NEW DIRECTOR NAMED TO HEAD EPA INDIAN AFFAIRS OFFICE.

Kathy Gorospe, a member of the New Mexico Laguna Pueblo tribe, was named last week to be the next director of EPA's American Indian Environmental Office. Gorospe comes to the agency after serving as the director of strategic planning and organizational development for the Columbia River Inter-tribal Fish Commission in Portland, OR. Gorospe fills a vacancy created when Terry Williams left the post last year. Source: Inside EPA via InsideEPA.com Issue: Vol. 18, No. 3

OMB RAISES CONCERNS WITH EPA TOXICS REPORTING EXPANSION RULE

EPA's proposal to expand its toxics emissions reporting program to several new industry sectors appears to be bogged down at the Office of Management & Budget, according to administration and industry sources who say a multitude of concerns have been raised with the rule. EPA sources say they have been meeting with OMB officials to discuss several outstanding issues, but remain confident that the rule will emerge intact by the end of February. EPA's Toxics Release Inventory program requires certain...

ADVISORY PANEL TO CALL FOR PRAGMATIC ENDOCRINE TESTING PROGRAM

An EPA advisory group is likely to suggest that the costs of any future agency screening and testing program for industrial chemicals known as endocrine disruptors be justified by program benefits, according to sources close to the effort. Additionally, EPA staff say the scope of the effort has been expanded from its original focus to consider other potential hormonal effects from industrial chemicals, including those that involve androgens and thyroids. Under the new Food Quality Protection Act and Safe Drinking...

STATES CRAFT NEW 'FLEXIBLE' MODEL RADIATION CLEANUP REGULATION

State regulators have crafted a new model regulation to oversee the cleanup of naturally occurring radioactive material that is drawing initial support from some industry sources who say the plan contains the flexibility necessary to address unique site-specific conditions. In addition to providing states with more flexibility than previous proposals offered, the latest version of the states' regulation specifically targets a narrower universe of contaminated materials. Since the mid-1980s, state regulators have struggled to craft a model regulation that could...

EPA BEGINS TO CRAFT VEHICLE INSPECTION PROGRAM FOR DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

EPA has begun developing a Clean Air Act vehicle inspection program and air quality control plan for the District of Columbia that will be implemented by the end of 1998 unless the city can craft an approvable program in the interim, agency staff say. Agency sources say that similar actions will not need to be taken in Northern Virginia, Baltimore, and Philadelphia, since those areas appear to be on the verge of meeting their statutory obligations. EPA's development of an...

SENATE ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE TO BEGIN 105TH WITH ISTEA, INTERSTATE WASTE

The Senate Environment & Public Works Committee will begin the 105th Congress with its reform sights set on the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) and interstate waste legislation, according to Senate sources. But while committee Chairman John Chafee (R-RI) has deemed ISTEA and waste transport legislation his top two priorities for the upcoming congressional session, Senate sources say that Superfund reauthorization and Endangered Species Act reform will rank high on the committee's agenda, along with oversight of EPA's implementation...

EPA AND CORPS AGREE TO DISCUSS SEDIMENT CONTAMINATION REPORTS

Following months of bitter dispute, EPA and Army Corps of Engineers officials have agreed to meet next week in hopes of reconciling their differences over two draft reports on contaminated sediments, although many administration officials predict that the two sides will be unable to iron out their differences. Corps officials are calling on EPA to withdraw one report, claiming it is not called for by Congress, and to dramatically overhaul the second, charging that the agency has employed a flawed...

EPA OFFERS NEW ASSISTANCE TO ENVIRONMENTALISTS FOR PROJECT XL

EPA, reversing a long-held policy position, is planning to offer technical assistance to nonprofit groups participating in the administration's Project XL regulatory reinvention program, a move which environmentalists say is critical in ensuring that stakeholders can adequately review regulatory reform proposals. And in an effort to boost communication between the agency and Project XL participants, EPA plans to hold meetings with individual stakeholder groups every six months, and larger public roundtables four times a year. An EPA official says the...

EPA TO OFFER LAST-MINUTE COMPLIANCE EXTENSIONS IN KEY AIR TOXICS RULE

EPA will make it easier for chemical companies to get emergency extensions to a key air toxics standard's compliance deadlines, under an upcoming rule that industry sources hope will serve as a precedent that will be duplicated throughout the entire air toxics program. Industry groups involved in settlement negotiations with EPA over a comprehensive air toxics rule have been pushing for the agency to build on this pending precedent, but sources involved in those discussions would not comment on whether...

