forming volatile organic compounds and hazardous
air pollutants. Last year, EPA assisted the Navajo Nation
in developing its own Title V permitting program, while
continuing to process permit applications for facilities on
Navajo land. EPA issued 20 permits out of 23 applica-
CLEAN AIR
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tions from facilities on tribal land in the Pacific
Southwest, including 12 of 14 on the Navajo Nation.
Toxics Reduction Pilot Projects
South Phoenix, Ariz., has a history of mixed-use develop-
ment creating a patchwork of industrial facilities, residen-
tial housing, landfills, and commercial enterprises, repre-
senting numerous pollution sources. Last year, after inspect-
ing industrial facilities in the area, EPA took enforcement
action against three facilities for failing to report hazardous
chemicals, as required under the Emergency Planning and
Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA). One of the facil-
ities, a chemical storage warehouse, had had a fire, endan-
gering community residents as well as firefighters.
EPA also provided funding to the Arizona Department
of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) for a community-based
toxics reduction project, which is producing an inventory
of toxics sources, setting priorities for reduction, and iden-
tifying short-term and long-term actions that will reduce
toxic emissions.
The community is directly involved, representing
numerous neighborhood associations, local colleges, busi-
nesses, residents and other stakeholders. They have formed
a Community Action Council, co-chaired by ADEQ and
community representatives. The council is now setting pri-
orities and developing reduction strategies for a pilot area
within South Phoenix.
West Oakland, Calif., is a minority community of
about 25,000 people, surrounded by freeways and border-
ing the Port of Oakland. Over the past year, EPA worked
with the community and other regulatory agencies on a
number of efforts to reduce air pollution. Although EPA
would have preferred installation of effective emission con-
trols, the Red Star Yeast facility's closure had the effect of
reducing community exposure to harmful volatile organic
compounds.
Enforcement Actions Benefit Communities
Law enforcement is a key tool in reducing the health
impacts of air pollution. In addition to correcting violations
and collecting fines, EPA encourages supplemental environ-
mental projects (SEPs), which go beyond simple compliance.
Here are some examples of the benefits realized from recent
air enforcement cases:
• As part of a larger national settlement, Chevron USA
agreed to pay an $800,000 penalty for failure to imme-
diately report releases of hazardous substances and to
properly carry out a risk management program required
by the Clean Air Act at its refinery in El Segundo, Calif.
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EPA's AIRNOWpartnership with state and local air agencies
provides real-time maps of smog and particulate pollution
conditions - now including small particulates (PM 2.5) - at
www.epa.sov/airnow.
The company also committed to projects that will
directly benefit the city's residents, such as spending
$300,000 on diesel emissions reduction projects in the
El Segundo area and $100,000 on defibrillators and air
compressor upgrades for the El Segundo Fire
Department's emergency vehicles.
• Chromalloy Gas and Turbine Corp. paid a $92,522
penalty to settle Clean Air Act violations and will initi-
ate a phaseout of its use of halogenated solvents to
degrease parts at its Phoenix, Ariz., facility. The project
will cost the company nearly $200,000 and is expected
to decrease toxic emissions of trichloroethylene, a haz-
ardous air pollutant, by approximately 6,500 pounds
per year.
• National Cement's plant in Lebec, Calif., paid
$838,296 in penalties to settle violations of the Clean
Air Act and the Emergency Planning and Community
Right-to-Know Act. The company violated the air
emission standards and notification and monitoring
requirements of its EPA air permit. The company has
since installed additional pollution control equipment
and made other changes that have reduced its excess
emissions by 225,000 Ibs/yr of nitrogen oxide, 18,000
Ibs/yr of sulfur oxides and 2,600,900 Ibs/yr of carbon
monoxide.
CLEAN AIR
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CHAPTER TWO
CLEAN WATER
Funding to carry out programs
mandated by federal law, including
the Clean Water Act, is an impor-
tant part of EPA's ongoing partner-
ship with states and tribes. In
2003, EPA funding for state and
tribal water programs in the Pacific
Southwest totaled over $34 7 mil-
lion. (Above: Hanalei River, Kauai,
Hawaii)
«
... .
Putting Dollars to Work for Clean Water
More than half of the EPA Pacific Southwest Regional Office's budget
goes to grants and loans to state, tribal and local governments. The
largest portion of this goes to clean water and drinking water programs - in
Fiscal Year 2003, more than $341 million. As detailed in the table on page 9,
EPA manages a variety of grants and provides oversight of the states' and
tribes' programs to protect surface waters and ensure safe drinking water
supplies. (For more information on these grants and loans, go to
www.epa.gov/region09/funding, and click on "available grants.")
Each year, the largest amounts go to the Clean Water and Drinking
Water State Revolving Funds (SRFs), for state loans to local governments to
build infrastructure such as drinking water treatment and sewage treatment
plants, and projects to control polluted runoff. Last year, these two cate-
gories accounted for more than two-thirds of the EPA funding for water
quality purposes.
CLEAN WATER
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The third largest category in FY 2003 was
Special Appropriation Act Projects, also
known as Congressional "earmarks." These
are grants to state or local governments for
projects specified by Congress. Most of this
money, too, goes to drinking water and
wastewater infrastructure projects, in the
form of direct grants.
The fourth largest category was Non-
point Source (NFS), to combat polluted
runoff. This funding is for staffing state and
tribal non-point source programs, as well as
grants to local and tribal governments and
nonprofits for restoring eroded watersheds
and controlling polluted runoff from mines,
farms, and urban areas.
The fifth major category was Water
Pollution Control, which covers state pro-
grams authorized by the federal Clean Water
Act: issuing discharge permits; setting water
quality standards and Total Maximum Daily (pollutant)
Loads, or TMDLs, for polluted waters; and monitoring of
inland waters.
Additional grants were awarded for:
• Public Water Supply Systems (PWSS): grants to states
and tribes for their drinking water compliance staffs
• Beach Protection: grants to states for water monitoring
at coastal beaches
• Wetlands: grants for wetlands monitoring and planning,
to state, local, and tribal governments and nonprofits
100
80
60
40
20
0
•Faili
thre
reqt
to a
Percentage of Population Served by Community
Water Systems Meeting Health-Based
Drinking Water Standards*
^======^^==^ • ::~~^
^^— Pacific Southwest Region ^^— National
1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
ng to meet a drinking water standard does not necessarily indicate an imminent health
at. If there is an imminent threat to public health from pathogens, the water system is
ired to take immediate action, notify the public, and shut down or issue a boil-water notice
II customers, advising them to boil their tap water before drinking it.
• Homeland Security: to assess the vulnerability of large
urban drinking water systems
• Water Quality Agreements: for developing TMDLs and
tribal pollution prevention programs
• Underground Injection Control (UIC): to prevent pol-
lution of groundwater by issuing permits setting condi-
tions for any disposal of fluids (such as oil drilling
wastes) by underground injection
• Targeted Watersheds: for one high-priority watershed
restoration project, which in 2003 was the Hanalei
River of Kauai, Hawaii (see page 25 for more on
efforts to protect this watershed)
State and Tribal Assistance Grants
Pacific Southwest Region
Clean Water Act State Revolving Fund (for loans) $131,941,100
Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (for loans) 114,573,600
Special Appropriation Act Projects ("Congressional Earmarks") 29,246,700
Non-point Source (polluted runoff control) 25,413,042
Water Pollution Control, Clean Water Act grants 23,753,600
Public Water Supply Systems (drinking water compliance) 9,989,061
Beach Protection 1,758,000
Wetlands Monitoring and Planning 1,570,580
Water Quality Agreements 1,107,609
Underground Injection Control 1,087,500
Targeted Watersheds 700,000
Homeland Security (drinking water vulnerability assessments) 526,700
TOTAL $341,667,492
Ensuring Safe Drinking Water
Thousands of public and private drinking water
supply systems, ranging from huge urban sys-
tems to those in isolated tribal communities,
deliver water to about 40 million people in the
Pacific Southwest. EPA works with state, local,
and tribal governments to ensure that drinking
water systems consistently meet all federal
health standards. The Pacific Southwest Region
presents unique challenges in protecting drinking
water in areas lacking adequate infrastructure,
such as in the Pacific Islands, tribal communi-
ties, and U.S.-Mexico border communities.
Drinking water quality can pose serious
problems. Two healthy five-year-old boys in
Arizona died recently as a result of exposure to
CLEAN WATER
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a water supply apparently contaminated by the little-
known amoebic parasite Naegleria fowleri. EPA environ-
mental engineer Jill Korte is involved in research efforts to
determine the presence of this pathogen in the aquafers
underlying Phoenix, and if found, how to prevent it from
contaminating drinking water supplies. (See " EPA People"
on page 13.)
Better Drinking Water for Phoenix
The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality and the
city of Phoenix completed a $1.2 million, three-year project
in June 2003 to improve the taste and smell of the city's
drinking water.
Over the past three years, Phoenix's Water Services
department, along with Arizona State University, the Salt
River Project and the Central Arizona Project conducted
algal studies, established a highly advanced water monitor-
ing network and sampling techniques, and tested treatment
alternatives. The neighboring cities of Tempe, Scottsdale,
Gilbert, Glendale, Mesa, Peoria and Chandler also benefited
from the project.
What Lurks Below: Hawaiian Cesspools
In Hawaii, many people in rural areas get their drinking
water from underground sources. At the same time, many
housing developments and other buildings flush their
untreated sewage directly into the ground through
cesspools. Raw, untreated sewage moves through the
ground and can contaminate drinking
water sources, streams, and the ocean.
To solve this problem, EPA has prohib-
ited construction of large new cesspools
- those serving more than 20 people, or
receiving over 1,000 gallons of waste-
water daily - since April 2000. About
2,000 existing cesspools statewide must
be closed by April 5, 2005, and be
replaced with alternate sewage treat-
ment systems.
EPA has been working with the
Hawaii Department of Health to assist
local governments in assuring compli-
ance with the new regulations. The
counties of Kauai and Hawaii have
applied for loans from EPA's State
Revolving Fund for wastewater facili-
ties. In January 2004, EPA awarded a
$76,000 grant to Hawaii County to
help complete its search for large
cesspools on the Big Island. The state completed a source
water assessment, identifying contamination threats
statewide, in November 2003.
