PURPOSE

As a responsible environmental steward, NASA will promote the Agency strategy of Environmental Excellence for the 21st. Century strategy, consistent with the requirements of Executive Order (E.O.) 12856, "Federal Compliance with Right-To-Know Laws and Pollution Prevention Requirements." It is NASA policy to prevent or reduce pollution at the source whenever possible. The following approaches will be considered, in priority order:

1. Eliminate or reduce pollution at the source through process changes, reengineering and/or material substitution. (Pollution for this document is defined as any hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant entering any waste stream or otherwise released into the environment, including fugitive emissions.)

2. Recycle pollution that cannot be prevented in an environmentally safe manner, to the maximum extent possible.

3. Treat pollution that cannot be prevented or recycled in an environmentally safe manner, to the maximum extent possible. (Treated means chemically altered, incinerated, or otherwise sent to a permitted Treatment, Storage, or Disposal Facility.)

4. Dispose of waste only as a last resort and in a legal and environmentally safe manner.

Further, NASA will --

1. Review and revise NASA specifications and standards to reduce the use and acquisition of products containing extremely hazardous substances and toxic chemicals consistent with safety and reliability requirements.

2. Use life-cycle-cost analysis and source-reduction potential as criteria in evaluating program/project priority.

3. Strive for a minimum of 50-percent reduction from the established 1994 Agency baseline for toxic chemical release by the turn of the century. To the maximum extent possible, NASA will achieve this goal by using source reduction practices.

4. Prepare and begin to implement a written pollution prevention plan at all NASA Centers and Component Facilities covered by E.O. 12856. These pollution prevention plans will address site-specific Environmental Justice issues (E.O. 12898). The plan will address the facility's approach to meeting NASA's 50-percent toxic chemicals release-reduction goal and to reducing the Centers' overall environmental impacts.

5. Provide emergency release information from any accidental reportable releases, or emergencies, to all appropriate parties.

6. Submit emergency planning notification, emergency response plans, material safety data sheets or lists, and/or hazardous chemical inventory forms to the appropriate agencies for Centers that meet the Emergency Planning and Community Right-To-Know Act (EPCRA), Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) reporting thresholds.

7. All NASA Centers will submit their annual individual pollution prevention reports (reporting began in 1995) for compliance with E.O. 12856 to Headquarters by August 1 of each years.

8. Evaluate progress annually by comparison of tonnage and percent of toxic chemical release reduction from baseline by calender year. (Release as defined in each Center's Environmental Protection Agency Form R TRI report.)

APPLICABILITY

This NPG is applicable to NASA Headquarters and all NASA Centers, including Component Facilities, and contractor facilities where specified by contract.