Mews of the Week
Chemical firms react cautiously to EPA changes With the nomination of William D. Ruckelshaus to head the beleaguered Environmental Protection Agency, President Ronald Reagan appears to be signaling a change in his environmental policies. Though the nomination has been universally praised, members of Congress, chemical company officials, and environmentalists are waiting to see just how much leeway the capable lawyer and moderate Republican will be given to redress the agency's problems. Reagan has promised him a free hand and ample resources. Ruckelshaus was the person who consolidated the disparate environmental functions scattered throughout the government into the unity that became EPA. He served as its first administrator from 1970 to 1973, during which time he established himself as a man of independence and integrity and as an able manager. Because of those skills, Paul Langerman, environmental policy analyst with the conservative Heritage Foundation, says Ruckelshaus' appointment "is the beginning move in cleaning up the aura of public distrust that surrounds the agency." Voicing the sentiment of many in the chemical industry, a Chemical
Ruckelshaus: his appointment appears to signal a shift in policies 8
March 28, 1983 C&EN
Manufacturers Association spokesman says, "We hope the appointment will get EPA back to doing the job it was created to do, namely, protecting the environment." "The agency's public credibility has suffered," says Union Carbide's director of federal affairs Jeremiah J. Kenney Jr., "and that's bad for chemical companies." Ruckelshaus' appointment "will change the public perception—which was never a reality—that the agency is in our pocket," Kenney adds, "but it is just too early to know how it will affect the reauthorization" of the major environmental laws. Ruckelshaus' appointment, says Monsanto spokesman Larry O'Neill, may bring the Congressional investigations of the agency to a speedy conclusion. Du Pont's executive vice president Robert C. Forney also hoped that the appointment would "quell the political acrimony." Forney believes that with Ruckelshaus at the helm, the relationship between EPA and Congress will be less confrontational and that alone will increase the likelihood of reauthorization of the Clean Air Act and the two toxic substances laws up for revision. Dow Chemical, the subject of recent Congressional hearings, had no comment on the appointment. Sen. Robert T. Stafford (R.-Vt), chairman of the Senate committee that will conduct the confirmation hearings in about two weeks, says Ruckelshaus will undergo "searching questions about the period of time he has spent as senior vice president at Weyerhaeuser," a Tacoma, Wash., forest products company, and "we will examine what his plans may be in terms of research and development, and securing new staff." To indicate a real change in the Administration's policies, Ruckelshaus "will have to restore budget and personnel cuts as well as the research base of the agency, and he will have to demonstrate an ability to prosecute offenders," says environmental activist Samuel S. Epstein, professor of environmental medicine at the University of Illinois. Sen. Stafford and Rep. Elliott H.
Levitas (D.-Ga.), chairman of one of the committees investigating EPA, agree. Says Levitas: "[Former Administrator Anne M.] Burford was not the problem and Ruckelshaus is not the solution." He also says that probes of the agency will continue. Likely to get caught up in one of those probes is the agency's biggest contractor for cleanup of hazardous chemical waste sites, Waste Management Inc. of Oak Brook, 111. Waste Management, and its subsidiary Chemical Waste Management, have been accused of illegally disposing of wastes by the attorney general of Illinois, and they are in trouble over activities at waste sites in other states. The company is the largest handler of hazardous waste in the world. It manages about 20 hazardous waste sites in the U.S., the largest of which is the Calumet Industrial Development landfill in Calumet City, 111. Waste Management has had a long history of dealing with EPA. It has been awarded federal contracts worth more than $1 million under the Superfund law, and is cleaning up other sites under negotiated contracts with other companies, including the $7.7 million job to clean up the Seymour, Ind., dump site. Waste Management also is the largest contractor for disposing of Department of Defense wastes. Illinois accuses the company of illegally disposing of about 400,000 gal of hazardous waste at the Calumet City site in 1980. Half of that was stored without filing the proper manifests and the other half was disposed of at a time when the company did not have a valid license. Illinois attorney general Neil F. Hardigan says the company "consciously schemed to withhold information on their permit application and the records filed with the state" for dumping at the landfill. Waste Management says it is retaining outside counsel and technical experts to investigate the charges. It states that it believes the company is run well and is generally in full compliance with all laws and regulations. It intends to "identify any instance where this is not the case and will take immediate measures wherever a need for such action is indicated." D
