EPA Progress Report 2003
Pacific Southwest Region
xฎ/EPA
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Pacific Southwest / Region 9
EPA-909-R-03-001
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Dear Readers,
When I joined EPA as Regional Administrator in the fall of 2001, I did so in the
belief that everyone should be able to enjoy a healthy environment.
I have been inspired by the shared commitment of my colleagues at EPA to real-
ize that vision. By focusing on vigorous enforcement of our laws, effective collabora-
tion, and measurable results, we've set a clear course for our goal of cleaner air, purer
water, and better protected lands in the Pacific Southwest.
Our 2003 Progress Report looks at the accomplishments of EPA and its partners
in the past year and highlights the challenges before us in our diverse communities
and ecosystems. As the map in the back of this report shows, our responsibilities
span the globe from the Pacific islands of Guam and Palau to the tribal lands of
Arizona.
The importance and the complexity of the problems we face are well known.
Straightforward solutions are often elusive, and reaching consensus on the best
choices requires patience and dedication. The new demands of homeland security -
through protection of vital infrastructure and emergency preparedness - must also be
fully addressed. These challenges are at the core of our day-to-day efforts, and they
require the resources and creative thinking of all of our partners - state, local and
tribal governments, industry, and environmental advocacy groups.
The pressures buffeting California's San Joaquin Valley illustrate the urgency and
intricacy of creating such solutions. Long one of the world's most productive agricul-
tural areas, the valley has felt the strain of growth. Air quality is some of the worst
in the nation, and asthma rates are high - particularly among children. Water quali-
ty and quantity are a constant issue made particularly difficult by drought. It's clear
that solving these problems will require the efforts of everyone with a stake in a
healthy San Joaquin Valley.
EPA contributes to these solutions in a variety of ways. One of the most valuable
is facilitating communication and coordination among the agencies, organizations
and communities that come together to tackle such challenges. And while we
always encourage voluntary measures and new approaches that go beyond simple
compliance with the law, we rely on strong enforcement to ensure that minimum
standards are met and that the playing field is even for all.
This report is one way we strive to articulate the challenges before us and the
progress we're making to the people we serve. Through stories and numbers, we have
tried to characterize these health and environmental issues and to demonstrate the
results being achieved by EPA and its partners. We hope you find these challenges
and solutions as compelling as we do.
Wayne Nastri
Regional Administrator
EPA Pacific Southwest Region
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CONTENTS
Clean Air
Clean Water
Clean Land
Communities & Ecosystems
Compliance & Stewardship
Map of EPA's Pacific Southwest Region
Contacts/Organization Chart
2
10
16
22
30
36
Back Cover
This report is also available on the Internet at www.epa.gov/region09/annualreport
Cover photos: Golden Gate Bridge, David D. Schmidt. All other photos, Jim Grove.
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chapter 1
CLEAN AIR
Despite long-term progress
toward clean air, the Los
Angeles area's peak ozone
(smog) levels were still the
nation's highest in 2002. The
San Joaquin Valley has had
almost as many days with
unhealthy ozone as the Los
Angeles area, though at lower
peak levels.
Metro Areas Improve; San Joaquin Valley Faces Challenges
In 2002, progress toward cleaner air continued in all major metropolitan
areas of the Pacific Southwest. EPA works with state and tribal govern-
ments, as well as local or regional air districts, to help keep them on
track toward meeting (or continuing to meet) health-based standards on
six major air pollutants regulated under the federal Clean Air Act.
Nearly all areas now meet the health standards for nitrogen oxides (a
contributor to smog), sulfur dioxide, lead, and carbon monoxide; most
areas meet, or are close to meeting, the ozone (smog) and particulate
(dust and soot) standards. (For a status report on major air basins in the
Pacific Southwest, see the matrix on the facing page, and the ozone/par -
ticulate graphs on the following pages.)
While population in the Pacific Southwest has grown 84% since
1970, motor vehicle usage - the number of vehicle-miles traveled - has
leaped by 177% (see graph, p. 6). Newer cars and trucks emit far less
pollution than 1970s models, but they still account for about half the
smog-forming emissions in the region's air.
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Air Quality Status of Air Basins in the Pacific Southwest
1
Phoenix, AZ
Arizona
(outside
Phoenix)
Imperial
County, CA
Sacramento,
CA
San Bernardino
County, CA
San Diego, CA
San Francisco
Bay Area, CA
San Joaquin
Valley, CA
Santa Barbara,
CA
South Coast
(Los Angeles),
CA
Clark County,
NV
Ozone Particulates Carbon Monoxide
(dust, smoke particles, (CQ), Nitrogen Oxides (NOx),
aerosols) Sulfur Dioxide (S02)
Phoenix has gone five years without
violating the health standard. EPA is
reviewing state's vehicle inspection and
maintenance (Smog Check) plan.
Meets clean air standard.
The area is classified as a "transitional"
nonattainment area. The county believes it
would attain health standard without cross-
border air pollution from Mexico.
In the Sacramento area, the number of days
with unhealthy ozone has declined.
Enhanced Smog Check requirement has
been extended to area vehicles. The area is
classified as "severe," with an attainment
date of 2005. The next step for Sacramento
is to revise its motor vehicle emissions
estimate in 2003 using the latest data, and
make appropriate revisions to the area's
ozone attainment plan.
The portion of San Bernardino County
within the Los Angeles South Coast
Air Basin is classified as "extreme"
nonattainment for the ozone standard.
The South Coast Air Quality Management
District is revising its ozone plan using new
data. The central portion of the county is a
"severe" nonattainment area.
Attained clean air standard. EPA is
working with air district to approve clean
air maintenance plan for ozone.
Bay Area has two years of data meeting
health standard. In 2003, EPA is reviewing
area's 2001 ozone plan, which projects
clean air attainment in 2006. Revised
ozone plan is due 4/15/2004.
Local air district says clean air attainment
will not be reached by 2005. Area may
be reclassified to "extreme" area.
Enhanced Smog Check requirement has
been extended to vehicles in Valley.
Attained clean air standard. EPA is
working with air district to approve clean
air maintenance plan for ozone.
EPA assisted state/local agencies
preparing revised ozone plan. Currently
classified as the only "extreme"
nonattainment area in the nation.
Meets clean air standard.
EPA approved states "serious" area clean
air attainment plan, including fugitive dust
and agriculture best management
practices rules, in July 2002.
Bullhead City and Payson met clean air
standard in June 2002. EPA now
reviewing draft plan to maintain clean air
for Ajo and Paul Spur.
EPA certified that county would have
attained clean air standard in 1994 if not
for cross-border air pollution from
Mexico. EPA working with local air
district on a new particulate plan.
EPA certified in Feb. 2002 that the
Sacramento area has met the standard.
EPA certified in Feb. 2002 that San
Bernardino County attained the clean air
standard.
Meets clean air standard.
Meets clean air standard.
EPA working with state/local agencies to
develop new "serious" area clean air
attainment plan. Previous plan withdrawn
in Feb. 2002.
Meets clean air standard.
EPA assisted state/local agencies in
revising clean air attainment plan.
Peak 24-hour particulate levels exceed
clean air standard. EPA has proposed
to approve the county's "serious" area plan.
Phoenix has gone five years without
violating the CO health standard. The
state is working on a plan to maintain
clean air. Phoenix meets NOx and S02
standards.
EPA is reviewing sixS02 clean air
maintenance plans. Three are expected to
get quick approval because smelters that
were major sources have shut down and
dismantled. Meets NOx standard.
Meets clean air standards, except for
CO, which is being addressed in border
planning efforts with Mexico.
Meets clean air standards.
Meets clean air standards.
Meets clean air standards.
Meets clean air standard.
Meets clean air standards.
Meets clean air standards.
LA. met clean air standard for CO every
day in 2002. EPA assisted state/local
agencies in revising CO and NOx
attainment plans.
Meets clean air standards.
Opposite photo:
David D. Schmidt
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The Los Angeles area (the
red line) has made great
progress toward clean air in
the past decade; the San
Joaquin Valley faces signifi-
cant challenges in meeting air
quality goals.
California's San Joaquin Valley
The San Joaquin Valley's air quality meets nei-
ther the ozone nor the particulate health stan-
dards, and conditions have not improved as
much as in other areas over the past decade.
The San Joaquin Valley now has almost as
many unhealthy ozone days per year as the Los
Angeles area (see line graph below).
Particulate pollution aggravates asthma,
which is a major health problem in San
Joaquin Valley children. One in six children in
Fresno County suffers from asthma - twice the
rate of Los Angeles County.
There are many contributors to the
valley's air pollution. First, the valley is sur-
rounded by mountains, which trap the air and
its pollution near the valley floor. Second,
increasing urbanization in the valley has
brought more motor vehicles, adding to the
existing pollution from cars and diesel trucks,
buses and irrigation pumps. Third, increasing
numbers of dairy cows in the valley have
added smog-forming volatile organic com-
pounds (VOCs) and ammonia to the air.
Fourth, dust from plowing and smoke from
burning agricultural waste continue as sources
of particulate pollution.
The valley's air district has notified EPA
that the area will miss a 2005 deadline for
achieving the national health standard for
Air Quality Trends, 1992 - 2001: South Coast vs. San Joaquin Valley
OZONE (Smog) National 1-hour Standard
'92 '93 '94 '95 '96 '97
San Joaquin Valley, CA South Coast (Los Angeles Area), CA
ozone. The situation has raised increasing con-
cern among valley residents, as well as with
the California Air Resources Board (ARE),
EPA, and the local air district.
Since the San Joaquin Valley's particulate
pollution levels failed to attain the national
health standard by a 12/31/2001 deadline,
EPA is working with ARE and the local air
district as they draft a plan to reduce particu-
lates or their precursors by 5% each year until
the standard is reached. Over the last few
years, Fresno and Bakersfield, two major cities
in the valley, have recorded particulate levels
30-35% above the health standard.
Valley Solutions
Addressing this escalating public health prob-
lem is one of EPA's top priorities. In addition
to doubling the number of staff devoted to the
issue, the Pacific Southwest Regional Office is
working with San Joaquin Valley citizens and
governmental organizations to find innovative
ways to help them meet federal clean air stan-
dards more quickly.
As one step toward cleaner air in the
valley, EPA is moving ahead to issue permits
regulating large, stationary diesel irrigation
pumps. Under the federal Clean Air Act, a
major stationary source of air pollution must
obtain a permit from regulators. Because
California exempts this equipment, EPA must
A step in as permitting
authority until the
state ends the exemp-
tion. Without state
action, operators of
the big diesel irriga-
tion pumps would be
required to apply for
permits by May 2003.
Other major agricul-
tural air pollution
sources would need
to apply by August 1,
2003. Any operations
with annual emissions
over 25 tons of nitro-
gen oxide or VOCs,
or 70 tons of particu-
late matter, would
need to have the
permits.
EPA is working with
the USDA's Natural
Resources
Conservation Service,
'99 '00 '01 '02
Source: EPA's Air Quality System Database
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under the federal Farm Bill's Environmental
Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), to secure
funding that will assist farmers to install new,
cleaner pump engines. This effort is part of
EPA's commitment to help the valley achieve
clean air.
Other major sources of particulate
pollution include diesel engines that drive
heavy-duty trucks, tractors, bulldozers, and
buses; dust from plowing and unpaved roads;
and smoke from burning agricultural waste and
home fireplaces.
Los Angeles Area Milestone: No
Unhealthy Carbon Monoxide Days
Although EPA has not yet made its official
finding, California's South Coast Air Basin,
including Los Angeles, reached a major mile-
stone by finishing 2002 without a single day of
carbon monoxide (CO) exceeding the national
health standard - a tremendous improvement
from the more than 100 days per year of
unhealthy CO levels logged in the mid-1970s.
Cleaner-burning reformulated gasoline, in use
for the last ten years, and cleaner-burning new
car engines, which generate only 1/23 as much
CO as 1970 cars, are credited with the
improvement.
However, the Los Angeles area still has a
long way to go to meet the ozone health stan-
dard. In 2002, EPA worked with ARE and the
South Coast Air Quality Management District
to revise its plans to continue reducing ozone
and particulate levels.
Partnerships for Cleaner Air
EPA provides funding for state, local, and trib-
al clean air programs through grants and coop-
erative agreements - over 200 grants last year,
totaling over $32 million. EPA also provides
technical support for air monitoring; works
with states, tribes, local governments, and
non-governmental organizations to promote
cleaner indoor air; and works with Mexican
government agencies on U.S. - Mexico Border
air issues. Efforts by EPA and partner agencies
in 2002 included:
Air Monitoring
EPA is providing technical support and
funding for all state and local air districts
to monitor PM2.5 - tiny, harmful parti-
cles, mostly aerosolized liquids, under 2.5
Graph shows trend toward
fewer days with unhealthy
smog levels in Pacific
Southwest urban areas. San
Joaquin Valley, both rural
and urban, is an exception.
