The Flow Of The River

More Flow

I think federal agencies should blog more.  That includes EPA. 

Starting today this blog is going to broaden its purview.  You will see more EPA employees blogging about more topics.  There won't be any more "Guest Blogs."  Every entry will have its own byline showing who the author is.  They'll all be open to comments.

Just because the Flow of the River will be broader, doesn't mean it will be slower.  I, for instance, will continue to blog under my own byline.  There will be a lot more entries on a lot more topics.  You'll also start seeing more improvements to the look and feel of the blog.  Unlike a real river, the Flow is getting wider and stronger.

Find the Hidden Message

By any measure, the best blogs are multidimensional. Usually, given time and wit, I try and add a little depth to this blog. You may notice that . . . or you may not. Examples run the gamut from obvious to arcane. Not many folks missed the connection with Irving Berlin when Annie Oakley suddenly popped up at the end of “Anything I Can Do, I Can Do Better.” Even fewer failed to spot the sprinkling of French expressions in the tour de force, "How Freeing Paris Saved Money.” Rarely do things go as badly, however, as when a majority of folks, at least in my office, had no idea what Dunder Mifflin was on America Recycles Day.

Given the difficulty of understanding all that may be going on in a 400 word blog entry, it’s understandable that it can be even harder to grasp the substance in EPA’s ten-page Quarterly Management Report. You may need to be an EPA geek to really ‘get’ all of what we are measuring. “Superfund Site Completions” and “TMDL Approvals” are not necessarily phrases you’ll hear while waiting in line at Starbucks. To be sure, the quarterly measures are important, but they are indirect, not direct, measures of environmental quality.

Click to Open Quarterly Management Report

A lack of context in the report makes the measures less accessible to the average citizen. Regular folks may need assistance understanding what the measures mean and how they relate to protecting health and the environment.

Let me introduce EPA’s latest and best Quarterly Management Report. In addition to simplifying some of the data boxes, once inside the report, just roll your cursor over a measure, left click, and a supplemental guide appears with background information and explanations.

Greater accessibility to what our quarterly report means will allow more people to study what we’re doing. However, what is more important than just reporting this information is learning from it. Take a look, if you want to see how we’re doing, and let us know what you think.

Stumped by the hidden message?

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly: Correspondence

Time for another EPA performance follow-up. Last August I noted that we had done a tremendous job of being more responsive to letters we get from elected officials. Being responsive is important because it influences how well these officials are able to serve their constituents. It's also a reflection on whether EPA has its act together. It affects our rep.

We try and respond to all letters from Senators, Congressmen and Governors within two weeks.  (Very complicated requests, like requests for lots of documents, are excluded.) When we started measuring this in early 2006 we typically had about 60 letters overdue in any given week. In less than four months we reduced that to zero - no letters overdue!

It's been seven months since we last checked in. Did we let our guard down?

No! We're keeping it down near zero. Congratulations to everyone for making it a habit. In the world of the good, the bad and the ugly, this one is very good.

Haggis' Bells

I had this conversation the other day with my Assistant, Rocco Russo - yeah, that's his real name.

Marcus: Hey Rocco, I want to run an idea for a blog entry by you. You know my dog Haggis?

Rocco: Heard of him.

M: We have a set of bells by the back door that we’ve taught him to ring if he thinks he needs to go outside.

R: Uh-huh . . . bells.

M: Well, my mother-in-law recently stayed at my house for a few weeks. We told her about the bells, but she sort of unilaterally decided that if the dog rang the bells but didn’t want to go outside then that meant he should be fed.

R: That doesn’t make sense.

M: I know, but that’s what she did. Anyway, pretty soon the dog was ringing the bells all the time. The whole system broke down and now he’s fat.

R: Too bad . . . is that it?

M: No, no. Did you know that some Greek Hedonists thought there were only three basic physical pleasures in life?

R: Uh-uh. What are they?

M: Well, two of them are eating and relieving oneself.

R: What’s the third?

M: Never mind. The point is eating and going to the bathroom are very different but necessary functions.

R: You know . . . I’m pretty busy today.

M: My point is EPA can be split into two distinct parts. We have the people inside the beltway and their various support offices and then we have the ten Regional offices. Headquarters primarily develops national policies and programs while the Regional offices work on the ground, directly with the states and tribes, implementing these programs.

R: You trying to tell me Headquarters eats and the Regions poop?

M: Well, no . . . the important thing is that, in general, they are two separate but necessary functions and because of that they need to be managed differently.

R: They need different bells?

M: They need different management measures that recognize they perform different functions. For instance, Headquarters often uses process measures to gauge performance. Regions, on the other hand, care more about particular geographic priorities and can use more specific and practical measures of performance. All of EPA has to work together to achieve our mission, but these two parts of EPA perform different jobs to get us there. If you try and force them to use the same measures, I think the whole system breaks down.

R: So, what are going to call this blog, "Half of EPA is Dog Crap"?

M: Oh! Forget it.

R: You want me to call Al Kamen at the Post now or just let that happen?

Guest Blog: Reuse it or lose it

Jim Schulman is a good friend and the President of Community Forklift a reclaimed and green building materials store in Hyattsville, MD.

Some people say that we Americans live in a post-industrial society. That is absolute (toxic) rubbish. Even though large numbers of American manufacturers are now operating overseas, interlinked engines of consumption, manufacturing, and materials extraction, spin on nonetheless. In developing and (over) developed nations alike, our lifestyles appear absolutely dependent, for good or for bad, upon industrial production.

But it’s not necessarily the manufacture, distribution, operation, or disposal of material goods that is so harmful. Thoughtful research by the Wuppertal Institute has shown that well over three quarters of all environmental harms (including habitat loss, toxicity, climate disruption, etc.) are directly caused by materials extraction. It is practices like the clear-cutting of forests in Southeast Asia, mountain-top removal mining in West Virginia, and diversion of water from the Rio Grande River, that do the most damage to otherwise hardy eco-systems.

The fundamental problem of our era (as I see it), is how to redirect our economic activity to protect the earth’s eco-systems, while still putting food on the tables of over 6 billion people.

Perhaps the easiest tool at our disposal towards this end is the reuse of products otherwise destined for disposal. At Community Forklift, we see the reuse of local building materials as not only cost-effective, but a form of environmental protection. One person’s trash is another’s treasure times two.

Currently, building materials constitute approximately half of the solid waste stream in America, by weight. Most buildings, however, can be carefully taken apart, or “deconstructed” in ways that preserve 85 to 95% of the materials for reuse or recycling. In fact, deconstruction can be cost-competitive with traditional demolition. A building owner may pay more for labor, but they avoid landfill and heavy equipment fees, and can receive tax deductions for donating materials. The Institute for Local Self-Reliance has shown that more green-collar jobs can be created in deconstruction, re-use, and re-manufacturing (converting old materials into new products) than might be lost in traditional raw materials extraction and manufacturing.

Although purchasing used and overstock building materials is not appropriate for every construction project, it can be extremely affordable in renovation and repair work. The creation of healthy, ecologically-regenerative communities can begin with the simple decision to reuse a 2x4.

Gitche Gumee Rocks

Every summer while I was growing up my family drove to the northern shore of Lake Superior to hunt for agates, browse local shops, and generally loaf around the shingle ‘beach.’ I loved it. To this day I can skip pretty much any rock someone hands me because of the hours of practice I put in during those formative years (although it was not so good for my rotator cuff).

So when it comes to the Great Lakes, I’m biased. For me, Lake Superior is the deepest, biggest, coldest, greatest Great Lake of them all. The Ojibwa referred to it as Gitche Gumee (“big water”). Longfellow waxed poetic about it. The “church bell chimed ‘til it rang 29 times” because of it. It’s the boss. It’s superior.

Starting today, contrarians to my point of view have an opportunity to prove me wrong. On a companion website, EPA’s office in Chicago is starting a blog to discuss an environmental challenge it is posing to communities around all of the Great Lakes. I’m expecting a good showing from towns around Lake Superior from Grand Portage to Sault Ste. Marie. (I’m not sure the challenge extends to our Canadian friends, they’re out of our jurisdiction!)

However the challenge works out, I’m tickled to see EPA starting up another blog, albeit temporary. The Great Lakes blog will continue through May 9th.

Guest Blog: Tell me, no really, I want to know...

Karen Higginbotham runs EPA's Office of Civil Rights.

Within the next few weeks the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) will launch an Agency-wide survey. The purpose of the survey is to obtain statistically valid feedback from the (approx.) 17,500 people that comprise the Agency’s workforce. This is not a survey that folks in OCR created. Using the competitive procurement process, we sought out a business entity that has demonstrated experience in the development of survey instruments and is recognized for their ability to administer surveys and interpret survey results.

The survey will ask questions with respect to the (Equal Employment Opportunity) EEO process, affirmative employment, special emphasis programs, workforce diversity, and reasonable accommodation. The survey will also ask for information on the race, national origin, gender and disability status of each respondent. All information collected will be “anonymized” much like my photo has been “Simpsonized”. (Oh, alright! “anonymized” is not a real word.) All responses will be provided to the contractor. OCR will only see the survey statistics, feedback, and results.

Yes, I have a genuine interest in the results and feedback. In part, the survey results will tell me if OCR is “doing a good job.” That would be quite an affirmation; but what I really want to know is where we can improve upon our service and processes. I want to know how you perceive the work we are charged to accomplish. Do we treat employees with respect? Is the EEO process fully explained to aggrieved individuals?  Do our special emphasis observances resonate with the various constituent groups? Do these programs help to eradicate misperceptions with respect to different cultures, races, or ethnic groups? Do our diversity programs seek to create a more inclusive culture within EPA? Is the reasonable accommodation process used effectively?

This is my “science fair” project! The hypothesis is: “OCR has made incremental changes in its organizational structure and in work processes in order to deliver more effective services to EPA employees.” This survey is an “experiment.” The survey will put the hypothesis to the test. Like all good science fair projects, I will post the results of the (experiment) survey. The results will help me, the OCR management team and my senior managers to keep doing the things that work really well and to improve upon those things that are not working so well.

So when you get an email from WESTAT Inc. (the contractor) do not delete it as potential spam. Please take the time to read and respond to the survey. It’s OK to be open and honest. When it comes to OCR, like Dr. Phil, I really want to know what you have to say when asked, “So, how’s that working for ya?”

OMB vs. EPA Follow-up

In response to my last post on Tuesday I have received a number of e-mails. (You people really should be less shy about posting comments.) I’d like to share an edited version of one such e-mail with you. It demonstrates how different environmental ‘epiphanies’ can be. Nonetheless, they are all intensely personal.

“I really enjoyed your latest blog recounting your epiphanies and quoting Eiseley. I was drawn to your comment about wanting another one. So I am compelled to share mine with you.

