Wilson Administration Unveils Plans for a State EPA : Government: Details call for placing many programs under one agency. Sierra Club praises the proposal.

The Wilson Administration has unveiled the first details of its plan to create a California Environmental Protection Agency, which would regulate air and water pollution, control garbage and toxic waste disposal, and evaluate threats to the environment.

The proposal calls for placing a number of existing state environmental programs under a single agency, headed by a Cabinet-level secretary. That person would become “a single point of accountability” for the health of the environment, said James M. Strock, Gov. Pete Wilson’s environmental affairs secretary. Strock would head the new agency.

On Friday, Strock stressed that the plan was in draft form but said he and Wilson want to press ahead quickly “to move from theoretical debates to real-life environmental improvement.”

The Sierra Club generally praised the plan as an important sign that Wilson is working to fulfill campaign promises.

“From our initial review, this is a very positive step forward,” said Sierra Club lobbyist Gordon Hart.

Environmentalists have long been critical of state regulation of pesticides, which is run by the Department of Food and Agriculture. The Wilson plan would take pesticides away from the agricultural agency and put it under the new environmental agency.

Strock’s plan calls for taking several steps to ensure that evaluations of health hazards of pesticides and toxic chemicals are scientifically objective. Strock said that risk assessments would be reviewed by panels of independent scientists and be publicly available.

Included in the new agency would be the Air Resources Board, the State Water Resources Control Board and the Integrated Waste Management Board. The plan also calls for removing the regulation and cleanup of toxic chemicals from the Department of Health Services. Offices from several departments that evaluate potential environmental hazards would be shifted to the new agency.

Under state law, Wilson must submit his plan to the Little Hoover Commission, a governmental watchdog agency. Then it will be sent to the Legislature. The agency will be created unless it is rejected by the Assembly or Senate.