Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Research Articles

EPA finalizes plan for Great Lakes cleanup

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Carol M. Browner has unveiled the final version of the agency's initiative for cleaning up pollution in the Great Lakes Basin. Browner says the final Great Lakes Water Quality Guidance issued last week is more flexible and cost-effective than the version proposed nearly two years ago (C&EN, April 12,1993, page 22). The ecosystemwide guidance is intended to remove toxic chemicals that have contaminated the Great Lakes Basin. The plan creates a consistent policy for the eight states that surround the lakes—Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. More than 40 million people live in the basin, and more than 23 million depend on the lakes for drinking water. One-quarter of U.S. industry is located in the basin. The proposed guidance drew comments from more than 6,000 individuals, companies, and organizations. Taking those comments into account, EPA has sharply reduced the cost of implementing the initiative from between ...

Exaggerated risks of chemicals

The citizens of the United States have unreasonably great fears of chemicals. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has become one of the most powerful governmental divisions in Washington. It has been given legal authority to create and enforce thousands of regulations. The impact of these regulations on all of us is in process of being increased. Tougher federal environmental enforcement will adversely affect taxpayers, agriculture, the chemical industry and the profession of chemistry. Until recently, the effects of regulatory zeal were not visible, though hundreds of billions of dollars have already been spent without provable benefits to the nation’s health. Currently there exists considerable public and special interest pressure to force reduction in the use of pesticides. There is no solid evidence that the tiny amounts remaining on fruits and vegetables are harmful. For many years the EPA has maintained regulatory levels so that an individual eating food containing the EPA top level of a pesticide for a lifetime would have less than one chance in a million of incurring cancer as a result of eating that food. Levels of pesticides in foods are monitored by the Food and Drug Administration. FDA findings indicate that only tiny concentrations of agricultural pesticides are present in foods in supermarkets and that a large fraction has no detectable amounts of pesticides at all [l]. In summary, pesticides in foods are having no more than a trivial effect if any on human health. In contrast, consuming substantial amounts of fruits and vegetables have long been suspected to have beneficial effects. Many isolated studies of the matter have been published. Professor Gladys Block and associates of the University of California at Berkeley have performed a public service by assembling results of 172 studies conducted in places around the world [2]. Their analysis compared cancer rates for a quartile of people consuming an average of O-l fruits and vegetables a day with a quartile eating &5. The contrast in relative risk of cancer in various organs of the body was impressive. For example, the beneficial effect of consuming adequate amounts of fruits and vegetables was a factor of 2.2 for lung, 2.5 for stomach, 2.8 for pancreas and 1.9 for colorectal sites. Those great benefits to health are in danger of being curtailed. EPA Administrator Carol Browner has announced a goal of decreasing use of pesticides by 70% during the next three years. If this policy is implemented, production of many fruits and vegetables would be adversely affected. In other words, were EPA to ban pesticides and cause fruits and vegetables to become expensive or unavailable, it could be responsible for causing annually tens of thousands of cancer deaths. Having been an agent in causing widespread fear of cancer, EPA must now deal with consequences of its earlier actions. The public anxiety about pesticides and other chemicals led to demands for safety from them. Earlier, Congress passed many different complex laws. In numerous instances, the wording of these laws is conflicting. The EPA must also deal with the Delaney clause, which was enacted before the

CURBS ON CHLORINE SOUGHT

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Carol M. Browner last week unveiled tough proposals for reauthorizing and revamping the Clean Water Act that call for, among other things, development ...

EPA lists Toxic Chemicals to Help Protect Public from Accidental Releases

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has published a new citizen's right-to-know list of toxic substances that is intended to enable communities to protect themselves from catastrophic accidental releases. This list of chemicals was mandated by the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments. In addition to 25 substances specifically included by Congress, it contains substances EPA believes are the most likely to be accidentally released and cause injury. The list includes 77 acutely toxic chemicals, 63 flammable gases and liquids, and certain high explosives. EPA estimates that 115,000 chemical facilities, including manufacturing plants, public drinking water and waste treatment facilities, cold storage facilities, private utilities, and propane retail facilities will be affected by the regulation. Like the recent announcement on doubling the size of EPA's Toxics Release Inventory (C&EN, Jan. 17, page 4), this rule signifies this Administration's commitment to putting people first, EPA Administrator Carol M. Br...

