August 2009
Restoring Budgets for "Core Programs"
ECOS is working hard to convince Congress (and US EPA) to restore the cuts to the State and Tribal Assistance Grants that have occurred since 2005. Nearly all the cuts to EPA's budget have been passed on to the States, which implement 96% of the delegated programs such as clean air, clean water, waste and drinking water protection. ECOS members believe these cuts threaten our ability to protect the environment.
Committee Work
ECOS has established six standing committees that are responsible for identifying, discussing and articulating policy in their areas. The three "media" committees, Air, Water and Waste, always have active and lively discussions during the ECOS semi-annual meetings.
-The Air Committee’s recent issues have focused on climate change, clean energy and pending federal rules.
-The Water Committee has been looking at improvements to the Clean Water Act (definition of “waters of the United States” and delegation of 404 program), and reauthorization of the state revolving loan fund.
-The Waste Committee is looking at Brownfields reauthorization and various hazardous waste issues and recently passed a resolution on lead-free wheel weights.
-The Planning Committee’s up-coming issues include the State Grant Template Measures and options for state grant standardized workplans in response to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) budget language to EPA; the state reporting burden reduction initiative; the state-EPA partnership and the National Environmental Performance Partnership System (NEPPS); and updates to EPA's 5-year Strategic Plan. In addition, the Planning Committee hosts the Data Management Workgroup that is focused on a new effort to create a Chief Information Officer (CIO) Council and the Environmental Health Forum whose recent work includes efforts to highlight impacts from the built environment and related links to public and environmental health."
-The Cross-Media Committee continues to explore, launch and implement innovative initiatives in an effort to solve various complicated environmental problems for which single-medium approaches are inadequate or unavailable. In 2008, the Cross-Media Committee will continue to evaluate various approaches to Emerging Contaminants (materials suspected of posing environmental and human health risks but for which no risk assessment values have yet been determined). Through the first half of calendar year 2008, the Cross-Media Committee has continued to pursue a joint work plan with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Innovation Action Council to explore innovative solutions to environmental problems. This work plan is set to be revisited in the summer of 2008 and may be updated then. The Quicksilver Caucus, the ECOS Federal Facilities Forum, and the ECOS-U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) Sustainability Work Group are all established subgroups of the ECOS Cross-Media Committee, and all of these subgroups report to the Committee directly on their efforts and policy position suggestions. In this way, the Cross-Media Committee provides a forum to help guide ECOS’ policy positions on mercury pollution issues and issues involving clean-up and restoration of the nuclear weapons complex, defense bases, and other federally-owned sites and facilities.
-The Compliance Committee: Compliance and enforcement of environmental laws is matter of prime importance to ECOS, as States conduct approximately 90% of all enforcement and compliance actions. Currently ECOS is closely involved in two major efforts:
- The State Review Framework: a joint project with U.S. EPA to establish a uniform, reproducible and transparent process for assuring the fair review of State enforcement efforts across EPA Regions.
- The Integrated Compliance Information System: a Web-based system being developed and deployed by the U.S. EPA that will integrate data currently located in several separate compliance and enforcement data systems.
Through this structure of work groups and Committees, ECOS is able to raise issues for policy discussion and debate. Often these discussions will evolve into a formal policy resolution or will support testimony for future legislation. For copies of resolutions and testimony, go to those titles on the ECOS Web page. Leadership of the various committees is found at the "Members and Committees" title on this Web page.
Mercury
ECOS is particularly interested in reducing the presence of mercury in the environment because continued mercury pollution poses a growing threat to human health and the environment (read more about this problem by clicking here). In 2001, ECOS and other partners founded the Quicksilver Caucus (QSC) to pool resources, and to explore and pursue methods for reducing mercury in the environment. The removal of mercury from the environment remains a priority for state environmental agencies.
