EPA STRATEGIC PLAN

United States

Environmental Protection

Agency

Office of the Chief

Financial Officer

Washington DC 20460

EPA/190-R-97-002

September 1997

www.epa.gov

The Mission of the

Environmental Protection

Agency is to protect human

health and to safeguard

the natural environment--

air, water, and land--upon

which life depends

EPA Strategic Plan

EPA’s Partners

in Change

1

United States Environmental Protection Agency

Washington D.C. 20460

September 1997

EPA Strategic Plan
EPA Strategic Plan

EPA’s Partners

in Change

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EPA Strategic Plan

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in Change

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“It is time for EPA to link its budget to clear policy goals and measurable environmental results.

Only then will we be able to tell the public what we are going to do to protect communities’ health and the

environment, how we will do it, how much it will cost, and when we will deliver results.”

EPA Planning Committee Report, September 11, 1995

In 1995, EPA embarked on a far-reaching effort to change fundamental approaches to planning, budgeting,

analysis, and accountability. The purpose of this venture is fourfold:

(1) To develop a clearly articulated mission and a set of goals and objectives for accomplishing the mission as well

as a set of guiding principles by which these goals can be translated into our day-to-day activities and

programs.

(2) To make better use of scientific information related to human health and environmental risks in setting

priorities.

(3) To improve the link between long-term, outcome-based, customer-focused, environmental planning and yearly

resource allocation.

(4) To develop a new management system that allows EPA’s leadership and the American public to assess our

accomplishments accurately and provide useful feedback for making future decisions.

While this effort will take several years for EPA to accomplish fully, our approach is to make real progress

where we can in the short term, while we build for the future. With the completion of this Strategic Plan, the Agency has

taken a major step forward in this process.

Purpose of the Plan

This strategic plan is a blueprint for taking EPA into the 21st Century and achieving critical human health and

environmental protections for the American people over the next five years. As required under the Government

Performance and Results Act (GPRA), it describes EPA’s mission and ten broad goals that will serve as the framework

for the Agency’s planning and resource allocation decisions. It also lays out guiding principles that will guide EPA

employees on a day-to-day basis as we work towards achieving our goals.

EPA’s strategic plan is a dynamic and flexible document. Adjustments and changes in direction are inevitable

as we move forward over time with the many complex and varied problems we are seeking to address. EPA will revise

this plan within the next three years. However, new information from our customers and the scientific community will be

factored into the Agency’s planning process annually. This strategic plan will be a sound and strong base from which to

focus on the highest priority environmental issues and assure effective use of taxpayer dollars. With the development of

this strategic plan, we now have the framework to use in building for the future and in making EPA as effective as

possible in meeting the needs of our customers—the American people.

Foreword
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EPA’s Partners

in Change

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in Change

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Table of Contents

Agency Approaches to

Achieving Our Goals

EPA’s Mission, Goals and Principles

New Ways of Achieving Our Overall

Mission: Key Cross-Agency Programs

Assessing Our Results

Introduction: Preparing for a New

Era of Environmental Protection

Benefits and Costs of EPA’s Activities

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15

79

91

67

7

 Appendices

Appendix A -- How the Strategic Plan Connects to Other Agency Documents

Appendix B -- Consultation and External Stakeholder Input into the EPA Strategic Plan
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in Change

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7

Preparing for

a New Era of

Environmental

Protection

EPA Strategic Plan

Preparing for a New

Era of Environmental

Protection

The Mission of the United

States Environmental

Protection Agency is to protect

human health and to safeguard

the natural environment— air,

water, and land—upon which

life depends.
8

Preparing for

a New Era of

Environmental

Protection

EPA Strategic Plan Preparing for a New Era of

Environmental Protection

From its origin, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has led the nation in

controlling pollution and other environmental risks to human health and the environment. As a result of decisions made and actions taken, our air, land, and water are now

much safer and cleaner than twenty-five years ago—despite population increases and

continued economic expansion. While the nation continues to enjoy tremendous benefits

from these improved conditions, EPA is looking ahead to determine how it can help

assure similar gains for the future. This Strategic Plan provides an opportunity for the

Agency to explain to the American people how and where it will focus its attention and

resources over the next five years.

Defining a strategic vision for the future has never

been more important for EPA. Critics and advocates alike

are coming forth with diverse, and often contradictory,

ideas about how to improve the nation’s environmental

regulatory system. This has sparked an important public

debate about how our traditional system must evolve in

response to the environmental and economic realities of a

new century. We are at a crossroad, and it is clear that the

solutions of the past will no longer suffice.

EPA understands the reasoning behind the arguments

being made for change and is already working to address

many of them. None of these efforts represents a single

definitive solution. But collectively, they symbolize an

openness to change that must exist for a new era of

environmental and public health protection to evolve.

It is with this evolution in mind that EPA managers

and staff have undertaken the challenge of reinventing

environmental protection. Consistent with a pledge made

in 1995 by President Clinton, Vice President Gore, and

Administrator Carol Browner to make the federal

government work better and cost less, the Agency

continues to investigate promising opportunities for

strengthening our current environmental regulatory

system. Understanding EPA reinvention efforts—the

challenges driving them, how they are being pursued, and

what they may mean for the future—is critical to understanding the choices and directions represented in this

Strategic Plan.

Today’s Challenges

As Congress has passed legislation to address

environmental and human health threats, EPA has

responded with a comprehensive set of regulations aimed

largely at controlling the most obvious risks, such as

pollution from large industries and municipal operations.

This system is the means through which national environmental standards are set, permits are issued, compliance is

monitored, and if necessary, enforcement actions are

taken.

The logic and efficiency of managing environmental

and human health risks in this manner are widely

recognized, and yet, over time, limitations also have

become clear. Insufficient flexibility in regulatory

requirements that produce increasingly smaller levels of

return can impose additional costs on industries and

communities. Prescriptive controls can discourage

technological innovation that could help lower costs and

achieve environmental benefits beyond those achieved

under current mandates. More importantly, a system

focused largely on “end-of-pipe” pollution simply is not

effective at addressing a number of emerging risks, such as

polluted runoff or ozone depletion. Such risks are expected

to escalate in the coming years as our population continues

to grow and as our economy expands to accommodate an

increasingly global marketplace. As we look to the future,

EPA must address the limitations that exist within our

current regulatory system and prepare to manage new risks

as they emerge.
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Preparing for

a New Era of

Environmental

Protection

EPA Strategic Plan EPA’s Response

As Figure 1 shows, EPA has adopted a dual-tiered

strategy to meet this challenge. On one level, EPA is

working to strengthen those features of the current system

that have proven effective. Regulations are being simplified and reporting requirements are being reduced where

possible so that regulated facilities as well as governmental agencies can focus their resources more productively.

Strengthening the current system also means strengthening relationships -- internally and externally -- to ensure

that all potential talents, resources and perspectives are

brought to bear on the problems that remain. EPA is

working to build stronger alliances with a multitude of

partners, but it is especially focused on improving working

relationships with the states.

Finally, EPA is handling its resources much more

strategically. Last year, the Office of the Chief Financial

Officer was established to integrate planning, budgeting,

analysis and accountability activities throughout the

Agency.

Figure 1

A Dual Strategy for Reinventing Environmental Protection

On another level, EPA is working to develop fundamental new tools and approaches to advance environmental and human health protection beyond our current

capabilities. EPA and many external stakeholders are now

asking, “How do we move beyond mere compliance with

environmental standards and create a system that

consistently delivers better results?” EPA believes that

better results will be achieved through performance-based

approaches that create incentives for continuous improvements, and through tailored management strategies that

take into account the unique conditions and circumstances

facing specific industries or communities.

To get better environmental protection at reasonable

cost, EPA will use the results from experiments with

innovative approaches to make broader changes to the

Nation’s environmental management system. Reinvention

of environmental protection involves rethinking specific

steps of the regulatory process, such as setting standards

and writing regulations, issuing permits, collecting

environmental reports about pollution, providing

assistance to help business comply with the law and

conducting enforcement actions. Working with states and

other partners, EPA is incorporating successful innovations

into the daily operation of environmental programs.

Today, the Agency is developing performance-based

approaches that can lead regulated facilities to invest in

environmental improvements that might not otherwise be

pursued. For example, through Project XL, which stands

for eXcellence and Leadership, facilities are offered

regulatory flexibility if their alternative management

strategy promises better results than would otherwise be

achieved under the current regulatory system -- and if they

actively involve interested stakeholders.

EPA is also looking for ways to better address the

environmental challenges of specific industry sectors. Our

regulations are structured to control pollution in specific

environmental media -- such as air, land, water -- not from

specific industry sources. As a result, industries are often

faced with the difficulty of having to track, understand,

and comply with multiple requirements under each

environmental statute. Through the Common Sense

Initiative, EPA and multiple stakeholders are exploring

how to replace the pollutant-by-pollutant approach of the

past with a more comprehensive industry-by-industry

approach for the future. Participants are looking at all

regulatory responsibilities as a step towards simplifying

requirements and encouraging practices that could

improve environmental performance while also cutting

costs.

A similar need for more tailored environmental

management strategies at the local level has led EPA to

develop more community-based environmental protection

tools. Grants to help concerned stakeholders understand

technical issues affecting their community, a new website

featuring the latest tools for community-based environmental protection, and a new community-right-to-know

program dedicated to improving public access to environmental information are just a few examples of how EPA is

reaching out to create a system more responsive to local

Strengthen the Current

Regulatory System

- Simplify requirements/reduce reporting

- Build stronger partnerships

- Manage resources strategically

Design and Test Innovative

New Tools and Approaches

 - Industry-based

 - Community-based

 - Performance-based

Better Protection

At Less Cost
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Preparing for

a New Era of

Environmental

Protection

EPA Strategic Plan priorities.

Today, these reforms are redefining our environmental

management system. In addition to the traditional tools

that have proven effective in the past, businesses,

communities, government agencies, and private citizens

are gaining access to a much broader menu of choices for

determining how to best meet their interests and responsibilities. Facility-wide and multimedia permits provide an

alternative to the traditional issuance of multiple permits

for one location. A risk-based approach to monitoring

allows regulated facilities to focus their resources on

collecting more useful data. Electronic reporting systems

are providing a quicker, easier, and more accurate means

of submitting information. And new compliance assistance

centers help facilities better understand regulatory

requirements. As these examples show, reinventing

environmental protection means improving and expanding

the current system—not replacing it.

Implications for the Future

Ultimately, the changes underway today will have a

profound influence on how our nation’s environmental

goals and objectives are pursued at the turn of the century

and beyond. An improved system that delivers consistently better protection at less cost will have five key

attributes (Table 1).

• First, it will provide more flexibility with

accountability. As American companies find

themselves operating in an increasingly global

marketplace, the ability to make changes to

operations without regulatory delay will have a

definite impact on their competitiveness. Similarly,

an era of rapidly shrinking budgets will force some

communities to target limited resources more

strategically. Both of these scenarios call for more

operational flexibility within the regulatory system.

EPA has committed to a variety of actions that cut

costs without jeopardizing environmental gains. For

example, EPA will continue the reforms it has started

in several permitting programs. These reforms

reduce permit processing time and lower information

requirements in permit application and reapplication.

• Second, it will allow greater public access to

information. Rapid advancements in information

technology, coupled with the public’s interest and

willingness to become involved in environmental

issues, will increase demands for information. An

improved system must focus on improving the

quantity, quality, timeliness, and accessibility of

environmental information from multiple sources.

Table 1

Changes Underway: A Snapshot of Reinvention

 Attribute Reform Effort Results

Flexibility with Common Sense Initiative Over 40 projects testing industry-by-industry

accountability approaches to environmental regulation

Project XL Three projects using alternative regulatory approaches

Brownfields Over 70 communities cleaning up abandoned, idled, 

 or under-utilized industrial and commercial sites

Permit Improvements Streamlined administrative processes, flexible permit 

approaches (e.g. pollution prevention) and 

increased public participation

Better public access One-stop reporting Eleven states developing and testing integrated

to information environmental reporting systems

Strong partnerships National Environmental Performance Partnership Agreements with

Performance Partnership System nearly half the states

Voluntary Programs Over 7,000 companies voluntarily improving

 environmental performance

Easier compliance with Compliance Assistance Centers Four centers operating to help small businesses

environmental laws better access and understand environmental

requirements

Environmental Leadership New mechanism to encourage and recognize strong

Program compliance

Less red tape Line-by-line review of regulations Total regulatory burden cut by nearly 16 million hours
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Preparing for

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EPA Strategic Plan

• Third, an improved system will reflect strong

partnerships. As no single entity can ensure

environmental and public health protection, EPA

must continue to build a broader, more diverse

network of stakeholders to share responsibilities for

protecting public health and the environment.

• Fourth, it will facilitate compliance with

environmental laws. Ensuring that companies

and communities comply with environmental laws

will always be one of EPA’s highest priorities.

However, it is just as important for EPA to find ways

of making compliance easier to achieve. An

improved system will provide the regulated

community with assistance and compliance

information that is more understandable and

accessible.

• Finally, an improved system for the future

will involve less red tape. Real gains for

protecting public health and the environment come

about through work at state and local levels--in

manufacturing facilities, around community

recycling centers and water treatment plants, and

across the rural countryside. Cutting unnecessary,

obsolete, or duplicative requirements and paperwork

so that those with environmental responsibilities can

focus on solving the problems at hand will continue

to be an important responsibility for EPA.

EPA is eager to continue experimenting with new tools

and approaches for achieving better results in the future.

However, the Agency will not allow actions that jeopardize the gains of the past. Reforms will continue to be

developed and managed with care. In all cases, we will

incorporate strong accountability requirements to guard

against failure to meet national standards. Providing strong

safeguards will allow the search for innovative solutions to

continue without compromising the levels of environmental and public health protection that the American people

have come to expect.

EPA’s Partners in Change

As EPA strives to create a stronger system for

protecting public health and the environment, it cannot act

alone. Rather, it must encourage all interested stakeholders—other governmental agencies, business and industry,

environmental and public interest groups, and private

citizens—to participate in the discussion, design, and

implementation of new ideas.

Engaging interested stakeholders as partners in change

is important for many reasons.

• First, EPA alone does not have all the answers. As

we proceed with policy and decision making,

external stakeholders have different perspectives that

can and should be considered. For example, as the

front-line implementors of many federal

requirements, state environmental officials have

insights on what may or may not work well.

Similarly, business and industry have strong opinions

about how federal environmental policies affect their

operations and overall competitiveness nationally

and abroad. In order to harness long-term, broadbased support, many diverse views and opinions

must be taken into account.

• Second, additional partners mean more efficient

use of resources. In a time when Congress and the

Administration are eliminating the federal deficit, it

is more important than ever to assure that federal

dollars achieve the greatest possible gain.

Leveraging resources through partnerships can

provide this assurance, and help create mutually

beneficial situations for the public and private

sectors.

• Third, partnerships are critical because some

challenges are best addressed at the local level.

Problems such as controlling polluted runoff require

more tailored, community-based approaches that

take into account the unique conditions and

circumstances surrounding a particular issue or area.

In these cases, EPA’s most effective course of action

is to offer technical tools and financial assistance

that empower its local partners.

For these reasons, building and maintaining strong

partnerships continues to be one of the Agency’s highest

priorities. This priority is reinforced by the strong interest

that key constituencies have shown in experimenting with

new tools and approaches. Indeed, as the following

summaries show, EPA is working with key partners to

achieve common goals in promising and often unprecedented ways.
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Preparing for

a New Era of

Environmental

Protection

EPA Strategic Plan Federal Agencies

Among the partners with whom EPA will work most

closely are other Federal agencies. EPA’s responsibilities

for human health and the environment intersect with or

support the work of nearly 20 other Federal departments

or agencies. For this reason, EPA must work closely with

them to ensure that the Agency’s resources are directed in

a way that complements other Federal initiatives and

supports the achievement of our common goals. While the

Agency has worked extensively with these agencies in the

past, the process of developing this Strategic Plan

underscored the importance of strong coordination among

agencies with similar or interrelated functions.

Much work remains to be done. Potential areas for

interagency activities include developing performance

measures for comparable functions, linking target

performance levels in cross-cutting programs and

identifying and eliminating duplicative program activities.

As agencies work in tandem to address these concerns,

they will strive to leverage resources, clarify responsibilities and improve the products and services provided to the

American public. The attached appendix, “Consultation

and External Stakeholder Input,” provides EPA’s outlook

on interagency coordination.

States

State governments have primary responsibility for

implementing most environmental programs, carrying out

day-to-day activities such as issuing permits, conducting

compliance and enforcement programs, and monitoring

environmental conditions. A strong and effective stateEPA partnership is, therefore, fundamental to the achievement of EPA’s goals and objectives.

EPA and the states have worked as public partners in a

number of productive ways. An important milestone in

our collaboration was reached in May 1995, when EPA

joined forces with the Environmental Council of the States

(ECOS) to establish the National Environmental Performance Partnership System (NEPPS). Performance

partnerships between EPA and the states represent a new

working relationship--one in which EPA and the states

determine together what work will be carried out on an

annual basis, and how it will be accomplished. Traditionally, the process for addressing environmental and public

health priorities has been conducted separately under each

of EPA’s various statutory authorities. In the past, states

have submitted as many as 16 annual work plans and

received multiple grants to support their air, drinking

water, hazardous waste, and other pollution control

activities. Besides promoting a fragmented approach to

environmental problems, this traditional process tended to

emphasize administrative management and oversight

rather than effectively direct efforts to reduce environmental hazards.

NEPPS partnerships give EPA a clearer understanding

of actual problems and conditions and encourage states to

focus on the issues most in need of attention. They also

allow the Agency and the states to reduce time and

resources formerly devoted to administrative and oversight

activities. Performance partnerships are helping to shape a

fundamentally different relationship between EPA and the

states. Recognizing their potential advantages, nearly half

the states decided this year to put partnerships to the test.

This important program is discussed in greater detail in the

section entitled, “New Ways of Achieving Our Overall

Mission: Key Cross-Agency Programs.”

Indian Tribes

EPA understands that we have a trust responsibility to

federally recognized tribes across the country. The Agency

is committed to working with tribes to assure the protection of human health and the tribal homeland environment

in a manner consistent with a government-to-government

relationship and our interest in conservation of cultural

uses of natural resources. We are working to enhance

partnerships with the tribes to address specific environmental and public health goals. These partnerships are

discussed in greater detail later in this document, and

emphasize the Agency-wide, multimedia nature of our

support for tribal implementation and priorities identified

in Tribal/EPA Environmental Agreements or other plans.

Local Governments

It is at the local, community, and neighborhood level

that environmental problems often originate and must be

resolved. Engaging local leaders and communities in the

effort to meet future environmental challenges is critical to

achieving successful outcomes. EPA realizes that local

governments must be empowered to fully realize their

stewardship responsibilities, and we are working to ensure

that local governments have access to the information,

expertise, and resources necessary to build comprehensive,

long-term environmental solutions at the local level.
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Preparing for

a New Era of

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Protection

EPA Strategic Plan Industry

Just as EPA’s relationships with state, tribal, and local

governments are evolving, so too are our relationships with

industry. After twenty-five years of focusing almost

exclusively on across-the-board compliance with environmental standards, the Agency is now offering more tailored

approaches that recognize the various levels of environmental performance and commitment that exist within the

private sector.

Because small businesses may not always have the staff

or resources needed to gain a full understanding of

regulatory requirements, a number of EPA efforts now offer

assistance. For example, EPA has opened compliance

assistance centers to provide companies in four industrial

sectors with quicker, easier access to information about how

to achieve and maintain compliance. Additionally, a new

small business compliance policy encourages businesses to

participate in compliance assistance programs, conduct

environmental audits, and promptly disclose and correct

violations. As an incentive, EPA will waive or reduce

penalties for first-time violators as long as there is no

criminal activity and no imminent threat to health, safety,

and the environment.

The Agency is also developing incentives for companies

that are willing and capable of not just meeting, but

exceeding, today’s national standards. Many companies now

have mature environmental management programs,

knowledgeable and experienced staff, and access to

technological advancements that make such achievements

possible. This interest in exceeding requirements is one of

the most profound indicators of evolution in environmental

and human health protection. It suggests that, in time, our

national environmental standards may come to represent a

performance floor to maintain, rather than a ceiling to reach.

One way EPA is encouraging better performance is

through a variety of voluntary environmental programs

offering companies public recognition and certain kinds of

assistance in improving their operations. In 1995, over 6,000

participants in voluntary programs saved millions of dollars

while helping to:

• Cut toxic pollution by 750 million pounds—the

equivalent of 3 pounds for every man, woman, and

child in America.

• Eliminate nearly 2 million tons of solid waste.

• Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by preventing

over 13 million metric tons of CO2 emissions.

Public Interest Organizations

EPA works with many stakeholder organizations across

the country--environmental, labor, and public advocacy

groups-- that play a separate and distinct role in protecting

the environment. They often serve as watchdog groups in

the workplace and communities, and provide EPA with

invaluable information on the concerns of citizens impacted

by the policies and decisions made by government. Their

members are the eyes and ears of our communities,

monitoring activities affecting the health and well-being of

their children, families, and neighbors in the places they

live, work, and play.

The Public

Americans care deeply about the quality of their

environment. This widely held concern is evident in the

growing number of people and organizations working to

improve environmental quality in a variety of ways.

Concerned and committed citizens can be found cleaning up

abandoned waste sites, planting vegetation and restoring

habitat, and promoting recycling in their communities.

Citizens also are taking a more active role in environmental

decision making—demanding a seat at the table as local,

state, and national issues are debated.

Recognizing the value and potential of a well-informed

and committed citizenry for affecting positive change, the

Agency supports meaningful public involvement in

environmental issues. Today, EPA offers community-based

tools and financial assistance to empower people at the local

level. The Agency is expanding participation in the

regulatory process through consensus-based approaches and

negotiated rulemaking.

Finally, we are employing new technologies to make

information more accessible and relevant to the public.

Efforts are underway to make environmental data more

timely, more accessible and more understandable, so that it

can be used more effectively.

Conclusion

The changing character of EPA’s relationships with the

public, the regulated community, and other governmental

partners has provided many benefits. Collaborative approaches

are making possible the expansion of programs to support

human health and environmental protection, effectively and with

greater efficiency. Best of all, EPA’s strategies for the coming

years promise to be responsive to the needs of stakeholders

because of the steps we have taken to strengthen our alliances

with them throughout the planning process.
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Preparing for

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EPA Strategic Plan
EPA Strategic Plan

EPA’s Mission,

Goals, and

Principles

15

EPA’s Mission,

Goals, and

Principles

This section defines

 the EPA goals and

guiding principles that

have been developed for

EPA’s planning, budgeting,

analysis and accountability

process.
EPA Strategic Plan

EPA’s Mission,

Goals, and

Principles

16

EPA’s Mission, Goals, and Principles

The mission of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is to

protect human health and to safeguard the natural environment—air, water, and land—upon which life depends.

EPA's mission reflects the will of the American people

as expressed through Congress and six successive

Presidents. To remain focused on these mandates and to

establish guideposts for its employees today and in the

future, EPA has defined a series of ten strategic, long-term

goals. These goals, together with the underlying principles

that will be used to achieve them, will define EPA's

planning, budgeting, analysis, and accountability process.

In the next chapter, each goal is described in detail.

EPA’s Goals

1. Clean Air:

The air in every American community will be safe

and healthy to breathe. In particular, children, the

elderly, and people with respiratory ailments will be

protected from health risks of breathing polluted air.

Reducing air pollution will also protect the environment, resulting in many benefits, such as restoring

life in damaged ecosystems and reducing health risks

to those whose subsistence depends directly on those

ecosystems.

2. Clean and Safe Water:

All Americans will have drinking water that is clean

and safe to drink. Effective protection of America's

rivers, lakes, wetlands, aquifers, and coastal and

ocean waters will sustain fish, plants, and wildlife, as

well as recreational, subsistence, and economic

activities. Watersheds and their aquatic ecosystems

will be restored and protected to improve public

health, enhance water quality, reduce flooding, and

provide habitat for wildlife.

• 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, business, state and local governments, 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.

• The United States plays a leadership role in working with other nations to protect the global

 environment.

 EPA’s purpose is to ensure that:
EPA Strategic Plan

EPA’s Mission,

Goals, and

Principles

17

3. Safe Food:

The foods Americans eat will be free from unsafe

pesticide residues. Children especially will be

protected from the health threats posed by pesticide

residues, because they are among the most vulnerable

groups in our society.

 4. Preventing Pollution and Reducing

 Risk in Communities, Homes,

 Workplaces and Ecosystems:

Pollution prevention and risk management strategies

aimed at cost-effectively eliminating, reducing, or

minimizing emissions and contamination will result

in cleaner and safer environments in which all

Americans can reside, work and enjoy life. EPA will

safeguard ecosystems and promote the health of

natural communities that are integral to the quality of

life in this nation.

5. Better Waste Management,

 Restoration of Contaminated

 Waste Sites, and Emergency

 Response:

America’s wastes will be stored, treated, and

disposed of in ways that prevent harm to people and

to the natural environment. EPA will work to clean

up previously polluted sites, restoring them to uses

appropriate for surrounding communities, and

respond to and prevent waste-related or industrial

accidents.

6. Reduction of Global and Cross-

 Border Environmental Risks:

The United States will lead other nations in successful, multilateral efforts to reduce significant risks to

human health and ecosystems from climate change,

stratospheric ozone depletion, and other hazards of

international concern.

7. Expansion of Americans’ Right to

 Know About Their Environment:

Easy access to a wealth of information about the state

of their local environment will expand citizen

involvement and give people tools to protect their

families and their communities as they see fit.

Increased information exchange between scientists,

public health officials, businesses, citizens, and all

levels of government will foster greater knowledge

about the environment and what can be done to

protect it.

8. Sound Science, Improved

 Understanding of

 Environmental Risk, and

 Greater Innovation to Address

 Environmental Problems:

EPA will develop and apply the best available science

for addressing current and future environmental

hazards, as well as new approaches toward improving

environmental protection.

 9. A Credible Deterrent to

 Pollution and Greater

 Compliance with the Law:

EPA will ensure full compliance with laws intended

to protect human health and the environment.

10. Effective Management:

EPA will establish a management infrastructure that

will set and implement the highest quality standards

for effective internal management and fiscal

responsibility.
EPA Strategic Plan

EPA’s Mission,

Goals, and

Principles

18

How Program Evaluations

Contributed to the Establishment of

the Agency’s Goals

EPA’s goals reflect public priorities as articulated by

Congress in the form of statutory mandates and authorities

for achieving clean air, clean water, waste management

and other important national concerns. As such, several

Agency goals encompass our activities in support of

media-specific achievements under the range of legislation

we are charged to implement.

Over the course of the past five years, the Agency also

engaged in an intensive effort to develop a set of national

environmental goals defined in a draft “Environmental

Goals for America” report. This draft report reflected

extensive public input and was used as the basis for many

of the goals in the Strategic Plan. Evaluative steps EPA

took in developing these goals include:

• Examining trends affecting health and ecological

risks;

• Assessing the effectiveness of current and

foreseeable environmental technologies and

programs;

• Conducting research into available information on

costs and benefits;

• Conducting scientific analysis to support setting

health standards and assessing the likelihood of

meeting them; and

• Evaluating stakeholder priorities by consulting with

other federal agencies, state/tribal/local

governments, and industry and citizen organizations.

In establishing goals for the Agency’s Strategic Plan,

we evaluated a similar range of stakeholder input on EPA

priority areas as a subset of the wider range of human

health and environmental protection activities across the

federal government.

Other needed achievements in multi-media, crossprogram areas and in Agency management processes are

outlined in goals that address priorities identified in major

evaluations of Agency work. These include studies by the

National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA); the

National Performance Review (NPR); internal reviews

conducted in compliance with the Federal Managers’

Financial Integrity Act; and ongoing program evaluations

and management reviews. For example:
EPA Strategic Plan

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• Two goals track directly to recommendations of the

NPR: Preventing Pollution and Reducing Risk, and

Sound Science.

• The NAPA recommendation (from “Setting

Priorities, Getting Results” [1995]) that we increase

regulatory flexibility in exchange for enhanced

performance is reflected in our goal for enforcement,

as well as our guiding principles for pollution

prevention and common sense, cost-effective

solutions to environmental problems.

• Our goals and objectives place appropriate emphasis

on high-visibility, high-investment programs that are

subject to statutory and other regular reviews by OIG

and GAO, such as the Superfund program and

resource management activities in general.

