United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Information Resources
Management
(3404)
January/February 1997
EPA220-N-97-002 U-"
The Catalyst
Information for Environmental Action
A Service for EPA HQ Staff from the Headquarters Information Resources Center
EPA Expanding Its Internet Presence
Over the past two months, many EPA Offices and Initiatives have established a presence on the
World Wide Web using EPA's Internet server and the services provided by the Internet teams available in the
Headquarters Information Resources Center. Now, from the Internet, citizens, the regulated community, and
our partners in environmental protection can find new information on grants, global warming, and
environmental impact statements. The abstracts below are just a few of these new offerings as listed in
recent editions of the Internet Newsbrief, a weekly current awareness service provided by the Headquarters
Information Resources Center.
EPA Office of Grants and Debarment
http://www.epa.gov/ogd/
The EPA Office of Grants and Debarment has
developed a new site for their Grants Administration
Division, and Suspension and Debarment Division.
These divisions are responsible for general EPA
grants information and for coordination of granting
throughout the agency. EPA expends over 50
percent of its total annual budget in assistance
awards in the form of grants, cooperative
agreements, and interagency agreements. The site
offers information about available opportunities and
links to EPA Grant Programs as listed in the Federal
Domestic Assistance Catalog.
Air Links
http://www.epa.gov/airlinks/
The EPA Office of Air and Radiation has compiled a
collection of air pollution hot topics with links to
frequently requested information about air quality. In
addition to program divisions and specific legislative
information, information about the proposed new
ozone and paniculate matter air quality standards is
provided.
EPA Office of Federal Activities
http://es.inel.gov/oeca/ofa/
The EPA Office of Federal Activities (OFA) maintains
the national system for filing Environmental Impact
Statements (EISs) prepared by other Federal
agencies and assures compliance with the National
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The office also
provides technical assistance for environmental
compliance, enforcement, and impact assessment in
other countries. The site includes recent actions
taken by the OFA; a listing of recent Environmental
Impact Statements available for review; information
on where and how to file an EIS; the EIS rating
system explained; and various EIS activities and
statistics. .
U.S.-Mexico Border XXI Project
http://www.epa.gov/usmexicoborder/
The EPA has introduced this new site as an alliance
of organizations dedicated to environmental progress
on the Mexican-US Border Lands. The Border XXI
program is a binational, interagency program aimed
at protecting and improving the environment and
environmental health while fostering sustainable
development in the U.S./Mexico border area.
Objectives which are central to the Border XXI
Program include public involvement, decentralization
of border decision making, and increased
cooperation between the different governmental
agencies operating in the border region.
EPA Office of Inspector General (OIG)
http://www.epa.gov/oigearth/
EPA has established a home page for its Office of
Inspector General (OIG). The OIG's role is to review
EPA's financial transactions, program operations,
contracts, and administrative activities; investigate
allegations or evidence of possible criminal and civil
violations; and promote economic, efficient, and
effective Agency operations. The OIG is also
responsible for reviewing EPA regulations and
legislation. It is the Agency's fiscal and operational
watchdog. The site includes IG testimony to
Congress; information about the OIG hotline for
reporting fraud, waste abuse and mismanagement;
as well as OIG Reports and their strategic plan.
Environmental Data Registry
http://www.epa.gov/eimo7html/edrquery.htm
The Environmental Data Registry (EDR) contains
information about data elements and the respective
data element concepts. The system is being
provided by the EPA Office of Information Resources
Management and its Enterprise Information
Management Division This is an initial
implementation of the Environmental Data Registry.
Expanded and enhanced capabilities will be provided
in future versions, (continued on next page)
tal Pr
EPA Information Resources Center (3404) WSM2904 202-260-5922
oieciion Agency
12th Floor
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EPA Storefront of Environmental Tools
http://www.epa.gov/ecosystem/storefront/
The EPA has introduced a collection of community-
based environmental protection tools designed to
help individuals and communities tailor solutions that
fit their needs. Included in this tool kit are Internet
resources containing guidance documents,
databases, mapping tools, hotlines, and fact sheets.
Many of these resources are already available on the
EPA homepage; however, this tool kit provides easy
access to a number of tools targeted specifically at
communities.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Global
Warming Web Site
http://www.epa.gov/globalwarming/
The EPA home page on Global Warming has been
developed as a window to the global warming issue.
