United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Office of Research and
Development
Washington, DC 20460
Office of Solid Waste and
Emergency Response
Washington, DC 20460
EPA/540/F-95/508
August 1995
vvEPA
The Bioremediation in the
Field Electronic Questionnaire
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i Why an electronic questionnaire?
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The Bioremediation Held Initiative of the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) developed the Bioremediation in the Held Electronic
Questionnaire (BEEQ) to help site contacts report bioremediation field
data. Because the key to the success of the Bioremediation in the Reid
Search System (BFSS, see sidebar) is thorough and timely input from
field personnel, BEEQ was designed to be convenient and easy to use.
This new electronic format offers the following time-saving and infor-
mative features:
• User-Friendly Interface. The questionnaire's point-and-click inter-
face is intuitive and easy to use. Graphic icons help you navigate
through the questionnaire and identify useful resources.
• On-Line Help. By clicking on icons, you can receive more detailed
explanations of questions or concepts to help you form responses.
Definitions for highlighted terms pop up on the screen at a single
keystroke or mouse click.
• Question Skip Patterns. BFEQ focuses on questions relevant to your
sites and treatment scenarios. Your responses to certain questions
determine which other questions you need to answer. For example,
if you indicate that the bioremediation technology at your site is in
situ, the program skips questions relating to ex situ processes and
reactor flow.
• Site and Validation Reports. After completing the questionnaire,
you can immediately print or view a Site Report to check your
responses or to gather data from other site personnel. You also
receive a Validation Report, which shows you any gaps or poten-
tially ambiguous responses. Checking your data before submitting
the questionnaire to BFSS should save you the time and trouble of
responding to followup phone calls.
How do I use it?
BFEQ can be used on any PC with Windows. Simply load the software,
read through the introductory screens, and begin entering your data.
BFEQ closely follows the format and appearance of the paper ques-
tionnaire used to obtain data for BFSS, including its division into site
level and biotreatment process level questions. As with the paper
Recycled/Recyclable
) Printed on paper that contains at
least 20 percent recycled fiber
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BIGREHEDIATIOH
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I U.S. EPA's Office of Research
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» Emergency Response,
t and regional offices,
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I state agencies, industry, and
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if- universities to expand the
I nation's field experience
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P1 technologies for Superfu nd
stid other contaminated sites.
questionnaire, you can enter information on many different sites and
on many separate processes within a single site. BFEQ, however, cre-
ates and stores each record separately, in response to your prompts,
eliminating the need for time-consuming photocopying and collating.
When you have entered your data and choose to submit your infor-
mation, the program automatically performs a validation check of the
site information and produces a Validation Report. You then
have an opportunity to change or clarify any potentially ambiguous
or inconsistent responses. Once the validation process is complete,
BFEQ copies your data to a disk and asks you to return the disk to
EPA. Specific details on loading BFEQ appear in the README.TXT
file on the second installation disk. You can view this file using any
standard text editor (e.g., NotePad) or word processing program.
What if I need help?
On-line help is always available from the menu at the top of the screen.
The help topic "Using This Questionnaire" contains an overview of
BFEQ and general guidance for navigating through the questionnaire
and providing responses. Other helpful features include:
• Terms that appear underlined and in green, both in the question-
naire and in the help text, can be mouse-clicked to access popup
definitions and guidance.
• Many questions have associated help text. You can see the help
text by clicking the question mark button next to the question.
If you still have questions, support personnel at Eastern Research
Group, Inc. (ERG), are ready to assist you. Just call the BFEQ Helpline
at 617-674-7210.
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
National Risk Management Research Laboratory
Center for Environmental
Research Information
Cincinnati, OH 45268
BULK RATE
POSTAGE & FEES PAID
EPA PERMIT NO. G-35
Official Business
Penalty for Private Use
S300
EPA/540/F-95/508
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