Stephanie Allen is a Level 4 SEE Enrollee for EPA Region 10 in Seattle, Washington.  She supports the Environmental Cleanup Office and the Risk Management Program (RMP) under section 112(r) of the Clean Air Act.  She is an RMP Inspector and works primarily with process safety issues related to facilities that have above a threshold quantity of regulated chemicals - either toxic or flammable.

Ms. Allen’s time is split between compliance assistance and field inspections. Compliance assistance tasks include the update/redesign of the Program’s website and editing the Chemical Emergency Prevention and Planning Newsletter (which is issued six times a year to the regulated community and has over 1100 subscribers).  Field inspections involve the preparation and selection of facilities based on risk and national priority factors, facility site visits, and report writing.  Ms. Allen enjoys the team of people within the Program and states “I am lucky to work with talented, helpful and fun people.”

Ms. Allen travels 5 to 6 weeks per year and greatly enjoys that aspect of the position.  The inspections have taken her mostly to Oregon and Washington but the area they cover includes Alaska and Idaho as well. She has also traveled to Washington DC, Denver, and New Orleans for program training.

A recent interesting inspection took place at a distribution center for a grocery store chain where she learned about many of the products stored in these large centers, including CWOG or "whole chickens without guts" which is used for in store rotisserie deli chicken.  Fortunately, she was only there to inspect the refrigeration system and not the chickens.  Other interesting inspections involved a manufacturer that produces silicon disks used for electronics and solar applications and wastewater treatment plants. “We see some interesting production facilities and meet the talented people making products and providing services that we all depend on,” says Ms. Allen.

Prior to joining the SEE Program, Ms. Allen worked in technical-biological research, quality control in a food processing plant, and as a wetland ecologist, “all my past positions required organizational and writing skills which help me track and plan the various aspects of this position.” Ms. Allen received a BS in food science from Washington State, and an MS in Urban Horticulture from the University of WA where she conducted a growth study using the compost Seattle produces from food and green waste.