In 2008, the QSC continues to help provide a forum for dialogue between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and state environmental agencies to facilitate facility compliance with the Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) Rule. This builds on previous work in this area (in 2007, the QSC published the Electric Arc Furnace Area Source Rule Mercury Requirements Factsheet for State and Local Agencies). Currently, the QSC is exploring ways to preclude use of mercury in thermostats and thermometers, and is exploring ways to recover and better manage mercury already contained in such products. In April 2008, the QSC released the Dental Mercury Amalgam Waste Management White Paper, which explores successes and lessons learned from early dental amalgam mercury management programs. The QSC is working to develop mercury total maximum daily loads (TMDLs) for waterbodies, taking into account the contributions of air and waste programs. Currently, the QSC is also considering pursuing more work in the field of management of mercury from compact fluorescent lights (CFLs).
Environmental Information Management
States need to tell the public and USEPA about the quality of the environment in each State. In the past five years, over 40 States and USEPA have initiated projects to modernize their information systems to support their complementary roles in environmental protection. Because of outdated and inefficient information systems, the States and USEPA began to modernize -- with many leaning towards integrated systems. The One Stop Reporting Program provided a solid foundation for the development of an integrated environmental information network to improve environmental decision-making and enhance access to environmental information among States and USEPA. Since 2002, State and federal partners have expended tremendous effort to create the National Environmental Information Exchange Network (Exchange Network) -- a revolutionary way to exchange environmental information between partner organizations. The Exchange Network was developed by the State/EPA Information Management Workgroup (IMWG) and offers a modern and technologically feasible answer to many of the problems posed by incompatible and difficult-to-use information systems of the past. The development of the Exchange Network is not just another new technology initiative, but instead, represents a change in the way environmental agencies do business.
Enforcement
Enforcement of environmental law continues to be a matter of great interest to ECOS. In 2001, ECOS documented that States conduct about 90% of all the enforcement taken by States and EPA. (see States and Environmental Enforcement), as well as many other enforcement facts not previously reported. ECOS finished a second state enforcement report in June 2006 which can be found elsewhere on this web site. See http://www.ecos.org/files/687_file_ECOS_20RTC_20f.pdf
Of keen interest to ECOS is the current work we are conducting with EPA on the State Review Framework. The framework is a process to assure fair review of state enforcement efforts and to make sure that EPA regions offer the same accountability and flexibility from every state.
Lean Processes
ECOS members are eager to benefit from the 'lean government' techniques promised by such methodologies as six sigma, kaizen, and value stream mapping. The EPA Administrator has announced an award to ECOS to work on assisting states in using these techniques to get more with less, and to improve services.
Federal Facilities
Many state environmental agencies have staff dedicated to overseeing pollution cleanup activities undertaken by various federal agencies at various federal facilities. In order to provide a forum for dialogue and information sharing between state and federal officials on this field of work, the ECOS Federal Facilities Forum (FFF) was established in April 2004. In 2008, FFF members have continued to participate in the Intergovernmental Working Group, a forum between the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management and various intergovernmental associations established to encourage year-round communication between these groups regarding the status of cleanup efforts at nuclear weapons complex sites. These discussions usually center on federal-state cleanup agreement negotiations, and the changing political, technological, and budgeting issues that accompany such negotiations year to year. In 2008, the FFF is also exploring the possibility of providing trainings and internet-based seminars to its members on engineering, technology and political topics related to the cleanup of the nuclear weapons complex.
Separately, the ECOS-U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) Sustainability Work Group (SWG) was established in April 2004 to provide a forum for dialogue between ECOS members and DOD and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials tasked with environmental management duties at defense facilities. Through their involvement with the ECOS-DOD SWG, ECOS members have collaborated with DOD and EPA officials to draft policy documents focused on developing appropriate approaches to the environmental challenges that exist at U.S. defense sites. In 2008, the ECOS-DOD SWG (and its various subgroups) has continued to hold periodic meetings. In March 2008, the ECOS-DOD SWG finished work on a paper titled, “Initiation of Emerging Contaminants Characterization and Response Actions for Protection of Human Health.” At the Annual Meeting in September 2008, the ECOS-DOD SWG plans to present a resolution “Supporting Work on Emerging Contaminants” to the ECOS membership for adoption consideration.