Rethinking the Components, Coordination, and Management of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Laboratories (2014) / Chapter Skim
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1 Introduction
1 Introduction
Pages 12-23
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From page 12... ...
, developed in consultation with EPA, served as a guide for the committee's work. The committee was asked to assess EPA's highest-priority needs for mission-relevant laboratory science and technical support, develop principles for the efficient and effective management of EPA's laboratory enterprise to meet the agency's mission needs and strategic goals, and develop guidance for enhancing efficiency and effectiveness now and during the next 10 years.
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From page 13... ...
Drawing upon these principles, the committee will develop guidance for enhancing efficiency and effectiveness, now and during the next ten years, which: – Improves EPA's ability to plan, prioritize, coordinate, and deliver scientific research, technical support, and analytical services from EPA's laboratory enterprise for achieving the highest priority scientific needs and strategic goals, and for achieving the strategic objectives in the GPRA Modernization Act of 2010 for laboratory and research organizations; – Uses an analytical framework(s) to ensure that laboratory facilities, functions, scientific solutions, and capabilities are aligned with the highest-priority scientific needs for the agency's strategic goals; and – Sustains the leadership capability of the laboratory enterprise for environmental science and re search.
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From page 14... ...
Specifically, EPA's purpose is to ensure that all Americans are protected from significant risks to human health and the environment where they live, learn and work; national efforts to reduce environmental risk are based on the best available scientific information; federal laws protecting human health and the environment are enforced fairly and effectively; environmental protection is an integral consideration in U.S. policies concerning natural resources, human health, economic growth, energy, transportation, agriculture, industry, and international trade, and these factors are similarly considered in establishing environmental policy; all parts of society -- communities, individuals, businesses, and state, local and tribal governments -- have access to accurate information sufficient to effectively participate in managing human health and environmental risks; environmental protection contributes to making our communities and ecosystems diverse, sustainable and economically productive; and the United States plays a leadership role in working with other nations to protect the global environment.(EPA 2014a)
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From page 15... ...
National Program Office Laboratories Six laboratories and two centers support five national regulatory program offices -- the Office of Air and Radiation (OAR) , the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA)
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16 TABLE 1-1 Summary of Major Pollution Laws Administered by EPA Law Purpose Science Requirements Clean Air Act Requires EPA to set mobile-source limits, ambient-air quality Set national standards for air quality, monitor and model air standards, hazardous air-pollutant emission standards, standards quality for implementation plans, identify best available control for new and existing pollution sources, and deterioration for new point sources, set mobile source and emission standards, requirements and to focus on areas that do not attain standards implement acid-rain control program Clean Water Act Establishes a sewage-treatment construction grants program and a Establish national standards or effluent limitations regulatory and enforcement program for discharges of wastes into US waters Comprehensive Environmental Superfund -- provides authority for the federal government to Develop and apply Hazard Ranking System to identify the most Response, Compensation, and respond to releases of hazardous substances and establishes a hazardous sites in the United States and to prioritize and develop Liability Act fee-maintained fund to clean up abandoned hazardous-waste sites response actions Emergency Planning and Community Requires industrial reporting of toxic releases and encourages Establish categories of health and physical hazards for reporting Right-to-Know Act planning to respond to chemical emergencies purposes; establish data and information summaries via the Toxics Release Inventory Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Governs pesticide products and their uses Assess human and wildlife risk posed by pesticides and ensure Rodenticide Act that such assessments maintain scientific currency Ocean Dumping Act Regulates intentional disposal of materials into ocean waters and Conduct general research on ocean resources and long-term authorizes related research research on ecosystem effects of ocean dumping, pollution, overfishing, and other human activities Pollution Prevention Act Seeks to prevent pollution through reduction in generation of Identify source-reduction approaches; develop, test, and pollutants at their point of origin disseminate model source-reduction auditing procedures to highlight opportunities; promote research on and development of source-reduction techniques and processes. Safe Drinking Water Act Establishes primary drinking-water standards, regulates Identify causes of, diagnosis methods for, treatment for, control underground injection disposal practices, and establishes a of, and prevention of diseases and other impairments resulting groundwater and surface-water quality control program from contaminants in drinking water; set national standards for drinking-water contaminants; identify and set priorities for contaminants that warrant regulation on the basis of human health risk analysis; identify cost-effective treatment technologies; assess water-supply vulnerability to terrorist attacks; and provide guidance on emergency-response approaches Solid Waste Disposal Act/Resource Regulates solid and hazardous waste Establish minimal national standards for hazardous-waste Conservation and Recovery Act disposal and criteria for states to establish and enforce hazardous waste programs, and advance research on hazardous-waste management Toxic Substances Control Act Regulates the testing of chemicals and their uses Conduct and coordinate research, development, and monitoring related to toxic-substance screening, control, and risk management Source: Bearden et al.
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From page 17... ...
Communications about the size of the laboratory enterprise are often complicated by the fact that different groups in and outside EPA apply different definitions to laboratory. In its communications, EPA does not consistently categorize a laboratory entity among its national program laboratories, its regional office laboratories, and the laboratories, divisions, and centers in the ORD laboratories.
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From page 18... ...
EPA uses the term laboratory in two contex One is th of a discre physical sp A m xts. hat ete pace of a trad ditional utilitari research, development, or testing activity that ma be devoted to a single te ian d , ay d echnical prod or duct medium-s specific activity.
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From page 19... ...
. t eral l E FIGURE 1-2 The EPA laboratory wor l rkforce as a fra action of its tot workforce a the national program lab tal and boratories, region office labor nal ratories, and ORD laboratorie as fractions of the laborato workforce ( es ory (see Appendix E)
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In addition, tightening budget constraints can exacerbate an inherent tension between the agency's need to respond to immediate demands for expedited assessments and investigations for regulatory purposes and its longerterm program development to address current and future needs. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY SCIENCE DIRECTIONS AND CHALLENGES A recent National Research Council report provided a detailed analysis of persistent and emerging environmental challenges for EPA and of the need for new scientific theories and methods that can help to address the challenges (NRC 2012a)
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. Factors contributing to deteriorating air quality include population growth, energy choices, changing consumption, and climate change.
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– Directly implement federal environmental programs in Indian country and support federal program delegation to tribes. Provide tribes with technical assistance and support capacity development for the establishment and implementation of sustainable environmental programs in Indian country.
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The committee's charge was to develop principles for the efficient and effective management of EPA's laboratory enterprise to meet the agency's mission needs and strategic goals in the present and during the next 10 years. Chapter 2 provides an analytic framework in which EPA can efficiently and effectively deliver the scientific outputs that will contribute to health and environmental protection outcomes.
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