EPA Needs Clearer and Narrower Priorities, Outgoing Chief Says

Acknowledging that much of the environment remains no better off than it was eight years ago, outgoing Environmental Protection Agency chief Lee M. Thomas recommended Wednesday that his successor be elevated to Cabinet rank and establish clear priorities so the Bush Administration can gain momentum on environmental issues.

Much of the blame for past shortcomings should be ascribed to the failure by Congress and the Reagan Administration to narrow their sights and establish a clear agenda in addressing environmental concerns, Thomas said in an interview with The Times.

“You don’t have the luxury of focusing on only one thing in the agency,” he said. “But you do have the luxury of focusing on five or six things instead of 500.”

In addition, the EPA chief said, President-elect Bush could send a “clear statement that (the EPA) is as important as other federal departments” by inviting new EPA chief William K. Reilly to join his Cabinet.

Thomas said that while he has been included in Cabinet sessions as a courtesy, he believes that the status should be made more permanent. The EPA “needs to be and should be at the table when policy is being discussed,” Thomas said.

The proposal, which also has been advanced by Sen. Dave Durenberger (R-Minn.), has been circulated among Bush’s advisers and remains under consideration, according to transition aides. The proposal has been strongly endorsed by leading environmentalists.

When asked what elements of the environment had improved under President Reagan, Thomas identified water quality--which he said has improved in “dramatic ways”--and air quality.

But Thomas said there is no evidence of improvement in the problems of ground water contamination and depletion of the ozone layer, although he said his agency has been able to reverse previous declines.

And he said that, while it is difficult to measure environmental vitality in other areas, including the nation’s wetlands and remote mountain forests, “my sense is that those things are getting worse.”

The outgoing agency head expressed confidence, however, that the new Administration will be “well-positioned” to address such enduring problems.

“They can to a certain extent make a fresh start,” said Thomas, who took over the agency four years ago, not long after Anne McGill Burford was forced to resign amid congressional investigations of mismanagement. “Some of the controversies of this Administration clearly are not their controversies.”

Nevertheless, Thomas warned, the range of current environmental challenges is such that any effort by the EPA to concentrate on particular priorities is certain to be subject to criticism “for not focusing on the ones you’re not focusing on.”

“Our plate is overflowing in terms of work to be done,” Thomas said. But he added: “Some things are much more important than others. Working through the whole series of things is something that needs to be done early on by the Administration and by Congress.”

Thomas recommended that top priority be afforded efforts to remediate environmental hazards through Superfund and other cleanup programs, to combat problems of pollution along the nation’s beaches and coastal wetlands and to secure the cooperation of other countries in addressing international environmental concerns, including acid rain and global warming trends.

The EPA on Wednesday announced plans to hold the line on loss of the nation’s wetlands to developers and farmers.

Seeks ‘No Net Loss’

The plan is designed to achieve “no net loss” of swamps, bogs and marshes and to increase their acreage over time. It calls for tougher enforcement of laws against unpermitted fillings of wetlands and for rehabilitation of damaged areas, and it prohibits commercial use of wetlands without plans to offset the loss with new or restored areas.

Thomas said that the initiative will help to “reverse the troubling decline of our nation’s vital wetlands resources.”