It was about ten years ago. It was rooted in an earlier epiphany - similar to yours - and I had a deep spiritual sense of being part of the earth. The realization that the minerals and molecules comprising my body had been processed through the carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous, oxygen and water cycles of the earth, and that those elements had been created in a super nova explosion, and the matter in the super nova was crafted in the mystery of the big bang of creation, was truly a moment of enlightenment that resulted in a transcendental experience. I was the earth and the universe being conscious of itself.

An EPA Sunroll

My guru in all of this is Brian Swimme, a mathematical cosmologist. His book The Universe Story is wondrous. He has helped me see the wonder of the planet not just as a planet, but as a living organism within the evolution of the entire universe.

Because of this, I no longer experience 'sunrise.' Rather it is the experience of riding on the back of a huge planet (something like a whale) that is slowly rolling over toward the sun. The next time you have the opportunity, try to feel it this way rather than thinking of the earth as fixed and the sun 'rising' (or setting). You have a much different experience.

Just as you stated, I too love working at EPA. And I’m particularly blessed to have the opportunity to work with the people and in the building that I do. I’m an early bird so most mornings I have the privilege of participating in the planet’s great “roll over” as it rotates toward the sun, and energy once again floods the face of the planet where I live. I get to meditate on the fact that the sun is this great metaphor of service and self-sacrifice, focusing on the fact that it is a gift that powers the planet and me. In time it will be gone – as will I; the difference being the sun has about 5 billion years left and I’ve got 15-20 years if nothing untoward happens.

I’ve attached a photo that I took from our building. The confluence of the Missouri and Kansas rivers is in the foreground. Some of that water came from the Platte. You can see why I love to come to work each day."

OMB vs. EPA

I spent several years working at the US Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Among other things, OMB produces the President’s budget request every year. People often ask me to compare OMB and the Environmental Protection Agency. I like to start by comparing their cultures. As a policy official at OMB, it’s a bit like being surrounded by a pack of eager Labrador Retrievers. They have one goal in life: to make you happy. Indeed, they need to make you happy. “Throw a stick, throw a stick! Please, please throw a stick so I can bring it back to you!!”

In contrast, EPA is a Quaker meeting. There’s less hierarchy. Everyone gets in a circle and has their say. There’s a strong desire for consensus. Everyone wants to hear what the decision is and why the decision was made the way it was.

Fortunately, these two cultures match up well to their respective missions. OMB crunches numbers on the White House campus. It needs to be incredibly responsive and reliable. EPA operates in a miasma of science, philosophy, economics, and law that sometimes borders on the reconciliation of religious beliefs. That can require a lot of meetings and process to work through.

I love both organizations. The drive at OMB to reach rational and quantifiable solutions to difficult problems under tight time constraints satisfied the “A”-type personality in me. The 500 folks at OMB routinely produce more and higher quality work than much larger organizations. What about EPA?

I love EPA because the mission of the agency touches something deep inside most people who work here. It’s why they come and why they stay. And I get that.

I’ve had three ‘environmental epiphanies’ in my life. My first one was the visceral revelation of a boy reacting to an outdoor experience on a frozen lake. My second epiphany came about two years later. No frozen landscape this time. I wasn’t even outside. I was reading a book. In 11th grade our English teacher assigned us The Immense Journey by Loren Eiseley.

Eiseley was a revelation. He fully grasped the emotional response I’d had - and never shared with anyone - two years before. He understood my fascination with the complexity, timelessness, and immensity of nature. For instance, in an essay called “The Flow of the River” he describes floating, on his back, down the Platte as it flows from the Rockies, through Nebraska, to the Gulf of Mexico:

The sky wheeled over me. For an instant, as I bobbed into the main channel, I had the sensation of sliding down the vast tilted face of the continent. It was then I felt the cold needles of the alpine springs at my fingertips, and the warmth of the Gulf pulling me southward. Moving with me, leaving its taste upon my mouth . . . was the immense body of the continent itself, flowing like the river was flowing, grain by grain, mountain by mountain, down to the sea.

That still makes me tingle.

This was an intellectual discovery. Here was someone who had put my feelings into words. I didn’t have to pursue my relationship with nature solely on a hiking trail. I could also do it from an armchair.

Or a desk.

Every day I show up at EPA part of me selfishly works on my continuing desire to reconcile the relationship of man and nature.

It’s not all selfish, of course. Eiseley also wrote:

Once in a lifetime, perhaps, one escapes the actual confines of the flesh. Once in a lifetime, if one is lucky, one so merges with the sunlight and air and running water that whole eons, the eons that mountains and deserts know, might pass in a single afternoon without discomfort.

I have been extremely fortunate. Three times in my life, I’ve experienced epiphanies. And while I crave another, what is more important is that my children have the opportunity to experience such a miraculous escape. Now, there’s a good reason to go to work in the morning.

Where I Claim a Federal Tax Credit

The wages of sin are death, but after they take the taxes out, it's more like a tired feeling, really.
~Paula Poundstone

I often point out that my job is made immensely easier because EPA has the finest, most dedicated workforce in the federal government. I can tell some people react to that statement with the thought, “Oh, yeah, well . . . he has to say that, doesn’t he?” So for those folks who aren’t already convinced, let me throw yet more proof on the pile of evidence, courtesy of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

People measure EPA’s performance in many ways but seldom have I seen anything so interesting as what the IRS sent over earlier this month. In a letter to the Administrator, the acting IRS Commissioner, Linda Stiff, pointed out that federal employees need, in particular, to comply with our tax laws because, “if the public perceives that Federal employees do not maintain the highest level of tax compliance, public confidence in government will suffer.” Ms. Stiff goes on to request the Administrator’s help in maintaining and improving tax compliance among EPA employees.

Okay, can do, Ms. Stiff.

But here is the most interesting part of the letter. First, it observes the compliance rate of federal employees (96.2 percent) is already better than that of the population at large (figure not given). That’s good. It then goes on to point out that the compliance rate of EPA personnel is 97.2 percent, a full percentage point higher than the federal employee average!

That doesn’t surprise me one bit. Want to know more about a few of these fine dedicated folks? Go to http://www.epa.gov/multimedia/epainaction.

Shadrack, NESHAP, and Around the Bend We Go

The Bible tells us Shadrack and his two friends, Meshach and Abednego, did some straight-talking to King Nebuchadnezzar one day. For that they were thrown into a fiery furnace “so hot that the flames of the fire killed the soldiers who took [them] up.” Nonetheless, the three survived the inferno and the King repented.

I don’t face a fiery furnace, but let me try some straight-talk regarding ‘midnight regulations.’ Administrations often use the last months of their tenure to push additional regulations out the door. For instance, in the three months before President Bush’s inauguration in 2001, there was a 50 percent increase in the number of pages in the Federal Register compared to the average for the same three month period in a non-election year (see graph).

Source: Jay Cochran, “The Cinderella Effect,” GMU working paper; data updated by Brian Mannix.

These additional rules have been dubbed ‘midnight regulations’ and, up until now, I’ve never liked the idea. It implies rushing policy choices through the regulatory process at the expense of their quality.

My change of heart may sound convenient, but, like Shadrach, let me tell you the way I see it. I’m meeting with each senior regulatory official at EPA to identify what they want to get done in the last year. These meetings have made two things clear which shed some light on ‘midnight regulations.’

First, we have what I call the “NESHAP” (prounounced “knee-shap”) problem. Most of the rules EPA is working on have court-ordered deadlines and, this year, a surprising number of these deadlines seem to fall near the end of the Administration. For instance, EPA must finish no fewer than ten regulations related to National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAPs) by December 15, 2008. These rules will look like a ‘midnight regulation’ splurge even though they have nothing to do with the election or transition.

Second, I find the EPA office heads have a strong desire to ‘finish the job’ on rules they have been wrestling with for years. Many of our non-deadline rules are chronically behind our internal schedules. The officials feel strong ownership of these actions and they very much want to feel the satisfaction of finishing the job.

The President’s asked EPA to ‘sprint to the finish.’ We’re doing that. The fact is the combined push to get the court-ordered work done and finish up the other actions will make things a little crazy or as one person said, “as we go into the final stretch we may find ourselves going around the bend.” Some people may also be concerned that we will be rushing rules out before they’re ready. Hopefully, like Shadrack and company, I’ve already changed their minds.

Guest Blog: It's Better than a Million Dollars

Pam Grant coordinates EPA's Volunteer Community Service initiatives.

One of the early television shows on CBS, “The Millionaire,” was a popular drama about ordinary people who received a $1 million (tax free) check from a wealthy philanthropist. Perhaps the most exciting part of the show was the reactions of the newly minted “millionaires” when they received the money. Without exception, they were surprised, excited and elated – the very same reactions that have been displayed by individuals whom Administrator Johnson has recognized with the President’s Volunteer Service Award (PVSA). As part of the USA Freedom Corps, the PVSA is awarded to outstanding men and women across our country for their extraordinary volunteer work in improving our nation’s environment.

President Bush created the USA Freedom Corps in 2002 to build on the countless acts of service, sacrifice, and generosity that followed the September 11th attacks. In doing so, he called on all Americans to serve a cause greater than themselves by volunteering - and Americans have responded. Take, for example, 90-year-old Robert Ripberger of Syracuse, NY. Mr. Ripberger has devoted more than 50 years of volunteer service to help improve Oneida Lake, the health of the Lake’s fish and wildlife, and its surrounding wetlands. In honoring Mr. Ripberger, Administrator Johnson noted that “Dedicated volunteers like Bob are inspiring others to join them in delivering America a brighter, healthier future."

In a letter submitted to EPA after receiving the award, Mr. Ripberger wrote that for a “90 year old guy who still loves the outdoors, nature and wildlife” he has received many well wishes from friends, neighbors, fellow sportsmen and strangers alike. Mr. Ripberger is a testament to the fact that volunteering not only makes a person feel good but can provide many health benefits.

Administrator Johnson meeting with Presidential Volunteer Service Award Winner Robert Ripberger and his wife

One of the most likely groups of people to volunteer are Federal employees. In celebration of National Volunteer Week (April 27 – May 3), EPA is launching an Intranet site where EPA employees can locate volunteer opportunities by clicking on the link, entering their zip code and selecting a volunteer organization or cause that is of interest to them. For more information visit the USA Freedom Corps Website, to learn about volunteer opportunities in your neighborhood. By volunteering in our communities, and witnessing the positive impact that volunteer work has on our communities and fellow citizens, we all have the ability to feel like we’ve been handed a million dollars.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Enforcement Referrals

This blog tends to focus on EPA’s operations and how they can be improved to get better results. Six months have passed since I started blogging, enough time to go back and see how well we are doing on some of the issues I’ve written about before.

