============================================================ FREE CELL PHONE HEADSET. New York is the first to ban drivers from using cell phones without headsets. Forty states are following the ban! Get a FREE Cell Phone Headset. Click Here http://click.topica.com/caaacLEb1ddNBb2HgmNb/BTEdirect ============================================================EPA honors achievements of state and tribal leaders
Gazette Staff
Designing an innovative Web site on air quality impacts of last year’s
wildfires and gathering evidence against a septic tank pumper dumping raw
sewage into tribal waters are among Montanans’ achievements recently
recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
EPA officials will present the awards in person at yet-to-be-determined
events.
The achievement awards went to John Coefield, a meteorologist and modeler
with the Montana Department of Environmental Quality’s Planning, Prevention
and Assistance Program, and to Bruce Bauer, Shelly Kirn and Sandra
Blount-White Eagle, of the Fort Peck Reservation.
“These individuals represent the kind of environmental commitment and
partnership EPA recognizes as crucial to protecting our land, water and air,"
said Jack McGraw, EPA’s acting regional administrator in Denver.
Coefield, of Helena, developed a public information Web site on air quality
impacts for the historic 2000 wildfire season, when 6.5 million acres burned
nationwide.
The site featured public announcements, updated daily, with forecasting
information and monitoring results. The site also included an adaptation of
EPA’s Air Quality Index for the public so individuals could make short-term
health predictions and assess the fire smoke’s impact on them. The assessment
would be followed by cautionary statements to sensitive populations and the
general public, such as advisories to limit exercise or remain indoors.
EPA said the Web site resulted from effective partnering with local
governments and other agencies to raise environmental awareness. Coefield’s
“initiative, creativity and diligence in continuous updates to the Web – and
his talent for leveraging communications opportunities through partnership –
greatly supported public health protection efforts," EPA said. “This project
is a model for other state, tribal or local offices and the federal
government to use when wildfires threaten air quality."
Bauer, Kirn and Blount-White Eagle were recognized for their professionalism
and persistence in pursuing, documenting and reporting egregious violations
of the Clean Water Act.
Bauer witnessed a septic pumper truck illegally dumping raw sewage into a
coulee on rural ranch land. He questioned the pumper, photographed the scene,
documented the encounter and referred the action to the tribe’s Environmental
Protection Department.
Days later, Bauer spotted the same pumper at Wolf Point and, alarmed at the
prospect of more illegal dumping, alerted a sheriff’s deputy and followed the
truck, again documenting the violation.
Armed with this information, Kirn and Blount-White Eagle, from the tribe’s
Environmental Protection Department, went to the dump site twice to document
how the raw sewage ran into tribal waters. They photographed the site,
sampled the pollutants, drafted affidavits and submitted the information in a
bound investigation report to EPA.
The report was so thorough that EPA had no need to gather more evidence. EPA
is using the report as evidence in the pending enforcement action against the
pumper.
EPA said the voluntary actions of Bauer, Kirn and Blount-White Eagle
“exemplify the kind of model partnership EPA seeks to cultivate – for the
benefit of the tribe, the agency and the environment we all seek to protect."
The Montanans were among 65 groups or individuals that EPA recognized in its
six-state region that includes Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota,
Utah and Wyoming.
Updated: Wed Aug 1 00:43:53 CDT 2001 Central Time
Copyright © The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises.
"Never cease in the fight for peace, justice, and equality for all people. Be
perisitent in all that you do and don't allow anyone to sway you from your
conscience.".....Leonard Peltier
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