Vice President Gore's National Performance Review presented its most prestigious reinvention award to a state-federal partnership for streamlining the environmental cleanup technologies approval process. The Interstate Technology Regulatory Cooperation initiative was recognized with a Hammer Award for Reinventing Government at a ceremony on September 24. The U.S. departments of Energy and Defense, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and 22 states were recognized for their work on regulatory reform.

The ceremony was held at the world headquarters of the American Society for Testing and Materials outside Philadelphia. Clyde Frank, deputy assistant secretary for DOE's Office of Science and Technology, accepted the award on behalf of DOE, DoD, and EPA.

Frank said, "We are honored to be recognized with the Vice President's Hammer Award. The partnership has already successfully streamlined the approval process for innovative environmental technologies, and we accept the challenge to work with other states."

Representatives from California and Texas accepted a Hammer on behalf of the 22 states involved in the initiative. In addition, state environmental agency leaders from California, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Illinois, and Massachusetts received special recognition for a memorandum of understanding among the six states to foster interstate regulatory approvals for environmental technologies.

According to a study conducted for the 22 states involved in ITRC, the partnering resulted in reduced regulatory approval costs for one environmental technology. Working collaboratively on interstate regulatory approval for the cone penetrometer reduced the regulatory approval cost from $23 million to $3 million. A new site characterization tool, the cone penetrometer uses fiber optics to determine if a site is contaminated by chemicals. The cone penetrometer was certified in 22 states, following its successful demonstration and approval by California, one of the state partners in the initiative.

More information about ITRC can be found on the Web at http://www.gnet.org/gnet/gov/interstate/itrcindex.htm