Let’s start with my blog on July 31, 2007 regarding enforcement. At that point, data for fiscal year 2006 showed that EPA referred a huge number of civil enforcement cases to the Department of Justice in the fourth quarter compared to other quarters (seven times as many). This ‘wave’ of work created a backlog of cases at Justice that could delay our ability to go after bad guys. I indicated we were going to see if we could start ‘leveling’ the workload throughout the year so that we could reduce the delays and get action on cases faster. So how’d we do?

In FY 2007, the fourth quarter slug of work actually increased compared to FY 2006 (see graph). Almost 57 percent (158) of all the cases in 2007 went over to Justice in the fourth quarter compared to about 53 percent (152) in 2006.

I’ve been discussing this with the enforcement folks and there are two explanations for the continuing binge in FY 2007:

• We didn’t start considering how to level the workload until well into fiscal year 2007. Indeed, my blog entry occurred late in the third quarter of FY 2007.
• Some of the annual backloading is impossible to avoid because the inspections of some facilities (e.g., large farms), which can ultimately result in enforcement actions, have to wait until spring or summer when operations and other conditions (snowmelt or rainfall) are right. Thus some of the slug of enforcement work is dictated by nature.

To their great credit the enforcement office thinks they have a chance to flatten out some of the workload in FY 2008. If we look at the FY 2007 data on a region-by-region basis, there are indications that some regions are making progress to avoid a peak in the fourth quarter. For example, Regions 2, 4 and 10 all had fewer referrals in the fourth quarter of FY 2007 than in the fourth quarter of FY 2006. So, EPA has set up a workgroup including staff from regional offices to try and move more cases earlier in the year.

That said, we just got the results for the first quarter of 2008. There were 27 referrals. That’s 5 more than in the first quarter of FY 2006 but 12 fewer than in the first quarter of FY 2007.

I fear the ‘wave’ machine may be just cranking up.

Shewhart's Cycle

My New Year’s resolution – to replace TV watching with book reading - is fraying. I was firm in January and February, but now I find myself increasingly enticed out of my reading chair. I spend more and more time standing in the doorway of our family room watching swatches of American Idol or Dirty Jobs, pretending I’ll return to my book any minute.

What I’m reading, a rather dry book on management, doesn’t help. For instance, it includes a very long description of the “Shewhart Cycle.” I think I can describe this cycle in less than 100 words.

Shewhart’s Cycle says that if you want to continuously improve what you are doing you need to follow a loop of:

Planning out your objectives and how to reach them.
Doing what you planned to do.
Checking to see if doing your plan gets the results you wanted.
Acting on what you learned so you get even better results next time.

This cycle is often shortened to ‘Plan – Do – Check – Act” or PDCA.

This process is not brain surgery. Nonetheless, since the 1950s application of this cycle (and its permutations) has resulted in huge improvements in countless systems from manufacturing cars to distributing food aid.

EPA uses this cycle, both explicitly and implicitly, in many programs. However, I want to make sure we are using it at the highest, corporate, level. We now have tools in place to perform all four phases of the cycle agency-wide but they need to be improved and better connected in a lot of places.

This blog can be one small way to help us make better connections. Therefore, in the weeks ahead I will periodically revisit some of the initiatives I’ve discussed in previous entries and review how we are doing in improving our performance, regardless of whether it’s good, bad or ugly. In my next post I’ll close the loop on how we’ve done in fixing a problem regarding our enforcement workload.  (Hint: it isn’t good.)

Shewhart’s Cycle is not a technique for self-flagellation. It’s a way to learn and get better. For instance, after reviewing my New Year’s resolution I changed my original plan. This weekend I picked up the latest Sue Grafton thriller. “N” is for “No more boring books.”

Calling All Photographers

I’ve got just a short announcement today. For this coming Earth Day EPA is sponsoring an environmental photo contest. If you think you have (or can take) good candidates in any or all of the following categories, then send’em in:

• enjoying the environment;
• protecting the environment; and/or
• nature and wildlife

Entries are due March 24. Winners will be announced on Earth Day (April 22). Other details, such as how to enter, are on EPA's Website.

Not to discourage anyone, but I’ve already entered this inquisitive Columbian ground squirrel in the last category.

I'm a Weasel

I’m trying to get other federal officials to blog. One official fretted to me about being called names. They noted that another blogger had called me a ‘weasel.’ Big deal. Every senior EPA appointee since 1970 has taken all kinds of criticism from all corners. It’s understandable. EPA’s work touches deeply held convictions regarding everything from property rights to the morality of contaminating nature.

Some people organize these criticisms into ‘narratives.’ Narratives are simple stories that people who don’t necessarily like dealing with the complexities of life may swallow. Historically, EPA narratives spin off of two different themes. We are either:

• an agency of wild-eyed zealots that regulate at the drop of a hat and persecute honest people, businesses, and localities without regard to their rights or ultimate economic ruin; or
• an ineffective stymied bureaucracy, captured by corporations, that spends a lot of time doing little to protect human health and the environment.

What people outside of Washington DC may not appreciate is there are professionals whose full-time job is to nurture and perpetuate these narratives in order to serve their own agendas. They take anything EPA does, or doesn’t do, or was rumored to have done, and try and use it to support their narrative. If it fits, or they can somehow twist it to fit, they slot it in. If it contradicts their narrative, they ignore it.

These narratives are always out there, but they blossom in big election years. The number and outlandishness of the half truths, innuendo, and personal attacks go up several notches. I see the early stirrings already. The ‘narrative’ I use when I really want to know what EPA is doing is our Quarterly Management Report. It doesn’t cover everything going on, but it’s a good start. And it’s based on facts.

Perhaps the most important thing, amidst the coming sturm and angst, senior EPA managers can’t get distracted. We must continue to: make sure dangerous chemicals are kept off the shelves; clean up contaminated yards; prevent raw sewage from going in our waters; continue our research on the affects of climate change; reduce the toxicity of solid waste; inspect animal feedlots; remove mercury switches from cars; help people conserve energy; and on and on.

As for the folks preparing to prop up their warped views of EPA this year, may I, in futility, suggest taking a cue from Jean Conder Soule:

Never tease a weasel
Not even once or twice
The weasel will not like it
And teasing isn't nice.

Guest Blog: Up the Creek with a Paddle

It's a great sign when large organizations have informal groups of young aspiring leaders who are thinking ahead, about themselves and the organization.  EPA is lucky to have this one: the Emerging Leaders Network.

Stop for a moment and imagine you are walking through the woods and you come upon a peaceful trickling stream.  Exploring a little more, you come across another stream and another!  Pretty soon you discover that all streams and creeks lead to a river.  However small they may be, streams, creeks and tributaries have a major impact on our nation’s rivers and ecosystem.  Obstruct the creeks and the river suffers.  Implement sustainable programs and the river benefits. 

ELNers on a hike in Sky Meadows State Park

In organizations like EPA, staff are the most valuable resource.  Help the staff achieve their full potential and you get a strong and effective agency.  Much has been written about federal agencies facing workforce challenges in the near future.  Alarming statistics, like the one recently quoted in this blog that 92% of EPA’s senior managers will be eligible for retirement in 2013, point to what some call a “retirement tsunami”. 

Yet, EPA is in a unique position.  Every year, many highly qualified and enthusiastic professionals join the agency, drawn by its inspiring mission of protecting human health and the environment.  The challenge is retaining this skilled workforce, continuing to recruit top talent, and enhancing the workplace where these aspiring professionals can further develop their knowledge and skills. 

The Emerging Leaders Network (ELN) is an employee-driven, voluntary organization and is helping to strengthen EPA by providing a “paddle” in the form of professional development and networking opportunities for EPA’s emerging generation of leadership.  ELN hosts seminars, workshops, offering its members the opportunity to gain a holistic perspective of the often inter-related environmental issues.  ELN also organizes roundtable discussions to foster knowledge sharing.  These professional development activities have included discussing climate change, the relationship between EPA and OMB, understanding the budget process, and promoting sustainability.  ELN also organizes social activities, including trips to national and state parks to help build a culture of collegiality.  One of the unique aspects of ELN is that members have the opportunity to discuss the latest environmental issues while walking through a park or sitting around a campfire.

ELN membership is open to any EPA employee or intern.  Since 2006, ELN has developed into a 400-strong community that bridges offices and experience levels.  To support communication and collaboration among its members, ELN will soon have access to a community on the EPA Portal.  This tool will further enhance ELN by facilitating springs of good ideas online.

Think back to that peaceful trickling stream, and how it took you on a journey from the woods to a large river.  Will your stream of creativity and enthusiasim help add to the flow of the river?

The Machine in the Garden

Earlier this month a Chinese photographer admitted faking an award-winning photograph. The picture (below) shows a herd of endangered antelope passing near a train on a new rail line that has penetrated the high plains and mountains of Tibet. The line has been controversial because of its possible environmental effects.

By coincidence I recently met with EPA’s Office of International Affairs to discuss our progress in helping reduce pollution in Russia and China. One might ask why EPA should be working to reduce pollution on the other side of the world. Did you know, for instance, that over 80 percent of the mercury that winds up in the United States comes from sources outside of our country? It's important we continue to reduce mercury emissions here at home. But, while it may cost thousands of dollars to reduce the release of a pound of mercury in the U.S., for the same amount of money we can stop the release of over ten pounds elsewhere. So, EPA and our partners are working in places like Russia and China to reduce mercury emissions. Based on available information, in 2007 we helped reduce mercury emissions in Russia by nearly 3,500 pounds. That’s half of all the mercury released by U.S. electric utilities in 2006. Not bad.

Our work on mercury is commendable, but it’s the phony photograph which hints at a much broader potential. In 1854 Henry David Thoreau released Walden, a classic piece of environmental literature investigating the relationship between nature and industrialization at a crucial moment in American history. Thoreau used the train as a potent symbol of industry. The train was morally ambiguous, but it clearly signaled a relentless unstoppable change:

And hark! Here comes the cattle-train bearing the cattle of a thousand hills, sheepcoats, stables, and cow-yards in the air. . . . A carload of drovers, too, in the midst, on the level with their droves now, their vocation gone, but still clinging to their useless sticks as their badge of office . . . So is your pastoral life whirled past and away. But the bell rings, and I must get off the track and let the cars go by . . . .

A key belief for Americans at this time was the march of the nation across the wilds – the “draining of swamps, turning the course of rivers, peopling solitudes, and subduing nature.” It subsequently took over a hundred years for the American consciousness to understand that we don’t progress by subduing nature, we progress by sustaining nature.

There is now relentless change taking place elsewhere in the world. The values that propel this change over the next decade will dramatically affect our environment. EPA is in an unusual position to help other cultures leapfrog the lessons the United States had to learn the hard way. 

Lesson 1: you can’t fake it.

