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(6) ADP personnel would be organized into four groups.
Data processing personnel within the Agency would
be organized into four groups responsible for (1)
serving regional and research center users, (2) sup-
porting environmental program needs, (3) managing
the RTF and OSI computer facilities, and (4) over-
seeing ADP budgets and new development projects.
This regrouping would require a shift of technical
development personnel from the program offices
to the computer facilities and to the development
groups, and an increased concentration of project
management and functional specification personnel
within the program offices. This regrouping would
result in the elimination of approximately 64 ADP
positions throughout the Agency. Exhibit 1-5, on
the following page, indicates the impact of this
regrouping upon the deployment of ADP personnel
throughout EPA's offices. The Exhibit indicates the
anticipated ADP salary expenditures within each office
during each year of the plan.
(7) EPA management policies should include the establish-
ment of project management standards, expanded
Budgetary reporting and improved ADP quality controls.
The ADP management guidelines, as described in the
coordinated plan, are designed to control ADP
22
index systems inc
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Exhibit 1-5.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Distribution of ADP Personnel Salaries in $ Millions
Current 1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
OPM
OEGC
OWHM
OAWM
ORD
Regions
Total
1.6
.2
1.8
1.0
1.9
.7
7.2
1.7
.4
1.7
1.0
1.5
.7
7.0
1.4
.8
1.2
1.0
1.7
.5
6.6
1.4
.6
1.2
1.0
1.5
.5
6.2
1.4
.6
1.2
1.0
1.5
.5
6.2
1.4
.6
1.2
1.0
1.5
.5
6.2
<*)
CM
-------
expenditures while improving data processing
services provided to Agency users. These guide-
lines involve the establishment and enforcement
of rigorous system development standards and
project management procedures. They involve also
the expansion of formal ADP budgeting to include
ADP personnel and contractor expenditures and the
establishment of controls to limit or prevent
overruns of these ADP budget ceilings. The manage-
ment guidelines direct 0PM to assume responsibility
for ADP quality control through the establishment
of system and data standards and through periodic
auditing of major ongoing application systems.
5. REPORT ORGANIZATION
The remainder of this report is organized into four
chapters discussing ADP usage at EPA, the Management of
ADP Resources, Problem Areas, and the Coordinated ADP
Plan, respectively. In addition, five technical appendices
present (1) an inventory of major EPA systems, (2) an
explanation of application classes, (3) a description of
current EPA computer equipment and facilities, (4) a
description of the cost projection calculations used in
the report, and (5) a presentation of project management
and development guidelines.
24 index systems inc
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II. ADP USAGE AT EPA
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II. ADP USAGE AT EPA
This chapter describes the usage of ADP at EPA. The
activities comprising EPA's environmental control strategy
and the relationship of these activities to the organiza-
tional units which comprise the Agency are outlined. Also,
in this chapter, the Agency's data processing systems are
grouped into application classes based upon the functions
that they perform. The functional support provided by
these application classes is then related to the environ-
mental objectives and activities conducted by the major
EPA organizational units. As a result of this mapping, the
\
data processing usage and needs of each organizational unit
are identified and characterized, thereby forming the corner-
stone for the development of the coordinated ADP plan.
1. THE AGENCY'S ENVIRONMENTAL STRATEGY CONSISTS OF SIX
PRINCIPAL ACTIVITIES.
As an independent regulatory agency, EPA is charged with
the responsibility of setting standards for environmental
pollution and enforcing these standards within a frame-
work of the existing anti-pollution legislation. In
support of its regulatory mission, EPA monitors and
analyzes the environment and conducts scientific studies
on the causes and effects of pollution, the technology
25 index systems inc
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of pollution control, and the environmental consequences
of man's actions. In carrying out its mission, as de-
fined by the legislation, the Agency must perform six
major activities, as follows:
Identify the present state of the environment -
This activity involves identifying and reporting
to Congress and the public the present state of
the environment including current and potential
environmental problem areas.
Determine the environmental quality necessary to
protect public health and welfare - This activity
includes setting pollution level objectives, such
as goals for swimmable and fishable waters.
Identify and develop methods to control pollution -
This activity includes developing the necessary
abatement strategies and programs to achieve
pollution level objectives.
Implement abatement and control strategies -
This activity includes setting specific standards
and regulation for attaining and maintaining envi-
ronmental quality, such as effluent guidelines
and permits.
Enforce abatement policies and regulations -
This activity involves utilizing the enforcement
authorities provided by Federal legislation to
achieve compliance with the environmental standards
and regulations.
Monitor rnmpllance with regulations - This acti-
vity includes continual surveillance and tracking
of the compliance actions of individuals, private
enterprise and governmental bodies which are re-
quired to satisfy the abatement regulations.
26
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2. ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVITIES ARE DIVIDED AMONG SIX MAJOR
ORGANIZATIONAL UNITS.
To perform the required activities for each of the
environmental problem areas identified by legislation,
the EPA Administrator has divided the Agency into six
major organizational units, as shown in Exhibit 2.1
following this page. Appendix A contains detailed
information regarding the primary responsibilities and
missions of each office, the staff employment level,
the general type of staff, the principal geographic
location, the major relevant legislation, and the current
ADP expenditures. In addition, Appendix A provides a
detailed breakdown of the major ADP systems utilized by
each organizational unit or office. Each of the six
major organizational units are outlined below:
Office of Planning and Management fQPM) - The
Office of Planning and Management has Agency-
wide responsibilities for ten major activities,
as follows:
Program evaluation
Resource management, including administering
a program planning-budgeting system
Budget preparation and execution
Organization and management systems
Personnel policies and operations
ADP management and operations
Facilities and space management
- Contracting and procurement services
Grant policies and procedures
- Comprehensive audit program
07
index systems inc
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Exhibit 2-1
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
EPA Organization Chart
ADMINISTRATOR
DEPUTY ADMINISTRATOR
OFFICE OF
PLANNING AND
MANAGEMENT
OFFICE OF
ENFORCEMENT AND GENERAL
COUNSEL
OFFICE OF WATER AND
HAZARDOUS MATERIALS
OFFICE OF
AIR AND HASTE
MANAGEMENT
OFFICE 07
RESEARCH AND DEVELOP-
MENT
OFFICE OF
ENVIRONMENTAL
ENGINEERING
OD
01
-------
The 1065 positions (11% of the total EPA employment)
within the Office of Planning and Management are
organized into offices of staff support and three
offices under Deputy Assistant Administrators
(DAA's); namely, (1) the Office of Administration,
(2) the Office of Planning and Evaluation, and
(3) the Office of Resource Management.
Office of Enforcement and General Counsel (OEGC) -
The Office of Enforcement and General Counsel has
responsibility for the conduct of enforcement
activities on an Agency-wide basis. This includes
the development and execution of programs for
water, air, noise, radiation, pesticides, and
solid waste enforcement, including the development
of procedures, regulatory material, guidelines,
criteria, and policy statements designed to bring
about actions by individuals, private enterprise,
and governmental bodies to improve the environment.
The Office of Enforcement and General Counsel
provides also legal services to all organizational
elements of the Agency including legal opinions
and litigation support. The 448 positions (5% of
the total Agency employment) of OEGC are organized
into offices of staff support, an Office of General
Counsel, and two offices under DAA's; namely, the
Office of General Enforcement and the Office of
Water Enforcement.
Office of Water and Hazardous Materials (OWHM) -
The Office of Water and Hazardous Materials has
responsibility for program policy development and
evaluation, environmental and pollution sources
standards development, guidance and technical sup-
port of regional program activities, and selected
demonstration programs. The 1080 positions (approxi-
mately 12% of the Agency's total employment) are
organized into an office of staff support and three
offices under DAA's; namely, (1) the Office of
Water Planning and Standards, (2) the Office of
Water Program Operations, and (3) the Office of
Pesticides Programs.
29 index systems inc
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The Office of Air and Waste Management (OAWM) -
The Office of Air and Waste Management has respon-
sibility for seven major activities, as follows:
- Develop national standards for air quality
and emission standards for new stationary
sources and for hazardous pollutants
- Assess the national air pollution control
program and its success in achieving air
quality goals
Provide assistance to the States, regional
offices, and industry through manpower training
and technical information
- Maintain a national air programs data system
Develop abatement strategies to control noise
pollution
Disseminate information and perform research
in the management of solid waste disposal
Investigate the environmental and health
effects of radioactive substances and processes
The 992 positions (11% of the total EPA employment)
of this office are organized into offices of staff
support and five DAA-level offices.
The Office of Research and Development (ORD) -
The Office of Research and Development is responsi-
ble for the development and conduct of research and
demonstration programs in pollution sources, environ-
mental sciences, monitoring systems,.and pollution
control technology. ORD provides direct supervision
of the activities of the Environmental Research
Centers and their associated laboratories. ORD is
responsible also for the quality control and standardi-
zation of the analytical techniques utilized by the
Agency. The 1856 positions of ORD (20% of the total
Agency employment) are distributed among staff
offices, five Environmental Research Centers, and
four offices under DAA's; namely, (1) the Office of
Environmental Engineering, (2) the Office of
Environmental Sciences, (3) the Office of Monitoring
Systems, and (4) the Office of Program Integration.
Regional Offices - The operating programs of the
EPA are carried out by ten regional authorities
which cover the entire.United States. Each of
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these clusters of states is headed by a Regional
Administrator who reports to the EPA Deputy
Administrator. Each Region has its own coordinated
EPA anti-pollution effort and decentralized autho-
rity for the development of strong local programs
for pollution control and abatement.
3. THERE ARE EIGHT APPLICATION CLASSES OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS
SUPPORTING MAJOR EPA MISSIONS.
Eight classes of computer usage have been defined for
computer systems at EPA. The purpose of this classifi-
cation is to provide an aid to understanding the use of
computers at the Agency and to group individual systems
for cross comparisons. These classes have been identi-
fied, as follows:
. Tracking and Reporting Systems
Trend and Monitoring Systems
Technical Data Bases
Word Processing Systems
Bibliographic Systems
Modeling and Scientific Systems
Laboratory Automation
Special Studies
Each of these application classes has unique functional
characteristics which differentiate them from each other
index systems inc
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as shown in Exhibit 2-2, following this page.
The principal Agency activities, such as implementing
abatement control strategies, tend to utilize the
functional characteristics provided by specific appli-
cation classes. Exhibit 2-3, following Exhibit 2-2,
illustrates the primary application classes of systems
used by each of the principal Agency activities. As
shown in this exhibit, enforcement activities tend to
require tracking and reporting support, whereas environ-
mental quality objectives and strategy determination
rely more heavily upon modeling and scientific AOP support.
All the major computer systems within the Agency and
the application class each system is most closely asso-
ciated with are shown in Exhibit 2-4, following
Exhibit 2-3.
The following sections describe briefly the eight appli-
cation classes. A more detailed description of each
application class is contained in Appendix B.
(1) Tracking and reporting systems track schedules,
record dollar expenditures, and provide conventional
administrative reports.
32 index systems inc
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Exhibit 2-2
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Functional Characteristics of Application Classes
USE
PEPSO:I::EL
REQUIREMENTS
OPERATING
COST
(5POWTH
IN SIZE
TRACKING &
REPORTING
TREND &
MONITORING
TECHNICAL
DATA BASES
WORD
PROCESSING
BIBLIOGRAPHIC
MODELING &
SCIENTIFIC
LAB
AUTOMATION
SPECIAL
STUDIES
7PADOFFS
Administra-
tion and Op-
erational
Control
High Data
Entry Volume
Depends on
Volume of
Data Traded
Stable, If
Volume is
Constant
Manual Files
I f Summaries
not Frequent
Research
Reports
High Data
Entry Volumes
Increases
With Time
Increase with
Time
Retain
Summary
Data Only
Basic
Research
Low
Stable
Grows Only If
New Subjects
Added
Printed
Manuals
Secretarial
Replacement
Depends on
Nature of the
Work
Lower or High-
er than Sec-
retaries De-
pending on
the (fork
Stable After
Initial
Startup
Central vs
Stand Alone
vs Manual
Literature
Search
Low Compared
to Manual
Library
Depends on
Demand and
System De-
sign
Increase with
Time
Few Alterna-
tives if
Needed
Scientific
research
Low Data
Entry but
Skilled
Analysts
Needed
impends on
Complexity of
the Model &
Frequency of
Use
None After
Model Is
Built
Simple vs
Complex
Model
Reduce Man-
power , In-
crease
Control
Low
Low - One Timr
Capital
Investment
Size Fixed
when
Installed
Automation
vs no
Automation
Reports on
Specific
Topics of
Interest
"epends on
Type of
Study
Depends on
Type of
Study
Grows to
Peak , then
Elimin-
ated
Depends on
Type of
Study
(*)
n
-------
Exhibit 2-3
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Application Classes Serving Principal Environmental Activities
>*NW ADP
'x. Application
's^ Classes
Principal's.
EI-A " 'Vs.
Activities 's.
1. I -tent if y Present
State of the
Envi ronment
Environmental
Quality
3. Develop Methods
for Controlling
Pollution
4. Implement Abatement
Control Strategies
Control Strategies
6. Monitor Compliance
with Regulations
TRACKING t TREND & TECHNICAL WORD MODELING * LAB SPECIAL
REPORTING MONITORING DATA BASE PROCESSING BIBLIOGRAPHIC SCIENTIFIC AUTOMATION STUDIES
V
V
/
^
/
J
/
/
y
/
^
\/
*/
-------
Exhibit 2-4
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Application Classes of Major Systems
TRACKING
TREND &
MONITOR
TECHNICAL
DATA BASE
WORD
PROCESSING
BIBLIO-
GRAPHIC
MODELING &
SCIENTIFIC
LAB AUTO-
MATION
SPECIAL
STUDIES
OPM
OEGC
OAWM
OWHM
ORD
REGIONS
FMS
GICS
DIPS
TSSMS
Personal
Property
CDS
GPSF
PEMS
GICS
GPSF
SIRS/
SPCC
GICS
Program
Manage-
ment
GICS
GPSF
CDS
PEMS
FMS
DIPS
SAROAD
STORET
GPSF
SAROAD
STORET
GPSF
NEDS
TADS
PARCS
NEDS
SAROAD
BTS
BTS
SWIRS
NOISE
APTIC
RAPS
Estuary
Models
SEAS
Lake
Pollution
RAPS
Air Diff-
usion &
Indirect
Source
Models
Cincin-
nati Pro-
ject
.
*
1
"
/
J
V
>/
J
Ti
m
n
-------
All parts of the Agency use tracking and report-
ing systems for administration and operational
control. However, the major users of these
systems are within the Office of Planning and
Management, and the Office of Enforcement and
General Counsel. Computerized tracking systems
frequently are used to accommodate large volumes
of data for reporting purposes and to provide
summary information on many different attributes.
These systems are characterized by high data entry
requirements. Their operating costs tend to increase
as data within their system files increase. However,
certain implementation alternatives, such as the
judicious use of off-line storage, can be used to
stabilize these costs. Manual files represent the
primary alternative to these systems.
(2) Trend and monitoring systems build data bases of
technical information over time.
Trend and monitoring systems are used to construct
national data bases of environmental quality informa-
tion. They are used primarily within the air and
water programs.
36 index systems inc
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These systems are characterized bv high data entry
volumes and by increasing operational costs over time
due to the ever increasing size of their data files.
This increase can be stabilized,, however, through
the use of off-line storage and summary data.
Many users have been critical of the design and oper-
ation of these systems because they have failed fre-
quently to meet their scientific needs. The Agency's
trend and monitoring systems were developed to
provide very general data support, although it has
been suggested that the development of systems to
meet more precise and narrower objectives should have
yielded systems which would better serve the needs
of researchers and analysts.
(3) A technical data base is a mechanized catalogue.
A number of catalogue items/ each having several
parameters, are contained in technical data bases.
They are used as reference tools to provide infor-
mation to researchers. The Technical Assistance
Data System (TADS) stores scientific information
such as boiling point, toxicity, and color on
over 800 hazardous substances. The Pesticides
Analysis Retrieval and Control System (PARCS)
37 index systems inc
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catalogues data on pesticides, and the National
Emission Data System (NEDS) contains air pollution
emissions data. The difference between this appli-
cation class and tracking and reporting systems is
that technical data bases associate a single, fixed
set of parameters with each item.
Technical data bases are characterized by a low
volume of data entry and stable cost curves. The
primary alternatives to computerized technical
data bases are manually maintained handbooks and
catalogues.
(4) Word^processing systems are used to reduce secre-
tarial work and to facilitate document preparation.
Word processing systems automate secretarial typing
tasks. Textual information is input to the system,
modified in an interactive process, and output in
a retyped and corrected version.
The benefits of word processing systems are
dependent on the nature of the clerical workload.
If a document is typed only once, or undergoes
drastic and extensive revisions each time it is retyped,
word processing equipment provides few advantages
over manual procedures. However, for large documents
38
index systems inc
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that undergo frequent minor revisions, an auto-
mated system can be of considerable benefit.
Word processing systems are of two basic types:
central service and stand alone. A centralized
service that the Agency uses is Bowne Timesharing,
Inc. which runs on a large computer in New York. The
Agency also uses numerous small self-contained, stand
alone systems in many offices. The stand alone
systems are fixed price facilities, whose costs are
independent of volume. The Bowne charges are based
on usage volume. Stand alone systems are cheaper for
heavy usage, and Bowne is more economical in support-
ing occasional service needs.
(5) Bibliographic systems identify technical and scien-
tific literature on specified subjects.
Bibliographic systems use the processing capabilities
of a computer to search a very large set of book and
journal abstracts to find publications relevant to
specific subjects. The user specifies his areas of
interest and the machine searches for all articles
matching his search criteria. He receives either a
list of reference numbers, citations or full abstracts,
depending on the design of the particular biblio-
graphic system.
39 index systems inc
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These systems are characterized by substantial
abstracting expenditures and variable operating
costs, depending upon the particular implementation
strategy employed. The cost of these systems increases
over time as the number of abstracts in the system
grows, unless the system operators continually purge
outdated articles and maintain the data base at a
fixed size.
(6) Modeling and scientific systems support the scientific
and socio-economic research activities within the
Agency.
The use of computer models to simulate real events
and activities provides a valuable research and plan-
ning tool. Performing experiments on a real system
(river, city, or the nation's economy) many times
would be prohibitively expensive, infeasible, or even
potentially dangerous. The effects of alternative
activities and conditions can be studied safely and
without risk, using computer models.
Most of the Agency's modeling work to date has
focused on physical systems (e.g., air flow, rivers
and lakes) and has been used to gain fundamental
40 index systems inc
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scientific understanding about the environment. Also
models are being used by regulation and enforcement
personnel within EPA to evaluate control strategies.
Modeling and scientific applications tend to be
independent of other Agency systems. They are de-
signed and operated to service a special research
need. Their operating costs and characteristics
vary widely depending upon frequency of use, volume
of data processed, and complexity of numerical tech-
niques employed.
(7) Laboratory automation involves the use of small
dedicated computers to control and monitor instruments,
Experiments can be controlled, data collected and
analysed, and records maintained automatically
through the use of lab automation. The Agency has
called upon experts from the Lawrence Livermore Labora-
tories to assist in the design and implementation of
EPA's lab automation systems. Both development and
operation of these systems will be financed with
Program funds.
The benefit of laboratory automation will be to in-
crease productivity, rather than to lower cost. The
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data processing expenditures on laboratory automation
will increase as hardware is acquired and will then
decline after all the laboratories are equipped. Be-
cause the hardware is dedicated to the laboratory use
and will be purchased rather than leased, only main-
tenance expenses will be recurring.
(8) Special studies are used to generate reports in res-
ponse to congressional inquiries and to support
special research projects.
f
Special studies represent an application class only
in the budgetary sense. They represent one time non-
recurring computer expenditures used to generate
special reports from existing data bases, from newly
constructed models, or from specially designed data
bases.
Special studies may be extremely short in duration,
such as special reports on construction grants. An
answer to a specific outside inquiry may take only
a few days and may be paid for out of operational
budgets on current systems. At the other extreme,
a study may take several years and require a special
staff and separate funding. The Regional Air Pol-
lution Study (RAPS) system and the California sulphur
42 index systems inc
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dioxide study are examples of large scale studies.
4. EACH EPA OFFICE HAS SPECIFIC ADP NEEDS.
This section describes the current and anticipated future
ADP needs of the major EPA organizational units.
(1) 0PM needs ADP to support the record-keeping and
management decision-making associated with adminis-
tering the Agency's affairs.
0PM needs ADP support primarily to automate the
clerical activities associated with administering
the Agency's work. The systems which already have
been developed for this purpose, for the most part,
are expensive to operate. The high cost of these
systems is attributable primarily to the large volume
of detailed information which is assembled and reported.
Yet this detailed information has not improved signi-
ficantly the ability of top managers to control and
administer Agency affairs. The widespread and varied
activities of the Agency require an Agencywide manage-
ment information system of relevant aggregate informa-
tion to support the coordinated evaluation and control
of EPA activities. The Program-Planning-Budgeting (PPB)
43 index systems inc
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system, for example, which relates dollars, programs,
and missions, could be expanded beyond its current
use in the annual budgeting cycle to be an integral
part of the on-going strategic planning and tactical
management of the Agency. Current administrative
uses of ADP and any future systems development should
be directed toward creating an integrated information
system for supporting the administrative and mana-
gerial decisions of the Agency.
Except for the need to better integrate management
information, the functional requirements of 0PM are
expected to remain stable over the next few years,
and the demand for ADP to support these functional
activities should remain flat or decrease as tech-
nical efficiencies are introduced.
(2) OEGC needs increased data processing-support to
facilitate the detection and prosecution of chronic
polluters.
The Office of Enforcement and General Counsel is
charged with developing and implementing programs to
insure that corporations and other businesses conform
to pollution control guidelines and regulations. As
more media programs progress into the enforcement
phase, the influx of paper-processing associated with
44 index systems inc
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the tracking, monitoring and litigation comprising
these enforcement activities will require increased
computer support for handling the growing workload.
The nature of this required computing support falls
into the following categories:
Compliance tracking and monitoring to insure
that permittees have conformed to the stipu-
lations of EPA or state-issued permits.
Enforcement action tracking indicating the
date, type and outcome of actions taken
against particular violators.
Data quality controls to insure that chemical
samples which are to be used in litigation
conform to judicial chain of evidence re-
quirements.
Summary reporting which provides Headquarters
with information concerning the activities of
regional and state enforcement divisions.
(3) OWHM needs ADP to monitor the quality of the nation's
waters and the issuance of construction grants.
The major need for ADP support by OWHM will continue to be
the maintenance of large water quality and pesticides data
bases and the monitoring of construction grants. Relative
to other environmental media, EPA's water programs are the
most advanced with respect to the six environmental activi-
ties identified earlier. However, changes will occur as
the monitoring activity of OWHM shifts from "random"
monitoring to more systematic monitoring using sampling
techniques and permanent monitoring stations. The
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introduction of standardized monitoring stations and
sampling techniques will lower the volume of stored
data but will increase the accuracy and usefulness
of the resulting national data bases. With the ex-
ception of a small increase in modeling activity,
such as river basin planning models, no major new
applications of ADP are anticipated in the near future,
Also, the trend of delegating increasing authority to
the states should keep OWHM's ADP requirements rela-
tively stable over the next few years.
(4) OAWM needs ADP to monitor the quality of the Nation's
air and to support on-going research in other cate-
gorical programs.
OAWM needs ADP primarily to maintain the national air
quality data systems, and to perform modeling and
other statistical analysis. Air programs, like the
water programs, will continue to use computers to
support their monitoring activities. However, the
use of ADP to support these activities is expected
to continue at a constant rate for the next few years.
OAWM will be augmenting its effort in two areas in
the near future: (1) energy-related studies, such as
analyzing the impact and control of pollution gene-
rated by power stations, and (2) mobile source pollution
index systems inc.
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studies, such as examining the economics and social
impact of an increase in gasoline taxes, parking
bans, etc. The effect of this shift in the Office's
ADP requirements will be to increase the need for
more modeling and research support.
The other offices within OAWM, such as Radiation,
Noise and Solid Waste, tend to be relatively minor
users of AOP. Their largest usage, at present, is
in the area of bibliographic services. There is
also some minor use of modeling within each of these
program areas. These modeling applications will con-
tinue at or slightly above their current levels into
the future with particular emphasis upon diffusion
models in radiation and simulation models in noise.
(5) ORE) needs increased ADP support for modeling and
scientific research.
The current ADP usage of ORD is applied, for the most
part, to the operation of program management systems,
statistical analyses, and laboratory automation. It
is apparent, however, that the Agency currently is
not employing ADP to its maximum advantage in support
of scientific activities. The nature of the research
process is such that scientists and technicians need
47 index systems inc
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convenient and reliable ADP tools to perform their
work. Furthermore, the activities of ORD are fre-
quently at the cutting edge of the Agency's work,
and in this capacity ORD is frequently called on to
perform immediate, high priority projects. These
projects and special studies often require rapid
and responsive ADP support in order to get the job
completed in the most effective manner. Therefore,
ORD will require more reliable, responsive, and
human-factored ADP services in the future.
(6) The regional offices need ADP to support enforce-
ment, administration and environmental quality
analysis.
The principal ADP activities of the jtegions are in
the areas of enforcement compliance and monitoring,
administration, and air and water quality analysis.
The characteristics of this usage and projected
future usage are determined by the needs of the
corresponding Headquarters offices. However, as
environmental program responsibilities are shifted
to state agencies, the regional offices will expend
increasing resources providing technical assistance
to the states and monitoring the resulting perfor-
mance of the local programs. Consequently, the
48 index systems inc
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regional use of ADP will shift from clerical pro-
cessing and filing of materials associated with
executing environmental programs to reporting sum-
mary statistics concerning the activities of state
agencies. The regions also will increase their use
of Agency-developed models relating to power stations,
mobile source pollution, river basin planning and
the disposal of hazardous materials.
5. OWHM AND 0PM' ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR MOST ADP EXPENDITURES.
Exhibit 2-5, following this page, shows the allocation
of the Agency's ADP timesharing costs among the five
Headquarters organizational units. The program usage
in the Regional Offices has been allocated to the approp-
riate Headquarters program offices. As illustrated in
the exhibit, the largest ADP usage is in OWHM and 0PM.
0PM Ls high proportional usage is attributable to
conversion and administrative costs associated with
the Research Trinagle Park iRTPLjComputer Center and
to the operation of several expensive administrative
systems.
OWHM's ADP expenditures are attributable primarily
to the operation of the STORET system.
ORD, which has one of the largest Agency operating budgets
and has been allocated approximately 20% of EPA's full-
time positions, makes relatively little use of ADP by
49 index systems inc
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Exhibit 2-5
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
ADP Timesharing Expenditures by Office
$ Millions
4.o
3.5
3.0 -
2.5 -
2-0 -
If
1.0
.5
V
o
in
0PM
OEGC
OWHM
OAWM
ORD
-------
comparison. Furthermore, almost one-third of ORD's ADP
usage is for program management or word processing rather
than for research and scientific activities.
6. THE COORDINATED ADP PLAN SHOULD REALLOCATE ADP RESOURCES
TO CONFORM WITH AGENCY PRIORITIES BY PLACING GREATER
EMPHASIS UPON SCIENTIFIC APPLICATIONS.
The preceeding sections described EPA strategies, orga-
nization, ADP utilization and current and future ADP
needs. The key observation resulting from this discussion
is that ADP resources are not distributed currently in
ways necessary to satisfy overall Agency needs. Instead,
certain program areas and application classes tend to
dominate ADP usage. The coordinated ADP plan in Chapter V
will present a series of action steps designed to rectify
this imbalance by modifying or eliminating non-essential
systems and by developing new applications to satisfy
pressing Agency needs. These steps will result in a
general shift in ADP usage away from clerical and operations-
oriented data collection and reporting applications and
towards increased use of data processing to support the
basic scientific activities of the Agency.
51 index systems inc
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III. MANAGEMENT OF ADP RESOURCES
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III. MANAGEMENT OF ADP RESOURCES
This chapter describes policies and procedures currently
used in managing data processing resources within the Agency.
This discussion is organized into three sub-sections con-
cerning computer equipment and facilities policies, management
of systems development, and ADP staffing.
1. THE AGENCY CURRENTLY IS USING TWO PRIMARY COMPUTER
FACILITIES.
EPA primarily uses computers in Washington and in North
Carolina. Optimum Systems, Inc. (OSI) is a commercial
vendor located in Washington operating IBM computers
for EPA. The Agency itself operates a Univac 1110 com-
puter at its Research Triangle Park (RTP) facility in
Durham, North Carolina. In addition, EPA uses computing
facilities provided by the National Institute of Health
(NIH), Informatics (ENVIRON), Bowne Time Sharing (BTS),
Health Services Administration (HSA), and the Department
of the Interior (USGS). Dedicated mini-computers also
are used for specialized systems at Agency laboratories.
