Paper says EPA community partners program fails

Am Environmental Protection Agency pilot program in Baltimore to foster community-directed environmental action has become a "case study of the difficulties facing the Clinton administration's targeted 'empowerment'-style programs," the Baltimore Sun reported Monday.

The three-year-old program established "environmental empowerment zones," or partnerships between local companies and residents, to share pollution data and strategies on cleanup and enforcement. But the Sun's review "shows a moribund program that exhausted its government funding."

The Sun reports that dissension among residents, "turf-conscious environmental groups" and some industry leaders created problems. And an independent review by the John Snow Institute, a Boston-based consulting firm, said the EPA never set clear goals for the program.

While "acknowledging the partnership failed," EPA officials say the program had "some victories," including giving residents data on air and water pollution and building support for a wildlife preserve. The agency has set up several other similar projects, including ones in St. Louis and Lawrence, MA (Joe Mathews, Baltimore Sun, 1/18).