EPA Report Omits Climate Change Section

June 24, 2003

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released a mixed "Report on the Environment" this week that outlined progress in areas from air quality to drinking water but said plenty of problems remain.

While the report assessed environmental matters from water clarity to the ozone hole, it said nothing about climate change. Sharp disagreements between the EPA and the White House became public last week over how the climate issue should be characterized, prompting the agency to drop the section altogether.

EPA Administrator Christie Whitman said Monday that the long-overdue report attempts to "tell us how far we've come and suggest where we still need to go."

Although progress is mixed in some areas, overall the nation's environment is improving, the two-volume draft report said. For example:

• The air is 25 percent cleaner than it was 30 years ago.

• The water is safer to drink, with better than 9 in 10 water systems in the country meeting health standards, up from 79 percent a decade ago.

• Virtually all hazardous waste is either recycled or treated, and the number of Superfund sites -- toxic industrial sites waiting to be cleaned -- continues to decline.

• Factories and businesses are releasing fewer toxic chemicals.

Whitman, who is leaving the EPA this week, acknowledged the picture is far from rosy.

While the air is cleaner, half the population lives in areas where air quality does not meet federal health standards on some days.

The report calls the condition of the nation's estuaries only fair to poor, depending on the region of the country. Wetlands are being lost at the rate of 100,000 acres (40,000 hectares) a year, despite pledges by successive administrations to develop policies to end the decline.

Whitman noted that thousands of waterways, while cleaner, "are still considered impaired, unable to fully sustain aquatic life or safe recreational use." The report notes beach closings have increased.

Also, the nation is producing more garbage than ever. "The increasing volume of waste, along with the growth of sprawl, continues to pose a challenge to our efforts to protect the land," said Whitman.

Experts have yet to discern clearly the link between the environment and people's health problems, the EPA maintains.

Critics of the Bush administration took the report as an opportunity to attack the president's environmental agenda.

Sen. John Kerry, a Democrat seeking the presidential nomination, characterized the EPA document as bleak, the result of President George W. Bush's policies that have "relaxed the laws governing polluting power plants" and "gutted important provisions of the Clean Water Act."

In a glaring and intentional omission, the EPA assessment has not even a mention of worldwide climate change.

Under a section titled "Global Issues," it cites progress made in dealing with depletion of Earth's ozone layer, which filters out harmful ultraviolet radiation. It ignores, however, fears of many climate scientists about a future warming of the Earth because of manmade pollution.

Whitman chose to scrap the entire section on climate change after a dispute developed over how the issue was to be characterized. White House officials had directed a major rewrite of the section to emphasize uncertainties they said surround global warming and delete references to any impact rising global temperatures might have on health and the environment.

The White House involvement came to light last week with release of internal EPA documents and various earlier drafts of the climate section of the report including changes directed by the White House.

Paul Gilman, EPA's science adviser and head of its office of research and development, said it was decided to drop the climate section because of the lack of consensus and because "the debate on climate is ongoing."

"It wasn't a significant piece," he added, saying two pages were removed.

Officials noted the document released Monday was a draft, still subject to public comments in the coming months. A section on climate feasibly still could be added.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/science/06/24/epa.report.ap/index.html