The following table summarizes this usage:
52 index systems inc
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Location Purpose
OSI General Purpose Data Processing
RTF General Purpose Data Processing
NIH General Purpose Data Processing
ENVIRON Text Searching/Bibliographic
BTS Word Processing
HSA Financial Management
USGS Personnel System (DIPS)
Agency Offices and Labs Special Applications
Each of these facilities is described in more detail
in Appendix C.
(1) The Washington and RTP facilities support most of
the application needs of the agency.
Most of the data processing needs of the Agency require
conventional computer hardware and software support.
Only word processing and lab automation require special
features not available normally from a general purpose
digital computer. Although some bibliographic systems
make special use of the capabilities of the ENVIRON
system offered by Informatics, other comparable systems
are run at OSI and RTP.
53 index systems inc
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Exhibit 3-1 on the following page, illustrates the
distribution of application classes by computer
vendors currently used by EPA. Note that OSI and
RTF support the same application classes except for
tracking and reporting systems, which are not opera-
ted at RTF at present.
(2) EPA is consolidating computer services onto the
Washington and RTF facilities.
During FY 1974, over 85% of the ADP timesharing budget
was spent on the OSI and RTF facilities. The current
distribution of usage is shown in the table below:
Facility FY'74 Expenditures ($000)
OSI 6,034
RTF 2,043
NIH 1,462
ENVIRON 527
BTS 570
HSA 317
USGS 390
The use of outside services will decline further as
additional systems are consolidated onto the two
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Exhibit 3-1
D.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Distribution of Application
Classes by Computer Facilities
OS I
RTF
ENVIRON
BTS
NIH
HSA
uses
MINICOMPUTERS
TRACKING 6
REPORTING
/
V
/
/
/
TREND &
MONITOR
/
/
TECHNICAL
DATA BASE
>/
/
V
WORD
PROCESSING
BIBLIO-
GRAPHIC
/
V/
/
MODEL &
SCIENTIFIC
/
>/
/
LAB AUTO-
MATION
s
SPECIAL
STUDIES
>/
V
,
in
in
-------
facilities. For example, the Grants Information
Control System (GIGS) has just been moved from NIH
to OSI, and the Mobile Source System will move to OSI
shortly.
(3) The OSI and RTF computer centers differ in terms of
configuration flexibility.
The current OSI contract and the Federal regulations
which govern the use of the RTF facility influence
the configuration of the respective equipment. For
example, the current OSI contract requires that only
two spindles be available for mounting off-line private
packs. This requirement resulted from EPA users' pref-
erence for on-line storage of data. If this preference
changed, OSI could add more off-line spindles quickly
and easily. More generally, OSI is required by contract
to provide a certain level of ADP service consistent with
Agency demands. Consequently, as Agency workloads in-
crease or change, OSI modifies its equipment configuration
so as to support these changes.
The RTF facility, by contrast, cannot respond as
rapidly as OSI to demands for configuration changes.
Since it is an Agency facility, major equipment up-
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grades must conform to Federal equipment approval
procedures and therefore may take up to three years
to implement. If done more than two times, these
upgrades may require a new facility Request for
Proposal (RFP). Consequently, RTF has installed
enough excess capacity to withstand a three-fold
increase in daily work level so as to avoid the need
for a major upgrade.
(4) OSI provides better communication support than RTF.
At present, the OSI facility is much more available
to non-local users. The Agency supports currently
several hundred low and medium speed terminals at
Headquarters. the NERCS, and in the regions. Each
terminal is capable of communicating with the OSI
and RTF facilities. The OSI facility currently sup-
ports over 190 on-line communications ports. RTF
has six medium speed and 58 low speed ports. Although
the computer equipment is as capable as OSI of com-
munications with EPA's geographically distributed user
base, RTF requires significant upgrading of its medium
speed communications facilities before it can become
more widely available for Agency use.
57 index systems inc
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(5) The system designer must make an explicit decision
on which facility an application is to be developed
and run.
All EPA applications cannot run equally well at RTF
and OSI. Since OSI runs IBM 370 computers and RTF
supports a Univac 1110 configuration, OSI has more
system software and proprietary software packages
available to it than RTF. Application programs devel-
oped for use on the IBM facility, in mariv cases, will
not be transferrable to the Univac 1110. Many of the
IBM software systems used by the Agency (EASYTRIEVE,
IRS and MARK IV) are not available currently on the
Univac equipment. Consequently, the system designer
has fewer alternatives available to him on the RTF
facility. In most cases, even application programs
written in a language supported by both facilities,
e.g. COBOL, cannot be transferred easily.
(6) Differences in pricing policies at OSI and RTF
influence the types of processing performed at each
installation.
OSI charges comparatively higher rates than some
service bureaus for computer time but less than others
for on-line storage. This structure favors a large
trend and monitoring system at the expense of more
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computational programs. OSI also has modified their
pricing scheme, at Agency request, to favor on-line,
interactive applications over batch processing.
OSI bills communications charges to the Agency according
to the number of hours of connect time used. Most of
OSI's costs for communications are fixed price leased
lines or WATS lines. Their contract rates must thus
be set to recover these fixed costs at the expected
usage level. Any usage above these levels generates
considerable profit for OSI if no equipment is added.
As usage level per line increases, rates should de-
crease. Also, since communication costs are fixed,
the unit charges cannot be lowered unless utilization
increases. Any other change in rates would have to
be offset with increases elsewhere.
The pricing scheme at RTF is different from OSI,
because the equipment and operational costs are fixed.
The charge per resource hour for the facility is ad-
justed periodically to recover costs. As usage goes
up, rates decrease. The computer charges are set to
recover equipment rental, supplies, maintenance and
facilities management costs.
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RTF is using currently the standard UNIVAC billing
formula. Because of the on-line orientation of the
1110, the formula charges more for tape operations
than disk activity. This pricing scheme penalizes
those systems which are built to use the lower cost
tape storage and rewards systems which store data
on disk.
(7) EPA uses outside contractors to manage its facilities.
Headquarters has little expertise in facility manage-
ment. Its current responsibilities require only the
contract management of its major facility, OSI. The
OSI contract delegates the responsibility to the
contractor for computer planning and operations,
physical plant planning and operations, and system
software support.
The Agency staff is primarily responsible for manage-
ment of the OSI contract, negotiations on rate changes,
operation of TSSMS and preparation of charge back
notices to Agency users. Design and programming support
is provided by OSI rather than by MIDSD.
The Data Systems Division at RTF is directly respon-
sible for installation and operation of the Univac 1110.
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The equipment procurement was handled by the Agency,
and the hardware is located in an EPA facility. When
the Agency operated an IBM 360/50, the branch personnel
ran the facility. The Univac 1110 requires more per-
sonnel support than did the IBM machine, and conse-
quently/ a facilities management contract has been
signed to provide the operations staff for the machine.
The Agency office at RTF provides systems analysis,
and programming support to users to the extent pos-
sible, and also assists in contracting for outside
vendor-supplied services.
The role of the Data Systems Division at RTF differs
from MIDSD in two respects. Because the Univac 1110
is government-based, the RTF staff is directly respon-
sible for operational issues. MIDSD, by contrast,
contracts for the rate structure charged by OSI for
machine usage. At RTF the personnel in the Data Support
Branch have a more technical background, and thus
offer more technical support to EPA users than is
normally provided by MIDSD.
2. GOVERNMENT PRACTICES INDUCE EPA TO UNDERTAKE CONVERSIONS
OF MAJOR SYSTEMS TO NEW FACILITIES.
Since its inception, the Agency has been undergoing a
continual shifting of its systems from one operating
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environment to another. When EPA was created in 1970
out of other Federal Agencies and Departments, most of
EPA's data processing remained on the computer systems
provided by the predecessor Departments. Over time
EPA consolidated this processing load to the degree that
it could justify its own computing center. However,
Government policies forbid an Agency from obligating
Federal funds for more than one year at a time. Although
computer facility contracts can be written and renewed
annually, Federal contracting practices do not encourage
the continued renewal of such contracts year after year
without competitive bids. Hence, EPA has tended to issue
RFP's for computer vendors approximately every three years,
Any conversion of systems from one location to another
will require a period of parallel operations. The old
facility should be maintained for one to two months
before it can be discontinued. At current OSI usage
levels, this conversion costs $0.5-1 million.- In addi-
tion, some systems will require program conversion or
reprogramming, even when moved to another machine of the
same type. These combined costs easily can exceed $1
million.
In a few cases, the Agency has been forced to convert
because a government computer service facility has res-
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trieted its availability. For example, the NIH compu-
ter work load has grown to the point where they have
required EPA to terminate its usage of their facility.
3. CURRENT ADP USAGE IS CONTROLLED AND BUDGETED FROM A
SPECIAL FUND MANAGED BY THE "OFFICE OF PLANNING AND
MANAGEMENT.
The ADP Fund is budgeted by Management Information and
Data Systems Division (MIDSD) of 0PM. Timesharing costs
are allocated among each of the major EPA budget cate-
gories. These costs are appropriated as part of the
Agency budget process. ADP budget planning is based on
last year's expenditures, incremented by changes in scope
or direction of major Agency programs. No zero base
budgeting has been required by Agency policy.
In the future, all ADP users will be including ADP cost
projections in their budgets. A charge-back mechanism
initiated in July, 1974, will be used to monitor actual
usage against budgeted usage. Individual ceilings will
be established to prevent total ADP fund overruns.
In order to better monitor ADP usage, MIDSD has been
operating the Timesharing Services Management System
(TSSMS) to track timesharing expenditures by program ele-
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ment. TSSMS produces monthly statements for each ADP
sub-allowance holder, indicating ADP cost-to-date. The
system tracks computer charges from OSI, BTS, ENV, HSM,
NIH, USG, and several smaller service bureaus. During
FY'75, RTF will be added. TSSMS will form the basis of
chargebacks to sub-allowance holders.
4. ADP MANAGEMENT CONTROL IS A HIGHLY DECENTRALIZED PROCESS
AT EPA.
Agency management policies provide program and regional
managers with a great deal of decision-making authority.
ADP management control, accordingly, is distributed
throughout the Agency.
(1) Senior EPA management has not guided development
efforts through the setting of Agency policies or
project priorities.
Only recently have the pressures of budget constraints
and lack of support for meeting program objectives
focused senior management attention on the issue of
ADP. The needs analysis for system development has
been a bottom-up process, originating from the lower
levels of the Agency. Senior management has not con-
trolled strategically the growth of ADP usage or coor-
dinated its usage between programs. Very few inter-
64 index systems inc
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program trade-offs are made in the allocation of
ADP Fund monies. In addition, very little software
has been developed, with the exception of a few
administrative systems, which was intended to be
shared between programs with similar functional re-
quirements .
(2) Less than five percent of the ADP personnel costs
are spent on the planning and control of ADP within
the Agency.
Very few resources have been allocated to support
adequate planning and control of the ADP expendi-
tures at EPA. In terms of volume, most of these
resources are located presently within ORD as part
of their Program Management activities and have very
little influence on Agencywide practices. MIDSD,
within 0PM, is the other locus of activity.
Allocation of ADP Fund monies is made on the basis of
past requirements. Very little zero-base budgeting
of ADP resources is done within the Agency. Program
offices are asked to project their needs based on
last year's requirements and some sense for next year's
incremental needs. These projections are accumulated
to specify agencywide requirements.
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(3) New systems are developed by program offices without
regard to overall Agency priorities.
New system development projects are initiated by
program personnel in response to information needs
or personnel shortages. Since new development is
funded from program budgets, Agency managers are
concerned only with the cost benefits of system de-
velopment versus other potential program projects.
Furthermore, program managers have little concern
for operational cost implications of development
projects, since the operating costs for the result-
ing systems are provided by the ADP Fund, and there-
by/ are independent of other program budgets. As a
result, new systems are developed reflecting the
local needs and availability of program funds rather
than the overall priorities of the Agency as a whole,
(4) New policies and procedures for the justification,
procurement, and development of new systems are
being developed by MIDSD of 0PM.
Under the authority of EPA Order 1210.3A (6/4/73),
the Director of MIDSD must approve requisitions for
ADP equipment, studies, and services. The policies
and procedures governing this approval process are
described in EPA Order 2800.1 (4/2/74), wherein all
66 index systems inc
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ADP requisitions must be justified on the basis of
a feasibility study to ensure conformance with
government and Agency standards, to ensure that
alternatives have been considered, and to provide
for audit benchmarks.
MIDSD also is preparing the Agency's first ADP
manual. This manual will impose needed standards
on Agency development activities. It will cover the
following five areas:
. Development Cycle of EDP Systems
ADP Resources Available on an Agencywide
Basis
Obtaining ADP Equipment and Services from
Non-EPA Sources
Standardization of Data Elements and Repre-
sentation
Documentation Standards and Requirements
For this manual to be effective, care must be taken
to insure that the standards are implementable and
that a mechanism is provided to insure adherence to
these standards.
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(5) The Agency lacks an information source to provide
management with an accurate, timely profile of ADP
expenditures for system development and the status
of development projects.
ADP project costs are composed of ADP Fund monies,
ADP personnel costs, and program funds spent on
outside contractors. Consequently, no consolidated
reporting on ADP project costs is produced regularly.
Because development is highly decentralized and
because there are no clear standards for acceptance
testing and installation, many projects cannot sepa-
rate what monies they are spending on development
from funds spent on maintenance or other related ex-
penditures. Furthermore, no Agencywide project con-
trol standards exist to test the status of projects
and to identify variances from planned specifications,
development costs, or operational cost estimates.
As a result, project control, acceptance testing,
installation, and operation of software developed
by contractors has been under-managed. Few systems
developed for the Agency by contractors have been
installed on time or within budget. This poor record
is attributable to a lack of definitive design speci-
fications and to the absence of management controls
68
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to identify and rectify variances from planned
specifications or quality criteria.
5. EPA SPENDS APPROXIMATELY $7.2 MILLION ANNUALLY ON
AGENCYWIDE ADP PERSONNEL SALARIES.
Exhibit 3-2, following this page, presents the distribution
and cost of full and part-time Agency personnel by organi-
zation and geographic location as indicated in the October
1974 "Organizational Schedule of Employees". As indicated
in the Exhibit, there are approximately 454 people cate-
gorized currently as ADP personnel within the Agency.
Included in this category are personnel who spend 50% or
more of their time using ADP, who work in an organizational
group which is defined as an ADP unit, or whose job titles
indicate ADP responsibilities. The total salary level
for these personnel is $7.2 million, or approximately
$16,000 per person. These personnel are deployed quite
evenly throughout the Agency with the exception of OEGC,
which has very few ADP professionals.
The major pockets of Agency ADP expertise reside in
the Washington, D.C. and Durham, N.C. areas. The Head-
quarters offices and the Research Triangle Park facility
account for almost 75% of the Agency's ADP personnel.
This distribution occurs because most ADP personnel
were located in these areas prior to the formation of
69
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exhibit 3-2
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Distribution of ADP Personnel and Personnel Cos.ts ($000,000)
OPM
OEGC
OWHM
OAWM
ORD
Regions
TOTALS
Washington
Durham
Other
TOTALS
65 people
$1.1 M
28 people
$ .5 M
93 people
$1.6 M
3 people
$ .1 M
6 people
$ .1 M
9 people
$ .2 M
105 people
$1.8 M
105 people
$1.8 M
1 person
64 people
$ .8 M
11 people
$ .2 M
76 people
$1.0 M
37 people
$ .7 M
34 people
$ .5 M
52 people
$ .7 M
123 people
$1.9 M
48 people
$ .7 M
48 people
$ .7 M
211 people
$3.7 M
126 people
$1.8 M
117 people
$1.7 M
454 people
$7.2 M
o
r-
-------
the EPA, and because these two locations contain the
major equipment facilities of the Agency.
6. EPA SALARY LEVELS FOR ADP PERSONNEL ARE HIGHER THAN THE
NATIONAL AVERAGES, BUT THESE LEVELS HAVE NOT BEEN SUFFI-
CIENT TO DEVELOP A SUPERIOR INTERNAL ADP STAFF.
EPA data processing personnel have been classified into
three categories for comparative salary analysis as
shown in the following table:
Role
ADP Management
and Supervision
Analysis/Programming
Operations/Clerical
Support
Average
Annual
Salary
$27,000
National
Averages
$19,000
Averages
for
Government
Agencies
$22,000
$18,000
$ 9,700
$14,300
$ 8,000
$15,000
$ 9,500
The.data used to support this classification was generated
from the "Organizational Schedule of Employees", through
interviews with a sample of section and branch directors,
and through inferential analysis of ADP work products.
Comparative salary levels for industry and government
are based on a survey conducted and printed in Infosysterns
September, 1974.
71
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A gross analysis of these data indicates that Agency AOP
managers and supervisors are paid over 40% more than their
private industry equivalents, and analysts and programmers
are paid 25% more than their counterparts. Notwithstanding
these high compensation levels, system development and
project management appear to be the very areas in which
EPA is weakest in ADP support. This weakness, therefore,
cannot be attributed to insufficient salary levels.
Rather, this weakness is attributable to EPA difficulty
in developing or attracting qualified personnel for
career and professional reasons rather than for finan-
cial reasons.
With the data available, the study team was able to
draw five general conclusions about the status of EPA's
skills inventory, as follows:
There is no senior management at EPA with a
significant background in ADP.
Most EPA analysts are functionally (program)
oriented and have little experience in the
management of large ADP system development
projects.
Most non-scientific programming is contracted
outside.
Insufficient skills exist for EPA to exploit
properly technological developments in the areas
of data base management software, communication
and on-line systems software, and mini-computers,
EPA presently does not employ the resources
necessary to manage a major on-line facility
such as at RTP or OSI without the use of outside
facility management contracts.
72 index systems inc
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7. THE ADP PLAN SHOULD PROVIDE MORE EFFECTIVE ADP SERVICE
AT LOWER COST THROUGH THE DEVELOPMENT OF A COORDINATED
EQUIPMENT STRATEGY, THE INTRODUCTION OF REVISED BUDGETARY
POLICIES, AND THE REDEPLOYMENT OF TECHNICAL PERSONNEL.
This chapter has described the policies and procedures
currently used to manage data processing resources within
the Agency. The key observation resulting from this
discussion is that ADP services are currently more ex-
pensive and less effective than they should be because,
until recently, ADP management policies have been only
a minor concern of top EPA management. The ADP plan
presented in Chapter V will present a series of policy
and procedural recommendations to control and coordinate
the utilization of ADP resources. These policies will
include a hardware and equipment strategy coordinated
with the system development steps comprising the plan,
a proposed redeployment scheme for ADP personnel and a
set of budgetary, project management and system devel-
opment guidelines for insuring that ongoing Agency
computer usage is controlled and consistent with EPA
objectives and needs.
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IV. PROBLEM AREAS
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IV. PROBLEM AREAS
This chapter describes several problem areas in which the
use and provision of data processing resources fail to
satisfy essential Agency needs. These problem areas concern
factors affecting the control of current and new system
development and usage, the pricing and delivery of computer
time and the recruitment and deployment of ADP personnel.
1. THE INCREASING COST OF DATA PROCESSING WITHIN EPA IS
DUE PRIMARILY TO THE PROLIFERATION OF APPLICATION
SYSTEMS AND THE UNCONTROLLED EXPANSION OF EXISTING
SYSTEMS
Data processing costs within EPA have increased as
program managers grow increasingly aware of the ways
in which ADP can be used to circumvent their personnel
limitations and as existing trend, monitoring, tracking
and reporting systems have expanded well beyond their
original design assumptions.
(1) The scope of many application systems either
exceeds or fails to service the actual naeds
of EPA users.
Many systems operating at EPA today were developed
at predecessor agencies such as the Department of
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Interior or the Department of Health, Education
and Welfare. Although these systems may have
been cost-justifiable at their inception, their
current costs no longer seem in line with Agency
priorities.
Some systems have come to utilize highly sophis-
ticated data processing equipment and techniques
even though users could be serviced adequately
by simpler and less costly alternatives. For
example, the Noise library information system
costs approximately $500 per retrieval for computer
time, whereas comparable, though simpler, EPA library
retrieval systems in other program offices provide
similar services at a fraction of this cost.
Ambient environmental quality data bases in the
air (SAROAD) and water (STORET) programs are
designed to service similar needs, namely,to
provide a repository of information for modeling
and environmental quality planning and reporting.
Nonetheless, restricted features, such as the
absence of interactive usage, make the cost of the
air system but a small percentage of the cost of
the water system.
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Many Headquarters systems provide national data
bases of technical environmental information.
These systems increase in size and in cost as
more and more information is included. The just-
ification for these data bases is based heavily
on the support they will provide to researchers,
enforcement personnel and to environmental quality
planners. Since system designers insist that it
is impossible to anticipate all the information
that future users will require, they design these
systems to include a broad range of potentially
interesting environmental parameters. However,
the purported users have found that the assembled
data is rarely suitable for their needs. Researchers
and planners have found that information contained
in national data bases, such as STORET, require so
much filtering and "cleaning" that it is often-
times faster and cheaper to assemble manually the
required data. Enforcement personnel likewise
have found that national system data is insufficient
for court use and that special redundant sampling
must be conducted by regional surveillance and
analysis staffs to assemble judicially acceptable
evidence for litigation.
76 index systems inc
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(2) Many Headquarters designed systems have been
justified on the grounds that they support
regional needs but these systems have failed
to prove useful in practice.
Program managers at Headquarters often have found
uses for computer systems which would simplify or
expedite their own work. Frequently, however,
these uses cannot be cost-justified based on the
Headquarters provided benefits alone. Therefore,
many managers have designed or proposed systems
which were purported to service regional users as
well. Frequently, the purpose of these systems
was described as relieving the clerical or paper-
work burden that national programs would otherwise
impose on the limited resources of local staffs.
However, many of these systems have either failed
to service regional needs or have increased the
paperwork burden imposed on regional staffs.
The oil and hazardous materials system, TADS, was
described by Headquarters personnel as providing
an indispensible service to regional users.
Regional users, by contrast, indicated that they
found the system of little use and that a well
designed loose-leaf notebook could provide more
efficient and practicable service. Similarly, the
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General Point Source File (GPSF) had been pro-
posed originally to support regional and state
enforcement personnel. Yet many of the features of
the system, such as the encoding of reported
Discharge Monitoring Report conditions, actually
increase regional workloads without providing
corresponding benefits. Regional personnel indi-
cated, as a general rule, that most Headquarters
systems fail to assess regional needs, and, there-
fore, produce added burdens on local personnel
without providing corresponding promised benefits.
(3) The lack of Agencywide review and coordination
have led to redundant and costly systems.
Each program office retains primary responsibility
for conceiving, promoting, financing and developing
systems to support program needs. Until recently,
most such system ideas were never reviewed by
anyone outside of the originating office. Con-
sequently, many systems were designed and many
dollars were expended "reinventing" systems which
already existed in other program offices. For
example, there are currently four separate library
abstract retrieval systems operated for Noise,
Solid Waste, Pesticides and Air. Each of the
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system users have similar requirements, yet the
four systems were designed and programmed inde-
pendently, and still operate on three separate
computer facilities.
Due to this absence of formal coordination, EPA
personnel with specialized expertise or experience
were not called upon to assist in the development
of related systems. Consequently, design and
management principles, such as editing or data base
administration, that were introduced into the
development process of some systems were absent
in the development of others. User groups were
unable to learn from the experiences of others.
Today, this same pattern exists among the ten
regions. Most have developed independently their
own GPSF back-ups and mailing list programs. A
more regular and formal sharing of expertise and
software would help reduce these redundant efforts
and lower overall Agency ADP expenses.
(4) Most feasibility studies for new systems failed
to justify why the systems were needed.
The study team's review of several feasibility
studies failed to uncover evidence justifying the
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need for the proposed systems. The absence of
such justification made it difficult to judge the
merits of the proposed requests. Furthermore, it
raised the possibility that the program managers
may not have considered fully the possibility of
using simpler manual systems to satisfy their needs,
Rather, the only alternatives presented, in most
cases, showed that one computer system approach
was less costly than another. In few cases were
there any indications of the consequences of not
building a system at all. Therefore, it was quite
difficult for non-program personnel to assess the
benefits which the proposed systems would provide.
More generally, we were impressed by the dearth
of conventional systems analytical effort and
expertise implicit in these feasibility studies
and in the comments of users in the field.
(5) Sound project management controls have not been
imposed on contractors.
Many systems developed for EPA have exceeded
original budgets and/or have failed to work as
specified. These problems are indicative of EPA's
lack of expertise in the management of development
projects and in the associated performance which
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should be expected from contractors. In many
cases, contractors have been hired to program
systems only to discover that the potential system
users continue to change the functional capabilities
required of the system. Few milestones and formal
acceptance conditions for contracted work normally
are specified.
The absence of sound project management controls
is not surprising since most systems are contracted
for by program offices which do not themselves
contain the technical expertise necessary to manage
such contracts. The required feasibility studies
help make program managers aware of the likely costs
and time frames of such development efforts. How-
ever, these studies are so new that no proposed
systems have yet been developed. Therefore, it
is difficult to assess the accuracy of the develop-
ment and computer time estimates contained in these
studies.
(6) Delays have been introduced into the development
process by requiring feas:
approved by HeadquartersT
process by requiring feasibility studies to be
b\
Several program managers were quite irate over
delays which they attributed to bureaucratic red
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tape and nit-picking. The contract officer for
the lab automation project, for example, indicated
that a six month delay was caused by a disagreement
between, the developer and Headquarters concerning
the computer language in which the system would be
written. The project officer for the SWIRS system
indicated that he was forced to expend resources
examining the feasibility of two separate computer
systems, neither one of which was relevant to his
problem. More generally, users throughout the
Agency have indicated that they distrusted the
technical competence of the Headquarters review
staff and that they felt projects were delayed for
unsound technical reasons. These users indicated
that Headquarters staff did not appreciate fully
the pressures under which program managers operate,
and that, as a result, delays were imposed by
Headquarters without due regard to the impact of
these delays upon mission objectives.
2. THE PRICING AND AVAILABILITY OF COMPUTER TIME HAVE
CONTRIBUTED TO POOR SERVICE AND EXCESSIVE COSTS
Most of EPA's application systems are operated on EPA
computers at Optimum Systems Inc. (OSI) or at Research
Triangle Park (RTP) and are paid for from a special
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ADP fund managed within the Office of Planning and
Management. Several systems, however, continue to
operate at other computer centers, either because the
systems require special facilities not provided by
the EPA computers, or because program managers have not
yet shifted their applications to Agency computers.
The shift of Agency workloads onto the OSI and RTP
computers was motivated by a desire to reduce ADP costs
and increase control and coordination over ADP utiliza-
tion. It was believed that a reduction in computer
vendors used by the Agency would lead to lower computer
charges as a result of volume discounts and a simplified
EPA negotiating posture. In addition, such a consolid-
ation would relieve program managers from the burdens
of separately negotiating ADP contracts.
The following six sections discuss problems which
have arisen which reduce the effectiveness of these
policies.
(1) Current policies cause considerable expense and
disruption in service due to frequent changes
in computer vendors.
The Federal Government requires that Federal funds
not be obligated for more than one year at a time.
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Consequently, contracts with computer vendors
last only one year and must be renewed annually.
Government practices encourage Agencies to open
such contracts for competitive bids periodically.
The Agency's contract with OSI was a result of
just such a competitive bid. However, whenever a
new vendor is selected, all application systems
must be converted to the new vendor's computer
configuration. These conversions require that all
users retest their systems on the new vendor's equip-
ment to insure that coding conventions and design
assumptions are consistent with the new computer con-
figuration.
The time necessary to change vendors and to perform
required system tests detracts from resources
needed to pursue mission objectives. Agency sources
estimate that the cost of shifting computer vendors
costs approximately $1 million. These costs do
not include the disruption in service occasioned
by the switch. In the past, EPA has underestimated
these conversion costs and loss of mission service
into the cost-benefit analysis used to select a
vendor. Therefore, the Agency disrupted services
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and incurred conversion costs to a oreater extent
Agency officials now are investigating the possibil-
ity of purchasing their own equipment (the Washington
Computer Center) as a means of stabilizing service to
users and avoiding these repeated conversion costs.
(2) Maintaining data bases on-line is very expensive,
but rarely required.
Much of the information contained in EPA data
bases is kept in on-line disk storage. This form
of storage enables users to access desired infor-
mation readily at their terminals in a short time.
In addition, the systems designed to utilize such
on-line storage generally require less operator
intervention and simpler coding. However, the
costs of maintaining all this on-line storage can
be enormous. The STORET system, for example,
currently keeps all its data on 30 on-line IBM
3330 disks. These disks cost approximately $1200
per month each, or over $430,000 per year for all
30 disks. Yet most uses of STORET data are not
time sensitive, and could be serviced by the over-
night reporting which off-line storage would entail,
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(3) Time delays are introduced and local management
controls are inhibited by current accounting
conventions.
