All News Releases By Date

Estelle 'Bunny' Sanders Named to National Advisory Committee

Release Date: 06/17/2004
Contact Information: Dawn Harris-Young, (404) 562-8421, harris-young.dawn@epa.gov

Mayor Estelle "Bunny" Sanders of Roper, North Carolina has been named to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Local Government Advisory Committee. The Committee provides EPA Administrator Michael Leavitt with advice and recommendations to help build partnerships with local governments to better protect the nation's environment. Mayor Sanders will be one of 31 representatives from different regions of the country who will meet on a regular basis with EPA. Mayor Sanders currently is serving her 4 th, two-year term as Mayor of Roper. She has served as the Executive Director of the Small Business and Technology Development Center at East Carolina Univerity (ECU) and was appointed by Governor Jim Hunt to serve as the tourism development director for the 16 counties in the northeastern Region. Mayor Sanders' vision for the town of Roper is that it will become a technology hub. The town of Roper recently held its grand opening for a $1.5 million Technology Center that houses a digital library, media center, video conference room and a 100 seat auditorium. A substantial part of EPA's mission involves developing and enforcing Federal regulations to protect and improve the environment. Local governments are essential partners in this mission. Serving as both regulators and regulated entities, they implement major environmental regulations and provide community services such as drinking water treatment, waste water treatment and solid waste management. Local governments also play a key role in addressing environmental issues such as clean air, clean water, and sustainable development. The Local Government Advisory Committee was formed in 1993. The group has provided recommendations to the Agency on a broad range of topics including communications, flexibility, strategic planning, regulatory innovation and reform, environmental protection tools, pollution prevention, new technologies, and roles of various levels of government.