The site includes information pertaining to the
science of global warming; international and U.S.
Government policies and programs; opportunities for
individuals and corporations to help stop global
warming; state and local actions that help mitigate
greenhouse gas emissions; and easy ways to obtain
more information by fax, email and electronic order
form. This web site is served by the Waste Policy
Institute for the EPA Office of Economy and
Environment.
Environmental Justice Through Pollution
Prevention Grant Program
http://www.epa.gov/opptintr/ejp2/
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has
introduced a homepage for information on
Environmental Justice through the Pollution
Prevention (EJP2) grant program. The program
encourages focused attention on the need to more
actively ensure equitable environmental protection
for all, and to empower those most often
disenfranchised from the decision-making process-
the poor and people of color. Through the EJP2
grant program, EPA provides financial assistance to
help minority and low-income communities address
emerging environmental issues by using pollution
prevention as the solution rather than traditional
pollution control techniques. The site offers the
Federal Register notice of availability, the EJP2
guidance documents, listings of prior grant awards,
application forms and a listing of frequently asked
questions. •>
CAMBRIDGE SCIENTIFIC ABSTRACTS
SERVICE AVAILABLE!
There is a new service available from the
Information Resource Center, for all EPA Headquarters
staff. The IRC has contracted with Cambridge
Scientific for a service that includes various searchable
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databases available at an easily accessible Internet
site.
Environmental Sciences and Pollution
Management is one of four main database files
available after signing on to the service. It includes
twelve subfiles that can be searched individually or
simultaneously. All have citations, many have
abstracts as well. The current files have information
back through 1991; those files with archives have
records back through the 1980's. The twelve subfiles
are:
Agricultural and Environmental Biotechnology
Abstracts
ASFA 3: Aquatic Pollution & Environmental Quality
Ecology Abstracts
EIS: Digests of Environmental Impact Statements
Environmental Engineering Abstracts
Health & Safety Sciences Abstracts
Industrial & Applied Microbiology Abstracts
Microbiology A)
Bacteriology Abstracts (Microbiology B)
Pollution Abstracts
Risk Abstracts
Toxicology Abstracts
Water Resources Abstracts
Environmental Periodicals Bibliography
provides access to tables of content of over 450
scientific, technical and popular journals that focus on
many environmental issues including pollution, policy,
legislation and enforcement. The coverage range is
from 1991 to the present. Updates are bimonthly with
over 25,000 records added annually.
Two other databases offered by the service are
Medline and Toxline, both with coverage from 1991.
Toxline offers a subset of the entire NLM Toxline
database, including among other files, Toxicity
Bibliography and Developmental and Reproductive
Toxicology but this version does not contain
information from Chemical Abstracts Service, BIOSIS,
or International Pharmaceutical Abstracts. Medline on
this service contains over 1.9 million citations and
abstracts, directly from the NLM database.
These databases can be searched, using the
query form, by author or title or "words in any field". A
"box for experts" allows searching for different fields at
the same time. For example, searching for PY=1995
and DE=pollution and AB=wastewater OR effluent
would narrow the search to a particular year and
descriptor and focus the search for particular words in
the abstract. Truncation can be used as well. Help
screens explain the search procedures clearly and are
easily accessible.
The other service offered by CSA is the
Environmental RouteNet. A current awareness service
for environmental issues, this section offers informa-
tion on news briefings, daily news.updates on legisla-
tion and regulations, state information, digests of
environmental impact statements, tables of content for
THE CATALYST JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1997
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over forty journals, hot web sites and much more. It
can be searched globally or by individual offering.
The service is available at the CSA Internet
address. It can be accessed at any Headquarters
building by any staff member with Internet access.
For those not yet connected, the IRC offers terminals
with Internet access for your usage. Information can
be printed or downloaded to a disk. For more informa-
tion, or for a demonstration, please call the IRC
reference desk at 260-5921. •>
EPA's Government Information
Locator Service (GILS)
http://www.epa.gov/gils
What is GILS?
The Government Information Locator Service
(GILS) is an electronic public resource which
identifies major information resources throughout the
federal government, describes the information available
in these resources, and provides assistance in
obtaining that information. GILS is essentially a
pointer device which can lead a user to publicly
available government information. EPA's GILS points
to a wealth of major information resources available
within the Agency.