EPA, HOUSE DEMOCRAT PREPARE EMPLOYEE PARKING 'CASH-OUT' PROPOSALS

EPA and a House Democrat are pushing separate proposals to change the federal tax code to encourage the use of mass transit by requiring employers to offer their employees the choice of receiving cash in lieu of free parking, agency staff say. EPA staff say that the agency's proposal is one of many steps it is considering to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and global climate change, building on a proposal outlined in the president's 1993 Climate Change Action Plan. Under...

UPCOMING PAPER QUESTIONS SCIENTIFIC FOUNDATION OF EPA AIR PARTICLE PROPOSAL

A critical study used to support EPA's proposal to strengthen the national particulate matter air quality standard is called into question in an upcoming paper which stresses that major data measurement errors could be dramatically overstating the health effects that are linked to fine particle exposure. Industry scientists say the peer-reviewed paper has merit and sheds light on a key scientific issue that should be further fleshed out before EPA moves forward to finalize a standard that may be targeted...

EPA LAUNCHES NATIONAL BEACH PROGRAM TO REDUCE PUBLIC HEALTH RISKS

EPA is launching a national program aimed at reducing public health risks at the nation's beaches by reducing water-borne pollution and bolstering programs to keep the public informed of water quality conditions. The agency is calling on affected states to take aggressive action to help implement the new plan, hoping that such action will serve to reduce public health risks at both inland and coastal beaches. Last fall, EPA began to consider how the agency and states could step up...

EPA/STATE PROPOSAL COULD EASE APPROVAL OF REGULATORY REFORM PROJECTS

EPA and state officials have agreed to create a new process for approving innovative state regulatory projects, according to EPA and state sources who say the de-centralized process will authorize lower-level agency managers to approve state proposals. The concept, which agency and state staff hope to finalize by the end of January, is drawing strong praise from state officials, who argue that many decisions about innovative programs can adequately be handled by EPA regional offices and lower-level staff. State sources...

Inside EPA - 01/17/1997

Fri, 1997-01-17 00:00

EPA MOVES FORWARD ON NATIONAL WATERSHED ASSESSMENT PROJECT

The Office of Water (OW) will release the next round of edited changes to its national watershed assessment project (NWAP), which will score the nation's waters based on an integration of existing water quality data. While the project has come under some criticism from states, OW sources stress that the project is not final and is still subject to changes pending further review from interested stakeholders. The NWAP project will provide the first comprehensive assessment on the nation's waters based...

EPA ISSUES MONITORING AND MODELING GUIDANCE FOR SEWER OVERFLOWS

EPA is circulating for comment a draft guidance intended to aid local communities in assessing monitoring and modeling needs for controlling wastewater overflows from combined sewers. An agency source says the guidelines offer a host of options for developing and implementing a combined sewer overflow (CSO) program. The document details monitoring and modeling activities that can be tailored to wastewater control programs that would be suitable for combined sewer systems of varying size and complexity. Approximately 1,100 communities nationwide are...

ENVIRONMENTALISTS GEAR UP FOR ROUND TWO OF GREAT LAKES INTITIATIVE

Some environmentalists are calling on EPA to increase nonpoint source and sediment quality protection in the Great Lakes as part of a second phase of the Great Lakes Water Quality Initiative (GLI). But their requests, for now, seem to be getting little attention from EPA. Two years ago, the agency worked with states to put together a list of areas where progress could be made in nonpoint source areas, but that effort, while identifying key problems including sediment contamination, didn't...

ENVIRONMENTAL GROUP APPEALS CRITICAL DISTRICT COURT ONRW RULING

Environmentalists are appealing a recent U.S. district court decision upholding EPA's claim that the federal agency had no obligation to designate a state's waters as an outstanding natural resource waters (ONRW). Several observers note that the case is important because litigation remains one of the few tools environmentalists can use to get these special designations -- intended to maintain the quality of pristine waters. The concern of states like Michigan is that designating a water body as an ONRW could...

INDIANA BECOMES FIRST STATE TO ADOPT GREAT LAKES INITIATIVE

The state of Indiana last week became the first state to finalize the Great Lakes Water Quality Initiative (GLI), adopting provisions in some instances that were more stringent than the GLI, while backtracking on existing state standards to comply with minimum GLI requirements in other areas. The GLI is a comprehensive toxics reductions initiative that instructs states bordering the Great Lakes to adopt in many cases more stringent water quality standards than those required by the rest of the country...

WATER GROUPS REVISING STANCES, EYING CONSENSUS IN NEW CONGRESS

The Clean Water Act (CWA) is seen as a low priority for both the House and the Senate in 1997, leading the prominent players in the water policy arena to search for a potential CWA consensus among previously opposing factions, insiders say. Key opponents during last year's debate on clean water already have begun meeting in an effort to find areas of agreement, sources say. If the groups can strike a deal, sources say, Congress may be more willing to...

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