Air Quality Trends in Larger Population Areas, 1992 - 2001
OZONE (Smog) 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
SANJOAQUINVALLEY, CA
VENTURA COUNTY, CA
SAN DIEGO COUNTY, CA
SACRAMENTO METRO, CA
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA, CA
PHOENIX, AZ
I, AZ
US VEGAS, NV
HONOLULU, HI
Source: EPA's Air Quality System Database
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Population in the Pacific
Southwest has nearly doubled
since 1970, but motor
vehicle use has almost tripled.
micrometers in diameter, which penetrate
deep into the lungs. The new national
particulate health standard, being phased
in over the next two years, measures
PM2.5. The earlier standard measures
PM10, which consists of larger (but still
microscopic) particles.
EPA is setting up a National Air Toxics
Monitoring Program, with air sampling
sites in San Jose, Calif., Pearl City,
Hawaii, Clark County, Nev., and
Maricopa County, Ariz. Dioxin and
mercury monitoring is underway in the
San Francisco Bay Area; EPA is also
monitoring for pesticides in McFarland in
the southern San Joaquin Valley.
Growth in Population & Vehicle Miles Traveled, 1970-2000
Pacific Southwest Region*
Miles Traveled
Population Growth
2000
*See map, inside back cover
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Transportation Statistics
(Federal Highway Administration)
EPA issued grants to 26 Indian tribes in
the Pacific Southwest to help the tribes
develop their own capacity to regulate air
pollution. As of late 2002, these tribes
had deployed air monitoring equipment at
23 sites.
The California Air Resources Board
(ARE) operates air monitoring stations in
the Mexican border cities of Tijuana,
Rosarito, Tecate, Mexicali, and Calexico.
ARE is also deploying particulate sam-
plers in Mexicali and Imperial County to
study cross-border particulate pollution.
The Arizona Department of
Environmental Quality (ADEQ) is work-
ing with Mexican officials in cities
adjacent to Arizona to set up monitoring
systems and identify pollution sources.
EPAs AIRNOW real-time ozone mapping
and forecasts are now available online not
only for major urban areas in the Pacific
Southwest Region, but for many other
areas, including Reno, Nev, and the
Mojave Desert, Calif. - to access, go to
www.epa.gov/airnow .
Indoor Air
EPA awarded nine indoor radon grants to
the following state and tribal agencies to
reduce the threat of lung cancer from
naturally-occuring but radioactive radon
gas: Calif. Dept. of Health, Ariz.
Radiation Regulatory Agency, Nevada
Radiological Health Section, Guam EPA,
Navajo Nation, Hopi Tribe, Inter-tribal
Council of Arizona, Ely (Nev.) Shoshone
Tribe, Yerington (Nev.) Paiute Tribe.
EPA awarded five grants, totaling
$123,000, to support work by American
Lung Association affiliates and other
organizations on asthma and related
indoor environmental conditions. The
programs include "Open Airways for
Schools," EPAs "Indoor Air Quality Tools
for Schools," and in-home education on
asthma triggers.
For more information on indoor air haz-
ards, including tobacco smoke and toxic
molds resulting from floods and roof leaks,
go to EPAs Web site, at
www.epa.gov/air/indoorair .
Preventing Pollution
EPA worked with California's South
Coast air district to inspect facilities that
use halogenated solvent degreasers, which
cause toxic air emissions when they
evaporate. The inspections found eight
violators, and all were required to comply
immediately with federal standards. The
district revised its regulation on such
degreasers, a move that is expected to cut
air emissions an incredible 98.8%, from
297 tons/year to just 3.65 tons/year.
EPA worked with the South Coast air
district to further develop its RECLAIM
program, an innovative system that allows
pollution sources to buy and sell emission
reduction credits. This provides an incen-
tive for companies to take the most
cost-effective pollution control measures,
reducing overall pollution while allowing
economic growth.
EPA is providing financial and technical
support for a demonstration project at the
Port of Long Beach to retrofit 50 diesel
yard tractors with diesel oxidation
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catalysts. EPA and the California Air
Resources Board negotiated an agreement
with airlines to cut emissions from ground
service equipment at Los Angeles airports
by 80 percent.
U.S.-Mexico Border Air Issues
Imperial County, California, has a problem:
Air pollution crosses the border from Mexico
and adds to the county's own pollution sources,
causing the county's air to reach unhealthy
Particulates Map Shows Just How Bad It Gets - and Where
The map shows which areas exceeded the national
health standard for participates - dust, soot, and
aerosols, known as PM10 (participate matter up to 10
micrometers in size). The largest urban areas with
unhealthy PM levels were Maricopa County (the
Phoenix area), Clark County (the Las Vegas area), and
the eastern edge of the Los Angeles air basin.
The highest overall PM levels were in the Owens
Valley, Calif., where windblown dust from the Owens
Dry Lake bed have produced the nation's worst
particulate air pollution. Dust storms, which kick up
toxic minerals like arsenic, started when the lake dried
up around 1930, in part due to water diversions from
the Owens River to the Los Angeles Aqueduct.
But in 2002 and 2003, PM levels are expected
to drop markedly as a result of new dust control
measures. Under an agreement finalized in 2000
between the local air district, Indian tribes,
California's Air Resources Board, EPA, and the city of
Los Angeles, the city installed many miles of water
pipe on portions of the lakebed, with hundreds of
sprinkler-like outlets to spread water widely, but just
an inch or so deep.
The water is part of the Owens River flow that
originally fed the lake, but until 2001 was diverted into
the aqueduct. It's not enough to recreate the lake, but
it's enough to greatly reduce the dust - a health
benefit for residents of the Owens Valley.
Particulates (PM-10)
Severity of National Standard Exceedances 1999-2001
= average annual mean concentration
| = average 2nd high 24-hour concentration
Measurements shown are from monitoring station in each air basin with highest particulate levels.
PM-10 Annual Standard = 50 ug/m3 annual arithmetic mean concentration PM-10 24-hour Standard = 150 ug/m3 24-hour average concentration
Concentrations higher than twice the standard have been truncated to twice the standard. Based on 1999 thru 2001 data from US EPA's AQS database.
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levels of ozone and particulates. Any solution
must be cooperative and binational.
In April 2002, EPA and its Mexican coun-
terpart, SEMARNAT, convened a team of
energy experts in Mexicali, Baja California, to
find ways to ensure that new energy projects in
the border area comply with applicable
environmental regulations and prevent unac-
ceptable impacts to border communities. In
November, President Bush and Mexico's
President Fox announced a new effort by both
nations to address transboundary air pollution
through enhanced cooperation. The strategy
they agreed on will trigger pilot projects to
evaluate market trading, emission reduction
credit programs, and binational management
of airsheds.
EPA continued to work closely with local
governments, advocating for investment in
local projects such as one to control road dust
by paving streets in the border city of Agua
Prieta, Sonora, Mexico. Also, EPA invested in
binational projects such as the development of
an air emissions inventory for the border
region of Mexico, a bilingual border energy
Web site, and an extensive air monitoring
network along the border. Negotiations are
underway with the municipalities of Mexicali,
Tijuana, and Rosarito to assume operation and
maintenance of the air monitoring networks in
these areas.
Innovative Approach in Arizona
Means More Power, Less Pollution
The Tucson Electric Power Company's coal-
fired electric power plant in Springerville,
Ariz., is located in the eastern part of the state
near the Arizona-New Mexico border. Early in
2001, Tucson Electric Power came to EPA to
discuss a draft operating permit application
for an expansion plan that included an
emissions cap for two existing units and two
proposed units, which would double the facili-
ty's capacity, increasing it from 400 to 800
megawatts.
On April 29, 2002, after a year of negotia-
tions between EPA and TEP that were facili-
tated by former Arizona Governor Jane D.
Hull, the agency and the company reached
agreement on a permit proposal that would
allow the expansion while greatly reducing
overall emissions from the facility. EPA
Regional Administrator Wayne Nastri and Jim
Pignatelli, CEO for TEP, joined the governor
in acknowledging the successful collaboration
with the Arizona Department of
Environmental Quality.
The cooperative agreement provides flexi-
bility to the company as well as emission
reductions. The agreement represents a major
reduction in emissions almost 50% less
sulfur dioxide (10,800 tons per year vs.
18,800) and 20% less nitrogen oxides (9,600
tons per year vs. 11,660). The settlement also
accelerates the reductions to the date of
startup of the new units, delivering cleaner air
to the Colorado plateau five years earlier than
required under the Clean Air Act.
Enforcement and Compliance
EPA works with state, local, and tribal
agencies to provide compliance assistance
to regulated businesses and facilities, and to
enforce the laws to deter violations, deny
violators any financial gain from noncompli-
ance, and make substantial reductions in
pollutants released into the air we breathe.
Chrome plating shops are generally small
businesses, but some release toxic
chromium into the air. EPA compiled a
manual for both plating shop operators
and government inspectors on compli-
ance with the "Maximum Achievable
Control Technology" (MACT) regula-
tion for chrome platers. EPA inspectors
then used the manual to train state and
local inspectors in Arizona and Hawaii.
A legal settlement with Unocal over
emissions of smog-forming gases from its
Los Angeles ship loading terminal result-
ed in reduced emissions of 540 tons/year.
The facility also paid a $1.75 million
penalty for exceeding air emissions
permit limits, the third highest civil
penalty ever collected by EPA's Pacific
Southwest Region for violations of the
Clean Air Act. Unocal's facility failed to
install and operate control equipment to
reduce emissions of smog-forming com-
pounds when loading oil tankers.
Cal-Nev Pipeline, owner/operator of Las
Vegas' largest bulk gasoline terminal, paid
$204,000 to settle Clean Air Act viola-
tions at its Las Vegas terminal - and
reduced smog-forming emissions by 85
tons/year. EPA and Clark County, Nev.,
worked closely to reach the agreement.
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EPA People
Alberta Romanini and Argentia Cabanela: Extraordinary Administrative
Coordination
Few would deny that a well-tuned machine requires the continuous support of quali-
fied and caring technicians. As the staff of 100 people in EPAs Pacific Southwest
Air Division go about the public's business of successfully implementing the com-
plexities of the Clean Air Act, they can focus their full attention on reducing pollu-
tion in part because their administrative needs are well addressed.
Meet the Air Division's Administrative Officer, Alberta Romanini, and
Assistant, Argentia (Argie) Cabanela. Having worked together for more than ten
years, they make certain that non-programmatic burdens to staff and management
are kept to a minimum so that the air, radiation and voluntary programs of the divi-
sion function smoothly and productively.
They provide the support needed
in order for the division to fully and
efficiently utilize its human and fiscal
resources. Alberta and Argie offer
advice and give assistance to staff and
managers to help them navigate
through the various policies and
processes associated with procurements,
cooperative agreements, budget and
finance, and staff travel, training, and
awards.
As opportunities arise to alleviate
time-consuming administrative loads
for staff and management, Alberta
takes the initiative to develop stream-
lined protocols and processes. She is
adept in identifying and monitoring
the array of internal funding sources
that support the division. Alberta has
developed sophisticated, but user-
friendly, information and resource databases that assist managers and staff. Funds and
staffing are monitored carefully to ensure that national requirements are met using
sound fiduciary practices. Simultaneously, Argie supports the associated tracking and
financial systems with her prompt and accurate data input. Both accomplish their
varied and complex daily administrative tasks with a high degree of efficiency, while
providing excellent customer service. As a team, Alberta and Argie are principal
contributors to the effectiveness of the Air Division. Alberta may be reached at
(415) 947-4140 or romanini.alberta@epa.gov; Argie at (415) 947-4138 or
cabanela.argentia@epa.gov.
Alberta Romanini (left), and Argentia Cabanela.
Photo: Sally Seymour
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chapter 2
CLEAN WATER
Under the federal BEACH
Act of 2000, EPA issues grants
to coastal states to help them
develop beach bacteria stan-
dards and systems to notify the
public when swimming, wading,
and surfing are unsafe due to
bacterial contamination.
