Tuesday, August 29
| 10:30 am - 12:00 pm Concurrent Sessions |
| Benefits of Third Party Outreach and
Continuous Community Involvement Presenters: Anna Harding, Oregon State University, and Michael Fernandez, Technical Outreach Services for Communities, Western Region Program This presentation updates on-going community involvement facilitated by the Western Region Technical Outreach Services for Communities (TOSC) program. The presentation concerns a release of dry cleaning solvents at the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem, Oregon, that has migrated off-site to neighboring residential areas. The agencies involved addressed this matter with little or no public involvement, resulting in distrust and anger within the community. The presentation will describe how TOSC helped the community participate in the site cleanup process, how TOSC obtained assistance from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), the progress made in addressing community concerns, and the advantages of third party involvement. |
| The Sustainable Lifestyle Campaign:
Enabling Communities to Achieve Environmental Results at the Neighborhood and
Household Level Presenter: David Gershon, Global Action Plan As EPA enters the next century, it faces a new set of challenges that are diffuse in nature and embedded in people's everyday patterns of living and working. These challenges include mobile source air pollution, non-point source water pollution, and overall consumption levels that, collectively, degrade the environmental quality of our planet. Global Action Plan's Sustainable Lifestyle Campaign is an effective model for empowering communities to voluntarily reduce their environmental impact by making lifestyle changes at the household level. This session will provide participants with the opportunity to intimately and interactively explore the application of Sustainable Lifestyle Campaigns to local government and EPA programs. |
| Clean Air For Kids: A Community
Partnership to Help Kids Breathe Easier! Presenters: Frank DiBiase, Tacoma-Pierce Health Department, and Janet Primomo, University of Washington-Tacoma Clean Air For Kids is a community-based partnership whose goal is to keep asthmatic children out of the hospital and to help them lead healthy, active lives. The partnership's approach integrates preventative medical care and environmental interventions along with increased access to services. The partnership involves members of the health care community, schools, community groups, and community members. Community volunteers are at the heart of the partnership and are given extensive training. Volunteers then visit families to assist with the reduction of environmental "triggers" in the home. This presentation will share ways to replicate the partnership's approach in almost any community. |
| Community Profiles: Models for Effective
Citizen Involvement in Environmental Protection Presenters: Andrew Bowen, Town of Middletown; Debbie Maner, North Carolina Rural Water Association; Ben F. Sanchez, La Jicarita Enterprise Community; and Jori Copeland, U.S. EPA, Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water (OGWDW) The national trend for environmental protection has shifted from a regulatory, top-down approach to a local grassroots, community involvement approach. The shift is true for drinking water protection with passage of the Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments of 1986 and 1996 involving wellhead protection and drinking water source protection. Since these programs are voluntary and protection is unregulated, finding ways to get communities energized and motivated to actively protect their drinking water can be a challenge. In this session, each panelist will present his or her unique experience as a local partner in building upon local talent to identify, remediate, and prevent contamination of drinking water. Several case studies will be presented. |
| Monroe County: Our Water, Our Way of
Life Presenters: Wendy L. Nero and Liz Barksdale, CH2M HILL Over a two-and-a-half-year period, technical experts, government officials, environmentalists, and the citizens of Monroe County worked in cooperation to develop a sanitary wastewater master plan that would be cost effective and protect the fragile environment of the Florida Keys. The many challenges that the project team faced included a limited public involvement budget, extremely diverse interest groups, the geographic distances between islands, and political turmoil. The public involvement program needed to reach a wide range of economic and social populations and the methods to achieve this were as diverse as the citizens of Monroe County. This session will address the challenges that the project team faced and how each challenge was addressed. An overview of the techniques that worked well and those that did not will be given. |
| Working Together for a More Informed
Public Presenters: James H. Davis, New Mexico Environment Department; Marvin Boatright, Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality; Jayne Fontenot and Cynthia P. Wolf, U.S. EPA Region 6 Panelists will present their experiences, both successes and obstacles, in developing partnerships between their various state activities/programs and federal partners, and will demonstrate how these partnerships have led to enhanced public awareness and more effective public participation. Marvin Boatright will discuss how, through the Community-Based Environmental Protection (CBEP) initiative, citizens were able to participate in a process to help identify and prioritize a list of environmental issues in their community and propose solutions. This process led to a more informed and active public, and more informed decision-making, as partners were able to integrate public input into environmental decision-making in several CBEP communities. James Davis will discuss how, through a partnership with federal agencies, he was able to strengthen the message his program had to deliver in both the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) and Nonpoint Source Program (NPS) areas. In New Mexico, cross-cultural impacts for community involvement came into play, as TMDLs involved Tribal jurisdictional issues and involved many more players. Specific highlights include the Middle Rio Grande TMDL, as several Pueblos were invited to participate and chose to play an active role in the development process. EPA Region 6 will discuss from the federal perspective how to build successful partnerships with state partners in many different programs and with competing priorities, by focusing on capacity building, technical assistance, and environmental education activities. The EPA Region 6 Outreach Team has formed successful partnerships under the community involvement umbrella with many Oklahoma entities and with its state partners in New Mexico. |