Why Hearings Are Good

In the aftermath of influenza and colds that swept through my family this winter, my house a mess. So I was surprised the other evening when my wife suggested we invite half a dozen people over for dinner. “Are you nuts?” I responded, “The place is a disaster area.” “Exactly,” she said.

If you don’t get that logic, you’re not alone. I’m a linear thinker. To me, first you clean the house and then you invite folks over. My spouse is more strategic than that. She realizes it may be months before we clean the house without a ‘time forcing event.’ She’s not interested in a dinner party, she wants the house straightened up.

Congressional hearings have a similar effect, but it’s the guests, rather than the hosts, who usually have more work to do.

The Administrator and I testified at a House hearing on EPA’s proposed 2009 budget today (see picture). I was just there for support, but I still figure I personally spent several hours preparing for this hearing. Was the hearing worth the time? Yes. Not all hearings are of the same quality, but if agency officials do it right, preparing for a hearing can be an excellent way to make sure the house is in order.

For instance, until I began preparing for this hearing I had no idea that for 2008 Congress moved over $2 million from Superfund’s removal, emergency response and Federal facility programs to the remedial program (which we’re proposing to move back). Likewise, I learned that, assuming current attrition rates, 92% of EPA’s senior managers will be eligible for retirement in 2013 (which is why we’re requesting an increase of $500,000 for leadership development).

The Administrator and I weren’t asked about these and many other things at the hearing, but it doesn’t matter. I feel better and more confident about where we are and what I know about where we are. I assume that effect also rippled through the EPA offices that helped prepare the Administrator and me for the hearing.

Of course the additional preparation time I needed for the hearing did have a cost – I had no time to help clean up at home. I’d tackle that tonight, but I have another hearing tomorrow.

Marcia Burns Knew How to Party

George Washington’s birthday is tomorrow. By all accounts he enjoyed a good party. Believe it or not, 200 years ago the place to party in Washington DC was the north courtyard of EPA’s Ariel Rios building. Of course, it wasn’t a courtyard then. It was the home of John P. Van Ness. On any given night you might have found Thomas Jefferson or Aaron Burr strutting the Van Ness red carpet.

A big draw was Mrs. Van Ness, née Marcia Burns. She was rich and powerful, but she didn’t let it go to her head. Indeed, she was admired for being modest, despite her fortune. Sculptor Haratio Greenbough poetically wrote of her:

Mid rank and wealth and worldly pride
From every snare she turned aside

She primarily used her influence to quietly bring people together. Historian James Barton Longacre observed, “As a hostess, indeed, perhaps none was ever more agreeable and popular. But she felt herself called upon to act a higher and nobler part in society . . . she widened the sphere of her affections, and became the general friend, the mediator, the counselor, of all within her reach.”

Like Marcia Burns, EPA has considerable clout, but we often quietly use our resources to help bring others together. Tuesday I touched on the vital work EPA performs in responding to disasters. For instance, we provided critical help in getting drinking water and sewer services back up and operating after Hurricane Katrina.

While EPA can do a lot to help waterworks and water treatment plants after a disaster, we know we can’t do it all. That’s why not long after Hurricane Katrina, along with the American Water Works Association, EPA started to use our influence to promote a voluntary system of mutual aid between water utilities. With a bit of grant money, a bit of technical assistance, and more than a bit of jawboning we encouraged states and utilities to come together and agree to help each other in times of need.

Today, almost half the states are a part of this system (see map) and more are joining all the time. That means in the future when a water utility in one part of the country gets hit by a disaster, they know water utilities in unaffected areas will help them assess the damage and get going as soon as possible. As a result victims will get drinking water faster and we’ll stop raw sewage polluting our water more quickly.

The Van Ness home has not been as fortunate. All that is left of it is a small marker. But the spirit of Marcia Burns still walks the halls of EPA. Yes, we regulate, award grants, enforce laws, and perform research but some of our best work happens when we simply create the right conditions for other folks who can do far more than we could ever do alone.

Three Surprises

Last Thursday night my wife and I attended a jazz performance at the White House. We were surprised to be there. We’d never been invited to an evening event before -- we figured the invitation was a mistake -- so we quickly said ‘yes.’ Over the course of the evening I was surprised two more times.

Entering the East Room of the White House, we sat at a small table near the drum set. Our daughter plays the drums, so we’re always looking for pointers. As the performers came in I pulled back from the table and turned my chair to face the stage, almost running into someone doing the same thing at the next table. Second surprise, it was the President of the United States.

“Mr. Peacock!” he exclaimed.

My response: “Hey . . . Mr. President . . . wow . . . good . . . ah . . . yeah . . . you.”

Translation: “Hey, Mr. President, I’m an idiot!”

The performance quickly started and after several songs by Denise Thimes the President thanked everyone and headed off to bed and then Africa. My wife and I had no such trip planned, so we lingered.

Third surprise: Herman Burney, Jr.  Herman backed up Ms. Thimes on the bass and we got to chatting with him.  Herman teaches music part-time. We have another daughter who plays bass guitar. “I tell kids there are three times you play music: practicing by yourself, rehearsing with a group, and then performing for an audience. If you can master practicing on your own, then you don’t have to worry about the other two times. They will fall right into place.”

I realize I’ve seen this with my own kids. They prefer practicing with their friends but those practices go much better when they come prepared, with their own house already in order. That allows them to concentrate on melding together as a group.

Like my kids preparing to perform a concert, EPA needs to prepare to perform as well. The Agency recently proposed our FY2009 budget. An important part of our request is $56 million to improve our ability to respond to disasters. For instance, we want to provide emergency preparedness training for 700 more EPA staff. That’s a lot of training, but we need it.

EPA responded extremely well to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The Inspector General noted, “EPA’s ability to operate under catastrophic conditions was commendable.” Former Senator Jeffords said, “We’ve heard so much about what went wrong in Katrina’s aftermath, and this is one example of what went right.”

I personally know a lot of our success happened through sheer brute force and willpower. It was harder than it should have been. It particularly took a toll on those employees who were trained responders. Taking the lessons we learned to heart we are better prepared for an emergency now than we were in 2005.

Our new goal is to be ready and able to respond to five simultaneous emergencies. We’ve made progress, but we’re not there yet, hence the budget request. If we can get our own house in order, when the next disaster(s) happen(s), we can concentrate more quickly on working and melding with our response partners. We’ll be ready to perform.

I’ve also learned a lesson. I’ve started rehearsing what I would say if I ever find myself next to the President again at a White House party. Every time I sit down at a meal now I turn to whoever is at my left and say “Mr. President, how kind of you to have invited us.” It's good practice, even if I did kind of spook a guy at Taco Bell yesterday.

Guest Blog: Green Racing

On Valentine's Day I think it's only fitting to look at a sport lots of people love - auto racing. John Glenn and Tom Ball are a couple of EPA staff who think outside the glove box.

John Glenn and Tom Ball at the Green Racing announcement at the Detroit International Auto show

Both Tom and I have been racing fans most of our lives. It has been said that nothing accelerates the development of technology faster than war. If that is true, auto racing has to be a close second. In auto racing, winning is everything and the development of new technologies is relentless.

Tom and I wanted to harness this technology to make cleaner running, more efficient cars. We suggested creating a partnership with the Department of Energy and the Society of Auto Engineers (SAE) to promote “Green Racing.

Working with SAE, we created a work group that has developed a set of draft voluntary protocols that will turn racing into a laboratory for energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse gasses and auto emissions without slowing the cars or spoiling the sport.

The draft protocols have five basic elements:
• The use of a renewable bio-based fuel or fuels;
• The use of multiple engines, fuels, and powertrains;
• The use of powertrains that recover and reuse braking energy;
• The use of energy allocations instead of detailed engine regulations; and
• The use of emission control strategies and systems.

Races that adopt the first three elements are eligible to be called Green Racing Challenge events.  Those that adopt all five are eligible to be called Green Racing Cup events.  EPA and DOE will award the Challenge and the Cup honors to the winning teams.

From left to right: David Amati, Ph.D., Director of Global Automotive Business, SAE; Ed Wall, Vehicle Technologies Program, DOE; Scott Atherton, President of the ALMS; and Margo Oge, Director of EPA’s Office of Transportation and Air Quality standing in front of Chevrolet’s new Corvette race car that will run on cellulosic ethanol made from wood.

The idea is to encourage the adoption of racing rules that give advantages to competitors that incorporate renewable fuels and more efficient engine technologies. Consistent with the past history of racing, we expect the technology developed in green racing to make its way to the street. Professional auto racing is also a great platform for raising the public’s awareness of these new technologies.

Tom and I have been amazed at the attention the project has received. Nearly all the major car companies have shown interest. At a press event at the 2008 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, the American Le Mans series announced their intention to have the first Green Racing Challenge event in October 2008. They are planning to have sports cars that run on bio-diesel, cellulosic E- 10 and E-85 ethanols, and electric hybrids race against each other in a 1,000 mile race at speeds of up to 200 mph.

Although more work needs to be done in finalizing the protocols and working with ALMS on their plan for the Challenge, Green Racing is becoming a reality. We expect other racing organizations to see the advantages of this initiative and to adopt the elements of the protocols into their own series.

EPA’s Carbon Footprint

A few months ago I participated in “Ask EPA”, an online question and answer exercise that EPA sponsors about twice a month. One question I got was whether EPA has ever calculated its carbon footprint. While we very carefully track our energy use (see graph) I was not aware of EPA ever calculating the agency’s carbon footprint. That bothered me since we encourage others to estimate their footprint as a first step in reducing it.

So I asked around. Turns out the Department of Energy (DOE) has been calculating the carbon footprint of most federal agencies, including EPA, for a number of years. Every year they issue this information with a lot of other data on agency energy use. For fiscal year 2007 EPA’s emissions were estimated at the equivalent of approximately 112,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide. (That’s about a tenth of the footprint of an average U.S. power plant.)

We’ve decided that this estimate is too crude for our purposes since it is simply based on multiplying our energy use by a single factor. We think it overestimates EPA’s footprint since DOE’s methodology does not take into account what types of energy are used (solar, coal, nuclear, hydropower, etc.). EPA uses green power (e.g., solar, landfill gas, wind, etc.) for 100% of our needs. So we’re developing a better estimate based on our actual fuel mix. We expect to have a more accurate estimate this month. That will provide a baseline we can use to measure future performance.

The Year of the Rat

The Chinese New Year started last week and many Chinese communities celebrated over the weekend. My family enjoyed a parade in Washington DC yesterday (see picture). According to Chinese custom, we are now in the Year of the Rat, the first of 12 rotating Chinese zodiacs. Another Chinese custom I learned yesterday involves Chinese children. On their first birthday a variety of objects, such as a coin, a book, a fish or a pen, are placed around the child or on a tray. The item the child touches first foreshadows what profession he or she will eventually pursue.

