Our suggested question is, "how do we define and evaluate success?"
We might define success as the ability to communicate, and evaluate success as both the ability to measure environmental trends and the use of information to prevent pollution problems.
Success is when "the public" (regulators, librarians, businesses, citizens, elected officials, employees, health professionals, emergency responders, etc.) can readily obtain through both on-line and local libraries information to answer basic questions.
When people can answer these and other basic questions thruough a unified and user-friendly national system, including the reports submitted to EPA, states, tribes, and local governments under federal reporting requirements -- that will be a success.
Here are a few basic questions:
o What regulated facilities, non-point pollution sources, and ambient environmental conditions are in a given zip code, city, watershed, or state (etc.)?
o What cleaner technologies exist for firms in a particular industry?
o What are the hazards -- known and unknown -- of a given chemical?
o What government regulations cover a particular facility and address a particular problem?
o What pollutants are released from a particular source, and how have releases changed over time?
We define success as when people take basic information and use it to prevent and respond to pollution and environmental hazards.
Paul Orum
Working Group on Community Right-to-Know
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