to formulate specific technology requirements and 

 strategies to control air pollution from industrial 

 sources. Demonstrations of control technology for 

 high priority sources will also continue. 



Finally, the FWPCA requires that a list of hazar- 

 dous materials be issued and that the list serve as a 

 basis for recovery for damages resulting from spill 

 of such materials. The expectation is that more 

 than 500 primarily industrial materials will be iden- 

 tified. 



EPA must therefore rely on a technology-based 

 standard to ensure that exposures do not present 

 substantial risks to people. Anticipatory RD&D on 

 control of emissions of potentially hazardous ma- 

 terials can serve the Nation well by providing as- 

 sessments for the feasibility of control of such 

 materials. 



Status of technology. To date, this technology 

 RD&D has provided the technical basis for an esti- 

 mated 100 industrial categories at the "best 

 practical technology" (1977) and "best available 

 treatment" (1983) levels of control. Additional 

 technology gaps and associated RD&D needs, if 

 any. for specified best practical technology levels 

 may be identified in legal tests of regulations. 



The data base on which decisions can be made 

 for industrial air pollution control is generally 

 weak. Consequently, a large assessment program 

 has been initiated to determine what sources may 

 require control technology RD&D in the future. 



Five-year plan. To significantly enhance protec- 

 tion of the environment from industrial pollution 

 sources by the mid 1980's, the minerals, process- 

 ing, and manufacturing subprogram is recognized 

 as a high priority RD&D area. Because of the time 

 restraints in the FWPCA to achieve the stringent 

 control levels established and anticipated timing of 

 additional new source performance and hazardous 

 material standards and new toxic substance stand- 

 ards, research and development must be acceler- 

 ated in fiscal years 1978. 1979. and 1980. 



Monitoring and Technical Support Program 



The monitoring and technical support program 

 includes RD&D activities and direct assistance and 

 support to all of EPA. The components of this 

 program include: 



• Measurement techniques and equipment de- 

 velopment 



• Quality assurance 



• Technical support. 



Techniques and equipment development in- 

 volves development, evaluation, and demonstra- 

 tion of field and laboratory measurement and mon- 

 itoring methods and instrumentation. Efforts are 

 directed toward achieving capability to identify 

 and measure all pollutants of concern in the most 

 cost-effective manner. 



Techniques and equipment development over 

 the long term will continue to address methods and 

 techniques for air, water, and multimedia monitor- 

 ing systems including advanced remote environ- 

 mental monitoring systems. 



Quality assurance serves all environmental mon- 

 itoring activities of EPA. This activity focuses on 

 standardizing measurement methods, providing 

 standard reference materials and samples, devel- 

 oping quality control guidelines and manuals, 

 onsite evaluation of analytical laboratories, interla- 

 boratory performance tests, monthly cross-check 

 samples studies, studies on methods for laboratory 

 accreditation, studies on automation of laboratory 

 instruments and data handling, and participation in 

 regional quality control activities. 



Technical support is the scientific and technical 

 assistance the research program gives to other 

 components of EPA by using the expertise of 

 ORD personnel and available ORD facilities. This 

 subprogram includes responsibility to deliver re- 

 sults of ORD's efforts. 



Five-year plan. The monitoring R&D is charac- 

 terized as level-of-effort. Accordingly, much of the 

 program looks the same for individual years in the 

 five-year plan. Correcting deficiencies in candidate 

 and reference monitoring methods and developing 

 new methods as needs arise will continue to get 

 attention with focus always on current high-priori- 

 ty pollutants. 



However, there are some relatively long-range 

 projects and additional level-of-effort activities 

 planned for implementation in FY 1977 or beyond. 

 Further, certain existing programs will get more 

 emphasis in FY 1977 and beyond. Some examples 

 of these areas are described below: 



• Water monitoring methods equivalency pro- 

 gram: Present regulations allow only dis- 

 charges to apply for approval of alternate 

 methods for measuring pollutants in industrial 

 and municipal effluents. Manufacturers of 

 monitoring instruments have no direct re- 

 course for demonstrating the equivalency of 

 their products to the promulgated test proce- 

 dures. The most reasonable solution to this 

 problem is to set up a program similar to the 

 ambient air equivalency program. This re- 

 quires promulgation of new regulations or 

 amendments to existing ones. 



• Agencywide laboratory automation system: 

 Laboratory automation consists of applying 

 small computers (mini-computers) to sophisti- 

 cated laboratory instruments to control their 

 operation, process their data, and generate 

 reports for laboratory scientists. With this 

 technology, it is possible to increase the quali- 

 ty and quantity of laboratory data and provide 

 substantially increased capabilities with no 



ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY 181 



