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PR CARDELL COOPER TO HEAD EPA SOLID WASTE AND EMERGENCY RESPONSE PROGRAM

Release Date: 09/04/97
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FOR RELEASE: THURSDAY, SEPT. 4, 1997
CARDELL COOPER TO HEAD
EPA SOLID WASTE AND EMERGENCY RESPONSE PROGRAM

President Clinton has announced his intent to nominate Cardell Cooper, Mayor of East Orange, N.J., to become the EPA Assistant Administrator for Solid Waste and Emergency Response, with responsibility for toxic waste cleanup and the Clinton Administration’s Brownfields redevelopment initiatives. The office also is responsble for managing chemical emergency preparedness and prevention, hazardous, municipal and industrial wastes, underground storage tanks and environmental technological innovation.
Cooper has been Mayor of East Orange for the past seven years. During his term, he expanded several environmental services, including programs now widely recognized as national models for drinking water protection and for residential waste recycling.

“Cardell Cooper brings to EPA first-hand experience of the challenges faced by American cities in cleaning up and managing harmful wastes,” said EPA Administrator Carol M. Browner. “His years of leadership in protecting public health in real communities will serve this agency and the nation well.”

From 1988 to 1990, Cooper was Administrator of Essex County, the largest county in New Jersey, with a budget exceeding $300 million. He was Business Administrator of Irvington, N.J., from 1986 to 1988, and was an elected legislator (freeholder) in Essex County, N.J., from 1984 to 1988. He directed the East Orange Department of Human Resources for seven years after receiving his master’s degree in public administration from Rutgers University in 1978.

He also holds a B.A. degree from Montclair State (N.J.) University and participated in policy leadership institutes at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Johns Hopkins University. Upsala College awarded him an honorary doctorate degree in 1993.

Mayor Cooper was New Jersey chairman for the Clinton-Gore campaign in 1996.

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