Also in 2003, EPA awarded a $970,000 grant to the
County of Hawaii for drinking water system upgrades that
include providing six public water spigot sites on the Big
Island and improvements to North Kona water lines.
Water Quality Collaboration
Monitoring Surface Waters
The first step in cleaning up polluted waters is identifying
them. This is no easy task in EPA's Pacific Southwest
Region, which has thousands of miles of rivers, streams,
lakeshores, and beaches. In 2003, EPA collaborated with
the California Coastal Commission and other agencies to
sponsor the first Coastwide Snapshot Day, on May 17,
when volunteers collected water samples from 500 coastal
beaches, estuaries, rivers, and streams. The volunteers
measured temperature, pH, turbidity, conductivity, and
dissolved oxygen, then sent the samples to EPA's lab in
Richmond, Calif., to test for nutrients (which deplete oxy-
gen needed by fish and other aquatic life) and bacteria.
The results are posted on the Commission's Web site, at
www.coastal.ca.gov/publiced/pendx.html.
Routine monitoring and beach closure information for
440 beaches in California, Hawaii and Guam is now avail-
able on-line at vosemite.epa.gov/water/beach2003.nsf.
The Deer Valley Water Treatment Plant Is one of Phoenix's facilities for purifying
drinking water.
10
CLEAN WATER
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In 2003, EPA's Richmond
Lab analyzed 379 water samples
for volunteer monitoring groups
such as Friends of Temescal
Creek in Oakland, Calif. As a
result of five weeks of water
sampling, which revealed high
bacteria counts at certain places
in the creek, the city found three
sewer pipe leaks and one illegal
discharge. After these were fixed,
bacteria levels were reduced by
over 90% - good news for
swimmers in Lake Temescal,
which is fed by the creek.
EPA, States Develop TMDLs to
Limit Water Pollution
The Clean Water Act requires
states to identify polluted bodies
of water. The Total Maximum
Daily Load (TMDL) process
provides an assessment and
planning framework for identi-
fying pollutant load reductions
or other actions needed to attain
water quality standards which protect aquatic life, drink-
ing water and other designated uses. TMDLs address all
significant pollutants that cause or threaten to cause pol-
lution in a water body that the state has determined to be
impaired. Due to the great number of TMDLs that need
to be written and the limited resources available to do this
work, EPA collaborates with states in setting priorities for
TMDLs, in addition to developing some TMDLs. In
2003, Arizona, California, Hawaii, and Nevada complet-
ed 110 TMDLs, and EPA completed 36.
The TMDLs adopted in 2003 include those for sedi-
ment runoff in California's North Coast rivers, for bacte-
ria at Santa Monica Bay beaches, for mercury in Clear
Lake (Lake County, Calif.), and for dissolved metals in
streams in Arizona mining districts. In the Imperial Valley,
the Colorado River Basin Regional Water Board adopted
sediment TMDLs for the New and Alamo Rivers. To reach
the water quality goals set by the TMDLs in the Imperial
Valley, 90% of the region's farmers agreed to reduce sedi-
ment runoff from irrigation. Other agencies, landowners,
and other stakeholders may assist states and EPA in devel-
oping TMDLs for specific watersheds.
Taking water samples at Pacifica State Beach, San Mateo County, Calif. - one of many beach-
es, estuaries, rivers, and streams where water was tested on World Water Monitoring Day,
October 18, 2003.
Controlling Exposure to DDT
The largest known DDT-contaminated site lies offshore of
the Palos Verdes Peninsula, Calif., where waste from a
now-defunct DDT-manufacturing plant was deposited
after passing through a regional sewage treatment system.
In 2003, EPA kicked off a campaign to educate anglers,
store owners and consumers on the dangers of eating
locally caught fish contaminated with toxics such as DDT
and PCBs. The October 2003 kickoff event was widely
covered by local news media.
EPA and a consortium of federal, state, and local com-
munity partners have formed the Fish Contamination
Education Collaborative and will spend the next several
years educating Southern Californians on the health risks
associated with eating contaminated fish, particularly
white croaker, caught off the coast of Los Angeles and
Orange counties. The campaign, urging the public to
"Know Your Fish, Reduce the Risk," includes public out-
reach conducted in at least 10 languages, targeting con-
sumers, community fish markets and anglers who fish at
local piers and shorelines. It is part of EPA's effort to reduce
human health risks posed by fish contamination related to
the Palos Verdes Shelf Superfund site.
CLEAN WATER
11
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County and the South Fork of the Trinity River in
the North Coast area - both are spawning areas
for trout and salmon.
In Arizona, the Three Links Farm project
reduced polluted runoff to six miles of the San
Pedro River, and ensured minimum flows needed
to restore aquatic life and riparian vegetation. The
work involved construction of stock fences to
keep cattle out of the stream, and reduced
groundwater pumping. A similar project is under-
way on Nutrioso Creek. In Hawaii, an erosion
control project in West Maul reduced sediment
runoff to the sea by 68%, helping protect fragile
coral reefs. A project on the Carson River, near
Carson City, Nev., repaired nearly four miles of
eroded riverbanks, preventing tons of sediment, as
well as oxygen-depleting nutrients from animal
waste, from washing into the river.
Members of the Fish Contamination Education Collaborative show how to
prepare a fish for cooking to reduce risks from PCB and DDT contamina-
tion at an EPA outreach event in Southern California.
The campaign complements other efforts to protect the
public from DDT and PCB risks, including monitoring of
fish contamination in the ocean and the marketplace, and
enforcement of state fishing regulations. In addition, EPA
is evaluating long-term cleanup alternatives such as cap-
ping the contaminated sea bottom with clean sand.
Preventing Polluted Runoff
and Sewage Spills
EPA grants in 2003 to prevent polluted runoff
helped get results in all four Pacific Southwest
Region states (and tribal lands - see Communi-
ties and Ecosystems, Chapter 4). EPA also makes
loans available for this purpose through the
State Revolving Fund (SRF), an innovative
method of financing a range of projects to
restore and protect water quality. While the
SRF traditionally funded the building of sewage
collection and treatment facilities, it now also
provides loans at below-market rates for non-
point source and estuary protection programs.
In California, projects are underway to
reduce sediment in Imperial Valley farm drainage
channels, thus reducing pollution in the New
River and the Salton Sea. Erosion control proj-
ects are reducing sediment runoff from dirt roads
along the San Lorenzo River in Santa Cruz
Reducing Impacts from Dairies
In the Pacific Southwest, there are 1,750 major
confined animal feeding operations - CAFOs,
most of which are dairies. Nutrient-laden runoff from
them is a serious water pollution problem. EPA is part of
the California Dairy Quality Assurance Partnership
(CDQAP), a collaboration involving government agencies,
the University of California at Davis, and the dairy indus-
try. By the end of 2003, the CDQAP had certified 182
dairies using best management practices to prevent water
Dairy cows have been part of the rural landscape at Point Reyes, in Marin
County, Calif., since the 1860s.
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CLEAN WATER
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pollution. EPA is working with USDA on a federal
Dairy Waste Initiative to further develop such volun-
tary approaches. At the same time, EPA and states of
California and Arizona have stepped up dairy inspec-
tions in the Central Valley and in Maricopa County,
Ariz., to improve compliance with the Clean Water Act.
Enforcing Against Toxic Discharges
EPA took action under the Clean Water Act against a
number of entities for stormwater and other discharge
violations. Some examples:
Pick Your Part Auto Wrecking Co. paid $128,000
for stormwater violations at five auto wrecking and
recycling yards in Southern California. The company
will also now remove and recycle the toxic liquid
metal mercury in switches from salvaged vehicles at its
nine California yards, the first such program in the
state. Nationwide, an estimated 10 tons of mercury are
released to the environment each year from mercury-
containing light switches during the shredding and
crushing of old vehicles.
In Arizona, two cases involved acidic runoff from
mines polluting streams. Phelps Dodge Corp. agreed to
pay $220,000 in penalties for discharges of contami-
nated water from the abandoned United Verde Mine in
Jerome, Ariz., and spend about $11 million to build
structures to prevent polluted runoff. In a typical year,
thousands of pounds of toxic dissolved copper and
zinc, and hundreds of pounds of cadmium, are dis-
charged to an ephemeral stream bed and have the
potential to wash down to the Verde River in wet
years.
The same company also paid $105,000 to settle
claims that it discharged polluted water containing
toxic copper and sulfide from the Christmas Mine near
Winkleman, Ariz., to the Dripping Springs Wash, a
tributary of the Gila River.
Action to Reduce Sewage Spills
Sewage spills and overflows are one of the most com-
mon causes of water contamination at beaches. In
2003, EPA took enforcement actions against local
government agencies responsible for such spills,
resulting in greater focus on the adequacy of aging
sewage collection systems and of operational and
maintenance practices.
EPA People:
;/// /forte
living near Peoria, Ariz., died
from exposure to an amoeba,
Naegleria fowleri, which had
apparently contaminated the
public water supply system.
This amoeba causes infection
not by ingestion, but by being
inhaled while bathing or swim-
ming. A rare, deadly disease,
meningioencephalitis, ensues
when the amoeba reaches the
brain via the olfactory nerve.
It is still unclear whether the Peoria cases were an isolated
outbreak, or whether the aquifer, or groundwater wells tap-
ping it, support the amoeba's growth - which could have
broader public health implications for the Southwest. To find
out, Jill Korte of EPA's Pacific Southwest Drinking Water Office
developed a research proposal to identify the types of
microbes that live in wells tapping the warm water aquifer
underlying the Phoenix area. The goal is to find out if
Naegleria and other pathogens are in the wells, and what
conditions contribute to their survival. This work comple-
ments other studies now underway by the National Water
Quality Center and the University of Arizona.
Researchers already know that Naegleria is widespread in
the environment, survives in the soil, and tolerates warm tem-
peratures, such as those found in hot springs. Beneath the
Phoenix area is a unique warm water aquifer with tempera-
tures ranging from 65 to 115°F.
Though the project is directed by EPA's lab in Cincinnati,
Ohio, Korte remains involved. She is working with the Arizona
Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) to develop
plans to collect well water samples for DNA analyses, and will
travel to Arizona to conduct sampling. She is coordinating
involvement by EPA, ADEQ, water utilities, the University of
Arizona, and the National Water Quality Center. Sampling is
set to begin in mid-2004.
