Present:
Syed Ali, State Water Resources Control Board
Richard Bode, California Air Resources Board
Dan Chang, UC Davis
Arthur Fong, IBM
Jackie Hale, TSR&TP Administrative Assistant
Tobi Jones, California Department of Pesticide Regulation
John Knezovich, TSR&TP Director
Bruce LaBelle, Department of Toxic Substances Control
Howard Levenson, California Integrated Waste Management Board
Steve Macaulay, California Urban Water Agencies
Marion Miller, UC TSR&TP Associate Director
Cathie Magowan, UCOP Office of Research
Lisa Stevenson, TSR&TP Program Manager
Leslie Stewart, League of Women Voters
Mika Pringle Tolson, TSR&TP Technical Support Coordinator
Rebecca Verity, UCOP Office of Research
Kip Wiley, CA Senate Office of Research

Not Present:
Martin Bloes, Geomatrix Consultants
Steve Book, Department of Health Services
Tom Gelzleichter, Genentech
Suzanne Paulson, TSR&TP Associate Director
Shankar Prasad, Cal/EPA
Winona Victery, US EPA Region 9
Zach Wong, Chevron Texaco Energy Technology Company

The Spring Meeting of the TSR&TP Advisory Committee was called to order at 10:11 a.m. April 4, 2006 by committee chair Steve Macaulay.

Introductions and Approval of Minutes. Steve Macaulay welcomed the Advisory Committee and asked everyone to introduce themselves. John Knezovich thanked new member Howard Levenson for attending the meeting. Macaulay moved that the Fall 2005 minutes be approved noting the correction of Syed Ali’s name and the committee was in agreement.

TSR&TP 5 Year Review. John Knezovich believes the reviews will be conducted in 2007. There is a lot of pressure from the Academic Senate for the Office of the President to change the 15-year cycle to a 5-year cycle to free up funding for new opportunities.

Director’s Office Report. Knezovich explained that a sub-committee of the Executive Committee held a special strategic planning meeting in January to discuss how to improve the program. Action items are increasing our visibility by developing a directory of toxics expertise. Also recommended was the Best Publication. Both will be posted on our website shortly.

Knezovich talked about the proposals received from the 3 categories: fellowships, collaborative, and new investigator grants. He commented that we received proposals from 9 out of the 10 campuses. Two of the proposals were for new Lead Campus Components. The first from Dan Schlenk at UCR focuses on the suite of toxic chemicals that result from farm animals. Knezovich asked Macaulay to review this proposal again and other committee members to volunteer to review and provide feedback. Macaulay agreed and Syed Ali and Kip Wiley also volunteered. The other lead campus proposal concerns toxicology of nanomaterials from Andre Nel at UCLA. Art Fong and Bruce LaBelle volunteered. Knezovich requested reviews be submitted by April 25th.

Knezovich said the idea of internships was raised at the Fall 2005 AC meeting and favorably received. Zach Wong has been working with us on posting an internship and Marion Miller has received some leads from industry. He noted the EC is generally favorable, but senses skepticism from members because it’s not an academic activity. TSR&TP will assemble a database of groups interested. Magowan said the UC Sacramento Center has an internship program and suggested contacting the director Gary Dimsky.

Knezovich informed the committee that Steve Macaulay nominated the TSR&TP program for an EPA Region 9 Environment Excellence Award. We’re supposed to be notified this month.

2006 Symposium. Knezovich said this year’s theme is the intersection of science and policy. The speakers will be Dick Jackson on Friday night and 2 students and 3 faculty on Saturday. He noted David Eastmond will be talking about his experience as a science advisor to the Department of State.

UCOP Report. Rebecca Verity was introduced. She is handling the Cal EPA peer review conflict of interest process as well as working as a general science program officer for UCOP. She has a background with TSR&TP. She was funded in the Coastal Tox program at UCSD.

Cathie Macgowan reported that there was a small temporary cut to this year’s budget, but the Office of Research was able to absorb it.She stated there is interest on the part of the academic senate on how UC funds MRUs. Next month is the first meeting of the MRU work group. MRUs will have new working guidelines in September. Knezovich commented that the TSR&TP is a grants MRU and do not have the ability to be self-supporting and hopes that will be considered when coming up with new rules.