These are the goals we have set as we begin the

process of strategic planning. Future program evaluations

will influence decision making in this area and can help us

to sharpen the focus of our goals and objectives.
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EPA’s Guiding Principles:

In addition to developing a set of goals, the Agency has developed a set of

principles intended to guide senior management in making decisions about

Agency priorities as well as provide a framework for ways in which the

goals and objectives may best be reached in our day-to-day activities.

Emphasize Children's Health:

We will ensure that all standards EPA sets address

children’s unique vulnerability to health and

environmental threats, and we will place emphasis

on identifying and assessing environmental health

risks that may affect children disproportionately.

Strengthen Partnerships:

We will enhance EPA's partnerships with federal,

tribal, state, and local agencies, Congress, private

industry, public interest groups, and citizens in order

to identify environmental goals and work together to

achieve them. Our internal partnership with EPA

employee labor organizations will also be critical to

our success.

Reduce Health and Environmental Risks:

We will protect human health and the environment by

employing cost-effective risk reduction strategies,

based on sound, peer-reviewed science, in our

implementation of programs. In making decisions

about Agency priorities, we will balance our efforts

to reduce ecological risks with our efforts to reduce

risks to human health.

Emphasize Pollution Prevention:

We will structure our approaches to create incentives

for preventing pollution and the transfer of pollution

among air, water, and land. To accomplish this, the

Agency will use a mix of tools--including

performance standards and economic incentives in

setting national pollution controls, as well as

voluntary pollution reductions and other innovative

alternatives--in furtherance of EPA's goals and

objectives.
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Maximize Public Participation and

Community Right to Know:

We will increase the flow of information to the public,

enhancing every American's right to know about

local environmental hazards and general conditions,

and thereby enable people to make informed

environmental decisions and participate in setting

local and national priorities.

Emphasize Comprehensive Regional and

Community-Based Solutions:

We will structure our approaches to address all forms

of pollution simultaneously--in the air, land and

water--and do so in a way that confronts

environmental problems on a community-wide or

regional basis.

Place Emphasis on Indian Country:

We will work with Indian tribes on a government-togovernment basis to ensure the protection of the

environment and human health in Indian Country,

consistent with our trust relationship with tribes and

our interest in conservation of cultural uses of

natural resources.

Choose Common Sense, Cost-Effective

Solutions:

Because a safer, healthier environment goes hand-inhand with a robust economy, we will fulfill EPA’s

goals using common sense approaches that consider

benefits and costs and seek the most cost-effective

ways to integrate our efforts with those aimed at

economic growth. We will work to increase

environmental stewardship and accountability and

get better environmental protection at reasonable

cost by incorporating successful innovations into the

daily operation of environmental programs.
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EPA Strategic Plan

Agency Approaches to

Achieving Our Goals

 chieving the Agency’s goals is

 a vast undertaking that will

require a wide range of approaches

and substantial human, capital, and

technological resources. To focus

our efforts, EPA has developed

shorter term objectives that

describe in greater detail, specific

measurable outcomes that we plan

to achieve over the next few years.

A
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EPA Strategic Plan

1

Statutory and other authorties for EPA’s goals are found at the end of this section.

Agency Approaches to Achieving

Our Goals1

Achieving the Agency's goals is a vast undertaking that will require a wide range of approaches

and substantial human, capital, and technological resources. We believe the goals can be reached

with our anticipated resources. To focus our efforts, EPA has developed shorter term objectives

that describe in greater detail the specific measurable outcomes that we plan to achieve over the

next few years. These objectives define how the Agency will spend its resources, and provide a

guide for assessing whether or not we are reaching our goals. To ensure that the objectives are the

most effective way to focus our resources and activities over the next few years, EPA's senior

managers used the following criteria in selecting them:

• Will they reduce risk to human health and

 the environment?

• Will they help achieve EPA’s statutory

 mandates?

• Will they improve the quality and quantity

 of services delivered?

With these criteria, EPA has compiled a set of

objectives that are key to achieving our goals. The

following section describes for each goal: (1) the objectives that were selected to achieve the goal, (2) what will

be accomplished by achieving these objectives, (3) how

EPA will go about meeting the objectives and (4) Agency

plans for measuring our performance.

In the past, EPA has not generally set specific

numerical targets such as those embodied in many of the

objectives in this Strategic Plan. However, GPRA strongly

encourages agencies to establish measurable, quantitative

goals and objectives as part of the strategic planning

process. Accordingly, in compliance with GPRA, EPA has

set numerical targets for a significant number of specific

objectives in this Strategic Plan, consistent with EPA’s

statutory authority to protect human health and the

environment and to administer environmental, human

health, and other programs. In establishing numerical

targets, EPA considered its statutory mandates and

authorities and utilized the best available scientific and

technical information.

Relationship Between General Goals and

Annual Performance Goals

EPA’s long-term strategic goals will be used as the

basis to establish the Agency’s annual performance goals

and will be reflected in the day-to-day functions and

activities of its managers and staff. The Agency’s FY 1999

Annual Plan will describe specific annual performance

goals, annual measures of outputs and outcomes, and

activities aimed at achieving the performance goals that

will be carried out during the year. The Annual Plan will

be linked directly to the Agency’s budget request and

planned program activities. The Annual Performance

Reports will track progress towards meeting the goals and

objectives in the Strategic Plan.
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EPA Strategic Plan Annual performance goals will reflect the progress that

EPA commits to making toward achieving long-term goals

and objectives. At least one annual performance goal is

being developed for each of EPA’s objectives. The annual

performance goals will be used by managers to determine

how well a program or activity is doing in accomplishing

its intended results. The annual performance goals will

inform Congress and our stakeholders of the expected

level of achievement for the significant activities covered

by the objective.

Key External Factors

The ability of the Agency to achieve its strategic goals

and objectives depends on several factors over which the

Agency has only partial control or little influence. EPA

relies heavily on partnerships with states, tribes, local

governments and regulated parties to protect the environment and human health. In addition, EPA’s success often

depends on other Federal agencies that have environmental

responsibilities, as well as other countries and international

organizations with which the United States shares

environmental goals. This plan discusses the mechanisms

and programs that the Agency employs to assure that our

partners in environmental protection will have the capacity

to conduct the activities needed to achieve the objectives.

However, as noted, EPA often has limited control over

these entities. In addition, much of the success of EPA

programs depends on the voluntary cooperation of the

private sector and the general public.

EPA’s ability to achieve the goals and objectives is also

predicated on an adequate level of resources for direct

program implementation by EPA as well as for delegated

programs. The objectives in this plan are based on current

funding levels. If appropriations are lower or different

from requested, some objectives may be difficult or

impossible to achieve. Other factors that could delay or

prevent the Agency’s achievement of some objectives

include: lawsuits that delay or stop EPA’s and/or State

partners’ planned activities; new or amended legislation;

and new commitments within the Administration.

Economic growth and changes in producer and consumer

behavior, such as shifts in energy prices or automobile use,

could have an influence on the Agency’s ability to achieve

several of the objectives within the timeframe specified.

Large-scale accidental releases (such as large oil spills)

or rare catastrophic natural events (such as volcanic

eruptions) could, in the short term, impact EPA’s ability to

achieve the objectives. In the longer term, new environmental technology, unanticipated complexity or magnitude

of environmental problems, or newly identified environmental problems and priorities could affect the timeframe

for achieving many of the goals and objectives.

GOAL 1: Clean Air

The air in every American community will

be safe and healthy to breathe. In particular,

children, the elderly, and people with respiratory ailments will be protected from health

risks of breathing polluted air. Reducing air

pollution will also protect the environment,

resulting in many benefits, such as restoring

life in damaged ecosystems and reducing

health risks to those whose subsistence depends directly on those ecosystems.

Importance of this Goal

Air pollution continues to be a widespread public

health and environmental problem in the United States. Air

pollution can cause premature death, cancer, long-term

damage to respiratory and reproductive systems, and

difficulty with breathing. Air pollution also reduces

visibility, damages crops and buildings, and is deposited

on the soil and in water bodies where it affects the

chemistry of the water and impacts resident life forms.
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EPA Strategic Plan Since 1970, air pollutant emissions have been reduced

and significant improvements in air quality have been

achieved. However, in 1996, millions of tons of toxic air

pollutants were released into the air. Also, approximately

126 million people lived in areas designated as in

nonattainment for one or more of the six pollutants for

which EPA has established health-based standards.

The problem is national--even international--in scope.

Air pollution crosses local and state lines and, in some

cases, even crosses our borders with Canada and Mexico.

Efforts of many other Federal agencies such as the

Department of Transportation and the Department of

Energy are critical to achieving the Clean Air goal.

Additionally, Federal assistance and leadership are

essential for developing cooperative state, local, regional,

and international programs to prevent and control air

pollution and for ensuring that national standards are met.

The national challenge is to continue efforts to reduce the

remaining air pollutants that have major impacts on human

health and the environment in ways that make both

economic and environmental sense.

 Objectives

• By 2010, improve air quality for Americans living in

areas that do not meet National Ambient Air Quality

Standards (NAAQS) for ozone and particulate matter

(PM).

• By 2010, reduce air toxic emissions by 75 percent

from 1993 levels to significantly reduce the risk to

Americans of cancer and other serious adverse health

effects caused by airborne toxics.

• By 2005, improve air quality for Americans living in

areas that do not meet the NAAQS for carbon

monoxide, sulfur dioxide, lead, and nitrogen dioxide.

• By 2010, ambient sulfates and total sulfur deposition

will be reduced by 20-40 percent from 1980 levels

due to reduced sulfur dioxide emissions from utilities

and industrial sources. By 2000, ambient nitrates and

total nitrogen deposition will be reduced by 5-10

percent from 1980 levels due to reduced emissions of

nitrogen oxides from utilities and mobile sources.

What Will Be Accomplished

Over the next several years, EPA, together with state,

local and tribal partners, will continue to reduce risks to

human health and protect the environment from a

multitude of harmful air pollutants. For example, EPA has

promulgated new standards for ozone and particulate

matter that are more protective of health than existing

standards. Americans will be better protected from

currently unknown risks associated with air toxics as

current and future research and other efforts produce

information that enables EPA to better characterize the

risks associated with hazardous air pollutants.

 All areas of the country will meet the existing

standards for carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen

dioxide, and lead. Significant emission reductions of air

toxics will better protect Americans from currently

unknown risks associated with air toxics. Visibility in

national parks and wilderness areas (Class I areas) will be

improved for future generations through the Regional

Haze program, and emissions of sulfur dioxide and

nitrogen oxides, the primary precursors of acid rain, will

be substantially reduced.

The following results are expected to be achieved by

air programs:

• By 2010, the air will be safer to breathe for Americans living in areas that exceed the NAAQS for

ozone (and all areas will come into attainment by no

later than 2012).
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EPA Strategic Plan

• By 2010, the air will be safer to breathe for Americans living in areas that exceed the NAAQS for PM

(and all areas will come into attainment by no later

than 2012 for PM10 and 2017 for PM2.5).

• By 2010, air toxics emissions will be 75 percent

below 1993 levels.

• By 2005, all areas will come into attainment with the

NAAQS for carbon monoxide, making the air cleaner

to breathe for 43 million Americans.

• By 2005, all areas will come into attainment with the

NAAQS for sulfur dioxide, making the air cleaner to

breathe for 5 million Americans.

• By 2005, all areas will come into attainment with the

NAAQS for nitrogen dioxide, making the air cleaner

to breathe for 13 million Americans.

• By 2005, all areas will come into attainment with the

NAAQS for lead, making the air cleaner to breathe

for 1.4 million Americans.

• By 2005, visibility will improve nationwide.

Visibility in national parks and wilderness areas

(Class I areas) will improve by 10-30 percent from

1995 levels.

• Emissions of the major precursors of acid rain will be

reduced. By 2010, U.S. sulfur dioxide emissions

from utilities and industrial sources will be reduced

by 10 million tons below the 1980 levels, and by

2000, U.S. nitrogen oxide emissions from utilities

and mobile sources will be reduced 2 million tons

below l980 levels.

Strategies for How It Will Be Accomplished

EPA will work closely with our state and local

partners, industry, and other Federal agencies to develop a

range of strategic approaches to promote clean air. We

will develop and implement new strategies to attain

standards for ozone, particulate matter, and regional haze,

including geographic initiatives where significant transport

of pollutants occurs, streamlined approaches similar to that

underway in the Permits program, and adequate enforcement and compliance assurance capabilities. We will

upgrade and improve air monitoring networks to obtain

better data on particulate matter, air toxics in urban areas,

ozone in rural areas, and acid deposition. EPA will also

establish and foster relationships and projects focused on

air-water linkages such as the deposition of airborne

pollutants in water.

The Agency will work with and support states and

tribes in developing and implementing plans to address air

quality problems. We will develop and issue national

technology-based standards to reduce the quantity of toxic

air pollutants emitted from industrial and manufacturing

processes and continue research to determine how

effective the technology-based standards are in protecting

the public. We will also continue to work with states to

improve on-time delivery of permits and to reduce overall

permitting costs by means such as streamlining the permit

revision process or issuing White Papers designed to

reduce the need for permit revisions.

We will develop federal control measures for mobile,

stationary and other sources that are regulated at the

federal level, such as on- and off-road engines, consumer

products, and maintenance coatings. EPA will reduce

emissions from mobile sources by focusing on vehicle

based solutions, the development of cleaner engine

technologies, and cleaner burning fuels.

In addition, EPA will offer state and tribal grants and

technical assistance to aid in the development of State and

Tribal Implementation Plans to support solutions that meet

local needs.
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EPA Strategic Plan Performance Measures

EPA’s clean air objectives focus on improving ambient

air quality and visibility, reducing emissions of toxic and

other air pollutants, bringing all areas of the country into

compliance with national air quality standards, and

reducing acid rain.

EPA will measure performance in these areas by:

directly measuring concentrations of air pollutants;

calculating, directly measuring and estimating emissions

of air pollutants; measuring acidic deposition and

concentrations in rainfall; measuring visibility; and

tracking the number and status of nonattainment areas.

Examples of measures and indicators that will be used or

reported include:

• Trends in air quality for each of the six criteria air

pollutants.

• Number of days when one or more air quality

standard is exceeded in the nation’s largest

metropolitan areas.

• Estimated total quantities of emissions of each of the

six criteria pollutants or their precursors.

• Estimated total quantity of air toxics emitted.

• Change in average annual visibility impairment in

national parks and wilderness areas (Class I areas).

• Total quantity of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide

emitted by electric utilities.

• Average annual sulfate and nitrate concentrations in

rainfall.

• Concentration and dry deposition of sulfate and

nitrate particles.

• Number of nonattainment areas and their associated

populations that reach attainment and areas that have

been redesignated for each of the criteria air

pollutant standards.

GOAL 2: Clean and Safe Water

All Americans will have drinking water

that is clean and safe to drink. Effective

protection of America's rivers, lakes, wetlands, aquifers, and coastal and ocean waters

will sustain fish, plants, and wildlife, as well

as recreational, subsistence, and economic

activities. Watersheds and their aquatic

ecosystems will be restored and protected to

improve human health, enhance water

quality, reduce flooding, and provide habitat

for wildlife.

Importance of this Goal

Safe drinking water is the first line of defense in

protecting human health. Safe and clean water is needed

for drinking, recreation, fishing, maintaining ecosystem

integrity, and commercial uses such as agricultural and

industrial production. Our health, economy, and quality of

life depend on reliable sources of clean water.

All living things need clean water. Waterfowl, fish,

and other aquatic life who live in and on the water, as

well as plants, animals, and other life forms in terrestrial

ecosystems are dependent on clean water. The challenge

of maintaining clean water focuses on ensuring that the

entire aquatic ecosystem remains healthy.
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EPA Strategic Plan To achieve this goal, EPA will expand implementation

of the watershed approach in carrying out the Safe

Drinking Water Amendments of 1996 and the provisions

of the Clean Water Act. Protecting watersheds involves

participation by a wide variety of stakeholders, a comprehensive assessment of the condition of the watershed, and

implementation of solutions based on the assessment of

conditions and stakeholder input. The watershed approach

enhances the abilities of EPA, its federal partners, states,

tribes, local governments, and other stakeholders to

implement tailored solutions and maximize the benefits

gained from the use of increasingly scarce resources.

Objectives

• By 2005, protect human health so that 95 percent of

the population served by community water systems

will receive water that meets drinking water

standards, consumption of contaminated fish and

shellfish will be reduced, and exposure to microbial

and other forms of contamination in waters used for

recreation will be reduced.

• Conserve and enhance the ecological health of the

nation’s (state, interstate, and tribal) waters and

aquatic ecosystems -- rivers and streams, lakes,

wetlands, estuaries, coastal areas, oceans, and

groundwater -- so that 75 percent of waters will

support healthy aquatic communities by 2005.

• By 2005, pollutant discharges from key point

sources and nonpoint source runoff will be reduced

by at least 20 percent from 1992 levels. Air

deposition of key pollutants impacting water bodies

will be reduced.

What Will Be Accomplished

EPA established the objectives listed above to capture

the progress expected toward the goal of clean and safe

water. Together, the objectives form an integrated vision

of continued progress toward the goal. EPA’s efforts will

ensure that progress toward one objective contributes to

progress toward another. For example, reducing point and

nonpoint source pollution will contribute to improved

water quality leading to healthier aquatic communities and

safer drinking water. The following accomplishments are

anticipated in the course of meeting our objectives.

Drinking Water

While most drinking water is very safe, occasional

violations of pollutant standards are of concern because of

the large number of people that can thereby be exposed to

toxic chemicals or microbiological contaminants. The

greatest risks posed by such contamination of public

drinking water supplies are to sensitive populations such

as children, and adults with compromised immune

systems. For the 240 million Americans whose drinking

water comes from public water systems, EPA’s work in

partnership with states, tribes, local governments, and

water suppliers will improve drinking water safety and

provide better information about local drinking water

quality. By 2005, the population served by community

water systems providing drinking water that meets all

existing health-based standards will increase to 95% from

a baseline of 81% in 1994. EPA will issue standards to

protect public health for an additional ten high-risk

contaminants (e.g., disinfection byproducts, arsenic, and

radon) by 2005. Compliance with new standards will be

high.

As a step toward improving drinking water safety, all

states will assess the quality of the rivers or other waters

that are used as sources for drinking water. By 2005, 60

percent of the population served by community water

systems will receive their water from systems with source

water protection programs in place which include

assessments and, as necessary, specific protection

activities. Further, the percentage of waters designated by

states and tribes for drinking water supply use that will

provide safe drinking water after treatment will increase.

To increase protection of community water supplies from

contamination by shallow injection wells, the injected

volumes to those wells will be reduced by 25% from 1995

levels by 2005. Also, EPA is putting a new emphasis on

ensuring that all members of the public receive the

information they need to protect themselves against

significant sources of risk from drinking water.

Edible Fish and Safe Recreation

Waters

Many Americans enjoy fishing, swimming, and

boating, and many get their livelihood from these

activities. Protecting Americans from exposure to

unhealthy levels of contaminants in waters where such

activities occur is a high priority. Exposure to contami-
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EPA Strategic Plan nated water can cause serious illness. These types of

exposure pose a special risk to children, women of childbearing age, subpopulations who fish for food or sport or

who use public bathing beaches or waters for recreation,

and people with compromised immune systems. There is

significant uncertainty about the extent of exposure

through fishing and recreation, and EPA will work to

improve the understanding of this issue. By 2005,

consumption of contaminated fish and shellfish will be

reduced, exposure to microbial and other forms of

contamination in waters used for recreation will be

reduced, and the percentage of waters attaining the

designated uses protecting the consumption of fish and

shellfish and the designated recreational uses will increase.

Surface Water and Groundwater

Over the last 25 years, the nation has made a great

deal of progress in cleaning up waters polluted by major

dischargers such as sewage treatment plants and industrial

facilities. However, state reporting indicates that broadbased surface water and groundwater quality problems

remain. In addition, the growing problems of habitat

alteration and destruction, hydro-modification, emerging

threats from exotic species, and other ecosystem changes

complicate efforts to attain and sustain a healthy water

environment. In coming years, EPA will focus on the most

critical remaining threats, while ensuring that achievements made to date in protecting and improving water

quality and aquatic habitat are maintained. By 2005, the

efforts of EPA and its partners to restore and protect

watersheds will result in 75% of waters supporting healthy

aquatic communities.

Wetlands

Wetlands provide critical habitat for fish and wildlife,

help maintain water quality by filtering pollutants, and

provide flood control by absorbing water as it runs off the

land. Today, less than half of the wetlands originally found

in this country remain. Halting the net loss of wetlands and

moving toward a net gain is integral to accomplishing the

goal of clean and safe water. By 2005, the work of

federal, state, tribal and local agencies, the private sector,

hunting and fishing organizations, and citizen groups will

result in an annual net increase of 100,000 acres of

wetlands.

Point Source and Nonpoint Source

Pollution

EPA and its partners have made much progress in

reducing pollutant discharges from "point sources" (fixed

facilities and runoff discharge pipes such as storm drains);

however, point source pollution from a variety of sources

including Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs), Publicly

Owned Treatment Works (POTWs), and industrial

facilities continues to impair water quality. By 2005,

annual point source loadings from CSOs, POTWs, and

industrial sources will be reduced by 30% from 1992

levels.

Nonpoint source pollution is a major cause of surface

water impairment that has been inadequately addressed by

the clean water programs of the past 25 years. Runoff

from urban areas, agriculture, and silvicultural operations

contributes significantly to the nonpoint source problem.

By 2005, nonpoint source sediment and nutrient loads to

rivers and streams will be reduced. Erosion from

cropland, used as an indicator of success in controlling

sediment delivery to surface waters, will be reduced by

20% from 1992 levels.

In addition to pollutants that are deposited directly into

the water from a water discharge pipe or flow off the land

as nonpoint source runoff, airborne pollutants (including

nitrogen and mercury) that are deposited in water

resources are a growing source of concern for their

impairment of water quality. By 2006, water quality will

be improved by reducing by 50-75% releases of targeted

persistent toxic pollutants that contribute to air deposition,

and reducing deposition of nitrogen by 10-15% from 1980

levels.

 Strategies for How It Will Be Accomplished

Achieving clean and safe water is dependent on the

day-to-day work undertaken by states, tribes, local

governments, and private organizations. EPA will

continue to provide tools, guidance and funding to states,

tribes and local governments to enhance their ability to

carry out their daily responsibilities for protection of the

nation's water resources. Research will strengthen the

scientific basis for drinking water standards development,

will result in the development of effective beach evaluation tools, and will enhance understanding of the structure
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EPA Strategic Plan and function of aquatic systems through the development

of improved aquatic ecocriteria. Further, EPA will

appropriately target enforcement and compliance

assurance resources to ensure that the goal of safe and

clean water is met. The actions that are required as a

result of specific enforcement will contribute to achieving

clean and safe water in particular communities. Additionally, EPA will continue to cooperate with other federal

agencies that share the responsibilities for various water

quality, wetland protection, erosion control, and human

health programs, including the U.S. Geological Survey,

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Department of

Agriculture (including the U.S. Forest Service), National

Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Centers for

Disease Control, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

EPA anticipates that beyond its Federal, state, tribal, and

local government partners, numerous other stakeholders

will play an important role in accomplishing this goal.

Watershed Approach

Although the nation has made substantial progress

over the past 20 years toward its water goals, the challenges of the 21st century will require a different approach

to environmental protection. The principal remaining

threats do not involve discrete facilities and conveyances,

but derive from the activities of citizens in general. Full

involvement of stakeholders at all levels of government,

the regulated community, and the public is fundamental to

the watershed approach. Therefore, EPA must engage and

motivate all citizens to be responsible and contribute to

enhancing and protecting their own rivers, streams, lakes,

wetland areas, and estuaries. EPA will highlight the major

needs of each watershed, and draw on the natural concern

that people have for the waters around which they live,

work and play.

To help EPA and its partners strategically target efforts

toward the most pressing problems, EPA will continue to

develop and refine tools that help identify and address

problems on a watershed basis. One such tool is the Index

of Watershed Indicators (IWI). IWI will enable users to

simultaneously assess a variety of problems within a

watershed and measure progress over time in improving

the overall condition of the nation’s watersheds. Information on individual watersheds can be accessed through the

Internet program “Surf Your Watershed” at

<http://www.epa.gov/surf>.

Drinking Water Protection

The Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments of 1996

chart a new and challenging course for EPA, states, tribes,

and water suppliers. In keeping with the watershed

approach, EPA will expand the source water protection

program by developing program guidance, providing

technical and other support to states and tribes on source

water protection and assessment, and conducting extensive

outreach to involve water systems, local governments,

interested groups, and the public. EPA will continue to set

drinking water safety standards and provide technical

assistance and other support to states and tribes, with an

emphasis on establishing new standards for microbiological contaminants, disinfectant and disinfection byproducts,

and other pollutants identified as posing potentially high

risks.

Drinking Water Compliance

At the same time that EPA sets new drinking water

standards, EPA will work with states, tribes, local

governments, and water suppliers to increase compliance

with existing standards, with an emphasis on the following

strategies:

• Continue to manage the Drinking Water State

Revolving Fund and other funding mechanisms to

provide safe and reliable drinking water.
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EPA Strategic Plan • Assist small systems to build or strengthen their

technical, financial, and managerial capacity.

• Manage an operator certification program to ensure

that every water system operator can perform certain

key compliance functions.

To ensure that consumers can readily obtain and

understand information pertaining to the safety of their

own drinking water supplies, and any special circumstances that might affect them or their families, EPA will

ensure that "right-to-know" reports are available for all

customers of public water systems.

Edible Fish and Safe Recreation

Waters

The states and tribes have primary responsibility for

protecting their residents from the health risks associated

with contaminated noncommercially caught fish and

wildlife and recreational waters. Human health risks,

including risks to sensitive populations such as children,

and subsistence and recreational anglers, will be abated

through development of appropriate criteria and through

enhanced fish tissue monitoring, risk assessment, and

development of fish, shellfish, and wildlife consumption

advisories. EPA will establish improved safety guidelines

and pollution indicators so that local authorities can

monitor their recreational waters in a cost-effective way

and close them to public use when necessary to protect

human health. For beaches, EPA’s three-part plan is to

strengthen beach standards and testing, improve the

scientific basis for beach assessment, and develop methods

to inform the public about beach conditions. By identifying and informing the public of human health risks and

providing the tools needed to address those risks (including consistent national guidance, methods, and monitoring/sampling protocols), EPA can help improve the ability

of states, tribes, and local communities to protect their

residents from this type of exposure.

Water Quality Standards and Criteria

Continued development of scientifically-based,

defensible water quality standards and criteria, and

monitoring progress in attaining these standards, is critical

to states’, tribes’, and EPA's ability to enhance or maintain

the quality of lakes, rivers, streams, wetlands and coastal

waters. EPA will support risk characterization, priority

setting, implementation of standards and criteria, and risk

management by states and tribes on a watershed basis.

EPA will work with tribes to implement government-togovernment provisions, establish final water quality

standards for waters under tribal jurisdiction, and address

restoration and protection of subsistence harvest areas.

States and EPA will make significant progress toward

completing all needed Total Maximum Daily Loads

(TMDLs) for impaired U.S. waters (TMDLs assess the

water body’s capability to carry pollutant loads while

meeting designated uses). EPA will work with states and

tribes to improve implementation of TMDL programs

establishing the analytical basis for watershed-based

decisions regarding the need for additional pollution

reduction where standards are not being met.

Wetlands

EPA will work with federal, state, tribal, and local

partners on protection and community-based restoration of

wetlands. In addition, EPA, in coordination with the Corps

of Engineers and the Natural Resources Conservation

Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, will work

to avoid, minimize, and compensate for wetland losses

through Clean Water Act Section 404 and Farm Bill

programs.

