EPA
During his tenure as governor of Utah, Mike Leavitt was recognized as a national leader on homeland security. The U.S. EPA’s new administrator is expected to have plenty of challenges overseeing the agency’s homeland security research. In late October, two National Research Council (NRC) committees released reports critiquing EPA’s research plans for its National Homeland Security Research Center (NHSRC), deeming the plans overly ambitious. Both committees emphasize that officials should prioritize actions that are within EPA’s expertise and seek help from other agencies. NHSRC, which is headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, was officially established in January. NHSRC plans to Timothy Oppelt close in October 2005, a time frame that intentionally provides a sense of urgency to get work done, says Timothy Oppelt, NHSRC’s director. NHSRC received $3.6 million for preliminary work in FY ’02 and $50 million of new EPA money for work in FY ’03, and the center requested $29 million for FY ’04. “When most people hear ‘homeland security’, they don’t think EPA, but most aren’t aware how much of an emergency responder we are,” says Paul Gilman, EPA’s science adviser and director of the Office of Research and Development (ORD). EPA leads the federal government’s efforts to protect water supplies and has played a major role in decontaminating buildings. The NRC reports critique plans devised by staff at NHSRC and EPA’s Water Protection Task Force, which outline research areas and specific projects for water security and building contamination. NRC’s water review report is the second half of an earlier report that
faulted the agency’s research agenda on multiple fronts. The agency lacked an “overarching framework” and communication programs to help local and regional agencies and utilities build their own prevention and response plans, according to the NRC panel. The newer water report, A Review of the EPA Water Security Research and Technical Action Plan: Part 2. Project Evaluation, is a more detailed review of specific projects identified in the action plan. It recommends that the agency focus on drinking water, which appears to be a more vulnerable risk. The panel cited a need for minimizing duplicity of work in other agencies, and the panelists praised the use of EPA’s existing Environmental Technology Verification program to evaluate potential technology but warned about its high operating costs. The water plan is a strong positive step “for securing water in general”, but it needs to include wastewater studies on a broad scale because accidents and blackouts can unintentionally wreak the same kind of havoc on a water system as terrorism, says Joan Rose, a microbiology professor at Michigan State University and vice chair of the National Academy of Sciences’ Water Science and Technology Board, which organized a review of the water plan. Alan Roberson, a spokesperson for the American Water Works Association, says he “would have liked to see projected costs” of implementing the plan. A separate report also released in October, Review of EPA Homeland Security Efforts: Safe Buildings Program Research Implementation Plan, recommends that EPA focus on decontamination and disposal projects because time is short and EPA is most knowledgeable in these areas. Oppelt says the recommendations will be incorporated as soon as possible. All three reports are available at www.nas.edu. A third NRC panel will address NHSRC’s risk assessment studies in 2004. —RACHEL PETKEWICH
News Briefs 15,000 ocean species As many as 15,000 new species of fish and marine animals have been identified over the past decade, and the discovery rate is continuing at a steady pace, according to an initial report from the Census of Marine Life (CoML), a cooperative international research program of more than 300 scientists from 25 countries. The Unknown Ocean: Baseline Report for the Census of Marine Life is the first public report of CoML, a $1 billion, 10-year initiative designed to identify and catalogue life in the oceans as it is today, will be tomorrow, and was yesterday. One of CoML’s goals is to provide data leading to improved ocean management. The census will be formally released in 2010. For more information, go to www.coreocean.org/ Dev2Go.web?id=205703&rnd=17241.
Undermining permitting The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is violating the Clean Water Act by allowing hundreds of miles of Appalachian streams to be buried under mining waste, according to three environmental groups that filed suit in October in U.S. District Court in Charleston, W. Va. The Corps issues Nationwide Permit 21, a general permit intended only for activities that cause “minimal” environmental damage, for mountaintop removal mining of coal—a common practice in West Virginia where mountaintops are leveled and the resulting debris is dumped in valleys (Environ. Sci. Technol. 1999, 451A). The U.S. EPA’s draft environmental impact statement on mountaintop removal mining recommends that the Corps decide on a case-by-case basis whether to issue Nationwide Permit 21 or individual permits. The environmental groups argue for the more stringent individual permits. For more information, visit www. epa.gov/region3/mtntop/eis.htm.
JANUARY 1, 2004 / ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY ■ 13A
CASEY DEBENHAM
EPA’s homeland security agenda under scrutiny
