Trying to monitor this dialogue has been a monumental task. There are a lot of good ideas and thoughts out there. A few observations, from someone who knows EPA well and has been involved in public participation at the state and local level:
1. EPA can't be all things to all people. Concentrate on what you do best and on where you can achieve the greatest impact. It's unlikely that any one website will provide all the environmental information that people need. In the compliance assistance area, EPA decided that others were better situated to provide compliance assistance to the regulated community. EPA has defined its role to provide national clearinghouses and tools. Similarly, in the information arena, EPA may not be the best agency situated to provide information that is usable at the local level. Instead, perhaps EPA should focus on the accuracy of its information and giving states, organizations and communities tools for accessing and understanding that information.
2. EPA should focus on providing accurate, reliable, timely national data that is presented in context. When data from different states or locations are not comparable, make sure it's clear -- post a warning against making direct comparisons, if necessary.
3. Among the background materials for this dialogue is a survey of citizen knowledge of environmental issues. It clearly indicated that there are a lot of environmental myths out there that people believe are true. I think EPA needs to ask, "Where do citizens get most of their environmental information?" I would suggest it's usually not the library. If the accuracy of the most common sources is in question, EPA should work on ways of improving their accuracy, or giving citizens tools for understanding environmental claims and recognizing disinformation. In this age, I believe it's important to get lots of information to the public, but we also need to improve people's ability to understand scientific issues and recognize when information is coming from someone with a specific agenda.
4. Libraries are a wonderful resource in many communities. But they, too, should focus on what they do best. In most cases, this would involve providing meeting space, repositories for information, and offering assistance in research. I applaud those libraries that have created special environmental centers for information and learning, but let's not assume that every community wants or needs such a resource. Libraries need to serve the needs of their communities -- not the needs of EPA or any other outside party.
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