Point Source Pollution

To maintain progress in these areas, EPA will continue

to develop and revise national effluent guideline limitations and standards. These regulations are the basis for

permits that protect water quality. The Agency will

continue to manage the Clean Water State Revolving Fund

program and other funding mechanisms to provide clean

and safe water. The Agency will work to streamline and

simplify development of effluent guidelines and implementation of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination

System (NPDES) permit program, using revised performance measures geared toward ecological and human

health outcomes. Performance measures will be revised in

partnership with states and tribes. A major effort will

continue to reorient and coordinate all parts of the point

source program on a watershed basis, with emphasis on

those watersheds where these sources cause substantial

water quality impairment. EPA will work with a variety of

stakeholders to reduce nutrients and pathogens that enter

the nation's waters from animal feeding operations.
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EPA Strategic Plan Urban runoff is a leading cause of water quality

problems; urban runoff causes beach closures and shellfish

bed closures in coastal areas. While some types of urban

runoff come from nonpoint sources, discharges from storm

drains, sanitary sewers, and combined sewers are point

source discharges. Controlling these sources of pollution

will be a major priority for EPA’s point source control

programs in the coming five to ten years. All Phase I

stormwater sources (large industrial facilities and

construction sites greater than 5 acres) will be covered by

permits. All Phase II stormwater sources (selected

municipal facilities and construction sites less than 5

acres) will be covered under a comprehensive regulatory

program, including permits. All 950 CSO communities

will be in compliance with technology-based requirements

or will implement long term CSO control plans, and

loadings of key pollutants (BOD and TSS) will be reduced

by 30% from 1994 levels. The State Revolving Fund

program will be well-capitalized in all 50 States and

Puerto Rico, providing for approximately $2.0 billion per

year in new loan activity.

Nonpoint Source Pollution

EPA will work with states and tribes to characterize

risks, rank priorities. and implement a mix of voluntary

and regulatory approaches through state nonpoint source

management programs. States will revise their nonpoint

source programs to reflect all nine key program elements

agreed to with EPA. These elements include explicit goals,

strong working partnerships, identification of waters

impaired by nonpoint source pollution and a process for

addressing these waters, and efficient and effective

management of the State’s nonpoint source program (for

more details on all nine elements, see Nonpoint Source

Program and Grants Guidance for Fiscal Year 1997 and

Future Years, May 1996, U.S. EPA). States will implement

coastal nonpoint source programs that are approved by

EPA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, as required by the Coastal Zone Act Reauthorization Amendments. EPA will work with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to promote implementation of Farm

Bill programs consistent with state nonpoint source

management needs and priorities. These efforts will

emphasize stakeholder involvement to bring together those

with interests in a given watershed to determine the

approaches that best suit the water quality needs of their

area.

EPA will assess options to strengthen controls on

sources of nitrogen deposition, mercury, and other toxics

and make recommendations for voluntary and regulatory

actions. EPA will conduct technical transfer workshops

for water programs in states and local governments on

managing air deposition effects.

Mine discharges also cause significant water quality

problems in many areas, and EPA will work with other

federal agencies, states, and tribes to focus more effort on

controlling these sources. EPA will better coordinate its

resources to promote more effective controls for pollution

in other media that affects water quality.

Targeted Geographic Initiatives

EPA will support targeted geographic initiatives to

protect areas covered by the National Estuary Program,

the Chesapeake Bay, the Great Lakes, the Gulf of Mexico,

South Florida and the Everglades, and the Northwest

Forests. (The Great Lakes are included under Goal 6,

Reduction of Global and Cross Border Environmental

Risks.) Emphasis in these areas provides the opportunity

to bring heightened federal agency involvement to bear in

critical ecosystems.
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EPA Strategic Plan

Performance Measures

A combination of program output and environmental

outcome measures will be used to measure progress

towards meeting the clean water goal. Emphasis will be

placed on measuring at the outcome level wherever

possible and feasible. At the same time, a continuing need

for a limited number of output measures is recognized.

Output measures will be periodically reviewed to ensure

that they are linked to environmental outcomes and, if they

are no longer linked, they will be altered, dropped, or

replaced. Having a mixture of environmental outcome

measures and program output measures facilitates making

decisions about changes to program implementation. If the

intended environmental results are not being achieved,

program activity accomplishments need to be evaluated in

order to make decisions about changes in program

emphasis, direction, and resource allocation.

Development of output and outcome measures for

evaluating progress in restoring and protecting the nation's

water resources has been underway for the past several

years. A multi-year, multi-agency effort resulted in the

development of 18 key indicators of water quality in June

1996. To track state progress, a set of core performance

measures has been developed in partnership with the states

for use in EPA-state agreements.

Two examples of performance measures for the clean

and safe water goal are:

• Reduction in number of pounds of conventional and

toxic pollutants discharged by key point sources.

• Number and percentage of community drinking

water systems (and population served) with one or

more violations of health-based requirements during

the year.

GOAL 3: Safe Food

The foods Americans eat will be free from

unsafe pesticide residues. Children especially

will be protected from the health threats

posed by pesticide residues, because they are

among the most vulnerable groups in our

society.

Importance of this Goal

The abundance, affordability, and wholesomeness of

America's food supply depend in part upon the safe use of

pesticides during food production, processing, storage, and

transportation. Before any pesticide can be used legally,

the law requires EPA to conclude that its use will not lead

to unreasonable adverse effects, and that any food residues

resulting from its use are reasonably certain to cause no

harm. Nonetheless, pesticide application--especially when

pesticides are misused--can sometimes lead to residues

which could result in adverse health effects. EPA

coordinates its food-safety program with the United States

Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and

Drug Administration (FDA), who monitor pesticide

residues in meat and other foods, collect authoritative data

on patterns of food consumption, and protect food from

microbiological contamination.

Objectives

• By 2005, the risk from agricultural use of pesticides

will be reduced by 50 percent from 1995 levels.
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EPA Strategic Plan • By 2005, use on food of current pesticides that do

not meet the new statutory standard of "reasonable

certainty of no harm" will be substantially

eliminated.

What Will be Accomplished

A large number of pesticides approved for use on food

have been classified as potential human carcinogens or

may cause other serious adverse health effects at high

levels of exposure. These high hazard pesticides are our

highest priority, and we must aggressively minimize

dietary exposure to them. By 2005, EPA expects to achieve

a 50 percent reduction in risk posed by agricultural use of

these pesticides, by doubling the annual rate of registrations for safer new chemical pesticides and biopesticides

from 1995 levels and by encouraging a systematic

transition toward lower-risk pesticides and pest management practices.

EPA will focus its efforts on implementation of the

Food Quality Protection Act of 1996 (FQPA), which

amends both of EPA's principal pesticide regulatory

authorities. The centerpiece of our work to implement the

Act is a comprehensive reassessment of legally permissible levels of pesticide residues, or “tolerances.” FQPA

mandates that no pesticide residue will be permitted when

there is less than "a reasonable certainty that no harm" will

occur from exposure to that residue. This new standard

requires the Agency to revise its risk-assessment practices

to ensure adequate protection of the health of children and

other vulnerable subpopulations, and to reconsider some

9,700 tolerances for specific pesticide residues approved

before the passage of FQPA. By 2005 EPA expects to

have substantially completed this “reassessment” of

tolerances, and thereby to have confirmed the safety of the

tolerances which remain and to have disallowed all

pesticide uses that may leave residues that exceed levels

for which there is a reasonable certainty no harm will

ensue from human exposure. This means:

• By 2002, reregistration decisions will be completed

for all pesticide active ingredients subject to

registration under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide,

and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), and all products

containing those active ingredients will be

reregistered by 2004.

• By 2005, ninety percent of the reassessment of

pesticide residue tolerances mandated by FQPA will

be completed.

Strategies for How It Will be Accomplished

EPA takes a two-pronged approach to safeguarding the

food supply from the potential hazards of pesticides and

other chemicals. We ensure that all newly registered

agricultural pesticides will not harm human health or the

environment. At the same time, we encourage reduced

agricultural use of particularly hazardous pesticides first

registered before contemporary data requirements and

assessment techniques were developed. This reduction

will result from a broad transition toward reduced-risk

pesticides and pest management practices, including new

biological agents which can substitute for chemical

ingredients with a toxic mode of action. In this EPA is

supported by a variety of USDA programs encouraging

integrated pest management.

Most of EPA's food-safety activities aim to ensure the

safety of the approximately 400 currently registered active

pesticide ingredients in agricultural use. These efforts

include:

• "Reregistration" of currently-registered pesticides to

ensure their ingredients meet contemporary safety

standards.

• "Special review" of pesticides that are suspected of

posing unreasonable environmental or human health

risks.
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EPA Strategic Plan • Review of the 9,700 existing tolerances and the

phase-out of use of pesticides found not to meet the

new standard.

• Tolerance reviews and reregistration activities entail

critical review of current risk assessment practices,

in particular to ensure adequate protection for

children. To this end, EPA research activities will

pursue the development of new tools to better

characterize exposures (including consideration of

cumulative exposures described above) and overall

risks, as well as research on the best ways to

encourage improved consumer choices.

Performance Measures

Performance measures for the safe food goal are of

two kinds. First there are measures of program outputs--

like registrations, reregistrations, and tolerance reassessments. Many of these measures are already in place; as

the 1996 Food Quality Protection Act is implemented,

additional output measures are being created for the new

activities required by that act.

The second kind of measure is a measure of use of

selected pesticides, as a surrogate for more direct

measurement of the risk posed by those pesticides.

Pesticide risk is complex--rooted in the hazards posed by

the pesticide (such as neurotoxicity, or the ability to cause

cancer), but also dependent on how, where, and how often

the pesticide is used, what happens to it after it is used,

what populations are exposed to it, how they are exposed,

how often, and at what levels.

The challenge of direct measurement of pesticide risk

has not yet been met, but we are working with stakeholders to develop better measures, and will incorporate them

as soon as their merit is demonstrated. For the time being,

however, aggregate use of pesticides of particular concern,

based on data from existing sources of production data and

estimates of agricultural use, is the best type of measure

available to us.

GOAL 4: Preventing Pollution and Reducing Risk in Communities,

 Homes, Workplaces and

 Ecosystems

Pollution prevention and risk management strategies aimed at cost-effectively

eliminating, reducing, or minimizing emissions and contamination will result in

cleaner and safer environments in which all

Americans can reside, work and enjoy life.

EPA will safeguard ecosystems and promote

the health of natural communities that are

integral to the quality of life in this nation.

Importance of this Goal

EPA seeks to manage environmental risks to communities, homes, and workplaces, and to protect the environmental integrity of ecosystems, by a mix of regulatory

programs with alternative approaches to achieve results at

less cost and in more innovative, sustainable ways. Rather

than “end of the pipe” controls, preventing pollution at the

source is our strategy of first choice. (Where pollution

prevention at the source is not a viable alternative, the

Agency will employ waste minimization, disposal and

remediation in a cost effective manner.) These efforts will

be directed towards the greatest threats, such as those in

our communities, homes, schools and workplaces that

have significant impact on our most sensitive populations

such as children, the elderly, and individuals with chronic

diseases.
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EPA Strategic Plan Recognizing the accomplishments made by regulatory

and voluntary programs alone, significant environmental

risks remain where Americans reside, work, and enjoy life.

The country faces several remaining challenges, amenable

to a combination of innovative pollution prevention

approaches and ongoing risk-management programs.

Over 75,000 chemicals are in commerce today, with an

estimated 2,000 new chemicals and 40 genetically

engineered microorganisms introduced annually. These

include potentially toxic chemicals which may present

risks to workers, non-target organisms, and natural

resources. Of particular concern is lead. While lead has

been phased out in gasoline and banned in house paint,

exposure is still a major concern, especially in disproportionately impacted urban communities. Recent data from

the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

(NHANES) show almost a million children under the age

of six still have unhealthy blood lead levels. Elevated

blood lead levels are associated with intelligence quotient

deficits, learning disabilities, and other ailments. The

primary source is the estimated 65 million homes that still

contain old lead paint that can be released during normal

wear and tear and renovation activities.

An estimated 20 to 30 million Americans have asthma,

leading to the death of approximately 4,000 people per

year. There exists a higher prevalence of asthma among

children, especially children in low-income and minority

communities, than among adults. In addition to ozone and

particulates, evidence shows that significant contributing

factors to the number and severity of asthma attacks are

indoor allergens (particularly dust mites, fungi, and

roaches) and second-hand cigarette smoke.

The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act

(RCRA) hazardous waste minimization program focuses

on chemicals, rather than waste streams, to enable and

encourage multimedia waste minimization. Specifically, it

focuses on the most persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic

chemicals (PBTs). PBTs are of great concern regardless of

how they are managed. Reducing the presence of these

chemicals will lead to safer chemical substitutions and

manufacturing processes, eliminate some occupational

exposures to certain chemicals of concern and, in general,

result in safer communities. A major objective is to reduce

the amount of pollution generated annually in order to

protect human health and the environment, through

encouraging material substitution and manufacturing

process changes and by encouraging the safe recycling of

wastes. Our primary focus is source reduction, eliminating

where possible the generation of high-risk wastes. If

source reduction is not possible, recycling reduces the

amount of waste that must be managed through treatment

and disposal; recycling also increases the recovery of

valuable finite natural resources.

Finally, EPA places particular priority on working with

Indian tribes on a government-to-government basis to

improve environmental conditions in Indian country,

consistent with our trust relationship with tribes and the

nation’s interest in conservation of cultural uses of natural

resources.

Objectives

• By 2005, public and ecosystem risk from pesticides

will be reduced through migration to lower risk

pesticides and pest management practices, improving

education of the public and at-risk workers, and

forming “pesticide environmental stewardship”

partnerships with pesticide user groups.

• By 2005, the number of young children with high

levels of lead in their blood will be significantly

reduced from the early 1990's.

• By 2005, of the approximately 2,000 chemicals and

40 genetically engineered microorganisms expected

to enter commerce each year, we will significantly

increase the introduction by industry of safer or

"greener" chemicals which will decrease the need for

regulatory management by EPA.

• By 2005, fifteen million more Americans will live or

work in homes, schools, or office buildings with

healthier indoor air than in 1994.

• By 2005, reduce by 25% (from 1992 level) the

quantity of toxic pollutants released, disposed of,

treated, or combusted for energy recovery. Half of

this reduction will be achieved through pollution

prevention practices.

• By 2005, EPA and its partners will increase

recycling and decrease the quantity and toxicity of

waste generated.

• By 2003, 60% of Indian Country will be assessed for

its environmental condition, and Tribes and EPA will

be implementing plans to address priority issues.
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EPA Strategic Plan What Will Be Accomplished

Pesticides

In addition to ensuring the safety of America’s food

supply (see Goal 3), the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and

Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) mandates that EPA control

unreasonable risks of pesticides to human health and the

environment in general. EPA establishes the conditions of

registration, marketing and use of non-food use pesticides

as well, so as to address adverse effects to workers, nontarget organisms (especially endangered species) and

natural resources (e.g., groundwater and ecologically

important surface waters). Non-food use products include

medical and household disinfectants, wood preservatives,

household pest and lawn care products. The Agency will

address risks from non-food use pesticides through a

combination of activities, such as chemical information

gathering, testing, risk screening, risk assessment, and

voluntary and regulatory risk management actions. By

2005, EPA expects to achieve a cumulative 50 percent

reduction from 1995 levels in adverse health effects

caused by pesticide poisoning; provide adequate notification protection for endangered species potentially affected

by pesticides on all pesticide labels; assure that all

pesticide handlers and farm workers have been adequately

trained in the safe handling, use and disposal of pesticides;

and implement agreements with 80 pesticide user groups

to use integrated pest management (IPM) techniques.

EPA’s objective to reduce the risks associated with

agricultural chemicals (see Goal 3, above) by 2005 will

result in an accompanying 50% decrease in use of

pesticides that have high potential to leach into groundwater or to cause significant acute toxicity to fish and

wildlife.

Toxic Chemicals

The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) likewise

mandates that EPA control unreasonable risks of chemicals

in commerce. We will work to develop an enhanced, more

efficient and streamlined program, while minimizing

administrative, record-keeping, and regulatory burdens on

the chemical industry. A comprehensive strategy will be

developed to systematically screen all chemicals in

commerce and to identify those believed to be used safely

and those that warrant concern. These chemicals will be

classified by hazard endpoint based on available information. In screening the 75,000 chemicals in commerce,

emphasis will be placed on identifying persistent

bioaccumulative chemicals and endocrine-disrupting

chemicals. EPA will encourage chemical manufacturers to

prevent release of these chemicals to the environment.

Lead Poisoning

Significant progress has been made in reducing the

levels of lead in the air from gasoline, from cans containing food, and in children's toys to prevent lead poisoning.

EPA will work to eliminate the adverse physical effects of

lead poisoning through an active urban intervention,

education and enforcement initiative.

Pollution Prevention

Efforts will be made to prevent harmful chemicals

from entering commerce, to place restrictions on their

usage in the market, and to encourage industries to

introduce safer chemicals. The Agency also will promote

changing from the current chemical-by-chemical risk

assessment and management method to more productive

streamlined operations by dealing concurrently with all
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EPA Strategic Plan chemicals in the same categories or use sectors. The nonfood pesticide programs will ensure that these substances

do not pose a threat to human health or the environment

and that they are handled in a safe manner. In addition, the

following specific milestones are expected to be met by

2005:

• One hundred percent of the states will have strong,

effective, operating pollution prevention programs.

• Each Executive Branch department and agency will

have an effective program that is designed to help its

personnel identify and purchase environmentally

preferable products and services, and to have

established goals as required by the Federal Acquisition, Recycling, and Waste Prevention Executive

Order.

• Sixty percent of manufacturing industries will have

adopted voluntary environmental management

systems, including environmental accounting and

materials management practices.

• There will be a 20 percent increase in the use of

cleaner technologies in certain targeted industries.

Voluntary environmental management programs are

adopted by business when seen as economically beneficial.

The role of EPA is to provide information and voluntary

incentives to help create awareness of these benefits. The

adoption of cleaner technologies is often driven by

economics as much as regulatory strictures for some

sectors, and the Agency’s Design for the Environment

program for those sectors is geared toward providing

information to encourage the adoption of clean technologies.

Indoor Air

Achieving healthier indoor environments is another

priority for EPA. This priority will be accomplished

through a reduction in public exposure to radon, environmental tobacco smoke and other indoor air pollutants

through direct mitigation, a better educated and informed

public, and buildings that are better designed, constructed

and maintained. In addition, the following expected

milestones will be met by 2005:

• 17 million homes will be tested for radon levels;

700,000 homes with high radon levels will be

mitigated; and one million new homes will be built

with radon-resistant construction techniques.

• The proportion of households in which children 6

and under are regularly exposed to smoking will be

reduced from 27 percent in 1994 to 15 percent.

• Five percent of office buildings will be managed with

good indoor air quality practices consistent with EPA

guidance.

• Fifteen percent of the nation's schools will adopt

good indoor air quality practices consistent with EPA

guidance.

Waste Minimization

RCRA calls for EPA to provide national leadership in

reducing the amount of waste generated and to improve

the recovery and conservation of materials through

recycling. EPA’s programs focus on all waste: hazardous

waste, non-hazardous industrial waste, and municipal solid

waste. EPA will reduce the toxicity of waste by focusing

on reductions in persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic

chemicals (PBTs). The quantity of waste also will be
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EPA Strategic Plan reduced and, where waste is generated, EPA will encourage and facilitate increased recycling. This three-pronged

effort--reduce toxicity, reduce quantity, increase

recycling--will preserve natural resources and reduce

reliance on treatment and disposal. Specific accomplishments include the following:

• By 2005, recycling, including composting, will divert

at least 35 percent of municipal solid waste from

landfilling and combustion.

• By 2005, the most persistent, bioaccumulative, and

toxic chemicals in hazardous waste streams will be

reduced by 50 percent from the 1994 baseline.

• By 2005, the amount of hazardous waste safely

recycled will increase by 25 percent.

• By 2005, the amount of per capita generation of

municipal solid waste will be reduced to 4.3 pounds

per day.

Tribal Environmental Programs

EPA will work with all Federally-recognized tribes,

establish an environmental presence in Indian country,

develop and implement a framework for conducting

comprehensive tribal environmental assessments, and

complete Tribal/EPA Environmental Agreements or other

plans that identify joint priorities for improving human

health and the environment.

Strategies for How It Will Be Accomplished

EPA performs its responsibilities in concert with the

U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC),

which has general jurisdiction over the safety of household

products, and the Occupational Safety and Health

Administration (OSHA), for workplace safety.

The primary tools used by EPA to lower risks from

pesticides are its registration and reregistration programs.

Coupled with enhanced public education and appropriate

labeling, accelerated approval of safer alternative

pesticides can contribute to reduced risk to the environment, workers, homeowners and consumers.

Other potentially dangerous chemicals are regulated

under the Agency's New Chemicals Program and Existing

Chemicals Program which are mandated under the Toxic

Substances Control Act.

The Existing Chemicals Program assesses and

manages risks associated with commercial chemicals and

develops necessary related chemical hazard data. EPA will

move away from emphasis on evaluating chemical risks

based on new information and move towards a more

planned and comprehensive screening of the risks of the

75,000 chemicals now in commerce. This systematic

approach will identify chemicals that are believed to be

manufactured and used safely, as well as chemicals that

may pose risks to humans and the environment, providing

a "Toxics Agenda" for the nation that identifies those

chemicals in need of further attention.

By assessing new chemicals before they are manufactured or imported, the New Chemicals Program actively

carries out EPA's preferred strategy of preventing pollution

before it can occur. The program also supports development of safer chemicals by minimizing or eliminating

regulatory burdens on new chemicals that replace riskier

substances already in the marketplace. The Agency also

will make information about chemical hazards and

exposures developed during the data gathering, risk

screening, and testing program more available to the

public, thus promoting the "right-to-know" ethic.

EPA will continue to set national goals and criteria for

exposure to lead, build on existing educational programs,

and directly focus efforts at the community level. The

newest and most effective demonstrated approach to

health and environmental risks is aggressive multimedia

urban education and pest management intervention

programs. These projects combine the efforts of EPA with

those of states, municipalities, and tribal governments.

Working in concert with public health agencies such as the

Centers for Disease Control and the National Institutes of

Health, risks from pesticides and pesticide misuse, new

chemicals, microorganisms, lead, and indoor air pollutants

can be significantly reduced.

Our strategies to improve indoor environments are to

use education and outreach to inform the public; to

complement other agencies’ work, using partnerships to

promote behavioral changes and the use of technologybased practices that improve air quality; and to continue to

research and improve the science upon which recommended actions are based.

The Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments of 1984

directed EPA to reduce the volume and toxicity of

hazardous waste. EPA and its partners developed the
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EPA Strategic Plan Waste Minimization National Plan (WMNP) to provide a

framework for achieving this mandate. EPA has several

efforts underway to support implementation of the WMNP,

including: identifying and prioritizing PBTs, linking PBTs

with RCRA wastes, and developing measurement

methodologies.

EPA is revising the regulatory framework for hazardous waste recycling to provide simpler definitions and

regulations, focus regulatory controls on materials that

may pose a hazard to human health and the environment,

and remove disincentives that cause industry to choose

disposal over safe recycling.

National efforts to manage municipal solid waste

(MSW) have focused on the integrated solid waste

management approach, a concept introduced by EPA in

1988. Integrated waste management requires a coordinated mix of strategies, with preference given to source

reduction and recycling. EPA and states, tribes, and local

governments work together to foster source reduction and

recycling through voluntary programs (e.g., WasteWi$e),

economic incentives for solid waste management services

that promote greater source reduction and recycling (e.g.,

unit based pricing), and support of waste-based industries

(e.g., increase procurement of goods made from recycled

materials). EPA also is working with its partners to

identify the best approaches to encourage recycling of

non-hazardous industrial waste.

Performance Measures

Pesticides and Toxic Chemicals

Pesticides measures will include selective pesticide use

reductions, alternative pesticides registered, grower

partnerships implemented, workers trained, and poisonings

reported.

New chemicals measures will include the number of

new chemical submissions, number of new chemical risk

management actions (bans, withdraws, consent orders),

and number of safer and “greener” new chemicals (e.g.,

those that are less toxic, lower exposure, more energy

efficient, generate less--or less toxic--waste, or have

similar attributes). Existing chemical measures will focus

on the number of chemicals screened, number of chemicals reviewed and believed to be "safely used," and

number of testing actions. Pesticides measures will

include selective pesticide use reductions, alternative

pesticides registered, grower partnerships implemented,

workers trained, and poisonings reported.

Pollution Prevention

Measures will include the number of alternative safer

chemicals or processes introduced; the quantity of toxic

chemicals manufactured, used, recycled, and released into

the environment; the amounts of reductions in these

quantities that are attributable to the adoption of pollution

prevention practices; and the types and amount of human

health and environmental effects information available for

highest risk chemicals. Progress in encouraging businesses to incorporate preventive approaches into environmental decision making will be measured by participation

in Agency sponsored voluntary programs, in implementation of sound environmental management systems and

pollution prevention facility plans, and in adoption of

environmental accounting systems. The effectiveness of

state prevention programs can be measured by the amount

of technical assistance provided; the effectiveness of this

assistance in encouraging the adoption of pollution

prevention approaches; the number of permits, regulations

and supplemental environmental projects that reflect

pollution prevention approaches; and the integration or

coordination of the state pollution prevention program

with related environmental and business assistance

programs.

Lead Poisoning

Measurement of reduction in children's blood lead

levels due to EPA activities will be accomplished by the

National Center for Health Statistics through the National

Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. EPA will use

the results of this long-term study to estimate the effect of

regulations and other programmatic activities on the

reduction in children's blood lead levels.

Indoor Air

We will estimate by evaluating information concerning: 1) the number of schools and commercial buildings

that implement good indoor air quality practices; 2) the

results of private sector and CDC surveys on smoking;

and, 3) the number of homes tested and mitigated for

radon and new radon resistant homes.
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EPA Strategic Plan

Waste Minimization

EPA's performance measures for waste minimization

were designed to provide a limited set of data that reflect

the nation's most important waste management program

priorities. Other types of environmental program and fiscal

data will be needed to maintain effective program

management. EPA will work with state partners to

develop a set of environmental indicators that will provide

outcome measures. The following are examples of current

performance measures.

• Decreases in the quantity of waste generated and

toxicity of waste generated, and increases in

recycling of waste.

• Reduction in municipal solid waste landfilled and

combusted.

• Reduction in per capita generation of municipal solid

waste to 4.3 pounds per day.

Tribal Environmental Programs

• In the near term, measures will include the number of

tribes with environmental programs, the extent of our

understanding of environmental conditions in Indian

country, and which tribes have developed plans for

addressing priority environmental issues.

• Once we have established a baseline for environmental conditions in Indian country, we will also measure

improvements in environmental conditions.

• Number of Tribal/EPA Environmental Agreements

(TEAs) completed.

• Number of environmental assessments conducted on

tribal lands.

• Number and percentage of tribes with environmental

programs or infrastructure that are capable of

conducting environmental assessments.

GOAL 5: Better Waste Management, Restoration

 of Contaminated Waste Sites,

 and Emergency Response

America's wastes will be stored, treated,

and disposed of in ways that prevent harm to

people and to the natural environment. EPA

will work to clean up previously polluted

sites, restoring them to uses appropriate for

surrounding communities, and respond to

and prevent waste-related or industrial

accidents.

Importance of this Goal

Improper management of wastes can lead to fires,

explosions, and contamination of air, soil, and water. A

frequent result of improper hazardous waste disposal is the

contamination of groundwater--the source of drinking

water for nearly half of all Americans. At some sites, toxic

vapors from evaporating liquid wastes or chemical

reactions contaminate the air. Pollutants such as metals

and organic solvents can damage vegetation, endanger

wildlife, and harm the health of people who live in nearby

communities. Toxic and hazardous substances, including

radioactive waste, deposited on land often are carried far

from their source by air, groundwater, and surface water

runoff into streams, lakes, and rivers where they accumulate in the sediments beneath those waters.
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EPA Strategic Plan Management techniques for wastes include recycling,

land disposal, and combustion. Different types of waste

require different means of treatment and disposal--what is

suitable for one waste might not be suitable for another.

Decisions about cleanup must be made with community,

human health, and environmental concerns in mind. EPA

efforts to achieve this goal center on protecting human

health and the environment by applying the fastest, most

effective waste management and cleanup methods

available, while involving affected communities in the

decision-making process.

Cleaning up abandoned or under-used industrial land

and supporting new business growth is the focus of the

brownfields program. The term “brownfields” denotes

abandoned, idle or under-used industrial or commercial

sites where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by

real or perceived environmental contamination. Over

450,000 such properties are thought to exist. Accomplishment of the brownfields objective will demonstrate that

economic, environmental and social goals can be

integrated such that economic growth can improve, rather

than diminish, environmental quality.