EPA personnel cannot use the OSI computing facility
unless an account number is requested and approved
by the EPA contract officer. This procedure pre-
vents anyone from using the computer without first
gaining the approval of the program manager or a
designated ADP coordinator who is responsible for
the sub-allocation of funds within his office or
division. However, this process can take anywhere
from a week to several months to complete depend-
ing upon the efficiency of the procedures adopted
within program offices and the workload of the
OSI contract officer.
Because of these delays, users employ account
numbers which have been issued previously for
other purposes. In this way, accounting statistics
indicating the type and amount of computer usage
by program element grow misleading. Local data
systems branch chiefs and system managers want
users to employ proper account numbers so as to
better monitor computer usage. These branch chiefs
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and managers would have better information, thereby,
with which to forecast future needs and to plan
accordingly. However, so long as users continue
to employ account numbers which have been assigned
for other purposes, managers will be hindered from
establishing the controls which will service best
EPA information needs.
(4) Budgetary policies tend to encourage wasteful
uses of computing resources.
EPA currently employs an incremental budgeting
approach for projecting annual ADP costs. Each
program mission is asked to forecast its antici-
pated yearly ADP requirements. Within most program
areas, these forecasts represent a simple percent-
age increase over the preceding year's expenditure.
This policy tends to favor the less efficient and
more costly uses of ADP resources and tends to
discourage new uses of ADP in areas which have
not previously benefited from computerization.
Consequently, the budgeting process does not force
examination of the relative values of competing
demands for limited ADP resources but instead
tends to favor the entrenched and frequently
overly costly uses of Agency data processing.
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(5) Non-ADP budget constraints increase the use and
cost of ADP.
Computer expenses are paid from a specially
budgeted ADP Fund. Each program manager receives
a sub-allowance from this fund to cover his group's
computer usage. Program managers also receive
separate allowances for personnel and for other
program activities. However, Congress had imposed
a personnel ceiling limiting the number and types
of EPA full-time employees. Program managers have
found that they can use ADP money to pay for
services, such as word processing, for which they
would otherwise need to allocate personnel. Thus,
managers are prone to use ADP, even when computers
are not cost-effective, as a means of freeing
positions for use in other areas. Likewise,
managers have operated expensive computer systems
which were not cost-effective rather than spend
program funds for related services. The Office of
Research and Development, for example, operates
an elaborate and expensive research milestone
tracking system on a computer even though a simpler
manual system might prove less costly. Their
desire to maintain this system on a computer is
motivated by their wish to allocate program dollars
88
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and personnel to other applications. Conse-
quently, ADP usage and costs have risen in order
not to exceed program and personnel ceilings.
(6) Free services to non-EPA users prevent an adequate
assessment of the worth of Agency systems.
Many EPA computer systems allow state, local and
private users to access Agency data files and pay
for such access with Agency funds. For example,
non-EPA users spent over $600,000 of EPA funds on
computers during fiscal year 1974. Most of these
funds were spent for usage of STORET. Not included
in these funds are other "hidden" EPA expenses.
For example, the Solid Waste Information Retrieval
System (SWIRS) serves more corporate and academic
users than it does government agencies at the
federal, state and local levels combined.
Given this "free" resource to non-EPA groups,
EPA managers cannot assess the value of these
systems to non-Agency groups. If outside users
were required to spend their own funds for such
usage, even if these funds were taken from Agency
grants, then the worth of these systems could be
better assessed.
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3. EPA PRACTICES INHIBIT THE RECRUITMENT AND DEVELOPMENT
OF ADP PERSONNEL
The Environmental Protection Agency consists primarily
of scientists, engineers, lawyers and clerical personnel.
Data processing is viewed by these groups as a tool to
service their needs in pursuing Agency objectives.
Accordingly, the personnel required to manage and
deliver these computer services have been viewed as
somewhat peripheral to the mainstream of Agency activi-
ties. The following four sections discuss problems in
the deployment of technical ADP personnel which have
resulted from this attitude.
(1) The scattering of ADP personnel throughout the
Agency inhibits the development of ADP managers
and senior technical personnel.
Computer programmers and analysts are spread quite
thinly throughout the programs, regions and labor-
atories. Most regional offices, for example,
contain no more than two or three professional
programmers. Many Environmental Research Centers
supplement their small ADP staff with scientists
or engineers, who spend time coding their own
programs. Since computer expertise is scattered
throughout the Agency, few projects developed
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in-house ever involve more than one or two
programmers. More complex systems are con-
tracted for outside. As a result, EPA personnel
rarely get any experience in systems analysis,
design or management skills which are needed for
promotion to more senior technical or management
levels. Because of the paucity of technical
personnel in any one location, a "critical mass"
of ADP personnel never forms. Without such a
"critical mass", more senior personnel cannot be
profitably employed nor can their skills be
exercised. More specifically, ADP skills and
expertise require an environment for development
consisting of a technical peer group of at least
five or six ADP personnel. Without such concen-
trations of personnel, in-house ADP efforts will
continue to be limited to simple, short-term
programming assignments.
(2) The limited opportunities for advancement within
EPA hinder the recruitment and retention of
qualified ADP personnel"!
Because EPA does not view ADP as part of the main-
stream of its operations and because technical
groups are kept small, ADP personnel grow dis-
enchanted with the opportunities for career
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advancement within the Agency. Skilled pro-
grammers find that they can develop their skills
more effectively in other Agencies or in private
industry. The only way an ADF specialist can
advance within the Agency is if he develops
expertise in a particular application area, such
as air or water. In this manner he can progress
within the relevant program area. Yet, such
advancement does not develop in him the requisite
perspective or insights necessary to manage ADP
activities. At present, there are no technically
based managers of ADP above the level of branch
chief throughout the Agency. More importantly,
there are no paths by which technical personnel
can aspire to higher positions, given the current
deployment of personnel. As a result of this
situation, program managers have found it diffi-
cult to hire or retain qualified ADP personnel.
In the few areas where qualified technical per-
sonnel have remained, such as in the water
programs, a critical mass of technical experts
had been formed in a predecessor Agency prior to
the creation of EPA.
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(3) The absence of senior ADP personnel limits the
ability of system developers to analyze properly
the functional requirements of program managers.
Most new system ideas within EPA originate from
needs which are felt or anticipated by program
personnel. These needs are translated into system
terms by contractors and in-house personnel who
usually report administratively to the managers
responsible for initiating the new system ideas.
Consequently, these developers are somewhat
hesitant to question or criticize their manager's
ideas. In particular, they are reluctant to
examine the feasibility of satisfying the program
need through non-computer methods. Since con-
tractors are eager to get large development jobs,
and since in-house personnel rarely have such
opportunities to gain visibility from higher level
managers, both groups tend to encourage the
development of systems which might not be.fully
cost justified. An adequate review of system
proposals can be performed best by more senior
personnel with broader Agency perspectives who
need not depend upon the proposed development
project to enhance their own chances for career
advancement.
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(4) The absence of Agencywide experts in modeling,
statistics and numerical analysis prevents
scientists from using ADP in the most effective
manner.
Throughout the Agency there are individuals who
are proficient in the use of mathematical tech-
niques to analyze and solve environmental problems.
However, these individuals tend to be responsible
for conducting special environmental research
projects. They are not responsible for assisting
other Agency scientists in the use of mathematical
methods to analyze data quality, model efficiency
or statistical reliability of computational algor-
ithms. Some individuals, such as those performing
toxicology research at the Cincinnati NERC, have
written their own statistical package because of
inadequacies they have identified in EPA supported
statistical packages. These revised statistical
routines could be made available to other researchers,
but are not dissemanated because currently there is
no central clearinghouse for dissemanating such
information. Consequently, researchers may be
using various mathematical techniques or software
packages which are inappropriate for their pur-
poses because these researchers have no resource
within the Agency to turn to for assistance.
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4. THE COORDINATED ADP PLAN SHOULD RECTIFY IDENTIFIED
PROBLEMS WITH THE SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT AND USAGE,
COMPUTER PRICING AND AVAILABILITY, AND PERSONNEL
RECRUITMENT AND DEPLOYMENT
This chapter has identified several problem areas
concerning the cost and management of system usage,
equipment pricing and personnel motivation. The key
observation resulting from this discussion is that
the absence of a clear, coordinated long term plan for
ADP within the Agency has allowed numerous technical
and management problems to arise. The action steps/
equipment strategy and personnel and management policies
presented in the next chapter deal with each of the
problems identified. Furthermore, the plan provides
a coordinated framework within which particular policy
issues concerning the allocation of ADP resources can
be resolved in an ongoing manner.
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V. COORDINATED ADP PLAN
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V. COORDINATED ADP PLAN
«
The preceding chapters have described the usage and manage-
ment of data processing at EPA and have identified specific
problem areas which contribute to the increasing cost and
decreasing control of ADP activities within the Agency. The
five year coordinated ADP plan, which follows, has been dev-
eloped to adjust computer usage to conform to Agency-wide
needs and objectives and to reduce and control subsequent ADP
expenditures through the establishment of ADP management
policies, standards, and guidelines.
More specifically, this plan is designed to trim the current
uses of ADP which capture and store vast quantities of little-
used information and to replace these uses with more science-
oriented programs and facilities. This shift in emphasis will
be accomplished, in part, through the creation of an Agency-
wide scientific data processing center at RTP and, in part,
through the introduction of more stringent management con-
trols to insure the justification for current and proposed
new information systems.
This chapter presents the coordinated plan for the cost,
allocation, and management of data processing resources at
EPA in five sections, as follows:
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. ADP Plan Summary
System Development Actions
Computer Equipment and Facilities Strategy
. ADP Staffing
ADP Management Policies
ADP PLAN SUMMARY
This section presents the summary of costs, cost savings,
action steps and policy changes comprising the five year ADP
plan for the Environmental Protection Agency. Subsequent
sections and Appendices contain a more detailed discussion
of the steps comprising this plan and the estimated costs
and cost savings associated with each action.
1. ADP EXPENDITURES WILL DECREASE BY $ 6 MILLION ANNUALLY
BY 1980.
Exhibit 5-1, on the following page, presents the ADP
costs for computer equipment and timesharing , systems
development and personnel for each of the next five years
as required by the proposed ADP plan. (None of the costs
in this chart, or elsewhere in this report, have been
adjusted for inflation.) The estimated current year ex-
penditures are based on FY'75 spending rates as incurred
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Exhibit 5-1
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Current and Projected ADP Expenditures ($000)
CURRENT
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
Computer Equipment
and Timesharing
Systems Development
-and Other Contract
Expenditures
Personnel
Total ADP
Expenditures
13,773
6,033
7,200
27,006
10,881
5, 922
7, 000
23,803
8,849
5,602
6,600
21,051
9,415
4,632
6,200
20,247
10,650
4,532
6,200
21,382
10,111
4,532
6,200
20,843
CO
CTl
-------
during the study period. This current year estimate
does not reflect any funding limitations which 0PM may
impose to bring FY'75 expenditures within the spending
constraints imposed by Congress.
The overall reduction in ADP expenditures from $27.,006,000
in 1975 to $20,843,000 in 1980 is attributable primarily
to the elimination of marginal applications, the shifting
of scientific computing to RTF and the imposition of
more stringent management and budgetary controls. Al-
though this budget forecast does include allocations for
the planning and development of new ADP applications,
primarily within ORD and OEGC, it does not reflect the
impact of new legislation, which might be passed in the
future, upon overall Agency needs or priorities, since
such legislation could not be predicted accurately during
the course of this study.
Exhibit 5-2 , on the following page, summarizes the
resulting cost savings provided by the plan. These cost
savings, both annual and cumulative, represent actual
cost reductions over current expenditure levels. They
do not indicate the still higher cost savings measured
by comparing the budget expenditures to the costs which
would be incurred if no action were taken and Agency
systems were allowed to grow without budget constraints.
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Exhibit 5-2
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Projected Cost Savings ($000)
Annual
Savings
Cumulative
Savings
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
3,203
3,203
5 >955
9,158
6,759
15,917
5,624
21,541
6,163
27,704
o
o
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2. THIRTEEN SYSTEMS ARE AFFECTED DIRECTLY BY THE ACTION PLAN.
The action plan consists of a series of staged activities
affecting the development, design and operation of Agency
systems, and of the providing of necessary resources and
management policies to implement these actions. Exhibit
5-3 i on the following page , summarizes the 13 major
systems or groups of systems which are affected directly
by these action steps. A subsequent section of this plan
describes each of these actions and systems in detail
and presents a quarter by quarter scenario for thier im-
plementation.
3. THE COMPUTER EQUIPMENT STRATEGY INVOLVES THE DEVELOPMENT
OF TWO AGENCY COMPUTER CENTERS.
Central to the recommendations of the coordinated ADP
plan is the development of an Agency-wide scientific
computing center at RTF. This facility would be centered
around the Univac 1110 computer and would utilize the
existing RTP staff and design philosophies employed by
current RTP systems. An enhanced communications network
and some programming modifications would enable most EPA
models and trend and monitoring systems to operate on
the Univac computer.
101
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Exhibit 5-3
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Systems Affected by Five Year Plan
SYSTEM
GPSF
PEMS
Word Processing
Program Management
STORET
TADS, SIRS
Bibliographic Systems
SEAS and Lake
Pollution Model
Administrative
Systems
Dun and Bradstreet
Enforcement Systems
Regional Modeling
Research System
OFFICE
OEGC, OWHM
OEGC
OWHM, ORD
ORD
OWHM
OWHM
OAWM
ORD
0PM
0PM
OEGC
Regions
ORD
ACTION
Separate into compliance and effluent data
base systems
Eliminate
Fund with program monies
Eliminate
Modify and shift to RTP
Eliminate
Eliminate or fund with program monies
Shift to RTP
Streamline systems
Cancel service
Prepare detailed plan for integrating and
developing new application systems
Shift to RTP
Prepare detailed plan for improving scientific
services
eg
o
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Most other Agency systems including administrative and
enforcement tracking and reporting systems would con-
tinue to operate on the OSI computer or its replacement.
The hardware requirements for these non-scientific sys-
tems have been identified and could be serviced adequately
by a facility computationally equivalent to one IBM
370/158. By 1978, a computing facility of this scope
should be created by EPA through the lease or purchase
of its own computing equipment.
4. ADP PERSONNEL WOULD BE ORGANIZED INTO FOUR GROUPS.
Data processing personnel within the Agency would be
organized into four groups responsible for (1) serving
regional and research center users, (2) supporting
environmental program needs, (3) managing the RTF and
OSI computer facilities, and (4) overseeing ADP budgets
and new development projects. This regrouping would
require a shift of technical development personnel from
the program offices to the computer facilities and to
the development groups, and an increased concentration
of project management and functional specification per-
sonnel within the program offices. This regrouping also
would result in a $1 million reduction in annual personnel
salaries and the elimination of approximately 64 ADP
positions throughout the Agency.
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5. EPA MANAGEMENT POLICIES SHOULD INCLUDE THE ESTABLISHMENT
OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT STANDARDS/ EXPANDED BUDGETARY
REPORTING AND IMPROVED ADP QUALITY CONTROLS.
The ADP management guidelines, as described in the co-
ordinated plan, are designed to control ADP expenditures
while improving data processing services provided to
Agency users. These guidelines involve the establishment
and enforcement of rigorous system development standards
and project management procedures. They involve also the
expansion of formal ADP budgeting to include ADP personnel
and contractor expenditures and the establishment of con-
trols to limit or prevent overruns of these ADP budget
ceilings. The management guidelines also direct OPM to
assume responsibility for ADP quality control through
the establishment of system and data standards and through
periodic auditing of major ongoing application systems.
SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT ACTIONS
This section describes the staging of system audits, evalu-
ations, modifications and new development activities compri-
sing the ADP plan. Each of these actions affect specific
systems or groups of systems.
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1. PRIMARY SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT ACTION STEPS WILL LAST FOR
TWO YEARS.
In order to implement the overall coordinated plan and
to achieve Agency ADP objectives, a series of action
steps were developed and prioritized. Because many of
the recommended steps require lead times and because
several steps could be undertaken only after earlier
steps had been completed, the action steps have been
phased over time to conform with the availability of
Agency resources and to expedite the completion of acti-
vities that are prerequisites to other action steps. The
resulting phased action plan covers a two year period.
(1) Major action will be initiated during the first
quarter of 1976.
Exhibit 5-4, on the following page, lists each of
these actions, their estimated elapsed time, their
estimated contractor and EPA personnel costs, and
the resulting savings in computer and personnel costs.
These action steps, which are described in detail in
Section 2 on a system by system basis, involve (1) the
elimination of the PEMS, ORD program management and
bibliographic systems, (2) the evaluation and potential
elimination of Bowne Time Sharing, TADS and SIRS (SPCC),
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Exhibit 5-4
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
System Actions
1976 FIRST QUARTER
System
GPSF
PEMS
Bowne Timesharing
ORD Program
Management
STORET
Action
Install Stop-gap
Cease Funding
Develop Replacement
Similar to NEDS
to Run at RTF
Eliminate
Elapsed Time
12 months
TAOS/SIRS(SPCC)
Bibliographic Systems
SEAS
Lake Pollution Study
Administrative Systems
Dun and Bradstreet
OEGC
Word Processing Study 3 months
Eliminate
Charge States for
Communications
Charge States for
STORET Usage
Reduce On-line Data 6 months
Reprogram for Shift
to RTP 12 months
Evaluate Need 3 months
Fund with Program
Monies, Eliminate,
or Charge Users
Shift to RTP 6 months
Shift to RTP 6 months
Evaluate Paper Flows
and Procedures 6 months
Cancel Service
Detailed Plan 3 months
EPA
Contractor Personnel
Cost ($000) Cost ($000)
300
30
60
600
10
100
60
100
10
40
200
Annual ADP
Fund Savings
C$000)
-120
554
150
410
50
600
Annual Personnel
Savings ($000)
150
324
vo
o
200
20
20
12
-------
(3) installation of a stop-gap enforcement GPSF and
development of a replacement effluent system, (4) mod-
ifications to STORET, SEAS and Lake Pollution modeling
in preparation for shifting them to RTF, (5) an eval-
uation of the paper flows and procedures employed in
0PM, (6) cancellation of the Dun and Bradstreet service,
and (7) a detailed ADP plan for OEGC.
The estimated development costs for implementing these
and subsequent actions are based on estimation pro-
cedures described in Appendix D. The anticipated cost
savings in computer and EPA personnel expenditures
are based on current system costs as presented in
Appendix A.
(2) New system development will continue through the
remainder of 1976.
During the remainder of 1976 initiated actions will
continue and new system development will begin.
Exhibit 5-5, on the following page, indicates the
quarter by quarter actions which will occur during
1976. Following their three month evaluations, Bowne
Time Sharing, TADS and SIRS (SPCC) will cease ADP Fund
support.
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Exhibit 5-5
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
System Actions
1976 SECOND QUARTER
System
Action
Elapsed Time
EPA
Contractor Personnel
Cost ($000) Cost ($000)
Annual ADP
Fund Savings
($000)
Annual Personnel
Savings ($000)
Bowne Timesharing
TADS/SIRS(SPCC)
Eliminate
Eliminate
570
150
iao
88
SEAS
Lake Pollution
Shift to RTP
Shift to RTP
1976 THIRD QUARTER
300
200
oo
o
Administrative Sys-
tems
STORET
Implement Study
Recommendations
Modify Systems and
Program Technical
Efficiencies
Reduce On-line Data
9 months 200 100
50
180
70
Enforcement Tracking
System Design and Program
1976 FOURTH QUARTER
12 months 400 200
-------
During the third quarter of 1976, modeling systems
will be shifted to RTF, the results of the OPM study
will be used to streamline administrative systems,
and STORET on-line data will be reduced. In addition,
a new OEGC tracking system will begin development
during the last quarter of 1976.
(3) Major development projects will be completed in 1977.
Throughout 1977, major development projects or system
modifications will be completed. Following the in-
stallation of a new communications system in the first
quarter of 1977, (which is described below in the
equipment and facilities strategy section of this
report) the RTF computer center will be ready to
operate as the new scientific data center for EPA.
At this time STORET, regional modeling, and GPSF, all of
of which require better communication support, will
begin operation at RTF. Exhibit 5-6, on the following
page, lists the quarter by quarter development actions
which will take place in 1977. In addition to the
installation of new RTF systems, the administrative
system changes and new enforcement tracking system will
be completed in 1977.
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Fxhibit 5-6
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
System Actions
1977 FIRST QUARTER
System
STCRET
Regional Modeling
Mobile Source En-
forcement
ORD
Action
Shift Operations
to RTF
Program New
Retrieval Capabil-
ities
Shift Workload to
RTF
Start Using System
at RTF
Detailed Plan
Elapse'd Time
EPA Annual ADP
Contractor Personnel Savings
Cost ($000) Cose ($000) ($000)
2,520
9 months
400
100
200
Annual Personnel
Savings ($000)
400
6 months
100
50
GPSF
Administrative
Systems
Energy Data System
STORET
Enforcement Tracking
System
Install at RTF
1977 THIRD QUARTER
Install Changes
Program 9 months
Install New Re-
trieval Capabilities
504
150
300
100
1977 FOURTH QUARTER
Install
-400
150
200
-200
-------
A special ORD planning study also will be initiated
in 1977, as will the development of a new energy
data system.
2. PROPOSED ACTIONS AFFECT THIRTEEN SYSTEMS OR GROUPS OF
SYSTEMS THROUGHOUT THE AGENCY.
This section describes the action steps presented in the
preceding charts. Systems, which are affected by a
series of actions over several quarters, are discussed
only once.
(1) GPSF should be divided into a compliance system
and an effluent data base system.
Although an earlier audit of the General Point Source
File (GPSF) identified an Agency-wide need for ef-
fluent water data which is provided to GPSF, the pri-
ority of such data given its potential cost was not
evaluated pending this Agency-wide study of ADP require-
ments. A review of the air programs indicates that
air enforcement requirements can be serviced by a
relatively simple tracking system (CDS). The reposi-
tory of effluent air data is the National Emission
Data System (NEDS) which stores its information on
magnetic tapes. The anticipated costs of storing all
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Discharge Monitoring Report water effluent data in
GPSF are several millions of dollars annually by
1979, given current systems design.
The Office of Enforcement and General Counsel is in
the process of developing their own stop-gap system
to the GPSF compliance monitoring functions along
the lines of CDS, which is used in air enforcement.
This stop-gap system will be operational by fiscal
year 1976 and is estimated to cost $120,000 annually.
We recommend that effluent data, which is needed by
water analysts, be stored in a separate NEDS-like
facility. This facility would store most data off-
line at the RTF computer center and would be designed
and operated similarly to NEDS.
Consistent with an OMB request, Agency managers have
decided to cut off funds for GPSF usage by October,
1975. Starting in the first quarter of FY '76, the
NEDS-like replacement system should be designed and
programmed. Development is estimated to cost $300,000
in contractor funds and $100,000 in EPA personnel time.
Development time is estimated to be 12 months. This
and other development estimates are based on principles
described in Appendix D.
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(2) The pesticides enforcement management system (PEMS)
should be eliminated.
The PEMS system tracks pesticide enforcement actions
taken by regional enforcement personnel. Headquarters
requires summary data about actions to facilitate
enforcement strategy formulation. The current data
base contains information on approximately 6,000
actions, or an average of 600 actions per region per
year. Manual record-keeping in the regions could
manage this volume of data easily. Regions could
submit monthly or quarterly summary reports to Head-
quarters. Therefore, PEMS could be eliminated without
affecting the performance of the pesticides enforce-
ment division.
(3) A word processing study should be conducted to facili-
tate the payment of word processing expenses from
program monies rather than out of the ADP fund.
Word processing has been used throughout the Agency to
increase clerical productivity and thereby reduce re-
port production expenses. The ADP fund currently pays
for all word processing using Bowne Time Sharing (BTS).
This use cost approximately $530,000 in fiscal year
1974. Several managers implied that they had come to
use BTS because of certain other features that the
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system offered. For example, one manager indicated
he prepared documents on BTS because BTS could photo-
compose a final copy far more rapidly than could the
Government Printing Office. Since the added expense
for this procedure was paid from the ADP fund, and
since he had little other need for ADP, he found BTS
a relatively cost free alternative compared to paying
for word processing or printing services with program
monies.
Since program managers view the use of BTS as a re-
latively cost free alternative, they do not tend to
evaluate its use in terms of overall Agency expendi-
tures. Furthermore, since virtually all BTS usage
is designed to reduce clerical expenses and since new
advances in word processing technology, such as stand
alone processors and high-speed composition and dup-
lication equipment, make BTS only one of several alter-
natives, it appears inappropriate for the ADP fund to
continue to pay for BTS usage. Instead, program mana-
gers should pay for their usage of word processing
whether provided by BTS, another vendor, or in-house
office equipment. In this way managers could make
their own local cost benefit decisions regarding the
allocation of their resources to meet their objectives,
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To facilitate this shifting and reprogramming of word
processing funds, we recommend that a word processing
study be conducted. This study would examine current
uses of word processing throughout the Agency, and
would provide guidelines and assistance to program
managers in shifting their processing loads. We esti-
mate that such a study would cost $30,000 in contractor
funds and $10,000 in EPA personnel time. The study
is estimated to require three months elapsed time.
(4) The program management system in the Office of Research
and Development (OR & D) can be eliminated.
The current program management system within the Office
of Research and Development reflects the relatively
complex and sophisticated procedure adopted by that
office for allocating resources to meet objectives
and for tracking the performance of research activities,
The computer system used by the program management
group provides a tool for allocating resources and
tracking performance against milestones at a very
detailed level. The cost of this ADP usage is approxi-
mately $410,000 per year.
A recent study, conducted for the Agency by the
National Research Council, criticized this management
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approach and recommended that far more discretion
and authority should be delegated to the research
centers and laboratories. They further stated that
the detailed allocation and milestone setting con-
ducted by Headquarters was deleterious to the research
process. As a result of this study, the Agency has
been reviewing its research management philosophy and
will delegate far more responsibility to non-Head-
quarters administrators. As this delegation takes
place, the level of detailed information which must
be manipulated and analyzed at Headquarters will de-
crease substantially. Consequently, the rationale
which justified the development of the program man-
agement system will cease to apply. Therefore, we
expect that the volume of relevant Headquarters pro-
gram management data will be manageable using manual
methods, and that the need and cost for the system
will be eliminated.
(5) Pending the results of a system audit, STORET costs
may be reduced substantially by reducing on-line
storage and by shifting operations to RTF.
STORET is currently the largest and most expensive
system within EPA. Its large costs (approximately
$2.8 million in fiscal year 1974) are attributable
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to the following three causes:
It maintains 30 on-line disk packs costing
approximately $430,000 per year.
State and local users have free access to
the system, costing approximately $600,000
per year.
Large amounts of data stored within the
system are erroneous, misleading or irre-
levant to the needs of primary users.
Notwithstanding these problems, the system managers
have offered two arguments for continuing to operate
the system in its current interactive form:
Providing free interactive capabilities has
provided the most reliable means of inducing
states to enter water quality data.
Maintaining data on-line has proven to be the
only way of insuring the availability of
sufficient spindles to run a STORET job.
Because of these concerns, the Agency has decided to
conduct a management and technical audit of the STORET
system. We concur with this approach and would expect
that this audit will identify areas for incurring sub-
stantial cost savings.
Nonetheless, we feel that current expenditures for
water quality data systems are far out of proportion
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to the benefits which STORET provides. Given a
similar objective, the air system, SAROAD, has man-
aged to amass air quality data, and yet has managed
to service its functional objectives for but a frac-
tion of the cost of STORET. Consequently, we believe
that STORET costs can be reduced substantially by
adopting certain of the design strategies adopted by
SAROAD, such as off-line non-interactive operation.
Particular action steps which we anticipate would be
compatible with the audit results are as follows:
Charge states for the communications and OSI
computer costs of using STORET, or stop sub-
sidizing state usage by requiring them to
contract directly with OSI.
Reduce on-line data to the 18,000 reporting
stations with sufficient meaningful data to
produce the annual national and state water
quality reports.
. Redesign and reprogram STORET to operate on
the RTF computer in a SAROAD-like fashion.
Extend the reporting and graphics capabilities
of the redesigned and reprogrammed system.
Note that the redesign and reprogramming of STORET
reflects a change in scope from the current system.
The revised STORET would provide only limited re-
trieval and data manipulation capabilities to non-
EPA users. Such non-Agency users would fund their
own ADP support from grant monies as needed.
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The following table summarizes the costs and potential
savings of each action:
Development Annual
Completion Cost Savings
Action Date ($000) ($000)
Charge states 1976-lst qtr. 650
Reduce on-line data 1976-3rd qtr. 100 180
Redesign and Reprogram 1977-lst qtr. 800 2920
for shift to RTF
Program new retrieval 1977-3rd qtr. 500
capabilities
Charging states for communication and computer costs
would lower EPA costs by $650,000 and could be imple-
mented in the first quarter of 1976. The reduction
of on-line data will take three months and cost
$60,000 in contractor funds and $40,000 in EPA per-
sonnel time, but will result in an annual cost savings
of $180,000. We estimate that STORET reprogramming
will cost $600,000 in contractor funds and $200,000
in EPA personnel time, and will last 12 months.
