Region 1: EPA New England
Drinking Water Protection and Energy Conservation Among EPA Priorities in New England
Note: EPA no longer updates this information, but it may be useful as a reference or resource.
By Robert Varney
December 2001
The world has obviously changed since the Sept. 11 terrorist attack and so, too, has my perspective on the priorities and challenges we face at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's New England Office.
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The airplane and anthrax attacks have made us much more cognizant and appreciative of basic services that Americans may have taken for granted in the past – necessities such as safe drinking water, reliable energy supplies, quick and effective emergency response capabilities.
EPA's mission has long been focused on these issues, but now we need to re-double our efforts to ensure these basic protections and services. And, at the same time, we cannot lose sight of priorities we set for ourselves before Sept. 11 – among those, Brownfields cleanups in our urban areas and reducing pollution in our rivers and lakes.
More than anything, the question I am now asked is, "Are New England's drinking water supplies safe?" My quick answer is, "Yes, but we must remain vigilant."
EPA New England is working with the six states and the New England Water Works Association to help the region's 12,000 public water supply systems better protect their supplies. In the coming months, we'll be holding more than a dozen emergency planning workshops to share information with suppliers, provide access to security experts, and work on model emergency plans and other planning tools that can be replicated. Workshops have already been held in Massachusetts, Maine and New Hampshire.
We're also developing a Self-Help Guide for Security and Emergency Planning to support small drinking water systems in their response efforts. Our guide will include important information on security, system-wide vulnerability assessments and plant operations.
The terrorist attack also brings into clear focus the need for safe and reliable energy in this country, especially in New England with its cold winters and limited access to energy supplies.
New England has done a good job creating new energy capacity. In just the past few years, the six New England states have approved permits for 25 new, clean-burning power plants that will provide more than half of the region's electricity needs during the peak summer months.
Another way to ensure reliable energy – and save significant sums of money at the same time – is boosting our investments in energy efficiency. EPA's Energy Star program, which offers consumers and businesses recommendations on how to conserve energy, has already saved New England organizations and consumers more than $1.9 billion on their energy bills, including nearly $1 billion in Massachusetts alone. Among the companies that has benefitted is the 185-store Shaw's Supermarket chain which is saving $3.7 million a year on its energy bills due to its energy-saving investments.
But there's much more we could be doing. This summer, EPA Administrator Christie Whitman visited Boston to announce that the Energy Star program was being expanded to other energy sectors, including the food retailing industry, health care facilities and public schools. And earlier this month, EPA, utilities and manufacturers of Energy Star products launched a new public awareness campaign aimed at getting more Americans to use Energy Star products in their homes.
EPA New England has also been extremely successful working with states, municipalities and developers to clean up hundreds of contaminated Brownfield sites so they can be re-used. The agency has provided New England communities more than $45 million of Brownfields assistance to help in site assessments, cleanups and revolving loan programs. And the assistance is paying off – dozens of contaminated parcels have been cleaned up in the region, resulting in thousands of new jobs and millions of dollars of tax revenues.
Although much cleaner than they were 20 years ago, it is unacceptable that many of New England's rivers and beaches continue to be unsafe for swimming and other recreational activities due to pollution.
Among my priorities in this regard is working closely with the state and municipalities to reduce pollution coming from outdated sewer line systems known as combined sewer overflows (CSOs). In the Merrimack River, CSOs from a half-dozen cities in New Hampshire and Massachusetts are discharging hundreds of millions of gallons of pollution into the river each year.
We'll also use voluntary programs whenever we can. Next spring we'll be expanding New Hampshire's successful "Clean Marine Initiative" to other New England states. This voluntary program has been hugely successful in getting boat dealers to sell new low-pollution engines instead of the older two-stroke engines which discharge as much as 30 percent of the fuel they use directly into the environment.
Indeed, the United States and the world has changed since Sept. 11. But that should not mean that Brownfield cleanups, energy saving initiatives and other environmental programs already planned should fall by the wayside. We look forward to working with the people of New England to take on this challenge and ensure that the environment and public health are being protected.
Robert Varney is regional administrator of EPA's New England Office and former commissioner of the N.H. Department of Environmental Services.