Objectives

• By 2005, EPA and its partners will reduce or control

the risks to human health and the environment at

over 375,000 contaminated Superfund, RCRA, UST

and brownfield sites. (Total comprises 1,200 NPL

and 480 non-NPL sites; 2,475 RCRA facilities;

370,000 LUST cleanups initiated or completed; and

1,500 brownfield properties.)

• By 2005, over 282,000 facilities defined by RCRA

Subtitles C, D, and I, the Oil Pollution Act (OPA),

the Emergency Planning and Community Right to

Know Act (EPCRA), and the Clean Air Act, section

112(r), will be managed according to practices that

prevent dangerous releases to the environment.

(Total comprises 14,000 RCRA facilities [Subtitles C

and D]; 264,000 USTs [RCRA Subtitle I]; and 4,200

oil facilities.)

• By 2005, EPA and its partners will have the

capability to successfully respond to 100 percent of

known emergency actions at facilities defined under

the Oil Pollution Act (OPA) and the Emergency

Planning and Community Right to Know Act

(EPCRA), to reduce the risk to human health and the

environment.

What Will Be Accomplished

By meeting the objectives stated above, EPA will have

made significant progress toward achieving our goal of

promoting better waste management, restoring contaminated waste sites, and preventing waste-related or

industrial accidents. EPA will continue to regulate existing

waste management practices by facilities defined under

RCRA, OPA, and EPCRA. By doing so, we will reduce

the risk of human health and environmental exposures

from hazardous waste, non-hazardous industrial waste, and

municipal solid waste. Using strategies such as the

“cradle-to-grave” waste management framework, the

Agency will prevent the creation of “new” Superfund

sites. By 2005, EPA and states will prevent dangerous

releases to air, soil, and groundwater at 90% of hazardous

waste, 90% of non-hazardous industrial waste, and 100%

of municipal solid waste facilities in states. Human

exposures will be controlled at 95% of RCRA high priority

contaminated hazardous waste facilities, and releases to

groundwater will be controlled at 70% of these facilities.

The Agency will reduce emissions of dioxins and furans,

particulate matter, and acid rain gases from hazardous

waste combustion facilities by 90, 50, and 50 percent,

respectively, from levels emitted in 1994. Also by 2005,

EPA will add 2800 facilities to those in compliance with

the spill prevention, control, and countermeasure

provisions of the OPA, and 1400 additional facilities will

be adequately prepared to respond to oil spills as measured

by approved response plans.

Improper waste management and disposal pose a threat

to those living in nearby communities and result in costly

clean ups. EPA’s commitment to restoring contaminated

sites in partnership with states and the community will

reduce greatly the effect of uncontrolled releases on local

populations and sensitive environments. By 2005, we will

initiate or complete clean up at 370,000 sites where

groundwater or soil has been contaminated by petroleum

releases from USTs. By 2005, the Agency will complete

construction at 1200 sites on the NPL in a cost effective

and timely manner, and complete cleanup at 480 other

sites not on the NPL. Note that the new measure for

removal completion is clean up with no further action

necessary, rather than the traditional measure which

counted stabilization rather than final clean up. Improper

disposal also refers to radioactive waste, and by 2005, the

amount of the nation’s radioactive waste managed under
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EPA Strategic Plan the purview of the Atomic Energy Act and not meeting

EPA’s disposal standard will be reduced by 1.2 percent.

To minimize the risk to human health and the

environment that occurs from emergencies such as

accidental chemical releases and oil spills, EPA and its

partners will increase their capabilities to prevent and

respond quickly to these incidents, and leverage potentially responsible party (PRP) resources to conduct or fund

responses to the maximum extent possible. Of the

facilities submitting a Risk Management Plan, the Agency

will work to increase the percentage of facilities that have

reduced their chemical risks. Of the facilities where

accidents have been investigated by EPA, we will work to

increase the number of facilities that act on the investigation recommendations.

The brownfields pilot program has demonstrated that

cleaning up abandoned or under-used contaminated land

and supporting new business growth can have significant

payoffs. Building on the pilot program, EPA will continue

to combine federal, state, local and private sector efforts to

restore contaminated property to economic reuse and

reduce clean-up costs. By 2005, EPA will sign 300

cooperative agreements for assessments at brownfields

properties, and will perform targeted site assessments in

100 cities with brownfield properties and sign 300

cooperative agreements to capitalize revolving loan funds

to clean up approximately 1500 brownfield properties. In

some cases, parties interested in developing such properties are concerned about the presence of environmental

contamination and the attendant potential liabilities

(including Federal Superfund liability). Addressing

liability barriers through the brownfields program by

issuance of comfort/status letters or prospective purchaser

agreements in appropriate instances will facilitate

sustainable redevelopment of these properties.

Strategies for How It Will Be Accomplished

• Assess more than 9,000 additional sites, including

brownfields, to determine whether they meet the

criteria for federal Superfund response actions.

• Prevent, minimize or mitigate significant threats at

Superfund sites by conducting more than 300

removal actions per year.

• Maximize potentially responsible parties' (PRP)

participation in conducting or funding response

actions while promoting fairness in the enforcement

process, and recover costs from PRPs when EPA

expends Trust Fund monies.

• Work with the surrounding communities and the

public to improve their direct involvement in waste

management and cleanup.

• Enhance the role of the states and tribes in implementation of waste programs and State and tribal

voluntary cleanup programs.

• Continue brownfields outreach to communities and

other stakeholders. Leverage actions by other federal

agencies (such as HUD), state, local, and tribal

governments and private enterprise to accelerate

assessment and remediation of properties. Remove

liability barriers at brownfield properties by issuance

of prospective purchaser agreements or comfort/

status letters in appropriate instances. Provide

incentives and support for voluntary cleanup

programs to further the objective.

• Implement the Agency’s Hazardous Waste Minimization and Combustion Strategy including the revised

standards for hazardous waste incinerators and

cement kilns that burn hazardous waste.

• Focus on controlling human exposures and groundwater releases at RCRA facilities designated as high

priority for corrective action.

• Continue to implement RCRA regulatory program to

identify and address the highest risk wastes, taking

into consideration the operating costs imposed.

• Support state and tribal efforts to design and

implement risk-based corrective action programs that

help to reduce the backlog of UST sites with

confirmed releases waiting to be addressed, and to

enforce the 1998 UST leak detection and upgrade

standards.

 • Ensure that 400 additional facilities per year will be

in compliance with the spill prevention, control and

countermeasure provisions of oil pollution prevention

regulations.
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EPA Strategic Plan • Ensure that 200 additional facilities per year will be

adequately prepared to respond to oil spills as

measured by approved response plans prepared in

compliance with statutory and regulatory requirements.

• Investigate jointly, with OSHA, major chemical

accidents to determine their cause, and recommend

actions for further prevention.

• Support states, tribes and Local Emergency Planning

Committees in implementing chemical accident

prevention programs.

• Reduce risks of radiation exposure through increased

education and outreach; development of federal

guidance on human exposure assessments; assistance

to states and other federal agencies in radiological

emergency response; and field monitoring expertise,

mobile radioanalysis and dose assessment capabilities.

Performance Measures

EPA's performance under this goal will be measured

according to progress made in achieving milestones that

the waste and emergency response program offices have

set for the years 1999 through 2005. The performance

measures were designed to provide a limited set of data

which reflect the nation's most important waste management and emergency response program priorities. Since

they were not intended to cover every activity or task

undertaken by the states and EPA, other environmental

program and fiscal data will be needed to maintain

effective program management. The following are

examples of performance measures:

• Number of site clean ups initiated and/or completed

up where groundwater or soil is known to be

contaminated by petroleum from abandoned refinery

waste sites and underground storage tanks (USTs).

• Controls put in place to prevent dangerous releases to

air, soil, and groundwater from waste facilities.

• Number of RCRA sites with controls in place to

prevent human exposures and control groundwater

releases.

• The number of oil spills that EPA monitors and

responds to.

• Number of USTs equipped to meet the requirements

for leak detection and upgrading.

• Number of Superfund emergency time-critical and

non-time-critical removal response actions, and the

number of construction completions at Superfund

NPL sites.

• Number of sites at which targeted site assessments

for brownfield properties are completed.

• Number of brownfield properties cleaned up, and

number of successful conversions of brownfield

properties to economic reuse.
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EPA Strategic Plan

GOAL 6: Reduction of Global and

 Cross-Border Environmental

 Risks

The United States will lead other nations

in successful, multilateral efforts to reduce

significant risks to human health and ecosystems from climate change, stratospheric

ozone depletion, and other hazards of

international concern.

Importance of Goal

Ecosystems and transboundary pollutants do not

respect international boundaries. As a result, unilateral

domestic actions of the U.S. are inadequate to achieve

some of EPA's most important environmental goals.

Reduction of global and cross-border environmental risk is

important because of the significant risks to the U.S. that

originate in other countries and undermine U.S. investments in environmental protection. Achieving our

environmental goals requires us to work with other

countries to address external sources of pollution

impacting human health and the environment of our

nation. Conversely, the U.S. also holds itself responsible

for preventing or minimizing the impacts of transboundary

pollution originating here.

EPA's continued leadership is necessary to build the

international cooperation and technical capacity that are

essential to prevent harm to the global environment and

ecosystems that we share with other nations. A coordinated international response is needed to confront the

climate change threat, depletion of the stratospheric ozone

layer, transboundary circulation of toxics, and other

environmental issues significant to the interests of the

United States. Continued leadership by the U.S. and EPA

is necessary in building the international cooperation and

technical capacity needed to successfully address these

issues in a manner that provides efficient and sustainable

long-term solutions. Where the accomplishment of U.S.

environmental goals requires the cooperation of other

countries, EPA works with the Department of State, other

Federal agencies, states, tribes, and non-governmental

organizations to ensure that U.S. environmental interests

are appropriately addressed.

Objectives

• By 2005, reduce transboundary threats to human

health and shared ecosystems in North America

consistent with our bilateral and multilateral treaty

obligations in these areas, as well as our trust

responsibility to tribes.

• By 2000 and beyond, U.S. greenhouse gas emissions

will be reduced to levels consistent with international

commitments agreed upon under the Framework

Convention on Climate Change, building on initial

efforts under the Climate Change Action Plan.

• By 2005, ozone concentrations in the stratosphere

will have stopped declining and slowly begun the

process of recovery.

• By 2005, reduce the risks to U.S. human health and

ecosystems from selected toxics that circulate in the

environment at global and regional scales consistent

with international obligations.

• By 2005, the United States will prevent significant

degradation of the marine and polar environments,

consistent with U.S. obligations under relevant

international agreements.

• By 2005, increase the application of cleaner and

more cost-effective environmental practices and

technologies in the U.S. and abroad through

international cooperation.
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EPA Strategic Plan What Will Be Accomplished

The principal accomplishment of EPA's international

efforts will be to reduce risks to human health, the

environment, and quality of life both within the U.S. and

on a global level.

EPA’s Climate Change program will continue efforts to

achieve stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in

the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous

interference with the climate system. Recognizing that no

single country can resolve the problem of global climate

change, EPA is engaged in many activities to facilitate

international cooperation. To this end, EPA is actively

participating in international research, applied analysis,

assessment efforts, and efforts to develop and implement

global climate change strategy, and is providing financial

and technical assistance to developing countries to

facilitate development of mitigation and sequestration

strategies.

On the domestic side, EPA’s Climate Change programs

will continue to focus on minimizing the global impacts of

greenhouse gas emissions originating in the U.S. Programs will promote voluntary partnerships, provide

technical assistance and promote activities at the state and

local levels that enhance future GHG emission reductions.

The programs will help transform markets and stimulate

investments in energy efficient products and technologies

that reduce the need for greater electricity-generating

capacity. EPA will also continue to participate in the

Partnership for a New Generation of vehicles that involves

a federal/domestic automobile industry partnership to

develop “leapfrog” technology to triple automotive fuel

economy and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 67

percent, while maintaining vehicle performance and

affordability.

To protect the earth’s ozone layer, EPA will continue to

implement and enforce rules controlling the production

and emission of ozone-depleting compounds, and the use

of alternative chemicals to curtail ozone depletion. In

addition, EPA, along with other industrial countries, will

continue to provide support to the efforts of developing

countries to find alternatives to ozone-depleting chemicals.

To reduce risks from persistent organic pollutants and

selected metals that circulate in the environment at global

and regional scales, EPA is working with the Department

of State and other countries to negotiate the phase-out and

control of certain chemicals that continue to pose

environmental risks from their use and production in other

parts of the world. We are also working to reach agreement on import and export requirements applicable to

certain chemicals, an expansion of pollutant release and

transfer registers (PRTRs), and the harmonization of

chemical testing, assessment, and labeling procedures.

To reduce environmental and human health risks along

the U.S./Mexico Border, EPA is working with the border

states and Mexico to meet ambient air quality standards

for several air pollutants in seven areas currently failing to

meet national air quality standards. In addition, EPA is

working to increase water infrastructure, reduce hazardous

waste disposal, and put in place chemical accident

contingency plans in 10 of the 14 Sister Cities along the

U.S./Mexico Border.

Working with Canada, we are moving to reduce the

level of toxic substances in the Great Lakes, reduce

sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions that cause

acid rain, and protect shared ecosystems along our

northern border. Recognizing that activities in Mexico,

Canada, and the United States impact environmental

conditions beyond the immediate border areas and that

free trade requires compatible environmental practices, we
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EPA Strategic Plan are also working to establish such practices across North

America.

EPA will continue to take a leadership role in the

development of international systems resembling the

Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) and will assist nations in

furthering "right-to-know" legislation and public access to

environmental information. EPA will also work to achieve

an integrated and mutually supportive approach to

international trade and environmental policies. This

approach reflects the Agency’s commitment to sustainable

development and relies on cooperation on environmental

standards with our major trading partners. International

cooperation in environmental research and policy

development will increase cost effectiveness of selected

U.S. environmental protection programs.

To prevent significant degradation of the marine

environment, EPA, working with the Department of State,

NOAA, and other Federal agencies, expects to conclude a

regional agreement addressing land-based marine

pollution in the Wider Caribbean. The Agency is also

working to raise international marine pollution standards

through the International Maritime Organization and the

United Nations Environment Program.

Recognizing our national interest in the Arctic as an

ecosystem we share with other nations, the U.S. is also

working with the Russian Federation to achieve a 25

percent reduction in the number of high-level radioactive

sources in Northwest Russia with the potential for nearterm release into the Arctic environment.

Key targets to be achieved in the international area

include the following.

• By 2005, atmospheric concentrations of the ozonedepleting substances CFC-11 and CFC-12 will have

peaked at no more than 300 and 570 parts per trillion,

respectively, and with the exception of HCFCs and

very limited "essential uses," no more ozonedepleting substances will be produced in the U.S.

• By 2005, help to ensure that at least 75 developing

countries will have reduced their production and

consumption of CFCs by 50 percent.

• By 2000, CCAP implementation throughout the

Federal government will reduce annual U.S.

greenhouse gas emissions by 75 million metric tons

of carbon equivalent (MMTCE). The programs will

lead to greater annual reductions of between 115 and

140 MMTCE by 2005.

• By 2010, the air will be safer to breathe in areas

along the US/Mexico border that exceed one or more

of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards, and

all areas will attain the standards within the

timeframes described in Goal 1 - Clean Air.

• By 2005, disposal rates of hazardous waste in the

U.S./Mexico Border Area will be reduced by 8

percent and chemical accident contingency plans will

be in place in 10 of the 14 pairs of sister cities along

the Border.

• By 2000, the population in the U.S./Mexico Border

Area that is served by adequate drinking water,

wastewater collection and treatment systems will

increase by 7 percent through the design and

construction of water infrastructure .

• By 2005, formal delisting of three of the 31 U.S.

toxic hot spots in the Great Lakes; reduction in the

number of Great Lakes fish advisories; a plan of

action to expand cooperation to reduce ground level

ozone and particulate; confirmation of elimination of

sources of five bioaccumulative pesticides that enter

the Great Lakes Basin by 1998; reduction of 10

million tons of utility and industrial SO2 emissions

from 1980 levels by 2010; utility and mobile source

NOX emission reduction of two million tons from

1980 levels by 2000; a 90 percent reduction in highlevel PCBs used in electrical equipment by 2006; 50

percent reductions in the deliberate uses and releases

of mercury resulting from human activity.

• By 2000, complete: North American action plans on

PCBs, chlordane and DDT; a protocol on persistent

organic pollutants and heavy metals (through the

UNECE Convention on Long Range Transboundary

Air Pollution); a legally binding global convention

outlining requirements for the export and import of

selected chemicals (commonly referred to as Prior

Informed Consent (PIC)); and by 2005, complete a

global convention on selected persistent organic

pollutants and develop an international network for

monitoring mercury emissions.

• By 2005, increase the cost-effectiveness of selected

U.S. environmental protection programs by 20

percent and complete training and information
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EPA Strategic Plan materials for application in key countries or regions

of the world.

Strategies for How It Will Be Accomplished

EPA uses a variety of approaches to achieve its

international objectives, including:

• Implementing formal bilateral and multilateral

environmental agreements with key countries,

executing environmental components of key foreign

policy initiatives, and, through the Department of

State, engaging in regional and global negotiations

aimed at reducing risks via formal and informal

agreements.

• Cooperating with other countries to ensure that

domestic and international environmental laws,

policies, and priorities are recognized and

implemented and, where appropriate, promoted

within the multilateral development assistance and

trading system.

• Cooperating with other federal agencies, states,

business, and environmental groups to promote the

flow of environmentally sustainable technologies

and services worldwide; multilateral collaboration in

coordinating environmental policies and

implementing cooperative research and development

programs; and international technical assistance,

training, information exchange, and other capacitybuilding programs.

• Implementing a strategic plan on "Environmental

Security" with the Department of Defense and the

Department of Energy.

• Continuing domestic and international efforts to

limit the production and use of ozone-depleting

substances and to develop safe alternative

compounds.

• Demonstrating and promoting public/private

partnership programs that reduce greenhouse gas

emissions.

Performance Measures

The global and transboundary environmental risks

addressed in this goal vary in geographic scale as well as

the nature of the problems being addressed in the six

objectives found under the goal.

The first objective encompasses specific outcomes for

our immediate border areas with Canada and Mexico.

Performance measures in this area will often identify

intermediate steps in our cooperative efforts with Canada

and Mexico in meeting environmental outcomes that must

be achieved over several years. Examples include water

infrastructure completed in the U.S./Mexico Border Area,

establishment of air emission inventories, and degree of

program completion.

Objectives two, three, four, and five outline U.S.

objectives for protection of the global commons as well as

U.S. interests in reducing the risks associated with toxics

that circulate in the environment at global and regional

scales. Relevant performance measures will include

changes in concentrations of the appropriate stressors.

Performance measures relating to our efforts to prevent

degradation of the marine environment and the reduction

of transboundary toxics focus largely on sequential

progress to be made in specific multilateral negotiations.

Objective six covers a broad range of technical

cooperation and environmental policy programs supporting environmental security interests of the United States as

well as improved efficiency in our domestic programs.

Specific performance measures will include indicators of

improved environmental management in key countries,

improvements in U.S. environmental programs derived

from foreign programs, and successes in sustaining

positive environmental gains in the expanding trade and

environment agenda.
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EPA Strategic Plan

GOAL 7: Expansion of Americans’ Right to Know About Their

 Environment

Easy access to a wealth of information

about the state of their local environment

will expand citizen involvement and give

people tools to protect their families and

their communities as they see fit. Increased

information exchange between scientists,

public health officials, businesses, citizens,

and all levels of government will foster

greater knowledge about the environment

and what can be done to protect it.

Importance of this Goal

Providing all Americans with access to sound

environmental information and informing and involving

the public in our work are essential parts of a comprehensive approach to protecting the environment. This goal is

based on the premise that all U.S. citizens have a "right to

know" about the pollutants in their environment--including

the condition of the air they breathe and the water they

drink, as well as the health effects of the chemicals used in

the food and products they buy. Such a premise is

especially significant for minority, low-income, and Native

American communities that suffer a disproportionate

burden of health consequences from poor environmental

conditions. As U.S. citizens they need to receive adequate

knowledge of and representation in public policy and

environmental decision-making processes.

Access to environmental information also helps make

American citizens involved and informed environmental

decision makers, and promotes creative and lasting

solutions to environmental problems. Citizens who are

well-informed can better understand the environmental

impacts of their own activities, the relative severity of

environmental risks, the opportunities for preventing

pollution, and the uncertainties and complex trade-offs that

underlie many environmental decisions. This is critical in

developing sustainable solutions that all stakeholders--

industry, agriculture, government, and the public--will

support and carry out.

Objectives

• By 2005, EPA will improve the ability of the

American public to participate in the protection of

human health and the environment by increasing the

quality and quantity of general environmental

education, outreach and data availability programs,

especially in disproportionally impacted and

disadvantaged communities.

• By 2005, EPA will improve the ability of the public

to reduce exposure to specific environmental and

human health risks by making current, accurate

substance-specific information widely and easily

accessible.

• By 2005, EPA will meet or exceed the Agency's

customer service standards in providing sound

environmental information to federal, state, local,

and tribal partners to enhance their ability to protect

human health and the environment.

What Will Be Accomplished

The principal accomplishment will be to empower

state, local, and tribal governments and the American

public by providing citizens with information to enable

them to make informed decisions regarding environmental

issues in their communities. The quality and quantity of

general environmental education, outreach and data

availability programs will be increased, and EPA will

expand the content of our data holdings, improve the

quality and usability of the data, and ensure the data are

widely available through the Internet and other sources.
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EPA Strategic Plan Through empowering people with information, the

following accomplishments are also expected:

• By 2005, through improved technology, we will

increase the accessibility and opportunities for all

Americans to learn about environmental issues,

including Internet access to comprehensive environmental information on the watershed in which they

live including the environmental condition, the

stressors, and the environmental health threats.

• By 2005, 95 percent of customers will be satisfied

with the timeliness of the Agency's responses to

Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests,

executive correspondence, and other information

requests.

• By 2005, 90 percent of all customers from small,

disadvantaged, and minority-owned businesses will

be satisfied with the timeliness and quality of the

assistance provided by the Office of Small and

Disadvantaged Business Utilization.

• By 2003, make 100 percent of EPA’s non-confidential environmental data available and accessible to the

public in a user-friendly manner and provide

integrated information to support comprehensive

environmental protection approaches such as EPA’s

Community-Based Environmental Protection

Program (CBEP).

• By 2003, provide user-friendly public access to

comprehensive environmental performance information, including enhanced access in disproportionally

impacted and disadvantaged communities.

• By 2003, EPA will have developed and enhanced an

electronic system that will allow the public and EPA

stakeholders to access regulatory requirements, EPA

policy, guidance, and significant site-specific

interpretations via the Internet.

• By 2000, every person served by a community water

system will have access to a consumer confidence

report that contains information about the system’s

source water and the level of contaminants in the

drinking water and will be able to use this information to secure safe drinking water and make personal

decisions about their own health.

Strategies for How It Will Be Accomplished

The Agency will use a variety of strategies focused on

the three objectives for this goal. Critical to the success of

these strategies will be cooperation and collaboration with

all potential partners, including federal, state, tribal, and

local governments, educational institutions, nonprofit

organizations, and businesses.

• Increase education, outreach, and data availability

programs.

• Support and encourage user-friendly environmental

education programs of state and local governments,

schools and universities, and community and nonprofit organizations.

• Build stronger partnerships and promote increased

coordination with other governmental organizations

and the private sector.

• Cooperate with other countries to advance common

goals for environmental education.

• Provide the public, especially disproportionately

impacted and disadvantaged communities, with clear

information about regulatory requirements and

improve access to environmental data.

• Provide information and tools for communities to

make decisions.

• Create a Center for Environmental Information and

Statistics (CEIS) to provide citizens with information

on drinking water quality, air quality, beach contamination, and shellfish contamination.

• Continue to expand the coverage of pollutants,

pollution sources, and data elements in EPA's Toxics

Release Inventory, and ensure compliance with

reporting requirements.

• Make all non-confidential information and data at

EPA available to the public, and expand access to

information through libraries, schools, and health

departments.

• Expand the Agency's baseline information about the

health and environmental effects of products and

chemicals, through enhanced data gathering and

testing activities.
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EPA Strategic Plan • Integrate environmental data interpretation and

statistics.

• Exchange sound environmental data with all of our

partners.

• Engage in more frequent dialogue with state, local

and Indian tribal governments, and improve the

exchange with them to produce more sound environmental data and tools.

• Consolidate information and reduce duplication of

information provided to EPA under a variety of

statutory and regulatory authorities.

• Improve electronic access to information by

significantly expanding the type and amount of

information available on the Internet.

• Continue international collaboration on developing

health and environmental effects data.

• Ensure citizen access to the compliance and

enforcement records of regulated facilities so that

communities can easily monitor whether these

companies are in compliance with environmental

laws and permit conditions.

Another strategy is contained in the President's

Environmental Monitoring for Public Access and

Community Tracking (EMPACT) Initiative. This initiative

includes other federal agencies and will focus on improving data collection and data quality and on deploying new

technologies for real time and automated measurement,

monitoring, and information delivery. EMPACT will be

targeted to the 75 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S.

Performance Measures

The success of the Right-to-Know programs is

ultimately determined by the increased understanding of

our environment among all stakeholders, thereby enabling

them to make decisions and take actions in helping to

solve the nation's environmental problems, particularly at

the community level. EPA is playing a major role in

educating and providing the data and tools tailored to the

needs of various stakeholders. Measures to assess our

progress in achieving this goal focus on three areas--

information access, stakeholder awareness, and the

improved environmental conditions in targeted areas. We

assume there is a cause-effect relationship among the

three. Since there are many actions outside EPA's control,

we would want to choose the measures aimed at EPA's

actions. For example, we will assess the number of people

who access EPA information and whether they find the

information useful; the level of awareness of our

information among various stakeholder groups, as

measured by surveys and other instruments; and the

improvement of environmental conditions in targeted

areas, including reduced releases of toxic chemicals.

GOAL 8: Sound Science,

 Improved Understanding of

 Environmental Risk, and

 Greater Innovation to Address

 Environmental Problems

EPA will develop and apply the best

available science for addressing current and

future environmental hazards, as well as new

approaches toward improving environmental

protection.

Importance of This Goal

Science enables us to identify the most important

sources of risk to human health and the environment, and

by so doing, informs our priority-setting, ensures

credibility for our policies, and guides our deployment of

resources. It gives us the understanding and technologies

we need to detect, abate, and avoid environmental

problems. This goal recognizes that science provides the

crucial underpinning for EPA decisions and challenges us
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EPA Strategic Plan to apply the best available science and technical analysis

to our environmental problems and to practice more

integrated, more efficient, and more effective approaches

to reducing environmental risks.

It is clear that, in the future, environmental problems

will be dealt with in a different manner than they are

today. In moving towards this future, EPA has adopted a

two-tiered strategy. On one level, EPA is working to

strengthen those features of the current system that have

proven to be effective. At a second level, EPA is designing

and testing fundamentally new tools and approaches that

take advantage of new scientific knowledge and technological advancements, a growing ethic of environmental

stewardship, the need to cut waste and increase efficiency

and similar opportunities as they arise in society. These

new tools and approaches are largely industry-based,

place-based, and performance-based.

Objectives

• Research for Ecosystems Assessment and

Restoration: By 2008, provide the scientific

understanding to measure, model, maintain, or

restore, at multiple scales, the integrity and

sustainability of ecosystems now and in the future.

• Research for Human Health Risk Assessment: By

2008, improve the scientific basis to identify,

characterize, assess, and manage environmental

exposures that pose the greatest health risks to the

American public by developing models and

methodologies to integrate information about

exposures and effects from multiple pathways.

• Research to Detect Emerging Risk Issues: By 2008,

establish capability and mechanisms within EPA to

anticipate and identify environmental or other

changes that may portend future risk, integrate

futures planning into ongoing programs, and

promote coordinated preparation for and response to

change.

• Research for Pollution Prevention and New

Technology for Environmental Protection: by 2006,

develop and verify improved tools, methodologies,

and technologies for modeling, measuring,

characterizing, preventing, controlling, and cleaning

up contaminants associated with high priority human

health and environmental problems.

• By 2005, EPA will increase the number of places

using integrated, holistic partnership approaches,

such as community-based environmental protection

(CBEP), and quantify their tangible and sustainable

environmental results in places where EPA is directly

involved.

