Summary: Dialogue Day 9

[Katherine Carlitz <kcarlitz+@pitt.edu>]

Dialogue Day 9 Agenda: States, Tribes and Local Governments

Dialogue moderator Bob Carlitz and Host Mark Flory, from 
the State and Local Government Team in EPA's Office of 
Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations, welcomed 
participants and introduced today's topic: States, Tribes 
and Local Governments. Bob Carlitz pointed out that states, 
Tribes and local governments are not only affected by EPA's 
decisions; they are also co-regulators in the environmental 
field.  He invited comments on this dual role in the 
following areas:
  * States best practice
  * Tribal government best practice
  * Local government best practice
  * Involvement in delegated programs
  * Supporting local government's participation
Mark Flory's work ten years ago in the Region 9 San 
Francisco office introduced him to the issues involved in 
co-regulation, and the greatest challenges he faced at that 
time were identifying and involving the "public" relevant 
to a given issue, and then getting them involved and 
keeping them from feeling overwhelmed by floods of data.  
He invited comments on whether these are still problems for 
those working with state and local
agencies today.

* Facilitator Laurie Maak announced that the Dialogue has 
1145 people registered as participants and observers 
worldwide, and supplied the URL for the map showing 
geographical distribution in the US (with apologies to 
Alaska and Hawaii, not yet included).

* Panelists introduced themselves and described their work 
and their concerns.  Hamilton Brown, from EPA's Small Town 
Task Force, finds that small communities often feel they 
are being made to follow requirements that were established 
with the resources of major metropolitan areas in mind.  
The indigenous communities that Patricia Cochran (Inupiat 
herself) works with in Alaska have found their subsistence 
food contaminated, and her organization works with EPA not 
only to gather information about the contamination, but to 
document indigenous perceptions of the problem.  Mary 
Hamel, from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, 
has gathered information on which co-regulatory practices 
have worked in her state (wellhead protection worked best 
when all affected local jurisdictions cooperated).  Jim 
Marxen, with the California Department of Toxic Substances 
Control, says that community assessment provides a valuable 
tool in regulatory practice, but only if local communities 
are involved early in the process.  Romel Pascual, 
Assistant Secretary for Environmental Justice at California 
EPA, also stressed early involvement of all affected 
localities.  Linda Giannelli Pratt, program manager of the 
Community Sustainability Program for the City of San Diego, 
notes that environmental aims at all levels of government 
are basically the same, and hopes that better communication 
will make it easier for the different levels to work 
together. 

* A number of messages continued to focus on effective ways 
to involve the public, rather than on interagency dynamics.  
New Hampshire, for example, has an intern working on 
environmental justice for 12 weeks, and he wrote requesting 
suggestions for inexpensive, short-term projects.  As in 
yesterday's discussion, EPA was asked how it will reach 
members of the public who need a longer period of education 
to understand regulatory issues.

* Fred Stoss provides the URL of a database of subnational 
federal agencies, state and Tribal environmental agencies, 
and municipal health sites, compiled by the National 
Council for Science and the Environment.

STATES BEST PRACTICE
* Co-regulation can be difficult.  States are often at a 
disadvantage, in that permitting processes don't let states 
consider issues that are important to the public.  A co-
regulatory opportunity was lost when lead standards were 
revised: state lead agencies were excluded from early 
planning for the new regulations. 

* Nevertheless successes were reported.  Eileen Ringnalda 
responded to Hamel by offering communication techniques she 
has learned working in road design.  In state hearings on 
new power plants in Illinois, the public is allowed to ask 
questions about many other issues as well, since the 
hearing is usually their only chance to talk to state 
officials.  California EPA has been successful in bringing 
USEPA and local air quality management people together for 
training.  Bill Crews describes the National Environmental 
Performance Partnership System in the EPA Office of 
Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations.

TRIBAL GOVERNMENT BEST PRACTICE
* Postings about apparent "special treatment" for Tribes 
prompted another reminder that Tribes are in fact sovereign 
nations and as such are not treated simply like segments of 
the larger US population.  As in an earlier discussion, it 
was pointed out that Tribes are not identical; there is no 
one practice appropriate to all Tribes.

* Postings in this area were primarily positive. EPA's 
General Assistance Program works to develop Tribal 
environmental protection programs.  The result is a group 
of Tribal environmental specialists, who can aid in 
communication.  California gives "Harmony Workshops" to 
teach appropriate communications to non-Tribal people who 
will be working with Tribes.  Dean Suagee offers specific 
advice on what statutes to use in protecting Tribal sites.  

LOCAL GOVERNMENT BEST PRACTICE
* Panelist Linda Giannelli Pratt summarizes a draft 
federalism executive order prepared by her Local Government 
Advisory Council, which states that "Issues not national in 
scope or significance are most appropriately addressed by 
the level of government closest to the people."  This draft 
order calls for accountability and coordination, and-again 
echoing a theme heard throughout the Dialogue-calls for 
early and frequent consultation with local governments.

* Panelist Hamilton Brown points out that EPA must reach 
out to local governments when new rules will affect local 
finances.  Panelist Mary Hamel notes that Wisconsin gives 
out environmental loans, and conducts workshops to teach 
local governments how to apply for them.  She suggests that 
EPA identify national groups representing different levels 
of local government, to offer information but also to get 
feedback on how best to approach local governments.

DELEGATED PROGRAMS
* EPA has a tendency to separate state and Tribal delegated 
programs, and the suggestion was made to bring the programs 
together when they concern areas where states and Tribes 
are both impacted.

Each day's summary is intended to capture the essence of 
the conversation.  While this summary contains the 
highlights of participants' comments relating to today's 
topic, more comprehensive information may be found in the 
individual postings.  This and all daily summaries are 
available from the agenda page of the website

http://www.info-ren.org/network-democracy/epa-pip/join/agenda.shtml

The dialogue on today's topic is available at

http://www.info-ren.org/network-democracy/epa-pip/archive/date-h1.html

Katherine Carlitz
Reporter