were permitting a pump or compressor, the guy would know about this compressor or that pump but would have no idea how it interacts with the entire process. However, Herb noted that the permitting system is based on material accounting that calls for accurate chemical use information. Many companies in the chemical, electronic, and other industries are strongly opposed to reporting chemicals used in pro-
duction, even if it is done on a general facility-wide basis, let alone by specific processes. One of their fears is that confidential business information will fall into competitors' hands (ES&T, December 1995, p. 540A). However, Gorski said openness was not a problem for Huntsman. "These processes are known," he said. "You can go to the library and get a textbook. Maybe with more proprietary processes, it
might be more dimcult. AISo in our case, we were dealing with one state engineer, and so we were really limiting access to this information in the first place. Some 14 other companies are now working with New Jersey to develop similar plans, according to Herb. The state environmental office is required to analyze the results of the program and report back to the legislature this year. —JEFF JOHNSON
Federal budget impasse affects EPA operations, contractors Inspections are severely curtailed. Water-quality testing has slowed. Grants to private contractors are in limbo. According to EPA officials, the agency is struggling to keep programs operating in the wake of the continuing federal budget impasse, which has imposed temporary yet deep spending limits on EPA. Under the continuing resolution passed in January to keep open agencies such as EPA that do not have approved fiscal 1996 budgets, EPA was limited to an operating budget 25% below last year's level—an effective reduction of $1.7 billion. The agency needs at least another $1 billion for the current fiscal year, EPA officials said. "If the funding level of the continuing resolution continues through mid-March," said one EPA official, "we anticipate having to lay off up to 5000 staff." EPA officials also expect to see delays in setting new air and safe drinking water regulations, including rules currently in development on Cryptosporidium and particulate matter. Superfund could be crippled by the budget uncertainty, a former Bush administration EPA official commented. "Contractors can't operate when they don't know whether they'U have to shut down again tomorrow " he said "It costs monev just to shut down and reopen Bv the time they're ready to start UD again some of those contractors and their emDlovees may have found other iobs " The Hazardous Waste Action Coalition confirmed this prediction, saying that up to 3000 Superfund private sector employees could be furloughed as a result of the longest U.S. government
shutdown in history. The coalition represents about 85% of U.S. environmental consulting and remediation services. Although the drive in Congress to cut EPA's budget is often characterized as a way of deflating the bloated federal bureaucracy, agency staff believe the private contractors will suffer most. "These cuts of federal government programs hurt the private sector," said an EPA official. "They have less job security than government employees." "The sad thing is that the effect on local, EPA-related business that will be felt in local districts is likely to make Congress pay more attention to the agency's needs," said an EPA legislative affairs official. "It's difficult when contractors are having to lay off employees." Diane Shea of the National Association of Counties is concerned about the fate of specific grant programs contained in the budget bill passed by Congress but vetoed by Clinton. "One grant would have funded a joint
groundwater protection and watershed management project with the state of Florida and Sarasota County," said Shea. "This project would help reduce wastewater plant effluent and enhance wetlands by using them as storage areas for [recycled] water. I'm concerned that these and other innovative programs are in jeopardy." Diane Donely of Clean Sites, Inc,, an environmental consulting firm in Alexandria, Va., said she is concerned that a new EPA effort to clean up sanitary sewers, a major problem for cities, already has been jeopardized by the government shutdown. A meeting of EPA's sanitary sewer overflows dialogue committee, which had been set for Jan. 10-11, was canceled. The EPA scheduler said he was hoping it could take place early in March. Donely said she was concerned that the contractors working for the cities to solve the problem "would not be around" because of the budget uncertainty. —VIKI REATH
Losing ground Still without an approved budget for 1996, EPA is currently limited to spending $1.7 billion below last year's level under the terms of a temporary budget resolution. This is $800 million less than the level passed by Congress in December, which was vetoed by President Clinton, and nearly $2.5 billion below Clinton's initial request.
Source: EPA Office of Congressional and Legislative Affairs
VOL.30, NO. 2, 1996/ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY / NEWS • 7 3 A