• By 2005, EPA will increase the number of

opportunities for and applications of sector-based

approaches to environmental management by 150

percent over 1996 levels.

• By 2005, Regions will have demonstrated capability

to assess environmental conditions in their Region,

compare the relative risk of health and ecological

problems, and assess the environmental effectiveness

of management action in priority geographic areas.

• Conduct peer reviews and provide guidance on the

science underlying Agency decisions.

What Will Be Accomplished

EPA's research program will measurably increase our

understanding of environmental processes and our

capability to respond to and solve environmental problems. During the past decade, significant concerns have

been expressed about the adequacy of the Agency's ability

to assess risks--not only to human health, but also to

ecosystems. Research will lead to greater certainty in

assessing and comparing environmental risks. Our aim is

to reduce major areas of uncertainty in our analyses of risk

and to minimize reliance on default assumptions. In order

to accomplish this, we will develop improved exposure
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EPA Strategic Plan assessments that identify environmental exposures posing

the greatest health risks to the American public and will

increasingly use biologically-based methodologies. We

will demonstrate improved knowledge of current

ecosystem conditions and the most critical stressors

affecting these conditions, as well as deliver improved

capabilities to interpret what these conditions imply in

terms of immediate and future risks. This will provide

strengthened capability to determine the condition of the

environment and its responses to alternative management

strategies at local, regional, and national scales. This will

also lead to better technologies to manage and restore

ecosystems.

We will also build institutional capacity to forecast and

prepare for emerging problems. To prevent damage to both

human and ecosystem health, it is critical to detect,

describe, evaluate, and mitigate or eliminate stressors

before damage occurs. We plan to improve capacity and

technology to monitor and model stressors and effects. We

plan to encourage the rapid acceptance and implementation of improved environmental technology by assessing

and verifying the performance characteristics of commercially ready technologies and by making those assessments

available for consideration by a variety of potential

technology users. This will help provide proven, costeffective technologies and approaches to prevent or

manage environmental problems.

The Agency plans to strengthen the science base of the

Regions by increasing their capacity to monitor and

measure environmental conditions. We also plan to

strengthen our overall quality of science by significantly

enhancing peer review in the Agency and by seeking

guidance from the Science Advisory Board, leading to

more defensible environmental decisions.

Since scientific quality and cost-effectiveness are

generally increased through collegial interaction, the

Agency plans to increase its "partnering" with other

Agencies and organizations, especially in joint efforts

through the National Science and Technology Council, and

in more frequent collaboration with NASA, NSF, and

DOE. Similar synergistic benefits are sought through joint

participation in the peer review of Agency documents and

positions by advisory committees from different departments and agencies.

Regional geographic initiatives are targeted towards

high priority locations with both high health or ecosystem

risks and significant potential for risk reduction. We will

continue to implement multimedia solutions, using

integrated partnership approaches, to address air, water

and toxic waste problems and achieve living resource

protection. Our efforts will promote state-of-the-art

environmental management and serve as incubators and

developers of innovative approaches to environmental

policy making. Through Community-Based Environmental Protection, EPA will increase the number of places

using innovative, multimedia approaches to enable local

partnerships to address high risks. Through such programs

as the Common Sense Initiative, the Agency will implement Sustainable Industry sector-based policies and

programs. These new approaches will likely become the

predominant form of environmental protection in the next

century, and lead to greater acceptance of new environmental technology.

Most of these objectives will not be fully met until a

decade has passed. However, as the science moves

forward, various research sub-products are created that

will be incorporated into EPA's decision-making process.

Strategies for How It Will Be Accomplished

EPA has several strategies to strengthen its science

base and to develop innovations in environmental

protection. The Agency has implemented a risk-based

research planning process to use risk assessment and risk

management as principal priority-setting criteria. EPA

conducts annual research program reviews to both evaluate

the status and accomplishments of its research and

determine strategic planning priorities. To better draw

upon the expertise of the environmental academic

community, EPA created the Science to Achieve Results

(STAR) Program of peer reviewed, mission-driven

extramural grants. The Agency is also working with the

National Research Council to identify emerging environmental issues for which we must begin planning the

necessary research.

Reinvention of environmental protection involves

rethinking specific steps of the regulatory process, such as

setting standards and writing regulations, issuing permits,

collecting environmental reports about pollution,

providing assistance to help business comply with the law,

and conducting enforcement actions. Among our newer

integrated and innovative strategies for environmental

protection are the place- and facility-based approaches of

the Community-Based Environmental Protection (CBEP)
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EPA Strategic Plan strategy, and sector-based strategies such as the Common

Sense Initiative (CSI). CBEP is a way for EPA to work

with knowledgeable and committed governments,

organizations and individuals in specific communities and

to benefit from their knowledge of their local environmental problems. CBEP can also provide flexibility to achieve

more environmental protection in a more cost-effective

manner. Similarly for industries, sector strategies such as

CSI are designed as integrated, multimedia approaches.

CSI works to tailor efforts to the particular characteristics

of a particular industry, leading to more cost-effective

environmental protection. EPA’s reinvention agenda

includes opportunities for testing innovative approaches to

getting environmental results through programs such as

CSI, Project XL, and One-Stop Reporting. EPA, working

with state environmental programs, will adopt specific

reforms for each part of the regulatory system based on

successful results from these experimental programs.

EPA is promoting more cost-effective environmental

protection by working with stakeholders to identify and

overcome barriers, such as the lack of credible, independent performance data, that limit the entrance of new

technologies into the environmental marketplace. Finally,

because our decisions on rulemaking, policies, and actions

to protect human health and the environment invariably

rely on environmental measurements, the Agency will

continue to implement its mandatory Quality Assurance

Program. This program will ensure that all environmental

measurements produced or funded by the Agency are of a

level of quality suitable for their intended use.

Performance Measures

As environmental problems are better defined, and

prevention and clean-up technologies are improved and

evaluated, it will become easier to measure and demonstrate cheaper environmental protection. The various

community, facility and sector-based approaches that

provide flexibility for voluntary local initiative and

innovation, and are tailored to the specific needs of a place

or an industry, should improve decision-making, avoid

conflict between competing uses and lead directly to more

cost-effective environmental protection.

Over that period of time, specific outputs have been

identified, such as models, tools, local capacity, cross

program and sector partnerships, published reports and

guidelines and demonstration projects. Certain tangible

environmental outcomes related to the environmental

health, vitality and quality of specific ecosystems or

geographic regions and reduced emissions for facilities

and sectors will be measured.

Scientific research involves efforts whose outcomes

are inherently difficult to measure. Nevertheless, in

addition to specific measures to track our success in

meeting research objectives, we also have identified more

general science performance criteria, including quality,

relevance, and impact on decision making. Against these

criteria, the following goals and measures will serve to

evaluate the results of our research program.

Quality

The performance goal is for EPA's research science to

advance the state of the science or make new contributions. Performance measures include:

• Endorsement by peer review and other impartial,

outside reviewers.

• Demonstrated leadership of EPA scientists as

evidenced by invitations to participate in conferences

and conduct reviews.

• Publication of results in appropriate, peer-reviewed

journals.

• Adoption of EPA-developed approaches or methodologies as models.

• Awards/recognition for research contributions.

Relevance

The performance goal is for EPA's research to

successfully meet the needs of users of the results.

Performance measures include:

• Research addresses critical knowledge issues within

EPA's mission.

• Research findings provide the information necessary

for EPA users to meet statutory requirements and

other policy needs.

• EPA's decision-making options are informed and

supported by quality science.

• Quality of science in EPA decisions is not challenged

or withstands such challenges.
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EPA Strategic Plan • EPA research findings are incorporated into new

research.

Impact on Decision Making

The performance goal is for EPA's research organization to transfer information, findings, and results effectively to users, partners, and the public. Performance

measures include:

• Technical results are disseminated in a timely way to

users.

• Research is communicated appropriately in formats

accessible to a variety of audiences and users in their

decision making.

For specific objectives under the sound science goal,

the following illustrates an appropriate performance goal

and measure:

• By 2005, decision makers and the public will be able

to monitor, assess and interpret the degree to which

land cover has changed over time.

• The value added by the Science Advisory Board

(SAB) will be measured by increased customer

satisfaction, decreased time for report production and

Agency responses to SAB recommendations.

Goal 9: A Credible Deterrent to Pollution and Greater

 Compliance with the Law

EPA will ensure full compliance with laws

intended to protect human health and the

environment.

Importance of This Goal

Protecting the public and the environment from risks

posed by violations of environmental requirements is, and

always has been, basic to EPA’s mission. Many of

America's environmental improvements over the last 25

years are attributable to a strong set of environmental laws

and an expectation of compliance with those laws. EPA's

strong and aggressive enforcement program has been the

centerpiece of efforts to ensure compliance, and has

achieved significant improvements in human health and

the environment. To meet the challenges presented by the

continuing, serious, and complex environmental problems

EPA faces and the changes in the type and scope of

activities and entities regulated, EPA must continue to use

and develop a broader range of solutions. To this end, EPA

is developing additional tools and capabilities for ensuring

compliance through assistance and incentives to the

regulated community.

By ensuring compliance through an array of traditional

and innovative approaches EPA is working to mitigate and

avoid risks to human health and the environment, help the

regulated community understand and fully comply with
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EPA Strategic Plan environmental requirements, punish violators and deter

future violations, level the economic playing field for lawabiding companies, and ensure that the price of goods and

services reflects true cost.

Objectives

Through its credible deterrent goal, EPA seeks to

ensure full compliance with laws intended to protect

human health and the environment. Within the framework

of this goal, our objectives are as follows:

• Identify and reduce significant non-compliance in

high priority program areas, while maintaining a

strong enforcement presence in all regulatory

program areas.

• Promote the regulated communities’ voluntary

compliance with environmental requirements

through compliance incentives and assistance

programs.

What Will Be Accomplished

EPA's enforcement and compliance responsibilities are

outlined in provisions of 15 environmental statutes, and

most of the Agency's international activities can be tied to

seven international agreements. The accomplishment of

EPA's environmental goals depends on a strong enforcement and compliance assurance program, with active

involvement of other Federal agencies and its state, tribal,

local and other national government partners, to encourage

appropriate behavior by the regulated community.

The enforcement and compliance assurance program

has made important contributions through vigorous

application of environmental laws. By identifying and

addressing violations of environmental statutes and

regulations during the period covered by this plan, the

enforcement and compliance assurance program will work

toward continuous improvement in compliance with

standards, permits and other requirements established by

the program offices to mitigate and avoid environmental

problems and the associated risk. Over the next few years,

we intend to complete baseline measurement data for use

in measuring changes in key indicators of compliance

appropriate to designated high priority portions of the

regulated community and will set targets as appropriate.

Given the scope of its responsibilities and the large and

diverse universe of private, public, and federal facilities

regulated under the various statutes, the Agency also will

work to maximize its effectiveness by strategically

targeting its enforcement and compliance activities to

address the most significant risks to human health and the

environment and to address disproportionate burden on

certain populations, in keeping with EPA’s environmental

justice responsibilities. Risk-based and related criteria will

be applied during program planning, implementation and

evaluation.

Because government resources are limited, maximum

compliance cannot be achieved without the active efforts

of the regulated community to police itself. Over the

course of this plan, EPA will assist regulated facilities in

improving their compliance and environmental performance by encouraging the use of targeted compliance

assistance tools, such as routine environmental auditing for

compliance and the development and use of environmental

management systems. The Agency also intends to pursue

more vigorously the use of compliance incentives as a

means of encouraging regulated entities to voluntarily

discover, disclose and correct violations before they are

identified by the government for enforcement investigation

and response. By increasing its communication with the

regulated community, the Agency will position itself to

identify incentives and promote the benefits of its auditing

policies, compliance assistance tools and voluntary

environmental management systems programs. Additional

specific results anticipated include:

• Implementation of international commitments and

U.S. government priorities for enforcement and

compliance cooperation with other countries

consistent with national environmental and foreign

policy goals.

• Increased use of injunctive relief provisions and

supplemental environmental projects to achieve

environmental restoration and cleanup.

• Increased number of violations reported and

subsequently corrected through self-disclosure by the

regulated community over the 1997 level.

• Review of significant proposed federal actions

(programs, projects, regulations, and proposed

legislation) to determine their likely environmental

effects and seek remedy of the actions that are

environmentally objectionable.
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EPA Strategic Plan Strategies for How It Will Be Accomplished

EPA will implement a range of strategic approaches to

achieve improved compliance through the consistent and

effective application of compliance and enforcement tools.

EPA's current strong, traditional core enforcement program

will continue. In addition, we will improve the Agency's

ability to define high priority (e.g., sectors, media

priorities, federal facilities, and ecosystems) portions of

the regulated community, develop comprehensive baseline

data on the nature and extent of compliance problems, and

set challenging targets for improving compliance. Criteria

for defining the high priority areas will include those

involving high environmental risk, disproportionately

exposed populations, or high rates of noncompliance, and

those that otherwise present a need to maintain a visible

enforcement presence.

By increasing the use of injunctive relief provisions

and Supplemental Environmental Projects (SEPs), EPA

hopes to gain significant environmental benefits in

conjunction with the settlement of enforcement cases. This

is consistent with the Agency's growing emphasis on the

environmental benefits of its activities.

State, tribal and local governments bear much of the

responsibility for ensuring compliance, and EPA will work

with them and other Federal agencies to promote

environmental protection. Further, EPA will cooperate

with other nations to enforce and ensure compliance with

international agreements affecting the environment. These

activities also ensure a level economic playing field in an

increasingly global trading system.

In addition, the Agency will work toward expanding

current efforts to improve compliance through incentives

and assistance activities. Effective compliance assistance

assures that environmental standards are clear and

understood by the regulated community (including federal

facilities) and the public. EPA will work to establish

baseline information for targeted sectors of the regulated

community and analyze root causes for compliance

problems. In recognition of the substantial role played by

the states in informing the regulated community of their

responsibilities, sector-specific compliance assistance

centers and other tools will be used and evaluated for

effectiveness in increasing the understanding of, and

compliance with, program requirements. Also, the Agency

will pursue compliance incentives to encourage regulated

entities to voluntarily discover, disclose and correct

violations. These compliance incentives include audit and

compliance management programs and partnerships

between government and industry, such as the Environmental Leadership Program. Further, the Agency will

provide technical assistance and training to other federal,

state, and tribal officials to enhance their effectiveness in

managing enforcement and compliance assurance

programs.

Performance Measures

The Agency continues to work on new approaches for

measuring results and impacts of enforcement efforts. The

enforcement and compliance program is moving to

complement the traditional enforcement output measures

with environmental outcome measures. Recent work on

the Case Conclusion Data Sheets and compliance

assistance activities have yielded environmental outcome

data to build upon. Through another effort, the Office of

Enforcement and Compliance Assurance National

Performance Measures Strategy, EPA is striving to develop

a range of measures that reflect the broad spectrum of

enforcement and compliance activities, the degree to

which they protect human health and the environment, and

industry compliance with applicable laws. When this

process is completed, performance targets will be set using

compliance indicators appropriate to the program and

particular universe of regulated facilities involved. The set

of indicators could include rates of significant noncompliance, repeat violators, timely and appropriate actions

taken, economic benefits recovery, pollutant reductions in

high risk areas, and compliance assistance results. There

will be involvement from EPA, states and other stakeholders in identifying, evaluating and selecting these indicators.

Additionally, on the international front, EPA has

developed performance measures for enforcement and

compliance cooperation with Mexico. Under the

Cooperative Enforcement and Compliance provisions of

the U.S.-Mexico Border XXI program, both countries will

develop environmental indicators (both outputs and

outcomes) to measure compliance in the border area.
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EPA Strategic Plan

Goal 10: Effective Management

EPA will establish a management infrastructure that will set and implement the

highest quality standards for effective internal

management and fiscal responsibility.

Importance of this Goal

Efforts under this goal support the full range of

Agency activities for a healthy and sustainable environment. Agency management provides vision and leadership

within the Agency, nationally and internationally on

matters relating to the Agency and conducts policy

oversight for all Agency programs. The effectiveness of

EPA's management approaches will determine, in large

measure, how successful we will be in pursuit of the other

goals identified in this Strategic Plan. Sound management

principles, practices, results-based planning and budgeting,

fiscal accountability, quality customer service, rational

policy guidance and careful stewardship of our resources

are the foundation for everything EPA does to advance the

protection of human health and the environment. Agency

management systems and processes will be supported by

independent evaluations that promote operational integrity

and economic, efficient and effective programs, so that we

can obtain the greatest return on taxpayer investment .

Objectives

• The Office of the Administrator and Deputy

Administrator will provide vision and leadership

(within the Agency, nationally and internationally) as

well as executive direction and policy oversight for

all Agency programs.

• EPA will provide the management services, administrative support and facility operations necessary to

achieve its environmental mission and to meet its

fiduciary and workforce responsibilities.

• EPA will provide a quality work environment that

considers employee safety and security, building

operations, utilities, facilities, new construction,

repairs, and pollution prevention, within Headquarters and nationwide.

• EPA will provide audit and investigative products

and services, all of which can facilitate the accomplishment of its mission.

What Will Be Accomplished

Accomplishments under this goal relate primarily to

improvements in the Agency's internal management

infrastructure and processes. EPA's plans for the coming

years build on our past achievements in the areas of

resource management, systems development, and facilities

enhancement, and will include full implementation of an

integrated planning, budgeting, analysis and accountability

system.

Strategies for How It Will Be Accomplished

To provide a strong foundation for our environmental

and human health strategies, our managerial accomplishments will include:

• Investment in EPA employees, through training,

education and other means, to ensure that the

Agency’s workforce is of the highest caliber and is

fully prepared to deliver national leadership and

expertise in environmental protection.

• Implementation of automated and streamlined human

resources processes for increased efficiencies in

hiring and placement of staff with the scientific and

technical skills necessary to sustain effective

environmental protection programs.
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EPA Strategic Plan • Construction of new facilities, and establishment of

state-of-the-art laboratories, providing the tools

essential to researching innovative solutions to

current and future environmental problems and

enhancing our understanding of environmental risks.

• Reduction of our reliance on cost-plus, level-ofeffort contracting in favor of performance-based

service contracting.

• Enhancements to contract management information

systems. By improving the quality and availability

of information on the status and use of resources, we

can assure that we acquire the best quality goods and

services in support of Agency objectives.

• Resolution of material weaknesses previously

identified in the area of grants closeouts, to reinforce

the integrity of our assistance programs.

• Implementation of the best practices identified

government-wide by the General Accounting Office

(GAO) for information resources management, and

integration of information technology investments

with the Agency's overall strategic planning process,

to keep EPA in the vanguard of federal agencies with

respect to the quality and utility of our data systems.

• Support for electronic reporting by our highestvolume submitters, to reduce their reporting burden

and facilitate EPA's acquisition of key information

relative to environmental conditions across the

country.

• Provision of audit and investigative products and

services by the independent Office of the Inspector

General to assist the Agency in accomplishing its

mission and improve the performance and integrity

of its programs and operations and reduce the risk of

loss from fraud and other improprieties.

Performance Measures

EPA will measure performance under the Effective

Management goal by tracking progress in three major

areas. First, specific milestones will be established with

respect to automation efforts supporting Agency administrative reforms and process improvements that contribute

to more efficient ways of doing business. Second,

customer service measures will enable us to gauge

increases in customer satisfaction--both internal and

external to the Agency--in terms of quality and timeliness

of services. Third, we will assess EPA’s success in

achieving statutory requirements pertaining to Agency

management including the Chief Financial Officers Act,

the Government Management Reform Act, the ClingerCohen Act and the Federal Acquisition Regulations.

These measures will include reporting requirements, such

as receiving unqualified audit opinions (which EPA hopes

to achieve each year beginning with our FY 1997 Annual

Financial Statements) as well as assessments of systems

management.

For all performance measures relevant to this goal, we

anticipate that primary data sources will be EPA management information systems and targeted customer surveys.

In FY 1999, we expect to develop baseline information,

where necessary, to enable us to track progress more

precisely in future years. In time, the traditional management focus on output measures will shift towards broader

outcome-oriented measures, such as measures to demonstrate specific operational improvements and efficiencies

in Agency programs.

Addendum

Statutory or Other Authority, Directives, or

Obligations for Specific Objectives

GOAL 1 -- Clean Air

Objective 1

Clean Air Act (CAA) (42 U.S.C.7401-7671q)

Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) (15 U.S.C.

2601-2692)

Objective 2

CAA, TSCA

Objective 3

CAA, TSCA

Objective 4

CAA, TSCA
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EPA Strategic Plan GOAL 2 -- Clean and Safe Water

Objective 1

Clean Water Act (CWA) (33 U.S.C. 1251-1387)

Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) (42 U.S.C. 300f300j-26)

Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) (15 U.S.C.

2601-2692)

Objective 2

CWA

Endangered Species Act (ESA) (16 U.S.C. 1531-1544)

National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) (42 U.S.C.

4321-4370d)

TSCA

Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement

Treaties with Indian tribes

1971 Ramsar Convention on Wetlands

Objective 3

Clean Air Act (CAA) (42 U.S.C.7401-7671q)

CWA, TSCA

GOAL 3 -- Safe Food

Objective 1

Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act

(FIFRA) (7 U.S.C. 136-136y)

World Trade Organization Agreements

Objective 2

Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA)

section 408 (21 U.S.C. 346a)

FIFRA

World Trade Organization Agreements

GOAL 4 -- Preventing Pollution in Communities,

Homes, Workplaces and Ecosystems

Objective 1

Endangered Species Act (ESA) (16 U.S.C. 1531-1544)

Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA)

section 408 (21 U.S.C. 346a)

Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act

(FIFRA) (7 U.S.C. 136-136y)

Objective 2

Comprehensive Environmental Response,

Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) (42

U.S.C. 9601-9675)

Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) (42 U.S.C.

300f-300j-26)

Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) (15 U.S.C.

2601-2692)

Objective 3

FIFRA, TSCA

Objective 4

Clean Air Act (CAA) (42 U.S.C. 7601-7671q)

TSCA

Objective 5

CAA

Clean Water Act (CWA) (33 U.S.C. 1251-1387)

Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know

Act (EPCRA) (42 U.S.C. 11001-11050)

Pollution Prevention Act (PPA) (42 U.S.C. 13101-

13109)

Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) (42

U.S.C. 6901-6992k)

TSCA

Objective 6

PPA, RCRA, TSCA

Objective 7

CAA, CERCLA, CWA, EPCRA, ESA, FIFRA

Indian Environmental General Assistance Program Act

National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) (42 U.S.C.

4321-4370d)

RCRA, SDWA, TSCA

Treaties with Indian tribes
Agency

Approaches to

Achieving Our

Goals

 62

EPA Strategic Plan GOAL 5 -- Waste Management, Restoration of

Contaminated Waste Sites, and Emergency

Response

Objective 1

Comprehensive Environmental Response,

Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) (42

U.S.C. 9601-9675)

Pollution Prevention Act (PPA) (42 U.S.C. 13101-

13109)

Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) (42

U.S.C. 6901-6992k)

Objective 2

Clean Water Act (CWA) (33 U.S.C. 1251-1387)

Oil Pollution Act (OPA) (33 U.S.C. 2701-2761)

RCRA

Objective 3

CERCLA

Clean Air Act (CAA) (42 U.S.C. 7601-7671q)

CWA

Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know

Act (EPCRA) (42 U.S.C. 11001-11050)

OPA, RCRA

GOAL 6 -- Reduction of Global and CrossBorder Environmental Risks

Objective 1

Clean Air Act (CAA) (42 U.S.C. 7601-7671q)

Clean Water Act (CWA) (33 U.S.C. 1251-1387)

Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know

Act (EPCRA) (42 U.S.C. 11001-11050)

Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act

(FIFRA) (7 U.S.C. 136-136y)

Pollution Prevention Act (PPA) (42 U.S.C. 13101-

13109)

Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) (42

U.S.C. 6901-6992k)

Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) (15 U.S.C.

2601-2692)

V.A., H.U.D., and Independent Agencies

Appropriations Acts

Water Quality Act of 1987 section 510

North American Agreement on Environmental

Cooperation (NAAEC)

 U.S./Canada Agreements on Arctic Cooperation

U.S./Mexico Agreement Establishing a Border

Environmental Cooperation Commission and a

North American Development Bank

1909 Boundary Waters Agreement

U.S./Canada Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement

1997 Great Lakes Binational Toxics Strategy

1983 La Paz Agreement on US/Mexico Border

Region, Annex 2, Article 3

1989 U.S./Mexico Agreement on Mexico City

1989 US/USSR Agreement on Pollution

1991 U.S./Canada Air Quality Agreement

Treaties with Indian tribes

Border XXI

Objective 2

CAA

Framework Convention on Climate Change

Pollution Prevention Act of 1990

Objective 3

CAA, TSCA

1987 Montreal Protocol on Ozone Depleting

Substances

Objective 4

CAA, CWA, FIFRA, PPA, RCRA, TSCA, NAAEC

1996 Habitat Agenda, paragraph 43bb

Objective 5

Ocean Dumping Act (33 U.S.C. 1401-1445)

PPA

Convention on International Trade in Endangered

Species
Agency

Approaches to

Achieving Our

Goals

63

EPA Strategic Plan Washington Agreement on Land-Based Sources of

Marine Pollution

1972 London Convention on the Prevention of Marine

Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter

Objective 6

EPCRA, PPA

North American Free Trade Agreement

World Trade Organization Agreements

GOAL 7 -- Expansion of Americans’ Right to

Know About Their Environment

Objective 1

Clean Air Act (CAA) (42 U.S.C. 7601-7671q)

Clean Water Act (CWA) (33 U.S.C. 1251-1387)

Comprehensive Environmental Response,

Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) (42

U.S.C. 9601-9675)

Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know

Act (EPCRA) (42 U.S.C. 11001-11050)

Environmental Education Act

Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) (5 U.S.C.

App.)

Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act

(FIFRA) (7 U.S.C. 136-136y)

Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) (5 U.S.C. 552)

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501-

3520)

Pollution Prevention Act (PPA) (42 U.S.C. 13101-

13109)

Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) (42

U.S.C. 6901-6992k)

Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) (42 U.S.C. 300f300j-26)

Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) (15 U.S.C.

2601-2692)

North American Agreement on Environmental

Cooperation

Objective 2

Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, Section 408 (21

U.S.C. 346A)

CWA, EPCRA, FIFRA, PPA, RCRA, SDWA, TSCA

Objective 3

CWA, EPCRA, FACA, FIFRA, FOIA, PPA, RCRA,

SDWA

TSCA , CERCLA

GOAL 8 -- Sound Science, Improved Understanding of Environmental Risk, and Greater

Innovation to Address Environmental Problems

 Objective 1

Clean Air Act (CAA) (42 U.S.C. 7601-7671q)

Clean Water Act (CWA) (33 U.S.C. 1251-1387)

Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation

and Liability Act (CERCLA) (42 U.S.C. 9601-9675)

Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA)

(7 U.S.C. 136-136y)

Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) (42

U.S.C. 6901-6992k)

Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) (15 U.S.C. 2601-

2692)

Objective 2

CAA, CERCLA, CWA

Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) (42 U.S.C. 300f-300j-26)

TSCA

Objective 3

CAA, CWA, RCRA

Objective 4

CAA, CERCLA, CWA

Federal Technology Transfer Act (15 U.S.C. 3710a et seq.)

FIFRA

Patent Statute (35 U.S.C. 100 et seq.)

PPA, RCRA, SDWA, TSCA
Agency

Approaches to

Achieving Our

Goals

 64

EPA Strategic Plan Objective 5

CWA

Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know

Act (EPCRA) (42 U.S.C. 11001-11050)

PPA, RCRA, SDWA, TSCA

Objective 6

CAA, CWA, EPCRA, FIFRA, PPA, RCRA, SDWA,

TSCA

Objective 7

CAA, CWA, EPCRA, PPA, RCRA, SDWA, TSCA

Objective 8

CAA, CWA

Federal Advisory Committee Act (5 U.S.C. App.)

FIFRA, RCRA, SDWA, TSCA

GOAL 9 -- A Credible Deterrent to Pollution and

Greater Compliance with the Law

Objective 1

Clean Air Act (CAA) (42 U.S.C. 7601-7671q)

Clean Water Act (CWA) (33 U.S.C. 1251-1387)

Comprehensive Environmental Response,

Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) (42

U.S.C. 9601-9675)

Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know

Act (EPCRA) (42 U.S.C. 11001-11050)

Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act

(FIFRA) (7 U.S.C. 136-136y)

Ocean Dumping Act (ODA) (33 U.S.C. 1401-1445)

Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) (42

U.S.C. 6901-6992k)

Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) (42 U.S.C. 300f300j-26)

Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) (15 U.S.C.