| 1:30 - 3:00 pm Concurrent Sessions |
| Developing Sustainable Local Partnerships
to Implement Environmental Community Action Projects Presenter: Caroline Alston, Project Learning Tree GreenWorks! Project Learning Tree's (PLT) environmental community action/service learning program provides PLT-trained educators and their students the opportunity to partner with local organizations to implement environmental community action projects that result in positive change within their community. Participants are equipped with the GreenWorks! Community Action Guide and starter grants to assist them with their project. The session will showcase GreenWorks! projects from rural, suburban, and urban communities around the country. Session participants will utilize the new GreenWorks! Community Action Guide to understand how they can implement a GreenWorks! project and create sustainable community partnerships. |
| Promoting Public Participation at
EPA Presenter: Bruce Engelbert, U.S. EPA, Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response Many people at EPA are working hard to provide meaningful opportunities for public participation in Agency activities. Too often, these efforts have low priority or are not recognized as critical components of effective environmental protection. This session is intended to enlist the help of all conference attendees in thinking about and generating ideas for: 1) changing the Agency's culture to make it more public participation friendly; 2) providing better focus on and support for public participation; 3) coordinating individual and program efforts more effectively; and 4) increasing public involvement in Agency planning and decision-making. Session results will be presented to EPA's Administrator. |
| The PCB Contaminated Community of
Anniston, AL: Community Involvement Challenges and Lessons Learned Presenters: Brian L. Holtzclaw and Sherryl Carbonaro, U.S. EPA, Region 4; PerStephanie Thompson, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR); David Baker, Citizens Against Pollution; Cassandra Roberts, Sweet Valley/Cobbtown Environmental Justice Task Force This presentation will highlight community involvement (CI) activities that the EPA and ATSDR have engaged in over the past 12 months. The community members on the panel will share how the activities and processes have impacted their participation, knowledge, beliefs, behavior, and well being. The presentation also will highlight CI activities that the EPA and ATSDR have planned to engage in during the months of March through August 2000. The community members on the panel will share how the activities and processes have impacted their participation, knowledge, beliefs, behavior, and well being. |
| Community Participation in Brownfields
Redevelopment Presenters: Rita Shade, Kansas State University; Professor LaBarbara James Wigfall, Kansas State University; Janet Bonet, Spring Lake Neighborhood Association; Charles Utley, Augusta Brownfields Commission; and Allen Edson, African American Development Association, Inc. The focus of this session will be on redevelopment planning considerations, interactions among stakeholders, community concerns, and community involvement strategies during various phases of the brownfields initiative. Practical examples will be provided by members from various brownfields working groups, who will share results, pitfalls, successes, and lessons learned. Although most participants recognize in principle the need for a multi-stakeholder process, the session will demonstrate how the development of an open, consensus-based community participation program that addresses stakeholder concerns about potential impacts to the community or exposure to constituents of concern, can streamline the brownfields redevelopment process—thus benefitting the community-at-large. |
| Navajo Abandoned Uranium Mines
Project Presenters: Vicki Rosen and Patti Collins, U.S. EPA Region 9; Glynn Alsup, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers This session will profile the five-year Region 9 Superfund investigation of the abandoned uranium mines on the Navajo Nation. As a result of Congressional hearings that took place in 1994, EPA was designated as the lead federal agency to help determine what, if any, health impacts might be associated with the old mines. In collaboration with Navajo EPA and the Navajo Abandoned Mine Lands (AML) program, Region 9 Superfund began with an integrated assessment of one mining region on the Navajo Nation–the King Tutt Mesa area near the Red Valley Chapter outside Shiprock, NM (the Four Corners area). The focus of this presentation will be on how the team worked with the affected Navajo chapters to bring this investigation forward in a manner that would be welcomed by the communities. The presenters will highlight almost two years of field work that involved visiting more than 30 Navajo chapters over thousands of miles of some of this country's most spectacular land. They will discuss how government folks were able to gain the trust of people in some of the Nation's most remote areas and provide helpful information to them on the effects of the mines. |
| Working Together, Building Trust: CIC,
TOSC, and Community Perspectives on the Value of CAGs Presenters: Kirk Riley, Michigan State University; Noemi Emeric, U.S. EPA, Region 5; Tony Davenport, Maple Park/Victory Heights Advisory Council Developing effective community partnerships is a bit like falling in love: the risks are great, but, when it works, the rewards can be boundless. Such was the partnership that developed between a long-standing south Chicago community group, the Michigan State University TOSC program, and the Region 5 Superfund Office. The site was a former lead-paint manufacturing facility with soil lead concentrations ranging up to 50,000 ppm, and the community was a middle-class, African American neighborhood with a distrust "concentration" almost as high. This session will discuss the rewards—trust, community restoration, even a small measure of justice—that can come when all parties are willing to take a risk. |