Korte's job at EPA involves overseeing Arizona's drinking
water program and working with the state on drinking water
rule development, interpretation, and implementation. She
also participates in national workgroups on drinking water
rule development and on resolving issues as new drinking
water rules take effect.
CLEAN WATER
13
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CHAPTER
CLEAN LAND
The newly-completed Slickrock
Creek Retention Reservoir, above,
together with an existing water
treatment plant, now prevents
more than 95% of the Iron
Mountain Mine Superfund site's
toxic discharges from polluting
the Sacramento River.
Hazardous Waste in EPA's Pacific Southwest Region
EPA carries out several federal laws dealing with hazardous waste: First is
Superfund, which cleans up the nation's biggest, costliest abandoned
hazardous waste sites (the National Priorities List), as well as sites where
quick action is needed to deal with imminent threats to public health or the
environment. Second is the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, which
regulates hazardous waste storage, transportation, and disposal; cleans up
spills and leaks at hzardous waste and underground fuel storage facilities;
and encourages saving energy and natural resources through waste recy-
cling, recovery, and reduction. Third is Brownfields, which promotes
cleanup and reuse of sites with less serious contamination. Cleanups under
these laws are based on the "polluter pays" principle, which means that in
most cases, taxpayers don't get stuck with the bill.
In 2003, EPA's Pacific Southwest Region secured binding commitments
totaling over $128 million from responsible parties to pay for hazardous
waste cleanups. Construction of cleanup facilities (such as groundwater
14
CLEAN LAND
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treatment plants) is complete at 44% of the region's 123
Superfund National Priorities List sites, and construction is
underway at another 36% of the sites. The remaining
20% are in the investigation stage, although early action
has been taken to deal with immediate risks.
Collaborating on Revitalization
Brownftelds
Last year, EPA accelerated efforts to revitalize abandoned
industrial sites (brownfields) with grants totaling over
$7 million in the Pacific Southwest Region to state and
local governments, tribes, and nonprofits for assessment,
cleanup, a revolving loan fund for cleanups, and job
training. This included, for the first time, sites contami-
nated with leaking fuel from underground storage tanks.
Homes, Jobs and a Ballpark
EPA awarded the city of Oakland, Calif., a $100,000
grant to help assess and clean up abandoned gas station
sites where potential soil contamination from leaking
underground tanks has hindered redevelopment. At one
site, EPA worked with Oakland and Alameda County to
clear the way for four homes to be built by Habitat for
Humanity on a former gas station site in the city's Fruit-
vale neighborhood. Familes moved into the new homes in
October 2003. Nearby, EPA grant funds are being used to
clean up a former industrial area adjacent to the Bay Area
Rapid Transit (BART) rail system so that the site can be
redeveloped into a " transit village" with homes, shops,
and offices clustered around BART's Fruitvale Station.
In Los Angeles, EPA awarded a $200,000 grant to the
city for environmental job training at Brownfields sites.
The city's Community Development Department has tar-
geted the Wilmington industrial tract near the Port of Los
Angeles, the Goodyear tract in South Central and the
Crown Coach site near East Los Angeles for assessment,
cleanup and redevelopment. The city plans to train 50 stu-
dents, achieve an 80 percent placement rate, and track stu-
dents for a full year. The seven-week, 300-hour job train-
ing program consists of hazardous waste handling, innova-
tive environmental technologies, lead abatement, and
asbestos abatement. Recruitment will focus on low-income
residents and placement will be conducted by the city's
WorkSource Centers.
In West Covina, Calif., EPA and California's
Department of Toxic Substances Control entered into two
prospective purchaser agreements with the city to clear the
way for a planned Big League Dreams sports complex and
a municipal golf course on parts of the former BKK Landfill
Cleanup Progress at Superfund Sites
in Pacific Southwest Region
Threats to human health
controlled through cleanup
work at 89 of 123 sites (72%)
Groundwater cleanup
underway at 60 of 107 sites
(56)%
Left: Potential human exposure to toxics has been controlled at
more than % of Superfund cleanup sites in the Pacific Southwest.
Right: Migration of contaminated groundwater is under control
at more than half of the region's Superfund sites with ground-
water contamination.
site. Other parts of the property were used as a hazardous
waste landfill, and a municipal waste landfill as recently as
1996. The agreements encourage reuse of the land the city
plans to purchase from the BKK Corp. The city may sell
the land for commercial development, or develop it with-
out incurring liability for cleanup costs. However, the
agreements do not relieve BKK, the owner and operator of
the landfills, from liability.
At the WDI Superfund Site in Santa Fe Springs, Calif., that
city is using a grant from EPA's Superfund Redevelopment
Initiative to develop a specific plan for beneficial reuse of the
site. Parts of the 38-acre site, including a buried concrete
reservoir, were formerly used for disposal of oil drilling wastes.
Construction of an impermeable cap over the waste reser-
voir and installation of monitoring systems is expected to
be underway by mid-2004.
Cleanup Highlights
Iron Mountain Mine
At the Iron Mountain Mine near Redding, Calif., one of
the nation's toughest, costliest cleanup challenges, EPA
completed construction of the $40 million Slickrock Creek
Retention Reservoir, which collects polluted runoff from
the former mine. The runoff is extremely acidic and taint-
ed with toxic dissolved copper and zinc. This dam and
reservoir, together with a treatment plant already in oper-
ation, now prevent 95% of the mine's toxic discharges
from flowing into the Sacramento River. The river has
CLEAN LAND
15
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four salmon spawning runs each year, and supplies drink-
ing water directly to 70,000 people.
The treatment plant, built in the early 1990s, has treat-
ed over 1.05 billion gallons of poisoned water, the equiva-
lent of 120,000 tanker trucks, and prevented 1.6 million
pounds of copper and 5.6 million pounds of zinc - 80-90%
of the mine's toxic discharges - from reaching the river.
Before treatment began, the mine discharged more than a
ton of toxic metals into the river per day, making it the
nation's largest discharger of toxic metals.
The mine, active for more than a century but aban-
doned in the 1960s, honeycombed the mountain with tun-
nels. The tunnels now act as conduits for air and water,
which percolates through the metal-bearing ores of the
mountain, sustaining six strains of sulfur- and iron-loving
bacteria, which dissolve the metals and acidify the water.
The chemical reactions involving the bacteria and water are
continuous, creating a constant flow of toxic runoff to
creeks that border the mountain. The rainy season increas-
es the flow. Cleanup efforts have focused on capturing the
runoff and treating it to neutralize the acidity and remove
the metals. The resulting cleaner water can then flow
downstream harmlessly, but tons of inert sludge from the
treatment process must be trucked back up the mountain
for disposal in pits left by earlier mining operations.
In December 2000, EPA successfully settled cost recov-
ery litigation, providing $160 million to assure that the
treatment plant will be operated and maintained in perpe-
tuity. It was the largest settlement with a single potentially
responsible party in EPA history.
Santa Monica Drinking Water Cleanup
In November 2003, EPA and the Los Angeles Regional
Water Quality Control Board facilitated an agreement
between the city of Santa Monica and three major oil
companies to restore the Charnock Sub-basin as a drink-
ing water source. This well field, which formerly supplied
about half the city's water, had been shut down since
1996, when its water was found to be contaminated with
MTBE, a gasoline additive that had leaked from under-
ground fuel tanks at 27 sites.
In 1999, EPA and the Regional Board ordered the oil
companies to supply replacement water to the city, at a
cost of more than $3 million a year - a total of more than
$13 million by late 2003. The 2003 legal settlement
requires the oil companies to build treatment systems for
the Charnock water supply wells, to remove the MTBE as
water is pumped out. "This agreement proves that when
all levels of government - local, state and federal - work
EPA Regional Administrator Wayne Nastri presents a "big check "
for a $100,000 grant to Los Angeles Councilwoman Janice Halm
and Deputy Mayor Jonathan Kevles. The grant will help the city
assess, clean up, and redevelop abandoned gas station sites like
this one, where leaking underground storage tanks may have
contaminated soil and groundwater.
together, we serve the common good and produce a com-
prehensive solution to a difficult problem," commented
EPA Regional Administrator Wayne Nastri.
Perchlorate
Perchlorate is a rocket fuel component that became
detectable in water at low levels in 1997, when the state of
California developed a new testing method for it. Although
the level at which perchlorate poses a risk is under review
by the National Academy of Sciences, this chemical can dis-
rupt the thyroid gland, which is essential for proper devel-
opment of newborns and infants.
Since 1997, perchlorate has been found in groundwater
in 348 of 6,400 drinking water wells tested in California,
and at 12 Superfund hazardous waste cleanup sites in
California and Arizona. The presence of perchlorate has
increased the cost of these cleanups, and delayed them, as
cleanups already underway have had to be re-evaluated.
Several such sites are in the San Gabriel Valley in Southern
California, where a 10-square-mile plume of groundwater
was found to be contaminated with perchlorate, in addition
to other chemicals from industrial facilities. Treatment of
the contaminated water to remove perchlorate began in
2000, and is expected to continue for at least 30 years.
The highest levels in EPA's Pacific Southwest Region
were found in Las Vegas Wash in Henderson, Nev., where
a Kerr-McGee facility had manufactured the substance.
Over the past two years, Kerr-McGee has been pumping
the groundwater through a treatment plant, removing
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CLEAN LAND
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about one ton of perchlorate per day and reducing perchlo-
rate levels in the wash by 70%.
In 2003, EPA ordered Goodrich Corp. and Emhart
Industries, as potentially responsible parties, to investigate
a 160-acre parcel in the Rialto-Colton area of San
Bernardino County, which is a suspected source of perchlo-
rate found in 10 nearby drinking water wells owned by
several water supply systems.
A number of EPAs nationally recognized perchlorate
experts work out of the Pacific Southwest Regional Office
and have played leadership roles in sorting out the techni-
cal, legal and regulatory issues surrounding perchlorate.
For more information, go to www.clu-in.org/perchlorate.
One Cleanup Program: TCE in Mountain View, Calif.
In the Silicon Valley city of Mountain View, EPA and
California state agencies are working together under EPAs
" One Cleanup" program at eight sites where groundwater
has been contaminated with trichloroethylene (TCE). EPA
is coordinating with the Regional Water Quality Control
Board and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District
on air monitoring, groundwater cleanup, and public out-
reach efforts so that investigation and cleanup issues are
being addressed consistently across the sites.
