CDPHE Receives Environmental Achievement Award from U.S. EPA
Denver – The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s Hazardous Materials and Waste Management Division has earned an Environmental Achievement Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for achieving a national clean-up goal two years ahead of schedule.
Colorado received the honor in conjunction with the states of Montana and North Dakota. The collective efforts of the three states helped Region 8 of EPA, which is headquartered in Denver, become the first EPA region in the nation to achieve the 2005 Government Performance and Results Act Environmental Indicator goal for migration of contaminated ground water. Region 8 also included South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming.
“We are pleased to join our colleagues in Montana and North Dakota in accepting this honor,” said Douglas H. Benevento, the executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, said. “We believe in getting things done as quickly and efficiently as possible. I’m proud of the fact that we were able to achieve this goal well ahead of the established timetable.”
Benevento continued: “I’m especially proud of the commitment of division director Gary Baughman and staff members in Hazardous Materials and Waste Management, such as unit leaders Walter Avramenko and Susan Chaki. This accomplishment required them to really focus their efforts on evaluating the most significant facilities and prioritizing a substantial amount of of information. As a result, we know that migration of contaminated ground water and human exposure to contaminants have been controlled effectively. Colorado is healthier because of their diligence.”
The Government Performance and Results Act holds federal agencies, such as the EPA, accountable for using resources wisely and achieving program results. Agencies are required by the act to develop plans for what they intend to accomplish, measure how well they are doing, make appropriate decisions based on the information they have gathered, and communicate information about their performance to U.S. Congress and to the public.
One of the established goals was the 2005 Environmental Indicator (EI) for “Migration of Contaminated Ground Water Under Control.” The ground water EI is an environmental resource protection measure that identifies whether contaminated water has been stabilized and is no longer migrating. The measure also typically includes the assessment of the impact of ground water discharges to surface waters and surface water ecosystems.
According to the EPA, “Management and staff in these states should be commended for their outstanding contribution in protection of public health and ground water.
In the award announcement, EPA noted that “…as a result of the hard work and diligence by the states of Colorado, Montana and North Dakota, Region 8 became the first region in the county to achieve the 2005 goal of 70 percent of baseline facilities meeting the Ground Water EI. At the end of fiscal year 2003, Region 8 had achieved this important goal at 76 percent of its high-priority Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Corrective Action facilities.”
Benevento said that ground water protection is a top priority for his department.
“Recent years have emphasized more than ever what an important and fragile resource water is in the Rocky Mountain region,” he said. “Protecting our ground water and cleaning up contamination where it exists is vital to our future, and we intend to follow through on the commitment that receiving such a prestigious award recognizes.”
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