After the revised system is installed at RTF, the
additional reporting and graphics programs will cost
$400,000 in contractor funds and $100,000 in EPA per-
sonnel time, and will take nine months to develop.
Note that these cost estimates assume that SAROAD
software and operating procedures will be available
for adaptation to the water systems.
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(6) The oil spills systems can be replaced by manual
systems.
Two systems, Technical Assistance Data System (TADS)
and Spill Information Retrieval System (SIRS), are
used currently to support personnel who monitor oil
and hazardous materials spills. Both systems
operate in an on-line interactive manner.
The TADS system is a repository of technical data
about particular hazardous materials which may be
present in a waterway after a spill or other mishap.
The system is designed to retrieve technical infor-
mation for identified materials or to identify those
materials which possess selected characteristics.
The objective of the system is to provide regional
and local analysts with a tool whereby they rapidly
can identify and adjudge the toxicity of foreign
materials discovered in a waterway.
Regional analysts indicated, however, that they rarely,
if ever, use the system. Rather, they said that they
tend to be able to recognize readily most foreign
substances found in their local waters. They do find
the data about particular substances, which are con-
tained within the system, of much value. These same
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analysts, however, noted that a legible and updatable
notebook containing such information could provide
the same service at a lower price.
The TADS system currently costs approximately $50,000
per year to operate. Its replacement by a manual
filing system would save all or most of this annual
expense without seriously impairing analyst activities,
The SIRS system provides on-line retrieval concerning
spill events. It will be replaced shortly with a
Spill Prevention Control and Countermeasure System
(SPCC) to be run at the OSI facility for an estimated
$100,000 per year. SPCC will be used to record spill
events and compliance plans filed by offenders. These
compliance plans will be reviewed for possible pro-
secution should the offender experience a subsequent
spill. Since this data will be organized by offender
and since compliance plans will be retrieved by offen-
der, it is unclear what special advantage computeri-
zation offers over conventional manual filing of forms,
That is, a well-organized filing system within each
region with paper copies mailed to Headquarters would
appear to satisfy most user needs. Tallies of spills
by region or basin or other categories likewise could
be prepared manually.
1 51
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We recommend that brief system audits be conducted
to confirm these findings. We anticipate that these
audits would last three months and would cost $10,000
in contractor funds.
(7) Agency bibliographic systems are underutilized and
should be consolidated or eliminated to reduce costs.
EPA currently operates four separate abstract re-
trieval systems in air (TENIS), noise, solid waste
(SWIRS) and pesticides. Each of these systems is
designed differently, despite the fact that they are
intended to service the same needs, namely, to direct
researchers to articles on selected topics. The
total cost for all four systems exceeds $300,000
annually. Interviews with Agency librarians indi-
cated that the usage of these systems is quite low.
Reviews of system usage with project officers re-
vealed that some of these systems are used primarily
by non-Agency personnel. This use was attributed to
Agency objectives of disseminating information and
educating the public on environmental matters as de-
fined in enabling legislation.
The production and data entry of literature abstracts
are provided by outside contractors, primarily the
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Franklin Institute and Informatics. The Agency is
paying currently almost $1 million per year in pro-
gram monies for these services. Based on these
expenditures and on the relatively low usage of
these systems, as described in detail in Appendix Ar
we recommend that program managers reevaluate the
need for these systems. If program managers insist
upon the need for such facilities, then they should
pay for required computer services from program
monies and should operate the systems on contractor
computers. Non-EPA users would be required to pay
the contractor for access, and EPA would refrain
from indirectly subsidizing non-Agency users. Af-
fected programs could, of course, subsidize directly
public interest group usage by direct grants of pro-
gram monies.
(8) The SEAS and Lake Pollution study models should be
shifted to RTF.
The Strategic Environmental Assessment System (SEAS)
and the Lake Pollution studies both consist of mathe-
matical models operated in batch mode. Both systems
are written predominantly in FORTRAN and would be
operable on the RTP computer with minor programming
changes. Therefore, we recommend that these systems
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be shifted to the RTF facility. We expect that
the shifting of these systems will take approximately
six months. Minor programming changes, if any, can
be made by Agency personnel or contractors who are
paid from the ADP development funds which have already
been budgeted for these projects.
(9) The Office of Planning and Management should analyze
the need for all the capabilities provided by current
administrative systems.
The Office of Planning and Management (0PM) is
spending over $1 million annually on administrative
systems for grants administration (GIGS), financial
management (FMS)f personal property (PPS), payroll
and personnel information (DIPS), plus several smaller
special purpose systems. Although our review of
these systems did not reveal computer applications
which were unnecessary, we nonetheless were concerned
about the level of administrative systems expenditures
given the ostensible scientific and regulatory nature
of EPA. This level of expenditure suggests a relative
overemphasis on administrative forms and paperwork
versus a comparative underemphasis on science and
enforcement. We expect that the justification for
the large administrative system expenditures are
124 index systems inc
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indicative of this overemphasis on administrative
activities. Therefore, we recommend that a review
of administrative practices be undertaken to identify
unnecessary paperwork and reporting requirements.
This review will reveal capabilities provided by
existing administrative systems which are not essen-
tial to Agency management and which therefore can be
eliminated.
We estimate that such a review would take six months
and cost $100,000 in contractor funds and $20,000 in
EPA personnel. We expect that the results of this
study would result in cost savings of $50,000 per
year in ADP usage (as well as additional savings in
other 0PM operations). These cost savings will result
from a streamlining of paper processing flows and
from a corresponding reduction in administrative usage
of ADP as these paper processing burdens are reduced.
We further anticipate that this study will identify
technical inefficiencies in related administrative
systems which will require design and programming
changes. We anticipate that this system development
work would last nine months and cost approximately
$200,000 in contractor funds and $100,000 in EPA
personnel time. These revised systems would there-
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upon cost the Agency approximately $150,000 per
year less than at present.
(10) The Dun and Bradstreet service should be cancelled.
EPA currently pays Dun and Bradstreet $106,000 per
year for information on all commercial and industrial
firms in the United States. This data costs $12,000
per year to maintain on 24 magnetic tapes. Head-
quarters has been purchasing this data in anticipation
of providing users in the regions and at Headquarters
with information for mailing lists and demographic
analyses. However, there has been relatively little
usage made of this information to date. We recommend
that the service be cancelled and renewed only if and
when particular user requests justify the expense of
this service. At such time, alternative resources,
such as the Bureau of the Census data files, should
be investigated for possible usage.
(11) A prioritization of OEGC ADP needs should be conducted
as part of a detailed plan for integrating and devel-
oping enforcement systems.
The Office of Enforcement and General Counsel is con-
fronted with a substantial increase in paper processing
126 index systems inc
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resulting from the implementation of the enforcement
phases of environmental programs. Given the limited
number of enforcement personnel at Headquarters and
in the regions, there is a natural proclivity to use
computer resources to supplement their limited staff.
Within each of the enforcement areas (air, water,
pesticides) separate systems have been built or are
under construction (CDS, GPSF, PEMS). Several re-
gions have built their own back-up or extension sys-
tems to support their own workloads. The mobile
source enforcement division also has developed a
separate tracking system.
In order to coordinate all these efforts and to better
assess enforcement needs, we recommend that OEGC
conduct a detailed planning study to prioritize their
program needs and to evaluate the man-machine trade-
offs available for supporting these needs. We esti-
mate that this study will last three months and will
cost $60,000 in contractor funds and $20,000 in EPA
personnel time.
We anticipate that this study will identify the need
for and characteristics of an enforcement tracking
system. We have estimated that this system will take
12 months to design and implement, and will cost
127 index systems inc
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$400,000 in contractor funds and $200,000 in EPA
personnel time. The development of this system
will not create any direct ADP savings, but it
will enable OEGC to cope with its growing paper
processing burdens without requiring a substantial
increase in clerical staff.
(12) Regional modeling should be shifted to RTF.
The new communications network is estimated to be
installed in the first quarter of 1977. At that
time, regional users will be able to communicate
with the RTF computer center more effectively than
at present. Regional modeling and scientific pro-
gramming should then be shifted to the Univac at
RTF. We estimate that this shift will reduce re-
gional ADP costs by approximately $200,000 per year.
(13) The Office of Research and Development should conduct
a detailed planning study to provide improved ADP
and ADP-related support to Agency scientists.
ORD has the largest operating budget of any office
in EPA, yet it has used a relatively small percentage
of ADP resources. Although some modeling and scien-
tific applications, such as SEAS, are major users of
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computers, most Agency scientists tend to make little
use of ADP resources to support scientific investi-
gations.
We recommend that ORD analyze the potential uses of
data processing to enhance their research activities.
In particular, we suggest that ORD examine the fol-
lowing areas:
Cost-justifiable uses of lab automation
Development of systems in support of energy
research
Deployment of personnel with modeling and
statistical expertise amongst the NERC's
Development of sampling techniques to lessen
the need for nation-wide environmental data
banks
Development of data quality control tech-
niques and methods for EPA trend and moni-
toring systems.
We estimate the cost of this study to be $100,000
in contractor funds and $50,000 in EPA personnel
time. The study would last six months. As a result
of the study, we anticipate the development of an
Energy Data System which would cost $300,000 in
contractor funds and $100,000 in EPA personnel time.
The system would take nine months to develop and
would operate at RTP.
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3. NORMAL SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT EXPENDITURES WILL BE REDUCED
BY $1.5 MILLION BY 1979.
System development projects are funded from program
budgets and conducted by EPA and contractor personnel.
The overall ADP budget for outside contractors is deter-
mined by MIDSD based upon the feasibility studies and
other ADP contracting which is communicated to Head-
quarters. The largest portion of these contractor ex-
penditures are for special studies, data, consulting
system maintenance, and new design and programming activ-
ities.
We have reviewed the proposed expenditures submitted to
MIDSD during fiscal year 1974, as presented in Exhibit 5-7,
These expenditures are estimated to be $6 million. We
have estimated that the level of service from contractors
required by EPA for "normal" ADP services will remain
constant less adjustments for services no longer needed
given the impact of the action plan described above.
To these "normal" costs must be added the special one
time expenses for performing the evaluations and modi-
fications comprising this action plan.
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The table following Exhibit 5-7 lists ADP contractor
expenditures which are included in the current $6 million
ADP contractor total but which will no longer be needed
as a result of the proposed action plan. Each of these
expenditures is for normal system maintenance, programming
modifications, data, audits, and other actions which are
conducted routinely for systems which will be eliminated
or modified, or for non-recurring costs, such as the System
2000 data management package, which has been purchased by
EPA. Appendix A contains a more detailed description
of each of these Agency systems, including an indication
of these "normal" contractor expenditures.
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Exhibit 5-7
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Distribution of ADP Contractor Expenditure Requests
System Study
and Design
Proprietory Software
Maintenance and Data
Total
Headquarters
MIDSD
NERCS
Regions
Total
1,454
648
1,066
65
3,233
803
653
840
153
2,440
360
360
2,257
1,661
1,906
218
6,033
CM
-------
($000) ($000)
1974 Baseline Level 6,033
Reductions or Modifications to Baseline Level
GPSF 240
PEMS 40
TADS 60
Lab Automation 20
STORET 285
ORD Program Management 95
Bibliographic Systems 25
SPCC 100
Dun and Bradstreet Data 106
System 2000 (one time charge) 130
RTF Facility Management 400
(included in equipment charges)
1,501
(1,501)
Revised Baseline 4,532
The revised "normal" baseline expenditure level is
estimated to be $4,532,000. The special expenditures
required to implement the action steps recommended above
are, as follows:
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FY 1976
($000)
Word Processing 30
STORET 660
TADS/SIRS/SPCC 10
Administrative Systems 230
OEGC Plan 60
GPSF 300
Enforcement Tracking 100
Special Expenditures 1,290
Baseline 4,532
Total 5,922
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FY 1977
FY 1978
($000)
Administrative Systems 70
STORET 400
Enforcement Tracking 300
ORD Plan 100
Energy Data System 200
Special Expenditures 1,170
Baseline 4,532
Total 5,602
Energy Data System 1QQ
Special Expenditures 100
Baseline 4,532
Total 4,632
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Thus, the estimated contractor expenditures in 1976,
1977, and 1978 are $5,922,000, $5,602,000, and $4,632,000
respectively. In the following years, expenditures
should return to the revised baseline level of $4,532,000
per year. The following table summarizes these annual
contractor expenditures and indicates the corresponding
savings over current contractor expenditure levels:
Annual Savings
Over Current
Contractor Expenditures Contractor Expenditures
Year ($000) ($000)
Current 6,033
1976 5,922 111
1977 5,602 431
1978 4,632 1,401
1979 4,532 1,501
1980 4,532 1,501
COMPUTER EQUIPMENT AND FACILITIES STRATEGY
This section presents the computer equipment action plan
and cost estimates for providing sufficient computing res-
ources to support the coordinated ADP plan. It also describes
the organizational impact of certain equipment recommendations,
This section is divided into six sub-sections, as follows:
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Required Computing Capacity
Equipment Action Plan
RTF Computing Center
Telecommunications
Washington Computer Center
Other ADP Equipment and Services
1. THE COMPUTING CAPACITY REQUIRED BY EPA IS DIVIDED INTO
THREE CATEGORIES.
The required computing capacity associated with this
plan is divided roughly into three categories, as follows:
Scientific uses, such as modeling, trend
and monitoring, and special studies
Operational uses, such as tracking and
reporting, and technical data bases
Other uses, such as lab automation, word
processing and bibliographic systems
Under the coordinated plan, scientific application sup-
port would be provided by the RTF computer center, opera-
tional support would be provided by a non-scientific facility
such as OSI, and other uses would be eliminated or funded
by program monies.without using Agency computing facilities.
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(1) Scientific uses of ADP will double the utilization
of the Univac 1110.
The scientific uses of ADP will increase over the
next five years, especially in the areas of modeling
and special studies. Trend and monitoring applications
will tend to stabilize and will demand fewer resources
than at present because of the redesign of several
on-line water systems. The shift of STORET, GPSF,
SEAS, and other modeling to RTF are estimated to
increase the RTF utilization by approximately 200
resource hours per month. These estimates are based
upon current resource utilization at OSI adjusted
for the higher power of the Univac machine and for
system changes resulting from the proposed develop-
ment plan. This overall increase in resource hour
utilization represents approximately a doubling of
the utilization of the Univac 1110 at RTF. As re-
gions and NERC's turn to RTF for computing support,
there will be increased needs for better telecommu-
nications with RTF. This doubling in utilization
also will require an increase in storage devices
such as disks and tapes.
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(2) Agency operational systems will require only half
of the current OSI computing capacity.
The elimination or streamlining of many of the
current tracking and reporting systems, and the
shift of much of the modeling and monitoring sys-
tems to RTF will reduce dramatically the computing
workload in Washington. Efforts to control the
proliferation of on-line storage at OSI and the
shifting of water data bases to RTF likewise will
reduce the amount of disk storage required. However,
whereas Central Processing Unit (CPU) utilization
at OSI will decline by 50% or more, disk storage
and communications processing will decline at a
lesser rate because of the retention of data base
information retrieval and interactive processing
systems in Washington.
(3) Other uses of ADP will require no support from Agency
computer facilities.
In line with our recommendations, program use of word
processing, lab automation and bibliographic services
will no longer be funded from the ADP fund and will
no longer operate on EPA facilities. Those systems
which continue to operate will be funded from program
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budgets and will run on contractor machines. Con-
sequently/ these applications will not impose any
additional computing requirements upon Agency
equipment and facilities planning.
2. THE EQUIPMENT ACTION PLAN COVERS A PERIOD OF FIVE YEARS.
Because of the lead time necessary for ordering and
installing ADP equipment within the government, it is
necessary to coordinate the equipment action steps with
the system development and staffing actions comprising
the coordinated plan. Exhibit 5-8 / on the following
page/ indicates particular actions which must be taken
each year to implement the plan.
In 1976 actions will be taken to reduce the number of
on-line disks at OSI and to upgrade the tape drives at
RTF. An OSI replacement will be installed by January,
1976. Work will begin also to install a new communi-
cations network and to gain approval for the creation
of a non-scientific data center. By FY '77 processing
workloads will be shifted to RTF as the new communications
network is installed. As a consequence/ the OSI replace-
ment will reduce on-line storage further and will eliminate
one of the IBM 370/158 computers. In 1979 the non-
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Exhibit 5-8
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Annual Equipment Actions Comprising the ADP Plan
Year Action
1976 . Eliminate 15 Disks at OSI
. Install Faster Tape Drives at RTP
. Install OSI Replacement
. Begin Communications Network Installation
. Initiate Actions for the Creation of a
Non-scientific Data Center
1977 . Shift Workload to RTP
. Install Communications Network
. Eliminate 10 More Disks at OSI
. Eliminate One IBM 370/158
1978 . Install Non-scientific Data Center
. Augment Univac 1110
1979 . Selectively Install Regional Minicomputers
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scientific data center will be installed and the Univac
1110 will be augmented. In 1979 and 1980 regional and
laboratory data centers will be developed selectively
on a cost reduction basis using minicomputers.
Exhibit 5-9f on the following page, illustrates the
type of equipment which will be in use at EPA as a re-
sult of these actions. Note that we have assumed, as
part of this plan, that the IBM 1130 and IBM 360/30 at
Cincinnati will have been replaced by a Remote Job
Entry (RJE) terminal during 1975. We have assumed also
that the IBM 360/50 at RTF will have been delivered to
GSA.
(1) Major actions will be initiated in 1976.
During Fiscal Year 1976, work will begin to install
an EPA communications network and to establish a
Non-scientific Data Center. During FY '76, an OSI
replacement will be installed in Washington.
EPA should expect an 8% increase in hardware costs re-
flecting IBM's industry-wide increase in lease charges
for its equipment. Charges for convention and parallel
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Exhibit 5-9
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Computer Equipment Requirements
COMPUTER EQUIPMENT REQUIREMENTS
Current
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
Washington
2 IBM 370/158
RTF
Univac 1110
2x1
Other
2 IBM 370/158
Univac 1110
2x1
Faster tape units
IBM 370/158
Univac 1110
2x1
Install Comm-
unications
Network
Non-scientific
Data Center
IBM 370/158
Univac 1110
4x2
256K word extra
memory
Increased disk
storage
IBM 370/158
Univac 1110
4x2
etc.
Selective In-
stallation of
regional mini-
computers
IBM 370/158
Univac 1110
4x2
etc.
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operation of the new facility will cost upwards of
$1 million in 1976. As systems are eliminated
during 1976, there will be a reduction in disk re-
quirements at OSI. RTF also will be replacing its
current tape drives with higher performance models
at no increase in cost.
(2) Workloads will be shifted from Washington to RTF
in 1977.
As a result of system development activity during
1976, scientific and monitoring systems will shift
to RTF in 1977. The new communications network will
be installed connecting Washington, RTF, the regions
and the laboratories. As a result, the computer
requirements in Washington will be halved, thereby
enabling one IBM 370/158 to be eliminated from the
Washington facility. Several disk drives will be
removed as well.
(3) A Non-scientific Data Center will be installed in 1978,
By 1978, the steps required by Federal regulations
will be completed for the installation of the Non-
scientific Data Center. This will be essentially a
144 index systems inc
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government leased computer comparable in scope and
power to the computer used by the OSI replacement
in 1977. Cost for conversion to and parallel opera-
tion of this new facility will be approximately
$500,000 during 1978. The increased processing load
at RTF may require also a slight increase in the
power of the Univac computer at RTF. We have assumed
an upgrading of the current Univac 1110 2x1 to a
Univac 1110 4x2 with 256,000 extra words of memory and
a two thirds increase in disk capacity. This up-
grading will cost approximately $90,000 per year
and will increase the Univac performance by approxi-
mately 50%. This upgrading can be accomplished
whether EPA owns or leases the Univac machine.
(4) EPA will begin to analyze the cost justification
for installing regional minicomputers in 1979 and 1980.
As the computing load within EPA settles down, the
Agency will begin to analyze the cost benefits of
selectively replacing regional and laboratory ter-
minals with minicomputer-based local data centers.
These centers will be justified only if they reduce
local hardware costs and provide local computing
support capable of supplanting the need to access
or utilize Agency-wide computers. This analysis
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will not be made, however, until EPA has brought
its overall ADP usage under better control and has
aligned this usage with overall Agency priorities.
3. THE RTF COMPUTING CENTER WILL SUPPORT EPA'S SCIENTIFIC
COMPUTING WORKLOAD.
The Univac 1110 at Research Triangle Park (RTP) in
Durham, North Carolina, currently supports the ADP
requirements of the research and air program activities
conducted at RTP. Although the Univac is capable of
supporting a nation-wide communications network, its
current usage is limited primarily to the RTP user
community.
(1) Agency-wide scientific, modeling,
toring applications should be shi:
trend and moni-
toring applications should be shifted to RTP to
utilize the better computational and design support
offered and to lower overall Agency ADP costs.
The data processing resources required by scientific
and operational applications differ considerably.
The Univac computer provides the more powerful cen-
tral processing power required by scientific sys-
tems. The IBM equipment in Washington is better
suited to the on-line, interactive processing
characteristic of tracking and reporting systems.
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The data processing and air program staff at RTF
have developed cost-effective systems to support
air trend and monitoring requirements. These sys-
tems have utilized data quality and storage con-
trols which could be applied to water and other
media systems.
Since the Univac is leased by EPA, and since it is
used currently at only about 25% of capacity, addi-
tional Univac workloads will not increase Agency
computer costs. By contrast, charges at OSI are
dependent upon computer usage. Hence, shifting of
workloads to RTF which reduce OSI computing loads
will lower overall Agency computer costs.
(2) New systems developed at RTF should employ the de-
sign principles used in current RTF systems.
The staff at RTF has benefited from the experiences
of other system designers at EPA. Prior to con-
structing the air data base, SAROAD, the RTF staff
analyzed the design and usage of the corresponding
water system, STORET. Based on this analysis, the
RTF designers made substantial changes to the SAROAD
system architecture. These changes have enabled
SAROAD to operate at a fraction of the cost of analo-
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gous water systems. Correspondingly, as systems
are redesigned to operate at RTF, the results of
this earlier analysis should be incorporated into
the new systems. In particular, systems which are
intended to perform similar functions (same appli-
cation class) should tend to employ similar design
philosophies.
(3) The RTF technical staff should be expanded over time.
As more systems are shifted to RTF over time, there
will be increased need for EPA-supplied technical
support from the RTF staff. During the first two
years of this plan, most support will be needed to
assist Headquarters personnel in the redesign of
systems which are operating at OSI but which will be
shifted to RTF. We anticipate that RTF will be called
upon to provide special assistance in the following
five areas:
Hardware and communications support for inter-
facing with the Univac equipment
Operating system support and user training
Operations control and management of the
Univac job stream
Input data quality analysis and control
14 8 index systems inc
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Numerical analysis, statistical and modeling
assistance
(4) The Univac's processing capacity should be increased
in 1978.
Although the Univac 1110 is several times more
powerful than an IBM 370/158, the modeling and
scientific applications at RTF still may grow suffi-
ciently to warrant an increase in the computing ca-
pacity of the Univac. Because of the hardware de-
sign of the Univac machine, this extra capacity can
be provided at a relatively nominal price. An addi-
tional central processing unit (CPU), 256,000 words
of memory and a two thirds increase in disk capa-
city can be added to the current configuration at a
cost of $90,000 per year. These changes will increase
the system's computing capacity by approximately 50%.
Yet this augmentation will increase annual RTF equip-
ment charges by only 6% (assuming a $1,600,000 per
year lease). We have assumed that this augmentation
would occur in 1978, by which time all of the relevant
Washington systems would have been moved to RTF.
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(5) EPA should purchase the Univac in 1975 arid thereby
save $6.2 million in fxve years.
EPA was offered an extremely attractive purchase
option for the Univac 1110. If, by February, 1975,
EPA can obtain Congressional approval and funding,
they may purchase the Univac computer for approxi-
mately $1.8 million extra. The plan calls for the
use of the Univac computer for at least the next
five years. Present Univac lease rates are $1. 6
million per year. Therefore, the cost for continuing
to rent the Univac would be $ 8 million over five
years (SI.6 million per year for five years). If,
on the other hand, EPA exercised its purchase option
now and expended the extra $1.8 million, its subse-
quent lease charges each year would drop to zero.
Thus, EPA could save $6.2 million over the next five
years if it exercised its purchase option ($8.0
million lease charges less $1.8 million current year
capital expenditure). Note that these savings are
over and above all those indicated in the rest of
this plan. For budgeting purposes, we have made the
conservative assumption that EPA will be forced to
lease the Univac.
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4. THE CURRENT TELECOMMUNICATIONS PLANNING MODEL CAN BE
USED BY EPA WITH MINOR MODIFICATIONS.
The Agency uses a mix of leased phone circuits, Wide
Area Telephone Service (WATS)lines, and ordinary
phone lines to provide communication from users to the
main computers at OSI and RTF. The Agency has a current
inventory of 400 low speed terminals and 42 medium
speed terminals located in 24 different locations around
the country. Currently, over 85% of all communications
traffic is directed to the Washington, D. C. computers
and only 15% is handled by RTF.
Information and Communication Applications, Inc. (ICA)
has performed a study for the Agency proposing a tele-
communications network to satisfy EPA's communication
needs. ICA analyzed several network configurations
using different combinations of WATS lines, leased lines,
multiplexors and concentrators. The ICA network proposal
assumed that the Agency workload would remain located
at the current sites. Since the five year coordinated
ADP plan includes the shift of substantial processing
workloads to RTF, the ICA model will have to be rerun
under the revised processing load distribution assum-
ptions to determine the most appropriate communications
configuration. ICA has retained all of its model data
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and has indicated its ability to rerun the simulation
for several hundred dollars.
5. A DATA CENTER SHOULD BE ESTABLISHED TO PROCESS EPA'S
NON-SCIENTIFIC WORKLOAD.
Although scientific and monitoring systems will be
shifted to RTF, a residue of tracking and reporting
and technical data base systems will continue to
operate on the OSI or OSI-replacement computer.
(1) A single IBM 370/158 will be sufficient to process
the non-scientific workload.
The remaining non-scientific workload will be ap-
proximately one-half of the current OSI processing
load. Consequently, a single IBM 370/158, or
equivalent, will be sufficient to support this work-
load. IBM equipment is particularly well-suited to
this type of processing because of its hardware
architecture and software support, which facilitate
non-scientific interactive processing.
(2) EPA should lease or buy an IBM 370/158 or equivalent
computer by 1978.
By 1978, the magnitude of the non-scientific work-
load will be well defined and will no longer be
J-52 index systems inc
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growing significantly. Consequently, total com-
puting charges can be reduced if EPA directly leases
or purchases a computer to support these needs.
The Agency has referred to this computer and its
associated operating staff, peripherals, etc. as
the "Washington Computer Center", and is in the pro-
cess of preparing a detailed feasibility study, as
required by government regulations.
(3) The geographic location of this center is an orga-
nizatonal rather than technical matter.
To date, Agency planners have assumed that this
non-scientific center would be located in the greater
Washington area. Although we concur with the need
for such a facility, we find that the specific geo-
graphical location of this center is relatively
independent of technical considerations. Rather,
the specific location of this center appears to be
dependent on staffing and organizational issues. The
technical capabilities of the equipment and the cost
for staff and supplies will be approximately the same
wherever the center is located.
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6. MOST ADP EQUIPMENT AND SERVICES OPERATING OTHER THAN
AT RTF OR OSI CAN BE CONSOLIDATED.
EPA uses currently a variety of outside service bureaus
and miscellaneous data processing equipment. Much of
this equipment can be consolidated or eliminated.
(1) EPA should continue to shift its computing work-
loads onto 'EPA computers.
EPA has been shifting programs from outside service
bureaus onto Agency-managed computer facilities.
This policy has five benefits, as follows:
Reduces the dependency upon outside, un-
supported computing features and thereby
provides greater flexibility for Agency
planners
Provides EPA management with better con-
trols and information about the types and
common requirements of Agency systems
Protects EPA systems from policies estab-
lished by other Agencies, such as NIH
Facilitates the consolidation and standardi-
zation of Agency computing procedures and
policies
Provides economies of scale in computer
equipment leasing or purchase
Therefore, we concur, and, with the exception of
special services such as those provided by the
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Department of the Interior's payroll system, our
plan encourages EPA to continue this policy.
(2) Lab automation should be evaluated and funded by
programs.
