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Now that you have an idea of our NPDES permitting process, I 

 would Uke to describe briefly our OCS permitting policy. Because of 

 the complexities involved in assessing the potential for significant 

 harm of the marine environment, EPA has a number of actions 

 underway to insure that effluent discharges associated with the 

 development of offshore oil and gas resources are managed in an 

 environmentally sound manner. At the same time, these actions 

 are intended to expedite the issuance of NPDES permits to offshore 

 oil and gas facilities and to avoid costly startup delays for facilities 

 which would cause no adverse environmental impact. 



I know you heard a great deal about Government committees 

 and may be skeptical about the virtue of yet another one, but the 

 agency has created a much needed Outer Continental Shelf Coordi- 

 nation Committee to coordinate agency efforts in this area. It is not 

 mentioned in the written text but as you may know there are 

 about five or six offices within EPA who have some role in deciding 

 what our policy should be with regard to OCS. We have decided to 

 combine those offices in part into a committee, which I chair, to 

 have one unified policy from the agency. Two important functions 

 of the committee are the development of a memorandum of under- 

 standing to coordinate our research activities with the Bureau of 

 Land Management, U.S. Geological Survey, and the U.S. Coast 

 Guard, and the coordination of research activities by a drilling 

 muds and formation waters task force. That task force is solely 

 within EPA. 



The focus of the memorandum of understanding is to increase 

 EPA's participation in the OCS lease sale process during the devel- 

 opment of environmental impact statements (EIS) in order to 

 assess the vulnerability of specific lease areas to the discharges 

 associated with offshore oil and gas operations. If we can assess 

 vulnerability at this early stage, we can determine appropriate 

 NPDES permit conditions and avoid delays in issuing NPDES per- 

 mits. Inspection and compliance sampling requirements of each 

 Federal agency will also be coordinated in the memorandum of 

 understanding. 



The efforts of the Drilling Muds and Formation Waters Task 

 Force will include the identification of gaps in current knowledge 

 and research concerning the environmental fates and effects of 

 drilling muds and formation waters. 



To further coordinate EPA's activities on the OCS with other 

 Federal agencies. State and local governments, EPA is also partici- 

 pating in the Biological Task Forces for the Flower Gardens, 

 Georges Bank, and Beaufort Sea. Both the Flower Gardens and 

 Georges Bank Task Forces have now completed draft research and 

 monitoring plans. 



Finally, I would like to acquaint you with the Agency's most 

 recent efforts to issue NPDES permits for offshore oil and gas 

 facilities. For the record, I have submitted a chart which summa- 

 rizes the status of NPDES permits issued for offshore oil and gas 

 facilities. The largest number of offshore oil and gas dischargers is 

 located in the Gulf of Mexico. There are approximately 2,000 facili- 

 ties in the offshore subcategory currently operating in the Gulf. 

 EPA's Region VI office in Dallas recently published a public notice 

 of three draft general NPDES permits which when finally issued 