2601-2692)

North American Agreement on Environmental

Cooperation

1983 La Paz Agreement on US/Mexico Border Region

Objective 2

CAA, CERCLA, CWA, EPCRA

Federal Facility Compliance Act

FIFRA, ODA

Pollution Prevention Act (PPA) (42 U.S.C. 13101-

13109)

RCRA, SDWA

Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act

of 1996 (5 U.S.C. 601 note)

TSCA

Executive Order 12088, “Federal Compliance with

Pollution Control Standards”

Executive Order 12856, “Federal Compliance with

Right-to-Know Laws and Pollution Prevention

Requirements”

GOAL 10 -- Effective Management

Objective 1

42 U.S.C. 2000e-16

Administrative Procedures Act (5 U.S.C. Chapter 5)

Civil Rights Act of 1964

Comprehensive Environmental Response,

Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) (42

U.S.C. 9601-9675)

Objective 2

Government Performance and Results Act

Chief Financial Officers Act (31 U.S.C. 901-903)

Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 (5 U.S.C. Chapter 3)

Clinger-Cohen Act (Public Law 104-106)

Competition in Contracting Act (41 U.S.C. 253 et seq.)

Contract Disputes Act (41 U.S.C. 601 et seq.)

Federal Claims Collection Act (31 U.S.C. 3711 et seq.)

Federal Financial Management Improvement Act of

1996 (Title VIII of 1997 Treasury, Postal Service and

General Government Appropriations Act)
Agency

Approaches to

Achieving Our

Goals

65

EPA Strategic Plan Federal Grant and Cooperative Agreement Act (31

U.S.C. 6301 et seq.)

Federal Managers Financial Integrity Act of 1982 (31

U.S.C. 3512)

Federal Records Act (44 U.S.C. 3101 et seq.)

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501-

3520)

Objective 3

Federal Property and Administrative Services Act (40

U.S.C. 471 et seq.)

Public Buildings Act (40 U.S.C. 601 et seq.)

V.A., H.U.D., and Independent Agencies

Appropriations Act

Objective 4

Inspector General Act of 1978, as amended

(5 U.S.C. app.)
Agency

Approaches to

Achieving Our

Goals

 66

EPA Strategic Plan
EPA Strategic Plan

Benefits and Costs

of EPA’s Activities

67

Benefits and Costs

of EPA’s Activities

EPA is committed to

 incorporating estimates of

costs and benefits in strategic

planning, where valid estimates of

costs and benefits of economically

significant regulations exist.
EPA Strategic Plan

Benefits and Costs

of EPA’s Activities

68

Benefits and Costs of EPA’s Activities

A safer, healthier environment goes hand-in-hand with a robust economy. For environmental protection and

sustained economic growth to occur together requires the use of common sense approaches that favor the most

cost-effective ways to achieve our goals. EPA is committed to seeking the most cost-effective approaches by

incorporating estimates of costs and benefits in strategic planning, where valid estimates of costs and benefits of

economically significant regulations exist. This section: (1) describes how EPA generally considers benefit and

cost information in its work; (2) provides some examples

of retrospective and prospective analyses that EPA has

done or is planning to do; and (3) discusses the significant

costs and benefits associated with the Agency’s goals

Consideration of Benefits and Costs

In setting its goals and developing specific policy

instruments to achieve the goals, the Agency uses the best

available science and economic analysis. All public policy

decisions require consideration of several types of information and are made on the basis of multiple criteria. Economic efficiency, equity, institutional and legal feasibility,

and risk tradeoffs represent some of the criteria that may be

incorporated into policy discussions. Benefit-cost analysis

is used to inform decision makers about the efficiency

effects of alternative options. Benefit-cost analysis is an

important tool used to organize information and clarify the

potential effects of alternative decisions.

When designing and evaluating specific regulatory

options for significant actions, the Agency generally devotes

considerable attention to the study of economic costs and

benefits of proposed actions. EPA primarily uses benefits

and costs measures for two purposes: First, the Agency is

involved in integrated, comprehensive assessments of entire

environmental programs, such as the retrospective benefitcost analysis required by Section 812 of the Clean Air Act

Amendments of 1990. The report The Benefits and Costs of

the Clean Air Act, 1970-1990 is expected to be issued later

this year. The Agency has also commenced the prospective

benefit-cost analysis required under Section 812 of the

Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. Also, to assist in

preparing for reauthorization of environmental legislation,

EPA may prepare economic analyses to assess costs and

benefits. A recent example can be found in the 1994 report

President Clinton's Clean Water Initiative: Analysis of

Benefits and Costs.

Second, the Agency continues to be committed to

analyzing of costs and benefits of specific regulations as

called for by Executive Order (E.O.) 12866. When EPA

actions are expected to impose significant costs on the

private sector (or on a particular industry), EPA conducts

an analysis of the costs, benefits, and other anticipated

economic impacts of the action. EPA is committed to

assessing the costs and benefits of its significant programs

and to adopting cost effective requirements to the extent

permitted by law. EPA fully complies with the requirements of E.O. 12866 to develop economic information on

the benefits and costs of each of its new economically

significant regulations. EPA also prepares economic

analyses for other reasons, such as those instances where

authorizing statutes call for the preparation of economic

information to support the regulatory development

process. Within the past 18 months, EPA has prepared

over 30 economic analyses to accompany its regulatory

and policy development programs. This information will

continue to be prepared in accordance with the procedural

and timing requirements in the E.O. and under applicable

statutes, and will be used to support the regulatory

that are presented in this Plan.
EPA Strategic Plan

Benefits and Costs

of EPA’s Activities

69

development process. Economic information developed

for this purpose will be available and used to support the

GPRA process at EPA.

The Agency and public have frequently cited data on

the aggregate costs of existing programs, represented in

the 1990 EPA study entitled Environmental Investments:

The Cost of A Clean Environment. Although that report

did not directly estimate the costs to meet the specific

goals established here, the overall cost estimates provided

a general indication of the magnitude of pollution control

expenditures in the United States in the late 1980s, and

forecasted through the 1990s. At the time of its release in

1990, the report estimated that expenditure by industry,

government and households in the late 1980s was on the

order of $100-120 billion (in 1990 dollars). Total U.S.

costs were projected to increase to a new total of approximately $170 billion to $200 billion by the year 2000

(reported in 1990 dollars).

An important factor not reflected in forecasted costs

contained in the 1990 report is that since its release, new

environmental legislation and other modifications to the

regulatory agenda have been introduced that seek to

achieve environmental protection goals more costeffectively. These programs and policies are not captured

in the 1990 report's forecasts, thereby adding additional

uncertainty to these figures. As a result of changes in

policies, and with the advent of several new benefit-cost

analyses of Agency programs and regulations, the Agency

is taking steps to update its base of information on the

national costs and benefits of environmental protection

programs.

In addition to technological advances, another

phenomenon affecting long-run compliance costs is the

ability of the regulated community to develop more costeffective methods of meeting regulatory requirements.

While in practice this effect is difficult to quantify

separately from the effects of technological change, the

combined effects on pollution abatement and control costs

can be incorporated into regulatory compliance cost

forecasts by applying an assumed rate of productivity

growth arising from both sources. Exaggerated compliance cost estimates also can arise from a failure to

understand the nature of economic costs (at the margin), as

distinct from engineering or accounting costs. Perhaps the

most common error of this type occurs in the treatment of

overhead, which is often calculated at average rather than

marginal cost. Attributing the average rate to new

expenditures overstates the true incremental cost of

regulatory compliance, since most support activities

represent largely fixed costs. Other common errors of this

type arise in the treatment of transfer payments like taxes,

and in the case of factors purchased in markets that are

less than competitive at prices higher than cost.

 Despite committing substantial effort to this type of

analysis, it is also fundamentally difficult to articulate the

full array of economic benefits that result from preventing

and controlling pollution. In concept, the benefits of less

pollution can be defined as improvements in human health

and the environment, including reductions in damages to

plants, animals, materials, and other quality-of life

attributes. For example, to evaluate the benefits of

reaching an objective for decreased pollutant releases, one

must document a complex sequence of analytic steps to

arrive at an assessment of the impacts. Important

prerequisites to estimating benefits include a clear

scientific understanding of the linkage between an activity

or condition and its effects on human health and the

environment; scientifically based estimates of the

incremental effects of these linkages, such as doseresponse relationships, expressed in forms compatible with

economic analysis; and assessments of the value of such

effects. The assessments of risks from pollutants released

to the environment, the measurement of the consequences

to persons and natural life exposed to these pollutants, and

the quantification of the values associated with these

changes, are but some of the challenges facing EPA as we

attempt to quantify the benefits of taking action. The

analysis of benefits intends to cover the entire spectrum of

benefits, from those that can be assigned a dollar value to

those that can only be described qualitatively, and from

those that are direct and immediate to those that are remote

in distance or time. The bringing together of disparate

types and forms of information is among the most useful

features of performing cost-benefit analyses.

Consequently, the benefits and costs of the goals in

this Plan cannot, in most cases, be measured with

precision. Existing information on costs and benefits of

individual EPA regulations does not provide complete

coverage of all of the actions needed to achieve the goals

and objectives described in the Plan. Many of the costs

and benefits that may be associated with these goals either

are very difficult to quantify or cannot be represented in

monetary terms. It is difficult to quantify costs in any sort

of reliable way when the specifics of implementation
EPA Strategic Plan

Benefits and Costs

of EPA’s Activities

70

technologies and the nature of implementing regulations

are unclear. Even when action options have been decided,

very large uncertainties in the estimates of both costs and

benefits remain.

Recognizing these limitations, the Agency examines to

the best of its ability the benefit and cost information as

individual regulatory options are developed, to inform

decisions about the creation of new initiatives or changes

in existing programs in the pursuit of its stated goals and

objectives. If the regulatory actions necessary to achieve

an objective cannot be justified, EPA will need to

reconsider that objective prior to establishing programs

and regulations. Over time, the particular objectives and

numeric targets will evolve as better information is

developed, allowing a more complete assessment of the

benefits and costs. The continuing process of information

collection and analysis will serve as the basis for refinement of the goals and objectives.

Analyses by Goal

For each of the strategic goals where the Agency

anticipates significant impacts, we provide examples of the

types of EPA actions for which we expect significant

impacts. For each example, EPA has characterized the

costs and benefits as we know them today. In some cases,

we discuss significant rules that have already been

promulgated because their implementation is an important

component in achieving EPA’s strategic goals and they

demonstrate EPA’s commitment to performing benefit-cost

analysis.

Clean Air

The Office of Air and Radiation (OAR) estimates both

costs and benefits of regulations that are determined to be

economically significant under Executive Order 12866.

These analyses are prepared for the proposed rule and then

updated to reflect the requirements of the final rule.

Generally speaking, OAR evaluates three classes of

benefits: qualitative, quantitative and monetizable. In this

framework, OAR monetizes those benefits for which

sufficient information is available relating the pollutant

reductions resulting from an action to monetizable changes

in quality of life, presents information on quantifiable

changes in health or environmental values, and discusses

qualitatively those benefits OAR can neither quantify nor

monetize.

Monetizable benefits that OAR considers include

human health benefits, such as: reduced mortality and

morbidity from the inhalation of pollutants; reduced

cancer incidence rates; and reduced respiratory irritation

and disease. The benefits from these reduced health

effects arise from fewer deaths, lower hospital admissions,

improved worker productivity and attendance, and fewer

episodes of coughing and airway restrictions. OAR also

monetizes welfare benefits from improved crop yields;

reduced damage to grass, flowers, trees, shrubs, fruits, and

vegetables; reduced deposition of acidic elements into

water bodies, and improved visibility. When there is

insufficient information to place a monetary value on a

portion of the benefits, OAR provides a discussion of the

expected (quantified) reductions for these pollutants.

Qualitative discussions are presented for pollutants for

which OAR does not have enough scientific or economic

data to quantify, as well as some unquantified health

effects categories, or esthetic changes (e.g., odor, building

soiling and damage).

OAR's estimates of compliance costs include capital

investment for the purchase of pollution control equipment

or to alter production processes, annual operation and

maintenance costs, monitoring and inspection costs, and

administrative costs (e.g., reporting and record keeping).

OAR also measures any savings in the cost of production

that may result from a regulation. Examples of cost

savings include reduced energy usage, the recovery of

usable product, and the reduced cost of raw materials used

in the production process. These cost estimates are used

together with other economic information to evaluate the

economic impacts that result from the imposition of

pollution control requirements on an industry or other

economic entities such as communities. Examples of

economic impact measures include changes in social

welfare, price or rate increases, decreases in production,

job losses, facility closures, firm failures, and specific

effects on small business.

The list below identifies the regulations that OAR is

developing, or will soon start to develop, that are likely to

be considered economically significant -- that is, they

result in annual costs to affected parties of $100 million or

more or have other significant impacts. All of these

regulations have the potential to be assessed in terms of

the costs and benefits they create, with both aspects of the

analyses available for public review at proposal and

promulgation. The specific regulations that OAR has
EPA Strategic Plan

Benefits and Costs

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71

projected for possible development during the period

covered by this Strategic Plan include the following:

1. Review of National Ambient Air Quality

 Standards (NAAQS)

Under the requirements of the Clean Air Act to review

each NAAQS every 5 years, the following NAAQS

are targeted to be reviewed in the listed year to

determine whether they adequately protect human

health and the environment. This review involves

collecting and analyzing the most current studies on

the health and environmental effects of these

pollutants. As a result of this review, a decision is

made to revise or reaffirm the existing standard. If a

revision to the NAAQS is proposed, it has the

potential to be considered economically significant.

However, until the review is conducted and a

decision is made to revise or reaffirm, significance of

the estimates of costs and benefits is not known. The

standards that will be reviewed to determine if they

should be revised are for the Carbon Monoxide

(1999), SO2 and NO2 (2001), and Ozone and

Particulate Matter (2002) Standards.

2. Iron and Steel Foundries Maximum Achievable

 Control Technologies Standard

Development of a technology-based standard to

control air emissions from iron and steel foundries.

These foundries make metal castings by pouring

molten metal into a cavity. These castings are used

in virtually every industry. Because of the number

of facilities, this rule potentially could be

economically significant. This rule is scheduled for

promulgation by November 15, 2000. Since this rule

is in the pre-regulation development phase (data

gathering phase), costs and benefits cannot yet be

calculated.

3. Miscellaneous Organic National Emission

 Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants

Development of a technology based standard to

control air emissions from Miscellaneous Organic

Chemical Production Processes which consist of 21

source categories (e.g., Carbonyl Sulfide, Hydrazine,

Photographic and Rubber Chemicals, Paints and

Adhesives). Because of the number of source

categories and facilities, this rule could potentially

be economically significant. This rule is scheduled

for promulgation by November 15, 2000. Since this

rule is in the pre-regulation development phase (data

gathering phase), costs and benefits cannot yet be

calculated.

4. Large Spark-Ignition Non-Road Engines

OAR currently has no regulations affecting sparkignition (SI) nonroad engines above 25 hp. OAR

plans to assess the need for emission standards and

the appropriate levels and implementation dates of

these standards. This evaluation will begin in

FY1998. Costs and benefits will be determined as

part of any rulemaking undertaken to promulgate

standards. At this time, OAR has no cost or benefit

figures because no decision has been made regarding

the need for or the stringency of standards for large

nonroad SI engines.

5. Tier III Particulate Matter on Non-Road Diesel

 Engines

OAR plans to evaluate the need for, and, if warranted,

promulgate more stringent particulate matter (PM)

standards for nonroad diesel engines. Information

gathering for the evaluation will take place

beginning next year and a final rule is expected in

2001. New standards will likely be made effective

concurrent with the planned Tier 3 emission

standards for other pollutants in 2006-2008. Costs

and benefits will be determined as part of the

rulemaking process in 2001. At this time, OAR has

no cost or benefit figures because no decision has

been made regarding the need for or the stringency

of Tier 3 PM standards.

In pursuing its environmental goals, OAR is

committed to using flexible implementation

approaches that will achieve needed pollution

reductions at the lowest possible cost. Such

approaches include use of emissions trading and

other market-based methods, incentives for new

pollution-control technology, and federal/state

partnerships that both help the states find costeffective solutions and give them the flexibility to
EPA Strategic Plan

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72

design their own programs. These flexible

approaches will build on recent OAR market-based

successes such as the ground-breaking Acid Rain and

Stratospheric Ozone programs, as well as fruitful

partnerships such as the Ozone Transport

Assessment Group (OTAG) and the Grand Canyon

Visibility Transport Commission. Perhaps the most

far-reaching use of such flexible approaches is

planned for EPA's new air quality standards for

ozone and particulate matter, which will be

implemented with extensive use of both emissions

trading and federal/state partnerships to address the

long-standing problem of interstate pollution

transport.

Clean Water

The Office of Water (OW) estimates both costs and

benefits of regulations determined to be economically

significant regulations under E.O. 12866. These analyses

are prepared for the proposed rule and then updated to

reflect the requirements of the final rule. Generally

speaking, OW evaluates three classes of benefits -

qualitative, quantitative and monetizable. In this framework, OW: monetizes those benefits for which sufficient

information is available relating the pollutant reductions

resulting from an action to monetizable changes in quality

of life; presents information on quantifiable changes in

health or ecological values; and discusses qualitatively

those benefits OW can neither quantify nor monetize

(e.g., the aesthetics of clean water).

Monetizable benefits that OW considers include

human health benefits of fish and water consumption;

recreational benefits associated with boating, fishing, and

swimming; and values for people not directly using the

water (non-use or existence values). Quantifiable benefits

include measurable changes in plant and animal populations and species abundance. Qualitative benefits include

discussions of expected reductions in some health effects,

esthetic changes (odor, color) and changes in biotic

communities.

OW's estimates of compliance costs include both

capital investment and operation and maintenance costs.

OW also typically estimates the economic impacts that

result from the imposition of compliance costs on an

industry or set of entities, which may include facility

closures, firm failures, job losses and price or rate

increases. Specific examples of the benefit and cost

analyses that will be developed during the next few years

are presented below.

1. Disinfection By-Products, Stage I

This proposed rule addresses a subset of drinking

water by-products that are believed to cause long

term human health problems. When the rule was

proposed on July 29, 1994, OW estimated the

compliance costs to be $1.04 billion. OW's estimate

of the benefits extends from a low range of

$359,000-$867,000 to a high range of

$3.59 billion-$8.67 billion. OW expects to finalize

this rule in November 1998.

2. Interim Enhanced Surface Water Treatment

 Rule

This proposed rule addresses microbial risks to

drinking water system. This rule was proposed on

July 29, 1994. At proposal, the rule's estimated costs

were $393 million. The estimated benefits range

from $1.2 billion to $1.5 billion. OW expects to

finalize this rule in November 1998.

3. Great Lakes Water Quality Guidance

This rule establishes numeric criteria for human health,

aquatic life and wildlife in the Great Lakes basin.

The final rule was issued on March 23, 1995. The

guidance's estimated costs range between $60

million and $380 million. OW did not estimate total

benefits for this rule. However, OW conducted three

case studies to compare costs and benefits. For the

Fox River and Saginaw River case studies, benefits

exceeded costs. For the Black River case study,

costs were greater than benefits.

4. Metal Products and Machinery (MP&M)

 Effluent Guidelines, Phase I

Proposed on March 29, 1995, this rule addresses the

discharge of toxic pollutants to our Nation's surface

waters and to publicly owned treatment works. The

estimated costs are $160 million. The estimated

benefits for the MP&M rule range between $69.6
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million and $206.5 million. OW is planning to

combine Phase I and Phase II of this industry into

one rule, propose requirements for the combined

industry in October 2000 and issue the final rule in

December 2002.

Safe Food

EPA's Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) develops

few regulations that create economically significant

effects. The vast majority of OPP's regulatory actions deal

with registration of new pesticides and reregistration and

modified registrations of existing pesticides. Occasionally,

OPP will pursue suspensions or cancellation of currently

marketed pesticides.

The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide

Act (FIFRA) is a risk/benefit balancing statute so costs of

compliance, risk reduction characterizations, and impacts

to users are considered for significant registration

decisions and rules. EPA evaluates the risks and benefits

in a public interest finding for conditional registration of

new active ingredients which would permit earlier use of

the products. Grower benefits also are considered for

emergency exemptions. OPP has recently pursued

activities to reduce costs for registrants of pesticides.

Registration process improvements have accelerated the

consideration of current field data, such as percent of crop

treated, application rates and methods, and pesticide

monitoring residue levels, before requesting expensive

studies.

Preventing Pollution and

Reducing Risk

The use of pollution prevention strategies to achieve

the goal of preventing pollution in communities, homes,

workplaces and ecosystems enables the efficient reduction

of pollution by allowing flexibility in choice of approach.

Moving away from command and control regulatory

approaches, pollution prevention strategies afford

companies the advantage of meeting pollution reduction

goals in ways that are most cost-effective and appropriate

to their individual situation, allowing them to remain

competitive in their industry. Capital investment in

pollution prevention technologies is potentially less costly

than mandated control technologies because industry can

choose the technology that best meets its needs both in

terms of pollution reduction and cost; unnecessary

regulations that are costly to industry and society are

avoided. State of the art technologies, such as "greener"

chemicals, expand choices available to users of these

chemicals allowing them to free up resources to maintain

a competitive edge both domestically and internationally.

Companies achieving their goals are likely to receive

positive public and industry recognition that can translate

into increased business.

By meeting pollution goals via pollution prevention,

risk management and remediation strategies, research and

innovation in more efficient and cost-saving technologies

and strategies are encouraged. New industry and

economic growth may be stimulated. International

competitiveness can be enhanced as companies redirect

resources away from inefficient uses.

By decreasing pollution in communities, homes,

workplaces, and ecosystems, society will benefit from

reduced exposures to toxic chemicals and thus, enhanced

human and environmental well-being. This translates into

decreased health care costs, such as for treatment of

childhood lead poisoning and asthma-related illnesses.

Addressing these health concerns may also contribute to

increases in worker productivity and reductions in worker

absenteeism that result from individual and family illness.

Safe handling and use of pesticides as well as the use

of genetically engineered organisms can protect the
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environment, for instance, avoiding contamination of

water and soil and loss of wildlife and recreational value

of the natural environment. Decreases in the amount and

toxicity of waste can offer similar benefits, as well as free

up resources spent in waste clean-up for use elsewhere.

Addressing the most toxic and/or persistent and

bioaccumulative chemicals of hazardous waste helps to

target only pollutants with the greatest contribution toward

risk, thus efficiently protecting human health and the

environment while freeing up resources (public and

private) to address other environmental problems.

The Groundwater State Management Plan (SMP) Rule

is an example of innovative environmental regulation.

This Rule is designed to protect groundwater from

contamination of pesticides at levels that pose unreasonable risk to human health and the environment. This Rule

will delegate primary decision-making authority for

specific groundwater protection actions to the affected

states and EPA Regions. As such, the Rule per se does not

authorize any specific regulatory decisions and, therefore,

will not directly impose these costs. While this Rule has

considerable flexibility to allow states and Regions to

address local problems, EPA will provide the basic cost/

benefit parameters for states to apply to case specific

regulatory strategies.

The Agency's Regulatory Impact Assessment for the

proposed SMP rule estimated potential economic impacts

to agricultural users and consumers at approximately $250

million per year if states and Regions elect to impose

widespread pesticide use restrictions. The states and

Regions can determine an appropriate action based on the

available information about the costs and benefits

associated with alternative actions. We anticipate that the

expected benefits associated with any action taken will

outweigh the costs, and that this net benefit will also

compare favorably to those corresponding to alternative

actions. Because decisions are made on a case-by-case

basis, the Agency is unable to estimate what the costs and

benefits of these future decisions will be since it does not

know the scope and magnitude of present and future

groundwater contamination.

Better Waste Management,

Restoration of Contaminated Waste Sites, and

Emergency Response

The Office of Emergency and Remedial Response

(OERR) is conducting analyses of environmental, health

and economic benefits arising from remediation of

hazardous waste sites under CERCLA (Superfund). Many

of the studies will be based on extensive data being

collected for the more than 430 National Priority List

(NPL) sites where construction has been completed.

Individual analyses will focus on the benefits of avoiding

chronic and acute human health problems; increases in

property values; redevelopment benefits (e.g., jobs,

income, taxes); and benefits to industry, small businesses;

and communities. Some of these analyses are already

underway. For the remainder of FY 1997, EPA will

continue to support interagency efforts to develop a new,

standard cost-reporting format, called the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). Cost data recording using the

WBS format will be entered into the Historical Cost

Analysis System (HCAS) database. Both the WBS and

HCAS will help EPA assess Superfund cleanup costs and

improve future Superfund cleanup cost estimates. EPA

will set up a structure for this project and will evaluate

current data sources. Data collection is scheduled to

commence in FY 1998. Data analysis is scheduled to

commence in the middle of FY 1998.

The Office of Solid Waste is conducting a comprehensive assessment of the environmental, health, and human

welfare benefits deriving from implementation of

regulatory and non-regulatory programs under Subtitles C

and D of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act

(RCRA). The project will include review of benefits

assessments previously conducted for RCRA and other

environmental programs, identification and review of

methodologies for assessing benefits, evaluation of

advantages and disadvantages of these methodologies, and

implementation of the selected benefits assessment

methodology. The RCRA benefits project will be

conducted in phases, including planning, data collection,

data analysis, and publication of results. The planning

phase will result in a bibliographic list of relevant studies

and analyses, a literature review, alternative methodologies

for conducting the project, and a data collection plan. The
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planning phase will be completed by the end of September

1997. Specific outputs and schedules for the other phases

have not been finalized.

An example of a specific rule that the Agency plans to

promulgate to achieve its waste management goal is the

Corrective Action Rule for Solid Waste Management

Units. The rule would provide a broad procedural and

protectiveness framework for remediation at RCRA

treatment, storage, and disposal facilities. As the majority

of States are authorized for corrective action, the program

is predominantly implemented at the State level; this rule

would provide a Federal baseline with which State

programs must comply. The corrective action rule was

proposed in 1990, and is scheduled for promulgation in

late 1998.

The total costs for as many as 5,800 facilities requiring

corrective action are estimated at $16.7 billion or less than

$300,000 per facility. The Agency evaluated the costs for

three additional regulatory options (two options which are

less stringent than the proposed rule requirements, and one

which is more stringent). These options were designed to

cover a range of alternatives with estimated total costs

ranging from $9.1 billion to $57.3 billion. The Agency

also examined six types of benefits of the proposed

corrective action rule, including human health risk

reduction, averted water use costs, nonuse benefits, effects

of facilities on residential property values, and increases in

facility values. In addition, the Agency examined

ecological threats existing under baseline conditions.

While a host of issues surround these benefit measures and

how they compare with the compliance costs, the Agency

believes that benefits outweigh the costs, and thus intends

to move forward with a final rule. Prior to issuing a final

rule, the Agency plans to perform further analysis of the

social impacts.

The Chemical Emergency Preparedness and Prevention Office (CEPPO) has prepared a comprehensive costbenefit analysis of the Accidental Release Prevention

Requirements rule for Risk Management Programs

(RMPs) under Section 112(r) of the Clean Air Act

Amendments of 1990. The analysis compares the costs of

alternative regulatory approaches with the benefits of

preventing accidental releases of hazardous substances.

CEPPO was able to reduce the initial cost burden imposed

by the proposed rule by 67 percent through streamlining,

building on existing regulatory requirements, and scaling

new requirements to the level of complexity and hazards.

The benefits include a reduction in damages or costs

associated with accidental releases of hazardous substances, including threats to human health (death or

injury), responses to these threats (evacuations, sheltering

in place), threats to the environment, and economic

damages (lost production, property damages, and

litigation). The analysis revealed that the benefits of

RMPs administered by CEPPO outweigh the costs

imposed by the rule.

Reduction of Global and

Cross-Border Environmental Risk

Many of the objectives spelled out under Goal #6

(specifically, preservation of health and the environment in

the Arctic, toxic risk reduction, marine pollution, cleaner

and more cost-effective environmental practices and

technologies, and some components of the U.S./Canada

program) fall below the $100 million economically

significant cost threshold. Listed below are several

international programs with significant effects that will be

pursued by EPA during the next several years.