As has been discussed earlier in this report, lab
automation is an experimental project which should
be initiated, funded, managed, and evaluated by the
affected programs. Equipment already purchased in
Cincinnati may become available for other Agency
purposes, however, if the experiment fails or is
modified. For example, one of the enforcement lab-
oratories, which had been participating in the ex-
periment, is being disbanded. Hence, the minicomputer
which had been purchased for that lab can now be
used instead to provide a remote job entry terminal
in Cincinnati. The particular use of equipment,
therefore, should continue to reflect program prio-
rities and needs, and should be reallocated as ap-
propriate.
(3) Regional data centers should be developed selectively
in 1979 and 1980.
Several regions and research centers have expressed
interests in augmenting their current processing capa-
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bilities with local minicomputers. They contend
that much of their computing needs can be satisfied
locally and that they thereby can reduce their de-
pendency on national data processing facilities.
The development of such local centers, however, will
require more sophisticated local expertise and a
more rationalized processing workload. The primary
thrust of this coordinated plan is to bring the total
ADP utilization within EPA under better control and
to align such utilization with Agency priorities.
To achieve this result requires a significant ef-
fort throughout the agency. By 1979, however, we
expect that ADP utilization will be aligned fully
with Agency needs. Rather than allow further pro-
liferation of marginal ADP projects, at this time,
therefore, we recommend that the development of
regional centers be delayed until EPA has been able
to define more precisely its primary computing needs
and policies. At that'time, local centers may be
created selectively, if they conform with these Agency-
wide priorities, and if they are cost-justifiable.
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ADP STAFFING
As part of the overall ADP plan, we have projected develop-
ment cost estimates assuming the participation of EPA
technical personnel. These assumptions were based on the
current levels and distributions of ADP personnel. The
paragraphs that follow describe the recommended deployment
and cost of these personnel/ the augmentation of in-house
expertise by the usage of outside contractors, and the
improvements required in EPA technical and management skills.
1. ADP PERSONNEL SHOULD BE ORGANIZED INTO FOUR GROUPS.
Data processing personnel should be organized into
four groups supporting (1) regional users, (2) programs,
(3) facility management, and (4) the Office of Planning
and Management.
(1) Regional ADP staffs should be maintained at current
levels until 1977.
It is anticipated that many local systems will be
replaced through the availability of properly de-
signed Headquarters and program-sponsored systems.
This should free the time of regional staffs to play
a greater role in Agency system planning and functional
57 index systems inc
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review. However, by 1977, when major systems have
been shifted to RTF and when the data entry and
regional support roles for administrative and water
program systems have been diminished, regional ADP
staffs should be reduced by approximately 30%.
Affected development personnel within the regions
can be shifted to Agency-wide development projects;
clerical personnel can be shifted to non-ADP support
functions.
(2) Program ADP staffs should contain fewer development
personnel.
Program offices should not attempt to maintain
redundant ADP capabilities within their staffs.
Instead, program staff should be selected for their
expertise in ADP program requirements specification,
The duties of program staff should include:
. Participation with OPM in prioritizing pro-
gram needs, and specifying functional re-
quirements
. Review and signoff of project plans, design
specifications, and acceptance procedures
for all program-related systems development
. Management of the expenditure of program mon-
ies on ADP
1*58
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Liaison with 0PM on ADP issues affecting
program performance
The personnel responsible for these duties should,
in most cases, report directly to the program man-
ager. A staff of not more than three to five people
per program should be adequate.
(3) The technical and management staff associated with
the OSI and RTF facilities should be upgraded sig-
nificantly.
Because of the geographic separation, technological
differences and application orientations at the OSI
and RTF facilities, we recommend that the ADP staff
associated with each facility be charged with three
basic responsibilities: Facility Management, System
Support, and Application Development.
Facility management will require few EPA personnel,
since contractors operate the computer facilities at
both OSI and RTP. Instead, the responsibilities for
facility management will consist primarily of facility
planning and contract management. Consequently, only
a few staff members will be required to perform these
duties.
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The system support resources at each facility need
substantial upgrading. Personnel are needed to
support facility and system software planning, com-
munication system design, data base design and con-
trol, new system acceptance and integration, and
standards enforcement. Approximately 15 new or
redeployed personnel will be needed to fill these
assignments.
Application systems development personnel will be
needed to assist program personnel in the technical
design and implementation of systems on the EPA
computer facilities. Initially, developmental
resources should focus on system identification and
specification and leave development to outside con-
tractors. As the Agency matures and the need for
wholly new application software subsides, the Agency
can expect to do a greater percentage of its devel-
opment in-house. However, within the time-frame of
this plan, the developmental groups should concentrate
on (1) systems identification .and specification (with
the support of program office staff), (2) develop-
mental contract management and project control,
(3) completed software maintenance and (4) operation.
A development resource including at least 10 new or
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redeployed personnel (from the program offices)
will be needed to meet the Agency's requirements.
(4) The Office of Planning and Management will oversee
ADP budgets and computer utilization and assist the
programs in the development of new application systems,
The Office of Planning and Management will continue
to be responsible for managing overall Agency ADP
resources and for allocating ADP Fund sub-allowances
on a prioritized basis. In this role, it will con-
tinue also to review new system development proposals
for their potential impact upon Agency ADP resources.
However, 0PM should take increased responsibility
for assisting program managers in designing and
developing application systems, and in managing the
use and performance of outside contractors, and in
coordinating the activities of systems personnel at
RTP and Washington with the program needs of Head-
quarters, regional and laboratory users.
2. PERSONNEL COSTS FOR ADP CAN BE REDUCED BY $1 MILLION BY
FY'78.
The Agency presently supports a larger ADP staff than is
required to implement the recommended systems development
plan outlined above. Exhibit 5-10,on the following page,
161 index systems inc
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Exhibit 5-10
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Distribution of ADP Personnel Salaries in $ Millions
Current 1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
OPM
OEGC
OWHM
OAWM
ORD
Regions
Total
1.6
.2
1.8
1.0
1.9
.7
7.2
1.7
.4
1.7
1.0
1.5
.7
7.0
1.4
.8
1.2
1.0
1.7
.5
6.6
1.4
.6
1.2
1.0
1.5
.5
6.2
1.4
.6
1.2
1.0
1.5
.5
6.2
1.4
.6
1.2
1.0
1.5
.5
6.2
CN
VO
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outlines the estimated salary budget for ADP personnel
over the next five years which is required to implement
the plan. Ahthough this budget calls for a staff re-
duction of almost 14%, many of these personnel still will
be required to provide essential Agency services in areas
where ADP support has been curtailed. For example, per-
sonnel who have been classified as ADP staff because of
their use of word processing will continue to provide
similar documentation support. But as word processing
ceases to be included under ADP, these personnel will no
longer be included as ADP staff.
These changes represent an estimated reduction by 1980
of 64 positions distributed as follows:
0PM - 13 position reduction
OEGC - 25 position increase
OWHM - 38 position reduction
OAWM - no change
ORD - 25 position reduction
Regions - 13 position reduction
The reduction in ADP staff in 0PM, OWHM and ORD is at-
tributable primarily to the reduction in program office
technical development activities -and the reduction or
163 index systems inc
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elimination of several systems, primarily in OWHM. The
staff increase in OEGC will support the increased ADP
project management and user training responsibilities
associated with the development of new enforcement sys-
tems. The reduction in regional staffs is attributable
primarily to the decreased regional responsibilities
which will result from modifications to Headquarters
systems.
3. THE AGENCY SHOULD CONTINUE TO USE CONTRACTORS FOR
FACILITIES MANAGEMENT AND MAJOR SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT.
«
The Agency is shallow in a number of key ADP technical
and management skills. Some of these gaps are high
priority and must be filled by the development or re-
cruitment of qualified Agency personnel. Certain jobs,
however, such as the operation of the OSI and RTP faci-
lities and the programming of new application software,
can be contracted without jeopardizing Agency goals.
Since EPA is a relatively young Agency, it is justified
in using extensive amounts of outside support while
building its basic portfolio of-systems. In this way,
EPA c.an free its staff to concentrate on planning and
control issues.
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Even if EPA personnel ceilings were lifted, thereby
allowing the hiring of more in-house ADP staff, the
use of contractors for major development activities
would still be necessary. Since the majority of
Agency system development projects will occur early
in the five year plan, there would be little time to
find, hire, and orient EPA personnel with the special-
ized skills needed to implement the plan. Furthermore,
a substantial increase in EPA development staff would
be unwise given the relatively limited need for massive
new development activity after 1977.
4. EPA SHOULD DEVELOP A BETTER SKILLS PROFILE OF ITS ADP
PERSONNEL.
The current personnel reports are insufficient for pro-
per review and control of ADP employment policies in the
Agency. ADP employee information should be collected
into a more usable form and supplemented with technical
data describing employee skills such as formal training,
experience with various computer equipment and system
software, experience in the use of various languages
and data management systems, Agency experience by project,
and experience in handling various lines of ADP manage-
ment responsibility. This information could be used to
165 index systems inc
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identify Agency ADP skill gaps, identify applicable
resources when initiating a new ADP project, and provide
a base of information for career guidelines and counseling,
The personnel needed to support the advanced technology
and complex system organization presently employed by
EPA should possess the skills presented in the following
table:
ADP Management and Supervision
- System Development Project Management
- Equipment Facilities Management
- Outside Contractor Management
- AD.P Planning and Control Administration
Analysis/Programming
- Functional Analysis and Design by Media and
Application Type
- Application Design and Programming
- Business Application Programming
- Scientific Application Programming
- Systems Design and Programming
- Computer System Programming
- Data Base Programming
- Maintenance Programming
- Hardware, Communications, and System Software
Evaluation and Analysis
Operation/Clerical Support
- Computer Operators
- Data Input/Output Control Clerks
- Keypunch and Typing Clerks
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5. ADP TECHNICAL AND MANAGEMENT EXPERTISE MUST BE UPGRADED.
Despite the unusually high average wage level of EPA
data processing personnel, the Agency has a number of
serious deficiencies in its current profile of ADP
skills which must be filled quickly if ADP planning dead-
lines are to be met.
As indicated earlier, the Agency supports a high average
ADP salary, especially for ADP supervisory and management
positions. Nonetheless, EPA suffers from weaknesses in
those very same areas. Reasons for this discrepancy in-
clude the fact that good- ADP management talent is scat-
tered throughout the Agency in areas of low-level ADP
responsibility. In many cases, government seniority
and correspondingly high wage levels have not prepared
an individual to assume managerial level ADP responsibi-
lities. The qualified ADP management talent within the
Agency must be identified and put into positions of
expanded responsibility and control within the organiza-
tional framework identified above.
Since the Agency presently does not contain all the ADP
personnel resources needed, it needs to upgrade its
current skills profile. A more exact deficiency list
will evolve as the Agency's ADP skill profile is developed
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in detail. However, it is clear that EPA has need
for qualified professionals in the following five areas:
ADP management and supervision
. System development project management
. Systems design and programming, including
systems software, data base, and maintenance
programming
Hardware, communications, and system software
analysis (especially data base management)
. Documentation control
These needs will be satisfied over time by the redeploy-
ment of qualified staff members, through the retraining
of ADP personnel and by the selective replacement of
existing staff with qualified new personnel.
ADP MANAGEMENT POLICIES
1. MIDSD SHOULD BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ADP USAGE AND SHOULD
ESTABLISH AND ENFORCE PROJECT MANAGEMENT STANDARDS.
As noted above, MIDSD has begun to define Agency policy
regarding ADP development practices. They are working
currently on an ADP Manual. As this manual is completed,
they should continue to focus upon the following three
major activities:
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Planning and budgeting for ADP resources
Assisting in the justification, initiation
and development of new EPA systems
Monitoring the status of ADP systems and
administering ADP Fund expenditures
(1) Each year MIDSD should update the Agency's five year
ADP plan and assemble the coming year's ADP budget.
The ADP planning process initiated with this report
should continue as an ongoing process by the Agency.
Each year MIDSD should reaffirm ADP objectives, re-
assess ADP resources, and establish priorities and
schedules. This process should provide the back-
ground against which MIDSD will budget for the next
fiscal year. Periodically, the Agency should zero-
base budget its ADP expenditures, rather than budget
incrementally every year.
(2) MIDSD should identify ADP needs and assist program
offices in the development of new systems.
MIDSD should identify project priorities as part of
the planning process. To facilitate this planning
and prioritization, MIDSD should be involved also in
reviewing development requests from the program of-
fices and in evaluating these requests on their own
T69
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merits and in terms of their conformance to overall
Agency priorities. In addition, the planning pro-
cess itself should identify the need for certain
projects, such as consolidation, conversion, or
system upgrading. In addition to evaluating
development proposals in terms of the overall plan,
0PM should offer program offices technical and
functional design guidance, contractor selection
support and assistance in the procurement of neces-
sary financial and technical resources.
(3) MIDSD should establish project management proce-
dures and should conduct periodic audits of major
operational systems and of lengthy development
projects.
The Agency must protect itself against the costly
project overruns that have characterized most of
its system development efforts in the past. MIDSD
should establish proper project management controls
to monitor development progress against planned
specifications and milestones. Appendix E contains
a planning and control procedure for identifying
and controlling such development projects.
Periodic system audits of operational systems and
long development projects should be prepared by
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project independent review teams to guarantee
that each system continues to justify its future
costs when measured against anticipated benefits.
The Agency must implement a review process that
has the authority to terminate ADP expenditures
on systems which can no longer be justified, re-
gardless of costs already incurred.
2. ADP BUDGETING PROCEDURES AND CONTROLS SHOULD BE EX-
PANDED TO INCLUDE PROGRAM MONIES SPENT FOR PERSONNEL
AND CONTRACTOR SUPPORT.
MIDSD presently budgets and controls the use of the
ADP fund. However, to provide the Agency with accu-
rate ADP expenditure information, as required by
Federal budgetary and accounting authorities, addi-
tional cost elements must be included in formal ADP
budgets. In order to capture this information, MIDSD
should expand its systems and procedures in the fol-
lowing three ways:
Develop formalized ADP contractor and
personnel reporting system
Establish budget ceilings for contractor
personnel, Agency personnel, contractor
computer, and ADP fund expenditures
Enforce ceilings placed on contracted
ADP support and ADP fund usage
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(1) During FY*75 MIDSD should develop an expanded ADP
reporting system.
The Timesharing Services Management System (TSSMS)
now provides the Agency with the ability to review
ADP Fund expenditures by program element. This
capability must be expanded to provide the following
profile by program element:
Development costs: Agency personnel,
contractor personnel
Management, operations, and maintenance
costs: Agency personnel, contractor personnel
Computer expenditures: ADP Fund, computer
charges included in contractor agreements.
Other direct ADP expenses.
(2) MIDSD and program offices together should establish
total program ADP expenditure ceilings.
In order for the Agency to adhere to its long term
ADP plan, program monies for contractor and Agency
personnel must be budgeted and controlled. MIDSD
should work with each program office during the
budget cycle to insure that program monies for ADP
contractor support and ADP personnel support are
budgeted within the guidelines set forth in the
Agency's ADP plan.
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(3) Ceilings set on ADP contractor costs and computer
time expenditures included in development contracts
should be enforced.
Through the use of TSSMS, MIDSD intends to enforce
fixed ceilings on ADP Fund expenditures. Based on
the information provided by the ADP cost reporting
system described above, MIDSD could be given also
the authority to enforce limitations placed on
contractor ADP costs. In particular, program ADP
overruns for contractors should be funded from an
Agencywide ADP contingency reserve administered by
0PM rather than from general program funds.
3. THE TECHNICAL STAFF SUPPORTED BY OPM SHOULD ENFORCE ADP
QUALITY CONTROL STANDARDS.
The amount and complexity of ADP use within the Agency
dictates the need for standards and quality control.
The technical support staff within OPM should be assigned
the responsibility to develop and enforce these standards,
These standards should govern the following three areas:
. ADP development
Data quality
. Computer performance
17-5
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(1) 0PM should establish ADP development standards for
use by program offices.
Ongoing development projects in response to program
needs require project standards and controls. EPA
should be careful, however, to avoid the imposition
of overly-detailed, burdensome and overly bureau-
cratic procedures. A clear set of usable guidelines
are described in Appendix E. In addition, standard
design practices should be established to realize
the economies of scale achievable from operating
EPA systems on the Agency's own computer facilities.
To this end and within the guidelines of the ADP
plan, 0PM should analyze and select the technological
innovations it wishes EPA systems to employ.
(2) EPA should establish data entry and data base main-
tenance standards to insure the integrity of system
information.
Because the data bases maintained by EPA are public
information and are used to support legislative and
environmental actions, it is important to insure
that information stored in these data bases is ac-
curate. 0PM technical staff members should develop
standard system and procedural techniques for the
174 index systems inc
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design and operation of all data base systems to
insure the quality of information stored in these
systems. The periodic audits already recommended
for all systems should include reviews of data
quality control.
(3) A periodic audit of computer usage should be con-
ducted by 0PM to prevent the Agency from spending
more on computer equipment than is required.
Since the Agency presently maintains a portfolio of
dissimilar, non-cooperative, and technically conten-
tious software, the computers utilized cannot be
managed for maximum efficiency. Therefore, the 0PM
technical staff should review periodically in detail
the current and projected computer utilization pat-
terns. This analysis should result in hardware/soft-
ware configuration recommendations to increase overall
efficiencies of operation. The use of computer per-
formance analysis packages, such as those'provided by
Boole and Babbage, and others, will facilitate this
analysis. In addition, guidelines should be produced
which steer the way to an application portfolio which
both meets EPA functional needs and is compatible
with Agency hardware/software technical efficiency
strategies.
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APPENDIX A
INVENTORY OF CURRENT SYSTEMS
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APPENDIX A - INVENTORY OF CURRENT SYSTEMS
The major ADP software systems currently in use in the
Environmental Protection Agency are described in this
appendix. For the purposes of exposition all systems
currently in use have not been described here (only those
with an annual operating cost on the order of $100,000
or more), however, the 20 major systems contained in this
appendix account for approximately 80% of the Agency's
annual ADP budget.
The following section contains a brief summary of this
appendix. This summary is followed by detailed system
descriptions presented within sections describing the
Agency organizational units which they support.
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I. SUMMARY
As shown in Exhibit A-l, on the following page, the EPA
is divided into five major Headquarters offices under
Assistant Administrators (AA's) and ten regional offices
under Regional Administrators. The Headquarters offices
are responsible for planning and management, enforcement
and general counsel/ water and hazardous materials, air
and waste management, and research and development. The
regional offices are responsible for translating policies
and technical directions generated at Headquarters into
effective operating programs in each geographic area.
Exhibit A-2, following Exhibit A-l, shows the Agency's
annual ADP expenditure for each AA-level office. In this
exhibit, and throughout this appendix, the regional usage
of ADP has been allocated to the Headquarters organiza-
tional unit that has primary responsibility for the system.
The principal application of ADP in each of the AA-level
offices is as follows:
Office of Planning and Management (0PM)
Tracking and reporting systems for
administration
Office of Enforcement and General Counsel (OEGC)
Tracking and reporting systems for
enforcement
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Exhibit A-rl
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
EPA Organization Chart
ADMINISTRATOR
DEPUTY ADMINISTRATOR
OFFICE OF
PLANNING AND
MANAGEMENT
OFFICE OF
ENFORCEMENT AND GENERAL
COUNSEL
OFFICE OF HATER AND
HAZARDOUS MATERIALS
OFFICE OF
AIR AND HASTE
MANAGEMENT
OFFICE OF
AIR QUALITY
PLANNING £
STANDARDS
OFFICE OF
RESEARCH AND DEVELOP-
MENT
OFFICE OF
ENVIROVMEHTAL
ENGINEERING
-------
Exhibit A-2
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Annual Computer and ADP
Personnel Costs by AA Office
Annual Cost ($Millions)
4 ,
1
RTF Conversion
0PM
D
OEGC
Computer Costs
OWHM
OAWM
Personnel Costs
ORD
-------
Office of Water and Hazardous Materials (OWHM) -
Trend and monitoring systems for assessing
national water quality and tracking of
construction grants
Office of Air and Waste Management (OWHM) -
National air quality data systems and
bibliographic systems
Office of Research and Development (ORD) -
Program management systems, modeling,
and laboratory automation
A more detailed breakdown of the Agency's ADP systems by
Deputy Assistant Administrator (DAA) level offices is
presented in the remaining sections of this appendix. For
each DAA-level office the following information is shown:
(1) the principal geographic location, (2) the authorized
number of full-time positions, (3) the general type of staff
(e.g., administrative, legal, scientific), (4) the primary organ-
izational responsibilities, (5) the major relevant legisla-
tion, if applicable, and (6) the major ADP systems the
office is responsible for.
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The major ADP systems covered by this appendix are listed
in Exhibit A-3, on the following page. The system dis-
cussions include a brief statement of purpose, the current
annual operating costs, the primary users, a description
of the system, the operating characteristics, and additional
comments. Current operating costs include FY '74 timesharing
costs as indicated in the year-end Time Sharing Service Manage-
ment System report, personnel costs allocated by the study team
from the October, 1974 "Organizational Schedule of Employees",
and contractor costs as discovered through interviews or as
recorded on expenditure requests submitted to 0PM. Contractor
and personnel costs have been associated with particular sys-
tems even though these costs may not be attributable directly
to the office sponsoring the system.
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Exhibit A-3
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Major ADP Systems in Use in the Agency
System Acronym
Compliance Data CDS
System
Financial Management FMS
System
General Point GPSF
Source File
Grants Information GICS
and Control System
Lab Automation
National Emissions NEDS
Data System
Noise
Personnel/Payroll DIPS
System
Pesticides Analysis PARCS
Retrieval and
Control System
Annual Cost ($000) Type of System AA
246 Tracking and Reporting OEGC
685
1,475
248
520
786
420
785
892
Tracking and Reporting OPM
Trend and Monitoring
Lab Automation
Technical Data System
Bibliographic
Tracking and Reporting
Technical Data Base
DAA
OGE
ORM
OEGC OWE
Tracking and Reporting OPM
OA
ORD
OAWM
OAWM
OPM
CO
OAQPS
ONA
DIPS
OWHM OPP
-------
Exhibit A-8
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Major ADP Systems in Use in the Agency
System
Pesticides Enforcement
Monitoring System
Program Management
System
Solid Waste Informa-
tion Retrieval
System
Spill Information
Retrieval System
Storage and Retrieval
of Aerometric Data
Storage and Retrieval
System for Water
Quality Data
Acronym Annual Cost
PEMS 150
834
SWIRS 355
($000) Type of System
Technical Assistance
Data System
SIRS
SAROAD
STORET
Strategic Environmental SEAS
Assessment System
TADS
Technical Environmental TENIS
Information System
Word Processing - ORD BTS
Word Processing - OWHM BTS
250
470
4,029
1,025
79
435
170
341
Tracking and Reporting
Tracking and Reporting
Bibliographic
Trend and Monitoring
Trend and Monitoring
Modeling
Technical Data Base
Bibliographic
Word Processing
Word Processing
AA
OEGC
ORD
OAWM
Tracking and Reporting OWHM
OAWM
ORD
OWHM
DAA
^^^^^^^m
OGE
OSWM
OWPO
OAQPS
OWPS
OAWM
OWHM
ORD
OWHM OWPO
CO
00
OAQPS
OWPS
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II. OFFICE OF PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT (0PM)
The Office of Planning and Management has Agencywide
responsibilities for the following major activities:
Program evaluation
Resource management/ including administering
a program-planning-budgeting system
Budget preparation and execution
Personnel policies and operations
ADP management and operations
Facilities and space management
Contracting and procurement services
Grant policies and procedures
Comprehensive audit programs
Organization and management systems
The 1065 members (11% of the total EPA employment) of 0PM
are organized into offices of staff support and three
offices under Deputy Assistant Administrators, as follows:
Office of Administration
Office of Planning and Evaluation
Office of Resources Management
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0PM has used ADP primarily to automate the clerical
activities associated with administering the Agency's
work. Exhibit A-4, on the following page, lists the
major systems in use by OPM. Current costs for conversion,
operation, and administration of the computer center at
Research Triangle Park (RTP) are listed also.
1. OFFICE OF ADMINISTRATION
(1) Principal Geographic Locations. Washington, (61%)
RTP (23%) Cincinnati (16%)
(2) Size of staff: 725
(3) General Type of Staff: Administrative
(4) Primary Responsibilities:
Development and operation of programs for
organization and management systems, controls,
and services
Personnel policies, procedures, and operations
Personnel, physical, and document security and
inspection
Management information systems development and
coordination of Agency ADP applications
ADP operations on service bureaus and Agency
computers
Facilities and space management
Agency safety programs
Contracting and procurement services
Grants policies and procedures
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Exhibit A-4
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Major Systems in Use in OPM
Name
Grants Information
& Control System
Personnel/Payroll
System
Financial Management
System
Other Systems
RTP Conversion
RTF Administration
ANNUAL COST ($000)
Acronym Computer Personnel Contract Support
GICS
DIPS
FMS
165
600
317
708
640
800
77*
156*
368*
766*
432
6
29
106
M««v
Type of System
Tracking and Reporting
Tracking and Reporting
Tracking and Reporting
\o
co
Totals 3,230
1,799
141
*Region's annual cost of $230,000 has been distributed proportionally among the systems
designated above
-------
General administration and support services
Other areas of administration management,
including records management, committee
management, directives management, and an
Agency library system. (The responsibilities
for the above functions are not limited to
EPA Headquarters, but extend to Agency field
establishments.)
(5) Major Systems:
The Office of Administration utilizes several '
computer systems which are designed to support all
the other EPA offices. Most of these computer
systems are tracking and reporting systems, such
as the grants system and the personnel/payroll
system. These systems record, summarize, and
report operational information for use in the
day-to-day administration of the affairs of the
Agency.
Grants Information and Control System (GICS)
- Purpose:
The GICS system tracks the processing of
every grant application and unsolicited pro-
posal received by the Agency. Both Head-
quarters grants and state and local assistance
grants are monitored by the system.
- Annual Cost:
Computer Personnel Contract Support
$165,000 $73,000 $6,000
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- Primary Users:
Grants administration personnel in Regional
and Headquarters offices use GIGS for opera-
tional control. The Headquarters offices of
Grants Administration, Water Operations, and
Research and Development also use the system
for summary analysis and reporting of agency-
wide activity.
- Description:
GIGS is a tracking and reporting system used
to monitor the scheduled events in the life
cycle of a grant. Information is entered
into the system indicating the date on which
the following actions occur:
application received
application sent for review
grant awarded or denied
grant budget established
project completed
The system tracks the flow of administrative
paperwork associated with EPA grants to insure
timely processing. The system alerts manage-
ment when a projected date has passed without
a corresponding system input indicating that
the scheduled event has taken place. Standard
reports include exception reports of grants
which are behind schedule, and full listings
of all grants in process.
In addition, the administrative areas within
Headquarters, the regions, and the NERC's
can each generate reports to meet their own
needs. The Headquarters office of Grants
Administration produces a monthly listing of
grant programs for use by the general public.
Quarterly, a booklet is prepared which lists
all grants issued by the Agency. Special
statistical reports can be programmed also to
retrieve grant data.
Seventy-five percent of the operational use
of the system by Headquarters is for the
purpose of preparing special reports in
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response to external inquiries from Congress,
other EPA offices, and other groups.
- Operation:
The system operates in an IBM environment,
using the Wylbur text-editing system for
input, and the IRS report writer system for
output. Input to the system is performed
at the user's convenience through the tele-
processing network. Updates to the system
are run on a regularly scheduled basis every
Friday night at 7:30 p.m. Corrections are
processed by the following Wednesday at
which time report programs may be run against
the data base.
- Comments:
Current problems include obtaining higher
user acceptance and utilization of the system
without violating the FY75 budgetary sub-
allocation ceilings. During FY75 the system
was moved from NIH to OSI. The cost of
parallel operation required by this conver-
sion will result in a budget overrun if
current levels of usage are maintained.
The Grants Administration Division indicated
that it may be possible to reduce costs by
answering certain requests manually in the
future instead of preparing special programs.
Thus, the Office of Administration feels it
is possible, in some cases, to substitute
manual processing of the data for ADP usage.
Personnel/Payroll System (DIPS)
- Purpose:
The Departmental Integrated Personnel Services
system (DIPS) is a centralized personnel pro-
cessing and payroll system which services the
needs of the entire Agency.
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- Annual Cost:
Computer Personnel Contract Support
$600,000 $148,000 $29,000
- Primary Users:
DIPS is used by personnel management offices
in Headquarters, the regions, and the NERC's.
- Description:
DIPS is a tracking and reporting system. The
system itself was developed at the Department
of the Interior, and the payroll portion of
the system is operated on the US6 computer.
The Department of the Interior supports not
only EPA, but Interior and several other
government agencies as well. EPA, therefore,
benefits from the resulting economies of scale
provided by the Department of Interior's
specialized expertise in running the system.
The system produces payroll checks for all
people in the Agency, except for commissioned
officers. A wide range of personnel manage-
ment reports also are produced by the system.
