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i\;)016n . - - - - - - -CRWJ\- - ------ -- - _--..~ Will There Be Changes by the EPA? Over the past few months the hue and cry from the environmental industries has been growing louder and louder for regulatory and economical relief. Many felt the regulations themseh"es and the cost of implementing the regulations were becoming more than neces- sary for the industries to cope with for little or no health and/or environmental improvement. Because of the turmoil caused by the regu- lated entities, the U.s. Environmental Protec- tion Agency, utilizing a 1.1\,\' passed by Congress in 1980 that requires all regulating federal agencies to review the impacts of their regu- lations every ten years, started a review process to determine the validity of the complaints. The pro- cess was started by estab- lishing a comment period and requesting comments on the regulations in gen- eral. Their solicitation for comments procedure worked so \.\'ell that they received almost no com- ments from anvone in Colorado, so the-EPA cont.1cted the State of Colorado Department of Local Affairs request- ing assistance in their solicitation of comments. The Dep.utrnent of Local Affairs in turn sug- gested to \.arious entities that letters express- ing concern about the impacts of the regulations to the EPA would be wise. Since the EPA had asked for response to regulation impacts, Rangel y Town Manager Don Peach wrote a letter to the EPA Small Commwlities Coordinator, Ann Cole, with an attachment prepared by the Utilities Plants Staff on :vtarch 31,1992, as did se\'eral other entities in Colo- . . Wri llen by Jim DeWitt and D. R. Correll rado. As a result of the comments received by the EPA, we '....ere informed in mid-April that representatives from the Town of Rangely were invited to attend a meeting on May 15, 1992, in Washington, DC. The Town of Rangely sent Jim DeWitt, Utilities Plants Foreman, and D. R Correll, Utilities Director, as representatives. In addition to attending the formal meeting with the EPA on the 15th, we met with, at different times, aides from the offices of Sena- tors Brown and Wirth, Representative Campbell, as well as EPA's Ann Cole, on the 14th. Some of these meetings can be consid- ered fruitful. Ann Cole ba- sically gave us insight and information on what the result of some of the other recent meetings was and what she would like to see come out of our meeting, that being both an aware- ness by the heads of the EPA o(the crumges needed and, also, for us to under- stand the position of the EPA \'ersus Congress. Ann also presented a priority system by which com- munities could work to resolve their worst problems first. before having to address regu- lations that are of lessercorLwquence. The EPA mayor may not go with this approach. Julie McKenna, of Senator Brown's office, was very receptin" to the problems being faced by many communities because of regulations and indicated that Senator Brown was aware that changes needed to be made at the Con- gressionallevel and was working toward that end. Sen,1tor \tVirth's aide, Russ Shay, on the (Continued 011 Page 16) 'im Dt'lViH, Utilities Plant foreman, and D. R. Corn'lI, Utilities Din'Ctor, witll tilt' Town of Rangt'ly, just prior to l€(wing/or Wdsllington, DC. EPA "..qut'Stt'd tllnr input liS rt'J"eSt'ntll- tit't"S from a small watt.'T system on tlu' efft'cf n-gullltions flrt' hlrving on ruml towns. 15