55 



sites are too costly to clean up with current technology. EPA's research and develop- 

 ment program has become a bridge between EPA, academic, and industrial labora- 

 tories. Much of the technology being developed in this area is exportable and may 

 recover some cost as well as reduce pollution worldwide. 



It is important to emphasize that in each of the three areas just described all have 

 an international character to them. While the regulatory process normally stops at 

 our border, our technology has worldwide utility. Whether we choose to sell environ- 

 mental technology outside of the U.S. or give it away, the environment, world-wide, 

 will only benefit by its generation. EPA's environmental research and development 

 operations have, in the past, and will continue to be significant generators of new 

 scientific information geared to assuring our society of a high standard of living and 

 an ever lessening of environmental impact. 



It is important to note that environmental research funding within EPA has not 

 tracked overall funding for the agency. Note from the attached figure that research 

 funding within the agency has kept fairly constant in 1987 dollars but that agency 

 funding has increased substantially. The agency has grown but R&D has not. The 

 United States has preeminence in environmental R&D to a major extent through 

 EPA's R&D branch and through the collaborations it has generated even though 

 there are a number of public and private entities supporting environmental R&D. 



I do not want to detract from other Federal departments doing environmental 

 R&D. Certainly, programs within the Department of Energy, the Department of De- 

 fense and even NASA's space station have environmental importance, but leader- 

 ship in science should come from the Environmental Protection Agency. 



Statement of William Glaze, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 



Chairman Reid, Distinguished Committee Members: My name is William Glaze. 

 I am currently a Professor in the School of Public Health at the University of North 

 Carolina in Chapel Hill and Chair of the Department of Environmental Sciences 

 and Engineering soon to celebrate its 75th anniversary as one of the largest and 

 most comprehensive departments of its type in the nation. I am also editor of Envi- 

 ronmental Science and Technology (ES&T), the environmental journal of the Amer- 

 ican Chemical Society, a former member of the executive committee of the EPA 

 Science Advisory Board and Chair of the SAB Drinking Water Committee. My other 

 credentials are listed in an attachment to the transcript of my testimony. 



Some of the points that I wish to make to the Committee are summarized in two 

 editorials I wrote for the May and July issues of ES&T, copies of which are attached 

 to the transcript of my testimony. I am sure the Committee is aware that my testi- 

 mony is my own and does not reflect the views of either the University of North 

 Carolina or the American Chemical Society. 



Mr. Chairman, in my opinion this country does not have the institutionalized en- 

 vironmental research apparatus that it needs to adequately protect public health, 

 preserve the environment, and encourage sustainable economic development. As 

 others have said before, the U.S. environmental R&D apparatus is fragmented, un- 

 coordinated, and "poorly structured to deal with complex interdisciplinary re- 

 search". 1 I and my colleagues are particularly concerned that there is so little sup- 

 port for exploratory environmental research and so little support for students who 

 will be the environmental professionals for the future. We are aware that basic re- 

 search is under attack on several fronts in our society, as indicated by the recent 

 controversy over DOD basic research funding in the House of Representatives, but 

 we believe that the crisis is particularly serious in environmental research. 



Basic research is particularly important in environmental research because the 

 systems we work with are so complex and relatively unexplored. I am sure that the 

 Committee recognizes that until about three decades ago, this country had no com- 

 prehensive research program that explored the complex relationship between 

 human civilization and environmental quality. Until recently, we had very little sys- 

 tematically derived information on the occurrence of contaminants in water, air and 



1 Report of the Committee on Environmental Research, National Research Council, National 

 Academy of Science Press, July, 1994. 



