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The Standard
June 2009 - Page 2

Government Accounting Office Report Critical Of US EPA
The United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (US EPA’s) policies and programs affect almost all segments of the economy, society, and government. The Agency operates in a highly complex and controversial regulatory arena, confounding its ability to implement its mission of protecting human health and the environment. The Government Accounting Office (GAO) was recently asked to identify challenges at the US EPA that hinder its ability to implement programs effectively and to suggest corrective actions that would help the US EPA to more effectively carry out its mission. In March 2009, the GAO published a report entitled “Environmental Protection Agency Major Management Challenges.” A summary of this report is presented below.

• While the US EPA has launched initiatives to improve general agency management, the initiatives have, for the most part, fallen considerably short of the Agency’s goals.
• The US EPA has failed to develop sufficient chemical assessment information to limit public exposure to many chemicals that may pose substantial health risks.
• The US EPA faces many important challenges related to implementation of the Clean Air Act, including coordination with other federal agencies, analyses of health impacts from air pollution, and delays in regulating mercury and other air toxics. Furthermore, the US EPA faces challenges relating to numerous regulatory proposals that have been overturned or remanded by the courts.
• The nation’s water utilities face billions of dollars in upgrades to aging and deteriorating infrastructures that left unaddressed can significantly affect water quality. The US EPA will receive $6 billion in additional water infrastructure funding from the recently passed stimulus bill.
• With the passing of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA, also known as Superfund) in 1980, the US EPA was granted the authority to ensure the cleanup of hazardous waste sites. Several key management problems, however, have not been resolved since that time. For example, citing competing priorities and lack of funds, US EPA has not implemented a 1980 statutory mandate under Superfund to require businesses handling hazardous substances to provide financial assurances to pay for potential environmental cleanups.
• The federal government’s approach to climate change has been ad hoc and is not well coordinated across government agencies. For example, the federal government lacks a comprehensive approach for targeting federal research dollars toward the development and deployment of low-carbon technologies.

The GAO has made a number of recommendations intended to improve US EPA’s programs by enhancing the information it uses to manage the programs and strengthening internal controls. The US EPA has concurred with most of the recommendations but has been slow to implement some of them. In the conclusion of its report, the GAO advises the US EPA that a sustained commitment by US EPA leadership will be required in order to face these challenges head-on.

Geoscientists Evaluate Ten Sites In Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, and Oklahoma
The Environmental Standards Geosciences Department is currently involved in a project developing a Request for Proposal (RFP) for a major natural gas pipeline company. The RFP is being written to provide a detailed soil sampling plan for investigation of multiple areas of concern at 10 distinct sites with a wide geographic extent. The site locations are geographically distributed over four states (Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, and Oklahoma) and range from a location in northwestern Wyoming just to the east of Yellowstone National Park to a location in the panhandle of Oklahoma.

The soil investigation work is being conducted to supplement previous sampling activities at the various sites. The goal of the work is to better delineate constituents of concern in both a horizontal and vertical direction. The completed RFP will be distributed by the natural gas pipeline company and used to select the most qualified consultant for the work.

In developing the RFP, Environmental Standards devoted a considerable amount of time evaluating both the existing analytical data and site drawings provided by the natural gas company. Site visits were conducted by two members of our Geosciences Team, who travelled a combined distance of approximately 2500 miles in 4 days. The site visits were used to evaluate access to sampling locations, the most appropriate equipment to be used for the sampling, and the impacts of the investigations on site operations. The information gathered during the site visits was compiled and incorporated into the RFP.

The Environmental Standards Quality Assurance Chemistry Department assisted in the project through development of a Quality Assurance Project Plan (QAPP). During implementation of the sampling project detailed in the RFP, the Geosciences Department plans to provide third-party field auditing services for the client to document compliance with project control documents during sample collection activities. Environmental Standards is pleased to support the natural gas pipeline company in this very interesting four-state “Geo Tour” Project.