Protecting Beaches in the Pacific Southwest
EPA, States Focus on Beach Pollution
Hundreds of millions of people each year visit the coastal beaches of
EPA's Pacific Southwest Region - California, Hawaii, American Samoa,
the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands, and Guam. These
coastlines attract visitors from across the nation and around the world,
making tourism the number one industry in Hawaii and other coastal
areas. Increased monitoring of beach waters by Southern California
counties in the last couple of years has sometimes revealed bacterial
contamination, resulting in temporary beach closures. Raw sewage spills
and polluted runoff are among the main causes. EPA, in concert with
state and local governments, is taking action to prevent such pollution,
protect public health, and keep beach waters clean.
The issue extends beyond environmental and health concerns.
When contamination is found, and beaches are closed, there are eco-
nomic losses to coastal businesses, as well as disappointed beachgoers.
The economy of coastal areas depends on clean waters and beaches. For
example, approximately 175 million visitors each year go to Southern
California beaches. Coastal tourism is a $54 billion per year industry in
California. At the same time, heavily urbanized Southern California
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accounts for nearly half the nation's pollution-
caused beach closures.
California beaches are a public resource.
The entire California coastline is open to
the public below the mean high tide line.
Beach water monitoring has shown that the
surf zone is subject to unseen bacterial pollu-
tion. The coastline is the end point for most
pollutants on urban streets in coastal counties,
from sewage spills and pet feces to engine oil
and trash. All of it washes downstream into
storm drains and creeks, and ultimately onto
beaches.
EPA and state and local governments
have a number of ways to combat coastal
pollution. Beach monitoring and public notifi-
cation programs identify problem areas and
warn beachgoers. State agencies set limits on
allowable pollutant discharges from many types
of sources, including industry, sewage treat-
ment facilities, urban stormwater systems, and
stormwater runoff from construction sites. EPA
works with states to assess water quality, devel-
op watershed-based plans, and establish prac-
tices that reduce pollutant loads and help
restore polluted waters. EPA also disburses
grant funds to state and local governments and
other organizations to enable them to carry out
their roles in these efforts.
The BEACH Act and
Beach Water Quality
Standards
In October 2000,
Congress passed the
Beaches
Environmental
Assessment and
Coastal Health Act
(BEACH Act) to
develop programs to
better monitor water
quality at our nation's
beaches and to notify
the public when
health hazards exist.
In 2001 and 2002,
EPA's Pacific
Southwest Office
awarded grants total-
ing over $2 million to
California, Hawaii,
American Samoa,
Guam, and the
Commonwealth of
the Northern Mariana
Islands to assist them in developing their water
quality monitoring and public notification
programs for coastal recreational beaches.
Under the BEACH Act, EPA established
performance targets for state and local beach
monitoring and notification. Governments
must demonstrate that they meet the perfor-
mance targets in order to qualify for new
grants in 2003. California and Hawaii already
had existing beach monitoring programs. EPA
grants are providing better documentation of
the states' programs, and improving their
public notification process.
Also required under the BEACH Act is
state adoption of water quality standards -
maximum limits - on bacteria in beach waters.
The Act calls for the states to adopt their own
standards, subject to EPA approval. These will
be added to the standards already in effect for
over 100 other pollutants. EPA water quality
standards expert Phil Woods (see: EPA People,
p. 15) is helping California and Hawaii devel-
op protective, science-based standards for
bacteria indicators as well as other pollutants.
EPA, Regional Boards Take Action to Prevent
Sewage Spills
Some beach closures are caused by spills or
overflows from sewage collection systems. To
reduce these spills, EPA surveyed every coastal
Sewage Spills/Overflows in San Diego Region
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
Opposite photo:
Jim Grove
The San Diego Regional
Water Quality Control
Board's enforcement has
helped reduce sewage spills
and overflows in the 48 cities
and special districts in its
region.
Spills Over 1,000 Gallons
95 96 97 98 99 00 01
02
All years shown are fiscal years ending that year, i.e. "02" refers to the state fiscal year
beginning July 1,2001 and ending June 30,2002.
Source: San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board
-------
Waterfall on a coastal stream
near Shelter Cove,
Mendotino County, Calif,
Photo: David D. Schmidt
sewage system in southern California and
found many to be experiencing such spills.
Some systems had few sewage spills, while
others had hundreds. Only a small number of
these were directly responsible for beach clo-
sures, but it only takes one to close a beach for
several days. The others - usually on streets
and sidewalks, ultimately emptying into storm
drains, channels, and creeks - are also a hazard
to public health.
In 2001, EPA and the Los Angeles
Regional Water Quality Control Board (one
of nine state-appointed regional boards in
California that enforce state and federal clean
water laws) jointly sued Los Angeles to ensure
that the city takes additional measures to stop
sewage spills. In 2002, EPA also issued compli-
ance orders to the cities of San Diego, Laguna
Beach (Orange County) and Carpinteria
Sanitary District in Santa Barbara County,
requiring them to take similar actions to reduce
sewage spills. The orders require specific mea-
sures aimed at reducing the number and
volume of spills over a sustained period. The
orders are expected to help achieve measurable
reductions in sewage spills, to protect the
Southern California Coast and beaches.
The San Diego Regional Water Quality
Control Board had similar problems with
sewage spills in the 48 cities and special dis-
tricts that collect and treat sewage in its region.
In 1996, the San Diego Regional Board issued
a permit that requires cities and districts to:
Control, terminate, and recover spilled
sewage and monitor impacts
Correct problems that caused the spills
Maintain spill prevention and response plans
Maintain records of spills and responses
Open their operations to Regional Board
inspectors
The Regional Board enforced the require-
ments of this permit, in some cases imposing
substantial penalties. Over the past seven years,
the number of significant sewer spills and over-
flows has dropped by 57%. Mindful of this
success, the Santa Ana and Central Coast
Regional Boards have taken similar actions.
EPAs compliance orders complement the
regional boards' actions by focusing on long-
term infrastructure upgrades.
Polluted Runoff and Stormwater
Several Southern California beaches and water-
sheds with coastal outlets are designated by the
State of California as "impaired" due to
excessive bacteria. To reduce bacterial contami-
nation to these waters and protect public
beaches, the state is required to identify sources
of bacteria and allocate amounts of pollutants
that these sources can discharge under the
Clean Water Act's Total Maximum Daily Load
(TMDL) program. EPA and the state are work-
ing together to develop bacteria TMDLs for
several impaired waterbodies, especially in
Southern California, including Santa Monica
Bay and San Diego Bay. Over time, TMDLs
can alleviate contamination of beaches from
controllable sources.
Another major challenge in dealing with
coastal pollution is Stormwater. The term is
somewhat of a misnomer - it's not just creek
and drain channel flows resulting from storms,
but any flow in a Stormwater drainage system,
regardless of season. In the dry season, when
natural stream flows are reduced to a trickle,
Stormwater flows might result from washing
cars, watering lawns, or spraying sidewalks,
streets, and parking lots. Runoff reaching a
beach from a creek or storm drain may be heav-
ily laden with bacteria from pet feces and other
litter.
Industrial sites, such as auto salvage yards,
can also pollute Stormwater. In 2002, EPA and
the state's regional water boards conducted
compliance inspections at several hundred
industrial sites subject to Stormwater require-
ments. Since then, numerous followup actions
have been taken to ensure that these facilities
don't pollute our waterways.
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EPA Works with States and Tribes
to Ensure Safe Drinking Water
Under the Safe Drinking Water Act, EPA is
responsible for overseeing efforts by states,
tribes, and Pacific islands to ensure the safety
of their drinking water. Last year, this responsi-
bility grew to encompass protecting drinking
water supplies from potential terrorist threats.
Drinking Water and Homeland Security
EPA is actively engaged in homeland security
efforts to protect drinking water systems. EPAs
primary focus is to assist utilities in their efforts
to conduct vulnerability assessments and
upgrade emergency response plans to address
terrorism issues. As part of this effort, EPA has
given a total of $10 million in grants to more
than 100 large drinking water utilities in the
Pacific Southwest. In addition, the agency has
an aggressive program to provide up-to-the-
minute information on Bioterrorism Act
requirements, federal activities, and state and
utility support through an ongoing series of
workshops. Eight of these have been conduct-
ed during the past year; eight more are planned
for the upcoming year.
EPA is coordinating efforts to train staff
from over 100 medium-sized utilities in vulner-
ability assessment methodologies to allow
them to comply with federal mandates and
increase their systems' security. Grants have
also been given to state drinking water pro-
grams to assist in their security efforts. EPA is
working closely with states, tribes and drinking
water providers to ensure an integrated and
complete effort. EPA staff are providing sup-
port to both federal and local utility efforts in
security research and enhancement, including
participation on American Water Works
Association and AWWA Research Foundation
security advisory groups.
Grants Fund Drinking Water Improvements
for Hopi and Navajo Tribes
During a September 2002 tour of the Hopi and
Navajo Reservations in the northern Arizona
area, EPA Regional Administrator Wayne
Nastri announced $5 million in drinking water
grants for the Navajo Nation and the neigh-
boring Hopi Tribe.
A $1.9 million grant to the Navajo will
fund feasibility studies, and design and con-
struction of drinking water wells for 23 Navajo
communities. The projects will provide addi-
tional sources of water and help protect water
supplies from arsenic and other pollutants. A
$3.1 million grant to the Hopi Tribe will pay
for exploration and development of a drinking
water source for the Hopi villages of Moenkopi
and Shungopavi.
The tour allowed Nastri to witness
first-hand the environmental problems faced
by some of the largest tribes in the United
States. The Navajo Nation estimates that 40
percent of its tribal members lack running
water, compared with less than half of one
percent of the U.S. population as a whole.
Nationwide, seven percent of all tribal families
lack running water.
Above: photo by Jim Grove.
Below: A technician takes
water samples from the New
River, which flows across the
U.S. - Mexico border and
through California's Imperial
Valley. Photo: Eugenia
McNaughton
-------
Merced River, Yosemite
Valley, Calif. Photo:
Michael Feeley
The Hopi grant is part of a larger effort
by EPA and the Hopi Tribe to protect water
resources in the Moenkopi area. EPA has
been working with the tribe to expedite
cleanup efforts at the Tuba City leaking under-
ground storage tanks site on both Hopi and
Navajo lands.
Earlier in 2002, EPA ordered Thriftway
Marketing Corp. of Farmington, N.M., to
begin construction of its second cleanup
system at the Sun West Express gas station in
Tuba City, Ariz. The new system is part of an
overall effort to remove petroleum contamina-
tion from soil and groundwater at the gas
station, and protect groundwater supplies in
the area.
ensure that all sources of the MTBE contami-
nation are identified, to clean up the sources of
the contamination, and to restore the city's
wells as a source of drinking water.
Oil Spill Enforcement Actions
The Oil Pollution Act of 1990, passed in the
wake of the disastrous 1989 Exxon Valdez oil
spill, imposes tough penalties that give oil
companies a strong incentive to prevent spills.
Even small oil spills can severely damage
ecosystems. In 2002:
EPA, the U.S. Department of Justice, the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the
Calif. Department of Fish and Game
reached a settlement under which
ExxonMobil Oil Corp. will pay the U.S.
and the state of California $4.7 million
for a spill of crude oil from a Southern
California pipeline operated by the former
Mobil Oil Company.
EPA reached a $3 million settlement with
Torch Energy Services Inc., Nuevo Energy
Co. and Black Hawk Oil and Gas Co. for
a 1997 oil spill that washed up on forty
miles of California coastline.
EPA reached a $65,000 settlement with
Chevron U.S.A., Inc. for an oil spill at its
Honolulu Harbor terminal in the summer
of 2000.
EPA levied a fine of $40,000 against
Napa State Hospital for a 230-gallon
diesel spill in March 2002, which threat-
ened Northern California's Napa River.
Cleaning Up MTBE in Santa Monica
Groundwater
Since 1997, EPA has worked with the Los
Angeles Regional Water Quality Control
Board to clean up the MTBE contamination
from leaking underground fuel storage tanks
and pipelines that has made water from some
of Santa Monica's drinking water wells
undrinkable. Through enforcement actions
and close work with the responsible parties,
including major oil companies, over 200
million gallons of water tainted by the gasoline
additive have been removed and treated in the
past four years. In addition, the responsible
parties have provided over $9.6 million worth
of clean replacement water to the coastal city.
EPA continues to work with the responsi-
ble parties and the city of Santa Monica to
-------
EPA water quality expert Phil Woods.
