x=/EPA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Solid Waste and
Emergency Response
(5204G)
EPA 540-K-97-001
OSWER 9378.0-8FS
PB97-963202
April 1997
Publishing Effective Public
Notices
Office of Emergency and Remedial Response
Community Involvement and Outreach Center
Quick Reference Fact Sheet
Publishing public notices is one of the methods the Superfund Community Involvement program
uses to announce public events (e.g., public meetings, availability sessions) and to inform communi-
ties about cleanup activities at Superfund sites. Community Relations in Superfund: A Handbook (EPA
540-R-92-009) identifies the milestones in the Superfund process that require a public notice. This
fact sheet offers suggestions to improve EPA's efforts to produce easily understood public notices.
Getting Noticed
The purpose of a public notice is to inform
an affected Superfund community about a
planned event. If the public notice is ig-
nored or misunderstood, EPA fails to com-
municate an important message.
While publishing "Legal Notices" or "Gov-
ernment Notices" in the classified advertise-
ments section of the paper fulfills the legal
requirements, larger, well-placed notices are
more likely to be read because they stand out
amidst all the competing information on a
newspaper page.
If your budget permits, publish public
notices as large display advertisements in a
newspaper read by the community members
you want to reach. (Region 3 has informal
guidelines that all public notices should be at
least one-quarter-page display ads.)
Choose a good location in the paper for
your notice. The sports, local news, or TV
listings sections are well-read.
Remember that the appearance—not just
the message—of the notice is important.
Examples of readable, pleasant-looking
notices are presented throughout this fact
sheet.
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Getting Noticed, continued
Advertising research
indicates that
consumers need to be
exposed to an
advertising message
at least three times
within about a month
for it to be effective.
If your budget allows, run the ad more
than once—e.g., ten days before, one week
before, and one day before the announced
event.
Use a consistent format for your public
notices and include the EPA logo so your
notices will be recognizable at a glance.
• Break up long blocks of text for easy
reading: use brief paragraphs, bullets,
indents, blank lines, or subheadings to
organize the information.
• Incorporate generous amounts of white
space into your design.
• Do not mix more than three different
typefaces in one notice.
• Typefaces of 10 to 11 points are the most
readable for the body text of the notice.
• Avoid excessive use of ALL CAPITALS,
boldface, or italics for long runs of text.
• Avoid placing text over illustrations or
tinted areas.
Be sure to attend the
scoping meeting for
the new Stoneybrook
Flats Cleanup
Agreement.
A new Stoneybrook Flats Cleanup
Agreement currently is being evaluated.
The U.S. EPA and Colorado Department
of Health invite you to attend a meeting to
discuss the agreement and make comments.
Public Meeting
8:00pm - 9:30pm
Tuesday, October 1,
The Ciearwater Hyatt
Cliff Rd.
Ciearwater, Colorado
For more information, contact Mary Warden
U.S. EPA Community Involvement
(302)555-1212
.SSZ2
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When to Publish a Public Notice
Following are some of the key points in
the CERCLA process for which a public
notice is required or appropriate.
EPA must publish a notice in a major
newspaper when:
• the engineering evaluation/cost analysis
becomes available
• the proposed plan becomes available
• the response action has been selected
and the Record of Decision signed
• an enforcement agreement is embodied
in a consent decree
• a remedial action is taken or a settlement
or consent decree entered into that
differs significantly from the final
remedial plan adopted by the agency
• the notice of intent to delete a site from
the NPL is announced in the Federal
Register
T3
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The
waste
has
been erased at
the Handel Bridge
Superfund Site
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(U.S. EPA) announces its intent to remove
the Handel Bridge Superfund site from the
National Priorities List (NPL). The U.S. EPA
completed cleanup activities at the site and
determined that no further cleanup action
is needed to protect human health and the
environment. The public is invited to
comment on this proposed decision. Writ-
ten and oral comments must be submitted
no later than August 21, and should be di-
rected to:
Beth Windsor
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
77 West Jackson Boulevard
Chicago, IL 60604
(312)555-1234
To obtain more information about the
Handel Bridge Superfund site, visit the
Information Repository at Handel Re-
gional Library, 3344 Handel Bridge
Road, Handel, IL.
THE
OF
AT THE
*••«
Although it's an environment of change, the
mission and priorities remain the same. At
this month's public information meeting we
will discuss:
• Smith Dump Cleanup Agreement Update
• Operable Unit #4 Update
• Environmental Impact Statement
• RCRA Permit Modification
Please join us:
Monday, September 13,1996
7:00pm - 9:00pm
Midville Holiday Inn
1414 N.Chester Dr.
Midville, Mississippi
For more information, contact Joe Jones,
U.S. EPA Community Involvement,
(303)555-1234.