1. U.S./Mexico Border

Given the non-regulatory nature of EPA's work along

the U.S./Mexico border, the Agency has not

conducted any supporting benefit-cost analysis.

However, during the NAFTA negotiations in 1993,

various governmental and non-governmental

organizations estimated the total costs for

environmental infrastructure needs (including

drinking water systems, wastewater collection and

treatment, and solid waste disposal) at $6 to $8

billion over the ten-year period (1993-2003). These

investments will help address the critical need to

provide safe drinking water, acceptable treatment

and disposal of sewage, and adequate solid waste

practices in the Border region.

2. U.S./Canada

The total cost of EPA's Acid Deposition Control

Program under Title IV of the Clean Air Act is

estimated at $2.4 billion per year beginning with full
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implementation in the year 2010. An EPA study

issued in November 1995, Human Health Benefits

From Sulfate Reductions Under Title IV of the 1990

Clean Air Act Amendments, estimates the total

annual value of the health benefits in the United

States (in 1994 dollars) resulting from Title IV's

sulfate reductions. The study estimates the value to

be between $3 billion and $11 billion in 1997, and

between $12 billion and $40 billion by 2010.

3. Stratospheric Ozone Depletion

The phaseout of ozone-depleting substances under the

Montreal Protocol (and associated regulations

implemented by EPA under the Clean Air Act

Amendments of 1990) was designed to occur over

many years, beginning in 1989 and resulting in the

elimination of production and import of many ozonedepleting substances by January 1, 1996. The longterm economic benefits to the United States of

preventing deaths from skin cancer and avoiding

other health and environmental damage by phasing

out the production and import of ozone-depleting

substances are estimated to be dramatically significant over the time period 1989 to 2075 compared

with costs of the program.

Expansion of Americans’

Right to Know About Their

Environment

EPA has placed increased emphasis on enhancing

Americans' right to know about information concerning

our food, drinking water, air, homes and communities.

Improving the access to and quality of environmental

information allows the public, government agencies, and

industry, to make more efficient decisions. EPA is

committed to developing and making easily available

environmental and public health information throughout

its programs. With exception of the Toxic Release

Inventory (TRI), the Agency expects few right-to-know

initiatives to impose significant costs on the public.

The Toxic Release Inventory (TRI), created by

Congress under the Emergency Planning and Community

Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) of 1986, is the cornerstone

of EPA's right to-know efforts. TRI requires manufacturers

to report air, water, and land releases of more than 600

designated toxic chemicals to EPA each year. Manufacturing facilities are also required to report on shipments of

waste off-site for treatment or disposal, as well as on their

pollution prevention activities, on-site waste treatment,

and chemical recycling. With TRI data, concerned

citizens, local communities, and government can work

with local industrial facilities to better understand toxic

chemical release, to reduce those releases, and to improve

chemical storage and handling practices.

TRI data has helped companies interested in reducing

their releases to adopt pollution prevention strategies,

including redesigning production processes to improve

efficiencies and create less waste. Among the industrial

sectors that have achieved the greatest reductions in TRI

chemical releases between 1988 and 1993 are the chemical

industry, with reductions of more than one billion pounds,

or 44 percent; the electrical utility industry which reported

reductions of 86 million pounds, or 69 percent; and the

primary metals manufacturing industry, whose total

releases fell by 237 million pounds, or 42 percent between

1988 and 1993. In 1997, the Agency greatly enhances the

level of TRI information available to society by expanded

TRI reporting to additional industries. The result will be

an additional 42,500 reports from 6,600 facilities every

year.

More than 90,000 TRI reports are submitted each year

by more than 25,000 facilities. TRI compliance costs

industry $352 million each year for completing and

submitting reports for the more than 600 chemicals on the

TRI. EPA recently implemented changes to the program

which resulted in annual savings of approximately $38

million (including savings to EPA of $2.2 million in

administration costs). EPA spends $13.6 million each year

to administer the TRI. The recent expansion to additional

industrial sectors is estimated to cost $226 million in the

first year, dropping to $143 million per year thereafter.

Because TRI -- with its emphasis on the power of

information instead of command and control regulation --

has proven to be a successful tool, EPA is applying the

right-to-know concept in other areas. In 1997 EPA

launched the Center for Environmental Information and

Statistics (CEIS) to provide the public with easy access to

understandable information on drinking water quality, air

quality, beach contamination and other environmental
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conditions. A key component of CEIS is to integrate the

Agency's existing environmental data, increasing their

efficiency and utility to the public, as well as to the

Agency and other governmental entities.

Another component of EPA's right-to-know strategy is

the Environmental Monitoring for Public Access and

Community Tracking (EMPACT) initiative. Collaborating

with other federal agencies, EMPACT will improve data

collection and integration and foster the development of

more effective environmental monitoring technologies.

EMPACT is a community-based right-to-know effort that

will target real-time, automated environmental information

delivery to at least the 75 largest metropolitan areas in the

country.
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Overall Mission:

Key Cross-Agency

Programs New Ways of Achieving

Our Overall Mission:

Key Cross-Agency

Programs

Although EPA and its partners

 have made substantial

progress towards clean air, water,

land and food, there are many human

health and environmental challenges

that cannot be met with traditional

media-specific “command and

control” approaches.
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Specific human health, environmental and customer

service commitments for these programs are identified

within the objectives or activities under each of the 10

Agency Goals. However, because these cross-Agency

programs are critical to achieving our mission, we have

chosen to highlight and describe them in this chapter.

The key cross-agency programs covered in this

section are:

 • Health Risks to Children

 • National Environmental Performance

 Partnership System

 • Community-Based Environmental Protection

 • Indian Programs

 • Customer Service

 • Environmental Justice

HEALTH RISKS TO CHILDREN

The Children's Health Protection

 Program and Its Goal

Administrator Browner announced EPA's National

Agenda to Protect Children's Health from Environmental

Threats in September 1996, and established a new Office

of Children's Health Protection (OCHP). The purpose of

EPA's new office is to make the protection of children's

health a fundamental goal of public health and environmental protection in the U.S.

 Why Protecting Children’s Health is

 Important

Children today face significant and unique health

threats from a range of environmental hazards. They are

often more heavily exposed and more vulnerable than

adults to toxins in the environment. This includes risks

from asthma-exacerbating air pollution, lead-based paint

New Ways of Achieving Our Overall

Mission: Key Cross-Agency Programs

Although EPA and its partners have made substantial progress towards clean air, water, land and

food, there are many human health and environmental challenges that cannot be met with traditional media-specific “command and control” approaches. For example, it has been demonstrated

that children, American Indians, and minority and low income individuals suffer disproportionately

from adverse health effects caused by some environmental conditions. Likewise, not all areas of

the country have the same environmental problems or need the same kind of solutions. To address

these specific needs as we move forward over the next five years, the Agency has created a number

of innovative multimedia programs that rely on the active participation of the affected communities

to reduce specific human health and environmental risks in the most effective manner. Similarly,

improved customer service has been targeted as an important program that integrates all of our

efforts under each of the 10 goals to satisfy our customers and stakeholders.
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Programs

in older homes, treatment-resistant microbes in drinking

water, and persistent chemicals that may cause cancer or

induce reproductive or developmental changes. Children's

developing immune and nervous systems can be highly

vulnerable to disruption by toxins in the environment, and

the consequences may be lifelong.

What Will Be Accomplished

The Agency will work with our partners, especially

those in the Department of Health and Human Services, to

ensure that children receive the protection they need and

deserve, and to help our nation fulfill its obligation to

protect future generations. EPA will:

• Ensure that EPA health standards are protective of

children, beginning with a review of five of the most

significant current EPA standards, and subsequently

establishing procedures for review of new standards

as they are developed.

• Coordinate children's health issues across the

Agency by establishing a new EPA Board on

Children's Environmental Health that will assure

integration of EPA activities affecting children, and

by working with the Agency's Science Policy

Council, Regulatory Policy Council, and program

and regional offices to coordinate regulatory and

other actions that affect children's health.

• Conduct research needed to establish new policies

on children's susceptibility and exposure to

pollutants to ensure that EPA uses the best

information in developing protective measures for

children. EPA researchers will work with other

federal agencies and academic institutions to identify

and expand research on children's health. EPA will

develop new, comprehensive policies that address

children's cumulative and simultaneous exposures to

environmental health threats, and will develop a

research agenda on children's environmental health

issues.

• Expand EPA’s “Community Right-to-Know” and

environmental education activities to better cover

children's health issues. EPA will carry out a

“Family Right-to-Know Initiative” to expand access

to vital information about environmental pollution

and children's health, so that families can make

informed choices concerning their children’s

exposure to environmental risks.

• Implement the President's 1997 Executive Order to

Protect Children from Environmental Health and

Safety Threats. EPA will ensure that new policies,

programs, activities, or standards address the unique

risks to children presented by environmental health

or safety threats.

• Ensure the implementation of the 1997 Declaration

on Children's Environmental Health. This

Declaration, agreed to by the environment ministers

from the G-7 countries and Russia, makes the

protection of children's environmental health a high

environmental priority within each participating

nation.

How It Will Be Accomplished

EPA will promote children’s health protection in the

following ways:

• Conduct a review of existing standards as candidates

for revision in order to identify at least five standards

to better address children's health issues.

• Improve the regulatory system by making

consideration of children's health protection an

intrinsic part of the process of developing

regulations.

• Provide input on research budgets, ensure

independent peer review of cross-Agency science

agendas, and improve linkages between basic

research and public health and environmental

policies that affect children.

• Serve as an advocate for children's risk issues.

• Identify and expand scientific research on childspecific susceptibility and exposure to environmental

pollutants so that the best information can be

employed in developing protections for children.

• Provide parents, teachers, and environmental and

health professionals with information so they can

take individual responsibility for protecting their

children from environmental health threats in their

homes, schools, and communities.
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• Encourage and assist program and regional offices in

forging links with external partners and communities

on children's environmental health policy issues.

NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL

PERFORMANCE PARTNERSHIP

SYSTEM (NEPPS)

NEPPS and Its Goal

Most of the nation's environmental laws envision a

strong role for state governments in implementing and

managing environmental programs. As state environmental authority and management capacity have grown over

the past two decades, EPA has delegated primary

responsibility to states for implementation of many day-today environmental program activities such as issuing

permits, conducting compliance and enforcement

programs, and monitoring environmental conditions.

Direct administration of environmental programs by states,

with EPA oversight to ensure compliance with federal

statutes and achievement of national objectives, has

brought about significant environmental improvement

throughout the country. In short, state performance is

fundamental to the achievement of EPA's goals and

objectives.

Why NEPPS is Important

During the past two decades, environmental and

human health protection programs have grown in size,

scope, and complexity. Many environmental problems

transcend media boundaries, and solutions may require

innovative, cross-media approaches. However, traditional

media-specific grants for air, water, hazardous waste, and

other pollution control activities provide limited flexibility

for states to try integrated approaches. Meanwhile, some

EPA oversight practices resulted in duplication of effort,

burdensome reporting, and unproductive relationships.

EPA and states came to recognize that existing arrangements for implementing environmental programs were not

as efficient and effective as they could be.

It is within this context that EPA and state officials

began a collective effort to reinvent the EPA-state working

relationship. After two years of collaboration, EPA and

state leaders reached an important milestone in May 1995,

when they agreed to establish the National Environmental

Performance Partnership System (NEPPS). Many of the

concepts embodied in performance partnerships that had

been discussed for years--such as giving states a stronger

role in priority setting, focusing scarce resources on the

highest priorities, and tailoring the amount and type of

EPA oversight to an individual state's performance--were

pulled together into a workable, understandable framework. Implementation of performance partnerships began

in FY 1997 after an initial pilot year.

The President's "performance partnership" reinvention

initiative, announced in February 1995, provides for

increased flexibility in how a program is run in exchange

for increased accountability for results. In accord with this

initiative, EPA has a new performance partnership grant

authority that is a critical tool for implementation of the

new approach to EPA-state relations. Under this authority,

states can now combine funds from multiple EPA grants to

address their highest environmental priorities across all

media; link program activities more effectively with

environmental goals and program outcomes; and carry out

innovative pollution prevention, cross media, ecosystem,

and community-based strategies.
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What Will Be Accomplished

The objectives of the National Environmental

Performance Partnership System (NEPPS) are to:

• Target activities where they are likely to achieve the

greatest environmental and human health benefits,

based on an assessment of environmental conditions

and needs.

• Change the way we evaluate environmental and

human health programs by increasing the use of

actual measures of environmental and health

conditions, achieving a better balance with traditional

program activity measures.

• Expand the number and type of protection strategies

available to include more integrated and flexible

approaches such as pollution prevention, ecosystem

management, and cross media permitting and

compliance assurance.

• Promote greater collaboration in solving environmental problems whereby states and EPA work together

more effectively, taking advantage of the relative

strengths of each partner.

• Tailor the amount and type of EPA oversight to the

strengths and needs of individual states, with less

EPA engagement in more experienced states and

more involvement in states with developing

programs.

• Understand the results of protection efforts, inform

the public about environmental and human health

conditions and the strategies for resolving remaining

problems, and foster public involvement.

How This Will Be Accomplished

EPA will, in collaboration with the States:

• Develop policies, guidance documents, and training

materials as needed to enhance EPA and state

capacity to implement elements of the performance

partnership system.

• Negotiate performance partnership agreements with

states that define the roles and responsibilities of both

EPA and states.

• Award performance partnership grants to interested

states, providing for flexibility in how environmental

programs are carried out with increased accountability for results.

• Continue to refine and use improved measures of

environmental and program performance and strive to

reduce the state reporting burden.

• Foster EPA and state efforts to make environmental

and human health information more available and

understandable to the public.

• Evaluate and report nationally on progress in meeting

the goals and objectives of performance partnerships.

COMMUNITY-BASED

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

Summary of the Community-Based

Environmental Protection Program

and Its Goal

Community-based environmental protection (CBEP) is

a main tenet of the Agency's strategy for "reinventing" its

approach to environmental protection by considering

environmental problems across organizational and

legislative boundaries. CBEP is a multimedia approach

(sometimes called a "place-based" or ecosystem approach)

that helps communities identify environmental problems,
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set priorities, and forge solutions through an open,

inclusive process. It integrates environmental protection

with human needs, considers long-term ecosystem health,

and fosters linkages between economic prosperity and

environmental well-being. It encourages communities to

create their vision of environmental health and quality of

life and to stimulate human activity compatible with that

vision.

CBEP has been implemented in varying ways in

different places, but it usually includes the following:

identifying the geographic area that is the focus of

environmental protection efforts (commonly using natural

boundaries or ecological features); involving diverse

stakeholders in developing a vision, goals, priorities, and

strategies; assessing the local ecological, human health,

economic, and socio-cultural aspects of the community

that relate to the environment; developing a plan to

improve these conditions in a sustainable manner; and

taking actions to address the place based problems and

goals. These actions include a wide array of voluntary,

technical, educational, and regulatory activities. CBEP

also incorporates monitoring conditions, evaluating

results, and redirecting efforts through adaptive management.

The overall goal of CBEP is to protect, restore, and

sustain the quality of the nation's land, air, water, and

living resources--in each place as a whole--in ways that

help ensure long-term social, economic, ecological, and

human health benefits for ourselves and future generations.

Why CBEP is Important

 In the quarter-century since EPA was established, the

U.S. has achieved remarkable improvements in environmental quality as a result of federal, state, tribal, and local

actions to reduce the level of pollutants in the nation's air,

water, and on land. However, these pollutants continue to

threaten public health and the environment, and the causes

of environmental pollution and ecological degradation

today are different from earlier decades--as is the social,

political, and economic context in which they occur. These

changes require new and innovative solutions to environmental problems.

Today, environmental protection focuses on nonpoint

source water pollution, region-wide air pollution,

restoration and redevelopment of hazardous waste sites,

urban sprawl, habitat loss, biological diversity, global

climate change, and the exchange of pollutants among air,

land, and water. Traditional, media-specific "commandand-control" approaches alone will not solve these

intractable problems. Government agencies and the public

increasingly recognize that all resources in a particular

place--air, water, land, and living resources--are interconnected parts of a single system that need to be addressed as

a whole at the local level. Not all areas of the country have

the same problems or need the same kind of solutions.

Effective solutions to environmental problems require the

involvement of members of the community to develop the

goals and monitor progress toward improving the quality

of their lives and environment. Past experiences that

demonstrate the success of place- or community-based

environmental protection include Congressionally

mandated programs (National Estuary Program, Great

Lakes, Clean Lakes, Chesapeake Bay) and EPA initiatives

and approaches (Regional Geographic Initiative, watershed approach).

What Will Be Accomplished

Through CBEP, communities will be empowered to

address their environmental, economic, and social needs

using effective partnerships, improved communication,

and greater access to high quality data, information, and

tools. EPA objectives for CBEP include:

• Identifying and reducing environmental stressors

that affect human health and quality of life.

• Preventing fragmentation and degradation of habitat

and restoring its quality.

• Sustaining biodiversity and healthy ecosystem

processes at a regional scale.

• Maintaining vibrant, livable, and economically

diverse human communities.

• Incorporating community and stakeholder goals and

values in the design and implementation of

environmental protection initiatives (especially in

disproportionately impacted and disadvantaged

communities).

• Increasing the number of communities achieving
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tangible environmental outcomes through the CBEP

approach.

• Incorporating CBEP goals, objectives, principles,

strategies, and performance measures into all EPA,

state, and tribal policies and program activities.

How It Will Be Accomplished

EPA will promote its CBEP approach through three

principal strategies:

(1) Reorienting and Building the Capacity of EPA

Programs for CBEP. EPA will implement policy and

rule revisions, establish education and training

programs, identify and leverage resources, and use

other appropriate measures to integrate the principles

of CBEP into all Agency programs.

(2) Building External Capacity. EPA will improve

community and public access to environmental,

economic, and societal data, information, tools, and

training for CBEP. In addition, EPA grants will

serve as a catalyst for state, tribal, and local CBEP

efforts.

(3) Working in Priority Places. EPA will be

involved directly with stakeholders through the

community-based approach in high-priority

locations.

In taking a CBEP approach, EPA will improve the

effectiveness of our environmental programs and regulations. Community-based environmental protection will be

implemented through the following actions:

• Integrating geographically the delivery of our

services and programs, such as issuing permits and

integrating program-specific data.

• Looking beyond our current statutory authorities and

programs to address problems that cannot be solved

by our traditional regulatory approach.

• Creating the flexibility to respond to the needs of

diverse ecosystems and human communities and

help communities reach informed decisions.

• Assessing and managing aggregate data on the

quality of air, water, land, and living resources in a

locality.

• Ensuring that our programs and activities promote

sustainable human, economic, and ecological

communities.

• Increasing our efficiency and effectiveness by

building partnerships with other federal, state, tribal,

and local government agencies; leveraging

resources; and developing better ways of informing,

assisting and involving the public we serve.

INDIAN PROGRAM

The EPA Indian Program and its Goal

The EPA Indian Program involves significant crossAgency and multimedia activities designed to ensure that

EPA's Trust responsibility to federally-recognized tribes is

carried out by assuring the protection of human health,

and the tribal homeland environment, in a manner

consistent with a government-to-government relationship

and conservation of cultural uses of natural resources.

Importance Of The Indian Program

The responsibilities of the Indian program include

protecting the health of the millions of Indians and nonIndians residing within Indian Country borders, addressing

the environmental needs of 562 tribal nations, and

safeguarding the natural environment--air, water, and

land--of Indian Country. The responsibility held by EPA is

critical. American Indians have the worst health statistics
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in the country and, overall, environmental conditions of

tribal homelands are substandard. Environmental

mitigation in tribal communities is significantly behind

that of non-tribal communities. It is imperative that EPA

enhance its partnership with the tribes and work with

tribes to identify and achieve environmental goals.

What Will Be Accomplished

Key objectives within this process are:

• Achieve adequate environmental infrastructure

within tribal homelands throughout the country.

• Complete the Tribal/EPA Environmental

Agreements. These agreements contain the tribal

environment baseline assessment, tribal

environmental priorities identified by the tribal

government, and EPA's and tribes’ commitments to

achieve these priorities.

• Implement fully the 1984 EPA Indian Policy

Statement.

• Increase significantly the number of tribes

implementing environmental programs.

• Implement environmental programs (federal or

tribal) within tribal homelands that meet needs

established by tribal environmental baseline

assessments.

• Build capacity and adequate internal mechanisms to

help tribes implement environmental programs and,

in the absence of tribal implementation, establish

means for EPA implementation.

• Establish a mechanism, in partnership with tribal and

state governments, to resolve transboundary issues.

How It Will Be Accomplished

These objectives can be met through a combination of:

• Increased tribal capacity-building efforts.

• Greater implementation of environmental programs

within tribal homelands.

• Expanded education for EPA employees regarding

tribal environmental issues.

• Increased technical assistance and training for tribal

environmental program managers.

• Continued cross-Agency, multimedia coordination of

Indian program activities by the American Indian

Environmental Office.

• Improved coordination with tribes to achieve

environmental goals and priorities identified by

tribal governments in the Tribal/EPA Environmental

Agreements.

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

Environmental Justice and Its Goal

Although EPA has made significant progress in

achieving healthier, sustainable environments, we

recognize that environmental programs during the past two

decades may not always have benefitted all communities

or all populations within a community equally. Many

minority, low income, and Native American communities

have raised concerns that they suffer a disproportionate

burden of health consequences due to the siting of multiple

pollution sources in their communities. Environmental

programs do not adequately address these disproportionate

exposures to pesticides, lead or other toxic chemicals at

home and on the job. In addition, these communities seem

to lack adequate knowledge and representation in public

policy and environmental decision-making processes. The

goals of the environmental justice program are to ensure

that all people, regardless of race or income, are protected

from disproportionate impacts of environmental hazards

and that the most affected communities have adequate

opportunities to participate in environmental processes.
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The Importance of Environmental Justice

In 1994, President Clinton issued Executive Order

12898, which required "each Federal Agency to make

achieving environmental justice part of its mission by

identifying and addressing, as appropriate, disproportionately high and adverse human health and environmental

effects of its programs, policies and activities on minority

populations and low-income populations." EPA was

designated as the lead agency accomplishing this.

What Will Be Accomplished

To meet our environmental justice objectives, EPA will:

• Ensure that communities most disproportionately

impacted by toxic releases and hazards receive fair

and equal protection under environmental laws.

• Encourage citizens in adversely impacted

communities to become fully engaged in

environmental decisions affecting them.

• Achieve source reductions in high risk communities.

How it Will be Accomplished

EPA over the next five years will:

• Develop and enhance existing tools to identify

communities most disproportionately impacted by

toxic releases and hazards.

• Reduce toxic releases and hazards by eliminating

sources of pollution and targeting specific activities

to reduce toxic exposure, increase enforcement, and

cleanup high risk communities.

• Enhance community participation in environmental

programs by increasing education, technical, and

financial assistance to high risk communities and

assessing the effectiveness of communication and

participation strategies.

• Evaluate the effectiveness of communities in

identifying local environmental issues and

participating in the decisions affecting them.

• Continue collaboration and coordination between

EPA and other federal agencies, and expand

partnership opportunities for addressing

environmental justice issues.

• Integrate environmental justice issues into program

operations, Regional Memoranda of Agreement, and

State Performance Partnership Agreements.
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CUSTOMER SERVICE PROGRAM

The Customer Service Program and its Goal

EPA seeks ways to provide better customer service as

defined by Executive Order 12862, "Setting Customer

Service Standards," signed by President Clinton in 1993.

EPA's Customer Service Program (CSP) was created to

improve the Agency's ability to achieve its mission of

protecting human health and the environment by serving

the public, industry, state and local agencies, and other

customers more efficiently and effectively.

 To achieve this goal, the Agency has developed

"Rules of Customer Service" that address professionalism,

telephone and correspondence response, public involvement, and dealing with partners in service delivery.

Customer service standards also are provided to guide

activities associated with permitting, rulemaking,

enforcement and compliance assistance, partnership

programs, public access, research grants, state/tribal and

local grants, and pesticides registration. By 2003, all EPA

staff will receive needed training and will have achieved

the customer service standards that apply to their work.

Importance of Improving Customer Service

Implementing the CSP will establish stronger

connections between our employees and their customers,

encourage input on what our customers need and value,

and improve how we do our work. Listening to customers'

needs and opinions will shift our focus to products and

services, their outcomes and value to the public, and the

quality and value we provide. Over time, shifting to a

customer focus will help us reduce dissatisfaction with

government and improve efficiency. In essence, good

customer service is important because it promotes

activities that create efficiency in meeting environmental

goals and establishes a culture that not only builds public

trust, but also verifies the reasons we are here.

As EPA becomes more focused on customers, we will

seek ways to improve staff skills, promote better use of

program evaluation and measurement tools, and recognize

opportunities to learn from our partners and customers.

With customers as our focus, EPA can improve communication and information systems, and train staff to be fully

responsive to customer needs. As we improve relationships

with our regulatory partners, the public, industry, and

others, EPA can expect to reduce complaints, increase trust

in the Agency, and improve staff morale.

What Will Be Accomplished

The customer service strategy is centered upon five

objectives:

• Helping all EPA employees understand the

importance and substantial benefits of improving

service to the public.

• Providing employees with goals and guidelines for

improvement and involving them in eliminating

barriers to achieving standards.

• Training to build capacity, achieve the standards, and

apply effective customer-service skills.

• Developing measurement and tracking systems to

document improvements in service.

• Learning how to increase satisfaction with our

services and our treatment of customers.

How It Will Be Accomplished

To achieve these five objectives, EPA will disseminate

information about the standards, their potential impact,

and the importance of their implementation. Cross-Agency

groups of employees who deal with the public will identify

problems and solutions as we implement the new

standards. A customer service suggestion e-mail box has

been established, and a customer service skills training

program is planned. Customer satisfaction surveys will be

used to obtain feedback, and their results will be shared

widely with employees so they can better meet customer

needs. Through a network of other federal agencies and

outstanding customer service organizations in the private

sector, EPA will identify, adopt, and adapt "best practices"

to our own processes.
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Assessing Our Results

This chapter addresses the

final element of EPA’s planning, budgeting, analysis, and accountability process: our approach

to evaluating and reporting progress

towards goals and objectives. The

accountability process will support

Agency managers, the Administration, Congress, and the public in

assessing our results and making

informed decisions about the direction of the Agency’s work.
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Assessing Our Results

This chapter addresses the final element of EPA's planning, budgeting, analysis, and

accountability process: the Agency’s approach to evaluating and reporting progress

towards goals and objectives. The accountability process will support Agency managers,

the Administration, Congress, and the public in assessing program results and making

informed decisions about the direction of the Agency's work. Sections of this chapter

describe how EPA and its partners will: (1) document progress in terms of annual

accomplishments and longer-term environmental results; (2) conduct program evaluations; (3) and communicate information to the public about the state of the environment.

The Agency is committed to accomplishing these objectives while reducing reporting

burdens on industry and the public.

 An effective accountability process not only provides

feedback on the success of specific programs, but also

introduces a higher level of integrity into planning and

budgeting by holding managers responsible for performance. By analyzing actual performance and costs, the

Agency can make better estimates so that planning and

budgeting become more accurate and reliable. Using a

business analogy, the accountability process provides a

way for decision makers to determine return on public

investments and weigh investment options.

The accountability process will involve annual

program performance reports, longer-term assessments of

progress towards strategic objectives, and program

evaluations. Annual reports will track whether activities

and short-term accomplishments take place as planned,

documenting financial investments and results data in one

report. The annual performance goals in the annual report

specify how our longer-term objectives are expressed in

the day-to-day activities of our programs. Annual

performance goals are expressed in terms that allow

comparisons between planned and actual performance.

Over time, we will assess how much cleaner the air, water,

and land are becoming, and how much risks to human

health and ecosystems are being reduced. Program

evaluations will provide a detailed examination of

relationships between activities and results for a given

program. This will help EPA to document strategies that

have worked well or, if timely progress is not being made,

to analyze what is not occurring as expected and decide

how we may need to change strategies.

What Will Be Accomplished

EPA will implement a prototype of an integrated

planning, budgeting, analysis, and accountability system

in FY 1999. The Agency will produce its initial performance report in March 2000.

Strategies for Meeting the Above Accomplishment

• We will work with internal and external stakeholders

to design the accountability system.

• The design will identify/incorporate linkages to

other Agency accountability efforts.

