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EPA Honors Three Barnstable County Workers for Pollution Training

Release Date: 08/26/2002
Contact Information: Peyton Fleming, EPA Press Office, 617-918-1008

BARNSTABLE - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today issued certificates of appreciation to three members of the Barnstable County Health and Environmental Department (BCHE) for their work in training EPA interns on conducting pollution assessments as part of the agency's Clean New England Beaches Initiative.

Linda Murphy, director of EPA's Office of Ecosystem Protection, issued certificates today to BCHE Director George Stetson, registered sanitarian sanitary George Heufelder and staff sanitarian Holly Dowden.

"We greatly appreciate the department's valuable assistance in training EPA staff to conduct sanitary surveys as part of our partnership efforts to clean New England beaches," Murphy said at a ceremony today at the BCHE offices.

Under Stetson's oversight, Heufelder and Dowden trained EPA interns in conducting sanitary surveys – specifically, methods for characterizing how a watershed immediately drains into waters at both freshwater and salt water beaches. These methods included:

• gathering engineering information from town offices
• identification of stormwater discharges along shorelines
• determinations of failing or leaking septic systems
• collection and analysis of water samples for measurement of bacteria levels to support the sanitary surveys