EPA has announced a national Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP) research strategy to provide a comprehensive picture of the state of major U.S. streams and estuaries.
Presently, states, tribes and regions collect water data primarily from specific point sources, which are not representative of the entire aquatic ecosystem. The expanded research program will use new data collection techniques to better define actual overall water quality conditions and improve the scope and accuracy of watershed assessments. The strategy outlines how EPA intends to use science to better meet the monitoring and assessment needs of states, tribes and regions. It will result in a statistical monitoring framework that can be used to determine and detect trends in conditions for all the nation's waterways.
The strategy is available electronically through EPA's Office of Research
and Development's website at http://www.epa.gov/ORD/resplans/ or EMAP's
website at http://www.epa.gov/emap.
EPA CELEBRATES 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF CLEAN WATER ACT
EPA Administrator Christie Whitman celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Clean Water Act and the establishment of National Water Monitoring Day. At the same time, Whitman announced that President George W. Bush today declared Oct. 18, 2002 as the start of the observance of the Year of Clean Water, through a Presidential Proclamation.
Whitman praised the landmark Clean Water Act legislation, enacted 30 years ago on Oct. 18, l972, "Thirty years ago, many of America's waters had become too dirty for swimming, fishing and drinking. Today, thanks largely to the Clean Water Act, the nation's waters are once again, safe, healthy and clean. These achievements are unparalleled in the world."
Whitman celebrated the 30th anniversary in New Jersey with students from Alexander D. Sullivan School, PS #30. The Administrator and students monitored water at Liberty State Park.
Nationally, Oct. 18 marks a milestone in the nation's efforts to protect and restore valuable water resources. Among the accomplishments under the Clean Water Act:
- the federal government has provided more than $80 billion in wastewater treatment assistance to the states and localities. In 1968, only 86 million people were served by modern sewage treatment. Today of the 207 million people served by wastewater treatment facilities, more than 97 percent (201 million people) are served by secondary or better treatment. These important advances in wastewater treatment constitute one of the major achievements in modern American public health;
- the Clean Water Act permit program has resulted in the reduction of 700 billions of pounds of pollutants no longer discharged into waterways;
- the nation is close to achieving its goal of halting overall wetlands loss;
- in the past decade, the United States has preserved, restored and/or created hundreds of thousands of acres of habitat nationwide as part of the National Estuary Program;
- the nation is using the 30th anniversary as an opportunity to recommit to making all waters fishable and swimmable.
Today also has been designated National Water Monitoring Day to acknowledge the contributions of more than half a million volunteers who regularly monitor water quality. Today, thousands of citizens, students volunteer water monitoring organizations and water professionals from around the country will be monitoring their local rivers, streams, lakes, bays and wetlands.
Additional information on the 30th Anniversary, National Water Monitoring
Day, the Year of Clean Water and anniversary activities is available at
http://www.epa.gov/water/yearofcleanwater.
NEW FOCUS ON GREENHOUSE GASES, ELECTRONICS BY EPA MUNICIPAL WASTE REDUCTION PROGRAM
EPA Deputy Administrator Linda Fisher has challenged leading business, government and other institutional leaders to think and act creatively on waste reduction.
Speaking at the WasteWise Annual Meeting and Awards Ceremony in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 10, Fisher noted that waste reduction has impacts far beyond traditional recycling and waste prevention programs. She pointed out that waste reduction not only improves an organization's efficiency and saves money, but it also conserves natural resources, saves energy, prevents air and water pollution and affects climate change. For instance, WasteWise Partners have accomplished waste reductions that keep valuable materials out of landfills and incinerators ¡ this has led to carbon reductions equivalent to removing 19 million cars from the road every year.
WasteWise, a voluntary partnership program launched by EPA in 1994, provides guidance and recognition to nearly 1,300 participating organizations working to find practical methods to reduce municipal solid waste and improve financial performance. The WasteWise program each year runs a highly competitive awards program, and this year's winners range from huge corporations to small businesses to schools to tribes.
To reinforce the theme of expanded benefits of recycling and waste prevention beyond conventional program boundaries, the Awards Ceremony for the first time gave special recognition to groups launching the following initiatives: 1) the charter partners in the new National Waste Minimization Partnership Program, which focuses on reducing hazardous waste chemicals; 2) utility industry groups working with EPA in a new Coal Combustion Products Partnership, encouraging use rather than disposal of these valuable materials; 3) the initial recipients of new WasteWise Climate Change awards, honoring their voluntary waste prevention and recycling activities targeted at greenhouse gas reduction; 4) pilot state governments working with EPA in new waste reduction partnerships; and 5) WasteWise partners who responded most successfully to a new Electronics Waste Reduction Challenge.
The following are those organizations receiving Partners of the Year award, by category: Electronics Challenge: Panasonic (Matsushita Electric Corp. of America) and Public Service Enterprise Group; Climate Challenge: Constellation Energy Group and Virco Mfg. Corp.; Endorser: City of Clifton, N.J.; Federal Government: U.S. Postal Service - Alabama District and U.S. Postal Service - Northeast Area; Large Organization: Pitney Bowes Inc. and Virco Mfg.; Local Government: Jackson County, Mo. and King County, Wash.; Midsize Organization: Guardian Industries and NEC Electronics; School/School District: Los Angeles Unified School District; Small Organization: Creative Office Systems and Evelyn Hill Inc.; State Government: State of Ohio; Tribal Government: Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation; University/College: Eastern Illinois University; Very Large Organization: Anheuser-Busch Companies and the Walt Disney Co.
For further information about EPA's WasteWise program, see the WasteWise
website at http://www.epa.gov/wastewise or contact the WasteWise Helpline at
1-800-EPA-WISE (372-9473).
EPA INITIATES PUBLIC DIALOGUE ON TOXICS RELEASE INVENTORY
EPA has initiated an on-line national stakeholder dialogue on the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI), EPA's publicly available database of toxic chemical releases reported annually by industry.
The 2000 TRI inventory contains data from 23,700 facilities and showed a significant decline in total chemical releases into the environment from 1999. Given the community focus and the broad use of TRI data, stakeholder involvement is critical to TRI's continued success. During Phase I of the on-line dialogue, stakeholders are invited to provide feedback on the process for reporting, collecting, processing and releasing TRI data, as well as EPA's program for compliance assistance. Three issue papers that offer more background on the TRI program will be available on the website.
Comments will accepted for 60 days via the "Virtual Public Meeting" website at http://www.epa.gov/triinter/programs/stakeholders/on-line_dialogue.htm. Received comments will be posted on the website, and a final report summarizing the comments will be issued on the TRI website and in EPA's EDOCKET under docket number OEI-2002-0006.
The TRI inventory was established under the Emergency Planning and Community
Right-to-Know Act of 1986. For more information, see the Federal Register
notice at http://www.epa.gov/tri/programs/stakeholders/fr_notice.pdf.
UPCOMING DEADLINES
CLEAN AIR ACT (CAA)
- October 21, 2002 - Existing and new pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities subject to the national emission standards for hazardous air pollutants for pharmaceuticals must comply with 40 CFR 63, subpart GGG.
- October 22, 2002 - Existing sources subject to organic hazardous air pollutant emission controls under 40 CFR 63, subpart H, for equipment leaks from Groups II and IV chemical process units must submit a semiannual report to EPA.
CLEAN WATER ACT (CWA)
- October 28, 2002 - Owners and operators of industrial facilities in EPA Regions 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, or 10 subject to the terms and conditions of EPA's NPDES storm water multi-sector general permit must submit compliance monitoring results from the second year of the permit to EPA.
