EPA Watch New approaches needed to curb service sector impacts Recent studies on the environmental impact of the growing service sector point out that regulations designed for manufacturing will not adequately deal witii die environmental challenges posed by industries such as health care and tourism. Service industries account for three-quarters of die nation's gross domestic product and total employment, but their environmental impacts are virtually unknown and unregulated, said Terry Davies, director of the Center for Risk Management at Resources for die Future (RFF), which conducted die studies for EPA. The reports, which looked at die food service, tourism, and health care industries, conclude that the direct environmental impacts of diese services are not as significant as their potential to influence lit) stream suppliers and nonretailing activities For example, direct environmental impacts of the food service industry, such as high organic waste levels in water effluent from food processing operations, "are not particularly significant in terms of their magnitude," the report concluded. But food retailers, through their procurement specifications, have tremendous potential to influence practices in agriculture, forestry, paper, and petroleum industries, Davies said. Davies pointed toward a decision by McDonald's to reduce tree consumption by requiring its suppliersto provide materials made of recycled content at the same price as packaging from nonrecycled materials Analysts recognize that current environmental regulations designed for the manufacturing industry do not take into account die environmental challenges of the service sector. Because services, such as e-commerce (die sale of goods over the Internet) are complex human systems, the simple command-and-
control regulatory approach will not work, said Braden Allenby, environment, healtii, and safety vice president for AT&T Corporation. "We can't say what kind of a role government should play in tiiis until we understand our ignorance of the service sector," said Allenby. EPA may develop new voluntary pollution prevention partnerships for the service sector, similar to WasteWise and Energy Star, said Dan Fiorino, director of Emerging Strategies in EPA's Office of Policy and Reinvention. Participating companies in WasteWise set targets to reduce their solid waste production; in 1998, WasteWise participants reduced tiieir waste by 7.9 million tons. The RFF studies are part of a larger EPA effort to understand the environmental impacts of the service industry and devise future strategies, Fiorino said. Environmental Implications of Food Service and Food Retail and two other reports on the service sector are available on the RFF Web site at www.rff.org.
Lawsuit challenges agency's nonpoint source authority Just days after the public comment period ended on a proposed rule to regulate nonpoint source runoff, a land owner and a group of farming organizations filed a motion for summary judgement in late January, asking a California judge to rule in their favor on a lawsuit against EPA. The lawsuit, originally filed in April 1999, is die first case to challenge EPA's autiiority in regulating pollution from nonpoint sources such as farming and forestry operations. The proposed rule is designed to strengdien die Clean Water Act's Section 303(d), which requires states to list impaired waters and develop total maximum daily load (TMDL) allocations to meet water quality standards {Environ. Sci. Teccnol. 1999, 4 (11), 446A-447A). One of the rule's
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more controversial provisions would require states to list and develop TMDLs not only for point source dischargers such as wastewater treatment plants and industrial facilities, but also for nonpoint sources. EPA received more than 30,000 comments on the proposal, many of which questioned die agency's authority to pull nonpoint sources into the program. At issue in the lawsuit itself is a TMDL designating maximum allowable sediment loads to various nonpoint sources in California's Garcia River watershed. The plaintiffs contend tiiat they are being restricted in tiieir ability to harvest timber on tiieir property as a result of the TMDL issued by EPA, according to the brief filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. "Congress has looked at this issue three times [1972, 1977, and 1987] in the last 30 years and each time expressly decided to keep EPA out of the business" of regulating nonpoint sources, said Russ Eggert, an attorney with Mayer, Brown & Piatt, die law firm representing the plaintiffs. Eggert argues that Section 303(d) regulates only point sources, leaving authority over nonpoint sources to the states. EPA continues to maintain the position it outlined in its proposed rule—that Section 303(d) is not targeted at point sources or nonpoint sources per se, but ratiier impaired waters regardless of where die pollution is coming from. EPA will consider all die comments received on the TMDL proposal, but is not inclined to ease up on efforts to regulate nonpoint sources, said Elizabeth Fellows director of EPA's Assessment and Watershed Protection Division. Suzette Leith, a Region 9 attorney working on the case, said tiiat EPA planned to file a motion for summary judgment in its favor by the end of February. Oral arguments were scheduled for March 23.