Photo: Fred Woods
EPA People
Phil Woods, Water Quality Standards Expert
Phil Woods, one of the most senior employees of
EPA's Pacific Southwest Regional Office, retired in
2000 after 33 years of distinguished service at EPA
and its predecessor, the Federal Water Pollution
Control Administration, but he wasn't about to let
retirement get in the way of his career. He returned
six weeks later as a part-time employee to
"finish up a few projects," like helping the state of
California develop a new bacteria standard for
beaches, as required by the federal BEACH Act
of 2000.
"I had to go through the whole hiring process
again, even getting sworn in again," Woods recalls,
chuckling at the irony of it. He's still working, he
says, because "the challenges of setting water quali-
ty standards are still fascinating."
Woods has been the regional office's point man
on water quality standards since 1971, though he now shares that responsibility with
a team of colleagues. They advise state government agencies that normally set the
standards for pollutants in local bodies of water, based on designated uses (such as
fishing and swimming), and on EPA's specified limits, known as "numeric water
quality criteria," for over 100 priority pollutants. States also have "narrative criteria,"
which are designed to prevent pollutants from reaching harmful levels.
In the case of beach bacteria, the old standards were based on levels of fecal col-
iform, which indicate the presence of pathogens from raw sewage or animal feces in
the water. In recent years, scientists found that enterococcus bacteria survive longer
in salt water, making it a better indicator. So the new standards, including
California's, are based on enterococcus levels.
California's Regional Water Quality Control Boards are now putting the new
standard into effect. Official EPA guidance documents for each pollutant spell out
how to do it, while leaving some flexibility to adapt limits to local conditions.
Woods' long experience is invaluable, because the criteria for all pollutants were
adopted during his tenure, and he's familiar with their scientific justification. He
shares this knowledge with state agencies such as the regional water boards so they
can set standards and write discharge permits that are scientifically and legally
defensible.
For more information on water quality standards, contact Terry Oda at
(415) 972-3527 or oda.terry@epa.gov, or Phil Woods at (415) 972-3405 or
woods.philip@epa.gov .
-------
chapters
CLEAN LAND
EPA's hazardous waste program
staff work with state, tribal, and
local governments, as well as
businesses and federal facilities,
to clean up toxic sites and pre-
pare them for reuse.
EPA's Hazardous Waste Cleanup Programs
EPA uses a variety of legal mandates to clean up hazardous waste sites
and spills under the Brownfields, Superfund, Resource Conservation and
Recovery Act, and Underground Storage Tank programs. Together with
a variety of federal, state, local, and tribal agencies, EPA works on
cleanups at thousands of sites nationwide each year to protect commu-
nities and the environment from toxic threats.
The principal goals of all these programs are the same: Prevent
human exposure to toxics, prevent pollution of the environment, and
clean up toxic sites so they can again be used productively.
Land Reuse: New Brownfields Law
The goal of Superfund's Brownfields Program is to empower states, com-
munities, and other stakeholders to assess, safely clean up, and sustain-
ably reuse former industrial sites - "Brownfields." With the passage of
the new Brownfields legislation in January 2002, the Brownfields pro-
gram took a significant step toward a more mature, continuing program.
EPA is now able to address petroleum contamination at sites such as
abandoned gas stations, and provide direct grants for cleanup.
Additional funding is now available to EPA's state and tribal partners to
-------
enhance response capabilities and Brownfields
program development activities such as revolv-
ing loan funds and insurance.
EPA's existing grant programs continued
to foster cleanup and redevelopment successes
at the local level. Interest in these programs
remained high, as indicated by the three new
assessment grants and four new revolving loan
fund grants awarded this year, bringing the
Pacific Southwest Region's totals to 41 site
assessment grants, 14 revolving loan fund
grants, and five job training grants. Through
these grants, EPA has provided $25 million to
communities and leveraged $754 million for
cleanup and redevelopment.
EPA continues to support the states' vol-
untary cleanup and Brownfields programs as
critical links to local government redevelop-
ment efforts. In addition, EPA and its state
Brownfields counterparts continue the
Brownfields Targeted Site Assessment program.
Completed assessments include a future recre-
ation development site in Hawthorne, Nev., a
future industrial development site in Tonopah,
Nev., and a commercial/recreation site for the
Port of San Francisco.
In addition to the Brownfields program,
EPA is fostering land revitalization at National
Priorities List (NPL) toxic cleanup sites and
former military bases. Santa Fe Springs, Calif.,
is one of three municipalities in the Pacific
Southwest receiving funds as part of the
Superfund Redevelopment Initiative to plan
redevelopment activities at an NPL site. EPA
worked with Santa Fe Springs to integrate
their interests into the remedy selection for
the Waste Disposal, Inc., site. The city of
Davis, Calif., used its funds for a redevelop-
ment plan for the Frontier Fertilizer site. The
city of Alameda, Calif., used its redevelopment
grant to assist in designing the golf course that
is planned for construction over a closed solid
waste landfill at the former Naval Air Station,
Alameda.
Superfund at Work
EPA is making significant progress towards
cleaning up its Superfund toxic sites in the
Pacific Southwest. Site cleanup or construc-
tion of facilities for ongoing cleanup, such as
treatment of contaminated groundwater, has
been completed at 43% of the region's 123
Superfund NPL sites. Construction is under-
way at another 36%, and early actions to
prevent people from being exposed to toxics
have been taken at another 14% of these sites
(see chart, pg. 18). In the Pacific Southwest
Region, EPA has had great success bringing
responsible parties into the Superfund cleanup
process - as intended by the law's "polluter
pays" principle. Responsible parties are paying
for cleanup work at over 70% of the region's
123 Superfund NPL sites. Last year, EPA nego-
tiated settlements for cleanup work in the
Pacific Southwest valued at $211 million -
about 42% of the total value of settlements
nationwide. All these funds will be used for
cleanups.
Cleanup Highlights
San Gabriel Valley, Calif.
The four San Gabriel Valley Superfund sites
include areas of groundwater contamination
underlying over 30 square miles of the valley's
170 square-mile area. The San Gabriel Valley
aquifer provides approximately 90% of the
drinking water to the valley's residents.
To clean up such a large area, EPA has
divided the sites into eight study areas known
as operable units. Last year, EPA made signifi-
cant progress at both the Whittier Narrows
and Baldwin Park Operable Units, meeting
Opposite photo:
Christy Shake.
EPA has awarded
Brownfields grants to 41
tribal and local governments
to assess toxic contamination
at former industrial sites.
41 Brownfields Assessment Grants
Sacramento
"Stockton
eryville
ikland
Iqmedq Co.
Union City
State of California
Trade & Commerce
Santa Barbara
Ventura
West Hollywol
Los Angeles
Gardena
Long Beach
South Gate
Carson
Anaheim
Orangi
Lynwood
Phoenix
Gila River
#w
State of Hawai
Business, Economic
Development & Tourism
White
Mountain
Apache
Salt River
, Tucson
^^-Tohono
* O'odham
Nation
Naco.
-------
Cleanup work or construc-
tion of cleanup facilities
such as groundwater treat-
ment plants is now complete
at 53 of EPA s 123 priority
toxic sites in the Pacific
Southwest. Construction is
underway at another
44 sites.
both EPA objectives and those of local com-
munities whose drinking water supplies have
been contaminated. In March 2002, EPA
completed construction of the groundwater
treatment plant at the Whittier Narrows unit.
The plant is currently treating 11,000 gallons
per minute - enough water to fill a swimming
pool each minute. Once the necessary agree-
ments and infrastructure are in place, the clean
water will be available to water purveyors to
provide drinking water to homes and business-
es.
In May 2002, the Baldwin Park Operable
Unit Project Agreement, a complex agreement
among eight responsible parties and seven
water agencies, took effect. Pursuant to this
agreement, the eight parties will fund design,
Status of Superfund National Priorities List Sites
EPA Pacific Southwest Region, September 2002
36%
14%
43%
Total: 123 Sites
Investigation/design (8]
Early Action 08]
Construction Underway (44]
Construction Complete (53]
Source: EPA Superfund Program
construction, and operation of one of the
largest groundwater cleanups in the nation by
providing funds to the water agencies. To date,
one treatment plant, the La Puente plant,
has been constructed and is providing drinking
water to a community of 9,000 residents.
Two out of three other treatment plants are
currently under construction; the third treat-
ment system is in the design phase. When
completed, these four treatment systems will
provide enough drinking water for eight cities
in eastern Los Angeles County.
Luke AFB Clean; Delisted from NPL
Luke Air Force Base, a 4,000-acre site in
Glendale, Ariz., is the first active Air Force
installation to be fully cleaned up and removed
from EPAs Superfund National Priorities
List. Currently, there are 36 Air Force bases on
the list nationwide.
The base has served as an advanced fight-
er pilot training station since 1941. Discharges
and waste disposal from aircraft maintenance
and light industry resulted in soil and ground-
water contaminated with petroleum products,
cleaning solvents and volatile organic com-
pounds. Since cleanup began in 1990, the Air
Force, with EPA and Arizona Department of
Environmental Quality oversight, treated more
than 625 cubic yards of contaminated soil,
removed 66,584 gallons of leaked jet fuel from
soil, and monitored groundwater.
Superfund Emergency Response Program
In 2002, EPAs Pacific Southwest Emergency
Response Team was extremely effective
throughout the region. EPA On-Scene
Coordinators were on the front line to respond
to numerous hazardous substance and oil spill
emergencies in 2002, continuing their distin-
guished record. Highlights included:
At Honolulu Harbor, EPA supervised
the cleanup of ongoing petroleum releases
from abandoned and active pipelines and
storage tanks. After extensive subsurface
investigations, an extraction system was
installed and began operating in October
2002.
EPA assumed responsibility for the
cleanup of Denova Environmental Inc.,
an abandoned hazardous waste and explo-
sives storage facility in Rialto, Calif.,
which posed an immediate threat to
nearby residents. With the assistance of
the Rialto Fire Department and San
Bernardino County Hazardous Materials
Team, EPA emergency response crews
investigated, identified, stabilized and
properly disposed of thousands of contain-
ers of explosive materials, medical wastes,
corrosives, toxins, flammable compounds
and methamphetamine lab wastes stored
at the site. The U.S. Army and Marine
Corps provided critical assistance with
the disposal of eight tons of highly
explosive materials.
EPA concluded a very successful partner-
ship with the California Integrated Waste
Management Board and the Sonoma Fire
Department to clean up the abandoned
Sonoma Burn Dump, a former municipal
dump. Work crews removed over 23,000
tons of soil contaminated with radioactive
materials, lead and other toxins from the
two-acre dump.
-------
Managing Waste Safely
Ensuring the safe management of hazardous
waste, municipal garbage, and underground
fuel storage tanks is the responsibility of EPA's
Pacific Southwest Waste Management
Division. In 2002, EPA awarded over $12
million in grants to states and tribes, to build
their own waste programs and to work with
EPA on waste management.
EPA has been working for more than 20
years to ensure the safe handling and disposal
of hazardous waste. The Pacific Southwest has
thousands of facilities that produce hazardous
waste and more than 315 facilities that, either
currently or in the past, treated or disposed of
hazardous waste. EPA has worked with state,
local and tribal partner agencies to issue
permits, inspect facilities and clean up sites
contaminated with hazardous waste.
In the 1970s, the Pacific Southwest
Region had some of the largest hazardous
waste landfills in the country. Today, EPA and
state agencies have the difficult task of
ensuring that these landfills, now closed, are
properly and permanently secured to protect
nearby communities.
By October 2002, EPA and state and tribal
environmental agencies in the Pacific
Southwest had supervised the cleanup of more
than 32,000 leak-prone underground fuel stor-
age tanks (see graph). All underground tanks
in the region are now required to meet strict
standards to prevent leaks. EPA and partner
agencies conduct thousands of inspections
each year to make sure fuel tanks meet these
standards. In 2002, EPA's tank inspectors
focused on improving compliance in Indian
Country and at facilities in Hawaii and other
Pacific islands.
While EPA works with its tribal partners
to ensure the safe handling of garbage on
Indian lands, each state in the Pacific
Southwest is responsible for carrying out feder-
al requirements for safe trash handling and dis-
posal. EPA also works with states and tribes to
encourage the recycling and reuse of materials,
and to reduce the amount of waste sent to
landfills. Two important projects in 2002 were
a $400,000 EPA grant to Hawaii County to
establish a model reuse and recycling center,
and a project with the city of Sacramento,
Calif., to produce high quality compost using
turkey manure and municipal green waste.
