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DeVILLARS RECOGNIZES "TREMONDOUS STRIDES ON BEHALF OF THE ENVIRONMENT" BUT URGES CONTINUED ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION EFFORTS

Release Date: 04/22/1997
Contact Information: Michael O'Malley, Office of the Regional Administrator (617) 918-1014

BOSTON -- In recognition of the increasing importance of the Internet as a global communications tool, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's New England office today released the 1997 State of the New England Environment Report on the Agency's World Wide Web home page. The report documents the current status of the region's environmental health, describes both positive and negative trends, and reflects many of the new directions in environmental policy underway at EPA's New England office.

"Over the past year, we've made tremendous strides on behalf of New England's environment, but we still have a ways to go," said John DeVillars, Administrator of EPA's New England office. "We have sharpened our use of traditional means of environmental protection, and developed exciting approaches to respond to new challenges. However, although we're on the right road, we're a long way from home."

"EPA is continuing to make good on its commitment to provide the public with accurate, timely information on New England's environmental health," added DeVillars. "The Internet version of the 1997 State of the New England Environment Report does that better than ever before."

The 1997 State of the New England Environment Report can be found on the World Wide Web at the following URL: "https://www.epa.gov/region01/soe97". A few highlights from the report include:

• Air quality in New England continues to improve on the whole, but problems remain. Good air quality days throughout New England have steadily increased over the past several years, and the overall trend in ozone pollution shows improvement. However, New England still has days that exceed acceptable ground level ozone standards during the summer. Asthma rates in New England continue to rise. Over the past ten years, the number of Americans with asthma has increased by 42 percent, and it is estimated that more than 100,000 children in the Boston area alone are affected by the disease;
• New England industries continue to reduce their impact on the environment each year, as shown by data released to the public through the Toxics Release Inventory. In New England, businesses have reduced their toxic releases by more than 67 percent since 1988, down to around 30 million pounds. Releases of carcinogenic compounds in New England have dropped by 33 percent since 1991, from 9.5 tons per year to just 6 tons per year;
• New England's ecosystems are being increasingly threatened by non-native plant and animal species. Just 79 of these species have cost the economy of the United States over $97 billion to date. In this region, species such as Eurasian Watermilfoil, Purple Loosestrife, the common reed, and Zebra Mussels continue to pose serious risks to the health of many aquatic ecosystems;
• Drinking water quality in the region is improving, with 95 percent of our public systems in compliance with all applicable drinking water standards in 1996. Of the remaining 5 percent, most were in violation due to contamination by bacteria that was subsequently found to pose no direct threat to human health;
• New Englanders continue to recycle more and are creating jobs in the process. The recycling industry provides more than 103,00 jobs in the northeast, contributing $7.2 billion to our economy. Through the efforts of EPA, the National Recycling Coalition, and many other New Englanders, recycled products are now publicly traded on the Chicago Board of Trade;
• And, New England has 93 toxic waste sites on the Superfund's National Priority List, 81 of which are under remediation. Of these sites, 19 have met cleanup goals for land, surface, or groundwater, 15 have partial goals met, and 47 have ongoing cleanup activities.

New initiatives, geared toward achieving real environmental results, include:

The CLEAN program, designed to help small businesses in New England employ responsible environmental practices. In return for undertaking pollution prevention audits, EPA grants enforcement amnesty to companies in the belief that the environmental improvements and cost savings coming from the audits will create a strong incentive for going beyond compliance.

The Urban Environmental Initiative (UEI), pioneering new ways to combine environmental protection with economic development, urban planning, and social service tactics. In doing this, UEI has been working hard to change the way we view the inner city environment and helping urban communities help themselves in the process.

The StarTrack program, aimed at privatizing corporate environmental compliance assurance by developing third party environmental auditing and certification guidelines, utilizes professional third-party auditors rather than EPA inspectors to measure and report the environmental performance of companies while at the same time encouraging companies to go beyond what environmental laws require. The program increases the public's knowledge of a company's performance, and allows the re-deployment of taxpayer resources to areas of more critical environmental concern.

The 1997 State of the Environment Report can be downloaded from the Internet or EPA staff will mail printed copies of the report in May. To be placed on the distribution list for the report, please write to Public Affairs, US EPA Regional Administrator's Office (RAA), JFK Federal Building, Boston, MA, 02203 or send an e-mail to "[email protected]".