ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS Clinton offers regulatory reforms as Congress hammers out bills SCIENCE
Study identifies sources of airborne dioxin in Great Lakes, 206A * EPAs R&D "reinvention" endorsed, 206A TECHNOLOGY
EPA considers new contaminated sediments initiative, 207A "Starving" microbes degrade TCE, but applications limited, 207A
GOVERNMENT
- International carbon dioxide trading proposed by UN agency, 208A DOE cleanup agreements criticized as "unrealistic," 208A SOCIETY Manufacturers lead new reference materials program, 209A
BRIEFS U.S. satellite images declassified, 210A
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t an Arlington, VA, printing company, President Clinton March 16 released what he called a "landmark package" of 25 environmental reforms, repre senting the administration's counter to a host of sweeping regulatory reform bills now work ing their way through Congress. Clinton made the presentation to industry representatives, envi ronmentalists, and others brought to the print shop, which the pres ident held up as an example of a company on the "cutting edge" of environmentally sound product use. Although his plan was ap plauded by the environmental community, it is not likely to slow down Congress in its drive for regulatory reforms, nor will it curb businesses' demands for regulatory relief. Immediately following the an nouncement, Republican con gressional leaders said the plan was inadequate and they would push ahead with bills for at least a regulatory freeze, new costbenefit and risk assessment re quirements, and a congressional veto of regulations. Industry rep resentatives also wanted more. Chemical Manufacturers Associa tion President Fred Webber said he hoped the president's plan sig naled that the administration had decided to join the legislative de bate but, he said, CMA would continue to support regulatory reform legislation. However, the administration's proposal could bring about a ma jor review of environmental regu lations and some significant changes. To achieve the reforms, EPA must issue new regulations, and the administration promised to begin turning out proposals this summer, with implementa tion to come within one year. Of the 25 proposals, a few
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President Clinton issued his regulatory re form package at Custom Print Inc., which he praised for its use of soy ink and recy cled paper and an 80% cut in VOCs.
were Agency initiatives often dis cussed in the past, some during the Bush years, for instance, mul timedia permitting demonstration projects and greater use of nego tiated rule makings. Other pro posals, however, could change how EPA does business. Of particular significance, Clinton said, were two proposals: a 25% reduction in reporting and record-keeping requirements for small businesses and local gov ernments, and a pilot program to allow companies to use "onestop" emissions reports for all releases to the environment. The single report would allow compa nies to present all emissions on one form, taking industry and EPA a step closer to a unified fa cility information system. If im plemented, the new requirements would be tried on a pilot basis. The Agency also would be re quired to work with industry, be ginning with chemical compa nies, to eliminate conflicting or overlapping Clean Air Act rules. The president's plan acknowledges that during the past 25 years some five or six national air rules have been issued, each affecting the same emissions points
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but each with its own emissions control requirements. The president's plan would encourage emissions trading for smog-creating pollutants—volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides—and would allow states to more easily use such approaches to comply with Clean Air Act pollution reductions. The president also proposed allowing companies to trade pollutants discharged to water bodies. Such a plan may require amending the Clean Water Act. The proposal also would give companies the option of demonstrating an "alternative" compliance strategy to replace existing regulations, as long as full compliance is the result, the alternative plan is "transparent" to and supported by the community where the plant is located, worker safety and environmental justice are not threatened, and the plan is legally enforceable. Less sweeping proposals included postponement of courtordered deadlines for drinkingwater regulations while EPA "refocuses" drinking-water treatment priorities on the highest health risk pollutants; development of risk assessment computer software for nonspecialists in local government, small businesses, and citizens groups; use of risk-based enforcement to target EPA actions on violations with the greatest risk to human health and the environment; creation of "plain English" regulatory guides and small business compliance assistance centers; allowances for small businesses and communities of up to 180 days to correct violations without fines or penalties; reduction of penalties in some cases for violations found through self-audits if corrected and disclosed; greater use of the Internet for public access; establishment of an agency-wide information center; and presentation of national awards for "green chemistry" pollution prevention technologies. —JEFF JOHNSON
Water monitoring strategy begun
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ederal, state, and regional agencies, along with nongovernmental organizations, have begun implementing a voluntary strategy for coordinating their water quality monitoring efforts and sharing the resultant data. The desired outcome, say sponsors, will be a clearer and more consistent picture of the condition of U.S. waters and the effectiveness of regulatory programs and, in some cases, a reduction in total monitoring costs. The basic implementation strategy for the effort was forged over the past three years by the Intergovernmental Task Force on Monitoring Water Quality (ITFM), which was charged with evaluating water-monitoring programs nationwide and recommending changes. Twenty federal, state, tribal, and interstate organizations are members of ITFM. "Our purpose is to locate water quality problems, measure programs' effectiveness, see that our program goals are being met, and describe our water resources," says ITFM chair Elizabeth Fellows, chief of the Monitoring Branch in EPA's Office of Water. "We have to standardize what we are doing so that we can actually provide benefits to the taxpayer," argues Ann Conrad of the Freshwater Foundation. "In Minnesota alone there are 12 different water programs; no two have the same way to report the data." In its final report published in April, ITFM outlines a strategy for water-monitoring efforts. Key points include "goal-oriented" monitoring using environmental indicators to measure changes in water quality that affect human or ecosystem health, a five-to-tenyear cycle to comprehensively assess ambient waters nationally, performance-based measurement methods that will provide data that are comparable across pro-
grams, use of data on how information was collected (metadata) to document and describe archived information, and electronic access to that monitoring data. At a February ITFM workshop participants agreed to collaborate on a core set of water quality indicators, establish on the Internet at least five water quality database systems representing five agencies, conduct a pilot biodiversity study, implement a plan for performance-based methods, and investigate collaborating among state and federal agencies to set reference conditions to be used for biological standards. One key to the success of the ITFM strategy is that states and localities derive some benefit. "In many cases for a state on the East Coast to have comparable data to Wyoming is not important," says Carlton Haywood of the Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin. Fellows argues that neighboring states would benefit from looking at other states' data, especially where watersheds are shared. "Everybody gives a little to gain a lot." Although ITFM has officially completed its original assignment, according to Fellows the group will become the National Water Quality Monitoring Council. "The national council will be a forum for consensus building and communication," says Nancy Lopez, head of USGS's Office of Water Data Coordination. According to Fellows, ITFM has achieved some success in getting federal agencies to use common data-element names and reference tables in water quality databases and maintain common taxonomic codes. EPA is providing $500,000 for states and additional monies for tribes to revamp monitoring programs to follow the ITFM strategy. —ALAN NEWMAN
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