A few years ago it seemed as though EPA’s senior managers had gone through a similar process. Like many federal agencies, once an EPA manager rose to a particular position they tended to stay there. In 2004, well over half of our senior managers had been in the same position five years or more. Many had been in the same office for a decade or more. In other words, once they’d selected a position, that was it, no moving around. If you touched the fish first, you were destined to be in the Office of Water the rest of your years.

That may be good for building expertise in a subject, but it is not good for developing well-rounded managers who can easily communicate across organizational boundaries and take a wider view of agency work. Two years ago at the request of the Administrator, EPA started to put in place a program that would regularly encourage senior managers who have been in the same position for more than six years to consider rotating to another position. We went through the first round last year and 26 senior managers, about 10 percent of the senior management corps, found new assignments.

Today about a third of EPA’s senior managers have been in the same position more than five years and only 5 percent have been in the same spot for over a decade. To keep the pot stirred, the Administrator recently initiated the 2008 rotation program and we anticipate rotating another 5 to 10 percent of our managers again this year.

Does the fact this is the Year of the Rat bode well for this year’s rotation? I think so. According to Chinese custom, “Rat” folks make great leaders and pioneers. They are practical and hardworking -- passionate about what they do. “Rats” are the most highly organized and systematic people of all the Chinese zodiacs. They sound like my kind of peeps.

Comment Policy

Just a reminder, to avoid additional overtime costs we try and post comments received after business hours as soon as possible the next business day. That means comments posted over the weekend would likely go up on Monday.

What One Person Can Do

The greatest battle of the 19th Century was decided by a few soldiers. In June 1815, near the town of Waterloo in what is now Belgium, Napoleon’s Grande Armée attacked approximately 120,000 Prussian and Anglo-allied soldiers. The future of Europe hung in the balance.

Anchoring the allies’ right flank was a farmyard, called Hougoumont, surrounded by a high wall. At the start of the battle, and over the course of several hours, Napoleon launched successive attacks against this key position. At one point, a French lieutenant, wielding an axe, managed to open a gate and the French started to pour through. The fighting in the farmyard quickly became desperate. With extraordinary effort, several English guards fought through the advancing French and managed to close the gate. The Duke of Wellington later concluded, “The success of the battle of Waterloo depended on the closing of the gate.”

A few people can do big things. But what about one person?

I held a progress meeting regarding the Mexican Border last Monday. One problem we face is tire piles in Mexico. If they catch fire, these mini-mountains of scrap tires can pose a grave risk to air quality for people on both sides of the border. So EPA is assisting Mexican authorities in safely disposing of these tire piles.

One tire pile we’re trying to eliminate is at San Luis Rio Colorado in the Sonora desert. We expected to remove 80,000 tires from this pile in 2007 but three fourths of the way through the year progress was lagging. Then suddenly, by the end of the fourth quarter, we hit the target - all 80,000 targeted tires were taken away (see graph). What happened?

Emily Pimentel happened. Emily works out of EPA’s San Francisco office. She found out tire removals had slowed because the tire processing facility (a cement manufacturer) had reached its capacity.  Emily placed some strategic calls to our Mexican partners (including the vice president of the cement manufacturer and his facility managers), arranged for an alternative facility in Sonora to take additional tires, and set up an alternative means of transportation (see picture).

This pile isn’t gone yet, but with people like Emily, it will meet its Waterloo.

What can you do to make a difference today?

Guest Blog: Wiki Wiki Wiki!

Molly O’Neill is EPA’s cheeky Chief Information Officer.

Marcus asked me to do a guest blog, but secretly, I think Marcus wants my job! He is incredibly enthusiastic about how the Agency might use new Web 2.0 technologies to collaborate with our partners, as well as to implement and automate performance measures.

Being EPA’s Chief Information Officer, I get to build small “sandboxes” to learn. These are places where we can try out new technologies before we deploy them in production environments. But, sometimes you have to step outside the sandbox to learn more.

In November, we did just that with the Puget Sound Information Access Challenge. We wanted to use Web 2.0 technologies to engage a broad audience on an environmental issue, but we also wanted to show how these technologies can support networking and collaboration in government. Without notice, the Challenge was announced on stage at EPA’s Office of Environmental Information National Symposium. We challenged the audience and anyone watching over the Internet to help us pull together information for the Puget Sound Leadership Council. The Council’s goal is to draft and implement a plan for a healthy Puget Sound by 2020.

We followed up the announcement with an e-mail to all Symposium participants and encouraged them to forward the message to others who could help. We set up a wiki site (Web 2.0 collaboration tool) so that we could bring all this information together quickly over the Internet. Understanding that not everyone was tech savvy, we also set up an e-mail, Web form, and a temporary phone number. Over the 36 hour Challenge, we received 17,000 views to the wiki, and more than 175 contributions – ranging from information found in libraries to development of new environmental models.  Contributions were submitted by states, federal agencies, and citizens - including a discussion in a blog from Germany.

One of the many important lessons we learned from this Challenge is that Web 2.0 technologies pose incredible opportunity for collaborative work at EPA. Sorry Marcus, I won’t give up my job, but perhaps we can negotiate a new role for you as a WIKIMASTER!

On Taking Risks

Over the weekend I had a number of people approach me and mention they had seen this blog featured in last Friday’s Washington Post. Whether the coverage was flattering or not seems to be a matter of opinion, but a lot of them asked, “So, are you in trouble?”

No, I’m not.

The risks of blogging were well known when I started last July. We decided it was an acceptable price to pay for better communication and greater transparency in government.  Thankfully, other federal officials are coming to the same conclusion.  For instance, I welcomed the State Department to the fold when they started their blog last October. At the time they received a lot of flak. Now they receive approximately 55,000 page views a day and have a healthy public discussion going on in their comments section. This is all to the good.

I had coffee with a fellow employee recently. He said EPA staff face a problem of poor incentives. “You don’t get rewarded for taking risks, but you get punished for making mistakes.” I think that’s a problem throughout government. 

I take a risk every time I post to this blog and I appreciate the fact that the Administrator lets me continue to do that. But it’s an easy risk for me to take. I’m pretty senior and will be gone in a year. A good question is how do we encourage, rather than discourage, the rank and file in government to take risks and test innovative ideas?

Measuring Research

Approximately 90 million people will watch the Superbowl on Sunday. The New England Patriots will be playing for their fourth Championship in seven years. That’s amazing to some of us who remember the Patriots from the late 1960s and early 1970s. They were one of the worst teams in the League. Out of 142 games they played in ten years starting in 1967 they won less than a third (44). I still remember getting an ‘electronic football’ game as a gift during that time and being bitterly disappointed that one of the two teams I’d been randomly allotted was the Patriots. I quickly bought a replacement team.

Going from doormat to dynasty doesn’t happen by accident. I noted yesterday that EPA had achieved five-greens, the highest possible score, on our management scorecard. What I didn’t say is we started in 2001 with three reds and two yellows.

One of our persistent problems was coming up with good measures, particularly for our research programs. We simply could not find an acceptable way to measure the efficiency of our science programs.

Research is an inherently unpredictable endeavor with unpredictable consequences and outcomes. Albert Einstein once pointed out, “If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn’t be called research, would it?” Indeed, particularly with basic research, sometimes ‘failure’ is success. 3M’s slightly sticky ‘Post-It’ notes came out of a failed effort to come up with a super strong adhesive. Unfortunately, our failure to identify good efficiency measures for research was keeping us from getting high scores on the management scorecard.

Over two years ago we made a commitment to go from mediocre to first in measuring research. We spent a lot of time looking at what other agencies were doing and came up with the best efficiency measures we could. We then submitted those measures to an expert panel at the National Academies of Science and, along with the Office of Management and Budget, asked them, “What do you think? Is this the best we can do, that anyone can do, in measuring research?” They issued their report late yesterday.

There are four major recommendations in the report, but here is my favorite finding:

Among the metrics proposed [by EPA] to measure process efficiency, several can be recommended for wider use by agencies.

In my view, EPA has now become a leader. Many of our research efficiency measures are a model for others to use. It’s easy to measure success on the football field. EPA is now at the cutting edge of being able to measure it in the laboratory.

By the way, based on my research, Patriots 27, Giants 17.

Two Lists

Monday the Mobil Travel Guide released its 2008 list of five-star restaurants. Five-star restaurants presumedly provide flawless food and service in an exquisite setting. They are the tops. You can’t do any better than five-stars.

There is one five-star restaurant near where I live: The Inn at Little Washington. I heard about it many years ago and wondered why anyone would pay hundreds of dollars for one meal. Not long ago, to celebrate our anniversary, my wife and I decided to find out.

Before I continue, there is another list that came out today. The Office of Management and Budget released its ratings of how well federal agencies are implementing five management initiatives. Each agency is scored as being ‘green’ (successful), ‘yellow’ (mixed bag), or ‘red’ (“don’t make me pull this car over”) on each initiative. Like five-stars, you can’t do any better than five-greens. And they are tough to get. The latest ratings only give three of 26 federal agencies five-greens. 

One of those three was the Environmental Protection Agency.

It’s a first for us and we should be proud. Similar to the President’s Quality Award we won in December, it’s taken many years to get here. We got our first green (for financial management) in 2003 and have accumulated an additional green every year since then.  More importantly we’ve kept our greens despite increasingly tough expectations. (In fact, we lost and had to regain our green in information technology twice.) Every office and every employee has been affected from changing the way we assess personnel to how we issue regulations.

A rating is just that: a rating. The rating doesn’t make us more effective or save us money or make us a stronger Agency. But it validates something I feel. We continue to improve how we operate. We are among the best in government. We should be proud.

We should also be wary.

I expected much from the Inn at Little Washington and they still surprised me. The service was attentive but unobtrusive. The dining area was elegant yet comfortable. And the food . . . sorry Mom, but it was among the best meals I’ve had in my life. The kicker was the sous-chef who gave us a tour of the kitchen. I mentioned to him that Zagat had just rated them the best restaurant in the United States. “We don’t pay much attention to that. We are here to do one thing, overwhelm people’s impossible expectations. If we do that, the ratings will come. The day we start worrying about the ratings is the day we start slipping.”

Bring Bad News Early

Amy Winehouse drives me nuts. Winehouse is a 24 year-old singer/songwriter who recently burst onto the music scene and could garner as many as six Grammys next month. Many compare her dusky soulful voice to Sara Vaughn. Her lyrics are sharp and clever. Prince wants to sing with her. Snoop Dogg says she’s another James Brown. She is an incredibly skilled person. She is also incredibly self-destructive.

Her life is a wreck. One could blame her recently incarcerated husband or her outspoken parents or alcohol or the hounding paparazzi but habitual drug use seems to be at the center of a multitude of troubles. She’s wandered in and out of rehab, canceled tours, had run-ins with the law, and gotten booed at concerts. As quickly as she leapt on to the world stage, she seems to be sinking into ruin.