In 2001, EPAs new draft health risk assessment for TCE
found that the chemical, which contaminates groundwater
at hundreds of Superfund sites throughout the nation, may
present a health risk at much lower levels than previously
known. The new data caused concern in Mountain View,
where TCE-tainted groundwater was being pumped out and
treated by air-stripping at the Middlefield-Ellis-Whisman
(MEW) Study Area, the Naval Air Station Moffett Field,
and GTE sites. Nearby residents and workers worried that
they might be exposed to harmful levels of TCE, either from
soil vapor rising from the contaminated ground water
through foundation cracks or plumbing conduits into build-
ings (vapor intrusion) or from the air-stripping devices,
which can disperse low levels of TCE into the outdoor air.
In response to these community concerns, the potential-
ly responsible parties (PRPs), who have been cleaning up
the groundwater contamination at these sites for years, vol-
untarily replaced nine of the air strippers with liquid phase
carbon treatment systems or advanced oxidation systems,
both of which release no TCE into the air.
EPA directed the PRPs to test the indoor and outdoor
air at 26 buildings and 66 residences that overlie the highest
levels of TCE in shallow groundwater. EPA also began test-
ing outdoor air at ten reference sites for comparison, and
NASA did air sampling at the former NAS Moffett Field.
Over 2,000 air samples were collected in 2003. EPA is using
the data to evaluate the potential long-term health risks to
building occupants and residents from the vapor intrusion
pathway. All the data indicate that there is no short-term or
immediate health risk to residents or workers in the area.
To reduce long-term risks, PRPs took interim measures
to reduce levels of TCE in the air in 12 commercial buildings
and one residence where elevated levels of TCE were
detected. The measures included sealing cracks in floors and
potential piping conduits, installing a subslab depressuriza-
tion system, and optimizing building ventilation systems.
EPA has also helped concerned community members
form the Northeast Mountain View Advisory Council,
which meets with EPA monthly to discuss air testing results
and the ongoing groundwater cleanup, ask questions, and
voice concerns.
In Mountain View, Calif., responsible parties removed equipment
that had treated TCE-contaminated groundwater by air-stripping,
and replaced it with systems that release no TCE into the air.
CLEAN LAND
17
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In Fiscal Year 2003, EPA responded to 24 incidents in the Pacific
Southwest where hazardous chemicals posed an imminent threat
to human health or the environment.
Construction Complete:
Sharpe Defense Depot and Koppers
EPA designated the Sharpe Defense Depot's cleanup as a
"construction complete" in 2003 when all short-term
cleanup actions were complete and the groundwater pump-
and-treat system was operating successfully. The 724-acre
base near Lathrop, Calif., was listed on EPA's Superfund
National Priorities List following confirmation that metals,
pesticides, and solvents had contaminated soil and ground-
water at the site. The Army successfully remediated contam-
inated soils using soil vapor extraction and excavation with
off-site disposal. Three groundwater treatment systems were
installed to clean up the groundwater. Sharpe Defense Depot
remains a functioning military base.
EPA also reached the "construction complete" mile-
stone at Koppers, an inactive wood treating site near
Oroville, Calif. A covenant of restrictions is in place desig-
nating the 205-acre site for industrial use only and restrict-
ing use of groundwater at the site. Groundwater contami-
nation is contained and declining as water is pumped out,
treated, and pumped back into the ground. This will con-
tinue for about 20 more years, until the water is clean.
Emergency Response
Building Emergency Response Capacity, Readiness
Since the tragedy of 9/11/2001, EPA has been increasing
its capacity to respond to emergencies, regardless of cause.
When chemical spills, oil spills, chemical fires, or hazard-
ous waste present an imminent threat to public health
or the environment, EPA has the authority to respond
whether the emergency stems from an accident, terrorism,
or extreme weather events like floods. In the Pacific
Southwest, EPA has enhanced its emergency response
infrastructure, opening new Emergency Response Field
Offices in Las Vegas, Nev., and Long Beach, Calif., to
shorten response time for emergencies in Arizona, southern
Nevada, and southern California; a new Pacific Southwest
response center in San Francisco; and new emergency
response equipment warehouses in San Francisco and the
Los Angeles area.
Last year, EPA's Pacific Southwest Emergency Response
staff participated in industry-sponsored spill drills as well
as multi-agency simulated responses to biological attacks
and intentional releases of radioactive materials in San
Francisco, Seattle, and Clark County (Las Vegas), Nev.
EPA also participated in exercises to strengthen security at
nuclear power plants in the region.
Throughout the Pacific Southwest Region, EPA has
been working with federal, state, and local health and air
quality agencies to create a system for early detection of
biological terrorism incidents. EPA continues to support
state and local partner agencies building their capacity to
respond to emergencies, in one case providing funding for
a new hazardous materials emergency response truck for
Washoe County, Nev. (the Reno-Tahoe area).
To deal with emergencies along the U.S.-Mexico bor-
der, EPA has worked with Mexican authorities to put
bi-national sister city response plans in place that facilitate
cooperation between U.S. and Mexican jurisdictions that
face each other across the border. The fifth such agreement,
for Tijuana and the city and county governments of San
Diego, Calif., was signed in October 2003. In 2004, work
is underway on the sixth sister city agreement in the Pacific
Southwest Region, for the city of Mexicali, Baja California,
and Calexico, Calif.
For oil and chemical spill prevention and preparedness,
EPA routinely inspects industrial facilities for compliance
with Spill Control and Countermeasure (SPCC) regulations,
Facility Response Plan requirements, and the Emergency
Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA).
Violations found at 11 facilities resulted in penalties of
over $830,000, including one involving a diesel spill on
the lower Colorado River from fuel tanks on a farm. In
addition to the routine inspections, last year EPA conduct-
ed three surprise oil spill drills at major oil storage and
transport facilities, and visited seven high-risk chemical
facilities in populated areas in the Pacific Southwest, to
test their readiness. In 2004, EPA plans to conduct 12 sur-
prise oil spill simulation exercises at major oil facilities.
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CLEAN LAND
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Taking Rapid Action
In addition, EPA responded to 24 incidents involv-
ing hazardous chemicals and 13 oil spills in Fiscal
Year 2003, including:
• A nearly five-acre, three-story-high pile of con-
struction and demolition debris in Fresno, Calif.,
caught fire on January 11, 2003. Smoke from
the fire stayed low due to the winter inversion
layer, creating air quality issues that prompted
the local air district to issue health advisories
and the state to request EPA assistance. Working
within a Unified Command structure with more
than 20 agencies, EPA conducted air monitor-
ing, water management, fire fighting and heavy
equipment operations and provided health and
safety support. The Fresno Fire Department,
Fresno County Environmental Health and the
state's Integrated Waste Management Board
were key players in a month-long effort to
extinguish the blaze. Once the fire was out,
EPA partnered with the state waste board to
remove the remaining 105,000 tons of debris
to a permitted landfill.
• At Ford City, a community near the National
Petroleum Reserve in California's Kern County,
EPA worked with the state Department of Toxic
Substances Control to remove 3,300 tons of
lead-contaminated soil around 14 homes. The
soil was disposed at the Clean Harbors haz-
ardous waste landfill in Buttonwillow, Calif.
• At the request of the Gila River Indian Com-
munity, EPA removed thousands of gallons of
hazardous waste from an abandoned site on
tribal land near Sacaton, Ariz. Nearly 100
55-gallon drums of flammable, toxic chemicals,
and 3,000 gallons of hydrochloric acid sludge,
were removed from a defunct company that
extracted precious metals from mine waste.
• EPA's Pacific Southwest Region sent five on-
scene coordinators to help with recovery of
material from the Space Shuttle Columbia dis-
aster in Texas.
• On the Pacific island territory of Guam and the
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana
Islands, which includes Saipan, EPA recovered,
removed, and safely disposed of abandoned lab
chemicals and pesticides.
EPA People:
Ned Black
Ned Black is the leading ecologi-
cal risk assessor for the Pacific
Southwest Region's Superfund
Division. In this role, he is
responsible for laying a firm
scientific foundation for EPA's
decisions on Superfund haz-
ardous waste cleanups. His work
is essential to ensuring that
Superfund cleanups adequately
protect human health and the
environment.
Often, data is lacking on how each toxic chemical at a con-
taminated site affects the variety of species and habitats present,
making it a challenge to produce scientifically defensible ecologi-
cal risk assessments. To meet this challenge, Dr. Black chairs a
Biological Technical Assistance Group (BTAG), which has become
the primary forum for discussion of current technical literature
among key staff from state and federal agencies, including the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. This group has brought a consis-
tent, scientific, and consensus-based approach to the agencies'
ecological risk assessments. As a result, potential confrontation
with responsible parties about assessments that form the basis for
costly cleanup work has largely been avoided.
Through his efforts on the BTAG, Dr. Black has been instru-
mental in progress at some of the more contentious hazardous
waste cleanup sites in the Pacific Southwest, including California's
Leviathan Mine, Casmalia, Alameda Naval Air Station, Hunters
Point Naval Shipyard, and McClellan Air Force Base sites, and
Hawaii's Pearl Harbor site. Dr. Black has prepared or reviewed
ecological risk assessments for each of these sites, and many more.
Dr. Black has also developed a two-day training class in eco-
logical risk assessment, which he has made available to state and
local government officials, as well as EPA staff. By sharing his
knowledge and experience through this training and by nurtur-
ing the BTAG, Dr. Black has leveraged his effectiveness, providing
the tools for state and local governments to make cleanup deci-
sions based on defensible ecological risk assessments.
His success is due in large measure to his extensive, and
nationally recognized, expertise in biology, ecology, and the sci-
entific principles of ecological risk assessment. Dr. Black has
brought a keen professionalism, dedication to EPA's mission of
protecting human health and the environment, and scientific
credibility to cleanup efforts in the Pacific Southwest.
CLEAN LAND
19
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COMMUNITIES & ECOSYSTEMS
EPA works closely with the govern-
ments of four states, 146 tribes,
six Pacific islandjurisdictions, and
Mexico to protect public health and
the environment. Some of these
Pacific Islands are more than
6,000 miles from EPA's regional
office in San Francisco
(see map, page 32).
20
COMMUNITIES AND ECO
3SYS
EPA's Pacific Southwest Region not only works with state and local gov-
ernments to protect public health and the environment, but with the
region's 146 tribes; U.S. territories of the Pacific Ocean, such as Guam,
American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands;
and the U.S.-Mexico border area.
