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Lucent Technologies

Letter to Hennelly from Morris

UNITES STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY REGION III
841 Chestnut Building
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 109107-4431

February 26, 1997

Ms Debra Sabatini Hennelly
Lucent Technologies, Inc.
131 Morristown Road, Room B-2180
Basking Ridge, New Jersey 08902

Dear Debbie,

This last few days have brought several new events which affect our project and some new ideas which I think will help us progress toward the FPA. First, we have reviewed both the draft proposal for reducing water consumption at Allentown and the framework for a new permit based on those reductions. We think there is potential for significant environmental benefits. Further, we have taken your proposal and translated the concepts into possible new permit loadings which we would like to discuss at our meeting on March 20. Before that we will discuss our thoughts with Pennsylvania. We will try to get our ideas to you before the 20th so we can have a more fruitful interactive discussion.

Building on our interpretations of your proposals, we also have some thoughts about regulatory flexibility opportunities which we can also discuss on the 20th. Again, we will talk over our ideas with PaDEP and try to forward them to your prior to the meeting. I would also like to pursue our suggestion to have some EPA experts and contract consultants become familiar with the technical aspects of the Allentown facility. As we discussed, the purpose is to offer some suggestions to you that you could consider for further pollution reduction in the coming years.

To that end, I would like to arrange for a plant visit similar to the one you previously provided for the EPA/DEP staffs. I anticipate that there also may be some PaDEP staff experts who missed the prior plant tour and would like to be included. I think there would be about eight people total. I would like to arrange for the plant visit as soon as possible so we can consider any new ideas which may result.

Despite the latest note from Florida disengaging from the XL process, I want you to know that Region 4 remains interested in a visit to the Orlando facility if you feel that there is a potential for extending any of the Reading, Allentown or Mesquite demonstration project outcomes to Orlando.

Lastly, here are my thoughts on you letter of February 21, in response to my last MOU proposal. We agree with your sentiment that resolution of the issues raised in your letter will best serve the purposes of this project. However, please note that the third paragraph of your letter is not an accurate reflection of our conversations. For example, during the discussion among you , Ted, and me in November of last year, we confirmed that the Interim Participation Agreement (IPA) will terminate upon the execution of a Final Project Agreement (FPA). However, I explained that EPA would extend the IPA until June 30, 1997, so as to accommodate our continued discussions to execute an FPA. I also offered the protections of the Environmental Leadership Program as a post-FPA continuation agreement. Despite our mutual understanding of the termination of the IPA and the offer of the ELP protections, your letter indicates that using the ELP as a basis for discussion of continued protections is unacceptable in insists on starting from the IPA protections as a base.

After carefully considering your suggestions for moving forward, I feel that we are left with only your second option: Go back to the original MOU proposed by Lucent, which references no on-going role for the agency in the EMS. We could agree to this approach so long as the Information Management section is slightly modified to make clear that the IPA extension serves only to provide a bridge to achieving an FPA: Information that is shared or disclosed among the Partners shall be subject to the provisions of the Interim Participation Agreement and the Nondisclosure agreement that were signed by the Partners in early 1996 (attached as Exhibits Two through Six), solely for the purposes of this MOU.

I remain hopeful that our ongoing discussions at Allentown and Mesquite, as well as those forthcoming at Reading, will be so fruitful that we can later mutually agree on a mechanism to carry forward the Agency's participation in Lucent's EMS beyond the FPA. For the present, I think we should take the steps necessary to finalize an FPA by June 30.

Sincerely,

Alvin R. Morris, Director Water Protection Division


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