| 4:00 - 5:30 pm Concurrent Sessions |
| Role of Local Health Officials: Partners
Performing a Community Health Education Needs Assessment at Hazardous Waste
Sites Presenters: Karen Roof, National Association of County and City Health Officials, and Rhonda Lee, Minority Health Coalition of LaPorte County Local public health officials are often the primary contact for concerned citizens. Local health officials must therefore be informed and capable of addressing community concerns and questions. EPA and the state need to be able to rely on and partner with local health officials to provide assistance and collaborate with the community. NACCHO and ATSDR designed a needs assessment approach to community education. This presentation will include a brief description about LHDs and the needs assessment approach, and why it is so useful. EPA and states can share this approach with the LHDs in their area. The more of a role the LHD can play, the better a resource and partner they can be for everyone involved. |
| Protecting Children's Health and Reducing
Lead Exposure Through Collaborative Partnerships Presenters: Noemi Emeric and Karla Johnson, U.S. EPA Region 5 The partners for this project are collaboratively working in East St. Louis (St. Clair County) to reduce lead exposure and protect children's health. East St. Louis's children who were tested for lead poisoning had lead poisoning rates four times higher than children in surrounding communities and four times higher than the national average. The U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development recently awarded St. Clair County a $2.8 million dollar grant to conduct lead-based paint hazard control. The County will work with St. Mary's Hospital and local health departments to conduct blood lead screening and provide case management through schools, community centers, churches, and individual homes. Environmental justice areas will be targeted for outreach, screening, testing, and housing rehabilitation. The Illinois Department of Public Health (through a U.S. EPA grant) will assess uncontrolled lead releases to surface soil in order to identify elevated levels and their correlation with elevated blood lead levels. St. Mary's Hospital will conduct blood screening of children in homes where EPA identifies high lead concentrations in soil. The County, along with Neighbors United for Progress (through an EPA grant), will conduct testing and housing rehabilitation along with landscaping efforts, if warranted. The case management will identify where children play and might be exposed to lead. The Army Corp of Engineers will conduct site assessments at contaminated locations and EPA will conduct removal actions when necessary. Through collaboration, the groups will avoid redundancy and leverage grant dollars to benefit the community and protect children's health. The panelists will discuss how the partnerships were formed, what was completed, and how to duplicate this type of project in other areas. |
| Dioxin: Calming a Crisis in Rhode Island
or Chicken Soup for the Dioxin-fearing Soul Presenters: Ted Bazenas and Angela Bonarrigo, U.S. EPA Region 1 The presenters will examine the community involvement techniques used from January 1999 to present the discovery of dioxin contamination in a National Heritage River flowing through a suburban Rhode Island community. Dioxin is a buzz-word at sites nationwide. The presenters will look at how EPA has responded to the fear provoked by the discovery of widespread dioxin contamination alongside the river, including at a residence for 300 elderly citizens located on the river's banks and near a popular Little League ballpark. The presenters will examine how EPA has built a strong base of support among environmentalists, residents, and local and state political stakeholders, and discuss the integral role that EPA has created for them in all project decisions. |
| Community Involvement at Logan Lead Site:
A Confluence of Government, Environmental Justice, Redevelopment, and Political
Reality Presenter: Hal Yates, U.S. EPA Region 3 This session will present EPA's ongoing response to lead contaminated soil in a 17-block area in an environmental justice Philadelphia community. Built on ashes in the 1920s, atop a honeycomb of underground streams, homes started sinking. Over the last 14 years, the City has spent more than $31 million in a scandal-plagued program to demolish the sinking homes and relocate residents. EPA was called in by the Congressional delegation in response to citizen concerns about contaminated soil. Community leaders, elected officials, and the City administration are in conflict over future land use. EPA is challenged to maintain neutrality. |
| American Water Works Association Research
Foundation: Public Involvement Strategies Presenters: Wendy Nero, CH2M HILL, and Linda Reekie, American Water Works The American Water Works Association Research Foundation has developed a public involvement handbook to assist utility managers to effectively implement projects. A team of consultants, utility managers, and experts in the public involvement field participated in four pilot projects and two case studies to research the applicability of methods from the handbook. The project provided a real world education on public involvement and had some unexpected outcomes. During the research project, several tools were developed to help utilities better determine their level of public involvement needs on a given project as well as the effectiveness of their public involvement efforts. |
| The Care and Feeding of
Partnerships Presenters: Sharon Lien, Orange County Water District The Orange County Water District has completed many successful projects formulated on a foundation of community partnerships, collaboration, and cooperative efforts. Both coordination and implementation of these projects included active participation from local businesses, water and regulatory agencies, community and environmental organizations, and citizen volunteers. This session will outline the following key principles of developing partnerships:
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This page was last updated on: July 21, 2000
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