EPA, chemical firms to spur cleanup technology

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Carol M. Browner has revealed plans to spend $36 million this year to fund 73 projects under President Clinton's Environmental Technology Initiative. As part of this effort, EPA signed a cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) with three major U.S. companies to develop and field-test a new technology to treat clay soils contaminated by hazardous waste. The initiative, announced by President Clinton last April and reaffirmed in his State of the Union Address, aims to foster development of innovative technologies that are both protective of the environment and job promoting. It is clear to all of us who work in this field that we need a new generation of environmental technology for a new generation of environmental protection, Browner says. EPA, the lead agency in the President's initiative, intends to eliminate barriers, create incentives, and actively assist in developing technologies to fill regulatory gaps. The agency seeks to help small bu...

EPA Giving Increased Priority to Environmental Equity Issues

A ny day now, President Bill Clinton is expected to issue an executive order on justice, which he may announce in his State of the Union address on Jan. 25. The order legitimizing the issue will, among other things, call for the formation of an interagency task force chaired by Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Carol M. Browner. Minority and poor communities across the U.S. have for decades been unequally burdened by the toxic effluents from municipal and hazardous waste landfills, incinerators, and industries. But governmental recognition of this burden has been slow in coming (C&EN, March 30, 1992, page 13). In 1990, prodded by the agency's own minority staff, then-EPA Administrator William K. Reilly authorized an environmental equity study. As a result of the study's findings, he established the Office of Environmental Equity in June 1992. The study recommended, among other things, that the agency give greater priority to environmental equity issues, develop new ...

Administration pushes NAFTA environment deal

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and its side agreements will bring genuine improvement to the environment of North America, according to the Clinton Administration. Testifying before the Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works recently, Administration witnesses used personal experiences and dire predictions of future problems in their efforts to convince members to approve the troubled treaty. With a House vote on the agreement possible as early as Nov. 17, the Administration is still not sure it has enough votes to pass the measure. One of the primary concerns that members of Congress have with the trade pact is its impact on the environment, given what many view as Mexico's history of lax environmental protection. A so-called side agreement that is designed to strengthen the environmental protections of the treaty and assuage its opponents has been negotiated with Canada and Mexico. (For more on NAFTA, see page 18. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Carol ...

FOOD SUPPLY SAFETY U.S. seeks to cut pesticide use

The Clinton Administration last week announced a dramatic shift in the federal government's approach to use of pesticides on food. According to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Carol M. Browner, For the first time the federal government has committed to real reductions in pesticide use. The shift was prompted by release last week of two reports on pesticides in children's diets—one by the National Research Council (NRC), the research arm of the National Academy of Sciences; the other by the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit research organization located in Washington, D.C. An extraordinary joint announcement— promising to intensify efforts to reduce use of higher risk pesticides—was issued on June 25 by Browner, Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy, and Food & Drug Administration commissioner David A. Kessler after they were briefed on the reports. The three officials also said they would promote use of integrated pest management, a farming method that substitutes use of beneficial insect...

Ecosystem Approach to Cleaning Up Great Lakes Basin Proposed

Late last month Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Carol M. Browner announced innovative ecosystem approach [for] the cleanup, control, and prevention of pollution in the Great Lakes Basin. The proposed approach, called the Great Lakes Water Quality Guidance, will, according to EPA, establish scientifically based controls on toxic pollutants that will, for the first time, ensure the consistent protection of humans, wildlife, and aquatic life throughout the basin. The guidance, also for the first time, will allow increased discharges of a chemical into a water body, if such an increase can be shown to be socially and economically necessary for an area. However, in no instance could water quality be degraded below the level necessary to support existing uses. And the guidance spells out the procedures to be used in setting discharge limits for a specific facility. What's remarkable about the proposed guidance, Browner says, is the process that led ...