There was a discussion regarding the Green Chemistry Report written by Mike Wilson from UC Berkeley. Art Fong said people were referencing it as the UC Report and wanted to know if it represents UC policy. He indicated that information regarding industry is quite dated. Magowan said this report was managed through UC California Policy Research Center, but does not represent UC. LaBelle was asked to distribute his notes to the AC from the upcoming CICC meeting on this issue. Knezovich said TSR&TP will send out the pdf version of this report by email to the entire committee.

How Can UC Better Assist. Steve Macaulay said the water businesses are developing new lab techniques to deal with contaminants of concern and studies are being done with the results being released in the fall. Part of the study is also looking at contributions of water supply, food and at human health impacts. He will send the report around to the AC.
Richard Bode said there is growth in the trade of what comes through the ports at Long Beach (~60% of the nations trade comes through the LA-Long Beach ports). The ARB is looking at how to respond and shore up the infrastructure to alleviate future problems. They are also looking at how to reduce emissions and the health impacts of emissions from the port traffic.

Art Fong attended the CA energy policy symposium where John Warner of the Univ. of Massachusetts Center for Green Chemistry mentioned the problems with the study and use of toxic products is that there are no synthetic chemistry programs in the country that require graduate students to take toxicology courses. Fong asked if that would be a mission for this group to encourage chemistry programs to require toxicology courses and if TSR&TP could help integrate toxicology into the training programs of chemistry.

Bruce LaBelle said the areas of interest are PBT Dioxins, flame retardants - where they come from and who has regulatory jurisdiction? How does DTSC address this? DTSC looking into new regulations from Europe, especially with e-waste.

Wiley said concerns are goods movement from a health point of view, transportation point of view and more recently the security point of view. Others include groundwater nitrate contamination from historical fertilizer application and the movement of confined animal populations. He feels soon these farm operations will need to have treatment facilities. The senate has been asked to provide training for staff members. Wiley said it helps when the legislators and their staff have more scientific background for the current issues.

Discussion regarding the need to have well-briefed legislators and the opportunities for UC faculty to provide scientific briefings and training.

Leslie Stewart was also concerned about goods movement and air quality, especially on the environmental justice level. Alternatives to diesel, reducing use of diesel, powering ships in port by electricity rather than diesel are part of the statewide and local efforts.

Tobi Jones said the fate of pyrethroid pesticides is an important issue and raises the question of whether they move through wastewater treatment. All Cal EPA agencies have embarked on pilot projects with environmental justice. They are measuring pesticides in air over a year’s period in a town outside of Fresno (Parlier). They want to look at mixtures of substances beyond pesticides and are interested in working with the UC Kearney field station.

Syed Ali said the science and policy report on Cal EPA website was peer-reviewed by UC. Ali said UC Ag & Natural Resources Center is putting together a workshop in Woodland on April 26-27. He will send the link to the workshop to the Director’s Office.

BROKE FOR LUNCH 12:15 PM and reconvened at 1:00 PM

Knezovich spoke about the research needs recommended by the committee today and how this committee has a real impact. He said he would like the program to be more proactive with engaging people particularly in Sacramento and to be a stronger force in educating the legislators.

Knezovich talked about the TSR&TP responsiveness to research needs. He wants feedback on the balance between centers of excellence (lead campuses), student-driven proposals, new investigator, and collaborative grants. He would like input from the committee on what they’d like to see in a new lead campus. He asked the ad hoc reviewers of the current LC proposals to pay particular attention to the teaching components of these programs.

A discussion began on groups not represented on the Advisory Committee. Recommendations for public interest, agriculture, energy, a farmer or farm worker, environmental justice, transportation and development. The committee can send specific (names) recommendations to Knezovich by the end of April.

Old and New Business.
The committee will rely on Stevenson to come up with possible dates for next meeting. Macaulay suggested having two speakers for the Fall meeting. Knezovich recommended the PI of the new lead campus for one. Macaulay suggested we ask Shankar Prasad again to do his presentation..

Meeting adjourned at 1:30 p.m.

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