Incredible talent, going to waste.

Here’s the fascinating question: would a ‘clean’ Amy Winehouse still be Amy Winehouse? What if someone had grabbed her when she was still impressionable and sent her down a different, cleaner, path? What if we had the talent without the drugs? 

Some say we wouldn’t want that. Amy’s artistry is transcendent because of her hardships.  Her reality energizes her talent. Janis Joplin without heroin would have just been another singer.

I can’t go there. There is a general rule in performance measurement that applies here: always bring bad news early. One of the reasons EPA tries to measure things on a quarterly basis is so we can spot where problems are developing and correct them before they get big.  Sound mundane? It’s not. Folks don’t like reporting bad news. We have a natural tendency to avoid information that might make us look bad, or we ignore it once we get it or we explain it away or rely on wishful thinking.

A good management system not only forces people to consider how they are doing but rewards the early identification of problems. Bring bad news early. That means if you think your kid is using drugs the response should not be, “Well, she’ll probably grow out of it” or “At least it will improve her music.”

Regardless of what great work we may or may not enjoy because of Amy Winehouse's harsh reality, the current situation can’t be good for Amy Winehouse.

IT World

I had a progress meeting with the office that is responsible for information technology last week. They are called the Office of Environmental Information. Overall, things are going very well there. Here are two highlights:

• In 2007 well over 70% of the Toxic Release Inventory reports submitted to us were received electronically through our central data exchange. That is the highest level ever. This improves both the accuracy and timeliness of the information EPA provides the public regarding the release or treatment of pollution. Last year we issued our annual report rolling up this information on March 22. That was the earliest this information has ever been released and a full two months faster than where we were in 2005. We think we can be even faster this year.

• We had a goal of having over 40 percent of all federal rules being available electronically to the public via Regulations.gov by the end of 2007. (Regulations.gov is run by EPA on behalf of the federal government.) We blew that goal away (see graph). Just over 80 percent of all rules are now available.Thank you to the Department of Transportation, in particular, for coming on board late last year! If you are a federal regulation geek, this site is now a ‘must visit.’

On the other side of the coin, we didn’t hit our goal of having 100 percent of EPA’s laptops encrypted by 2008. In the effort to encrypt all our laptops we found some non-standard computers. (Some ‘bad apples’ as it were.) The non-standard laptops are being brought into line by putting other types of security controls in place.

Google Goggles

I once borrowed a friend’s goggles to go snorkeling. I got into the water and couldn’t see much of anything. It was all fuzzy. Turns out he forgot to tell me they were prescription goggles. Sometimes, however, you see more, not less, when you look through someone else’s goggles.

There are moments, late at night, when I wonder if I’m spending my time working on the right things. Are measures, goals, quarterly reports, best practices, and regular management meetings important to making EPA a more effective agency?

I was lucky enough to be in a group that met with the President and CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, last week. Eric has a reputation as a superlative manager. The group wanted to know how he saw things at Google and whether his experience could help in how we run federal agencies. Here are a few things that he said he learned are necessary if you want to successfully run a large organization, public or private.

You need to be able to answer a basic question: do you know what people are doing?

You need to have regular operational reviews. Quarterly meetings are good. You must have some measures that are the basis for these reviews.

At Google we set goals so that there is about a 70 percent chance of achieving them. If you are achieving close to 100 percent of your goals or less than 50 percent of your goals, you need to take a closer look at your goals.

In everything we do, we try and capture and promote best practices.

Looking through Eric’s goggles made things clearer for me. Yeah, I’m spending my time on the right stuff.

It Takes Two

In 1914 Ernest Shackleton set out from England to be the first man to cross Antarctica. His ship never made land. Crushed by ice, it sank. The subsequent nine-month odyssey as Shackleton and his crew tried to save themselves is, I believe, the most spectacular journey in modern times. Many people know Shackleton’s story. Few know the story of Aeneas Mackintosh (see picture). 

Shackleton’s plan, had he landed, was to take enough provisions to cross the South Pole.  After that he would rely on finding food depots in the snow -- food depots laid down by Captain Mackintosh. In 1915 and early 1916, ignorant of Shackleton’s dire situation on the other side of Antarctica, Mackintosh and five others marched 1000 brutal miles laying out food supplies. They got the work done, but, in the process, Mackintosh and two others lost their lives. Three souls and a ton of misery to feed an expedition that never came. It was an unhappy lesson that in some situations success only happens if everyone does their part.

I had a progress meeting with the EPA Regional Administrators in the Northeast this week.  One of the priorities in the Northeast is to reduce air pollution (and save fuel) by eliminating unnecessary engine idling. In this regard, there are some really good things happening in New England (EPA’s Region 1). The Region has far more idle reduction projects going on compared to other regions and the number of projects completed in 2007 (94) is almost double the number from the year before (48). How are they doing this?

The success seems to come from a ‘one -- two’ punch. Four of the New England states have anti-idling regulations in place and two of these states, Connecticut and Massachusetts, include these rules in their state air quality plans. This gives EPA the authority to enforce anti-idling regulations in those states.   

It’s a great example of how states and EPA work together to improve the environment. Yet we both have to do our job to make it work. States take action setting standards and implementing requirements while EPA helps states with enforcement and technical assistance - see Model State Idling Law (PDF) (15 pages, 1 MB, get PDF reader).

After his death, despite the lack of overall success, Captain Mackintosh was honored by having a mountain named after him. Nice, but I like EPA's legacy of successful teamwork better: a cleaner environment.

MLK '08

Last week I gave welcoming remarks at EPA’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Observance.  Some folks suggested I post them. Here you go.

Good morning, thank you all for joining us today as we honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

In particular, I welcome our distinguished guest speaker, Reverend Clifton Davis. Reverend Davis has been on television, in the movies, and on Broadway.

Of those three media, I must admit Broadway is my favorite. Two weeks ago I was lucky enough to see the musical Wicked on Broadway. It’s a very good show. It’s a prequel to the Wizard of Oz story. It describes what happened before Dorothy arrives in Oz. 

One reason it’s so good is it’s disorienting. I’m not going to ruin the show if you haven’t seen it but I will say all the folks you thought were the good guys are the bad guys and all the folks you thought were the bad guys are the good guys. If you’ve seen the Wizard of Oz a gazillion times, it takes a while to get your head around this. What you thought was right, isn’t right. What you thought was wrong, isn’t wrong. The hero of the story, at great cost to herself, shows everyone the truth.

But that’s just a Broadway show. That sort of thing never happens in real life. In what kind of world is right wrong and wrong right? And in what sort of situation is someone willing to give their life to setting the world straight and educating the rest of us.

Martin Luther King, Jr. peeled back the façade that made wrong look right and showed people the ugliness that was underneath. His story, and the sacrifice he made, is fact, not fiction. He is a bona fide hero. He instilled the ideal that no matter what kind of people we are as individuals, we are all Americans with the same rights and responsibilities. The right to determine our own lives and the responsibility to make sure others enjoy that right as well.

As EPA employees we have a responsibility to help clean up the air, water, and land for everyone – all our citizens. That is a responsibility we share. As Americans we also share the responsibility of toleration and ensuring equality for all people. That’s not just something that happens on its own. We have to step up to it every day. 

In the words of Dr. King, “Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism, or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.” That’s why this year, on January 21st, when offices across the country close, I encourage you to make the holiday created in his memory a day on, not a day off. For instance, you can honor Dr. King and his dream of building a better America by spending the day taking part in a service project in your community.

Whether it’s volunteering to feed the hungry, cleaning-up a local park, or helping a neighbor in need . . . together we can continue building the community he imagined. We can continue the story he started. A story that isn’t fiction and isn’t finished and profoundly affects the world we live in.   

Thank you, and enjoy today’s program.

My Farewell

At my request, EPA’s Assistant and Regional Administrators have been sending me their goals for 2008. Here are my goals for 2008  in the form of my farewell speech. No, I'm not leaving soon.

Deputy Administrator’s Farewell Speech January 19, 2009

A teacher once asked her third grade class if any of the students had heard of Julius Caesar. “Yes,” said one girl in the back of the classroom. “What do you know about him?” the teacher asked. “Well, I know he lived a long time ago and he was really important.” “Anything else?” the teacher prodded. “Yeah, he gave really long speeches . . . and they killed him.”

(pause)

I don’t intend to talk for long.

For over three years I’ve been in charge of making EPA run better. I think it’s the best job I’ll ever have. It’s tough to say ‘goodbye.’

It’s been an exciting 42 months. First we set up a system for governing at the ‘corporate’ level by creating quarterly management reports and meetings. Building off this I believe we have become the best-managed Agency in the Cabinet. Look at what we did in 2008 alone. We were:

• the second Agency to achieve, and keep, the highest possible score on the President’s Management Agenda;
• the only Agency to create a new organization, the Program Analysis Division, whose full-time job is to look for ways to improve operations and outcomes.
• one of a few agencies to systematically capture, disseminate, and validate best practices;
• the first Agency to internally broadcast, live, regular senior management progress meetings;
• the only Agency I know of to have our senior career managers regularly meet to make decisions regarding improving our operations and management systems;
• and the first federal Agency to win the President’s Quality Award for overall management back-to-back.

Part of this success is due to the fact we used measures to manage rather than just using them to report. Since 2005 we’ve reduced the number of measures by 20 percent making those that remain more vital. In 2008:

• EPA, for the first time, corralled all our performance measures into one central repository;
• all EPA offices were able to access all our measures electronically and some offices were able to create tailored electronic dashboards; and
• managers were not slaves to measures but constantly asked the key question, “What are the outcomes we are really trying to achieve?”

We accomplished these things because hundreds of people at this Agency understand that when EPA works better, public health and the environment improve faster. Management initiatives are gobbledygook unless they lead to cleaner air, water, and/or land. It’s that simple.

I’ll miss working on EPA’s operations and on EPA’s mission. But most of all, I’ll miss working with people who get up every morning, look themselves in the mirror and ask, “How can I improve what we do today?”

Thanks and farewell.

Guest Blog: My Favorite Green Things

Kristy Miller works in EPA's Air and Radiation Office.

This Holiday season driving to the Midwest in my jam-packed car, I had the radio tuned to Dr. Mehmet Oz (you know him; he’s Oprah’s favorite doctor in green scrubs). Dr. Oz is fast becoming my favorite doc too. I tipped my hat when I heard him tell America that radon in homes is a leading cause of lung cancer and it’s easy to get your home tested and fixed for this invisible radioactive gas that’s a silent killer. (I couldn’t have scripted him any better myself!)

It so happened that my car was packed with some of “my favorite things” to give away to family and friends-- radon test kits. January is National Radon Action Month and my friends are protecting their families using their newly-gifted test kits.