UC Labs Protect Students, Faculty
from HazWaste with Self-Audits
Nationwide, EPA has frequently found
universities in violation of hazardous waste
regulations. Working with the University of
California (UC) and in partnership with the
California Department of Toxic Substances
Control (DTSC), EPA completed the first
phase of an innovative project that involved
UC completing environmental self-audits on
all nine campuses in the UC system. The
self-audits covered hazardous waste and emer-
gency planning requirements. This was the
first time that all nine campuses coordinated
on an environmental project.
UC audited 47 separate facilities on the
nine campuses, trained 112 staff to complete
the project, and submitted comprehensive
audit reports to EPA and DTSC. The agencies
are evaluating the reports and working with
UC to ensure that measures are in place to
prevent future problems. Greater overall com-
pliance has resulted from these self-audits than
would have been possible through traditional
inspections.
Rocket Fuel Cleanup
Perchlorate is a man-made chemical used in
rocket fuel. Wastes from the manufacture and
improper disposal of perchlorate-containing
chemicals are increasingly being discovered in
soil and water. EPA is aggressively pursuing the
parties responsible for the perchlorate contam-
EPA and state and triba!
environmental agencies have
supervised the cleanup of
more than 32,000 under-
ground fuel storage tanks.
50000|- Underground Storage Tank (UST) Cleanups Completed
Cumulative Over Time, Pacific Southwest Region
45000
40000
35000
30000
25000
15000
5000
0
Cleanups Completed
1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002
Source: Office of Underground Storage lanks, EPA
-------
The new Regional Response
Center is equipped to serve
as a communications hub
in the management of
large-scale incidents. Photo:
Sally Seymour
ination that has been found in California
drinking water.
In addition to perchlorate contamination
coming from Southern California facilities, the
Colorado River is also a pathway for contami-
nation. Kerr McGee Chemical Corporation
(KMCC), a chemical company near Las Vegas,
Nev., was a major source of the perchlorate
contamination that seeps from contaminated
groundwater into the Las Vegas Wash, Lake
Mead and ultimately the Colorado River. EPA
has been working closely with the Nevada
Division of Environmental Protection and
KMCC since 1997 to reduce perchlorate seep-
age to Las Vegas Wash and Lake Mead as
quickly as possible. KMCC is extracting
groundwater at three locations and treating it
to remove more than 2500 pounds of perchlo-
rate per day. Within one to three years,
KMCC's share of perchlorate entering Las
Vegas Wash and Lake Mead is expected to
decrease by approximately 90%.
KMCC has committed to install and
operate additional extraction wells. These
wells should provide additional reductions in
perchlorate releases to Las Vegas Wash.
In addition to cleaning up perchlorate at
the Las Vegas Wash, EPA has been at the fore-
front in detecting and treating perchlorate
contamination at Superfund sites. EPA has
demonstrated cost-effective, full-scale perchlo-
rate treatment technologies at California's
Aerojet, San Gabriel Valley, Lawrence
Livermore Site 300, and NASA-Jet Propulsion
Laboratory Superfund sites. The San Gabriel
perchlorate treatment system was the first in
the nation to treat millions of gallons of water
per day to deliver clean water to a municipal
water supply.
Homeland Security
As a result of September 11, 2001, EPA has
been given greater responsibilities in the area
of homeland security. To meet the challenges
posed by these responsibilities, Region 9 has
focused on three key areas during the past year:
Emergency Response Capability
EPA hired five new On-Scene Coordinators
(OSCs), the EPAs front-line staff for emer-
gency response, bringing the Pacific Southwest
Region's number of OSCs to a total of 18. Two
of them are stationed in Los Angeles, Calif., so
they can be available to respond quickly to
incidents in the southern part of the region. In
addition to performing toxic cleanups, EPA
provided emergency response staff for high
visibility events such as the World Series, the
Superbowl and the Winter Olympic Games.
EPA has also completed construction of a
Regional Response Center that is well
equipped to manage large-scale incidents and
to communicate with local, state and federal
agencies.
Critical Infrastructure Protection
The Agency is responsible for protecting
critical infrastructure in the chemical and
water utility sectors. In the Pacific Southwest,
EPA recently conducted seven site security
visits at high-risk chemical facilities. This was
done to evaluate the state of security and raise
awareness within the industry about security
concerns. EPA representatives have spoken at
a number of industry forums to continue send-
ing that message. To protect drinking water,
EPA has issued assistance grants totalling more
than $10 million to over 100 large water
utilities to help them conduct security vulnera-
bility assessments.
Training and Exercises
EPA has conducted 13 anthrax emergency
response training courses at local, state and
federal agencies in all parts of the Pacific
Southwest to help first responders develop the
capacity to deal with anthrax incidents. Out of
six targeted sister city agreements along the
U.S.-Mexico border, EPA has signed four that
include homeland security annexes. EPA is
nearing completion of the fifth sister city
agreement between San Diego and Tijuana. As
part of the sister city agreements, EPA con-
ducted training in the Incident Command
System and sponsored exercises to test cross-
border response capacities.
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EPA People
EPA's Vidti Rosen (right) greets members of
the Yerington (Nev.) Paiute Tribe at a com-
munity meeting, February 2003. EPA photo
Vicki Rosen and Community Involvement; John Chesnutt
and Military Hazardous Waste
Vicki Rosen has been an EPA Community Involvement Coordinator since 1990 and has
worked on nearly two dozen Superfund and RCRA hazardous waste sites. Her job is to involve
communities in investigation and cleanup activities to make sure their concerns are heard and
addressed. At the Operating Industries Inc. site, a former hazardous and solid waste landfill in
California, Vicki went door-to-door to 200 households
speaking to the residents to gain their trust and
involvement with sampling their homes for vinyl chlo-
ride and methane gases seeping underground from the
landfill. To prevent residents from exposure to unsafe
levels of gases, gas control systems were installed in six
houses. Vicki coordinated continued monitoring of
these homes to ensure the threat was eliminated.
For EPA's Abandoned Uranium Mine Project,
Vicki worked with Navajo Nation staff and residents
of 30 chapters, or local communities, scattered across a
vast desert landscape on tribal lands, to sample water
from springs and wells for arsenic and uranium.
Vicki is also a member of the agency's Emergency Communications and Outreach Team,
who are on call to travel anywhere EPA is responding to an emergency. In November 2002 she
assisted the U.S. Postal Service in Washington, D.C., during the anthrax incident.
John Chesnutt has been an EPA Project Manager since 1988 and has worked on several
significant federal facility sites, including Lawrence Livermore National Lab and Mather Air
Force Base in California, and Schofield Barracks in Hawaii. Currently, John is working on Fort
Ord in California, one of the most significant closing military bases in the nation. Over 27,000
acres will be made available for housing, commercial development, state parks, golf courses and
recreational areas. Seven thousand acres have already been put
into use for a state university. John has played a key role in work-
ing with the community, the Department of Defense (DOD), and
other agencies to address the difficult issues posed by unexploded
ordnance - duds or lost ammunition - and ensure that ordnance
will be cleared before handing over parcels to local government
for redevelopment. Lessons learned here are relevant to similar
cleanups that will be needed on 25 million acres of former mili-
tary training lands nationwide.
On another assignment, John worked with officers at 20
U.S./NATO military bases in Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, and
Germany to make pollution prevention standard operating proce-
dure. John organized a hazardous materials inventory and devel-
oped procedures for efficiently handling materials to prevent the
generation of hazardous waste materials, saving millions of dollars
in disposal costs. In addition, John advised Romanian and Hungarian officials how to assess
and clean up toxic waste and fuel spills left behind on military bases by former Communist
regimes. His influence extended worldwide when he provided EPA input on revisions to the
DOD's "Overseas Environmental Baseline Guidance Document" used by U.S. forces in coun-
tries where environmental laws are lacking.
For more information contact Vicki Rosen at (415) 972-3244 or rosen.vicki@epa.gov; or
John Chesnutt at (415) 972-3005 or chesnutt.john@epa.gov .
EPA Project Manager John
Chesnutt. EPA photo.
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chaPter4 COMMUNITIES & ECOSYSTEMS
EPA places special emphasis on
working to protect ecosystems
and communities that are par-
ticularly vulnerable to pollution.
Under a number of federal laws, executive orders, and treaties, EPA has
special responsibilities to protect human health and the environment in
communities that are especially vulnerable to pollution: Indian tribal
communities, which often lack basic infrastructure like safe drinking
water and sewage disposal systems; Pacific Island communities, includ-
ing U.S. territories like American Samoa and Guam, which face solid
waste disposal problems and needs for basic drinking water and sewage
infrastructure; U.S.-Mexico Border communities, which are dealing with
the cross-border impacts of poverty, population and industrial growth;
communities with environmental justice concerns stemming from their
proximity to major pollution sources; children, whose bodies are more
sensitive to pollution than adults, and who face unique threats like poi-
soning from lead paint; and wetlands and watersheds, ecosystems that
provide critical habitat for fish and wildlife, but are vulnerable to water
diversion and land development.
Working with Tribal Communities
EPA works with tribal governments in much the same way as with state
governments: providing grants, training, and other support to build up
the tribes' own programs to carry out federal and tribal environmental
laws. Thanks to EPAs work with the 146 tribes of the Pacific Southwest,
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90% of these tribes now have their own envi-
ronmental programs, compared to only 7.5% a
decade ago (see graph below).
Indian Country accounts for 11% of the
Pacific Southwest Region's land area, and is
home to about 400,000 people. EPA works
cooperatively on environmental issues with
the region's tribes, from the vast lands of the
Navajo Nation in the Four Corners area,
to small tribal communities in California.
For example, EPA worked with the
Navajo Nation to pursue an enforcement case
against a major oil company for violations of
the federal Clean Air, Oil Pollution, and
Community Right-to-Know laws at the Aneth
Oil Field. The facility agreed to pay over
$600,000 in penalties for dozens of oil spills
and other violations, and to spend over
$478,000 to provide drinking water and sanita-
tion facilities for Navajo communities that
lack indoor plumbing. Additional benefits
included reducing air pollution from the oil
field by 29 tons per year, plus a $51,000 grant
for emergency response equipment for the
Navajo Fire Department.
EPA worked with the Shoshone-Paiute
Tribes of the Duck Valley Reservation on the
Rio Tinto Mine site, and the Yerington Paiute
Tribe and Yerington, Nev., on the Anaconda
Mine site, to investigate and plan cleanups for
these two former open pit mines, which have
polluted streams with acidic runoff.
EPA currently manages $83 million in
grants for environmental programs to 131
Pacific Southwest tribes, funding a variety of
projects, from setting up air pollution monitor-
ing stations to constructing sewage treatment
plants. For example:
EPA worked with the tribes to assess pol-
luted runoff on 80% of Indian lands in
the Pacific Southwest.
Tens of thousands of tribal homes lack
potable water. EPA's Drinking Water
Infrastructure Program has funded 46 trib-
al drinking water projects totaling $17.7
million, which provided safe drinking
water to 3,298 homes.
Tribes cleaned up and closed 45 open
dumps, opened 10 recycling operations,
and removed and recycled abandoned cars
from six reservations. Closure of 13 more
open dumps is under way in 2003.
An EPA-led Interagency Solid Waste
Workgroup secured funding for closure of
62 open dumps on the Tohono O'odham
Nation, second largest reservation in the
Pacific Southwest Region. The tribe
closed the first five during 2002.
Under cooperative agreements with EPA,
23 tribes operate a total of 42 air monitor-
ing stations.
EPA Provides Technical Assistance
to Ensure Tribal Grants Get Results
After EPA issues grants for tribal drinking
water and waste water infrastructure projects,
the agency provides technical assistance, by
sending technicians to provide hands-on train-
ing to help tribal communities operate and
maintain their drinking water and wastewater
systems. The technicians work with operators
and tribal officials on a routine schedule, but
are also available on short notice when prob-
lems arise.
EPA funds this technical assistance
through grants to the nonprofit Rural
Community Assistance Corporation. Six tech-
nicians serve about 100 tribal communities in
California and Western Arizona, and make as
many as 100 site visits each month. The tech-
nicians also organize drinking water and waste-
water workshops for tribes, and make waste-
water operation and maintenance evaluations.
Some examples from 2002:
Big Sandy Rancheria, Calif.: Technician
Tom Belluomini helped tribal water oper-
ator Tyler Kamalani disinfect the water
system by setting up a procedure to
remove fecal E. coli bacteria.
Opposite photo:
Gerry Hiatt.
A decade ago, only 7.5% of
the 146 tribes in the Pacific
Southwest had their own
environmental programs,
compared to 90% today.
