Down in the Dumps at EPA

By Maureen Dowd

The White House looks for a successor, Congress looks for dirt

When the Administration needed a caretaker for the battered Environmental Protection Agency as it searched for a permanent replacement for departing Administrator Anne Burford, John Hernandez seemed a perfect choice. A water-pollution expert and former dean of engineering at New Mexico State University, Hernandez had distinguished himself as one of the few top EPA officials not caught in the crossfire of charges about sweetheart deals, political manipulation, conflict of interest and mismanagement. Some of his colleagues caustically pointed out that he could credit his clean slate at least in part to his exclusion from the agency's decision-making echelon. "He was lucky to get invited to meetings," said a former EPA official.

But even such a seemingly safe choice for acting administrator has turned into an exploding cigar for the White House. By week's end three House subcommittees and the EPA's inspector general were probing a spate of charges that Hernandez made improper decisions benefiting industry. Reagan aides, who had hoped that Burford's ouster would provide some breathing space and subdue the impression that the Administration has favored polluters, were foiled. Groused one White House official: "Every time we turn around, something is screwed up over there."

At first, things seemed to be going well. Although his chances were slim, Hernandez began actively campaigning to keep his job, signaling the White House that he could improve the agency's tarnished image. In a sharp contrast to the deep personnel and money cuts supported by Burford, he prepared supplemental budgets seeking more congressional funds. He also dismissed EPA Official Louis Cordia, who two years ago compiled a "hit list" of ideologically suspect agency employees.

At midweek the "fresh start" fizzled. Democratic Congressman James Scheuer, who heads one of the six congressional panels investigating the agency, charged that Hernandez personally intervened to allow Dow Chemical Co. to edit a July 1981 agency report about dioxin contamination of two rivers and a bay near its Midland, Mich., plant. EPA officials agreed to Dow's suggested deletions of critical passages linking the deadly poison to fertility problems and birth defects, as well as the conclusion that "Dow's discharge represented the major source, if not the only source, of [dioxin] contamination" in the waterways.

Testifying before the House Public Works Oversight Subcommittee, Hernandez acknowledged that he urged Valdas Adamkus, head of the EPA's Midwest regional office, to hear Dow out on the report but denied ordering him to let company officials make changes. In a stunning public break with his bosses, however, Adamkus testified on Friday that his staffers had been "forced" by Washington headquarters to strike out the passages. Hernandez was angry that the Midwest office had prepared the report in the first place, Adamkus said, and was "denouncing our report and calling the work of our regional people 'trash.' " Dow was saying little, in part because there is a Justice Department suit pending over the company's refusal to yield technical data about its toxic emissions to the EPA.

Hernandez was also blasted for blocking a voluntary plan by three smelting companies to clean up serious lead contamination in a poor, mostly black area of Dallas. An EPA study had revealed dangerously high lead levels in the blood of neighborhood children. Instead, the EPA simply ordered that residents be given blood tests and be instructed to "plant grass" to control the lead dust and to "keep [their] homes clean." That advice did not satisfy many subcommittee members. Said Hernandez in explanation: "If we went out and started running bulldozers around, we'd end up with even greater hysteria."

Congressional committees continued to stumble over one another last week in their sometimes overzealous efforts to keep "Sewergate" sizzling. Democrats culled EPA documents, looking for a trail of evidence that would lead to the White House. On Thursday the White House, which had long insisted that its files contained no internal reports on the notorious Stringfellow toxic dump in California, admitted that it did have two EPA reports confirming that Burford prepared to announce a grant to clean up Stringfellow last year but changed her mind at the last minute. There have been charges that the Administration delayed the cleanup in an effort to hurt the Senate campaign of Democratic Governor Jerry Brown.

Both Congress and the EPA tried to take advantage of the rising public concern over hazardous wastes. Lawmakers introduced three bills designed to tighten federal control of the poisons and close the loopholes detailed in an alarming new congressional report. The EPA weighed in with its own announcement tightening controls on dioxin and other toxic substances. Compiled during three years by the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, the new study warns that 255 million to 275 million tons of chemical poisons are being dumped in the U.S. every year, a ton for every person. It estimates that it will cost from $10 billion to $40 billion to clean up the waste.

The charges against Hernandez forced the White House to accelerate its search for a blue-ribbon successor for the top job, a tricky matter since the nominee must be enough of an environmental advocate to withstand congressional scrutiny and yet fit in with the President's more minimalist approach to regulation. The leading contender was William Ruckelshaus, the first EPA administrator under President Nixon and now a senior vice president of Weyerhaeuser, a wood and paper company. But his industry connections may make him suspect to environmentalists. Said Democratic Congressman Edward Markey: "What we clearly need now is a Mr. Clean, with no ties to industry and no conflicts of interest."

--By Maureen Dowd.

Reported by Jay Branegan/Washington

With reporting by Jay Branegan This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.