Radon in homes is everyone’s equal opportunity environmental health risk. Regardless of what type of home you live in, new or old, basement or not, it could have high radon; and, regardless of where you live it’s been found in every state. EPA estimates one in 15 homes will have a high level. The only way to determine if your home has high radon is to test for it; the good news is any home can be “fixed” relatively easily.   

Radon seeps into homes undetected from underground soil gases produced by decaying uranium inside the earth. About 20 years ago we learned that homes can act like a plastic bag trapping unhealthy radon levels inside.

In 1998 Harvard’s School of Public Health ranked breathing indoor radon as the highest preventable home risk contributing to premature death. The experts estimate radon causes 20,000 lung cancer deaths each year. Without any federal mandates, EPA’s role is to keep this silent environmental health risk in front of Americans who might otherwise "forget about it".   

So how’s EPA doing against this radioactive threat? 

Starting from a baseline of zero public awareness 20 years ago, here’s the estimated progress: 

• 75% of Americans have heard of radon;
• 20% of homes have been tested;
• One million high homes have been fixed;
• Some 1.5 million new homes built with radon-resistant features.

So far, we’ve saved about 6,000 lives—our goal is to double that, saving 12,000 lives, by 2012. 

The ultimate way to beat this cancer risk is to build new homes with radon-resistant features. New for 2008, EPA has a building green media campaign with Fuad Reveiz , a member of the National Association of Home Builders. Fuad says building new homes radon-resistant is a win-win because it’s a simple and cost-effective way to offer the benefit of a healthier home. 

A radon test kit is the perfect gift for every family and for every occasion. (I betcha Oprah will have radon test kits on her “favorite things” list soon too!)

Learn more at  www.epa.gov/radon  or call 1-800-SOS-RADON

MacGyver, Meet Lopez

I was never a big fan of the television series "MacGyver" which ran through the late 80s into the early 90s, but I must give it credit for creating the verb ‘to MacGyver.’

If you never saw this program, Angus MacGyver, played by fellow Minneapolitan Richard Dean Anderson, was a secret agent with a knack for using common objects such as ball point pens, duct tape, and his ever-present Swiss Army knife, to invent his way out of tight situations. The solutions, or ‘MacGyvers’, were really the result of his ability to apply scientific principles to problems. For instance, I recall he fixed a leak of sulfuric acid with chocolate, pointing out that the disaccharides in the chocolate would react with the acid to form a thick gummy plug. More typically, I also recall he once made a bomb out of a car battery, an aluminum can, an exhaust pipe, and pantyhose.

Here’s one MacGyver never thought of:  Flip a tomato plant cage upside down and attach it to the top of another tomato plant cage with bailing wire.  On top of this, clip a personal air quality monitoring badge (a disc workers clip on their shirt or jacket) and, inverted, a disposable turkey roasting pan (to protect the badge from sun and rain).  Finally, tie down the whole assembly with twine attached to five cinderblocks.  And there you have it: an air toxics monitor adequate for figuring out the air quality around where people live (see photo).  Total cost about $40.

Congratulations to the Environmental Department of the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo in Texas for coming up with this ‘MacGyver,’ which EPA helped fund. I understand it was the invention of Mr. Jose Lopez (shown in the picture).  Given MacGyver was fiction while Mr. Lopez is real, perhaps we should really be calling such innovations ‘Lopezs’ and when someone comes up with such an invention that means they ‘Lopezed it.’

Got a problem? Open up your brain and ‘Lopez it.’

Branch Out in the New Year

I’m going to be out for a while. My next post won’t be until January. But for those of you with real Christmas trees, let me suggest you start the New Year out right.

If your tree ends up in a landfill every year, why not try something new and let someone compost it for you? Earth 911 is a national non-profit foundation that, among other things, promotes recycling. They have compiled a directory where you can find out if there is a tree composting program near you. All you need is your ZIP code.

That’s a good first step to having a happy New Year.

The Best Thing I Ever Did (Before I Got Married)

It’s rare, but occasionally you meet people you immediately ‘click’ with. I found two such friends my first year in graduate school. However, as graduation approached, we realized we were heading off in different directions. They were going to California and I was moving to Washington DC. We agreed that we needed to do something to stay in touch with each other.   

Our solution was the best thing I’d done in my life, up to that point. We formed a club. We called it the ‘ExCom’ from a school project involving President Kennedy’s use of an Executive Committee, or ‘ExCom’, during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

The three of us made a pact. We would pay monthly dues to the 'ExCom'. We must use those dues once a year to visit a National Park site together. It had to be a different site every year.  Dues started at $20 a month. About a year later we reunited on the hiking trails of Bandelier National Monument. We spent most of the time talking about girls.

Since then, dues have trebled, the hikes got longer (then shorter), and the conversations have evolved. Hot discussion topics such as weddings, job offers, mortgage rates, and day care have all come and gone. The word ‘retirement’ was recently uttered for the first time.

And something else has changed. A few years ago we amended our by-laws so that when our kids reach age 10 they are invited to join the club. So far, they have all done so. The original ‘three guys’ are now three Dads and four kids.

Click image to enlarge

This year we went to the Everglades. We paddled through spider-infested mangrove tunnels (see photos, and, yes, those are spiders), camped on ancient shell mounds, and witnessed thousands of Ibis start their morning commute.

Click image to enlarge

Over the past twenty years, I’ve shared some spectacular landscapes and wildlife with two great friends. Now my kids have the opportunity to enjoy the outdoors. To learn that hiking to a glacier in Montana beats sitting on a couch watching Hannah Montana.

They are also learning about relationships - that being a friend can mean making, and keeping, a long-term commitment. So far, I think they get it. On the way home from Florida one of my daughters turned to me and said, “I’m going to make sure the 'ExCom' goes on forever.” I think it just might.

On The Right Track

I’ve been listening to holiday music this week. It reminded me that philosopher Mitchell Silver noted a problem with the popular song “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town.” The song says, Santa “knows if you are sleeping, he knows if you’re awake, he knows if you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness’ sake.” The last phrase, asserts Silver, is not logically consistent with the song’s premise. To be consistent the last part should say something like, “so be good if you want lots of presents.” If you were just “good for goodness’ sake,” then pleasing the omniscient Santa would be irrelevant.

The fact is people do good things both because they feel compelled to and because they think it is the right thing to do. Translating that for how EPA should behave means: tough enforcement and facilitating environmental stewardship go hand-in-hand.

At the same time EPA has been setting records regarding enforcement we are also tapping into the natural desire many companies have to protect Mother Nature.

A good example of this is the National Environmental Performance Track program. The program encourages businesses to be good environmental stewards by recognizing facilities that go beyond minimum legal requirements.

And Performance Track members are getting results. Since the start of the program in 2000 the nearly 500 participating facilities have, in aggregate, reduced:

• water use by more than 5.2 billion gallons;
• greenhouse gas emissions by 310,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent;
• hazardous waste by 52,000 tons;
• non-hazardous garbage by 1.2 million tons; and
• emissions of sulfur oxides by 43,000 tons.

And Performance Track members improve their bottom line as well. For instance:

• PPG Industries in Meadville, Pennsylvania saves more than $500,000 annually by reusing 100,000 tons of waste glass per year;
• Honeywell Engines, Systems, and Accessories in Tempe, Arizona saves nearly $150,000 per year because it now generates six ounces of oil per unit tested compared to 30 gallons before; and
• Baxter Healthcare Corporation saved more than $9 million between 2001 and 2003 by reducing its energy use per unit of production.

If you know of a company that has a facility that is interested in partnering with EPA to go beyond compliance, give our bell a jingle at 1-888-339-7875. That would make us all very jolly.

When Bad Measures Are Good

Ever since China started siphoning oil from the world market there has been a surge of interest in developing oil and gas wells in the American West. It’s important we find domestic supplies of energy, but that needs to be done in a way that protects our air, land, and water.

With this in mind, EPA’s Regional Office in Denver started measuring their performance in helping to eliminate or reduce the environmental impacts of new drilling and exploration. That’s not an easy thing to measure. They decided to measure the number of significant environmental improvements that occurred in project plans after EPA got involved in project review. That’s kind of a stinky measure because it doesn’t tell you if EPA caused the improvements and it doesn’t tell you anything about what effect EPA’s action has had on the air, land, or water. On the other hand, it’s an easy measure to track.

In 2006 there were 55 significant environmental improvements to western projects after EPA got involved in the planning process. This year, through the third quarter, the number was only 18. Whoa, at this rate we’ll end the year with less than half the improvements we got last year. We know the number of new projects hasn’t gone down. Are we falling down on the job? What’s going on?

Click image to enlarge. Copyright © EnCana Corporation. All rights reserved

What we think is going on is that folks learned from EPA last year the sorts of things that can be done to make these projects better and they are now designing the projects better from the get-go. For instance, last year EPA helped review the Jonah Infill Development Oil and Gas Project. At first, EPA concluded the project would result in many days where air quality in a nearby wilderness area would be impaired. Working with our partners, such as the Bureau of Land Management, the project was modified so that it would result in “0” days of impairment. The final Jonah project is now a standard by which most subsequent oil and gas developments are judged and folks are writing to this standard from conception.

Despite the fact the measure shows we are doing worse, we are getting a much better result because projects are now more protective in the first place. Should we throw this bad measure out? No. No measure is perfect. Measures are there to remind us we have something important we need to focus on. Until we have a better measure, this measure beats no measure at all. The key is to look beyond any measure and ask, “what are we really trying to achieve here?”

Guest Blog: Getting Your Foot in EPA’s Door

My name is Dave Bend, I work for EPA’s National Center For Environmental Innovation. As a recent graduate of the EPA Intern Program (EIP), Deputy Administrator Peacock asked me to discuss how EPA is expanding its leadership pipeline. I am going to focus on entry-level opportunities at the Agency, with a special emphasis on the EIP (bias acknowledged).

Prior to joining EPA, I was a teacher in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley. I distinctly remember walking by EPA’s Headquarters on a summer vacation and wondering, “How can I work there? What does it take to get inside those doors?” I hope this posting helps those of you out there asking similar questions.

I was drawn to EPA because I found its mission—protecting human health and the environment—deeply compelling. What could be more challenging? What could be more rewarding? I have found that my EPA colleagues share a similar commitment to the agency’s mission. If you do as well, read on!

The crown jewel of the Agency’s professional development programs is the EIP (again, bias noted). As a participant in the EIP you have the opportunity to complete several rotations within EPA, as well as a two-month detail to one of EPA’s regions or laboratories.