Number of Tribes with Environmental Programs
EPA Pacific Southwest Region
1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001
Source: Tribal Programs Office, EPA Pacific Southwest Region
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EPA Regional Administrator
Wayne Nastri (right)
presents Chairman Dean
Mike of the Twenty-Nine
Palms Band of Mission
Indians with an award
recognizing the tribe's
development of a state-
accredited environmental
laboratory, Photo:
Clancy Tenley
' Pauma, San Pasqual, Rincon, and Pala
communities, Calif.: Technicians Ed
Young, Chris Devers, Dave Harvey, and
Angela Hengel provided technical assis-
tance and training to the water operators
on handling chemicals, troubleshooting
the chemical feed systems and methods of
measuring the fluoride concentration in
the water system.
Santa Ysabel community, Calif.:
Technicians Chris Devers and Ed Young
assisted the new water operator with
rebuilding chemical feed pumps used for
disinfection of two water systems, and
getting the systems back online.
Pacific Island Communities
Saipan a Bright Spot
The solid waste situation on Saipan, the main
island in the U.S.-affiliated Commonwealth of
the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), took a
dramatic turn for the better in 2002. Saipan is
home to the infamous Puerto Rico dump, the
island's largest man-made structure. The dump,
which resembles a 100-foot-high tiered wed-
ding cake, is a shoreline eyesore that leaks an
oily leachate into a lagoon near the island's
principal tourist hotels. After years of negotiat-
ing with EPA, the CNMI government made it
a priority to close the dump and build a new
municipal waste landfill that doesn't pollute
waterways. Groundbreaking for the new Marpi
landfill began in February 2002.
When the landfill opened in February
2003, it was the first new public landfill in the
western Pacific to fully comply with U.S. envi-
ronmental regulations. Not content merely to
move trash to a new spot, the CNMI govern-
ment also opened a recycling facility on
Saipan. In addition, an EPA grant is helping
the CNMI recycle remnant waste from gar-
ment factories, which generate an amazing 30
tons of cloth waste per day. EPA congratulates
the CNMI for "putting waste in its place," or
as they say in Saipan's native language,
Chamorro, "Packet! i basula mu."
Guam's Ordot Dump
It looked like lava flowing, but there's no vol-
cano on Guam. In October 2002 the Ordot
dump had caught fire again, creating dense
smoke from burning, molten trash, and causing
neighbors to evacuate. The fire underscored
the environmental risks of continuing to oper-
ate this open dump. Besides being plagued by
fire, rats, and a potential for the whole struc-
ture to slide downhill, Ordot constantly leaks a
black oily leachate of unknown chemicals
directly into the nearby Lonfit River. The
dump is on EPA's Superfund list of the nation's
most polluted sites.
After nearly two decades of numerous
environmental violations, ignored shutdown
orders, and failed attempts to negotiate with
the local government, in 2002 EPA sued the
government of Guam to ensure it closes the
dump and opens a new landfill. Since then,
EPA has been working with the new guberna-
torial administration on Guam to site a new
landfill that complies with all environmental
regulations, safely close Ordot, and take neces-
sary actions to ensure it stops polluting the air
and water.
Guam's Water Woes
One of the poorly kept secrets of the tropical
Pacific is substandard water infrastructure. The
problem is especially serious on Guam, where
in the last four years over 600 million gallons
of raw sewage have spilled onto the land and
waters, contaminating the groundwater as well.
Even when residents don't receive one of the
frequent notices to boil their tap water before
drinking it, there is some risk that the water
will be contaminated with raw sewage. To pro-
tect public health, in 2002 EPA and the feder-
al Justice Department sued the local govern-
ment to force improvements, potentially
including putting the water utility under out-
side management. EPA is now working with
Guam's new gubernatorial administration to
make specific improvements, with the ultimate
goal of consistently safe, drinkable water.
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EPA Helps Guam Recover from Two Typhoons
On a Sunday morning in July 2002, just 36
hours after receiving a call for assistance, EPA's
Michael Mann was on a flight to Guam to
help out in the relief effort that followed
Typhoon Chata'an. Once President Bush
declared the typhoon a national emergency,
EPA quickly mobilized a contingent to assist
the Federal Emergency Management Agency
on Guam. EPA's Michelle Rogow, Barry
Pollock and Lance Richman also participated
in the effort, helping prevent exposure to haz-
ardous debris, and making sure that residents
had access to safe drinking water. Mann and
Pollock, working with their counterparts from
the Guam EPA, discovered that some of the
water being delivered to villages in tanker
trucks, and even some of the locally bottled
water, had unsafe levels of fecal coliform bacte-
ria. They quickly took measures to ensure that
clean water was delivered. Rogow also traveled
to the island of Chuuk where Typhoon
Chata'an had even more disastrous results-47
people died in mudslides. These four EPA
employees, working with other federal and
local agencies, put in long hours every day for
several weeks to help put Guam back on its
feet.
In December, another tropical storm,
Supertyphoon Pongsona, swept the island. It
was the worst disaster to hit Guam in decades.
Water, power, and the island's phone system
were all knocked out. Cars were overturned,
buildings destroyed. Much of the island's fuel
supply burned up in a dramatic fire, making
transportation extremely limited. This time
Mann was already there, on loan to the Guam
EPA, and he experienced the typhoon first
hand. Although his own apartment was
wrecked, Mann volunteered his time and ener-
gy again to help Guam recover. From San
Francisco, EPA sent Chris Weden and Lance
Richman to help out. Once again EPA staff
worked tirelessly to help when it counted. And
this time, they knew the drill.
U.S.-Mexico Border Communities
Border Communities Help Shape
New U.S.-Mexico Border Program
In October 2001, EPA Administrator
Christie Whitman and Mexico's Environment
Secretary Victor Lichtinger announced their
commitment to give special attention to the
unique needs of the U.S.-Mexico Border
Region. EPA has worked with Mexico to
develop a new binational program, "Border
2012," to build upon previous efforts to
improve environmental conditions in the bor-
der area.
In September 2002, EPA and its Mexican
counterpart, the Secretariat of Environment
and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT), in
partnership with other federal agencies, the 10
states on both sides of the border, and U.S.
border tribes, published the first draft of Border
2012.
Immediately thereafter, EPA, SEMAR-
NAT, the 10 border states, and U.S. tribes in
the border region began an intense two-month
public involvement process that included
meetings in 27 different border cities. EPA and
SEMARNAT representatives also met with
many interested community and stakeholder
groups to obtain additional comments and rec-
ommendations. They received over 500 com-
ments, and incorporated many of them into
the draft Border 2012 Plan.
Border 2012 aims to achieve concrete,
measurable results while maintaining a long-
term vision and transparency to the public.
Progress will be measured by tracking environ-
mental and public health indicators. The
Border 2012 draft and response-to-comments
summary is available at www.epa.gov/usmexi-
coborder.
In 2002, EPA worked with Mexico's state
and national environmental agencies to:
Involve Baja California communities in
developing a Tijuana Master Plan identi-
fying drinking water and wastewater infra-
structure needs in this burgeoning city for
Technicians taking a sample
from a drinking water treat-
ment system on Guam.
EPA photo.
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the next 20 years - the first effort of its
kind in Mexico.
Secure an $18 million EPA sewage treat-
ment infrastructure rehabilitation grant
for the Tijuana Sana project, which will
be matched by $18 million from the local
Tijuana wastewater utility, and a loan of
$7 million from the North American
Development Bank (NADBank).
Complete the fourth in a series of Border
Sister City agreements - this one between
Cochise County, Arizona, and Naco,
Sonora - for mutual cooperation on envi-
ronmental threats and emergencies in the
U.S.-Mexico Border area. EPA also pro-
vided binational hazmat response training
exercises for earlier Sister City partici-
pants in Douglas, Ariz., and Agua Prieta,
Mexico.
The Binational Tire Pile
Waste Project Team stands
on the lip of a tire pile at the
San Luis Rio Colorado,
Sonora, landfill. EPA photo.
Investigate the size and location of used
tire piles in the Border area, as a first step
toward eliminating threats of air and
water pollution from tire fires.
For details on these and other projects, go
to www.epa.gov/region09/border .
Environmental Justice Efforts
The goal of EPAs Environmental Justice
Program is to reduce disproportionate environ-
mental impacts to low income neighborhoods
and communities of color. Environmental jus-
tice at EPA means that the agency's work is
done with fair treatment and meaningful
involvement of all people regardless of race,
color, national origin or income.
EPA continues to integrate the principle
of environmental justice into permitting,
enforcement, compliance assistance, training,
inspection, and cleanup activities, as well as
grants to regulatory agencies and communities.
In the Pacific Southwest, this includes the
work of EPA's Tribal, Border, Pacific Islands,
and Brownfields programs. In 2002, EPA
accomplished a wide range of environmental
protections in geographical priority areas such
as East Palo Alto and Barrio Logan (a San
Diego neighborhood), Calif.
Several years ago, EPA formed the Barrio
Logan Task Force, a cooperative effort with
state and local agencies in San Diego to
improve environmental conditions in this
Hispanic inner city neighborhood. Results of
this collaborative effort include:
A $1.9 million grant from the U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban
Development to test for lead-based paint
in homes and take measures to prevent
lead poisoning;
Providing local auto body shop owners
with a compliance assistance workshop
and technical support;
Enforcement action at Master Plating, a
metal plating shop in Barrio Logan,
which led to a settlement agreement
ensuring closure and clean up of the
property; and
An emergency ordinance prohibiting
electroplating operations on the former
Master Plating property.
The city of East Palo Alto, Calif., has
been another important focus of EPAs envi-
ronmental justice efforts. More than 90% of
the city's population are members of ethnic
minorities, and 85% of its families with chil-
dren are on some form of public assistance. In
addition to air pollution, as a result of freeway
congestion, the residents of East Palo Alto also
live with an industrial area containing a for-
mer Superfund hazardous waste site, nearly a
dozen auto wrecking and towing shops, a
cement batch plant, and Silicon Valley's
biggest hazardous waste processing facility.
Results of EPA's efforts in East Palo Alto
include:
Two grants for youth environmental edu-
cation were given and a multi-cultural
Back-To-School Resource Carnival was
organized to provide environmental out-
reach to 400 youth;
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EPA's Brownfields Program assisted in
opening a new community health clinic
and nonprofit center on a former industri-
al site;
EPA conducted lead poisoning preven-
tion outreach (in cooperation with local
governments), providing free lead testing
to hundreds of children at Back-to-School
Resource Carnival, and institutionalizing
lead disclosure throughout the city;
EPA ensured compliance with the resi-
dential Lead Disclosure Rule by conduct-
ing inspections at all property manage-
ment firms, real estate offices, and apart-
ment complexes of more than four units.
Children's Environmental Health
Protecting our children's health is an EPA pri-
ority. Children's bodies are still developing,
and they may be exposed to more environmen-
tal contaminants than adults both because
they eat, drink and breathe more per pound of
body weight, and because their behaviors -
like playing on the floor - may bring them in
greater contact with contaminants than typical
adult behaviors.
EPA recently released a report, America s
Children and the Environment: Measures of
Contaminants, Body Burdens, and Illnesses
(Second Edition), which includes key measures
of children's health and the environment
that illustrate trends, progress, and areas that
need improvement (atwww.epa.gov/
envirohealth/children).
EPA has a vital role to play in prevention
efforts and has partnered with a number of
constituencies to address the most serious chil-
dren's health threats. Examples include:
Lead
Childhood exposure to lead contributes to
learning problems such as reduced intelligence
and cognitive development as well as impair-
ment of fetal organ development. A blood lead
level of 10 micrograms per deciliter or greater
is considered "elevated." However, there is no
demonstrated safe level. Despite the significant
reduction in blood lead levels in recent years,
hundreds of thousands of children between the
ages of one and five still have elevated levels.
A primary means of exposure to lead is
through peeling paint chips and paint dust in
older housing. To settle a lead enforcement
case with EPA and HUD involving a large
apartment complex in Norwalk, Calif.,
AIMCO (the property management firm
responsible for disclosure of lead information)
agreed to test and abate lead hazards in
130,000 rental units nationwide.
Asthma
Asthma is a serious lung disease, and the lead-
ing cause of long-term illness in children. It
can even cause death. Symptoms include
wheezing, shortness of breath, and coughing.
Asthma can be triggered by allergens and irri-
tants found indoors, such as second hand
smoke, and outdoors, such as emissions from
buses and trucks. EPA is encouraging school
districts to adopt the EPA Indoor Air Quality
(IAQ) Tools for Schools Program to provide
more healthy school environments, and pro-
moting cleaner school buses to reduce expo-
sure to harmful diesel bus fumes.
