Clinton Agenda for Environment

In the opinion of Bruce Piasecki (Commentary, Nov. 1), the Clinton Administration “has done next to nothing to improve environmental policy.” Not true. During the first nine months of the Clinton Administration the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency launched the most aggressive and ambitious agenda the agency has ever seen.

EPA’s team of national program managers is 80% in place, and we are tackling tough environmental issues that have been stalemated for far too long. The result: more protection for public health and our natural resources.

Major environmental laws are up for reauthorization this year. EPA has seized this opportunity. We’re working with Congress to strengthen the Clean Water Act so that it does a more effective job of preventing pollution, not waiting to clean it up. We’ve proposed a sweeping reform of our Safe Drinking Water Act to help communities comply with the law and protect the public from water-borne pollution and disease.

As for Superfund, the program that cleans up sites contaminated with toxic chemicals, EPA has already changed its own regulations to make the program work faster and more fairly. Now we’re leading the Administration’s effort to rewrite the law so that we can return these sites to productive community use as quickly as possible. On the drawing board are broad changes in the liability scheme, national standards to reduce the time spent studying remedies and hasten the cleanup, and a larger role for states and local communities.

EPA is also in the lead in the Administration’s proposal to overhaul our food safety policy to protect consumers and farm workers against dangerous pesticides. We’re calling for a strict, health-based standard covering all foods and an overall reduction in pesticide use.

We’ve strengthened our enforcement arm and assessed the biggest fines ever against polluters. We’ve established tough new controls over hazardous waste incinerators. President Clinton has ordered all

federal facilities to buy recycled products and cut their toxic emissions in half by 1999. He also signed the biodiversity treaty that George Bush refused to sign in Rio. He issued a national action plan to reduce global warming. He insisted on an environmental side agreement to the North American Free Trade Agreement, making NAFTA a vehicle for protecting our environment throughout the continent.

In the next three years, we have an opportunity to make a difference in environmental protection that will be felt for the next three generations.

LORETTA UCELLI

Associate Administrator, EPA Office

of Communications, Education and Public Affairs, Washington