The types of resources described in GILS
include databases, hotlines, clearinghouses, and
publications catalogs. The GILS records forthese
resources are not the resources themselves, but are
descriptions of the resources which inform users what
information is available, where it is located, and how it
can be accessed. In cases in which the information
resource exists in electronic form, a direct link to that
resource from the GILS record will usually be
available.
What's New with EPA's GILS?
In 1996 a professional librarian and a library
technician were hired to support EPA's GILS from the
IRC. The GILS staff maintain the GILS records and
the GILS web pages, assist members of the public in
finding EPA information, and assist EPA staff in
creating new GILS records.
We are redesigning the GILS site on EPA's
home page. Check out our new look at http://
www.epa.gov/gils.
Underthe GILS initiative, the staff of the IRC
are responding to over 200 email requests each week
which come in via EPA's web site and the GILS web
site.
How Can GILS Help Me Do My Job?
Information is vital to performing your job well,
but it is often difficult to locate the information that you
THE CATALYST JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1997
need. GILS can help you locate and obtain this
information in two ways. First, you can search and
browse EPA's GILS records. For instance, if you want
to know what EPA resources exist to help small
businesses comply with environmental regulations,
you can search or browse with the term "compliance"
and find GILS records for four Small Business
Compliance Assistance Centers. The records
describe these resources, include contact information,
and link directly to the web sites for the centers.
Second, if you can't seem to find what you
are looking for in GILS, you can submit a request via
email directly from the GILS web site. The reference
staff of the IRC will research your request and help you
to find either an answer or an appropriate referral for
more information. We also provide this research
service to members of the public.
EPA's GILS can also help you do your job by
letting the public know about Agency information that
you make available. Our GILS web pages have been
accessed over 50,000 times by members of the public
looking for the information they need. There are
currently over 240 records in GILS, and we are always
looking for new resources to include.
How Can I Have My Information Described in
GILS?
If you are responsible for a major EPA
information resource which you would like to have
included in GILS, please contact the GILS support
staff in the IRC at 202-260-8670, or via email at GILS-
CENTER. You can also submit a draft GILS record
from EPA's Intranet at http://epawww.epa.gov/gils.
Did You Know?...
The IRC reference staff responds to over
200 email messages from the public each week as a
part of EPA's Government Information Locator
Service (GILS). Most of these messages are sent to
us from the EPA's World Wide Web site. The
messages include requests for EPA publications,
comments on EPA policy, and requests for
assistance in finding EPA information. Our staff
researches each request and either provides an
answer or an appropriate referral within the Agency.
Here are some examples of the types of
messages that we receive:
How can I get a job or internship at the
EPA?
Who manufactures the pesticide with
registration number 537-95, and what is its
regulatory status?
I need to know how to get EPA models,
test methods, and publications.
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What are the health effects of being
exposed to aniline?
I think that a company in my community
is violating environmental regulations • what
should I do about it?
Is there a way that I can find the
environmental history of a particular company
from ERA'S web site?
Can you email me a list of cities which
are required to use Stage II Vapor Recovery
systems at gas service stations? »>
Conferences, Meetings,
Symposiums, Workshops
This is a list of selected meetings and
conferences chosen for their potential interest
to EPA staff. If EPA staff wish to have an EPA-
sponsored event listed here, please forward the
information to The Catalyst, IRC, 401 M St.,
SW-3404, Washington, DC 20460 or email
Library-HQ.
Emission Inventory: Planning for the Future
Call for papers. October 28-30,1997, Research
Triangle Park, NC. Abstracts due by April 15, 1997.
This is the seventh annual symposium on emission
inventories and is sponsored by the Air and Waste
Management Association (A&WMA), US EPA Office
of Air Quality Planning and Standards and US EPA
Office of Research and Development. For more
information contact Registrar, A&WMA at
412-232-3445 or 412-232-3444 ext.3142. *
(OIRM).
United States
Environmental Protection Agency
(3404)
Washington, DC 20460
Official Business
Penalty for Private Use
$300
USEPA
REGION 5 LIBRARY
77 WEST JACKSON BLVD
12TH FLOOR
CHICAGO, IL 60604
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THE CATALYST JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1997
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