Persistent, Bioaccumulative and Toxics (PBT) Program Setting the Context

1. Persistent, Bioaccumulative and Toxics (PBT) ProgramSetting the Context TOM MURRAY, USEPA EPA PBT Monitoring Workshop April 22, 2002 Raleigh, North Carolina

2. Happy Earth Day!

3. I’M HERE TO …. • Provide some context • Explore the question: Who cares? • A Perspective on the Monitoring Strategy • Share a few thoughts on the challenges that lie ahead

4. The Context • The PBT Program as an organizing principle • GPRA goals and measures • Our scope • The PBT Program National Action Plans

5. The Context • The PBT Program as an organizing principle

6. What is the PBT Program? • All programs working together to • Identify and reduce risks to human health and the environment from current and future exposures to priority PBT pollutants • Stop their transfer across environmental media! • Prevent new PBT chemicals from entering commerce

7. What are its Program Goals? • Reduce risks to human health and the environment from current and future exposures to priority PBT contaminants • Reduce/eliminate PBT emissions in U.S. and promote international reductions • Reduce exposure of general U.S. populations, especially high risk populations

8. The National PBT Program Agenda • Focus on Mercury, Dioxin/Furans, PCBs first • Focus on two cross-cutting issues: • MONITORING • Outreach/risk communication • Derive actions from National Action Plans • Get the resources to where the action is • Build on successful efforts • Provide the tools to “get the job done”

9. What is the value added by the PBT Program? • It facilitates corporate decisionmaking. • It simplifies communication to outside stakeholders. • It fosters holistic problem solving. • It engenders the use of sound science. • It leads to win-win solutions, more responsible spending and more effective coordination among programs both within and outside of EPA.

10. NHANES Alaskan Native Fetal Cord Blood Monitoring Program Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program

11. What fuels the PBT Program? • Human Health and Ecological Concerns • Realization that some single-medium approaches fall short • Realization that for efforts like monitoring, no one program can do it • States, Tribes, Legislators, Stakeholders • Tenacity, hard work and determination • A specified Agency-wide budget

12. Http://intranet.epa.gov/ocfo/plan/plan.htm

13. PBT Program Management Structure

14. The Context • The PBT Program as an organizing principle • GPRA goals and measures

15. GPRA GOALS • 2005 2006 2007 DOI EPA GPRA HHS DOC

16. The Context • The PBT Program as an organizing principle • GPRA goals and measures • Scope

18. PBTs -- A Global Priority • "Pollutants that are persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic have been linked to numerous adverse effects in humans and animals. The United States has taken extensive action over the years to address these pollutants. But such pollutants not only remain in the environment for years and even decades, they also travel far beyond their initial points of release, posing threats across national and geographic boundaries. Only by addressing the threat of these pollutants on a global scale can we help to meet our goal of leaving America's air cleaner, our water purer, and our land better protected.” -Christine Todd Whitman

19. The Context • The PBT Program as an organizing principle • GPRA goals and measures • Scope • The PBT Program National Action Plans

20. National Action Plans Alkyl-Lead Benzo(a)Pyrene Dioxins/Furans Hexachlorobenzene Mercury and Compounds Octachlorostyrene PCBs PESTICIDES Aldrin/Dieldrin, Chlordane Mirex,DDT(+DDD+DDE), Camphechlor(Toxaphene)

21. What are the major monitoring needs identified in the NAPs? • Magnitude and nature of the human Exposure Problem (Hg, Dioxins, B(a)P, HCB) • Magnitude and nature of exposure for high-risk populations (PCBs, Dioxins, HCB, B(a)P) • Long-term National Environmental Trends (Hg, PCBs,Dioxins, Pesticides,HCB, B(a)P and OCS)

22. What are the major monitoring needs identified in the NAPs? • International Contribution (Mercury, PCBs, Dioxins, Pesticides, HCB, B(a)P • Monitoring data to support environmental modeling needs in predicting environmental levels and multimedia transfers (Hg, PCBs and Dioxins) • Support for Fish and Wildlife Consumption Advisory Programs (Hg, PCBs, Dioxins and pesticides)

23. What are the major monitoring needs identified in the NAPs? • Source Characterization (Hg, PCBs, Dioxins, HCB, B(a)P and OCS

24. Who Really Cares?

25. Our decision makers care! • Our Senior Management Officials • The White House Office of Science and Technology • U.S. General Accounting Office • Commission for Environmental Cooperation • UNEP

26. But , more Importantly

27. Our Tribal Partners Say: • Abnormalities in animals and fish (e. g. wormy whitefish and lesions on salmon, and Whirling disease) • Moose meat tastes different and there are water bags in their lungs • Muskrats have spots on their liver and lungs • Caribou have runny bone marrow

28. A National Routine Monitoring Strategy should: • Summarize and orchestrate current PBT monitoring activities • Discern trends in both human health and ecosystems (GPRA?) • Measure the effectiveness of national actions to meet the PBT program goals • Integrate across environmental media • Integrate modeling

30. Challenges

31. #1. No single governmental jurisdiction can solve the problem!! • All federal, state, tribal, international organizations must work together!

32. #2 Monitoring is Costly • Find ways to leverage

33. #3 Monitoring takes time to yield valid results • Persevere! And think of ways to keep impatient decision makers happy Maryland Terps National Champions!!

34. #4. Maintain the vision • “As pollution problems become more complex, our monitoring programs must become more sophisticated and cost-effective. We cannot control what we cannot measure and we cannot correct what we do not know”. • John R. Quarles, Jr. Deputy Administrator • 1977