Finding needed information on environmental web sites

[Pat.Eklund, Mayor and EPA employee <peklund@cmc.net>]

It is helpful when web sites provide access to the documents themselves.  Since environmental documents are hard to locate and expensive (if purchased through GPO, it makes alot of sense to have them available on web sites.  Just placing them on the web sites is not enough, though, because the public may not necessarily know which document would answer their question or deal with an issue that is of concern to them.  As regulators, we use a different language which is not generally understood by the layperson.  So, having some way to help lead the user to the specific document(s) that would address their issue would be ideal (e.g. Q & A, etc..).  

It is difficult for even a knowledgeable person to locate specific documents on the internet unless they know what question to ask or term to use.  That is why it is critical for the EPA and other federal agencies to make it easy to locate and access the needed information.

It would be ideal if the federal agencies could collaborate on posting documents and information about related subjects.  For example, if local governments and/or the public were interested in finding health information about pesticides or EMF's etc.. they currently have to go to separate web sites and do separate searches.  It would be ideal, if each agency could provide a link to the other federal agency that has information about a the same topic so that people could walk between the two.  Most people do not distinguish between federal government and state government.  So, it might make sense to intermingle links with state agencies too (if possible).  But, at least at the federal level there should be collaboration and links.

National and local resources do not seem to be linked effectively at this time.  But, federal agencies including EPA could embellish on the current efforts to describe the environmental quality/status within a certain area, to have links to the state agencies and local governments that could provide further information and possible action.

Possible good Regional models for web sites are:  ABAG (Association of Bay Area Governments).