Innovative Approaches for Engaging Critical Audiences in Local Drinking Water Protection Programs
Presenters: Lisa Kahn and Jori Copeland, U.S. EPA, Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water; Hamilton Brown, National Center for Small Communities; Susan Seacrest, The Groundwater Foundation; and Paul Schwartz, Clean Water Fund

EPA's cooperative relationships with its partner organizations are vital in increasing protection of local drinking-water supplies. In this session, three non-profit panel experts will describe their work, funded by EPA cooperative agreements, to inform and engage their members and constituents across the country in local drinking water protection activities. The audiences for these groups include local officials, community organizations and activists, environmental/conservation organizations, and vulnerable populations. Panelists will describe techniques to reach and involve their audiences, the local involvement activities they support, how they provide critical technical support, and how they train their members to become involved in important decision-making.

Working with the Union Hills Community Group to Determine Health Problems Associated with this Arizona Neighborhood
Presenters: Michael Fernandez and Alexandra Degher, Western Region Hazardous Substance Research Center, Oregon State University

Residents of the Union Hills neighborhood were reporting health problems to the Arizona government for years. However, a risk assessment failed to identify the source of residents' reported symptoms, and the government closed the case due to lack of scientific proof. Residents felt they were still suffering from adverse health effects, so they requested aid from the Technical Outreach Services for Communities (TOSC) Center in July 1997. TOSC reevaluated the risk assessment and administered a health survey to the residents to determine if there were any patterns in reported health symptoms. This presentation briefly describes the case background, risk assessment, health survey, and resulting TOSC follow-up actions.

Psychosocial Stress in Communities Affected by Hazardous Wastes and How to Deal with It
Presenters: Pamela Tucker, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry; Pat Seppi, U.S. EPA Region 2; and Jan Shubert, U.S. EPA, Office of Emergency and Remedial Response

The scientific literature and personal experiences suggest that living near hazardous waste sites can cause increased levels of psychosocial stress and other symptoms in individuals and families. Addressing this stress is both important and complex for the government staff members who work with the citizens at these sites. This session will use lecture and interactive discussion to examine methods of assessing community concerns and stress levels—and options for responding to them. It will present illustrative case studies based on experiences at hazardous waste sites, and describe a new pilot project to address chronic stress in long-term hazardous waste communities.

Partnering for Sustainable Communities—Sharing Our Experiences
Presenters: Mary Nelson, Bethel New Life, Inc.; and Norm Peterson, Argonne National Laboratory

Bethel New Life, a west-side Chicago community development corporation with a national reputation for cutting-edge initiatives, has partnered with Argonne National Laboratory for technology transfer for a healthier, sustainable community. The workshop will share the five years of experience in developing initiatives that turn the environmental problems of its brownfield industrial/residential community into opportunities for jobs and development. This shift from problems to opportunities came about through the industrial triage initiative, environmental careers program, small business development, creating community jobs, community investment, an environmentally clean community, and energy-efficient housing. The presenters will share lessons learned and give a demonstration of the industrial triage virtual tool.

Three Rural Watersheds: Tailoring Three Unique Community Involvement Strategies
Presenters: Robert Fenemore, Greg McCabe, Joe Cothern, and Kathleen Fenton, U.S. EPA Region 7

Learn about the processes and tools used to obtain the views and values of a large, rural, low-population, agricultural-dominated watershed "community." This session will consist of three separate presentations of Community-Based Environmental Protection watershed projects in Region 7. The three project leaders will give a brief overview of the work and the process chosen including tools used, external partners engaged, and projects accomplished. After the presentations, a facilitated question-and-answer session will highlight the similarities and differences of the three projects. The session will emphasize the successes and lessons learned from each project and the importance of tailoring a process to the specific community.

Master Watershed Steward Program
Presenter: Lana Thomas Cruse, Washington State University Cooperative Extension

The Master Watershed Steward Program trains community members to educate others to become involved in local watershed issues. The program promotes critical thinking by providing factual information from diverse perspectives; builds understanding of the complexity of watershed issues; develops local interest in the watershed; builds partnerships in the community for solving problems; and identifies and prepares for Master Watershed Steward projects. A nine-member team representing Washington State University, state agencies, Yakima Indian Nation, and local citizens designed the Master Watershed Steward Program. Participants receive 46 hours of training in all aspects of the watershed, and then commit to 50 hours of volunteer time in the community educating others and/or completing projects.

Sustainability: Reaching the Vision Through Community Involvement
Presenter: Ron Thomas, Sustainable Racine, Inc.

Sustainable Racine applied methods moving from involvement to visioning to action with a "multi-community" spanning five jurisdictions. Sustainable Racine began with a vision forum that engaged 3,000 citizens using open facilitated workshops at 24 community sites, then linked them and reached the whole community with an electronic town meeting. GIS analysis helped to graphically depict the issues and choices that emerged as a result of the process. These processes depend on a team of volunteers who have received a 40-hour professional training program on facilitation skills and involvement methods. A similar training is being planned on creating sustainability indicators.

