RE: When EPA is non-responsive

[Alma Lowry <alowry@sugarlaw.org>]

This message brings up a very important point.  Technical assistance is not just necessary to help communities understand the risks that a CERCLA site or a polluting facility creates -- it's also necessary to help folks translate what they know because they live near the facility into technical issues.  The type of smells, the timing of odors, the occurence of disease or simply nose, throat or lung irritation -- all of that can translate into important technical information about a facility's operations and the risks that it creates for a community.  Being able to identify what these "symptoms" mean can give a community a lot of power.  So, as much as I support written self-help manuals, etc., having technical experts available for consultation (whether those experts are credible EPA personnel, university professors or graduate students) is absolutely necessary to effective citizen participation.