Green Scene Transcript - Granta Nakayama Green Scene video and discussion with Granta Nakayama [This is a transcript of Judy Pino sitting at a table talking with Granta Nakayama. This is a steady image and does not include other visual content or scenes.] Judy Pino: Hello, and welcome to Green Scene, EPA's Environmental Information Podcast that you can take with you. I'm Judy Pino. Imagine reducing pollutants in the air, water and soil, by 890 million pounds. Those are exactly the unprecedented results that EPA's civil criminal enforcement actions have produced in fiscal year 2007. And if EPA is the cop on the beat, then the chief of police would be Granta Nakayama, assistant administrator for EPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, who is here to tell us more about this record breaking achievement for the agency. Welcome, Mr. Nakayama. How are you today? Granta Nakayama: Thank you, Judy. Judy Pino: Well, let's start – let's cut to the chase. Tell me exactly what the importance of your office is in the grand scheme of things for the agency. What do you guys do? Granta Nakayama: The Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance is responsible for ensuring that regulated entities comply with the nation's environmental laws and regulations. And so we do believe in firm and fair enforcement of our results, fair enforcement of the regulations, and we believe our results bear that out. Judy Pino: In other words, the cop on the beat. Yes? Granta Nakayama: Yes. Right. Judy Pino: Well, fiscal year 2007 has been record breaking in the 35 years of the agency. For starters, under enforcement agreement, polluters will invest a record high of $10.6 billion to reduce pollution. That's billion. Did I say that right? Granta Nakayama: Right. Judy Pino: Yeah. Granta Nakayama: $10.6 billion. That's a tremendous amount of money, and this is the highest total in the agency's history. We've never achieved that level of investment, so industries, government agencies, other regulated entities will install equipment to reduce or eliminate pollution and prevent from getting it in the air, water, land. And those actions that $10.6 billion will reduce pollution by 890 million pounds. Judy Pino: Now, what does that mean – what does that mean to the layman? You also have enforcement that will also clean up – it's the largest contaminated soil cleanup in the history as well. Granta Nakayama: Yes. Yes. We have set a record again for the amount of soil that we are cleaning up, contaminated soil. This is 79 million cubic yards. Now, I know that's a large number. And what is a cubic yard? Judy Pino: Right. Granta Nakayama: But really what that amounts to is being able to say that we've cleaned up enough soil that we could cover 12,000 football fields to a depth of three feet. That's the amount of soil that will be cleaned up under the enforcement agreements we've concluded in fiscal year 2007. Judy Pino: That's pretty interesting. So for people who understand football -- if you don't understand the numbers, you understand football, you can understand the significance of this, huh? And lastly, EPA has provided more compliance assistance to the public ever in EPA's history, yes? Granta Nakayama: Yes, and that is important. We want to help people comply. We find that an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure, and in fact, we have helped our regulated entities with compliance assistance more than 3 million times this year. That is a record. We've never ever reached 3 million people in a year. That's double what it was five years ago. Judy Pino: And EPA has 15 – worth mentioning, EPA has 15 website based assistant centers that provide information on environmental regulations and compliance issues for certain industries, groups, tribes, construction healthcare and auto recyclers, and of course we publish this every year. So is 2007 an anomaly? I mean really, what – why is it so significant? Granta Nakayama: That's a great question, Judy. It is not an anomaly in the sense that we are on an unprecedented run of environmental improvement through enforcement over the last four years. It is an anomaly in that we're setting records. But if you look over the past four years, our enforcement efforts have required polluters to invest a record $30 billion in equipment to reduce pollution, and $30 billion, what does that mean? Well, that means every work day, about $30 million per work day, as a result of our enforcement agreements are being invested in pollution control. And again, they're having great results. These investments reduce pollution by nearly 4 billion pounds over the last four years. That is a – 4 million pounds of pollutants reduced every work day. That's pollutants reduced – I'm not talking about waste reduction or recycling, true pollutants. And those kind of results are going to have a lasting benefit for all Americans. Judy Pino: And, of course, the benefits, I should say health benefits are pretty significant. The reduction is approximately 500 premature deaths in people with heart or lung disease, 50,000 fewer days of missed work or school, and a thousand fewer hospital visits due to asthma and heart failure every year. So again, pretty significant; right? Granta Nakayama: Those are very significant results, and that is, I think, a total that comes just merely from our air pollution enforcement results. So we really are having a strong run of enforcement results. Judy Pino: And finally, you have said you believe that enforcement is key. Tell me why. Granta Nakayama: Strong enforcement is key, and it's key if we're going to make the environmental reality for Americans match the promise in our environmental regulations and statutes, and the bottom line is this. EPA is the cop on the beat and we are committed to ensuring compliance with our environmental laws and regulations. Judy Pino: Mr. Nakayama, thank you so much. Congratulations on your efforts to you and your office and your team, and thanks for taking the time to come over and explain this to us a little bit. Granta Nakayama: Thank you, Judy. Judy Pino: Thank you, and for more information, of course, on the OECA fiscal year 2007 annual report, please visit www.EPA.gov. Thanks for watching Green Scene. I'm Judy Pino. See you next time. [end] --------------------------------------------------------------------------------