Specific problems at EPA

1
Specific problems at EPA

• Many areas of scientific research are mandated
• By medium (air, water, etc.)
• By problem areas (toxic contamination of land)
• Much research therefore is case-by-case
• Research keeping up with regulations?
• i.e., what comes first?
• Does science only provide technical assistance
  for predetermined goals?

2
Example of Toxic Substances Control Act

• Gives EPA authority to control chemicals if
• Reasonable basis to conclude that the activity
  presents or will present an unreasonable risk of
  injury to health or to the environment. TSCA
  6(a), 15 U.S.C. 2605(a)
• Must be a balanced assessment
• Not just costs, but benefits of use, as well
• Example of asbestos
• Corrosion Proof Fitting v. EPA (5th Cir. 1991)

3
Burden of Proof

• In cases like the TSCA, it is up to the EPA to
  show that an unreasonable risk may exist
• Not only that, but must balance regulations
  against economic benefits
• This creates difficult decisions
• Made more difficult by zero-risk expectations
• TSCA was written with expectation of a 90-day
  turn-around (similar to other rules)
• Much regulation is self-enforcement and continued
  reliance upon negligence and liability

4
Discounting lives

• How do we value lives today as opposed to the
  future?
• Apply a discount rate for costs of average lives
  saved
• EPA3
• At that rate, a life saved forty years from now
  is worth 1/45th as much as one saved this year
• According to some accounting, saving future lives
  is more expensive

5
Feasibility and goals

• MCLs versus MCLGs in the CWA (1996 amended)
• Best practicable technology versus to the
  limits of feasibility
• CWA uses practicable
• SDWA uses feasibility

6
Other issues with political process

• Short-term political goals/appointees
• Less research devoted to long-term basic science
• ORD cut back in resources
• Bureaucracies have difficulty keeping up with new
  problems
• Ecotoxicology and endocrine disruptors
• Unfunded mandates/expectations

7
Ethics and professionalism

• Policy analysts, scientists and regulators must
  look beyond own tasks
• Responsibility is collective
• Legal liability laws support this
• Inaction is an action
• Failure to act is not an excuse
• Negligence liability also applies here
• Regulation is more craft than science or
  politics

8
Why is craft important?

• Effective managers are intuitive
• Claiming that your arguments are above politics
  (i.e., scientific) does not work
• Always remember that your rationality is not the
  only one, nor the best
• Scientific rationality may lead to political
  disaster, and vice-versa
• Dispute resolution
• Plays into theories of TQEM
• Still in reaction to liability and litigation