RE: useful/difficult features of web sites, information that should be on line

[Peter Schlesinger <pschles@starband.net>]

Yes, word of mouth is very good. The trouble is (as I have been saying already) that EPA hasn't been doing the saying. It has been relying on the responsible parties to do the educating. EPA public involvement policies should be leading the public through the learning process. EPA or its contractor should be making the community presentations, telling us what are the contaminants, what can they do, what are the exposure pathways, who are likely candidates for exposure, etc. EPA can and should also do this online in an organized manner to bring the public up to a level of knowledge better than they have today. EPA has all of this information in its databases; its just a matter of purposefully displaying in a useful manner to educate the public. If you bury it in such a way as to make it hard for the public to find it, then the public isn't educated, doesn't become informed, won't look for it, won't become further involved, and become apathetic.