Senior Toxics Reduction Planner (Environmental Planner 5)
Keeping Washington Clean and Evergreen
The HWTR Program enforces Washington's toxics laws, including the Dangerous Waste regulations that many businesses need to comply with. We also offer technical assistance to businesses to reduce or eliminate their use of hazardous chemicals, work to identify safer chemical alternatives, support the development of green chemistry, and test consumer products for toxic chemicals.
The Department of Ecology Hazardous Waste & Toxics Reduction (HWTR) Program is currently looking for a Senior Toxics Reduction Planner, located in our Headquarters Building in Lacey, WA.
This position is the designated lead project manager for implementation of the Safer Products for Washington program (SB 5135). This position will lead a multi-disciplinary team at Ecology to implement SB 5135 legislation and will be responsible for coordinating and overseeing future work on our statewide Chemical Action Plans (CAPs), including pre-CAP work on phthalates.
As an agency, we invest in our employees to create and sustain a working environment that encourages creative leadership, effective resource management, teamwork, professionalism, and accountability.
To learn more about The Department of Ecology, please visit our website at www.ecology.wa.gov. Check us out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or our blog.
Local efforts... Diverse people... Statewide impact
Duties
There is growing public health concerns from the use of everyday consumer products that contain chemicals of concern. In fact, the largest source of chemical pollution is not coming from point sources like smokestacks or sewer pipes, but from the combined slow and steady release of chemicals from consumer products.
The senior planner's priority work is to lead a multi-disciplinary team that is working to design and implement the safer products program, meet legislative deadlines, conduct research on priority chemicals and products, and engage with external stakeholders. As the lead project manager, this position will consult with the Program Manager on a regular basis. This work could be highly controversial due to adding of priority products that could be banned or restricted in Washington State. This position is the principal planning consultant that will convene a large number of interested parties including chemical manufacturers, nongovernmental organizations, local governments, tribes, and state or federal agencies.
This position coordinates extensively with the Program Manager on program policy development and legislative issues and reports to the Pollution Prevention and Regulatory Assistant Section Manager. The position will consult with the Budget Manager on fiscal notes, budget decision packages and program development to help secure ongoing funding support.
To support this work, the Senior Toxic's Reduction Planner:
- Is responsible for developing a detailed schedule and process that will be reviewed by the Program Manager to help ensure timely implementation and to coordinate with the agency's Executive Leadership Team as necessary. Ecology's Hazardous Waste and Toxics Reduction program will carry out Ecology's share of this work with support from other environmental programs, as needed, and the Department of Health.
- Will work with interested parties to identify priority chemicals and priority consumer products containing those chemicals, develop regulatory actions for those products, and adopt rules to codify those actions. This cycle will be repeated every five years.
The planner will meet with the Program Manager and report progress on the following areas:
- Coordination with WA Department of Health (DOH) and other stakeholders.
- Legislative updates and the opportunity to review and amend selected chemicals, products, and regulatory actions.
- Public engagement to review and comment on chemicals, products, regulatory actions and regulations.
- Requirements to be adopted in rule for priority chemicals and consumer products to the Children's Safe Products Act.
- Enforcement of restrictions on priority consumer products containing priority chemicals.
Chemical Action Plan Implementation - In addition to the Safer Products for Washington program, the planner will be coordinating with the Program Manager and Section Manager to implement the 2019- 2021 Biennium Budget Decision Package for Chemical Action Plan Implementation. This budget package provides funding for approximately five additional FTEs to develop and implement CAP recommendations, accelerate development, and implementation of future CAPs and CAP implementation monitoring.
Pre-CAP Scoping - The planner will be conducting pre-CAP activities to scope the possible next full CAP on Phthalates. There has been interest in starting a new CAP from DoH, TCP and the WQ program to address concerns with phthalate contamination.
NOTE: This position has been reposted. If you previously applied, you will need to resubmit your application in order to be considered.
This position is open until filled, with the initial screening on September 25, 2019. In order to be considered for the initial screening, please submit an application on or before September 24, 2019. The agency reserves the right to make an appointment any time after the initial screening date.
Please do NOT include your salary history. Wage/salary depends on qualifications or rules of promotion, if applicable.
Qualifications
Required Qualifications:
A Master's degree or above with major emphasis in environmental, natural resource planning, natural science, environmental science, environmental law, public administration with an environmental emphasis, or closely related field
AND
Five years of professional experience in toxics use reduction planning, human health water quality standards criteria planning, toxics cleanup program planning, or environmental health planning and related regulatory development, including rulemaking.
AND
At least three years of experience leading or facilitating major multi-disciplinary teams to address policy issues, regulations, projects, or implementation of new programs and laws.
Desired Qualifications:
- Experience with Safer Products for Washington (SB 5135), Chemical Action Plans RCW 177-333.
- Experience with environmental or health impacts of phthalates.
- Experience with toxics use legislation and/or program development.
- Demonstrated ability to convene and coordinate statewide rulemaking projects or major policy issues.
Supplemental Information
Application Instructions:
In order to be considered, please attach the following documents as attachments to your application:
- A cover letter describing how your experience, skills and abilities meet the required qualifications of this position.
- A resume.
Please do NOT include your salary history. Wage/salary depends on qualifications or rules of promotion, if applicable.
Please complete the applicant profile when applying for this position. Or you may paste the text of your resume within the profile's resume text field.
Please read the supplemental questions carefully and answer completely. Incomplete responses, including "please see resume" may disqualify you from further consideration.
Department of Ecology employees, please make sure to answer the agency-wide questions regarding permanent status as a classified employee within the Washington General Service or Washington Management Service. Do not forget to select Department of Ecology as a response to question 2, and type your personnel ID number for question 3. If you are not sure of your status or do not know your personnel ID number, please contact Human Resources.
If you are reading this announcement in print format, please visit www.careers.wa.gov to access the online recruitment system. Click on "Look for Jobs" and select Dept. of Ecology under the "Department" search list. Click "Apply Search."
Other Information:
If you need assistance applying for this job, please e-mail careers@ecy.wa.gov. Please do not send an email to this address to follow-up the status of your application. You can view the latest status of your application on your profile's main page.
If you have specific questions about the position, please email Ken Zarker at: Ken.Zarker@ECY.WA.GOV. Please do not contact Ken to inquire about the status of your application.
The act of submitting application materials electronically is considered affirmation that the information is complete and truthful. The state may verify this information and any untruthful or misleading answers are cause for rejection of your application or dismissal if employed.
This is a position covered by a bargaining unit for which the Washington Federation of State Employees (WFSE) is the exclusive representative.
The Washington State Department of Ecology is an equal opportunity employer. We strive to create a working environment that includes and respects cultural, racial, ethnic, sexual orientation and gender identity diversity. Women, racial and ethnic minorities, persons of disability, persons over 40 years of age, veterans or people with military status, and people of all sexual orientations and gender identities are encouraged to apply. Persons needing accommodation in the application/testing process or this job announcement in an alternative format may call (360) 407-6186. Applicants who are deaf or hard of hearing may call the Washington Relay Service by dialing 7-1-1 or 1-800-833-6388.