21 nations join to fight ecological crisis

Environmental ministers and other top environmental officials from 21 nations in East Europe and former Soviet Union last week agreed to join forces to attack region's environmental problems. At a press briefing in Washington, D.C., they announced initial steps to address the overwhelming ecological crisis of our region, a crisis created by cruel indifference toward environmental responsibility of previous totalitarian governments. The agreement emerged from a three-day conference held in Florida, region's first ministerial-level meeting on environment. A preparatory session was held last October in Bulgaria. The ministers also spent two days in Washington, D.C.—meeting Vice President Gore, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Carol M. Browner, other officials, and members of Congress, World Bank executives, and leaders of environmental groups. The visit was organized by Center for Democracy, a small Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit group, and funded by Howard GU...

EPA head berates U.S. Earth Summit efforts

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator William K. Reilly has taken two tracks in following up Earth Summit—the United Nations Conference on Environment & Development (UNCED)—held in June in Rio de Janeiro. On one track, Reilly sent a memo to EPA employees criticizing lack of Administration support he received at meeting, and weak efforts Administration put into preparing it. But in testimony before Congress, he praised new initiatives by U.S. to carry out promises made at Rio. In a July 15 memo to all 15,000 EPA employees, made public two weeks later, Reilly notes that Earth Summit organizer Maurice Strong called it the most important conference in history of humanity. But for me personally it was like a bungee jump, Reilly says. You dive into space secured by a line on your leg and trust it pulls you up be fore you smash to ground. It doesn't typically ...

Measures set to hasten Superfund cleanups

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator William K. Reilly last week announced several measures designed, he says, to cut costs and expedite the cleanup of thousands of hazardous-waste sites that dot the nation's landscape, threatening communities and underground water supplies. The massive and controversial Superfund program, begun in 1980, has spent about $4.8 billion to permanently clean up 63 sites out of 1245 designated candidates. A large percentage of this expenditure has been spent on management, or overhead, costs, which an EPA task force finds unacceptable. To correct these problems, Reilly has named EPA staffer Richard Guimond to the new position of national Superfund director, responsible for procurements and budgets as well as for measures to improve contracting and to speed up cleanups. Reilly also plans to put in place a staff of 20 to 30 people scattered around the country to act as program troubleshooters. These steps, Reilly hopes, will encourage and promote more uniformity ...

Bioremediation: Innovative Technology for Cleaning Up Hazardous Waste

Federal and state legislation regulating the disposal, management, and cleanup of hazardous wastes has led to a search for new treatment technologies in the past few years. With support from Environmental Protection Agency Administrator William K. Reilly, regulators, treatment firms, and customers are looking for more cost-effective technologies that can meet cleanup standards and provide permanent treatment of hazardous wastes. Bioremediation, in which microorganisms are used to detoxify or destroy wastes, is classified as one such innovative technology. In addition to handling ongoing waste production, many industries are faced with problems dating back years or decades that must be remedied. About 1200 sites on EPA's National Priorities List (NPL) are targeted for cleanup under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation & Liability Act, better known as Superfund, and as many as 4000 sites may need remediation under the corrective action side of the Resource Conservation & Recovery Act (RCRA...

Plan to stem Great Lakes pollution unveiled

On April 12, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator William K. Reilly and governors or representatives of the eight Great Lakes states announced a comprehensive plan for voluntary action to ...

Economic incentives for environment protection

At the first meeting of the private, bipartisan National Commission on the Environment, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator William K. Reilly used his keynote address to release major new EPA study: Economic Incentives: Options for Environmental Protection. The report offers number of options under four broad categories— municipal solid waste, global climate change, water resource, and multimedia. But, as Reilly points out, none of the options is endorsed by the agency. Rather, he says, the report is being released to stimulate continuing dialogue among policymakers on the role and efficiency of economic incentives in environmental policy. In releasing the report, Reilly mentions that the U.S. in the past has not been a country reconciling economic goals with environmental protection. But with the cost of environmental protection predicted to grab greater share of the gross national product (C&EN, Feb. 18, page 25), Reilly insists that continued use of the command-and-control appro...