EPA also has programs to address the special needs of children, who are
more sensitive to pollutants than adults; and wetland ecosystems, which are
crucial to sustaining fish and wildlife populations.
Progress in the Pacific Islands
Public Health Successes on Guam
On Guam, a Pacific island territory about 6,000 miles from the U.S. main-
land, the drinking water and sewage systems have been plagued by inade-
quate infrastructure and poor maintenance for years, often resulting in
sewage spills and drinking water contamination that threatens the health of
residents and visitors. Guam's Ordot Dump has also been a notorious pol-
TEMS
-------
luter, with frequent fires billowing toxic smoke and con-
taminated leachate fouling the Lonfit River. After repeated
efforts to work with Guam officials failed, EPA successfully
pursued two major enforcement cases in 2003 to safe-
guard public health from these hazards.
The Guam Waterworks Authority had repeatedly vio-
lated the Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act,
spilling over 500 million gallons of raw sewage from 1999
through 2002. Some of these spills polluted drinking water
sources, frequently making tap water unsafe to drink. The
Guam water agency often advised residents to boil tap
water before drinking it. Monitoring was inadequate.
EPA sued in federal court, seeking a court order to
require Guam Waterworks to make a series of managerial
and engineering changes to ensure safe tap water. In
January 2003, a new governor, Felix Camacho, took
office, along with a newly-elected commission that over-
sees Guam utilities. Since then, the new administration and
utilities commission have been working cooperatively with
EPA to address Guam's water woes.
In a partial settlement of the case, the Guam commis-
sion agreed to make the changes EPA identified, and
promptly got to work - hiring properly trained professionals,
drafting a master plan and technical assessments, over-
hauling financial and operational systems, enhancing
water disinfection, improving reliability of existing infra-
structure, and starting to rebuild the island's aging drinking
water and wastewater systems. Under the terms of the
agreement, the work will continue over the next four years.
Pollution from Guam's Ordot Dump has been more
localized, but no less threatening to nearby residents. In
addition to spreading noxious smoke and toxic leachate,
the dump has been a breeding ground for rats and mosqui-
toes. In 2003, an EPA settlement with the government of
Guam set deadlines for opening a new landfill and perma-
nently closing, and preventing further pollution from,
Ordot. The agreement requires Guam to analyze at least
three sites for a new landfill that complies with U.S. envi-
ronmental regulations.
Under the agreement, Guam will also spend $ 1 million
to develop a household hazardous waste diversion and
management program, to keep toxics out of the new land-
fill. In addition, the Government of Guam will pay a
$200,000 penalty for environmental violations at Ordot.
Saipan's Tanapag Village now PCB-free
In June 2003, more than a decade after capacitors
filled with toxic PCBs were discovered in Tanapag Village,
Saipan, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers completed
excavation and treatment of all remaining PCB-contami-
nated soil in the village and a nearby cemetery, under an
EPA cleanup order. The capacitors were originally
decomissioned from a military base in Kwajalein and relo-
cated to Saipan. Fifty-five capacitors were removed from
Tanapag Village and then shipped off-island in the early
1990s, but earlier spills and leaks had contaminated the
soil at 22 locations. With EPA oversight, the Corps exca-
vated over 40,000 tons of soil and treated it by an
Indirect Thermal Desorption (ITD) process. All of the
concentrated PCBs extracted by the treatment process
were shipped to the U.S. mainland for disposal.
EPA Holds Pacific Islands Conference,
Awards Coral Reef Grants
EPA held its annual Pacific Islands Environmental
Conference for 2003 in Hawaii. The conference drew
participants from Guam to Hilo and beyond, and the confer-
ence proceedings were posted on EPA's Web site, at
www.epa.gov/region09/cross pr/islands/conf03.
The conference was preceded by the Regional Workshop
on Coral Reefs and Land-based Pollution, which focused on
coral reef threats stemming from soil erosion and polluted
runoff. Last year, EPA awarded a total of $1.32 million in
grants for coral reef protection projects. For more informa-
tion on the grants and recipients, go to
www.epa.gov/region09/cross pr/islands/coralreef.htm.
From Mangrove Wetlands to Computer Systems
EPA grants supported important environmental work in
the far-flung islands of the Pacific. For example, EPA
Saipan's new Marpi Landfill under construction. The new solid
waste landfill, first in the Pacific Islands to comply with federal
standards for preventing pollution, opened in February 2003.
COMMUNITIES AND ECOSYSTEMS
21
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EPA Pacific Southwest Regional Administrator Wayne Nastri,
center, met with Felix Antone, Governor of the Traditional
O'odham Leaders in Mexico. The two discussed a $30,000 EPA
Border Program Grant awarded last year for testing drinking
water in several Tohono O'odham communities in Northern
Sonora, Mexico.
awarded a $102,063 grant to the American Samoa
Coastal Management Program to conserve and protect
mangrove tree wetlands on Tutulia and Aunu'u Islands.
The project will support locally-managed monitoring
of mangrove wetlands and a program to educate local com-
munities about the importance of conserving them. The goal
is to provide a sustainable model of mangrove management
that can be used on other Pacific islands as well.
Healthy mangroves protect coral reefs from sedimenta-
tion, which can kill corals. Mangrove stands also protect
villages from flooding and storm wave damage, and pro-
vide habitat for wildlife. Most mangrove areas in
American Samoa have been filled in since the early 1900s.
Only five significant stands remain.
On many islands, pollution of scarce fresh water
resources by pig waste has been a problem. EPA awarded
a $70,000 grant to Northern Marianas College to develop
an alternative waste management system for piggeries. The
project, run by the college's Cooperative Research
Extension, will demonstrate sustainable pig waste manage-
ment by using portable pens and dry litter from local
sources such as coconut husks and grass clippings, as
affordable ways to prevent water pollution.
The first phase of the project will be on the Northern
Mariana Islands and Guam. The second will expand it to
Palau and the Federated State of Micronesia. Outreach mate-
rials will be produced and distributed to other islands.
EPA also awarded a $178,600 grant to the Guam
Environmental Protection Agency to develop computer
systems for environmental information and data sharing.
The grant will assist the Guam EPA in constructing links
to the national EPA network.
Working with Tribal Communities
November of 2003 marked the tenth anniversary of the
Indian Environmental General Assistance Program (GAP).
Over the past decade, tribes throughout the Pacific
Southwest have partnered with EPA through this program
to protect the environment in Indian Country. Today, 131
tribes - 90 percent of tribes in the Pacific Southwest - are
developing environmental programs through GAP.
This partnership helps tribes build the capacity and
programs needed to meet their individual needs, and has
led to many environmental accomplishments. In 2003,
EPAs Pacific Southwest Regional Office issued grants and
Interagency Agreement funds to support tribal programs
totaling $45 million. These grants include the GAP
capacity-building grants and other grants specific to pro-
grams in air, water, waste, pesticides and toxics. Work
completed in 2003 with funding from previous years
includes:
• improvement of drinking water for 13,000 tribal
homes
• training of 60 tribal solid waste managers in dump clo-
sure and solid waste management
• further development of air monitors on tribal lands,
making a total of 43 tribal air monitors in the region
• improvement of wastewater facilities for 7,000 tribal
homes
• closure of 31 tribal dumps
• improvement of air quality for 21 tribes
• 16 cleanup projects that removed abandoned cars, tires
and scrap metal
• 11 tribal recycling projects
• 15 watershed restoration projects
Dramatic Improvements on Tribal Lands
With funding from EPA, USDA, and the Indian Health
Service, the Cocopah Tribe on the lower Colorado River,
near the U.S.-Mexico Border, drilled two new drinking
water wells, built a 500,000-gallon storage tank, upgraded
their water distribution system, and built a drinking water
treatment facility. On the Tohono O'odham Reservation,
west of Tucson, Ariz., EPA grants are funding installment
of continuous disinfection units at 74 water sources to
keep drinking water free of disease pathogens. The Ak-Chin
22
COMMUNITIES AND ECOSYSTEMS
-------
Community, located near Phoenix, built a new sewage
treatment plant, installed sewage pipes to all buildings,
and closed and removed 100 septic systems that had
threatened the purity of drinking water from local wells.
With EPA funding, the Kashia Band of Porno Indians,
on California's Sonoma County coastline, cleaned up 12
illegal dump sites, removing eight abandoned cars, 21 car
batteries, a mobile home, 110 tires, 19 appliances, 16 tons
of household trash, and 32 tons of scrap metal. They also
established a recycling center and an oil recycling facility,
and held two environmental fairs. The Pala Band of
Mission Indians removed over 34,000 waste tires from
their Southern California reservation.
Finding Solutions for Klamath River
In September 2002, 33,000 salmon died in 36 miles of the
lower Klamath River due to high temperatures, disease,
and insufficient water to prevent these fish-killing condi-
tions. Several tribes who rely on Klamath River resources
asked EPA for help in preventing future fish kills. In late
July 2003, EPA awarded a $100,000 grant to the Yurok
Tribe, which will be shared among five tribes along the
river to help find solutions to problems facing the Klamath.
The funds will support monitoring of river conditions and
fishery studies. Ultimately, the information will be used to
help federal and state agencies in California and Oregon
gain a better understanding of the Klamath Basin.
Environmental Law Enforcement on Tribal Lands
EPA continues to enforce federal environmental laws on
tribal lands, in cooperation with the tribes. In May
2003, EPA ordered the operators of a solid waste
dump on Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla tribal land
near Thermal, Calif., to stop a smoldering dump fire
which polluted the air with smoke. EPA also inspected
75 underground fuel storage tank (UST) facilities on
tribal lands, trained 88 tribal inspectors to carry out
UST inspections, and published a poster and booklet
for service stations on how to prevent leaks and spills
of fuel, oil, freon, and other toxics (Preventing Leaks
and Spills at Service Stations: A Guide for Facilities,
EPA publication #909-K-03-001, can be ordered by
calling EPAs UST program at 415-972-3367).
U.S.-Mexico Border Communities
Two Nations Sign Border 2012 Plan
On April 4, 2003, in Tijuana, Baja California, the
U.S. and Mexico signed a new 10-year cooperative
plan to protect public health and the environment
in the 2,000-mile border region where almost 12 million
citizens of both countries live. The new program, Border
2012, will focus on decreasing air, water, waste and soil
pollution and lowering the risks of exposure to pesticides
and other chemicals.