I was hired by the National Center for Environmental Innovation’s Evaluation Support Division (ESD) in September 2005. I spent my first year at the Agency with ESD before rotating to the following offices:

• Smart Growth
• Clean Air Markets Division
• Government Accountability Office’s Applied Research and Methods Division (EIPs can complete rotations with states and other federal agencies)
• Region 9’s (San Francisco) Environmental Justice Program

As you can see, rotations allow you to witness the breadth of EPA’s work, while also providing an opportunity to develop an extensive network inside and outside of the Agency.

Although I am partial to the EIP program, there are also many other excellent ways to begin working for the agency including the: Presidential Management Fellowship Program, Student Career Experience Program and the Federal Career Intern Program. Additional entry-level opportunities are available here. Keep in mind that all of these options are in addition to positions posted on USAJOBS.

I hope this information helps turn your interest in working for EPA into a reality. Let me know when your start date is and I’ll meet you at the front door!

Reality Check

This week EPA won the highest possible award for excellence in management. Every EPA employee should be proud of that. However, lest anyone get too comfortable, let me return to one of the areas that is still a challenge for this Agency.

Back in September I pointed out that we seem to be chronically late in crafting some of our most important rules. At that time we were, on average, 69 days late per important rule. Here we are three months later and we’ve gone in the wrong direction. We are now, on average, 76 days late (see graph).

When we started tracking this metric, I hoped that just by measuring timeliness, we would improve. That didn’t happen. I then decided to identify those rules that were the most late and put special emphasis on getting them done. (We called them ‘Gummy Bears’ since they seemed to raise especially sticky issues.) I hoped the additional attention on these several rules would accelerate their schedules. That didn’t happen. Finally, I decided to personally invest some time in addressing a few of the Gummy Bears that were the most late. I spent time getting up to speed on the substance and meeting with folks to see if we could achieve a break through. The result of that effort: nada.

What next? I’m contemplating that. Potential options are to increase the volume (put even more attention on these few rules) or bring out even bigger guns (get, for instance, the Administrator more involved). Whatever we do, we can’t just bask in the glow and comfort of what we’ve done. Accountability means enjoying our successes and facing up to where we aren’t doing as well as we hoped. This is one area where we need to do better.

What's Cooking?

Some time ago I picked up the book What’s Cooking in Our National Parks, a collection of the ‘best’ recipes submitted to the National Park Service by park visitors.  Ooh, what a mistake.  One of the typical offerings:

Sweet and Spicy Wieners

5 oz. can cocktail wieners
3 oz. grape jelly
2 oz. yellow mustard

Mix together and heat in a pot.  Serves 3.

I would submit that preparing such a dish in one of our National Parks would be an insult to nature.  But that’s just me.

So, what’s cookin’ at EPA?  I just started my quarterly management meetings with senior staff this week and I’m pretty excited about what is going on.  More than ever, people are identifying possible ways to improve how we do business.  After just two meetings, here are some things people are working on:

• Region 5 is discussing with Region 7 how to integrate meteorological, topographic and other information off the Web to better target inspections of animal feedlots.  They do this in the office before going out in the field.  The result should be much greater reductions in pollution in critical watersheds and the faster recovery of natural habitats.

• Region 7 is learning from Region 9 how we can make sure old diesel engines that EPA helps ‘retire’ aren’t ‘resurrected’ someplace else such as Mexico.

• Our enforcement office is determining how some EPA regions are able to more evenly spread out our enforcement related referrals to the Department of Justice.  If we are able to do this across the agency, we could take faster action against scofflaws.

What’s cookin’ at EPA?

Continuous Improvementelli

1 oz. inquisitiveness
1 oz. persistence
3 oz. perspiration
Dash of innovation

Mix and never stop mixing.  Serves 300 million.

Indicator Species

My family hiked around Roosevelt Island last Saturday. Roosevelt Island lies across the Potomac River from Georgetown near downtown Washington DC. Over time we’ve noticed something about the rocks on the island compared to rocks we see up in the Shenandoah Mountains: fewer lichen. Lichen (pronounced LIE-kin) is that weird often crusty green, yellow, or brown fungus that commonly grows on rocks or trees (see picture). In the mountains we saw lots of lichen. In town we see less. How come?

It turns out lichen are highly sensitive to pollution. Most species can’t tolerate much sulfur dioxide, for instance. This makes them a great ‘indicator species’ for air quality. In lieu of monitoring for air pollution, you can look around at the amount and type of lichen and get an indication of what’s in the air. Got lichen? Then the air is probably clean. Haven’t got it, then it’s probably dirty.

Of course, there are other indicator species for measuring air quality, water quality, soil contamination and so on. But is there an indicator species for good management in the federal government?

Yes, there is. It’s the eagle. Every year since 1988 a few federal agencies receive the President’s Quality Award, the “highest award given to Executive Branch agencies for management excellence.” Each winner gets a trophy, an eagle made of crystal. That makes these eagles a pretty good indicator. If there is an eagle hanging around an agency, chances are it’s well-managed.

Crystal eagles are good, but one crystal eagle soars above the others. It is awarded for overall excellence. To get this eagle, an agency must demonstrate exceptional management across the agency, not just in a particular area. It is darn rare. Since 1988 it has only been awarded once . . . until an award ceremony last night, that is.

I’m happy to announce that at sunrise this morning a new crystal eagle is roosting at EPA and she is no ordinary eagle. She represents the competence and hard work of managers across all of EPA. She indicates we are doing lots of things right.

Crystal eagles are important. More eagles at EPA means, in the long run, more lichen on rocks, more fish in the water, and less waste in our landfills.

Congratulations to all our managers on a great year, you have set a new standard of excellence!

Guest Blog: Who Do You Work For?

Stan Meiburg is the Deputy Regional Administrator in EPA's Atlanta office. He is on detail to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. I asked him to share his thoughts for today's post.

“Who do you work for?”

I get this question all the time in my role as EPA liaison to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, known by most people as CDC.

It’s natural for people to assume your opinions will reflect where you work. Rufus Miles, Princeton professor and director of the Bureau of the Budget in the Johnson Administration, wrote a professional article about it. The summary of Miles’ Law is, “Where you stand depends on where you sit.”

After 29 years I now have a chance to look at EPA from a different “seat”. I’ve learned several things. One is that non-regulatory agencies have a different perspective. Training, communication and applied research are especially valued here. Another is that CDC has much to teach. Some of the world’s best health expertise resides in Atlanta. In a typical week, I get to work with experts on such things as anthrax, cholera, radiation, pandemic flu, and the health effects of pollution.

There are countless opportunities for collaboration with EPA. Many are already underway, connecting environmental and public health data, researching toxic chemicals, and preparing for and responding to emergencies. EPA benefits enormously from these collaborations.  Being in the middle of this is exciting and a great opportunity.

It works the other way too. I’ve seen CDC struggle just like EPA does to build a responsive organization, promote innovation, retain expertise when key personnel retire, measure progress, and step up when things go wrong. EPA and CDC don’t always agree, and even world class expertise can’t prevent every problem of miscommunication, misunderstanding, and occasional hard-headedness.

Core principles apply no matter where you work: tell the truth, treat people with respect, listen well to others; challenge your assumptions, define success, measure your progress, own up to mistakes, maintain high standards, cherish your values. None of these principles comes with an organizational label.

So who do you work for? Many people want to uphold and defend their agencies. This is a noble sentiment. But loyalty to an organization need not be blind. The best leaders know they don’t know everything. By collaborating with others, they can tap into strengths that make their own organizations stronger and, in the case of EPA and CDC, better able to serve the public.

That’s who I want to work for!

The Power of Zero

What’s the Roman numeral for zero? There isn’t one. Zero was not placed into the decimal system until the 13th century. But once in, the zero unleashed a revolution in mathematics. Foremost, it made the calculation of large numbers feasible and, in turn, had profound impacts on astronomy, physics, chemistry, and commerce. While calling someone a ‘zero’ is a put-down, I’d say zero is a most powerful number.

So powerful, it can help EPA succeed, even when we fail.

In 2005 the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response realized they had a serious error problem in the data used to assess soil contamination on federal property. Accurate data helps EPA know what sites pose the most risk to the public. The better the data, the better we can protect human health and the environment. Over time the data improved, but we still seemed to have a chronic, although lower, error rate. So back in May the Office set a bold goal of achieving a zero error rate by the fall. They called it ‘Getting to Zero.’

I noted in August how this homegrown stretch goal was the sign of a healthy performance culture. When offices independently use metrics to figure out ways to get better results, especially when they are willing to set stretch goals, they demonstrate they are constantly looking for ways to get better results.

(Click image to enlarge)

How did they do? As of mid-November they failed to get to zero. But look where they did get. In July 2005 data errors were 450. They are now down to 6 (see graph). That’s not zero, but I’d say it is a magnificent success.

Does it make sense to say failure is a success? That’s as nuts as saying 1 = 2, isn’t it? Well, anything is possible when you start messing with zero. Failure can still lead to success when an office has the guts to try for perfection. When they embrace the power of zero.

When an office accepts that zero is not an impossible goal.

Sometimes 1 does equal 2 if you are willing to stretch yourself. Don’t believe me? Here’s proof:

(x)(x) – (x)(x) = x² - x²

factoring by x on the left side and using the identity (a² - b²) = (a - b)(a + b) on the right side, this can be written as:

x(x-x) = (x-x)(x+x)

dividing both sides by (x-x) gives

x = 2x

divide both sides by x gives

1 = 2

Now, are you ready to embrace the power of zero?

Thanks!

Michael, thanks for driving me to work.

Thank you, Officer Gaines, for watching out for us.

Doug, thanks for delivering the mail and commiserating about the Vikings.

Hey Jeff, thanks for getting this blog running and making it better and better.

Thanks to all the people who quietly keep EPA ticking.

A View from the Sissy Bar

A friend of mine recently viewed Transportation Secretary Mary Peters’ public service announcement advocating motorcycle safety. Their reaction: “She rocks!”

click image to watch video get media viewer

It’s easy to forget there are parts of other federal agencies who are as dedicated as EPA in their mission of protecting human health and the environment. Some of these organizations are easy to spot: the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration helps protect our oceans; the Fish and Wildlife Service helps protect wildlife; and Directorates in the National Science Foundation fund research on environmental hazards.

EPA has a unique focus, but one that is strengthened when we collaborate with organizations in other agencies who share similar goals. I’d even argue protecting people from getting smashed up on their motorcycle is related to protecting them from what comes out of its tailpipe.  A parent doesn’t care what agency is doing what to keep their kid safe from what risk, they just want to know the federal government is doing its job. We are obligated to work as one team and speak with one voice.  Sometimes that means letting another agency hop on our motorcycle.  Sometimes that means letting another agency drive for a while.

Healthy competition is good too. I must admit I’m a bit jealous of Secretary Peters’ video.  But let me just point out that while she rides a Hog, I write a blog.  While she complains about getting hit once, I get about 600 hits a day – and I like it.

Now who rocks?