Columbia Plateau Ag Initiative and the Wilke Farm: Changing the Face of Farming
Presenters: Karl Arne and Chris Feise, U.S. EPA Region 10; Tom Platt, Lincoln County Cooperative Extension; and Ed Adams, Washington State University—Spokane

The Columbia Plateau Ag Initiative (CPAI) is a successful EPA program fostering interagency cooperation with local communities to address agricultural environmental issues in the Columbia Basin of Washington. EPA has used new community development skills to integrate and fund the work of local partners in five counties implementing innovative practices to solve environmental problems in irrigated and dryland farming systems. One project, the Wilke Farm, has brought a community together to change farming practices through no-till seeding systems and the elimination of fallow fields through annual cropping. EPA's participation helped increase community involvement in planning, demonstrating, and learning about these new farming practices. CPAI has fostered positive exchanges of ideas and knowledge between agricultural communities and EPA.

Engaging the Enraged: Citizen Participation Redeemed
Presenter: Anne Perry Moore and Julie Swiler, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency

You've inherited a Superfund community involvement disaster. How do you turn it around? Learn how to convert angry, mistrustful citizens into a proactive, highly functioning team. Key elements include: employing constructive and thoughtful techniques, an about-face approach, taking community relations beyond merely fulfilling requirements, raising expectations, recruiting recognized technical experts and community leaders, one-on-one interviews within the community, employing visual listening tools, creating a technical subcommittee, adding an outside facilitator, and honoring local expectations and needs. The result—meaningful citizen involvement and quicker site remediation.

Community Assessment Workshop Series
Presenters: Claudia Walters, Office of Research and Development; and Hank Topper, U.S. EPA, Office of Pollution, Prevention and Toxics

EPA's Office of Research and Development is holding a series of workshops to address "new directions" in EPA science. In this session, the information gathered during the first two workshops in the "Community Assessment" series will be presented to the audience for their reaction. The first workshop identified the questions the community is asking in assessing risk to the public from the environment. The second workshop evaluated methods currently in use for addressing risk questions raised in community assessments and highlighted areas where no satisfactory tools currently exist. The audience will be engaged to offer their ideas and experience on the information gathered and to make suggestions for future workshops.

• Keynote: "The Image Profile of an Effective Communicator: What's Your PIC?"
  Ida Wiedel, Personally and Professionally Speaking
• Closing Ceremonies

Field Trip: Hillsdale Lake Community-Based Environmental Protection—An On-the-ground Learning Experience
Presenters: Norm Crisp, U.S. EPA, Region 7; and Janet McRae, Hillsdale Water Quality Project

Face-to-face interaction facilitates the open discussion of topics important to making a locally initiated and led watershed planning project successful. This session will consist of a site tour of the Hillsdale Lake Water Quality Project area. The tour will provide participants with an opportunity to meet directly with watershed residents, project volunteers, project professional staff and EPA advisory staff. The project staff and watershed residents will discuss how institutional barriers have been approached and overcome; the frustrations of trying to develop long-term funding strategies and secure operating capital; and convince skeptical landowners and governmental entities of the project's benefits.

Media Relations Training
Presenters: Helen DuTeau, U.S. EPA, Office of Emergency and Remedial Response; and Bill Landis and Dale Armstrong, U.S. EPA Region 7

Every day, EPA employees across the country are put in the delicate situation of having to respond to a reporter's questions. This session is a dynamic and interactive workshop geared toward all EPA and other government employees who are responsible for conducting media interviews. This workshop will provide participants with the opportunity to practice interview skills using exercises.

Public Involvement with a Cross-Cultural Focus (Part 1 of 2) CANCELLED
Presenter: Rosemary Romero, Western Network

Working with the public can often be challenging for individuals within agencies. At best, communications are clear and projects are understood by the public. At worst, the public sees the agency as the enemy and efforts to resolve conflict and create understanding appear hopeless. This workshop will focus on developing public involvement skills for agency personnel working in cross-cultural settings.

Crisis Communications (Part 1 of 2)
Presenters: Ginny Narsete, U.S. EPA, Region 5; Ron Davison, Marasco Newton Group; Mark Mjoness, U.S. EPA Office of Emergency and Remedial Response; Gene Maestas, U.S. Coast Guard; Dayna Gaut, TAPP Information Services; and Stephen Mikkelson, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency

This course is designed to provide practical advice and real-world tools that can be used by CICs and other personnel charged with crisis communication responsibilities during response and remedial events. The course uses an interactive process to provide training on how to initiate crisis communication activities during the first 72 hours of an incident response and how to organize and implement a Joint Information Center to support the overall response effort. The information being provided applies to all types of Federal response efforts. Course instructors will provide real-world examples of crisis communications during actual incidents. The first half of the course consists of discussions and activities designed to teach basic crisis communication principles, structures, and processes. The second half of the course consists of a exercise in which participants can, in a collaborative manner, apply the lessons and concepts using realistic scenarios.

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