Children are more sensitive
to pollution than adults
because they eat, drink,
and breathe more per pound
of body weight. Photo:
Stephen Delaney.
Healthy Schools Initiative
Over 53 million children spend their day in
schools, and a majority of those schools have
conditions harmful to learning and health.
EPA has a wide range of school programs to
help, including a pilot effort with the Los
Angeles Unified School District focused on
school siting; high performance facility design
and construction; and comprehensively assess-
ing environmental health problems at existing
facilities.
For a complete description of EPA's ongo-
ing efforts to protect children's health, go to
www.epa.gov/region09/childhealth .
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A natural salt marsh
along San Pablo Bay, Calif.
EPA photo
Wetlands and Watersheds
U.S., California Finalize Deal to Restore
18,000 Acres of Wetlands in S.F. Bay
In December, 2002, the federal government,
the State of California, and Cargill Salt final-
ized an agreement to purchase 18,000 acres of
salt production ponds for wetlands restoration
on the southern fringe of San Francisco Bay,
concluding four years of negotiation and
launching one of the nation's largest wetlands
restoration efforts. Some of the ponds will
become part of the San Francisco Bay
National Wildlife Refuge; others will be owned
by the California Department of Fish and
Game. The ponds became available because
Cargill is reducing and restructuring its local
saltmaking operations.
The ponds vary widely in salinity: all are
saltier than the ocean, and some are so salty
that the brines must be removed before the
property can be restored. As part of the acqui-
sition agreement, Cargill will remove the
brines from the highly saline ponds. The state
and federal agencies will restore some of the
ponds to their original state as tidal salt marsh-
es, which provide habitat for fish, birds and
wildlife including the endangered California
Clapper Rail and Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse.
Some ponds will be maintained as habitat for
seabirds that feast on brine shrimp, which
thrive in the less-salty of the existing ponds.
EPA played a leadership role in the early
stages of the negotiation, coordinating the
state and federal agencies negotiating with
Cargill, and advising the company on its con-
tinuing responsibilities to prevent pollution of
the Bay and clean up toxic materials left from
salt production. EPA also took the lead in pub-
lic outreach and early coordination with
Congressional offices. Once the transaction
moved into the formal land acquisition
process, the acquiring agencies (U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service and California Department of
Fish and Game) and Calif. Senator Diane
Feinstein's office led the negotiations. EPA
continued to provide substantial support,
resolving critical issues associated with manag-
ing brines and other saltmaking byproducts
that are toxic to fish and wildlife.
Coastal America, Dow, EPA
Start California Corporate
Wetlands Restoration Partnership
On November 19, 2002, EPA
Administrator Christie Whitman presided over
a ceremony that officially launched the
California Corporate Wetlands Restoration
Partnership (CWRP). The CWRP is an innov-
ative public-private initiative designed to
attract private sector funding to restore wet-
lands and coastal environments. The CWRP
coordinates its efforts with Coastal America, a
partnership of federal agencies with similar
habitat restoration goals. As the CWRP lead
for California, Dow Chemical is responsible for
attracting other corporate interests to the part-
nership and working with the Southwest Team
of Coastal America to fund wetland restora-
tion projects.
The ceremony was held at the Dow
Wetlands Preserve - a 150-acre site adjacent
to the Dow Chemical Plant in Pittsburg, Calif.
Dow has been a good steward of this wetland
and has done much to enhance the habitat
and share this resource with the community.
Dow hosts school field trips and environmen-
tal fairs at the wetlands and has a dedicated
group of employees who manage the wetlands.
The CWRP began in Massachusetts in
1999 through the initiative of The Gillette
Company, the Massachusetts Executive Office
of Environmental Affairs, and EPAs New
England Regional Office. To date, there are
CWRPs in Alaska, Maine, Connecticut,
Rhode Island, Vermont, Massachusetts, New
Hampshire, and California. Plans are underway
to establish CWRPs in Texas and Canada in
2003. Over 100 companies and over 45 other
organizations have pledged more than $3 mil-
lion in funds and in-kind services to the
CWRP. Generally, corporate contributions are
matched at a 4:1 ratio by federal or state funds.
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EPA People
Michele Dineyazhe, right, and Yerington Paiute
Tribe Chairman Elwood Emm, Jr., view the
abandoned Anaconda Mine Pit near Yerington,
Nev. EPA photo.
Michele Dineyazhe
Michele Dineyazhe is a member of the
Dine Nation - known to most Americans
as the Navajo - from Cold Springs,
Arizona. "I am Todich'iinii (Bitter Water-
maternal clan) and born for the
Kiyaa'aanii (Towering House-paternal
clan)," she says, explaining that growing
up on the Navajo reservation, she always
had strong ties to her family and their
environment.
For the last two years, Dineyazhe has
been working as an environmental scien-
tist in EPAs Pacific Southwest Tribal
Program Office. She assists Nevada and
California tribes with developing and
maintaining environmental protection
programs. But more than that, she views
herself as a resource to the tribes she
works with. She loves being able to call a Tribal Chairperson and talk about mining
impacts one minute and then about family the next. Dineyazhe says she enjoys
meeting new people on visits to the tribes in their homelands.
Prior to joining EPA, Dineyazhe worked in the mining industry and for the
Navajo Nation, including internships with mining companies throughout the south-
west. Her favorite job was doing geology field mapping for Broken Hill Proprietors
Copper at the San Manuel Mine east of Tucson, Arizona. She also worked as a mine
surveyor and a production supervisor. At that time, she thought she would always
work in the mining industry, but her heart wasn't in it.
Leaving the mining industry, her next job focused on cleanup of abandoned
mines, with the Navajo Nation's Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Program
(UMTRA). "Our task was to remediate and oversee four uranium mill tailings sites,"
she says. All four sites have groundwater and soil contamination from uranium
milling and processing. She collaborated with federal, state, local agencies, universi-
ties, community groups and especially people living next to the mine sites.
She takes pride in knowing that people like a grandmother who lived above the
contaminated groundwater plume at Cane Valley, Ariz., will not be drinking water
from a contaminated well, or that children swimming in the San Juan River right
next to the Shiprock UMTRA site will live long lives and be able to tell their great,
great grandchildren, "that's where I went swimming one time." "Ever striving in pro-
tecting our people and our Mother Earth; that is where my heart is," she says.
To find out more about tribal programs in EPAs Pacific Southwest Region,
contact Michele Dineyazhe at (415) 972-3786 or dineyazhe.michele@epa.gov.
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COMPLIANCE & STEWARDSHIP
Compliance information about
facilities regulated by federal
clean air, clean water, and
hazardous waste laws nation-
wide is now available online at
www.epa.gov/echo. For sum-
maries of enforcement cases in
the Pacific Southwest Region,
go to www.epa.gov/region09/
enforcement .
Combining Voluntary Stewardship and Compliance
Assistance with a Strong Enforcement Program
EPA and its state and tribal partners are committed to strong environ-
mental enforcement because it is central to protecting public health and
the environment, achieving credible deterrence to noncompliance, and
guaranteeing a level economic playing field. Compliance assistance is an
important complement to EPA's enforcement efforts, particularly to
small businesses, as it helps owners and operators understand how to
comply with often-complex environmental law. EPA also employs vol-
untary approaches to encourage innovations that can lead industries and
agencies to go beyond basic compliance.
These voluntary approaches include EPA partnerships with regulat-
ed industries; grants that support research and demonstration projects,
such as the University of California Sustainable Agriculture Research
and Education Program; working with a host of federal, state, local, and
tribal agencies to reduce the environmental impact of their own opera-
tions; and working to resolve compliance issues wherever possible in
ways that benefit the environment and local communities.
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Enforcement Highlights
In Fiscal Year 2002, EPA's Pacific
Southwest regional office took 276 civil
enforcement actions, including administrative
orders, penalty actions, field citations and offi-
cial requests to the Department of Justice to
file lawsuits. These actions achieved significant
reductions in pollution, underwritten by more
than $ 1 billion in commitments to cleanups
and plant improvements. For example, Clean
Air Act cases in the region are expected to
reduce, eliminate, or control over 1.1 million
pounds of air pollutants, while Clean Water
Act cases showed reductions of more than 2
million pounds of water pollutants. Some of
these cases required parties to undertake
"Supplemental Environmental Projects," worth
a total of $1.4 million, that benefitted commu-
nities through pollution prevention and reduc-
tion, and better emergency response capabili-
ties. Regional enforcement actions also gar-
nered more than $6.9 million in penalties.
Where appropriate, EPA investigations led to
referrals to the Department of Justice for crimi-
nal prosecutions. (Highlights of EPA's enforce-
ment accomplishments in protecting air, water
and land in the Pacific Southwest Region also
can be found in preceding chapters.)
Industry/Agency Stewardship
in Agriculture
Over 50% of the nation's fruits and vegetables
are produced in California, with additional
crops coming from Arizona and (in the case of
pineapples) Hawaii. California also leads the
nation in dairy production. But agriculture is
not just an important sector of the Pacific
Southwest Region's economy, it's also the
region's largest category of land use, aside from
rangeland and forests. Farmers are the owners
and caretakers of vast tracts of the region's
land.
EPA works with farmers, the U.S.
Department of Agriculture, state and local
government agencies, and state universities to
help farms and livestock feedlots comply with
federal clean water and pesticide laws, and to
encourage sustainable farming methods that
promote healthy ecosystems, healthy workers,
and a safe food supply. In 2002, EPA managers
and staff met with state officials and agricul-
ture industry representatives from all four
states and several tribes of the Pacific
Southwest Region to discuss priorities on pol-
lution prevention and pest management. EPA
also participated in Pest Management Strategic
Plan meetings with USDA and commodity
producers.
Other notable efforts included:
EPA grants, in partnership with the
University of California, funded
Biologically Integrated Farming Systems
demonstration projects - such as the 33
California prune growers who eliminated
their use of the pesticide diazinon, which
is toxic to people as well as aquatic life.
Other projects included 11 dairies that
used manure as forage fertilizer, 10 (out of
12) walnut growers who eliminated
organophosphate pesticides during the
trees' dormant season and reduced nitro-
gen fertilizer use by 53%, and 38 vine-
yards that cut their use of the herbicide
simazine by 65%.
EPA named Hawaii's Pineapple Growers
Association one of 18 nationwide
"Pesticide Environmental Stewardship
Program Champions" of 2002. The mem-
ber companies, Dole Food Hawaii, Del
Monte Fresh Produce, and Maui
Pineapple Company reduced their pesti-
cide/herbicide use through techniques
such as:
a combination of fallow periods and
limited nematicide applications, to con-
trol nematodes;
using granular ant bait to control ants,
which reduces total insecticide use:
growing pineapple plants on raised beds,
thereby reducing incidence of root rot:
using plastic mulch, covering 75 per-
cent of the planted area, which helps
reduce herbicide use.
Opposite photo: Jim Grove
As a result of the 1996
Food Quality Protection
Act, California farmers
have reduced their use of
neurotoxic pesticides.
Use of Neurotoxic Pesticides in California
20
15
10
5
n
| | Millions of Acres Treated
-
-
|-|
1
p.
| | Millions of Lbs. Used
|-|
|
-
20
15
10
5
n
1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001
Source: Calif. Dept. of Pesticide Regulation
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National CAFOs Rule
EPA Administrator Christie Whitman and
Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman
announced a final rule in December 2002 that
will require large Concentrated Animal
Feeding Operations (CAFOs - for example,
dairies with over 700 cows; there are about
1,600 CAFOs in the Pacific Southwest) to
obtain permits to ensure they protect
America's waters from manure. The rule will
control discharges from these feeding opera-
tions, preventing billions of pounds of pollu-
An orchard near Brentwood,
Contra Costa County,
Calif. Photo: Christy Shake.
tants from entering America's waters. Dairy
cows, and their manure, have increased by
44% in California alone since 1988, which has
increased the importance of proper manure
management. EPA has funded an environmen-
tal stewardship program that includes training
and certification for dairy operators through
the California Dairy Quality Assurance
Program, a broad partnership including indus-
try, the University of California and other
organizations (www.cdqa.org/es). Information
on efforts in Arizona is available at
www.ag.arizona.edu/animalwaste, and for all
of the Pacific Southwest Region at
www.epa.gov/region09/animalwaste .
Manure-to-Energy
In Riverside County, which has too much cow
manure to safely apply to local cropland, the
Inland Empire Utility Agency, in partnership
with the Milk Producers Council, Synagro
Technologies, USDA's Natural Resources
Conservation Service and the California
Energy Commission, built California's first
regional anaerobic digester to turn cow manure
into energy. The manure generates methane
gas to power a regional water desalting facility
that cleans up the salts and nitrates that origi-
nally seeped into the groundwater basin from
cow manure. The project will ultimately pro-
duce over 1 megawatt of clean, renewable
energy.