At the signing event, officials of EPA and Mexico's
SEMARNAT (Secreteria del Medio Ambiente y Recursos
Naturales) were joined by representatives of 10 U.S. and
Mexico border states, U.S. border tribes, and other feder-
al, state and local agencies who helped develop the pro-
gram and will participate in carrying it out. The new pro-
gram focuses on measurable environmental and public
health outcomes.
The agencies convened regional workgroups for
California and Baja (in Calexico, May 29) and Arizona
and Sonora (Tucson, June 5), co-chaired by EPA Deputy
Regional Administrator Laura Yoshii and top officials
from SEMARNAT and these U.S. and Mexican border
states. The regional workgroups appointed task forces
assigned to carry out Border 2012 goals.
Copies of the Border 2012 Plan and related documents
are available in English and Spanish at either of the fol-
lowing Web sites:
www.epa.gov/usmexicoborder
www.semarnat.gob.mx/portal/UCAI/frontera2012
Grants Fund Border Environmental Projects
EPA grants awarded in 2003 are funding over a dozen
projects in the Pacific Southwest and border states of
The border community of Chilpancingo, near Tijuana, Baja California.
COMMUNITIES AND ECOSYSTEMS
23
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Wetlands along Calera Creek, San Mateo County, Calif. These
wetlands, fed by water from Pacifica s new state-of-the-art waste-
water treatment plant, provide wildlife habitat and make the
treated water even cleaner before the creek empties into the
Pacific Ocean.
Mexico. The largest amounts were for wastewater infra-
structure in Bisbee, Ariz. ($11.3 million), Mexicali, Baja
California ($10 million), and Somerton, Ariz. ($4 million).
The "Mexicali II" project will benefit area residents
and ecosystems in several ways: Once this wastewater
treatment plant in Mexicali is completed, it will remove up
to 16 million gallons per day of raw and partially-treated
sewage that currently enters the New River. The treated
effluent will remain in Mexico, and flow into the Lower
Colorado River Delta, helping restore this unique ecosystem.
Other projects funded in 2003 and scheduled for 2004
include stabilizing an abandoned lead smelter in
Chilpancingo, a community near Tijuana ($85,000); an
inventory of hazardous chemicals at facilities on both sides
of the border in the Calexico/Mexicali area ($70,000);
establishment of a clearinghouse to link donors and recipi-
ents of used and surplus emergency response equipment on
both sides of the border ($32,000); and a pilot program
for sampling and analysis of hazardous materials and
wastes being transported across the border ($65,000).
Children's Environmental Health
Interest in children's environmental health continues to
grow with the recognition that existing environmental
programs and health standards may not sufficiently pro-
tect children. Children generally eat more food, drink
more water, and breathe more air relative to their size
than adults do, and consequently may be exposed to rela-
tively higher amounts of contaminants. Children's normal
activities, such as putting their hands in their mouths or
playing on the ground, create opportunities for exposures
to contaminants that adults do not face. In addition, envi-
ronmental contaminants may affect children dispropor-
tionately because their immune defenses are not fully
developed or their growing organs are more easily
harmed. Damage to developing organ systems may carry
lifelong consequences.
Many of the health problems that result from exposure
to harmful environmental conditions can be prevented,
managed, and treated. Thus, EPA is taking a variety of
actions to make our environment a better one for children.
For example, EPA is encouraging school districts to adopt
the EPA Indoor Air Quality Tools for Schools Program
and the Integrated Pest Management program to promote
healthy school environments. The EPA Clean School Bus
USA program is providing resources and technical support
to promote cleaner school buses and reduce exposure to
harmful diesel bus fumes. EPA continues to promote a
number of programs to reduce exposure to lead and mer-
cury. For example, although fish is an important part of a
balanced diet, federal and state fish advisories guide con-
sumers to limit their intake of certain fish that contain
higher levels of mercury.
EPA is supporting children's health research through
Children's Environmental Health Centers at the University
of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, the
University of California at Berkeley and the University of
California at Davis.
EPA's Web pages on children's health in the Pacific
Southwest (www.epa.gov/region09/cross pr/childhealth)
provide additional detail on key children's health programs
and research in the Pacific Southwest.
Wetlands and Watersheds
Wetlands, including seasonal wetlands that appear dry
most of the year, are essential for fish and wildlife habitat,
as well as preventing floods and filtering pollutants. EPA's
Pacific Southwest Wetlands Office protects wetlands by
working with landowners, nonprofits, and other agencies
to promote voluntary protection of wetlands through con-
servation easements, partnerships, grants, acquisition, and
restoration, and through permitting and enforcement of
the Clean Water Act's Section 404, which restricts unau-
thorized filling or conversion of wetlands.
Southern California Wetlands Recovery Project Wins Award
Fewer than 5% of Southern California's original coastal
wetlands remain, so protecting and restoring the remain-
ing wetlands is a high priority. EPA is a leading member
24
COMMUNITIES AND ECOSYSTEMS
-------
of the Southern California Wetlands Recovery Project, a
local, state, and federal government effort which received
the President's National Partnership Award. The partner-
ship has thus far funded 17 projects, and completed six,
including acquisition of 45 acres of threatened wetlands
at Huntington Beach, and eradication of the invasive sea-
weed Caulerpa taxifolia in San Elijio Lagoon. The fast-
growing plant, most likely discarded from a home aquari-
um, was eliminated in time to prevent the kind of disaster
that followed its introduction into the Mediterranean,
where it has covered many square miles of shallow bot-
tom, effectively destroying these areas as habitat for all
other marine life.
The Southern California Wetlands Recovery Project
has also completed plans to reduce pollution and enhance
the habitat value of existing wetlands at Carpenteria,
Malibu Lagoon, Ormond Beach, and Goleta Slough.
Estuaries Benefit from NEP
Through the National Estuaries Program, EPA funds
ongoing efforts to protect and restore estuaries, where
rivers or streams meet the sea, such as San Francisco Bay
and Delta. In that ecosystem, project partners led by the
California Department of Fish and Game initiated tidal
wetlands restoration on about 15 square miles of salt-
evaporating ponds at the mouth of the Napa River south
of Napa -just one of 145 priority actions being taken by
more than 30 participating agencies and groups to restore
Bay-Delta ecosystems.
On the Central California Coast, the Morro Bay
Estuary Program has completed 14 of 31 planned priority
actions, including protecting 116 acres of threatened dune,
coastal scrub, salt marsh, and riparian habitat, opening a
visitor center, and improving a volunteer water monitoring
program. The Santa Monica Bay Program secured protec-
tion for 141 acres of natural habitat, just one of 21 com-
pleted priority actions, and 51 more underway. Last year
the state legislature created the Santa Monica Bay
Restoration Commission to strengthen the effort.
Hanalei River Gets $700,000 for Watershed Work
EPA awarded the Hanalei Heritage River Program in Kauai,
Hawaii, a $700,000 grant for watershed protection - the
only watershed in the Pacific Southwest Region to receive
funding from EPAs new national Watershed Initiative.
The money is supporting local efforts for ecological
restoration, community development, and historic and cul-
tural preservation.
EPA People
Elizabeth Stahl
Elizabeth Stahl has been a
grants management spe-
cialist with the EPA Grants
Office in San Francisco for
the past 12 years. She has
worked mainly with
California and Arizona
tribes and has provided
them with assistance in
administrative and finan-
cial aspects of grant man-
agement. Although much
of Elizabeth's time is spent in the office and on the phone,
"one of the favorite parts of my job is travelling to tribal
lands. I think the unique perspective I get from these trips
allows me to understand the specific issues which apply to
tribes and to provide them with better grant assistance."
Because of their experiences during tribal visits,
Elizabeth and the staff in the Grants Management Office
have developed grant administration workshops tailored
to tribes. In 2003 Elizabeth presented grant training at
the annual Tribal/EPA conference in the fall, at a General
Assistance Program meeting, and at various tribal offices
to individual tribal staff.
Elizabeth also is one of the Regional Tribal
Operations Committee (RTOC) representatives for the
Policy and Management Division. This provides her with
the opportunity to hear directly from the 130 tribes and
tribal consortia who have EPA grants. "Being an RTOC
representative really helps me to see the 'big picture' in
grants management."
Among the actions funded are replacement of area
cesspools that contaminate the river, agricultural best man-
agement practices to reduce sediments muddying the river,
and monitoring to document the effect of these activities
on coral reefs and fish populations.
The Hanalei River was designated an American
Heritage River in July of 1998. The Hanalei Heritage
River Program has already developed a five-year action
plan and established a successful framework for commu-
nity cooperation and agency collaboration.
COMMUNITIES AND ECOSYSTEMS
25
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COMPLIANCE & STEWARDSHIP
Effective environmental stewardship
involves a variety of approaches:
enforcement, compliance assis-
tance, and voluntary, innovative
approaches to go beyond compli-
ance and achieve superior environ-
mental results. (Above: restored
wetlands alongside vineyards near
Sonoma, Calif.)
26
COMPLIANCE AND STEWA
Advancing Compliance: Utilizing All Available Tools
Compliance with environmental laws is fundamental to EPA's goals of
clean air, water, and land. Credible, fair enforcement is the guarantee,
and 2003 was another strong year for EPA in the Pacific Southwest. Enforce-
ment actions were up 25% over 2002, and federal cases brought significant
pollution reductions as well as penalties, as the examples in this chapter
show. Just as important as the environmental benefits, EPA's enforcement
presence supported a level economic playing field for those who do comply
- an important factor in alignment of environmental protection and eco-
nomic health.
These statistics don't count actions taken solely by the states' and tribes'
own enforcement programs, which are supported by annual EPA grants.
EPA also continued its collaboration with state and tribal partners to help
facilities, especially small businesses, comply voluntarily. In addition, other
EPA grants, such as those that support University of California sustainable
SHIP
-------
agriculture demonstration projects, foster innovation to
achieve superior environmental results.
Arizona
In Arizona, EPA more than doubled its enforcement
actions against polluters, from 45 in 2002 to 94 in 2003.
EPA collected a total of $115,500 in civil penalties for
numerous air, water, hazardous waste, community right-
to-know, and pesticide violations. EPA also received com-
mitments for more than $71 million in cleanup work -
$70 million of which came from an EPA settlement with
responsible parties for cleanup of the North Indian Bend
Wash Superfund site in Scottsdale, Ariz.
