Public Hearings

[Verena Owen <Baumling@aol.com>]

Good morning,
My experience with public participation is with the Illinois EPA. Over the last year, IEPA has been holding air hearings for power plant proposals for both major and minor sources.We have over 60 new plants in various stages of construction/permitting. I have evolved from a novice public participant to an activist and have attended a dozen or so public hearings. My interest in participating in this dialog is fueled mostly by the frustration I experienced with the process.
 
I read the draft policy and was immendiately struck by the lack of any "customer satisfaction" assessment.

Please let me illustrate the need for accountability by some "tales from the trenches".

The permitting agency held public hearings without giving consideration to local religious, cultural, or political sensitivities. 

In a community where the public interested in the hearing consisted for the most part of a religous group, the IEPA held the hearing on Maudy Thursday, the night of the traditional seder meal. In a community where a power plant proposal was a concern to many of the surrounding communities, the IEPA held the hearing on the night of the monthly/biweekly Board of Trustee meetings preventing local elected officials to attend.

Although IEPA has an public notice website not all notices are posted and nobody knows who does the selection.

Meaningful public participation is often not possible because the information to participate that is provided to the public is incomplete.

Although they are minor permits, IEPA requires a comprehensive air model ISC 3 of the applicant. The results of the model and the information which existing sources were included were often left out of FOIA requests and public information dipositories.

One public notice identified the wrong property.

One public hearing dealt with a completely different set of turbines then were identified in the project summary.

The physical lay  out of the hearings are intimidating to a novice; with the agency personal sitting at the head table like judges.

At one hearing, the public had to literally stand in line to wait their turn to address the permitting agency, I waited for two hours.

One permit was issued the very day after closing of public comment without waiting for all the comments to arrive.

Responsiveness summaries are issued weeks after the permit was issued.

I would suggest for anyone who wants to involve the true public more in any kind of decision making proces  to attend a hearing and see how the public is treated.

There are many good and thoughtful suggestions in your draft policy but I am afraid not much will change if the mindset of the permitting agencies is not changed to see the public as an asset to the process and not an annoyance.