# EPA will open Traverse City office



## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

EPA will open Traverse City office 
'Outstation' will be one of five in Midwest

By KEITH MATHENY, Record-Eagle staff writer
http://www.record-eagle.com/2004/oct/04epa.htm

TRAVERSE CITY - It's a small presence, to be sure - one man in an office.
But the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's decision to create an emergency response office in Traverse City is a positive development, state officials and local environmentalists say.
It will provide an effective "conduit" back to the EPA's Region 5 office in Chicago, said Wil Cwikiel, program director for the Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council in Petoskey.
The new office is scheduled to open by the end of the year.
"I'm all for it if it does indeed increase the EPA's presence, and its role in helping us protect our environment," Cwikiel said. "There's always room for improvement as it relates to intergovernmental cooperation."
The Traverse City office will be one of five "out-stations" for the EPA's Midwest center in Chicago. The other four satellite offices are in Grosse Isle; Westlake, Ohio, near Cleveland; Cincinnati; Minneapolis/St. Paul and in southern Illinois.
"Having people in those offices gives us a chance to be nearer, working directly with the state and, if there is a response, to be there faster," said Jason Elzein, the EPA's emergency response chief for Michigan and Ohio.
Ralph Dollhopf, EPA on-scene emergency response coordinator, will man the Traverse City office. He said he will coordinate the federal response to environmental problems such as oil spills, hazardous chemical releases and cleanups of orphaned industrial waste sites.
The EPA has worked with officials at state Department of Environmental Quality offices in Cadillac and Grayling on cleanups many times in the past 15 years, Dollhopf said.
"We expect to continue to work closely with them and to be even more responsive because of the closer proximity," he said. 
Some high-profile local projects within recent years that involved the EPA include the Tar Lake industrial cleanup near Mancelona and the cleanup of contamination after a massive tire fire in Grawn, Dollhopf said.
Elzein said Traverse City was chosen because it is close to DEQ offices in the northern lower and upper peninsulas and Cherry Capital Airport allows fast travel to Chicago and the Upper Peninsula.
DEQ spokeswoman Patricia Spitzley said quicker, better coordination between the state and federal agencies can't help but be an improvement.
"It's definitely more convenient than Chicago," she said.


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