- Operation:
The operation of the system is divided between
OSI and the USG computers. All personnel
changes in the agency are input to the system
from Agency offices at Headquarters and in the
regions. Magnetic Card Selectric terminals
are used to transmit the data to personnel
files on OSI. This use of terminal input from
offices outside of Washington has increased
the timeliness of the system by eliminating
the delays which were experienced when infor-
mation from the regions was sent by mail.
The input for the previous bi-weekly period
is transferred from OSI to USG for payroll
190 index systems inc
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production on a regular basis. After the
payroll has been run the data files at USG
are transferred back to OSI. The updated
DIPS data files are then available for pro-
duction of personnel management reports for
the Headquarters and regional offices. These
personnel reports are programmed in IRS by
the local users. In addition, the staff at
USG will produce, upon request, special study
reports for users at Headquarters.
- Comments:
The level of service provided by the payroll
portion of the system is quite good and
appears to be cost-effective. The personnel
files supply a wide variety of data capable
of satisfying most requests for information.
The chief complaint of the users is that
biweekly updating of the personnel data is
not timely enough. Users indicated that
two to four week old personnel data was in-
adequate for their needs. As a result, some
offices have created their own parallel
systems that are updated as changes are
entered.
The operation of the DIPS system has not been
moved from USG to OSI because the body of
special expertise and capability which has
been developed at USG would be expensive for
the Agency to duplicate. As mentioned
earlier, EPA benefits from the USG operation
of DIPS through the economies incurred by
spreading operation and maintenance costs
across the several agencies using the USG
system.
The DIPS user task force has proven success-
ful in providing regular feedback from users
to the system developers. This is a tech-
nique that should be more widely applied
throughout the Agency during the initial
development and ongoing maintenance of large
central systems.
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2. OFFICE OF PLANNING AND EVALUATION
(1) Principal Geographic Location: Washington
(2) Size of Staff: 58 .
(3) General Type of Staff: Administrative
(4) Primary Responsibilities:
Evaluation and development of new approaches
for Agency-wide program evaluation activities
in coordination with the Office of Resource
Management relating these activities to Agency
goals for identification of program policy and
resource needs
Compiling selected statutory reports to Congress
Providing procedural management/ planning, and
evaluation of Agency standards, regulations,
and guidelines mandated by law or otherwise
scheduled for Federal Register publication,
including coordination of their development,
clearance, and promulgation
Conducting economic evaluation of Agency pro-
grams, policies, standards and regulations,
including the establishment of abatement cost,
cost/benefit analysis, impact assessments, and
monitoring of plant closings throughout the
Nation.
Consulting on and providing analytical assis-
tance in the areas described above to senior
policy and program officials
Coordination functions with relation to energy
policy matters
(The responsibility for the above functions is
not limited to Headquarters, but extends to
Agency field establishments.)
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3. OFFICE OF RESOURCES MANAGEMENT
(1) Principal Geographic Location: Washington
(2) Size of Staff: 185
(3) General Type of Staff: Administrative
(4) Primary Responsibilities:
Development and operation of resources manage-
ment programs for the Agency, including
administering a PPB system in accordance with
OMB directives
Budget formulation, preparation/ and execution,
including funding allotments and allocations
Financial management and services, including
developing and maintaining accounting systems,
fiscal controls, and systems for payroll and
disbursements
Program analysis
Program reporting
Control and monitoring of interagency agree-
ments
(The responsibilities for the above functions
are not limited to EPA Headquarters, but extend
to Agency field establishments.)
(5) Major Systems
Integrated Financial Management Systems (FMS)
- Purpose:
The Financial Management System is a centrally
operated system serving the financial infor-
mation needs of all elements of the Agency.
The purpose of the system is to allow a manager
193 index systems inc
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to monitor commitment activity against
authorized obligations.
- Annual Cost:
Computer Personnel Contract Support
$317,000 $349,000
- Primary Users:
FMS is used by financial managers at the
division level or higher in all Headquarters
offices, regions, and the NERC's
- Description:
FMS is a tracking and reporting system which
provides an automated capability for monitor-
ing commitments versus obligations in the
expenditure of funds throughout EPA. Major
obligations of the Agency are tracked by the
system. Primary system outputs are status
and summary reports. These reports depict
appropriations by object class, and obliga-
tions by program element and sub-object class.
- Operation:
FY74 was the first year that the system ran in
a terminal environment allowing access by
all users in the Agency. Prior to that year,
input documents were transmitted to Head-
quarters by mail. Although the system is
located centrally on the HSA computer, fif-
teen independent files are maintained for the
fifteen accounting areas of the Agency. Input
is transmitted directly from the Headquarters
offices or regions over teleprocessing lines,
the inputs are verified on a periodic basis,
and the update program is run weekly to create
a new master file for report production. Each
of the users has access to a wide range of
reports which can be run using any of the
fifteen accounting area data files.
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The system uses the IBM IRS software
package for generating reports. It
currently operates on the Health Services
Administration computer, which is a
government-owned facility. A shift of the
FMS system to the OSI computer is currently
under review.
- Comments:
The Financial Management Office has expended
considerable efforts in monitoring and
evaluating the cost-benefits of operating
the FMS system. A detailed analysis of the
accounting data maintained by the computer
operating system identified that a particular
report was responsible for significant expen-
ditures. By evaluating and modifying the
content of the report, costs for running the
report were reduced by over 90% with no
reduction in its usefulness.
The FMS system provides a good example of
design trade-offs which result in the effective
use of computer resources in the tracking of
commitments.
The system covers only six percent of all the
Agency's commitments, but which represent 95%
of the total commitment dollar value. In
this way, the operational cost of the system
is reduced, while still providing effective
support for financial management within the
Agency.
4. OTHER COMPUTER SYSTEMS USED IN 0PM
- Purpose:
Numerous smaller systems for administrative
support of the agency are operated by 0PM.
Most of these systems are tracking and
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reporting systems for monitoring property,
money/ expenditures, schedules, or budget
figures. During FY74-FY75, the conversion
costs of starting up the RTF computer center
also have been allocated to this office.
- Annual Cost:
Contract
Computer Personnel Support
Other 0PM $700,000 $727,000 $106,000
Systems
RTF 640,000
Conversion
RTF 800,000 432,000
Administration
(RTP Administration costs consist primarily of
ORD and OAWM computer usage which has not yet
been allocated.).
- Primary Users:
OPM systems are used internally by various
staff groups in the conduct of normal opera-
tions.
Descriptions:
Personal and Leased Property System
This system supports accounting records on
receipt and transfer of property, property
adjustments, and transfer of excess property
as required by the GAO. The master file con-
tains 43,000 records. Six reports are pro-
duced by the system for use by Inventory
Control Centers, custodial offices and account-
able area officers. Input comes from remote
terminals at the inventory control centers
and is stored on WYLBUR data sets. The
current annual computer cost of running the
system is $134,000.
Contracts Information System
CIS is a tracking system for top management
196
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which provides data on all contracts of
$2500 or more. Contract status is moni-
tored through RFP, evaluation, negotiation,
contract preparation, review and award
phases. Bi-weekly summaries of funds obli-
gated are produced by the system. Input is
entered on-line to WYLBUR data sets. The
current annual computer cost of running the
system is $75,000.
Library Management System
This system maintains a printout of 4,500
journals and 5,500 book holdings available
from 37 libraries within EPA. Data are
updated from on-line terminals semi-
annually. Reports of holdings are produced
by title, library, author, subject, cata-
logue and accession number. The printouts
are used to cross-reference holdings through-
out the agency. The current annual computer
cost of running the system is $30,000.
Time Sharing Service Management System
TSSMS summarizes time-sharing computer ex-
penditures of all agency offices. All major
EPA computer vendors supply accounting data
on actual usage. This information is
summarized monthly and notices of expendi-
tures against ceilings are prepared for all
EPA sub-allowancei holders. The system is
used to monitor computer costs. Input is
entered automatically from accounting tapes
or manually through on-line terminals. IRS
is used to generate the reports. The current
annual computer cost of running TSSMS is
$76,000.
Dun and Bradstreet Index
Dun and Bradstreet is under contract to supply
the agency with current information on all
industrial and commercial firms in the U.S.
Currently, 3,000,000 records are contained on
24 magnetic tapes. This information can be
197 index systems inc
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used for mailing lists, or demographic
analysis of the industrial makeup of
geographic areas. Available information
includes name, address, geographic location,
SIC, sales volume, number of employees, and
net worth. The current annual computer and
contract support cost associated with this
system are $12,000 and $106,000 respectively.
Resource Management Information System
This system maintains a file containing
current resource allocations by sub-element
and organization. It is used during the
budgeting process to present program planning
data. It provides allowance and authorized
sub-element data to the Financial Management
System. The current annual computer cost of
running the system is $65,000.
RTF Conversion
The $640,000 cost this year of installing a
Univac 1110 computer at RTF, and of converting
existing programs to the new machine is
charged to 0PM.
RTF Administration
The $800,000 annual cost of computer opera-
tions, maintenance of the Univac 1110
Executive System, usage accounting, user
service, name and address system and general
administration are recurring costs and are
charged to 0PM at RTP. An undetermined per-
centage of this $800,000 cost represents OAWM
and ORO usage which has not yet been charged
out. EPA is in the process of developing an
improved charge-out method for the Univac machine.
Headquarters Administration
All other 0PM uses of computers including
support of System 2000, the Systems Directory,
vendor files, general administration, and
special,studies cost approximately $316,000
per year.
198
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III. OFFICE OF ENFORCEMENT AND GENERAL COUNSEL (OEGC)
The Office of Enforcement and General Counsel has respon-
sibility for the conduct of enforcement activities on an
Agencywide basis. This includes the development and
execution of programs for water, air, noise, radiation,
pesticides, and solid waste enforcement, including the
development of procedures, regulatory material, guidelines,
criteria, and policy statements designed to bring about
actions by individuals, private enterprise, and governmental
bodies to improve the environment. The Office of Enforce-
ment and General Counsel also provides legal services to
all organizational elements of the Agency including legal
opinions and litigation support. The 448 members (5% of
the total Agency employment) of OEGC are organized into
offices of staff support, an Office of General Counsel, and
two offices under DAA's:
Office of General Enforcement
Office of Water Enforcement
OEGC currently uses ADP primarily for tracking and reporting
on the compliance schedules. Exhibit A-5, on the following
page, lists the major systems in use by OEGC.
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Exhibit A-5
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Major Systems in Use in OEGC
Name
Compliance Data
System
Pesticides Enforce-
ment Monitoring
System
General Point
Source File
Other Systems
ANNUAL COST ($000)
Acronym Computer Personnel Contract Support
CDS
PEMS
GPSF
50 21*
150
560 675.**
5 145
175
240
Type of System
Tracking and Reporting
Tracking and Reporting
Trend and Monitoring
o
o
CM
Totals 765
841
415
* In OAWM
** 400 in OWHM, 230 in Regions
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1. OFFICE OF GENERAL ENFORCEMENT
(1) Principal Geographic Location: Washington
(2) Size of Staff: 141
(3) General Type of Staff: Legal
(4) Primary Responsibilities:
Provides program policy direction to Agency
enforcement activities in air, noise, radia-
tion, pesticides, and solid waste program areas
Formulates enforcement policy and designs
enforcement programs involving testing and sur-
veillance of vehicles to accomplish effective
enforcement of motor vehicle emission standards
Develops and issues Agency policies, guidelines
and regulations pertaining to citizen suits and
the exercise of the Agency's authority to
inspect facilities and to require record keeping,
reports, emission sampling, and monitoring by
owners and operators of facilities
Reviews scientific analyses of pesticide samples
and determines enforcement actions needed to
achieve compliance
Reviews all decisions involving the cancella-
tion or suspension of pesticide registration,
and determines enforcement actions needed to
achieve compliance
(5) Major Relevant Legislation:
Noise Control Act of 1972
Clean Air Act
Solid Waste Disposal Act
Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act
Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act
1954 Atomic Energy Act
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(6) Major Systems
Compliance Data System (CDS)
- Purpose:
State Implementation Plans (SIPS) regulate
the amount of airborne pollutants which may
be discharged into atmosphere from stationary
point sources. EPA has the responsibility to
monitor the state programs, in order to insure
that the SIP's are adequately enforced. CDS
is used to track the completion of the actions
specified in State Implementation Plans (SIPS)
for major sources of five primary air pollu-
tants.
- Annual Cost:
Computer Personnel Contract Support
$50,000 $21,000 $175,000
- Primary Users:
Regional Offices use the system to monitor
state and local activity. Headquarters uses
the system to monitor the regions and prepare
special reports.
- Description:
Throughout the nation there are 250,000
stationary sources of significant air pollu-
tion, each discharging 25 or more tons of
pollutants per year into the air. The air
enforcement effort has focused on the 20,000
major sources (each emitting over 100 tons
of pollutants per year) that account for 80%
to 85% of all pollutant emissions.
The states develop implementation plans
designed to bring sources of air pollution
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within specified discharge limits. After
the plan is developed, the states then
enter the compliance schedule dates com-
prising these plans into CDS. Schedules
include dates for completion of planning,
engineering, start of construction, and end
of construction. Event completion is reported
by the states and is entered into the system
by EPA. Weekly reports are provided to the
regions of scheduled events to be monitored.
Each month the states receive listings of
events scheduled, overdue actions, and pre-
printed questionnaires on current air quality
for those sources scheduled to come into
compliance.
- Operation:
The system is run centrally on OSI. Input
data from the regions may be submitted at
any time during the week. On a scheduled
basis the data entered by the states is
processed by the edit program and errors are
returned to the states for correction. When
corrections have been made, the update pro-
gram is run to update the master tape file.
The following morning, reports are generated
and sent to the regions over the RJE terminals
in each region. These reports include:
future schedules
overdue actions
state questionnaires
list of all sources
statistical reports
- Comments:
CDS requires substantial data input from the
states without providing comparable benefits
in return. The regions use the reports to
monitor how well the states are doing their
job. The meaningfulness of weekly reports is
reduced because only 60-65% of the schedules
are on the system. In addition, the compliance
dates tend to peak, reducing the utility of the
reports as a scheduling tool.
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CDS is currently being used only for air
quality enforcement. However, air and
water quality compliance programs are quite
similar in nature. In both media areas the
emphasis is on stationary sources which are
monitored on a regular basis over a period
of years. The same system should be able to
serve the compliance tracking needs of both
programs.
A Comprehensive Data Handling System (CDHS)
was developed by EPA for use by the states
in managing their air quality programs.
CDHS includes a State Enforcement Management
System which is coordinated with CDS. In
addition to supporting state needs, it
automatically generates the data for CDS.
This coordination of state needs with the
central EPA activities, is desirable and
should be adopted in all areas of activity
throughout the Agency.
CDS is coordinated also with the National
Emissions Data System (NEDS). State question-
naires are produced using both CDS and NEDS
data.
Pesticides Enforcement Monitoring System (PEMS)
- Purpose:
PEMS is a tracking and reporting system which
monitors the results of actions taken by the
pesticides enforcement staff. Summary statis-
tics of violations detected are used to
develop enforcement sampling strategy.
Annual Cost:
Computer Personnel Contract Support
$150,000
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- Primary Users:
The primary users of PEMS are the pesticides
enforcement staff in EPA regional offices
and at Headquarters.
- Description:
Each region can produce a report indicating
what enforcement actions have been initiated
in the region, and why the action was taken.
The system receives data about manufacturers
from the pesticides system, PARCS. PEMS
records a history, by manufacturer, of all
enforcement actions taken. Actions may be
started because the manufacturer failed to
register, or because a sampling indicates
that the product is in violation of its
registration conditions. Currently 6,000
actions have been recorded in PEMS. Of all
actions initiated, 2,000 have detected vio-
lations by the manufacturer.
- Operations:
PEMS is a centrally operated system running
on OSI. Data is entered by the regions and
reports are prepared for regions at their
request. Weekly reports list actions, while
nightly turnaround is available to answer
special requests for information.
2. OFFICE OF WATER ENFORCEMENT
(1) Principal Geographic Location: Washington,
Cincinnati, Denver
(2) Size of Staff: 134
(3) General Type of Staff: Legal
(4) Primary Responsibilities:
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Provides program policy direction to the water
and water supply enforcement activities of the
Agency, including direct supervision of techni-
cal program direction of regional water enforce-
ment activities
Develops Agencywide objectives and programs
for water enforcement activities, including the
development of procedures, regulatory material,
guidelines, criteria, and policy statements
designed to bring about actions by individuals,
private enterprise, and governmental bodies to
improve the quality of water
Reviews and approves state permit programs and
provides assistance or adjudicatory hearings and
legal aspects of case preparation
Maintains Agency overview regarding status of
compliance of permit requirements enforceable by
EPA and the states
Coordinates preparation, quality control, and
evaluation of permit data in support of the
National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
(NPDES)
Evaluates performance of water enforcement
program of the regions and of the states
(5) Major Relevant Legislation:
Federal Water Pollution Control Act
Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act
Fish and Wildlife Act
Public Health Service Act
(6) Major System
General Point Source File (GPSF)
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- Purpose:
The purpose of the General Point Source File
(6PSF) is to track the issuance of NPDES
permits to effluent dischargers into the
nation's waterways and to identify dischargers
who fail to comply with the conditions of
their permits.
- Annual Cost:
Computer Personnel Contract Support
$560,000 $605,000 $240,000
- Primary Users:
The primary users of'GPSF are regional
enforcement personnel and regional and state
water quality analysts. Enforcement and water
analysts at Headquarters also use system
summary reports.
- Description:
GPSF is a partially operational general data
base management system which has been designed
by EPA to support the national water program.
GPSF is designed to support three primary
functions, as follows:
MICS - This function assists permit branch
personnel in the tracking of permit appli-
cation processing. Each step of the
application process is recorded. Summary
reports then can be produced identifying
processing bottlenecks.
Compliance Schedules - This function tracks
the compliance of permittees with the
schedule of construction actions required
as part of their permit conditions.
Discharge Monitoring Reports - This function
captures and analyses the chemical composi-
tion of effluents discharged into the
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waterways. If the chemical composition
exceeds the limits specified in the
corresponding permit, an exception report
is generated.
- Operating:
GPSF is designed to operate on the OSI com-
puter. Data is entered and edited on WYLBUR
data sets. Once transactions have been edited.
.successfully, they are entered into the GPSF
update file. The update program is run one
to two times per week. Data which is updated
successfully is stored in system files for
subsequent retrievals. A generalized report
writer is being designed to provide users with
the ability to format their own reports.
Special reports have been developed also to
service regular ongoing reporting requirements.
- Comments:
A system audit was conducted in 1974 to judge
the operability of the GPSF system. At that
time, the update and several reporting sub-
systems were found to be unreliable. As a
consequence, GPSF development funds were
frozen pending the development of a back-up
enforcement system and a redetermination of
the cost/benefit of the services to be provided
by a fully-operational system. Particular
concern has been exhibited subsequently over
the projected tenfold increase in operating
costs that full utilization of system facil-
ities would entail.
3. OTHER COMPUTER SYSTEMS USED BY OEGC
Other computer usage by OEGC is primarily .for Mobile
Source Air enforcement. Work in this area includes
fuels, recalls, and imported vehicle monitoring. The
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current annual computer and personnel costs associated
with these activities are $5,000 and $145,000, respec-
tively.
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IV. OFFICE OF WATER AND HAZARDOUS MATERIALS (OWHM)
The Office for Water and Hazardous Materials develops abate-
ment strategies in the areas of water pollution, oil spills,
and pesticides. OWHM has responsibility for program policy
development and evaluation, environmental and pollution sources
standards development, guidance and technical support of
regional program activities, and selected demonstration pro-
grams. The 1080 members (approximately 12% of the Agency's
total employment) are structured into office of staff support
and three offices under DAA's:
Office of Water Planning and Standards
Office of Water Program Operations
Office of Pesticide Programs
The major use of ADP by OWHM is the maintenance of large
water quality and pesticides data bases. Exhibit A-6 on
the following page lists the major systems in use by OWHM..
1. OFFICE OF WATER PLANNING AND STANDARDS
(1) Principal Geographic Location: Washington
(2) Size of Staff: 208
(3) General Type of Staff: Scientific
(4) Primary Responsibilities:
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Development of an overall program strategy for
the achievement of water pollution abatement
Coordination of all mational water-related
activities within the water program strategy,
and monitoring national progress toward the
achievement of water quality goals
Development of effluent guidelines and water
quality standards
Development of effective state and regional
water quality planning and control agencies
Development and maintenance of a centralized
water program data system including compatible
water quality/ discharges, and program data
files
Development of national accomplishment plans
and resource and schedule plans for programs
Development of effluent limitation guidelines
and procedures for the evaluation of applicable
abatement and control technologies needed in
setting enforceable requirements for industry
compliance
Working closely with other Headquarters offices,
regional offices, states, and other Federal
agencies to assure that all useful water-
related data become available to system users
and that there is a minimum of overlap, dupli-
cation, and incompatibility among water-related
data systems
(5) Major Relevant Legislation:
Federal Water Pollution Control Act
Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act
Fish and Wildlife Act
Public Health Service Act
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(6) Major Systems:
Word Processing
- Purpose:
Word Processing is used to reduce the typing
load of secretaries in the agency. Letters,
reports, and regulations can be prepared more
rapidly with fewer personnel by using such
facilities.
- Annual Cost:
Computer Personnel Contract Support
$280,000 $61,000
- Primary Users:
The Effluent Guidelines Division of OWHM is
the chief user of word processing.
- Description:
Regulations, reports and letters are entered
into the system by typing them on a type-
writer connected to the system. Once the
text has been entered it can be modified and
changed with a variety of editing commands.
Coded commands to the system allow words,
sentences and paragraphs to be changed,
replaced and moved about by the operator.
The significant difference from manual retyping
is that with a word processing machine, only
those parts of the document which are changed
have to be retyped or edited by the operator.
The machine automatically reformats the entire
document as needed. The use of such systems
is most valuable for producing documents which
undergo repeated, minor changes over time.
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- Operation:
Bowne Time Sharing (a specialized service
bureau) is used for all word processing
currently performed for the Agency on large
scale computers. It has supported the pro-
duction of over 1,000 regulations over the
past 2-1/2 years.
- Comments:
The availability of a resource to allow a
rapid turn-around of documents is a very
valuable one for program managers within the
agency. In the past, however, the cost
associated with this facility has not been
borne directly by the program manager, as is
the case with secretarial labor. This fact
has contributed to a more rapid growth in
the use of Bowne Time-sharing services in
the past few years than would be expected
under a cost charge-back scheme.
In addition to Bowne Time-sharing, many stand
alone word processing systems of varying
levels of technical sophistication are avail-
able for use by program managers. Throughout
the Agency, several copies of a system manu-
factured by Lexitron Inc., costing approxi-
mately $17,000 per system (purchase price),
are currently being used instead of Bowne
Time-sharing services to produce lengthy
documents in an efficient fashion.
While alternative methods of word processing
are not totally equivalent in capabilities,
the cost trade-offs of secretaries versus
stand alone type systems (Lexitron) versus
centralized timesharing (Bowne) should be
considered explicitly by program managers.
For example, a yearly expenditure of $284,000
for Bowne Time-sharing services in one year
is equivalent to an outright purchase of 16
Lexitron systems.
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Hardware failures on a centralized computer
affect all users of the facility, whereas,
the failure of a stand alone system affects
only part of the user community. This factor
should be considered in evaluating alterna-
tive ways of supporting the word processing
needs of the Agency.
Storage and Retrieval System for Water Quality
Data (STORETT
- Purpose:
The stated mission of the STORET system is to
provide a national data bank of information on
water quality in the United States for analy-
zing the cause and effect relationships in
the field of water pollution. Existing
legislation requires that a "data bank" be
established, although the regulations do not
specify the form this data bank is to take.
- Annual Cost:
Computer Personnel Contract Support
$2,839,000 $835,000 $285,000
- Primary Users:
Water quality analysts, technical planners,
and researchers use the system. The dis-
tribution of computer charges is:
60% - EPA Headquarters Offices
20% - EPA Regions
20% - States, Federal Agencies &
Non-Government
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- Description:
The STORET system collects and maintains
an on-line history of water quality data.
The on-line data base grows continuously
with time.
STORET provides the user with a wide variety
of tools to retrieve, summarize, analyze and .
display the data in the data base. Several
sub-systems access STORET for different pur-
poses. These include:
Water Quality File - used to analyze
trends and current condition of the
nation's waterways.
Automap - a computer file of map coor-
dinates of rivers and hydrological stations.
City Master - a directory of information
on cities.
. Fish Kill File - a file of fish kill
events (used primarily by Oregon).
Construction Grant Need - a grant track-
ing system like GICS.
Municipal Waste Needs Facilities Inventory
a file of water treatment needs and facil-
ities.
The data in STORET is used by EPA to produce
an annual report on the quality of water in
the major rivers of the United States.
Production of both a national report and a
regional report on a regular basis is
currently mandated by. legislation.
Water quality information on several hundred
data parameters is stored by the station
where the water sample was taken. The system
currently has data from over 160,000 stations,
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though only 18,000 stations have enough
data for the trend analysis required by
law.
- Operation:
STORET operates on the CSI computer and
utilizes 3.1 billion bytes of on-line disk
storage. Data on water quality is solicited
from many sources including states, USGS
and other Federal agencies. Data is collected
by the contributor and entered into the
computer via teleprocessing lines. The data
is verified and edited by the contributor at
his discretion. When the data has been
deemed valid, it is added to the data base
during an update run.
To retrieve information from the STORET data
base, the user may invoke a wide range of
general purpose procedures for plotting,
indexing and computation. Reports, charts
and plots of STORET data can be produced
automatically.
- Comments:
It is difficult to build one data base of
water quality data that will meet all needs.
While current data may be adequate for yearly
reports, it is not necessarily appropriate
for use in mathematical models.
Most modelling applications require stand-
ardized measurement techniques, a number of
parameters to permit cross comparisons, and
an intensive number of observations taken in
a short time period. Because of these
characteristics, the data routinely accumulated
for STORET is frequently inadequate.
The operation of the STORET system is quite
loosely controlled. Although several hundred
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different parameters of information have
been specified as relevant to water quality,
contributors of water quality information
are free to provide as many or as few para-
meters as they desire. The frequency of
observations, the methods used to collect
data, and the accuracy of the numbers entered
into the system are not currently monitored
in the operation of the system.
Although these difficiencies reduce the utility
of the data currently in the system, steps
are being taken currently to improve the
quality of new data entering the system. New
proposed regulations on water quality should
improve the accuracy of data in the system in
the future. In addition, Region V has been
working with the Office of Research and
Development to improve the input editing
system.
The structure of the current system is mono-
lithic. All of the data for the entire data
base must be resident on-line at all times
for the system to function. The extensive
reporting and editing routines used to man-
ipulate data in the system are only capable
of operating on the entire data base. Data
cannot be extracted onto a smaller file for
further manipulation by the report processing
routines.
2. OFFICE OF WATER PROGRAM OPERATIONS
. (1) Principal Geographic Location: Washington
(2) Size of Staff: 178
(3) General Type of Staff: Scientific
(4) Primary Responsibilities:
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Developing national programs, technical
policies, regulations and guidelines for
water pollution control and water supply
Providing technical direction and support to
regional offices
Evaluating regional programs with regard to
municipal point source abatement and control,
oil and hazardous materials spill prevention
and response, water supply protection and
improvement, and manpower development for
water-related activities
Developing national accomplishment plans and
resource and schedule guidelines for program
plans
(5) Major Relevant Legislation:
Federal Water Pollution Control Act
Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act
Pish and Wildlife Act
Public Health Service Act
(6) Major Systems:
Technical Assistance Data System (TADS)
- Purpose:
The purpose of TADS is to reduce the effects
of oil and hazardous materials spills by
providing on-line access to information on
material characteristics and containment
procedures. Field emergency teams can access
information directly through terminals or by
telephoning someone with a terminal.
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- Annual Cost:
Computer Personnel Contract Support
$41,000 $38,000
- Primary Users:
The Planning and Standards Division of OWHM
appears to be the primary user of the system.
- Description:
Currently the characteristics of 875 materials
which represent water pollution hazards are
catalogued on the ENVIRON time-sharing system.
(Due to new legislation, plans are to expand
to 1300 materials in the future). The system
contains 125 possible fields of technical
data on each substance.
To retrieve information from the files, the
user specifies a search list of terms. For
example, an unknown substance that is green,
floats, and smells like rotten eggs can be
identified by searching for those attributes.
- Operation:
In order to satisfy the needs for instant
information in the event of spill events,
the on-line system is available from the
hours of 8:00 AM until 10:00 PM. After these
hours, the system may be accessed within one
to three hours
The system is a full text search system
requiring the special capabilities provided
by Informatics, Inc. Operation is the same
as for all ENVIRON systems.
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-. Comments:
In 95% of all spill events the identity
of the substance is known immediately.