• We will rely, as much as possible, on existing sources

of environmental data and determine whether the

data are adequate to evaluate program effectiveness.

• In evaluating programs, we will explore ways to

incorporate risk reduction and consideration of costs

into setting Agency priorities.

• We will continuously foster development of outcome

oriented performance measures.

• EPA will include external assessments of Agency

efforts to better inform our self-evaluations.
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Performance Measures

The key to EPA's accountability system will be

developing sound performance measures: results or

activities we will track to determine whether we are

making timely progress towards our objectives. The

objectives vary in the types of outcomes they address.

Most focus on environmental results, but some address

activities and services, such as improving cost effectiveness and customer focus in providing assistance or

information to the public, states, tribes, and local governments. A critical step will be to develop practical

performance measures for all our strategic objectives.

There will be trade-offs in selecting the most costeffective measures; for example, in obtaining accurate

information on environmental results while avoiding

unreasonable reporting burdens for states or regulated

entities. In recent years, we have invested in better

systems for collecting and analyzing environmental data,

and more work is planned to provide the data needed to

assess performance as required by GPRA.

Need for Performance Measures Along

Continuum from Activities to Results

EPA and its partners will need various types of

measures, ranging from tabulations of annual activities to

reports on environmental quality and health and ecological

effects. Environmental performance measures are often

described as being arrayed along a “continuum,” from

activity measures at one extreme to ultimate health and

ecological effects at the other. The less expensive

measures typically are activity measures and less direct

environmental indicators. The most direct indicators reveal

more about environmental results, but can be expensive

and technically difficult to collect.

Terminology for Performance Measures

Measures of actions taken by EPA are referred to here

as “activity measures,” which correspond to “output”

measures as defined in GPRA. Actions taken by others in

response to EPA’s activities are one type of “outcome” as

defined in GPRA, and impacts on environmental quality,

human health, and ecosystems are another type of

“outcome.” EPA and state environmental agencies

distinguish the two: activities of other entities in response

to EPA are “program outcomes,” while measures of

changes in environmental conditions are “environmental

indicators.” Environmental indicators can be further

categorized into less direct indicators—air, water, or

terrestrial pollutant levels—and more direct indicators,

such as human health effects or conditions of plant and

animal life.

Developing Better Performance Measures

In general, we will be able to report immediately on

the activities accomplished to support our objectives.

Initially, we will be unable to report "outcome" measures

for all objectives. For some objectives with environmental

outcomes, this will require advances in environmental

monitoring or data analysis. EPA, the states, other federal

agencies, and academia have made significant efforts

recently to catalog existing environmental data and fill

data gaps to improve the national information base on

environmental quality and impacts on health and ecosystems. This is a continuing process, and we will draw on

the best measures available at the time.

To meet the obligation under GPRA, EPA is involved

in ongoing efforts to develop information necessary to

accurately evaluate Agency progress in achieving each of

its strategic goals and objectives. The Agency is evaluating

information resources relative to information needs and

priorities at the national, regional, state, and community

levels. Activities in this area include developing descriptive profiles and conducting peer reviewed statistical

assessments of twenty-five national environmental

databases maintained by EPA; developing an Agency-wide

monitoring strategy to link future environmental monitoring with the Agency's strategic goals and objectives; and
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identifying, evaluating and implementing the most

promising advanced environmental monitoring and

information communication technologies.

Data gaps and data quality issues related to performance measures are being identified to guide federal,

state, industry, academic and community investments in

improving information. For example, the Executive

Steering Committee for Information Resources Management has allocated funds for specific projects targeted at

filling data gaps in program offices’ abilities to report on

“environmental results.” Some individual program offices

are investing in initiatives to improve collection and

availability of environmental data.

EPA and its partners also need to develop further

performance measures for objectives that lack direct

environmental results. For such objectives, we will

develop measures reflecting the important results or

outcomes that are to be accomplished. These may address

a wide range of factors, such as creating specified,

quantifiable products, measures of customer satisfaction,

quality of services provided, or timeliness of processes

performed for customers, partners and the public.

Through the Agency's Planning, Budgeting, Analysis

and Accountability process, the Agency will work with its

partners to continuously evaluate the availability and

quality of data to track progress in achieving EPA's

strategic goals and objectives. The Planning, Budgeting,

Analysis and Accountability process will enable the

Agency to assess the practicality and feasibility of

collecting environmental data for strategic performance

evaluation and make appropriate adjustments in monitoring and reporting strategies and performance goals.

Performance Measures Developed Jointly

with the States/Tribes

EPA’s national program priorities are reflected in the

Headquarters/Regional memoranda of agreement (MOA).

The MOAs contain commitments negotiated between

headquarters and the regions, thereby establishing the

scope of activities to be carried out. The regions, in turn,

use the national priorities to align their negotiations with

the states. As indicated earlier, state governments have

primary responsibility for implementing most environmental programs. While some EPA responsibilities, such as

preparing regulations and providing technical support,

require work not directly linked to state activities, our

success in meeting our objectives will depend largely on

programs carried out by the states, tribes, and other

partners in environmental protection.

To provide a common basis for tracking progress and

establishing commitments between the states and EPA, the

Agency joined forces with the Environmental Council of

the States (ECOS) to establish the National Environmental

Performance Partnership System (NEPPS). Under this

system, EPA and the states negotiate overall goals and

objectives to include identifying "core performance

measures." These agreements will communicate the

primary activity outputs, programmatic outcomes, and

environmental outcomes expected from work under

authorities delegated to the states by EPA. In addition,

other state organizations will work with EPA to develop

performance measures. Over time, as some environmental

data become more widely available, EPA will continue

efforts to decrease reporting on activities, and to increase

the focus on environmental results. We expect "core

measures" to be included in most state/EPA work plans

and related agreements, unless special circumstances

dictate otherwise. The Agency is also working to enhance

partnerships with the tribes to address specific environmental and human health goals, objectives, and performance measures.
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Reviews of Progress Towards Strategic

Goals and Objectives

Annual Performance Reports

To support the accountability process, a variety of

reports will provide performance and cost information to

Agency managers, the Office of Management and Budget,

Congress, and the public. The first will be the annual

performance progress report for FY 1999. EPA will issue

this initial report no later than March 31, 2000. It will

document performance accomplishments compared to

annual "performance goals" established in the Annual

Performance Plan. The annual performance goals will be

target levels for key performance measures that represent

progress towards each strategic objective, resulting from

investments made in FY 1999. The report will identify

any cases where annual performance goals have not been

met and explain the reasons why they have not been met.

For example, performance goals may not have been

reached due to unforeseen external events, or because

incorrect assumptions were made about the effort needed

for some tasks. The report will discuss any corrections or

changes in approach needed to address failures to meet

annual performance goals, and describe any actions

already taken by EPA to get back on track.

Beginning with the FY 2000 annual report, all annual

reports will include retrospective descriptions of performance results from previous years, until the FY 2002 and

subsequent reports, which will present data for the three

previous years.

Program Evaluation

In addition to annual performance reports, EPA will

prepare periodic reports of progress towards our strategic

goals and objectives. Since many of the strategic

objectives set forth targets for measurable environmental

results,we will analyze data and report on environmental

status and trends. This will include trends in pollutant

emissions. For the most part, the Agency will emphasize

true environmental indicators: the amounts of air, water,

and land sites in conditions that meet applicable environmental quality standards. When possible, we will also

report the degrees to which human health or ecological

conditions are being protected. In some cases, Agency

Inspector General, General Accounting Office and

management integrity findings will be considered in

assessing program performance.

The reports of progress towards strategic objectives

will show whether we are achieving intended results. For

some programs, we will conduct intensive program

evaluations to analyze relationships between activities

being conducted and environmental results. Criteria for

selecting programs to evaluate will include the importance

of the environmental issues being addressed, and whether

programs are on schedule to meet their objectives. If

timely progress is being made, the evaluations will help

show what is working and why. If not, we will examine

the relationships among EPA, states, regulated entities, and

others, and the changes in pollution emissions, other

stresses, and ultimate environmental impacts of these

stresses to determine why.

Studies of cause and effect

can be complex, and answers

may not always be found.

Detailed analyses may help

us develop more effective

approaches to reducing

environmental impacts. In

other cases, these analyses

may result in new research to

determine why assumptions

about relationships between

stresses and impacts did not

prove accurate when

pollution reduction or

cleanup activities were put

into practice, and to develop

better approaches for the

future.

Evaluations will

look at different

ways to meet objectives.

This will include:

1) examining the effectiveness of program actions and

 need for mid-course corrections;

2) assessing appropriateness of the environmental

 indicators used and determining whether advances

 in science have made better ones available;

3) identifying factors beyond our control that affect

 performance; and

4) determining whether target levels and times stated

 in the objective are reasonable.
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The results of program evaluations will influence

annual performance plans for subsequent years. If

performance goals need revision, new or modified

performance goals will be designed and incorporated into

the relevant annual plans, with associated modifications to

performance measures as needed.

Integrating the Accountability System with

Cost Accounting Standards

Two key activities in building a strong accountability

system will be changes in how EPA structures its budget

and the adoption of the recently issued Federal Accounting

Standards Advisory Board's (FASAB's) cost accounting

standard. To integrate management processes more fully,

EPA will work closely with the Office of Management and

Budget and Congress to develop a budget structure that

parallels the goals and objectives identified in this strategic

plan. This link between performance measures and

resources will serve as the basis for annual performance

reporting.

To comply with the FASAB standard, EPA's Chief

Financial Officer will ensure that cost accounting is

implemented to support EPA program managers and the

public by producing information that is timely, useful, and

accurate, and related directly to planning, accountability,

and decision making. Cost information will be coordinated

with the new planning and budgeting structure, and cost

information will be integrated into accountability reports.

Internalizing GPRA Requirements within

the Agency

Accountability for achieving results needs to permeate

the organizational fabric of EPA, from top management to

each staff employee. Management will aggressively

communicate EPA’s goals and objectives throughout the

Agency to ensure that employees clearly recognize how

they contribute to the Agency mission. Of equal importance, employees also will be held accountable for

program results. To accomplish these ends, EPA will

create direct linkages between its human resource

activities and the achievement of the objectives in the

Agency’s Strategic Plan. For example, performance,

awards, and recognition programs need to provide

incentives to employees and reward groups and individuals who are having a discernible impact on the goals and

objectives in the plan.

As the Agency continues to automate, streamline, and

reengineer its procedures, the knowledge, skills, and

abilities required by EPA employees to perform the

Agency’s work will change. Specialized recruitment and

training, as well as process retooling, may be necessary in

order to build and sustain a workforce capable of

achieving the results envisioned in EPA’s goals and

objectives.

Coordination with Other Reporting

Responsibilities

Where appropriate, EPA will integrate GPRA reporting

with other reporting requirements. These include reports

relating to financial management and fiscal integrity

responsibilities, as well as other public information

activities for financial, management, and accountability.

EPA will provide comprehensive assessments of our

financial investments and adherence to financial and

management standards, when combined with reports of

environmental outcomes accomplished.

Financial and Management Reporting

To the extent possible, EPA will integrate annual

performance reports with financial accountability

reporting, including requirements of the Chief Financial

Officers Act, the Government Management Reform Act

(GMRA), the Federal Managers Financial Integrity Act,

the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act, the

Inspector General Act, the Prompt Payment Act, and the

Debt Collection Act, as well as the report on Civil

Monetary Penalties. The goal will be to link performance

and cost information more closely to provide the public

and Congress with a snapshot of Agency operations. The

final format for the combined reporting will be based on

recommendations currently being developed by the Chief

Financial Officers Council.

State of Environment Reports and

Electronic Data Access

In addition to GPRA reports documenting the

environmental outcomes of our programs, EPA will

continue to provide the public with reports and electronic

databases concerning the overall state of the environment.

A number of such reports are produced by EPA under the

Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and other legislation. In
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recognition of the important responsibility to support

public access to comprehensive environmental information, EPA has recently established a Center for Environmental Information and Statistics (CEIS).

CEIS plans to produce periodic State of Environment

Reports as well as enhance electronic public access to

EPA's data. Environmental databases are maintained for a

variety of purposes throughout EPA. These functions will

not be taken over by CEIS, nor will they be integrated into

a single reporting system. However, under the accountability process, EPA will ensure that members of the public

seeking access to EPA data will obtain it in formats readily

interpreted by general users.
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 Appendix A: How the Strategic Plan Connects to Other Agency Documents

EPA’s new Planning, Budgeting, Analysis and Accountability process is composed of several steps that are linked in the

following way:

Step (1) The Strategic Plan—This plan states EPA’s mission. It lays out: (1) long term environmental goals; (2) a set of

guiding principles providing a common set of considerations that will be used in making decisions; (3) specific

shorter-term objectives the Agency will meet in achieving the goals. As required under GPRA, EPA will update

this plan every three years.

MULTI-YEAR

 ACTION

 PLANS

Resource "Envelope" Projections

 ANNUAL

PERFORMANCE

 PLANS

 ANNUAL

APPROPRIATION

 ANNUAL

OPERATING

 PLAN

Actual

Resources

 HQs.-REG.

MANAGEMENT

AGREEMENTS/

 MOUs

Achievement of perf.

measures

Resource use

Performance Evaluation

PERFORMANCE

 REPORTS

GOALS PRINCIPLES

OBJECTIVES GENERAL

STRATEGIES

ANNUAL

BUDGET

REQUEST

ACTUAL PERFORMANCE

 State & Tribal

 Agreements

PBAA/GPRA General Framework

Appendix A

Resource Projections

PLANNING
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Appendix A

Step (2) Multi-Year Planning--EPA’s programs will conduct multi-year planning efforts based on the Strategic Plan

goals. This planning step will describe how each national program will link its annual activities and

short-term outcomes to the attainment of our long-term environmental goals.

Step (3) Annual Performance Plans and Budget Request—Annual performance plans will be prepared for each

objective and serve as the basis for budget decisions. Annual Performance Plans will describe annual

performance goals, measures of outputs and outcomes and the activities aimed for achieving these goals.

Based on the Annual Performance Plans, EPA will develop an annual budget request for all Agency

programs. Once Congress approves a final appropriation for the year, the annual plans will be revised and

the resources allocated accordingly.

Step (4) Performance Evaluation and Reports—Performance Evaluation Reports, required by GPRA six months

after the end of the fiscal year, will assess the progress EPA has made toward achieving its goals and will

report on the Agency’s success in accomplishing its annual performance goals.

Fully achieving the goals of the PBAA approach will take a long-term commitment from EPA. All Agency managers will

be integrally involved in setting priorities, making yearly investment decisions and ensuring that program goals that

reflect our customer’s needs will be achieved. With the development of this Strategic Plan, EPA has a framework for use

in the future, thus making the EPA effective in meeting the needs of the American people.
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Appendix B

 Appendix B: Congressional Consultation and External Stakeholder

 Input into the EPA Strategic Plan

The Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) requires federal agencies to consult with Congress and

to solicit and consider the views and suggestions of those entities potentially affected by or interested in such a plan.

With respect to the Congress, EPA held briefings in February 1997 for Members of the House and Senate, their

staffs, and Committee staffs on the Agency’s framework and process for developing the Strategic Plan. Meetings were

held in April and June to discuss specific areas of Congressional interest. Drafts of EPA’s mission statement, goals, and

objectives were provided in April and May, and a draft Strategic Plan was provided on July 1, 1997. The Agency

participated in consultation meetings with Congressional staff on the Strategic Plan in July, August, and September. EPA

provided written material to the following Members and participated in meetings with Congressional staff as indicated

below.

House of Representatives Senate

Honorable Thomas J. Bliley, Jr. Honorable Max Baucus

Honorable George E. Brown Honorable Robert C. Byrd

Honorable Dan Burton Honorable John H. Chafee

Honorable John D. Dingell Honorable John Glenn

Honorable Robert Livingston Honorable James M. Inhofe

Honorable George Miller Honorable Ted Stevens

Honorable James L. Oberstar Honorable Fred Thompson

Honorable David Obey

Honorable F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr.

Honorable Bud Shuster

Honorable Henry A. Waxman

Honorable Don Young

 Committee Staff

House of Representatives Senate

Appropriations Appropriations

Commerce Budget

Government Reform and Oversight Environment and Public Works

Resources Governmental Affairs

Science

Transportation and Infrastructure

EPA also conducted a broad outreach program that sought the views and perspectives of its constituencies. EPA

provided a series of strategic plan development documents, as well as the draft Strategic Plan to the following organizations for review and comment, and held discussions with many organizations [indicated with a D]. In addition to the

stakeholders listed below, the Agency’s National Program Managers (NPMs) and Regional Offices have also worked to

secure involvement from their specific constituents (e.g., states, tribes, other organizations).

BUSINESS, INDUSTRY, & PUBLIC POLICY ORGANIZATIONS

Business Roundtable [D]

Friday Forum [D]

National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy & Technology (NACEPT) Reinventon Criteria Committee [D]

Corporate Environmental Enforcement Council (CEEC) [D]

Enterprise for the Environment (E4E) [D]

Coalition for Effective Environmental Information (CEEI) [D]
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National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA)

US Chamber of Commerce

National Federation of Independent Business

Chemical Manufacturers Association [D]

ENVIRONMENTAL AND PUBLIC INTEREST GROUPS *

Environmental Defense Fund [D] National Audubon Society

Greenpeace National Fish and Wildlife Council

Sierra Club Children’s Defense Fund

National Resources Council of America Natural Resources Defense Council [D]

Resources for the Future Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund

American Oceans Campaign Union of Concerned Scientists

US Public Interest Research Group American Rivers

World Resources Institute Center for International Environmental Law

World Wildlife Fund Center for Marine Conservation [D]

Nature Conservancy OMB Watch [D]

Clean Water Action Trout Unlimited

Clean Water Network Ducks Unlimited

Environmental Information Center Wildlife Habitat Council

Environmental Working Group River Network

Friends of the Earth American Public Health Association [D]

American Lung Association American Farmland Trust [D]

Environmental Law Institute [D] National Wildlife Federation

* All were invited to participate in discussions with EPA on the draft Strategic Plan

 STATE & LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

Environmental Council of the States (ECOS) [D]

National Association of State Departments of Agriculture

Association of State and Territorial Health Officials

Local Government Advisory Committee [D]

TRIBAL GOVERNMENTS

EPA Tribal Operations Committee (includes representatives from 19 Tribal Governments) [D]

OTHER FEDERAL AGENCIES

In addition to the departmental level, in some cases information was also provided to and received from agency and

 bureau levels of the department)

Department of Agriculture

Department of Commerce

Department of the Interior

Department of Health and Human Services

Department of Energy

Department of Justice

Department of Transportation

Department of the Treasury

Consumer Product Safety Commission

Federal Emergency Management Agency

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Nuclear Regulatory Commission

National Science Foundation

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Food and Drug Administration

Bureau of Land Management

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Department of Labor

Department of Defense

Department of State

Department of Housing and Urban Development

Army Corps of Engineers

Small Business Administration

Office of Science and Technology Policy

General Services Administration

APPROACH TO INTERAGENCY COORDINATION

As part of the process for developing this Strategic Plan, the Agency initiated steps to begin to work closely with those

Federal agencies with whom EPA shares responsibility for setting standards and managing programs to improve human

health and the environment.

Although time restricted efforts to explore the full range of issues with other Federal agencies during the development stage

of this Strategic Plan, the actions taken will help to establish long-term efforts to address any inconsistencies, conflicts or

redundancies among Federal programs as identified both in future Strategic Plans and annual performance plans.

The steps to engage other Federal agencies in the development of this Strategic Plan included following the directions

outlined by the Chief Financial Officers’ Council’s GPRA Implementation Committee’s Bulletin on Stakeholder Outreach

and Interagency Coordination of Strategic Plans. Among EPA actions were:

• issuing a formal request for comment to Federal agencies on goals and milestones for EPA’s National Environmental

Goals Project. Many Federal agencies participated in the development of these goals, which served as a starting point

for EPA’s strategic planning efforts;

• reviewing 9 other agency and several bureau-level interim strategic plans for possible conflicts or overlaps with EPA’s

plan. While few issues required immediate resolution due to the general nature of the language in the strategic plans,

this review will serve as a starting point for dialogue with other Federal agencies for the joint development of

performance measures and resolution of program management issues;

• soliciting comments from other Federal agencies on EPA’s preliminary plan outline, goals and objectives (May 22,

1997) and subsequently the full Agency draft Strategic Plan (July 1, 1997). Input received from other agencies has

been incorporated into this plan;

• sharing information and working with several interagency groups on GPRA-related issues. These groups include the

Research and Development Roundtable, the Natural Resources Performance Management Forum and the Interagency

Regulatory Reinvention Forum; and

• reviewing the final drafts of 21 Federal agency plans in conjunction with the OMB clearance process.

Appendix B

Fish and Wildlife Service

US. Geological Survey

Occupational Safety and Health Administration

General Services Administration

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

Tennessee Valley Authority

U.S. Information Agency

U.S. AID

Office of the U.S. Trade Representative
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The chart below identifies, by EPA goal, which areas of our plan require greater integration and review with other

 Federal agency efforts.

Department/Agency GOAL

Agriculture

Army Corps of Engineers

Commerce

Consumer Product Safety Commission

Defense

Energy

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

FEMA

General Services Administration

Health & Human Services

Interior

Justice

Labor

NASA

National Science Foundation

Nuclear Regulatory Commission

OSTP

SBA

State

Transportation

Treasury--International

TVA

USAID

USIA

USTR

1 9 2 10 3 4 5 6 7 8

 CROSS-CUTTING AREAS BETWEEN EPA AND OTHER FEDERAL AGENCIES

Appendix B

Goal 1: Clean Air

Goal 2: Clean and Safe Water

Goal 3: Safe Food

Goal 4: Preventing Pollution and Reducing Risk in Communities, Homes, Workplaces and Ecosystems

Goal 5: Better Waste Management , Restoration of Contaminated Waste Sites, and Emergency Response

Goal 6: Reduction of Global and Cross-Border Environmental Risks

Goal 7: Expansion of Americans' Right to Know About Their Environment

Goal 8: Sound Science, Improved Understanding of Environmental Risk, and Greater Innovation to Address Environmental Problems

Goal 9: A Credible Deterrent to Pollution and Greater Compliance with the Law

Goal 10: Effective Management
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 SUMMARY OF KEY COMMENTS ON STRATEGIC PLAN

The Agency received over 800 comments on the draft Strategic Plan in writing and orally during discussions with stakeholders and

Congress. Key comments are listed below.

Comment Response

1. Objectives should be quantifiable.

2. The structure of the Strategic Plan

should be simplified. The number of

elements in the current plan are

confusing.

3. Distinguish between goals and

objectives that are mandatory &

those which are discretionary.

4. Goals should be an expression of

environmental outcomes, and organizational/programmatic efforts should be

classified as implementation tools.

1. The Agency agrees. In many cases the subobjectives, which

are a level of detail below the objective, are where the measurable target is stated. Further, the performance goals in the

Annual Performance Plan will contain quantifiable targets.

However, for many of the objectives, EPA recognizes that it

will take time to develop accurate target estimates (i.e., in some

cases EPA needs to first establish a performance baseline).

EPA will continue to work on this issue as the Agency develops

its Annual Performance Plan and updates the Strategic Plan.

2. EPA will work to improve the clarity of the plan. However,

EPA feels strongly that the elements in the plan provide

important information related to the Agency’s values and

commitments. For example, the principles represent important

guidance to be used by Agency managers as they make

decisions and the cross-cutting program areas are important

programs that transcend many of the goals and do not fit neatly

into a single goal.

3. In compliance with GPRA, EPA has set numerical targets

for a significant number of specific objectives in this Strategic

Plan, consistent with EPA’s statutory authority to protect

human health and the environment and to administer environmental, human health, and other programs. In establishing

numerical targets, EPA considered its statutory mandates and

authorities and used the best available scientific and technical

information. The Strategic Plan also notes specific statutory

authorities for each objective.

4. While EPA agrees that the plan could be structured as the

comment suggests, the Agency has decided to keep the current

structure at this time for several reasons. These include: 1)

many of the activities in the “tools” goals (sound science,

pollution prevention, enforcement and compliance, and

effective management) are cross-media in nature and, while

contributing to the overall mission of the Agency, cannot be

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5. The Plan should prioritize among

 goals and objectives.

6. EPA should commit to a strategy

that uses risk assessment to prioritize

environmental risk management

decisions.

7. The plan should identify a

strategy for increasing and improving

the quality of information relating to

environmental outcomes.

8. The Plan should contain measurements of off-budget costs. Efficiency

should be a stand-alone goal.

9. Cross-cutting programs should be

directly related to strategic goals and

objectives.

broken down into specific media goals; 2) the “tools” goals

are important “goals” in and of themselves for EPA and need

to be highlighted; and 3) the Agency believes that retaining

these goals is responsive to the spirit of GPRA.

5. EPA agrees that the Plan should provide the vision and direction

that the Agency plans to take over the next five years. The Agency

does prioritize its activities in the annual planning and budgeting

process as it redirects emphasis and resources into high priority areas.

As to setting priorities among the goals, the current enabling statutes

under which the Agency operates do not lend themselves to flexibility

in setting priorities among the environmental goals.

6. The Agency currently uses risk assessment, as well as other

factors, to make risk management decisions. In Goal 8--Sound

Science--EPA commits to providing improved risk assessment

capabilities. EPA intends to use risk assessment, along with other

criteria, for making decisions in the annual planning and budgeting

process.

7. The Agency is involved in an ongoing process to identify and

develop the information needed to accurately evaluate Agency

progress in achieving each of its goals and objectives. Because

monitoring programs and data collection are expensive and can

potentially impact our partners and stakeholders, the Agency is

identifying and evaluating current sources of information that can be

used to measure performance. EPA will use this analysis of the data

as a basis for program investments in information collection and

analysis. A brief discussion of this issue has been included in the

Strategic Plan.

8. EPA has included a section in the Plan on the “Benefits and Costs

of EPA’s Activities” to address this issue. The Agency believes that

section provides the best information available at this time. EPA

disagrees with the recommendation to establish a “stand-alone goal

regarding efficiency,” because it is a principle that is inherent in all of

our goals.

9. The cross-cutting program areas transcend many of the goals and

do not fit neatly into a single goal. The Agency has clarified the

relationship of these programs to the goals in the Strategic Plan.

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10. The current Plan does not

include a description of how the

performance goals of the Annual

Performance Plans will be related to

the general strategic goals and

objectives.

11. EPA should include performance measures relating to its efforts

to work with States to achieve

environmental goals.

12. The Plan should include a

discussion of the responsibilities of

the Regions in achieving the goals and

objectives.

13. EPA’s plan should integrate the

environmental objectives of the

National Environmental Goals and the

National Environmental Performance

Partnership System (NEPPS) to make

a uniform set of environmental

objective.

14. EPA’s Plan should explain how

it is to be integrated with related policy

areas (e.g., transportation, energy,

agriculture).

15. The Plan should include

strategies for internalizing the Results

Act requirements within the Agency.

10. The Strategic Plan has been revised to include a general discussion

of the relationship between the annual performance goals and the

general strategic goals and objectives.

11. EPA has expanded the discussion of the states’ role in implementing

environmental programs (see pages 12 and 82-83). In addition, the

performance measures relating to state implemented programs are

included in the Annual Performance Plan.

12. EPA has included a discussion of the Headquarters/Regional

memorandum of agreement (MOA) process which lays out the

expectations and responsibilities of the Regions in implementing the

programs and activities needed to achieve the goals and objectives (see

page 94).

13. EPA’s Strategic Plan is largely based on the work done over the last

several years on the National Goals project. EPA will continue to work

with its state partners to assure that the NEPPS core measures are

integrated into the Agency’s strategic planning process.

14. EPA is working with other Federal agencies to identify

cross-cutting policy areas and programs that need to be integrated with

EPA policies and programs. A discussion of this issue is included in the

Strategic Plan. In addition, all of EPA’s program offices work on a

regular basis with other Federal agencies to assure that our activities are

consistent with, and integrated into, the related policies and programs of

other agencies.

15. The Strategic Plan includes a discussion of this issue and identifies

the actions EPA is taking to internalize the requirements of the Results

Act.

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For additional information, please contact:

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Office of the Chief Financial Officer

Office of Planning, Analysis and Accountability

Mail Code 2721

401 M Street, S.W.

Washington, D.C. 20460

Telephone: (202) 260-9302

This Plan can also be found at EPA’s Internet homepage <http://www.epa.gov>.