Briefly in the news

-- June Casagrande

A Newport Beach businessman with a long record in the environmental

field will begin his new job as administrator for the Environmental

Protection Agency’s Pacific Southeast Region on Monday.

Wayne Nastri, founder and president of the Newport Beach environmental

consulting firm Environmental Mediation Inc., was named to the post

earlier this month.

Nastri recently served on Cal/EPA’s Department of Toxic Substances

Control External Advisory Committee. He also served as pro bono

legislative director for the California Environmental Business Council

and was editor-in-chief of the National Assn. of Environmental

Professionals’ Environmental News.

Nastri will work in San Francisco, heading up the EPA’s Region 9,

which covers California, Nevada, Arizona, Hawaii and the Pacific Islands.

He has a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from UC Irvine and also

studied molecular genetics at Cal State Long Beach.