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July 2017 • SMT Magazine 43 tion for Surface Finishing (NASF). We do a leg- islative day once a year too. In all the years that I've come, it's nice now that people here are talking about manufacturing. Goldman: Do you feel that is new this year? Revier: Well, it's been coming, but now of course they're embracing it big time. We saw that cer- tainly with having a chance to meet with Scott Pruitt, the head of the EPA. He's somebody we can talk to now. Goldman: He's asking you for feedback, right? That must be new. Revier: Absolutely. Before that, I can tell you, we're in a specialty chemical industry, so we know those guys quite well. When you talked about chemicals with those people in the past, they were not on the favorable side of things. You can see from Scott's point of view, he's very open to working with manufacturing, with in- dustry, and really understanding what it is that we're trying to do and accomplish. One of those things that are holding us back is regula- tion and over-regulation. The problem is that so many of the people out there, regulators, me- dia, etc., have no clue what we do and that we know how to handle the chemicals we use. Goldman: We already have good regulations, but they keep upping the game. Revier: Right, and if you look at our industry as a whole, near and dear to our heart is chem- ical processing, whether it's the copper plating process, electroless copper plating, ENIG, EN- EPIG, and everything related to that; we're in the chemical processing business. We're high- ly regulated on many different fronts, not just by the EPA. We're now involved with the DEA because of the sodium hypophosphite issues, which just kind of drives us crazy. Mainly be- cause what we're selling is a liquid containing the sodium hypo, and they're all about the hypo material itself. We're not selling the raw hypo. We're selling a mix- ture. In their infinite wisdom, when I talk to senior level peo- ple at the DEA, they agree with us that we should not have been included in the 2011 revamp of the ruling, but then they laugh and say, "But you are. Live with it." Goldman: They don't quite understand the ad- ditional burden. That means nothing to them. Revier: No, they have no idea. I have to register all my facilities. If I have a warehouse (which has the product containing hypo), and no mat- ter where in the U.S., I have to register with the DEA, get permits, and pay an annual fee. Ah, it's always about the money, right? Then, of course, we have TSCA rules and we have OSHA regulations, but it seems to me now, though, we have an administration that is willing to real- ly talk about these things and how to possibly change things. How can we relieve some of the unnecessary burden on industry? Goldman: Hopefully how we can improve it, without compromising any of the important things. Revier: We always say, "Look, our families live in these areas. We've got children. We've got grandchildren, and we want to be able to pro- vide clean air or clean water." I mean, it's just absurd when they look at it and say, "Oh, you guys, you just want to roll things back and pol- lute." We've made such great progress, and a lot of the things that have happened on wastewa- ter treatment and cleaning up the environment is because our industry has been very proactive in that stance. Goldman: I was really impressed by Kim Ford this morning. She was so enthusiastic. IMPACT Interviews Tony Revier