In most other cases, EPA personnel report-
ing to the scene of the incident can identify
the substance. Once the name of the sub-
stance is known, there is no need for an on-
line ENVIRON-based system such as TADS. A
printed book would be far more accessable
and less expensive to operate and maintain.
Even enthusiastic initial users of TADS in
the regions found its usefulness to be very
low.
As a tool for doing research related to new
regulations, the capabilities of the ENVIRON
system are nice to have but not cost justi-
fiable. At the current time, the data in
the files is incomplete. A computer search
of such an incomplete file is very misleading
it returns answers which appear to be com-
plete without any indication of items which
have been omitted because data was unavailable,
Spill Information Retrieval System (SIRS)
- Purpose:
SIRS provides an on-line history of all
reported spill events. This information is
used primarily for analysis and reference
in developing preventative programs and
regulations for spill incidents.
Annual Cost:
Computer Personnel Contract Support
$100,000 $50,000 $100,000
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- Primary Users:
Regional personnel use the system in their
enforcement activities, and Headquarters
offices produce summary analyses and reports.
Universities and private companies also have
access to the system.
- Description:
When a "spill event" occurs, the offending
party must submit a plan for prevention of
repetition of a spill event (in accordance
with regulations which take effect in January
1975). If another spill occurs, the SIRS
file is checked, the prevention plan is
reviewed, and the offender is dealt with
according to the adequacy of his plan and his
implementation of the plan. SIRS contains.
spill event data (where, when, what, who,
and why) on over 7000 spill events. A spill
event is the single occurrence of polluting
materials being discharged into a body of
water (e.g., a barge wreckage which releases
oil is a single spill event).
- Operation:
SIRS is currently operational on the ENVIRON
time-sharing system. At present there are
approximately 7000 spill event records.
When a spill event occurs, the region submits
a spill report to Headquarters. This report
is then keypunched for entry onto the system.
No formal reports are produced. Information
is retrieved by using the search capabilities
of the ENVIRON system.
The system is soon to be replaced by the
Spills Prevention Control and Countermeasure
System (SPCC) which will run on the OSI
computer. SPCC will be used to enforce regu-
lations regarding the spillage of materials.
SPCC initially will include 3300 records of
information on spill events. The data base
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will grow at a rate of 4000 records per
year. There will be a relatively constant
cost of $100,000 per year to add these new
records.
3. OFFICE OF PESTICIDE PROGRAMS
(1) Principal Geographic Location: Washington
(2) Size of Staff: 610
(3) General Type of Staff: Scientific
(4) Primary Responsibilities:
Developing sufficient data and appropriate
methodologies for assessing the hazards of
pesticides
Developing programs to insure that products
are acceptably safe and effective when used
as intended
Developing programs for assuring that products
are properly used
Conducting scientific research and policy
studies to support current and new programs
of control
(5) Major Relevant Legislation:
Federal Insecticide; Fungicide, and Rodenticide
Act
Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act
Public Health Service Act
Federal Water Pollution Control Act
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(6) Major System:
Pesticides Analysis Retrieval and Control
System (PARCS)
- Purpose:
The Pesticides Office is responsible for
registration of all pesticides used in the
nation. PARCS provides a centralized source
of information on all pesticides registered
in the U.S. Data in the system are used for
registration analysis, research, and reporting.
- Annual Cost:
Computer Personnel Contract Support
$500,000 $317,000 $75,000
- Primary Users:
The system is used chiefly to support the
pesticides registration program. Research
on chemicals used in pesticides is also a
major source for retrieval requests.
- Description:
Currently information on 36,000 pesticides
handled in interstate commerce are contained
in the PARCS System. Data in this system is
highly encoded, for ease and manipulation,
and all new data requests are controlled by
one central office.
The PARCS system is used to retrieve informa-
tion about pesticides on a variety of categories.
For example, the system can answer questions
such as "list all disinfectants and fungicides
containing malathion". The system maintains
information on the name and address of producer,
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ingredients (both active and inert), and the
usage category of all pesticides. Retrieval
software allows the data to be extracted,
analyzed and formatted.
Accident investigation information is also
maintained as a separate part of the system.
- Operation:
PARCS runs on the OSI computer. The data
files are stored on-line, but access to them
is limited to retrieval requests submitted to
the pesticides office. Retrievals are cur-
rently being run about 500 times per year,
which is up sharply from previous years. The
work load to maintain the data has increased
30-40% this year due to new legislation
requiring that intra-state as well as inter-
state pesticides be registered.
Input for changes to the data is done using
WYLBUR data sets. This input accounts for
40% of the annual costs. Retrievals are run
in batch mode.
Accident information is maintained in a
separate file. Data entered by the regions
is edited and stored on disk. Requests for
information on accidents average one per week.
Standard summary reports are produced monthly.
- Comments:
One attribute of this system which is unusual
within the agency is the need for .security
of the data contained in the system. Security
is required because of the highly confidential
industrial information regarding the formula-
tion of specific products which is stored in
the system.
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4. OTHER COMPUTER SYSTEMS USED BY (OWHM)
Numerous other smaller computer applications are
utilized by OWHM. These include:
Construction grants monitoring
Data on interstate carriers
Use of Automap
National water supply inventory
Waste treatment studies & guidelines
Program management
The current annual computer and personnel costs associ-
ated with these applications are $65,000 and $280,000,
respectively.
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V. OFFICE OF AIR AND WASTE MANAGEMENT (OAWM)
The Office of Air and Waste Management develops abatement
strategies for stationary and mobile source air pollution,
and coordinates research and abatement activities in the
areas of noise pollution, solid waste treatment, and radi-
ation. OAWM has responsibility for the following major
activities:
Develop national standards for air quality
and emission standards for new stationary
sources and for hazardous pollutants
Assess the national air pollution control
program and its success in achieving air
quality goals
Provide assistance to the states, regional
offices, and industry through manpower train-
ing and technical information
Maintain a national air programs data system
Develop abatement strategies to control noise
pollution
Disseminate information and perform research
in the management of solid waste disposal
Investigate the environmental and health
effects of radioactive substances and processes
The 992 members (11% of the total EPA employment) of this
office are organized into offices of staff support and the
following five DAA-level offices:
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Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards
Office of Mobile Source Air Pollution Control
Office of Noise Abatement
Office of Radiation Programs
Office of Solid Waste Management
OAWM uses ADP primarily to maintain the national air quality
data systems, to construct models, and to perform statistical
analyses. Exhibit A-7 lists the major systems in use by
OAWM.
1. OFFICE OF AIR QUALITY PLANNING AND STANDARDS
(1) Principal Geographic Location: RTF
(2) Size of Staff: 299
(3) General Type of Staff: Scientific
(4) Primary Responsibilities:
Develops national standards for air quality,
emission standards for new stationary sources,
and emission standards for hazardous pollutants
Develops national programs, technical policies
and regulations for air pollution control and
assesses their success in achieving air quality
goals
Provides assistance to the states, industry
and other organizations through manpower train-
ing activities and technical information
Evaluates regional programs with regard to state
implementation plans, technical assistance, and
resource requirements for air-related programs
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Exhibit A-7
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Major Systems in Use in OAWM
Name
ANNUAL COST ($000)
Acronym Computer Personnel Contract Support
Type of System
National Emissions
Data System
Storage and Retrieval
of Aerometric Data
Technical Environ-
mental Information
System
Noise
Solid Waste Informa-
tion Retrieval
System
Other
NEDS
SAROAD
TENIS
SWIRS
300 400
240 200
100 35*
120
105
86
30
300
300
250
Technical Data System
Trend and Monitoring
Bibl iographic
Bibliographic
Bibliographic
a\
CN
(N
429
Totals 865
1,064
966
In OPM
-------
Develops and maintains a national air program
data system, including air quality, emissions,
and other technical data
Provides effective technology transfer through
the translation of technological developments
into improved control program procedures
(5) Major Relevant Legislation:
Clean Air Act
(6) Major Systems:
National Emissions Data System (NEDS)
- Purpose:
NEDS is a national data bank of information
on emissions from major sources of air pollu-
tion. The data is used for reporting and for
analysis of air quality. The National
Inventory report, produced by NEDS, shows
emissions data by source classification code
for all geographic sections of the country.
- Annual Cost:
Computer Personnel Contract Support
$300,000 $400,000 $86,000
- Primary Users:
Regions use the system for planning and
control. OAQPS uses NEDS to prepare the
National Inventory report. Emissions
questionnaires for point sources identified
by the Compliance Data System are prepared
by NEDS. The system also supplies bulk data
for analysis by other 'EPA offices or researchers
outside the Agency.
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- Description:
The master file is organized by state and
county. Emissions data is recorded for both
point and area air pollution sources. The
National Inventory report differentiates
area and point source totals, giving sub-
totals for each/ based on source classifi-
cation code categories. The point source
reports identify the source of emissions and
list the current data on emission volumes.
The NEDS reports are used in the regions in
the planning of air pollution control
activities. The major sources of air pollu-
tion can be identified using NEDS. Enforce-
ment actions are prioritized to address the
major sources first.
The system is updated every 6 months with
current emission data. NEDS information
can be compared with compliance schedules
to identify sources which require enforce-
ment follow-up action.
- Operation:
The system operates on the Univac computer
at RTF. The states are required by statute
to submit data to NEDS every six months.
Data are screened for validity and signifi-
cance by the statistical services staff of
the NERC at RTF. Edited data is then added
to the data base.
The number of sites monitored currently by
NEDS has stabilized at 100,000 point sources,
For each source, only the current period
data values are available from the system.
Snapshot dumps of the NEDS data are taken
quarterly, however, to retain past values
and to permit trend analyses to be made.
Regions request special reports from NEDS
and SAROAD at a rate of about 12 per month.
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In addition, approximately 20 requests per
year are made for bulk data from NEDS for
use in special analysis projects.
- Comments:
The structure of NEDS provides a system
which meets the Agency's needs at a stable
cost. Because only current data is retained,
operational costs are a function of usage
and number of sources, but are independent of
time.
The enforcement of rigid controls on data
entering the system plus definition of the
techniques allowed in collecting the data,
offer the potential for better quality data
than is available in the water program. The
disadvantage of this design is that the time
lag on data updates is longer than in water.
It is questionable, however, whether poor
data available quickly is better than more
accurate data available less rapidly.
The level of cost of NEDS and all data banks
is sensitive to outside forces. The number
of requests which are made of the system by
Congress and others (and hence the cost of
running the system) is not totally controllable
by the Agency.
New interests in environmental quality will
lead to expansion of NEDS or the creation of
new but functionally similar systems. Lead
and sulfates are pollutants which are of
concern recently, may be added to the data
base in the future.
The National Air Data Bank staff, which runs
both NEDS and SAROAD, notes that there are
significant opportunities for improving the
efficiency of the systems following the IBM
to UNIVAC conversion. The systems have not
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been modified to match the particular
capabilities of the UNIVAC 1110 environment.
Savings in this area may well be used in
providing additional output capabilities
(such as plotting) as well as servicing the
increased load of user requests.
Storage and Retrieval of Aerometric Data (SAROAD)
- Purpose:
Air quality in the nation is evaluated by
analysis of ambient air data taken from many
sites around the nation. This data is stored
in SAROAD. Current air quality, annual trend
reports, and special studies are supported by
SAROAD.
- Annual Cost:
Computer Personnel Contract Support
$240,000 $200,000 . $30,000
- Primary Users:
Air Quality analysts at Headquarters use the
system for annual reports and answering special
requests. Regions use the system for special
studies for answering contractor and congres-
sional inquiries, and for litigation.
- Description:
SAROAD is a software system, which uses the
National Aerometric Data Bank. (NADB) at RTP.
The SAROAD programs are general purpose in
nature and can be used to generate standard
or special reports from the NADB data. A
report on air quality in each of 247 air
quality control regions is produced quarterly
by EPA as required by regulations.
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Daily, hourly, and annual pollutant level
averages are computed from raw data and
made available through SAROAD. The summary
averages are available from an on-line file
(approximately 40 million bytes in size)
while the raw data is stored on 12 off-line
tapes if needed for more detailed analysis.
Though the system grows with time, disk usage
is moderate because only yearly and quarterly
summary averages are kept on-line. States are
required by law to submit air quality data to
EPA every three months. The frequency of data
observations may be hourly or daily according
to the site.
- Operation:
Data input from the states is received quarterly
on paper forms, cards or magnetic tape. These
data are screened manually and by computer to
attempt to remove erroneous or suspicious
values. In addition, the sampling and analysis
methods used to generate the data must conform
to EPA requirements before the data may be
accepted into the data base.
The data are summarized by computing various
averages. The data must contain enough samples
to make the measurements significant, or they
will be rejected. The summary averages are
added to the disk data base, while the raw data
are held off-line.
When the system was located on the 360/50,
SAROAD was available through the communica-
tions network. Currently, the Univac 1110
provides only limited accessibility through
phone circuits.
Report requests for SAROAD and NEDS averaged
12 per region per month on the IBM machine.
Requests for bulk data from SAROAD average 50
per year.
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- Comments:
The Air office conducted a survey of nine
states concerning their needs and desires
for on-line access to SAROAD. The conclu-
sion of this study was that no great need
was felt by the states. Instead, states
preferred to run their own systems. They were
not disturbed by the prospect of having to
pay for use of SAROAD, but felt it would have
to be weighed against the cost of using their
own systems.
SAROAD is functionally similar but structur-
ally different from STORET. Both have a
similar volume of data. However, operating
costs for SARCAD are only a fraction of
STORET's costs. The quality of information
in both systems is only as good as the data
received from the states. Though SAROAD
spends more effort to assure data accuracy,
there is no way to guarantee this accuracy.
Timely updating of SAROAD data and access
to the system were both criticized by some
regional users. The update schedule has a
built-in delay of at least 75 days for data
verification. The states want answers to
questions like "how many times have we exceeded
the standards this year." At least one region
maintains an independent copy of the data
submitted by the states. This region gener-
ates its own reports independent of SAROAD.
Technical Environmental Information System (TENIS)
- Purpose:
This bibliographic system provides rapid
reference to the growing body of air quality
technical data. Computer searching for rele-
vant books and articles assists air pollution
agencies and other public or private organiza-
tions.
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- Annual Cost:
Computer Personnel Contract Support
$100,000 $35,000 $300,000
- Primary Users:
The system is available through the telecom-
munications system to all interested users.
It is also used to prepare the monthly Air
Pollution Abstracts for printing by GPO, which
are then mailed to over 2,000 recipients.
- Description:
2,400 retrospective literature searches and
600 SDI searches per year are performed on a
file of 65,000 technical documents. Approx-
imately 800 articles per month are added to
the system from over 7,000 domestic and for-
eign journals.
A fixed size on-line file of 55,000 citations
allows the user to develop a search criteria
list in an interactive environment. When the
retrieved set of documents is a manageable
size, the user may print the citations (5-9
lines per document) on-line. Full text of
the abstracts is retained on magnetic tape for
printing by the computer. Alternatively, the
user may refer to his own microfiche copies
of the abstracts.
Most search requests go through APTIC personnel.
They help the user to develop a search strategy
and speed the information retrieval process.
- Operation:
Abstracting is done by Franklin Institute at
a cost of about $30 per article. Input to
the system is prepared on MTST tapes and
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transferred to computer magnetic tape. The
input is edited, corrected and then added to
the TENIS permanent tape storage. Printed
and microfilmed copies also are provided by
Franklin Institute. The system runs on the
RTF computer. On-line searching of the cita-
tions file is available to all users. The
system consists of 10 COBOL programs and was
developed at RTF.
- Comments:
The system is designed such that on-line
storage is fixed in size, and on-line data is
limited in length. A search strategy can be
developed on-line, but the bulk data is held
on off-line tapes. The result is a system
which is responsive at a reasonable cost.
2. OFFICE OF MOBILE SOURCE AIR POLLUTION CONTROL
(1) Principal Geographic Location: Ann Arbor
(2) Size of Staff: 261
(3) General Type of Staff: Scientific
(4) Primary Responsibilities:
Conducting a research and development program
on low-emission vehicle power systems
Characterizing emissions from mobile sources
and developing programs for their control,
including assessment of the states of control
technology
Developing and recommending emission standards
and related test procedures for mobile sources
Carrying out a regulatory compliance program
to insure adherence of mobile sources to
standards
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Carrying out surveillance activities with
regard to mobile source emissions
(5) Major Relevant Legislation:
Clean Air Act
3. OFFICE OF NOISE ABATEMENT
(1) Principal Geographic Location: Washington
(2) Size of Staff: 54
(3) General Type of Staff: Scientific
(4) Primary Responsibilities:
Coordinating the noise control and noise
research programs of all Federal agencies
as mandated by Congress
Expanding and improving the scientific and
technological base in critical areas related
to EPA's responsibilities under the Noise
Control Act of 1972
Disseminating information on the effects of
noise, acceptable noise levels, and techniques
for noise measurement and control
'Establishing noise emission standards and
labeling regulations for products distributed
in commerce as well as noise standards for
interstate motor and rail carriers
Providing technical assistance to state and
local governments to facilitate development.
and implementation of their noise control
programs
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(5) Major Relevant Legislation:
Noise Pollution and Abatement Act of 197C
Noise Control Act of 1972
(6) Major System:
Noise File
- Purpose
The Noise information service provides
technical literature abstracts to government
agencies, private firms, and the general
public. It is used by EPA in the development
of standards and regulations and is available
to the states and regions as well.
- Annual Cost:
Computer Personnel Contract Support
$120,000 - $300,000
- Primary Users:
Current users of the system are primarily the
members of the Office of Noise Abatement and
Control at Headquarters. They use the liter-
ature in the Noise file to provide basic infor-
mation used in drafting regulations.
- Description:
The system is a bibliographic system of con-
siderable sophistication. The Noise file
operates in an on-line environment on the
ENVIRON time-sharing system. It uses free
text search of article citations to identify
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relevant literature for retrieval for the
user.
Use of the Noise file allows the inquirer
to identify documents which are relevant to
a particular subject. For example, a request
may be made to identify all articles known
to the system which contain the words "airport",
"noise", and "Washington D.C."
- Operation:
Informatics, a commercial vendor under con-
tract with the Agency, provides abstracts of
250-300 articles per month from over 7,000
periodicals. For each article selected by
Informatics, a citation and abstract are
prepared. The citation is entered into the
ENVIRON system, which is also run by Informatics.
The user prepares a list of terms relevant
to his subject of interest. In an on-line
session, all citations are searched by the
machine to locate articles matching the
search list criteria. The on-line session
allows the user to narrow the list of articles
retrieved to a manageable number. The abstracts
themselves are then printed off-line and
mailed to the user.
- Comments:
While the system is easy to use, the Boolean
search capabilities are difficult to master.
Therefore most users need to be specially
trained to use the system.
Even though the search and identification
process, which allows the user to select
bibliographical abstracts is an on-line process,
the actual retrieval of the abstract for use
by the inquirer requires a two-day turnaround
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for the abstract to be printed and delivered.
This characteristic of the system signifi-
cantly reduces the advantage of an on-line
service over less expensive systems such as
those that are used elsewhere within the
Agency (e.g., the TENIS system at APTIC).
The use of ENVIRON is quite expensive. At
present, retrievals cost approximately $500
a piece. The turnaround time, sophistication,
and hence the cost, of such a system does
not seem to be well-matched to the current
use made of the information retrieved from
the system.
4. OFFICE OF RADIATION PROGRAMS
(1) Principal Geographic Location: Washington
(2) Size of Staff:. 199
(3) General Type of Staff: Scientific
(4) Primary Responsibilities:
Setting basic policies for all Federal radiation
programs and for setting specific standards for
radiation levels in the general environment
Establishing surveillance and monitoring to
determine levels of environmental radiation
Providing technical assistance to state and
local governments to facilitate development of
radiation control programs
Conducting reviews of federally supported or
licensed projects which are a source of environ-
mental radiation
(5) Major Relevant Legislation:
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1954 Atomic Energy Act
Public Health Service Act
5. OFFICE OF SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT
(1) Principal Geographic Location: Washington
(2) Size of Staff: 123
(3) General Type of Staff: Scientific
(4) Primary Responsibilities:
Providing technical assistance to Federal,
state, and local governments
Demonstrating and encouraging the use of the
most advanced practices in solid waste manage-
ment and technology
Assisting in the solution of problems of the
disposal of toxic and hazardous wastes
Assisting in creating institutional change
at the local level to optimize disposal practices
and reduce costs
(5) Major Relevant Legislation:
Solid Waste Disposal Act
(6) Major System:
Solid Waste Information Retrieval System (SWIRS)
- Purpose:
SWIRS is a bibliographic system which provides
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access to international literature related
to solid waste information. It provides
references to the latest developments in the
field for disseminating technological infor-
mation .
- Annual Cost:
Computer Personnel Contract Support
$105,000 - $250,000
- Primary Users:
EPA offices, commercial and industrial organ-
izations, and academia are the primary users
of the system. It is also available for the
general public (citizen action, students, etc.)
All requests for information are processed
through one central office. The service is
provided without charge to all users.
- Description:
Abstracts of documents are entered into the
system for use in performing literature
searches. The SWIRS system uses both key-
words and free search text techniques to
retrieve articles of interest according to the
search specifications provided by the user.
A thesaurus of control words is used to locate
articles matching the search criteria of the
inquirer. The control vocabulary meets
current interests. Free text search is used
. more and more as people begin asking for new
subjects in the field.
Data for the system is produced by the Franklin
Institute. They review and abstract all sig-
nificant articles from approximately 7,000
periodicals. Franklin Institute screens the
documents, selects relevant articles, writes
the abstract, and creates the input information
for the system.
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Use of the system by states, private industry
and anti-pollution citizen groups, etc., has
doubled over the past couple years. Requests
for literature searches are now running at
the rate of approximately 1500 per year. The
number of publications contained in the SWIRS
system rose from 15,000 abstracts in 1973 to
a projected 32,000 abstracts in 1975.
- Operation:
Searches to retrieve documents are run in
batch mode. A search list is specified and
the system retrieves accession numbers of the
documents matching the search criteria. The
computer prints abstract ID numbers, and the
analyst then refers to his own reel of micro-
film for reference to the printed abstracts
identified by the computer search.
The operation of the system emphasizes inter-
action between the person requesting infor-
mation and the trained analyst actually sub-
mitting the request for a literature search.
This combination allows for considerable
control over the operation of the system. By
dealing with trained analysts who are familiar
with the system, the efficiency of the search
increases and the number of searches (and
computer time) required to find a relevant
body of literature to satisfy the interests
of the inquirer is significantly reduced.
The system is currently operational on the
NIH computer and uses the WYLBUR Public
Retrieval System (PRS). Unfortunately, no
source code for WYLBUR PRS is available at
NIH. Thus, moving the system from NIH to
OSI will necessitate reprogramming the system.
Comments:
The problem currently facing the SWIRS system
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is that relocation to the OSI computer is
required by the Agency. This will entail
significant additional cost for reprogramming
the system. At this juncture it is worth-
while to consider the other bibliographic
systems used in the Agency as alternative
vehicles for providing publications retrieval
services for solid waste information. Several
such systems exist; the newest is the one
used by APTIC.
6. OTHER COMPUTER SYSTEMS USED BY OAWM
Other areas of computer usage by OAWM include radiation
programs, highway and airport noise models, technical
assistance in solid waste management, and solid waste
system demonstrations. The current annual personnel
cost associated with these activities is $429,000.
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VI. OFFICE OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT (ORD)
The Office for Research and Development is responsible for
the development and conduct of research and demonstration
programs in pollution sources, environmental sciences, mon-
itoring systems, and pollution control technology. ORD is
also responsible for the quality control and standardization
of the analytical techniques utilized by the Agency.
In addition to the above responsibilities, ORD provides
direct supervision of the activities of five Environmental
Research Centers (ERC) and their associated laboratories.
These ERC's and their primary areas of responsibility are
as follows:
ERC Areas of Responsibility
Cincinnati Water Programs
Corvallis Water Programs
Las Vegas Radiation Programs
RTP Air Programs
Washington, D.C. Socioeconomic Research
The 1856 members of ORD (20% of the total Agency employment)
are distributed among the above ERC's, Headquarters staff
offices, and four offices under DAA's as follows:
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Office of Environmental Engineering
Office of Environmental Sciences
Office of Monitoring Systems
Office of Program Integration
Exhibit A-8 on the following page lists the major system
in use by ORD.
The program management and word processing systems are used
principally by the staff offices at Headquarters. These
systems are described below, followed in turn by a des-
cription of the form DAA-level offices, the ERC's the
major systems used by the ERC's, and other systems in use
by ORD.
Program Management System
- Purpose:
This system is designed to aid managers of
the Office of Research and Development in
allocating office resources to research
projects and in monitoring research perfor-
mance against objectives.
- Annual Cost:
Computer Personnel Contract Support
$410,000 $324,000 $100,000
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Exhibit A-8
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Major ADP Systems in Use in ORD
Name
Program Management
Bowne Timesharing
Strategic Environ-
mental Assessment
System
Lab Automation
Other
ANNUAL COST ($000)
Acronym Computer Personnel Contract Support
Type of System
BTS
SEAS
410
110
300
400
430
324
60
325
120
1,061*
100 Tracking and Reporting
Word Processing
400 Modeling
Lab Automation
___
00
^«
CM
Totals 1,650
1,890
500
474 for Community Health and Environmental Surveillance System (CHESS)
-------
- Description:
This system records office resources in
manpower and budgeted dollars at a detailed
level within each ERG, laboratory, and
other research unit within the Agency.
This resource information is compared against
a prioritized list of research objectives
in ten major categories. This comparison
indicates the allocation of resources neces-
sary to meet these objectives, subject to
budgetary ceilings. Low priority objectives
are, thereby, excluded from the current
year's actual objectives. This system is
used also to track project and task activi-
ties within the office against research
milestones. At present, there are approxi-
mately 1,000 project milestones and 5,000
task milestones tracked.
- Operation:
This system is operated currently on NIH,
OSI, and ENVIRON, but is being modified to
operate exclusively on OSI. Programs are
run infrequently throughout the year when-
ever resources ard budgeted or reprogrammed.
Word Processing
- Purpose:
Word processing is used to reduce the typing
load of secretaries. Letters, reports, and
regulations can be prepared more rapidly by
using such facilities. Bowne Time-sharing
service is used by ORD for word processing.
Annual Cost:
Computer Personnel Contract Support
$110,000 $60,000
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- Primary Users:
The Office of Program Management is the
primary user of Bowne.
- Description:
Bowne time-sharing is used for:
. operation of the program management NEEDS
system
. preparation of issue resource report,
project reports, and specifications
. maintenance and use of mailing keys
. preparation of program planning procedures
and guidelines
- Operation:
For a description of the Bowne Time-sharing
service the reader is referred to the Word
Processing discussion contained in the
section of this Appendix dealing with the
Office of Water Planning and Standards.
1. OFFICE OF ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING
(1) Principal Geographic Location: Washington
(2) Size of Staff: 0 (61 filled)
(3) General Type of Staff: Administrative
(4) Primary Responsibilities:
Planning, coordinating, establishing, reviewing,
and assessing a comprehensive Agency research,
development, and demonstration program in the
area of pollution prevention and control tech-
nology
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Regard is given to achieving environmental
protection systems which minimize and balance
the effect of shifting pollutants to other
media
Planning, establishing, and reviewing research,
development, and appropriate demonstration
programs aimed at developing and improving
technology to prevent, control, and abate air
and noise pollution from stationary and mobile
sources and water pollution from municipal
sources, industrial sources, and non-point
sources such as agriculture, mining, and con-
struction
Planning implementation of an Agency technology
transfer program to effectively impact the con-
struction, installation, and operation of
environmental pollution control and abatement
facilities to assure that the latest practical
technologies are made known to potential users.