EPA head outlines current environment issues

In recent remarks, William K. Reilly, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator, has staunchly defended impending Clean Air Act, applauded a new Presidential environmental initiative, and lauded major industrial companies for voluntarily cutting toxic air emissions. EPA has analyzed clean air legislation now pending in House-Senate conference in light of current Persian Gulf crisis. According to Reilly, agency finds passage of bill would lessen nation's dependence on foreign oil and have the prospect of reconciling some critical energy objectives with environmental goals. The National Clean Air Coalition, a group of environmental organizations, agrees. NCAC chairman Richard Ayres says, A strong Clean Air Act will benefit Americans not only in terms of their physical health, but with regard to their economic health and national security as well. EPA's analysis indicates that requirements in pending legislation leading to switch from oil to cleaner burning alternative fue...

EPA's Reilly Addresses Clean Air, Climate Change, Cabinet Post Issues

You might forgive Environmental Protection Agency Administrator William K. Reilly for boasting, The agency is centrally engaged in some very important questions and is addressing them with great care and energy and responsibility—and largely with considerable success. He has been wrestling with some complex and controversial issues of late: global warming, wetlands protection, clean air legislation, Cabinet status for EPA. And he has been doing this balanced precariously on a political tightrope. As he strives to maintain his environmental credentials and remain the Administration's emissary to the environmental community, he must also serve a President who wants to balance environmental goals with sound economics. This often finds Reilly fending off charges that he is losing clout with both environmentalists and the President—and that economics and not ecological concerns are being given precedence in the Bush Administration. All this recently came to a head. In one week Reilly had to accept a number o...

Stronger U.S. role in Great Lakes cleanup urged

The nation's largest environmental organizations have urged the U.S. government to strengthen its commitment, to the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, an international agreement with Canada intended to clean up pollution in the Great Lakes. Citing recent studies by the Government Accounting Office and other groups, the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) and nine other environmental organizations asserted that the U.S. not adequately addressing toxic pollution of the Great Lakes ecosystem and ... is not fulfilling its obligations under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. That assertion was made in a Jan. 10 letter to Secretary of State James A. Baker III and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator William K. Reilly. As of Jan. 18, NWF had not received a response. In the letter, the groups ask the federal government to take several steps to renew the nation's commitment to the Great Lakes agreement. These include supporting strong Great Lakes air toxics control legislation ...

U.S. again rejects carbon dioxide limits

The Bush Administration is under heavy fire from some environmental groups and members of Congress for continuing to refuse to set specific targets for reducing carbon dioxide emissions—most recently at a global warming conference held in early November in the Netherlands. Yet other observers say the U.S. is hesitating only because it does not want to preempt ongoing efforts of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and likely will endorse restrictions on greenhouse gases within a year. Most of the delegations from the 71 countries that attended the recent Dutch-sponsored Conference on Atmospheric Pollution & Climatic Change voted for a proposal that would require nations to freeze their emission of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide at current levels by the turn of the century. Because emissions from the burning of fossil fuels have been increasing, the freeze actually would turn out to be a cut. But the U.S. delegation—led by Environmental Protection Agency Administrator ...

Paris summit to focus on environmental issues

As President Bush was preparing for the Paris billed as the green summit, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator William K. Reilly, who's attending the and the World Resources Institute were busy briefing reporters on environmental issues likely to be discussed. The past 14 summits have concentrated on economic issues. But there is a growing awareness among the seven chief industrialized democracies meeting in Paris that economic issues are inextricably linked to pollution and to sustaining natural resources. These so-called Group of Seven nations also realize that environmental issues transcend national borders. They know that corrective measures need to be concerted and must be undertaken by even the most debt-ridden developing countries. To help developing countries, West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl at last year's summit suggested that a feasibility study be prepared for this year's summit on trading debt for environmental protection/' This debt-for-nature swap has already t...