Re: risk and Safe Drinking Water Act

[kegill@halcyon.com (Kathy E. Gill)]

Mark pulled a quote from Mr. Ruckelshaus (the 1st EPA head ... and probably
the only one to serve 2x) that is *extremely* old (1988) and without
context.

Wednesday's Seattle Times ran a medium length (full 5-column head) story by
Joel Connelly on a presentation he made Tuesday.

Some points he made:
- The country needs to do a better job of aligning economic incentives with
environmental goals
- We should  rely less on court action
- EPA administrator should have greater flexibility in decision-making

He is part of a project that is developing suggestions to *change* the
current framework of environmental laws, sponsored by the Center for
Strategic and International Studies and the National Academy of Public
Administration.

Please explain how we can align economic incentives with environmental
goals without using some sort of risk assessment?

Finally -- focusing only on "industry" as a "polluter" leaves out some very
important actors -- the military *and* local governments running WWTP and
Water supply purification. We have a rash of citizen suits being filed here
in WA -- not directed toward Industry -- but to local governments/state
agencies.

Kathy E. Gill

>William Ruckelshaus, former EPA head and now the CEO of Browning-Ferris
>Industries, the world s second biggest waste company: "A risk assessment
>is like a captured spy: torture it enough and it will say anything."
>"Ruckelshaus new head of BFI," CCHW Action Bulletin, #20, November 1988,
>p. 1