RE: State roles in public participation

[Terry J. Harris <tjharris@abs.net>]

	As mere guidance, the EPA's proposed public participation policy isn't binding. So it ultimately rises only to the level of a suggestion, which does not require anyone in any agency to do anything. Many programs, especially delegated state programs in many states, have serious deficiencies in public participation, and deserve concentrated attention. Yet, the Policy offers no mechanism by which anything can be deployed other than having public involvement be "among the issues discussed" during the annual program reviews. Moreover, by allowing EPA assistant and associate administrators to "identify and address those activities and major decisions where application of this Draft Policy is appropriate" the Policy makes explicit that the not only are the suggestions not binding, they are discretionary. It isn't at all clear why the Policy would not be applicable to all normal agency decision-making.