For Immediate Release

March 6, 2001

Contact: Jim Berard

(202) 225-6260

 

 

Gephardt Nominates Veith for Seat on Ocean Policy Board

Oberstar recommended former Duluth EPA lab chief to provide Great Lakes perspective

 

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WASHINGTON—House Democratic Leader Richard A. Gephardt has nominated Gilman D. Veith, Associate Director for Ecology at the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, for a seat on the national Commission on Ocean Policy.  Veith is one of four candidates nominated by Gephardt.  President Bush will choose two appointees from that list.

 

Veith’s nomination comes at the recommendation of Rep. James L. Oberstar (Minn.), Ranking Democratic Member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.  In his recommendation, Oberstar cited Veith’s long, distinguished history of research in the ecology of the Great Lakes.  Veith spent 23 years at the EPA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory in Duluth, Minn., where he served as director from 1987 to 1995.

 

“The Great Lakes form our nation’s fourth seacoast, and the largest source of fresh water in the world.  Any national ocean policy must take into account the unique ecology of the lakes,” Oberstar said.  “I have known Gil Veith for many years and no one is better qualified to bring the Great Lakes perspective to this commission.”

 

The Oceans Act of 2000 requires the creation of a 16-member Commission on Ocean Policy.  The commission will study the important environmental and resource issues associated with the oceans and the Great Lakes and make recommendations to Congress for the development of a national ocean policy.

 

Under the Act, the President must make final appointments by April 20.  Nominations are also being submitted by the Speaker of the House and the Majority and Minority Leaders of the Senate.

 

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