Pesticides Web Sites; Toxic Compost
EPA's Pesticides Web site, www.epa.gov/pesti-
cides, has a new, user-friendly design. Another
source for technical information is www.pesti-
cideinfo.org . This site, developed by the
Pesticide Action Network North America and
several (California) state and federal agencies,
sponsors the largest and most comprehensive
database on pesticide regulation, registration,
and toxicity - and even pesticides compatible
with organic production.
EPA also worked with state agencies and
composters to respond to concerns about
clopyralid, a herbicide used on turf. Clopyralid
persists over time, so compost from grass clip-
pings may be toxic to plants. EPA worked with
Dow Chemical to withdraw its registration for
some clopyralid uses on turf.
Preventing Pollution
Toxics Release Inventory Shows Pollution
Declining
The Toxics Release Inventory, a product of the
1986 Emergency Planning and Community
Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA), has proven to
be one of the most effective non-regulatory
approaches to prevent pollution. Under the
law, facilities that process or release toxic sub-
stances into the environment must annually
report their inventory of each of several hun-
dred specific chemicals, and how much of each
has been recycled or released into the environ-
ment. This has created an incentive to reduce
toxic releases, since public disclosure of toxic
releases generates public pressure to reduce
them. How, or whether, the facility reduces its
toxic releases is entirely up to its management.
Among the toxic chemicals recently listed
are metals such as arsenic and mercury. Since
the first TRI reports from the mining industry
revealed that Nevada gold mines were releas-
ing over 13,000 pounds per year of mercury in
the air, EPA's Dave Jones (see EPA People, p.
35) has been working with the mines and the
state Division of Environmental Protection to
voluntarily reduce these emissions. The four
largest mines all installed new air pollution
-------
control devices or made process changes to
reduce mercury air emissions in 2002. While
the data quantifying these reductions is not
due until later in 2003, preliminary informa-
tion from the mines indicates that these
actions will reduce mercury air emissions by
more than 50%.
Voluntary Pollution Prevention Initiatives
EPA's voluntary pollution prevention programs
have achieved impressive results through
grants, technical assistance, and recognition of
superior environmental performance in both
the private and public sectors. Some examples:
The National Environmental
Performance Track program, EPA's pre-
mier recognition program promoting pol-
lution prevention, superior performance
and sustained environmental compliance,
continued to grow in 2002. In the Pacific
Southwest, EPA accepted three new facil-
ities into Performance Track: Ricoh
Electronics facilities in Tustin and Santa
Ana, Calif., and Rohm and Haas' La
Mirada, Calif., facility. For the first time,
members who joined the Performance
Track program in 2000 reported progress
toward their three-year pollution preven-
tion commitments. In one year, these 28
facilities reduced their energy use by
15,982 million BTU, used 66,722,418
fewer gallons of water and reduced their
hazardous waste disposal by 20.6 tons.
EPA conducted Environmental
Management Systems reviews at 15 feder-
al government facilities in the Pacific
Southwest, resulting in 190 EPA recom-
mendations on how the facilities could
reduce pollution and mimize waste. The
facilities carried out 77% of the recom-
mendations, many involving changes to
standard operating procedures. One suc-
cess story: At the NASA-Ames Research
Facility near San Jose, Calif.,
groundskeepers reduced use of herbicides
and chemical fertilizers from 4,000 to just
50 gallons per year, and have set aside 81
acres for burrowing owl habitat.
Because of its limited land area, Hawaii
faces unique waste management and land
use concerns. EPA has worked with feder-
al and state facilities to promote the pur-
chase of recycled products such as recy-
cled paper, and carpet made from soda
bottles. In 2001 EPA issued a report sum-
marizing green purchasing progress at
Department of Defense installations in
Hawaii and recognizing the achievements
of Hickam Air Force Base. Under a
$25,000 EPA grant, the state developed a
Hawaii Recycled Products Guide and held
an environmental purchasing conference
attended by 200 government and com-
mercial procurement officials.
As a result of the EPA Pacific Southwest
Region's Hospital Partnership, each of
six San Francisco Bay Area hospitals
removed and recycled between eight and
15 kilograms of highly toxic mercury.
One hospital switched to a microfiber
mopping system that resulted in a 95%
reduction in water and chemical use. For
more on EPA's Hospitals for a Healthy
Environment program in the Pacific
Southwest, go to
www.epa.gov/region09/features/hospital .
In 2002, EPA's Pacific Southwest
Regional Office in San Francisco recycled
a record 285 tons of office paper and five
tons of used carpet for a total recycling
rate of 56.5%. This is up from 182.81 tons
recycled in 2001. The recycling effort
generated $5,300 for Child Care Center
low-income tuition assistance scholarships
and to expand the regional office's waste
prevention and recycling programs. The
regional office also began using 100%
post-consumer recycled paper that is
process chlorine-free.
Through annual public dis-
closure of toxics releases by
industrial facilities, EPA's
Toxics Release Inventory has
led to major reductions in
toxic releases in the Pacific
Southwest.
250
200
1 150
Q_
I 100
50
0
Toxics Release Inventory:
Total On- and Off-site Releases, 1988-2000
Pacific Southwest Region
1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000
'Covers approximately 300 toxic chemicals, and industry categories listed on original
Toxics Release Inventory in 1988. Chemicals and industries added in the 1990s
(mining, electric power production, etc.) are not included.
Source: EPA Toxics Release Inventory
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EPA's Solid Waste Program
EPA's Solid Waste Program also issues grants to
promote recycling. Some results from 2002:
An EPA grant to Santa Barbara's
Community Environmental Council
developed a model construction and
demolition debris reduction ordinance
that has been successfully used in many
San Francisco Bay Area jurisdictions. The
project also produced three construction
debris case studies that achieved 83% -
95% job site waste diversion, recycled 466
tons of waste, and saved $5,532 in dispos-
al costs.
An EPA grant to the City of Tucson
piloted a 90-gallon blue barrel commer-
cial recycling project with 180 small busi-
nesses to divert approximately 250 tons of
materials per year. The program is being
expanded to all 3,200 small businesses
citywide to recycle approximately 5,000
tons of waste per year.
An EPA contract with Building Green,
Inc., supported sustainable building prac-
tices by verifying and identifying EPA
recycled content building materials (such
as insulation made from newspaper and
playground surfaces made from recycled
tires) that must be used on federally fund-
ed construction projects. Product envi-
ronmental information and local avail-
ability are included in the GreenSpec
Product Directory and database.
An EPA contract with the Tellus
Institute funded a report on using a new
contracting technique, Resource
Management, to cost-effectively increase
recycling rates in Clark County (Las
Vegas), Nev., which has one of the
nation's lowest recycling rates. The report
found that recycling in Clark County
could be tripled to 35%, raising recycling
revenues and saving over $11 million.
Working with State and Tribal
Regulatory Partners
Federal environmental laws are enforced not
only by EPA, but by state and tribal agencies
as well, once a state or tribal environmental
agency shows it has the capacity to do the job.
EPA then authorizes the agency to carry out
the specific law, and provides annual grants for
the added expense to state governments. Most
states in the Pacific Southwest have already
been authorized to enforce the major federal
environmental laws. The most recent example
was Arizona's authorization to write permits
and enforce pollutant discharge limits under
the federal Clean Water Act.
Arizona Gains Water Enforcement Powers
With EPA's approval in December 2002,
Arizona became the 45th State with federal
Clean Water Act regulatory authority. To
reach this milestone, EPA approved Arizona's
application to administer and enforce the pol-
lutant discharge permits program, under the
federal Clean Water Act. The approval gives
the Arizona Department of Environmental
Quality (ADEQ) the authority to regulate
facilities and municipalities that discharge pol-
lutants into Arizona waterways. Prior to the
shift, EPA issued permits to all such facilities.
This approval puts the program in the hands of
those most familiar with local environmental
issues and the needs of Arizona residents. EPA
is confident that the state will do a great job
administering the program and will continue
to protect Arizona's precious water resources.
ADEQ will continue to work closely with
EPA to ensure that the Clean Water Act
requirements are met. EPA will review draft
permits prepared by the state, oversee program
requirements and performance, review pro-
posed changes to state laws and rules related to
the program, as well as review compliance
actions.
Arizona Cities Win EPA National
Wastewater Pretreatment Award
The cities of Glendale, Mesa, Phoenix,
Scottsdale and Tempe won first place for
municipalities, recognizing their partnership in
treating industrial wastewater. Such "pretreat-
ment" - removal of toxics from industrial
wastewater before it reaches publicly-owned
sewage treatment facilities - is essential, since
toxics can kill the bacteria that break down
the sewage.
Working with Tribes
Law enforcement cases on tribal lands in 2002
resulted in major environmental cleanups and
more than $500,000 worth of environmental
improvement projects, while penalties totaled
over $800,000. Among them:
EPA fined the city of Phoenix $198,532
for hazardous waste and water pollution
violations at the Verde (drinking water)
Treatment Plant, on the Salt River Pima-
Maricopa Indian Community, and on the
Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation. The city
-------
EPA People
Waste Management Division Associate
Director Dave Jones. Photo:
Sally Seymour.
Dave Jones
David B. ("Dave") Jones' EPA colleagues have
called him creative, energetic, innovative, and
inspiring. His career at EPA's Pacific Southwest
Regional Office, which began in 1973, has
spanned six presidencies. During the last 30 years,
Jones has contributed to the success of EPA's water,
waste and Superfund toxic cleanup programs, and
even spent time organizing computer management.
In 1973 Jones started in EPA's Enforcement
Division writing wastewater discharge permits. A
creative thinker, he pioneered many innovations
in the permit process. As a manager in the Water
Division from 1976-1987, he oversaw various func-
tions, from wastewater treatment plant construc-
tion grants to safe drinking water programs.
In 1987 Jones was chosen to lead a task force
to determine how to organize regional computer
and information systems, and he became the
Region's first Information Resource Management Branch Chief in 1988. Through
his insight and energy, the Regional Office made its first leap into the desktop com-
puter age.
For six years, from 1989 to 1995, Jones used his talents to solve problems at
some of the most complex and difficult Superfund toxic cleanup sites. He and his
staff were responsible for hazardous waste cleanup activities at over 60 Superfund
sites, including Stringfellow, San Gabriel, and McColl in Southern California, and
the Iron Mountain Mine near Redding, Calif.
From 1996 to 2000, Jones was responsible for leading a national EPA effort to
work with the computer and electronics industry to develop cleaner, cheaper, and
smarter approaches to manufacturing and waste management. During this time he
also took the lead in developing a mining strategy for the Pacific Southwest Region,
to address contamination from abandoned and active mines, with a focus on mer-
cury contamination from abandoned gold mines in California and mercury air emis-
sions from active gold mines in Nevada.
Recently, Jones became an Associate Director of the Waste Management
Division, where he shares his talents and creativity working with EPA staff on pollu-
tion prevention, solid waste recycling, industrial partnerships, and internal planning.
Dave Jones' many years of public service and dedication to EPA have meant a
cleaner environment for everyone in the Pacific Southwest Region. For more infor-
mation on EPA's pollution prevention and solid waste programs, contact Dave Jones
at (415) 972-3388 orjones.davidb@epa.gov.
will also spend $401,468 to buy emer-
gency response vehicles for each tribe.
In Tuba City, Ariz., leaking underground
fuel storage tanks threatened the
drinking water for many Hopi and Navajo
communities. EPA ordered gas station
operators to take action to protect tribal
groundwater supplies. By September 2002,
work was well underway to remove
13,000 gallons of gasoline from soil and
groundwater.
-------
China
EPA's Pacific Southwest Region encompasses the states of Arizona,
California, Hawaii, and Nevada; Indian Country, including the lands
of 146 tribes; and Pacific islands that are U.S. territories or to
which the U.S. has ongoing commitments, including Guam, American
Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the
Republic of Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia, and the
Republic of the Marshall Islands.
N I i
Australia
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CALIFORNIA
t y !
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Pacific Southwest/Region 9 Contacts
Phone inquiries:
415-947-8000 or
866-EPA-WEST (toll-free)
Email inquiries:
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866.EPA.WEST (toll-free) 415.947.8000
Office of the Regional Administrator: 415.947.8702
Regional Administrator: Wayne Nastri Deputy RA: Laura Yoshii
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