Outreach - ahead of the curve
- Archived: Thu, 12 Jul 2001 14:50:00 -0400 (EDT)
- Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2001 13:01:50 -0400 (EDT)
- From: Marianne Thaeler <mthaeler@aol.com>
- Subject: Outreach - ahead of the curve
- X-topic: Outreach
Sorry I missed yesterday's discussion. I'm back! Read yesterday's summary.
Outreach - I serve on a City Environmental Quality Advisory Board. It was formed to get-ahead-of-the-curve. The City was developing an Industrial Park, the public wanted to be sure the industries to locate here would not present environmental problems and would not require large volumes of water.
The Board was created to interview prospective tenants, ask the hard questions, and allow the public to listen-in, learn, ask questions, and the Board makes recommendations. The State regulatory agencies found these meetings very informative for their work, permiting, etc.
Bottom line, we act as a trusted ombudsmen. Lessons learned: treat the public as wanting to know the problems, the alternative solutions, and the pros and cons. If EPA took the initiative, instead of outreaching for reactions, it would be more successful.
This kind of outreach works.
Marianne Thaeler
City of Las Cruces, New Mexico,
Environmental Quality Advisory Committee
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