.X"%.
g ifll •&
I
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Choosing the Right Medium for a Public Notice
Run the public notice as an
advertisement in local weekly
newspapers or community shoppers'
guides.
Publish the notice in bulletins put out
by churches or civic organizations.
Publish the notice on the Internet as
an "upcoming event" on your World
Wide Web home page.
Mail the public notice to homes and
local organizations on the site
mailing list.
Distribute the public notice as a
press advisory to local print media,
radio, and TV.
Consult with local leaders for
suggestions on the most effective
publications in which to place public
notices.
The law requires that most
public notices be published in
a major local newspaper of
general circulation, however
many members of small
communities may not read
the large city dailies. City
newspapers usually ap-
peal to broad segments
of the population, rath-
er than smaller com-
munities or
specialized groups.
Therefore, other
publications, in addition to large daily
newspapers, also should be consid-
ered. Most communities
have their own local
papers that may
be more widely
read locally than
the major daily. This
is especially true of
non-English-speaking
communities. The boxes
above offer some sugges-
tions for reaching your in-
tended audience.
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Other Methods to Inform the Public About Events
it on the
it!
Post it!
it!
it
it!
Make use of local radio and TV public
service announcements.
• Give an interview on a local radio station.
Be a guest speaker at a meeting of a
community service group.
• Distribute flyers door to
door.
Telephone the key individuals in a
community to inform them about the
information in the notice.
• Post flyers or posters on bulletin boards
at the site, and at local stores, banks,
libraries, post offices, community
centers, schools, or in store windows.
Gear the poster to the particular
audience—especially non-English
speaking groups.
• Make use of any assistance
that community service
organizations might offer.
This document provides guidance to EPA staff. This document is not a substitute for EPA's statutes and regulations, nor is it a regu-
lation itself. Thus, it cannot impose legally-binding requirements on EPA, states, or the regulated community, and may not apply to a
given situation. EPA may change this guidance in the future.
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Using an Effective Writing Style
Information for the
general public
should be written
so that all citizens
can read and
understand the issues presented in the
document.
Public notices should use clear, simple
language. For example:
• Use simple, nontechnical words. A
message containing an average of 1.5
syllables per word is considered very
readable. (Lincoln's Gettysburg Address
consisted of 267 words, of which 202 had
only one syllable.)
Be specific about what you want the
reader to do (e.g., attend a meeting,
request a document, or provide
comments).
Keep the notice as short as possible. Not only
do you have a better chance of keeping the
reader's attention, but short ads are less
expensive than long ones.
Avoid technical details, acronyms, and
legal jargon.
Clearly state the date and location of an
event and the name and phone number
of the contact person.
Record cf Decision
for Logan rarm Superfund Site
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
announces a Record of Decision (ROD) for the
Logan Farm Superfund Site. The ROD
documents EPA's cleanup plan for
groundwater contamination at the site,
including pumping and treating the
contaminated groundwater and monitoring all
private wells nearby.
Copies of the ROD are available at the:
Norville Public Library
904 S. Seventh Street
Norville, CO 12334
For more information on the site, contact:
Sue Welk, Community Relations Coordinator, Office of Public Affairs, U.S. EPA, (312) 555-1234
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Engineering Evaluation/Cost Analysis
WE'RE
PL&NTlNCi THE
SEEDS ©F
CHANGE AT THi
SMITH DUMP
SUPERFUND
SITE.
Please join us:
Monday, September 13,
7:00pm -9:00pm
Midville Holiday Im
1414 N. Chester Dr
Midville, Mississipf
'u.S. EPA Community Invol
(303) 555-1234.
vvEPA
United States
Environmental Protection Agency (5204G)
Washington, DC 20460
Official Business
Penalty for Private Use
$300
Public Meetin
8:QQpm -9:3Qpm
, October 1,'
The Clearwater Hyatt
8338 Cliff Ridge Rd.
Clearwater, Colorado
Take a closer
look at
current
ems at the
Handel irldge
Suoerfund
site.
las]
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
announces the beginning of the comment
period on the Remedial Investigation/
Feasibility Study (RI/FS) and Proposed
Plan for the Hande
Public Meeting
Tuesday, December 3,1996
7:QQpmto9:QQpm
Collingwood Marriott
1313 S.Remar Road
Barton, Michigan
Tentative topics for the meeting include:
• Content of the RI/FS
• Content of the Proposed Plan
• Procedure for providing comment
• Next steps at thesite
For more information about these and other
topics, contact Beth Windsor, U.S. EPA,
(603) 555-1212.
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