Contractors urge caution on SF contract reform Remediation companies are urging EPA to drop its plans to move from large Superfund contracts to more restrictive agreements. The change is part of the proposals in a new Superfund contracting strategy under development known as Contracts 2000. Current contracts covering site characterization through site cleanup have been procured under Superfund's long-term contracting strategy. These agreements will be replaced by more restrictive contracts covering specific activities when the strategy is completed at the end of the year. The strategy will provide the agency with more flexibility, save money, and provide more opportunities for small companies to do business with EPA, according to the Office of Acquisition Management. The proposed changes will have the greatest impact on Response Action Contracts (RACs). In an RAC, an EPA regional office pays a contractor to provide a full range of services at a number of sites, including investigations, feasibility studies, management oversight, and completion of cleanup activities. These 10-year contracts can be worth as much as $300 million. Contract 2000 proposals would divide these RACs into two categories: design contracts and construction contracts. But officials with the Hazardous Waste Action Coalition (HWAC), which represents remediation contractors, warn against dividing up contract work. Initiating a separate contract for each phase of work encourages inefficiency in timing and cost, said David Frazier, HWAC director of state and federal relations. While small companies would have more opportunities to work directly for EPA, the additional work inherent in the contracting process would hurt the Superfund program by raising costs, added Patrick 0'Hara, former HWAC president.
southeastern power plants. For example, American Electric Power, the nation's second largest electric utility, has pledged to reduce its emissions by 65% below 1990 levels, according to Dale Heydlauff, vice president for environmental affairs. He nonetheless claimed that the contribution from upwind power plants to the northeast's ozone problem "is fairly minor and virtually negligible." The Ozone Transport Commission (OTC) is an organization including 12 northeast and mid-Atlantic states. OTAG's report found these states to be affected by NO,, transport. OTC is "very supportive" of the deadline extension, according to executive director Bruce Carhart.
New drinking water data for risk calculations Researchers in the Office of Science and Technology are currently updating their 20-year-old data on the nation's tapwater drinking habits. The new data will help EPA move toward risk-based decision making for drinking water contaminants, according to agency officials. The update was mandated by 1996 Safe Drinking Water Act requirements that EPA identify subpopulations— such as infants, children, pregnant and nursing women, people with serious illnesses, and the elderly—
who are at greater risk from exposure to contaminants "We don't have much data with regard to subpopulations," explained Stig Regli, an environmental engineer with the Office of Groundwater and Drinking Water. The new data will allow agency staff to make much more sensitive predictions about vulnerable groups' potential exposure to contaminants when setting drinking water standards, Regli said. It is unclear how much tapwater consumption patterns have changed since 1976-1977, when the data currently used by EPA were collected. But the nation's bottied-water consumption jumped from 346 million gallons in 1977 to 3.4 billion gallons in 1997, according to a Beverage Marketing Corporation spokesman. People in the drinking water industry are generally upbeat about the survey, according to an industry spokesperson. The data currently being analyzed by EPA researchers were collected by the Department of Agriculture (USDA) in surveys conducted between 1994 and 1996. The surveys are extremely detailed, but contain no medical information. The data therefore do not help the agency in determining the exposure of people with serious illnesses, such 3.s AIDS. The researchers hope to present their study to the Science Advisory Board by the end of this year.
4 5 2 A • OCT. 1, 1998 / ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY / NEWS
POTWs encouraged to submit proposals under Project XL Up to 15 publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) will be selected to participate in Project XL, the agency announced in June [Federal Register, 1998, 63(120) 34,170-34,176). Through Project XL, launched as part of its reinvention initiatives, EPA offers regulatory flexibility to companies proposing projects that produce "superior" environmental results and significant costs savings. At the same time, the program requires support from communities and environmental groups. POTWs currentiy are regulated under the National Pretreatment Program, which requires the facilities to identify industrial users, issue them permits, and monitor their activities through onsite sampling and inspections. "The pretreatment program has been very successful," said Patrick Bradley, an EPA pretreatment program coordinator. "A lot of that comes from the design, which is protective and preventative." However, POTW representatives have expressed reservations about EPA redirecting the program into Project XL. Many of the requirements under the original Project XL program were overly stringent, said Sam Hadeed of the Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies. Because of admitted problems with the program, EPA is trying to speed up the proposal approval process and increase incentives by helping companies to steer their projects in the right direction, the agency said. But Hadeed remained skeptical. "The whole purpose of XL is to see whether you can, on a pilot basis, develop a program that has merit," he said. At the same time, "you realize that some bugs [will] need to be smoothed out, and you shouldn't be penalized if you fall short." EPA's Bradley noted that any proposals submitted under Project XL will have to show a measurable environmental benefit beyond what POTWs already are achieving with the pretreatment program. Subsequently, EPA will change the regulations to facilitate these benefits and incorporate the changes into the treatment plants' permits. But the permits will hold POTWs accountable for any improvements laid out in their proposals, Bradley said.