In an administrative settlement finalized in September,
a Phoenix recycling company, Onyx Special Services Inc.,
agreed to pay $11,481 in penalties for PCB storage and
worker protection violations and improper disposal. The
company also agreed to a supplemental environmental
project (SEP), spending $43,000 to purchase four thermal
imagers for the Phoenix fire department. These life-saving
devices, used by firefighters as they enter a burning build-
ing, enable them to find victims hidden by smoke.
California
In California, EPA increased its enforcement actions
against polluters 33% over a two-year period. EPA took
195 enforcement actions against businesses and govern-
ment facilities throughout the state, up from 188 in 2002
and 146 in 2001.
EPA negotiated settlements totaling nearly $40 million
for cleanup of the Casmalia Resources hazardous waste
Superfund site in Central California. The Casmalia site
was a commercial hazardous waste treatment, storage and
disposal facility 10 miles from Santa Maria. Between 1972
and 1989, the site accepted over 5.5 billion pounds of liq-
uid and solid hazardous waste, including seven million
drums of waste.
EPA also reached a $10 million settlement requiring 17
companies to clean up the Waste Disposal Inc. Superfund
site in Santa Fe Springs. The 38-acre waste facility includes
a buried 42-million gallon, concrete-lined reservoir built in
the 1920s and later used by the oil industry as a landfill.
Soils are contaminated with metals, polyaromatic hydro-
carbons and volatile organic compounds.
Nevada
EPA and the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection
worked together in 2003, taking enforcement actions that
resulted in settlements and penalties totaling more than
$600,000, as well as reduced pollution. One Las Vegas
wood furniture manufacturer, Capital Cabinet Corp., was
required to reduce air emissions of smog-forming chemicals
by 50 tons per year. Nevada's technical assistance program,
operated under contract with the University of Nevada,
helped many businesses comply with enviromnmental reg-
ulations while reducing hazardous and industrial waste.
Last year, the program helped five facilities reduce these
wastes by a total of 47,000 pounds.
Hawaii
EPA increased its enforcement actions against polluters in
Hawaii in 2003 by 67% over 2002. EPA took 25 enforce-
ment actions against businesses and government facilities
throughout the state for violations of federal environmen-
tal laws, up from 15 in 2002.
In one highly-publicized case, EPA levied a fine of
Last year, the U.S. Army's chemical weapons destruction facility
on Johnston Island in the Pacific was dismantled, after destroying
a stockpile of over 400,000 chemical weapons over a ten-year
period. (See story, page 28.)
COMPLIANCE AND STEWARDSHIP
27
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A vineyard in the Salinas Valley, Calif. EPA grants funded a number of agricultural
projects aimed at reducing use of toxic pesticides, including one that is developing
standards for sustainable production in the winegrape industry.
and ordered to serve 300 hours of com-
munity service. He will be subject to
deportation upon the completion of his
sentence.
The U.S. Army, as part of a settlement
with the EPA, paid $91,125 in penalties for
the release of a small amount of extremely
toxic VX nerve agent, and agreed to spend
$182,500 on a SEP to revegetate portions
of Johnston Atoll, approximately 800 miles
southwest of Hawaii. The Army is working
with the Air Force, U.S. Department of
Interior and EPA to restore Johnston Atoll
to a wildlife refuge after years of serving as
the Army's first major chemical agent dis-
posal base. Last year, the Army dismantled
the facility, recycling the removable por-
tions and demolishing the concrete building
that housed it.
$7,920 on a grocery store in the Chinatown area of
Honolulu for illegally selling and distributing unregistered
mothballs. Hing Mau Inc. sold naphthalene mothballs that
were not registered with EPA and did not have an approved
label. Illegal naphthalene mothballs pose a hazard to young
children, since they can easily be mistaken for candy, or
simply tempt young children to touch and play with them.
Pacific Islands
In 2003, EPA increased its enforcement actions against
polluters in the Pacific Islands such as Guam, American
Samoa and the Marianas by 119 percent over 2002 efforts.
EPA took 15 enforcement actions in the Commonwealth
of Northern Mariana Islands and nine in Guam, for a total
of 24 actions against businesses and government facilities
throughout the Pacific Islands area, up from 11 in 2002.
In a criminal case, a defendant pleaded guilty to tam-
pering with and falsifying drinking water samples that he
submitted to the Commonwealth of the Northern
Mariana Islands' Division of Environmental Quality
under the EPA's safe drinking water program. The defen-
dant had taken water samples from garment factories,
restaurants and bottled water companies on Saipan. He
admitted he tampered with samples and falsified informa-
tion to conceal that his water treatment and filtration
equipment failed to purify water sufficiently to meet Safe
Drinking Water Act standards. He was sentenced in U.S.
District Court to 15 months imprisonment, fined $3,000,
Stewardship in Agriculture
The Pacific Southwest Region - California, Arizona,
Nevada, Hawaii and other Pacific islands - grows 50% of
the nation's produce, has 25% of the nation's dairies, and
employs 25% of the nation's farm workers. California
alone produces 350 different commodities, many grown
nowhere else in the U.S. But this intensive agricultural
production has major impacts on the environment and
public health.
There is particulate air pollution from road dust, plow-
ing, harvesting, diesel tractors and irrigation pumps, and
waste burning (see Clean Air Chapter: San Joaquin
Valley); ammonia and smog-forming volatile organic com-
pounds from dairy manure and pesticides; methane from
animal feed lots; and stratospheric ozone depletion from
the soil fumigant methyl bromide. Agricultural runoff,
with pesticides, chemical fertilizers, nutrients from animal
waste, and salts from irrigation drainage, is the nation's
biggest source of water pollution.
To tackle these problems, EPA takes a multi-pronged
approach, including collaborative efforts with farmers,
universities, and local, state, and federal agencies, as well
as regulatory approaches such as clean air planning and
law enforcement efforts.
San Joaqin Valley Dairy Waste Initiative
For example, EPA is participating in the San Joaquin
Valley Federal Dairy Waste Initiative, which is pooling the
efforts of federal agencies such as USDA and the Natural
28
COMPLIANCE AND STEWARDSHIP
-------
Resources Conservation Service (NRCS, formerly known
as the Soil Conservation Service) to work with dairy oper-
ators, Cal/EPA, and environmental groups to investigate
treatment alternatives for dairy waste. Potential solutions
include methane digesters to transform manure into
methane, or natural gas, which can be used to generate
electricity; and upgraded municipal wastewater treatment
plants that can handle dairy waste.
EPA has been working with many of these stakehold-
ers since 1999, when the agency joined the California
Dairy Quality Assurance Partnership, and supported its
efforts with a $440,000 grant to the University of
California at Davis. This partnership has developed a cer-
tification program for dairy operators, in which they make
commitments to use the best available practices to mini-
mize pollution from dairy waste. By the end of 2003, 182
dairies had been certified - about 10% of the major ani-
mal feeding operations in the state; an additional 95
dairies were going through the certification process.
Leveraging $6 Million to Support Sustainable Agriculture
Over the past three years, using $20,000 in grants from
EPA, philanthropic foundations have formed Funders for
Sustainable Food Systems, and raised $1.7 million toward
a goal of $6 million to support sustainable agriculture in
California. The group has solicited input from key stake-
holders, published a report, Roots of Change: Agriculture,
Ecology and Health in California, and formed an adviso-
ry council to set funding priorities and issue grants.
Toxics Release Inventory Spurs Reductions
When EPAs Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data showed
that Nevada gold mines were a major source of mercury
releases to the environment, EPA worked with the indus-
try on voluntary reduction measures that would forgo the
need for regulation. The effort paid off: Nevada's four
largest gold mining companies reduced their air emissions
of mercury from a total of 21,098 pounds per year to
12,743 pounds - a 40% drop.
Since 1987, the Toxics Release Inventory has tracked
toxic releases from industrial and federal facilities through-
out the nation. The availability of this data alone has
spurred facilities to reduce toxic releases, as informed
communities bring public pressure to bear on facility man-
agers.
Federal facilities, such as military bases, are included
under TRI disclosure requirements. Between 1999 and
2001 (the most recent year of TRI data available), the TRI
shows, federal facilities in the Pacific Southwest Region
have reduced toxic releases by an impressive 47% (see bar
graph, below).
The TRI, however, provides useful data only if facili-
ties comply with its reporting requirements (under the
1986 Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know
Act, EPCRA). To make sure they do, EPA inspections
include examination of facility records to determine
whether they have complied. Last year, Conoco Phillips
paid $150,975 to settle EPCRA violations at its petro-
chemical refinery in Wilmington, Calif. EPA alleged that
first Enforcement Cases Involving GMOs
In EPAs first major cases involving genetically-modified
organisms, Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc. and Dow
AgroSciences paid fines totaling nearly $20,000 for failing
to comply with EPAs experimental use permits governing
the testing of genetically modified corn. As part of its set-
tlement, Pioneer was required to test its biotech corn plot
in Kauai, Hawaii, and report its findings to assure that an
experimental gene grown in the corn had not been trans-
ferred to adjacent seed corn fields. During testing, the
company paid a fine of $72,000 for failing to immediately
notify EPA of test results that initially indicated the exper-
imental gene may have spread to seeds grown nearby.
Follow-up testing indicated that the initial results were
either false or attributable to an unrelated field test regu-
lated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. EPA regu-
lates biopesticides under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide,
and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA).
Reduction of toxic releases at federal facilities in the
Pacific Southwest Region
1999
2000
2001
Federal agencies' facilities in the Pacific Southwest Region have
reduced their toxic releases by 47% in just two years.
COMPLIANCE AND STEWARDSHIP
29
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Navajo Nation EPA and U.S. EPA staff inspecting an under-
ground fuel storage tank facility at Chinle, Navajo Nation. In
2003, EPA's underground storage tank program trained many
tribal UST inspectors.
the facility had failed to file timely or accurate estimates
of releases of toxic chemicals to the environment in 1997-
1998. EPA also fined previous owner Unocal $105,600 for
similar violations in 1996 at the same facility.
To access TRI data for your community, go to
www.epa.gov/enviro.
