Bias

[Dennis Caputo <dcaputo@QuestEHS.com>]

As I read some of the comments on this topic, I have noticed a bias toward online availability of information.  While this may seem obvious to those of us who are online daily in the normal conduct of our business, it is important to note that many rural Americans do not have ready access to the internet.  It is important that information be available to those who are potentially impacted by a facility regardless of their location (urban or rural).

We should also keep in mind the difference between information and data.  All to often we confuse information (knowledge) with data (facts) and offer those people a great deal of data (facts) with little real information (knowledge).

The goal of the agency should be to inform the potentially impacted population about the nature of the potential impacts and possible effects of impacts from the facility or site on them.

All documents destined to be read by non technical, non regulatory people should have a brief (2 page max.)and easy to understand executive summary.