RE: Introduction

[Michael Glaab <michaelglaab@worldnet.att.net>]

Hello :

Thank you for the explanations and the references to the FACA website.

The advisory committee concept is very interesting. It has much merit as a division or agency level means of providing decision makers with an additional set of perspectives or even decision options which the standard staffs might normally not provide. 

However, I was surprised to read in the PDF file which you recommended that although the amount of Tier 1 advisory comm. meetings has increased there had been significant decreases in 1999 of the amount of Tier 1 and Tier 2 individuals involved and an approximately 25% decrease in overall funding. I hope that this concept will receive an appropriate level of support.

In addition, I noted that your advisory committees had assisted in the development of EPA enforcement guidance related to sanitary sewer overflows due to storm water. This is especially
noteworthy to me precisely because I had often been tasked with assessing the sewage and storm water design plans of proposed housing developments that were being evaluated by my municipality's environmental commission. It was my observation that too often the proposed surge tank for a sewage treatment plant tends to be woefully and irresponsibly undersized. To reduce cost and the allocation of space the significance of real time variations in sewage flow rate due to storms and differences in the water consumption rate of the housing unit occupants' tends to be minimized. The inevitable consequence is that these undersized surge tanks can inevitably be expected to
experience moments when they are incapable of accommodating the actual sewage inflow. As a result, either the sewage processing rate will be increased and the sewage may be improperly processed or the excess sewage may even be surreptitiously dumped in an inappropriate location.  

Would the participants in this dialogue be considered Tier 3 advisors?

Good luck!

Michael