Collaborating to Prevent Pollution and
Promote Recycling
EPA has many voluntary programs and grants to demon-
strate the economic as well as environmental benefits of
preventing pollution. Here are some results from 2003:
Federal Facilities Reduce Toxics
Over the last six years, EPA staff have evaluated 18 of
the Pacific Southwest Region's federal agency facilities,
including several military bases, which are the equivalent
of small cities. EPA made 202 specific recommendations
for actions to prevent pollution. The managers of these
facilities adopted 78% of EPA's recommendations, ranging
from recycling procedures to use of less-toxic cleaning
fluids. The high degree of cooperation showed the success
of EPA's collaborative approach to working with other
federal agencies to reduce their environmental impacts.
Military personnel and workers at the facilities, as well
as people in surrounding communities, will benefit from
these changes in standard operating procedures for years
to come.
BFR Roundtables Spur Legislation
When brominated flame retardants (BFRs) started show-
ing up in mothers' breast milk, EPA sponsored a series
of roundtable discussions to bring health organizations,
industry, and government agencies together to discuss the
risks and possible solutions. The roundtables helped spur
passage of state legislation in California to ban two of the
most dangerous BFRs starting in 2008. Nationally, EPA
secured an agreement with the only U.S. manufacturer
making "penta" and "octa" BFRs to phase out production
by the end of 2004.
Reducing PBTs:
Persistent Bioaccumulative Toxics
PBTs threaten human health and the environment because
they last a long time, build up in the food chain, and are
toxic even at very low levels. EPA is working to reduce
PBT usage through projects including:
• EPA has determined that backyard burning is the
largest source of dioxin emissions in the country.
Region 9 has awarded grants to three tribes to demon-
strate innovative open-burning reduction programs as
models for other tribes and local governments.
• An EPA grant funded a Hawaii Department of Health
project that collected 1,500 pounds of mercury from
schools, dentists, and homes. Such collection projects
help prevent incidents in which children find small
containers of mercury and play with it, contaminating
themselves, their homes, and in some cases, their
schools, resulting in cleanup operations that cost hun-
dreds of thousands of dollars. Over the past year, there
have been two such incidents in Nevada and one in
Hawaii.
Resource Conservation Challenge
The Resource Conservation Challenge is a major national
effort to find flexible, yet more effective ways to conserve
our valuable resources through waste reduction and ener-
gy recovery, while benefiting public health and the envi-
ronment.
In Hawaii, an EPA grant funded the new Kea'anu
Recycling Center on the Big Island's major city, Hilo. The
center was so popular that people brought in triple the
anticipated amount of recyclable materials in its first two
months. Another EPA grant, the result of a Congressional
appropriation of $223,500 for this specific purpose, is fund-
ing the startup of a similar facility on the Kona Coast of the
Big Island. Recycling efforts statewide are expected to get
another major boost in 2005 when Hawaii's "Bottle Bill"
30
COMPLIANCE AND STEWARDSHIP
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takes effect, giving people refunds for every
drink container they recycle. EPA provided
funding for the state to plan implementation
of this new law.
Under EPA's Pollution Prevention
Grants program, EPA funds state projects
such as a UC Berkeley project which
replaced 3,000 mercury-containing items
such as thermometers and barometers, col-
lecting 280 pounds of mercury. Another
grant funded the University of Nevada,
Reno's Business Environmental Program.
WasteWise
Last year 25 new partners joined
WasteWise, an EPA program that encour-
ages businesses and other facilities to
adopt cost-effective solid waste reduction
measures that boost the bottom line while
reducing solid waste. Among the new
partners: Fort Independence Indian
Reservation, Frito-Lay of Hawaii, Arizona
State Parks, ARAMARK, Inc., and Green
Suites International.
Innovations Work Group Grants
EPA's Innovations Work Group provides
funds to selected pilot projects designed to
demonstrate innovative ways to promote
recycling and reduce waste. Last year, EPA
awarded a total of $148,000 in grants for
innovative projects, including:
• The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART)
District's development of a sustainabili-
ty policy, which led to new lighting
control technology in BART garages
that use 25% less energy
• California's Merced County is cooperat-
ing with Central Valley dairies to com-
post the county's greenwaste with
manure, creating a valuable fertilizer.
• Testing chemical management services
in universities to reduce the amount of
unused chemicals stored in university
labs and to reduce the risk of chemical
exposures to students and staff. The
new campus at UC Merced will pilot
test this approach in 2004.
EPA People
Norwood Scott
Compliance with underground fuel storage tank
(LIST) regulations is essential to prevent leaks that
contaminate soil and groundwater. In the past
three years, thanks to EPA's Norwood Scott, com-
pliance in the Pacific Islands has increased dra-
matically - in American Samoa, for instance, the
compliance rate went from zero to nearly 100%.
When Scott inspected USTs on the main
island of Tutuila in January 2001, none of the
island's 15 service stations was in compliance. He worked one-on-one with
each of the tank owners as well as the petroleum marketers to show them
how to comply. His efforts in Hawaii were also a success. He provided
extensive training for the state's LIST staff and managers, working with
them to ensure that Hawaii developed a strong enforcement program.
At EPA's Pacific Southwest Regional Office, Scott leads the five-person
team that manages LIST grants for state, tribal, and trust territory LIST
programs. His leadership, skill, and creativity have contributed to the
region's reputation for having one of the nation's best LIST programs.
Ramon Mendoza
EPA engineer Ramon Mendoza is at home
working in the Pacific Islands. Likening it to his
Peace Corps days in Africa, Ramon says, "I feel
great being able to make a positive difference,
and in the Pacific Islands I feel that what I do
really has an impact. Plus the people there are
great to work with. I might be 6,000 miles
from the office, but I always feel welcome."
Ramon is the EPA Pacific Islands Office jack-
of-all trades for waste and contamination issues. In the past year,
Ramon has helped uncover and get rid of unexploded ordnance on
Saipan, helped shut down CNMI's notorious Puerto Rico dump, led an
enforcement action involving an oil spill in American Samoa, helped
Yap analyze the risk of PCBs in its port, and provided hazardous waste
training in the Philippines, the country where he was born.
Ramon, who volunteers in his spare time helping the elderly in San
Francisco's Tenderloin, is the only EPA Pacific Southwest employee who
includes a machete in his field kit. "When you're in the islands, man,
you never know what to expect—thick brush, brown tree snakes, or an
8-inch artillery shell from World War II. You've got to be prepared for
anything." Ramon's next challenge is working to help develop a
region-wide recycling program in the Pacific.
COMPLIANCE AND STEWARDSHIP
31
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China
EPA and e-Government
Efforts to protect public human health and safeguard the
natural environment depend on access to high-quality
information - by federal, state and local agencies, businesses
and organizations, and members of the public. By strength-
ening information management and expanding use of the
Internet, EPA is helping helping fulfill the promise of
e-government to better serve the American people.
EPA's Web portal at www.epa.gov provides access to a
vast array of resources and services. For citizens seeking
information about environmental conditions and issues in
their communities, resources such as EPA's Where You Live
page (at www.epa.gov/epahome/whereyoulive.htm) and
Window to My Environment (www.epa.gov/enviro/wme)
bring together a wealth of knowledge and tools for involve-
ment.
EPA's work as the lead federal agency for e-rulemaking
culminated last year in the launching of Regulations.gov (at
www.regulations.gov), which provides the public with
online acess to regulatory documents and the opportunity
to comment on federal rulemakings. EPA also contributes to
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The full range of EPA's information
resources for the public are available
at www.epa.gov.
Grants.gov, a one-stop resource for federal grant opportuni-
ties, and new online processes that streamline federal grant
accounting and payments.
EPA has also been working with states on the
Environmental Information Exchange Network, a unified
network that integrates access to high-quality air, water and
waste information systems. Currently, 49 states report data
electronically through EPA's network portal, reducing their
reporting burden while increasing accuracy and timeliness
of data.
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
808.541.2710
EPA San Diego Border Office
610 West Ash St., Suite 905
San Diego, CA 92101
619.235.4765
EPA Southern California Field Office
911 Wilshire Blvd., llth Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90017
213.452.3373
To Obtain This Report
Order from EPA's 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
&EPA
Printed on 100% postconsumer
recycled paper - process chlorine-free.
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EPA Pacific Southwest/Region 9
Environmental Information Center
Web: www.epa.gov/region09
Email: r9.info@epa.gov
Phone: 866.EPA.WEST (toll-free)
415.947.8000
Office of the Regional Administrator
415.947.8702
Wayne Nastri, Regional Administrator
Laura Yoshii, Deputy RA
Carla Moore, Civil Rights Director
Office of Planning and Public Affairs
415.947.8700
Sally Seymour, Director
Public Information/News Media Relations
Strategic Planning
Partnerships: State, Congressional Liaison
Compliance Assurance Coordination
Office of the Regional Counsel
415.947.8705
Nancy Marvel, Regional Counsel
Legal Counsel
Civil and Criminal Enforcement
Defensive Litigation, Ethics
Air Division
415.947.8715
Deborah Jordan, Director
Planning, Permits, Rulemaking
Enforcement, Technical Support
Radiation & Compliance Assurance
Grants & Program Integration
Water Division
415.947.8707
Alexis Strauss, Director
Clean Water Act
Safe Drinking Water Act
Marine Sanctuaries Act
U.S.-Mexico Border Program
Waste Management Division
415.947.8708
Jeff Scott, Director
Pollution Prevention, Solid Waste
RCRA Permits/Corrective Action
RCRA Inspections & Enforcement
RCRA State Program Development
Underground Storage Tank Program
Superfund Division
415.947.8709
Keith Takata, Director
Site Cleanup, Brownfields, Oil Pollution
Federal Facilities and Base Closures
Emergency Response & Planning
Community Involvement, Site Assessment
Cross Media Division
415.947.8704
Enrique Manzanilla, Director
Agricultural Initiative, Environmental Justice
Pesticides/FIFRA
Toxics/Lead/Asbestos/PCBs
Tribal Programs, Pacific Islands
Federal Activities, NEPA Review, TRI
Policy and Management Division
415.947.8706
Jane Diamond, Director
Budget, Finance/Grants/Contracts
Superfund Cost Accounting, Science Policy
Laboratory & QA/QC, Facilities
Information Resource Management
Health & Safety, Human Resources
©EPA
U.S. EPA Pacific Southwest/Region 9
75 Hawthorne Street
San Francisco, CA 94105
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Penalty for Private Use $300
Address Service Requested
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