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TOWARD NEW PARTNERSHIPS IN OCEAN SCIENCES 37 



agement. As global programs generate increasing volumes of data 

 and place new demands for the use of data from all sources, the 

 need for modern national data facilities will become increasingly 

 urgent. Because working sci^tists are often the source of many 

 of the data and are often the largest potential users, they should 

 participate in the design and use of these important data bases. 

 The Joint Environmental Data Analysis center at Scripps Institu- 

 tion of Oceanography, which involves active scientists in the quality 

 control and decisions of archiving data, is a first step in develop- 

 ing such partnerships. 



Environmental Protection Agency 



Since its founding in 1970, the Environmental Protection Agency 

 has developed numerous regulations relative to both air and wa- 

 ter, and environmental quality in many previously heavily pol- 

 luted areas has improved as a result of these controls. Now, as 

 environmental problems on regional, national, and international 

 scales are increasingly recognized, EPA's challenge is to improve 

 our understanding and management of the sources of pollutants 

 and the environments that receive waste. The EPA Science Advi- 

 sory Board (1990), in its landmark report Reducing Risk, stated 

 that too little attention is paid to environmental problems that 

 have significant large-scale consequences and low reversibility (e.g., 

 global climate change and loss of habitats and biodiversity). In 

 the past, EPA has relied on internal expertise for scientific input, 

 but the range of problems and their complexity can no longer be 

 handled in this way. EPA has made a commitment to the increas- 

 ing use of scientific advice throughout its activities. Meeting this 

 commitment will require strong partnerships with the academic 

 community. 



EPA's need both to view pollution control from a larger envi- 

 ronmental perspective and to increase its reliance on science of- 

 fers prospects for partnerships with the academic ocean science 

 community. EPA engages scientists in its environmental research 

 laboratories, a relatively small extramural grants program, explor- 

 atory environmental research centers, and environmental man- 

 agement programs, including the National Estuary Program. An 

 expanded EPA partnership with the academic community could 

 include the following: 



• expansion of the extramural grants program and creation of 

 additional environmental research centers collocated with univer- 