2. OFFICE OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
(1) Principal Geographic Location: Washington
(2) Size of Staff: o (38 filled)
(3) General Type of Staff: Administrative
(4) Primary Responsibilities:
Planning, coordinating, establishing, reviewing,
and assessing research and development programs
aimed at improving and maintaining the quality
of the Nation's potable water supplies, and at
developing the scientific basis for the protection
of human health from environmentally-related
insults and establishing and maintaining environ-
mental quality as related to non-human receptors
of pollution
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3. OFFICE OF MONITORING SYSTEMS
(1) Principal Geographic Location: Washington
(2) Size of Staff: 0 (45 filled)
(3) General Type of Staff: Administrative
(4) Primary Responsibilities:
Planning, establishing, and coordinating an
Agencywide standardization and quality control
program to assure that environmental data pro-
duced by Federal, state, and local agencies
are compatible, accurate, and legally defensible
Planning, coordinating, establishing, reviewing,
and assessing research, development, test, and
evaluation programs aimed at developing and
improving equipment, methodology, and systems
needed for environmental monitoring
Planning, coordinating, establishing, reviewing
and assessing research, development, and
appropriate demonstration programs aimed at the
establishment of effective research information
and data systems, including multi-media or
multi-pollutant data analysis and special data
handling and processing studies
4. OFFICE OF PROGRAM INTEGRATION
(1) Principal Geographic Location: Washington
(2) Size of Staff: 0 (22 filled)
(3) General Type of Staff: Administrative
(4) Primary Responsibilities:
Assuring that research and engineering strate-
gies and programs are responsive to Agency goals
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Coordinating and developing multi-area policy
and strategy studies
Synthesizing and analyzing outputs from multi-
ple program areas for provision to media, cate-
gorical, enforcement and regional offices
Coordinating all international activities of
ORD
5. ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH CENTERS
(1) Principal Geographic Locations and Size of Staff:
Location Staff
Cincinnati, Ohio 380
Corvallis, Oregon 454
Las Vegas, Nevada 190
RTF (Durham, North Carolina) 539
Washington, D.C. 0 (27 filled)
(2) General Type of Staff: Scientific
(3) Primary Responsibilities:
The ERC's have responsibilities for conducting
research, development, and demonstration pro-
grams in areas assigned to them and for super-
vising the activities of each center's associated
laboratories. The principal program areas
assigned to each center are as follows:
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ERG Area of Responsibility
Cincinnati Water Programs
Corvallis Water Programs
Las Vegas Radiation PRograms
RTP Air Programs
Washington, D.C. Socioeconomic Research
(4) Major Systems
Strategic Environmental Assessment System (SEAS)
- Purpose:
SEAS is a large computer model designed to
forecast the impact of environmental quality
level requirements on economic sociological
and ecological conditions. The effect of
economic and demographic variations on pollu-
tant residual levels also is projected by the
model. It is used to study possible conse-
quences of alternative environmental policies
and socio-economic trends over a 10-15 year
time span.
- Annual Cost:
Computer Personnel Contract Support
$300,000 $324,000 $400,000
- Primary Users:
The Office of Research and Development, the
Office of Planning and Evaluation of 0PM,
and special study task forces use the system.
Non-EPA users include the Council on Environ-
mental Quality, Federal Energy Administration,
Labor Department, Commerce Department, and NIH.
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- Description:
SEAS is the largest modelling effort in ORD.
It models all major elements of the economy
and the environment and simulates the com-
plex interactions between environmental and
economic policies. Elements of the model
include such economic factors as durable
goods demand, total personal income, the
industrial capital structure, inventory levels,
domestic and foreign demand, and governmental
expenditures. Environmental factors in the
model include energy consumption, abatement
costs, pollution residual levels, auto usage
and area pollution sources. The model has
over 250 individual factors.
The model is used to generate forecasts on the
following subjects:
national economy
additional environmental industry detail
energy budgets
primary and secondary pollutant residuals
treatment costs
price, wage and stock levels
solid waste levels
pollution from transportation (by mode)
water heating use and residuals
land usage and residuals
- Operation:
SEAS is written in Fortran and is operated on
OSI. Data collected from many different
sources are used to create relationships within
the model and to drive the operation of the
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model. The model runs as a batch program.
Data are input using an on-line text editor.
Output is available in either printed, graphic
or machine readable form for use by additional
analysis programs.
- Comments:
The use of the model, and hence its cost, is
quite sensitive to external demand for economic
analysis of environmental policies. Though
development costs can be shifted to outside
agencies interested in using the model, actual
computer costs for running the model are paid
by the Agency.
Lab Automation Project
- Purpose:
The purpose of the lab automation project is
to improve the productivity and accuracy of
laboratory operations.
- Annual Cost:
Computer Personnel Contract Support
$400 $120
- Primary Users:
Laboratories in the NERC's and regions are the
potential users of these systems. The proto-
type systems are being developed at the
Cincinnati NERC and at the Region V laboratories,
- Description:
The lab automation project is designed to
integrate minicomputers in laboratory test
equipment. Data from the test instruments
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would be analysed by the minicomputers and
converted into a format suitable for input
into other Agency systems such as STORET.
In addition, the computers would monitor
error drifts in the test equipment and would
make numeric or other adjustments, to insure
more accurate test results. The minicomputers
which are used for surveillance and analysis
purposes also would maintain an audit trail
of samples to insure that data that was
accumulated for eventual courtroom use would
satisfy judicial "chain of evidence" require-
ments .
- Operation:
The lab automation project uses Data General
Nova computers installed in each laboratory.
Software and technical assistance for the
project are being provided by Lawrence
Livermore Laboratories/ who have successfully
developed similar systems in the past.
- Comments:
The project was funded originally by 0PM and
ORD. Funding for fiscal year 1975 was ter-
minated by 0PM due to budget cuts and to the
relatively low priority of the project given
overall Agency ADP needs. ORD and Region V
allocated approximately $400,000 program
funds for the purchase of 4 minicomputers.
They had anticipated that OPM would fund
development efforts. However, because of the
budget cuts, the project has been suspended
pending a decision concerning the reprogram-
ming of funds to finance the project.
6. OTHER COMPUTER SYSTEMS USED BY ORD
Other areas of computer usage by ORD include;
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National Eutrophication survey
economic analysis/research
ecosystem models
biomedical research
grants tracking system
design of new monitoring techniques
general management support
radiation monitoring
The current annual computer and personnel costs associated
with the above applications are $430,000 and $1,061,000,
respectively.
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APPENDIX B
APPLICATION CLASSES OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS
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APPENDIX B - APPLICATION CLASSES OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS
Eight classes of computer usage have been defined for com-
puter systems at EPA. The purpose of this classification
is to provide an aid to understanding the use of computers
at the Agency and to group individual systems for cross
comparison.
The sections that follow (1) define each application class,
(2) discuss such issues as use, personnel cost, growth,
tradeoff considerations, and (3) give examples of Agency
systems within each class. The eight application classes
are as follows:
. Tracking and Reporting
Trend and Monitoring
. Technical Data Bases
Word Processing
. Bibliographic
. Modeling and Scientific
. Lab Automation
. Special Studies
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1. TRACKING AND REPORTING SYSTEMS
Tracking and reporting systems are used to compare actual
versus expected results. These systems may track schedu-
les or dollars expended, provide inventories or record
past events.
(1) Use; These systems are used for administering and
controlling Agency programs. They have heavy data
input requirements, usually with data collected from
a large number of sources. System reports primarily
are reformated versions of input data.
The chief benefit over manual file cabinets provided
by computerized tracking and reporting systems is
their ability to summarize data rapidly and conven-
iently along a number of different dimensions. In
order to realize this potential, however, all data
fields used for summarization must be completed. In
practice, many EPA systems have fields of information
defined for purposes of generating report summaries
but for which little data has been entered by the
field offices.
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(2) Personnel; Tracking and reporting systems require
substantial data entry, whether manual or computer
records are maintained. Depending on the structure
of the computer data collection system, the effort
required could be the same as for a manual system.
However, in practice, EPA systems tend to require
more effort. In some cases, the workload may be
f
doubled when data are recorded manually and then
transcribed into machine-readable form.
(3) Cost; The cost of operating tracking and reporting
systems depends on the volume of information being
tracked by the computer and on the type of access
to that data required by the user. If the system
merely provides machine-generated listings of entered
data with global totals calculated automatically, the
cost can be fairly low. If, however, the user is
interested in summarizing the items being tracked
along many different dimensions, costs can increase
substantially. Such flexibility increases the data
input and system processing techniques required.
(4) Growth; The growth in cost of tracking systems over
time depends on the volume of items monitored. Pro-
grams which have ongoing fixed requirements, such as
personnel systems and financial monitoring, will
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exhibit stable growth patterns over time. Systems
designed for a transitory phase of Agency operations
(such as the issuance of the initial compliance per-
mits) may have usage grow to a peak and then diminish.
(5) Tradeoffs; One way to reduce the cost of tracking
and reporting systems is to require that only sig-
nificant events (which may be a small portion of the
total data volume) be monitored by the system. This
approach is used in the Agency's Financial Manage-
ment System (FMS).
(6) Comments; Because the data required to operate
tracking and reporting systems must be entered from
many offices in the field, the accuracy of the in-
formation is a constant problem. When the user of
system output is far removed from the office pro-
viding information, the accuracy of input data can be
degraded because the user has little incentive to
monitor its accuracy. This is true especially in
cases where users have never been convinced of the
worth of the system, such as with Grants Information
Control System (GIGS) and Compliance Data System (CDS)
In general, the Headquarters offices of the Agency
require excessive detail from the field. Summary
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information should suffice for Headquarters, in most
cases. Where the field user is not himself the user
of this detailed information, he often ignores or
omits the information. Thus, the credibility and
usefulness of the entire system may suffer.
Many tracking and reporting systems, such as CDS and
GIGS, are developed by Headquarters for use by Head-
quarters and the regions. Acceptance of these sys-
tems by the regions varies widely by region and by
system. User education is often neglected, or per-
formed- inadequately. In other instances, the trained
user may leave. The ability of the system to satisfy
field user needs requires good communication among
all users. A user committee to sense and respond to
needs is an important tool which should be used with
more systems.
2. TREND AND MONITORING SYSTEMS
Trend and monitoring systems build data bases of technical
information over time. Each item in the data base has
several fields associated with it. New fields may be
added on a regular basis over time. For example, the
STORET system maintains information from water quality
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measuring stations covering periods since the mid-
o
1930's. For each station, many water quality parameter
values are collected. Over time, the number and types
of parameters measured and stored have increased.
The purpose of trend and monitoring systems is to moni-
tor field values over time. The STORET system allows the
user to note how water quality is changing from year to
year by comparing the parameters from a particular sta-
tion or set of stations.
(1) Use; In contrast to tracking and reporting systems,
which support well-defined operational programs,
trend and monitoring systems are designed to provide
data resources for use by Agency scientists in a wide
variety of applications. In practice, however, the
use of existing Agency systems for research is limited,
The reason for this is that systems such as STORET
and SAROAD collect widely scattered information from
all over the nation on a periodic basis. By contrast,
most research studies tend to require intensive mea-
surements over small areas.
(2) Personnel; The data entry costs required by trend
and monitoring systems are quite high. In addition,
the quality of data submitted to these systems often
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is poor because data enterers generally receive
little benefit from the systems, and therefore are
not motivated to insure the accuracy of their inputs.
(3) Costs; Because the volume of data collected by these
systems increases over time, the cost of these sys-
tems is extremely sensitive to the data storage tech-
nique employed. A system like STORET, which keeps all
input resident on-line, experiences dramatically
rising costs. A system like SAROAD, which restricts
on-line data to summary information, has more stable
operational costs. Even with a system like SAROAD,
the amount of computer resources required to search
through the entire data base (currently 12 tapes)
can increase depending upon the organization and
partitioning of off-line data storage.
(4) Growth; The growth in size of a trend and monitoring
system is a function of the number of locations and
parameters being monitored, and the number of time
intervals represented in the current data base.
(5) Tradeoffs; Environmental information (air and water
quality information) tends to change quite slowly
with time. Once the air or water quality trends for
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the time period 1962 through 1972 have been com-
puted, they will never change. Every year only
one-tenth of the time interval is updated with new
information as the next year's quality data is added
to the data base. For reporting purposes, therefore,
the use of manually-maintained charts, which are up-
dated as each year's new information becomes avail-
able, is a much less costly procedure than repro-
cessing ten years' worth of data every time a new
report is needed.
STORET and SAROAD both have a large body of "general
purpose" software to aid the users in retrieving
information from the data base. The Agency has
chosen to build national data bases and to make them
easy to use. However, this policy can prove quite
costly. An alternative strategy would be to provide
information on an archival basis, similar to a li-
brary, where raw data is available for copying, but
where the individual users must spend their own funds
to manipulate the copied data.
(6) Comment; STORET and SAROAD designers have assumed
that the collection of general environmental infor-
mation, together with tools to access this data, will
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be useful. Yet, the intended users of these systems
for enforcement, research, modeling, regulation pre-
paration and congressional reporting all have different
types of time and data demands. A data base which
attempts to satisfy all these demands generally does
not prove cost-justifiable. A more cost-effective
alternative is to build systems designed to meet
specific needs rather than constructing general pur-
pose systems to meet undefined needs.
3. TECHNICAL DATA BASE SYSTEMS
A technical data base is a collection of items having
a number of chemical or other scientific parameters.
It differs from a trend and monitoring system in that
the data base is constant in size over time. As new
values enter the system, they replace existing values
in the data base. For example, the NEDS system is a
technical data base of air quality measurement stations
in which each station has a number of emission volume
measurements. Semi-annually, new readings of emission
volumes are submitted which replace the existing data
in NEDS. The data base contains only the current emission
levels from each of the stations in the data base.
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Other examples of technical data bases include the
Pesitcides Registration System (PARCS) and the Technical
Assistance Data System (TADS). The General Point Source
File (GPSF) is a trend and monitoring system rather than
a technical data base (although it is the water program
equivalent of NEDS) because it maintains a time history
of point source information.
(1) Use; Technical data base systems are used primarily
for special studies, such as the annual air quality
report. Researchers use the data bases for analysis
and for preparation in writing regulations.
(2) Personnel; The data entry requirements to support
these types of systems is low compared to other
application classes. The major personnel effort
required is for retrieval of information from the
data base. The creation of programs to retrieve in-
formation from the technical data base is the primary
activity required by this application class.
Savings are provided by these systems by replacing
manual tabulation and analysis with machine compu-
tation. To the extent that the data bases are used
for this purpose, the savings can be substantial.
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(3) Cost; This application class exhibits generally
stable cost trends with time. Operational costs
change only with changes in the rate of requests.
Data maintenance and accessing costs remain stable.
(4) Growth; The size of a technical data base is a
function of the number of data elements included.
Additions to the data base result from external
forces such as legislative changes or new environ-
mental interests. For example, legislative changes
in the pesticides area will result in a substantial
increase in the number of pesticides covered by the
PARCS system. Similarly, new interests in nitrogen
dioxide may result in the addition of this parameter
to the NEDS data base.
(5) Tradeoffs; The maintenance of technical information
in printed form is an alternative to a computerized
data base. The feasibility of manual alternatives
depends on the rate of change of the information in
the data base and on the need to access the data
base along many different parameters. The PARCS data
base, for example, is accessed along many different
dimensions to answer specialized requests and repre-
sents a suitable application of machine technology.
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The TADS data base, on the other hand, is referenced
infrequently other than by the name of the substance
of interest. TADS information could be provided to
users in notebook form more cheaply and efficiently
than on a computer system.
A second factor concerning the need for automation
is the size of the data base maintained. A large
data base with many hundreds of thousands of values
would Be difficult to use in printed form. A small
data base, of several hundred to several thousand
items, could be managed manually irrespective of
the nature of information requests.
(6) Comments; The implementation of a technical data
base in an on-line interactive environment is very
difficult to justify. The types of information re-
quired are rarely complex or urgent enough to require
this type of environment. The use of qualified tech-
nical people to translate user requests into machine
format will reduce the cost and complexity of the
computer system while maintaining a high level of
performance.
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4. WORD PROCESSING SYSTEMS
Word processing systems automate secretarial tasks.
Textual information is input to the system, modified
in an interactive process, and output in a retyped and
corrected version.
Two types of word processing systems are used within
the Agency. First, Bowne Time Sharing is a centralized
service running on an IBM 360 computer in New York,
which is accessible through time share terminals through-
out the Agency. Second, stand alone systems consist of
a terminal, local storage, processing unit, and a type-
writer output mechanism, which are all under the control
of one typist and located in an Agency office. The
Bowne Time Sharing system expenses are paid as a part of
the Agency ADP Fund. The cost of stand alone word pro-
cessing systems, such as the Lexitron system, are funded
\
from program appropriations throughout the Agency.
(1) Use; Word processing systems are used to increase
secretarial performance in preparing reports and in
updating user and system documentation. Improved
accuracy from machine retyping and improved turn-
around time for draft revisions are the primary
benefits from such systems.
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(2) Personnel; Savings realized through use of word
processing systems are very sensitive to the number
of changes required to the original textual infor-
mation. If the initial text undergoes extensive
changes between each revision, the clerical costs
to operate an automated system may be equal to that
required to completely retype the document. However,
if the document has only a few changes since the
original draft, secretarial time may be reduced sub-
stantially through the use of word processing.
(3) Cost: The cost of utilizing word processing equipment
is added directly to ordinary secretarial costs. The
breakeven point for word processing is when the cost
for using the machinery equals the savings in sec-
retarial costs of doing the same process manually.
Stand alone word processing systems and secretaries
represent a fixed cost to the Agency as compared to
Bowne Time Sharing, which is charged on the basis of
use. Fixed cost systems are more cost-effective when
the volume of usage is high, whereas timesharing is
cheaper if only infrequent use is made of the facility,
Cost considerations may, at times, be subordinated to
other issues. For example, offices with a requirement
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to publish regulations or findings within a court-
specified deadline require the rapid turnaround which
can be provided by word processing systems despite
their higher costs.
(4) Growth; Word processing applications do not exhibit
intrinsic growth characteristics as do trend or
tracking systems. Rather, word processing data files
are stored for short periods of time until a final
document is produced. At that time, the corresponding
system files are purged.
(5) Tradeoffs; The manipulation capability of word pro-
cessing services provided by Bowne Time Sharing
exceed those available from stand alone systems. The
value of this capability depends upon the material
under preparation. Each office should examine whether
a more expensive service, such as Bowne, or one with
lesser capabilities and cost, such as Lexitron, should
be used.
(6) Comments; Usage of Bowne Time Sharing within the
Agency has grown rapidly because of the savings re-
sulting from word processing capabilities and from
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the fact that Bowne Time Sharing was provided as a
free service, since it is paid for by the ADP Fund,
to all Agency offices.
5. BIBLIOGRAPHIC SYSTEMS
Bibliographic systems use the processing capabilities of
a computer to search a very large set of book and journal
abstracts to find publications relevant to specific
subjects. The user specifies his areas of interest and
the machine searches for all articles matching his search
criteria.
Examples of bibliographic systems used by the Agency
include the Solid Waste Information Retrieval System
(SWIRS), the Noise System on Environ and the Technical
and Environmental Information System (TENIS) used by the
Air program.
(1) Use: Bibliographic systems are used primarily by
librarians in support of research requests. The
services are provided to agency offices and to the
public to promote the flow of current technical
information.
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(2) Personnel; The data entry costs required to support
the bibliographic systems are quite high compared to
other application classes. These high bibliographic
costs are incurred because large volumes of abstract
or other textual materials must be keyed into the
computer. High-paid contract personnel are needed
also to survey the current trade and technical pub-
lications, and to select and abstract articles for
inclusion in the bibliographic systems. Several
systems also use trained analysts to translate li-
brarian or research requests into machine-readable
form.
(3) Cost; There is a substantial and constant data entry
cost required to maintain bibliographic systems.
Abstracts are added to the system on a periodic basis
to maintain the currency of system information. The
operating costs of bibliographic systems is highly
dependent upon the design philosophy adopted. Sys-
tems which store only citation numbers and keywords,
for example, can be operated inexpensively because of
the comparatively small volume of data which must be
scanned during a search. By contrast, systems which
store full abstracts on-line and provide free text
search capabilities are quite costly to operate because
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much computer time must be consumed in scanning the
relatively larger data volumes of stored information.
(4) Growth: The growth in data base size maintained by
these systems is a function of time. As more time
passes, more abstracts, citations, keywords and other
information are added to system data files.
(5) Tradeoffs; With the current growth of technical in-
formation in all fields, it is doubtful whether non-
automated procedures can be effective. Tradeoffs
primarily involve different implementation strategies
for machine-based bibliographic systems. Keyword
bibliographic systems are more efficient to operate
than free text bibliographic systems. Batch systems
which are run by trained operators are less expensive
than interactive on-line services.
(6) Comments; The primary factors affecting bibliographic
system costs are data storage philosophies and user-
interfacing policies. Systems which periodically purge
older abstracts can effect tighter control over data
base size and thereby control costs. Systems which
minimize direct end user system interaction can like-
wise limit costs by employing simpler and more efficient
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search strategies. Both restrictions imply some re-
duction in user service. However, given the low level
of EPA usage of current bibliographic systems, such
reduced service would not hinder significantly Agency
research activities.
6. MODELING AND SCIENTIFIC SYSTEMS
A computer model is a mathematical simulation of the
chemical, biological or socioeconomic behavior of eco-
systems to various stimuli. For example, a river flow
model might show the impact of discharged pollutants on
a river as a distribution of those pollutants throughout
the river over time.
The water program uses many models for describing the
water flows. The air program is conducting a large model-
ing program (RAPS) to study the complex interactions of
a large metropolitan area with many sources of air pollu-
tion. Many small models exist for describing local phe-
nomena, such as the distribution pattern of pollutants
from an individual smoke stack. Other models simulate
the interrelationship between economic activity and en-
vironmental factors.
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(1) Use; Models are used in research and in establishing
permit conditions. For example, the effect of a new
factory is examined by running a model to predict what
change the factory will have on the air quality in its
surrounding area. The results of the model are then
used to determine the kinds of pollution control
equipment to be installed during its construction.
(2) Personnel; The data entry requirements for most
models are low compared to other application classes.
Models are run as needed rather than on a periodic
schedule.
(3) Cost; The cost of modeling depends upon the com-
plexity of the individual model. An air diffusion
model representing a single smoke stack is far less
expensive to operate than one attempting to model all
the interactions in an area such as St. Louis.
(4) Growth; Once a model is constructed, it may be ex-
pected to remain stable in size and operational cost..
The primary growth factor in the modeling and scien-
tific area is the creation of new or more complex
models to examine additional characteristics.
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(5) Tradeoffs; Models provide the unique ability to
study the implications of an action before the action
actually occurs. As such, there are a few alternatives
to modeling as a tool for gaining understanding of
physical phenomena. However, the use of modeling to
assess the impact of specific construction or devel-
opment projects, such as the building of a new power
plant or the creation of a new shopping center, may,
in some cases, be unnecessary. Only the analysts
involved with a particular project can assess fully
the cost benefits of using modeling techniques.
(6) Comments; Within the academic community, the use of
computer models is rapidly growing. They are being
used currently in only a limited fashion at EPA, but
may be expected to increase in importance in the future,
7. LABORATORY AUTOMATION SYSTEMS
Laboratory automation systems control complex laboratory
test equipment to (1) provide more accurate measurement,
(2) simplify data collection and analysis, and (3) reduce
the personnel needed to perform laboratory operations.
(1) Use; The Agency currently is studying the use of
computers in laboratories. The NERCS, and regional
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surveillance and analysis laboratories are the in-
tended users.
(2) Personnel: Laboratory automation reduces manual
transcription and analysis of data and thereby frees
lab technicians from these clerical duties.
(3) Cost; The cost of laboratory operations may be higher
than experienced currently because personnel reduc-
tions will not accompany computer installation. The
benefit of laboratory automation will be to increase
productivity rather than to lower cost.
(4) Growth; The data processing expenditures on laboratory
automation will increase as hardware is acquired and
decline when all the laboratories are equipped. Be-
cause the machinery will be dedicated to the labora-
tory use and will be purchased rather than leased,
only maintenance expenses will provide recurring costs.
(5) Tradeoffs; The only relevant tradeoff to lab auto-
mation is continued usage of manual laboratory pro-
cedures. The associated cost benefit consideration
is whether the added expense of lab automation is
worth the added accuracy and productivity provided
over conventional laboratory procedures.
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(6) Comments; The use of computers in the laboratory
should increase the productivity and accuracy of
operations performed. However, lab automation has
had a bad history of expensive failures. Therefore,
EPA should examine carefully the anticipated costs
and benefits from such systems and measure these
anticipations against the actual consequences of the
experimental projects.
8. SPECIAL STUDIES
Special studies represent an application class only in
the budgeting sense. They represent one time non-recurring
computer expenditures to generate special reports from
(1) existing data bases, (2) newly constructed models, or
(3) specially-designed data bases.
(1) Use; Special studies are found in all offices of the
Agency. In Grants Administration, special studies are
used to respond to requests by Congress and other out-
side agencies. In the water program, a significant
modeling effort is underway currently which involves
the intensive collection of data from sixty pairs of
monitoring stations on a single river. In the air
program, the regional air pollution study (RAPS) is a
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$20,000,000 special study which extends over a five
year period.
(2) Personnel; The personnel requirements for a special
study are a function of the type of study being con-
ducted. Large scale projects involving the develop-
ment of new computer systems require ADP designers,
programmers and analysts. Smaller studies, which
access existing Agency data files or facilities, re-
quire little more than some minor clerical or coding
support.
(3) Cost; The cost of special studies varies considerably
depending upon the scope and longevity of the project.
A response to a Congressional inquiry about the Grants
program may cost a few hundred dollars and last a few
days, whereas an air monitoring study may last several
years and cost many millions of dollars.
(4) Growth; The growth curve of special studies starts
at zero, rises to a peak and then decreases back to
zero when the study is completed. Only when systems
constructed as part of a study are preserved is there
any ongoing cost incurred after study completion.
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(5) Tradeoffs; There are no tradeoffs to special studies
other than refraining from initiating the project it-
self. Since special studies are begun in response to
some Agency need for information, the only relevant
tradeoff consideration is the priority of the under-
lying need itself.
(6) Comments; Many special studies are conducted in res-
ponse to Congressional inquiries. It would be useful
for the Agency to track the cost of responding to such
requests. In this way EPA could inform Congress of
the costs of providing requested information and there-
by help focus or channel future requests to highest
priority issues.
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APPENDIX C
ADP EQUIPMENT AND FACILITIES
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APPENDIX C - ADP EQUIPMENT AND FACILITIES
Data processing equipment and facilities used by EPA include
two major computer facilities (OSI & RTF), five other ser-
vice bureaus/ dedicated mini computers, and a large number
of terminals. This Appendix describes the nature and the
FY'74 expenditure level for each of these equipment categor-
ies.
1. OPTIMUM SYSTEMS INC. (OSI)
(1) Location; Bethesda, Maryland
(2) Management; OSI is a commercial vendor supplying
computer equipment, services and facilities to EPA
under a contract signed originally in January, 1973.
(3) Pricing; OSI computer charges to EPA are based on
a complex contractually-specified pricing formula.
The elements of this pricing formula include ten
factors, as follows:
Resource hours, which are composed of central
processing unit (CPU) seconds and input/output
activity as measured by the number of execute
channel program (EXCP) instructions initiated.
Charges for resource hours are, in turn, based
upon job class and execution priorities
Connect hours, which measure the volume of
communications between remote sites and OSI.
These charges are based on connect time, dis-
tance, and type of communication (low speed
terminal or medium speed remote job entry).
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Storage costs for on-line disks, disk pack and
magnetic tape rental and storage
Personnel support for clerical, programming
and systems analysis work
Special forms
Courier service
Keypunching
Microfilm output
Xeroxing
Off-line printing
(4) Equipmentt The current OSI equipment configuration
consists of dual IBM 370/158 computers with 3
million bytes of memory on one machine and 2 million
bytes on the other. The configuration also includes
112 disk drives with a total capacity of 11 billion
characters, 10 tape drives, and 192 phone circuits
supporting remote job entry (RJE) leased, WATS and
dial-up lines and low speed terminal leased, WATS
and dial-up lines.
The 370/158 computers are members of the System/370
generation of IBM computers. System/370 was origin-
ally introduced in 1970 with the announcement of
the 370/155 and 370/165. In terms of cost and
performance the 370/158 is in the middle of the
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current line of IBM processors.
In addition to a broad line of peripheral equip-
ment, IBM provides many software packages which
operate on the 370/158. The WYLBUR text editing
system, the TSO Time Sharing system, the IRS report
generation package, and IBM's PL1 programming
language are all systems which are used heavily by
EPA. While the use of these packages improves
efficiency and reduces programming costs, it
reduces also EPA's flexibility in moving systems
to other vendors' equipment.
(5) Work Load; The OSI facility processes over 25,000
jobs each month. This monthly processing uses 700
resource hours including 200 CPU hours and 80,000
connect hours.
A thirty-day month has 720 available hours. The
two OSI computers thus have 1440 available CPU
hours. Assuming an 80% machine availability,
excluding maintenance and unscheduled outages,
there are approximately 1150 available CPU hours
per month. Therefore current CPU utilization of
200 hours represents about 17% of the total CPU
capacity.
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Disk-bound jobs, such as data base and inter-
active processing, result in lower CPU utiliza-
tion. Nonetheless, the amount of core available
for multi-programming at OSI indicates that total
machine utilization could be substantially higher
if the central processor were properly matched to
the workload. The use of a computer performance
analysis package, such as those provided by Boole
and Babbage, and other firms, could help OSI to
tune their configuration more effectively to EPA's
processing load.
(6) Costs; In FY'74, EPA spent over $6 million on
services provided by CSI.
2. RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK (RTF)
(1) Location; National Environmental Research Center,
Research Triangle Park, Durham, North Carolina.
(2) Management; The Data Systems Division of EPA
located at RTP has contracted with an outside vendor
for facilities management of the government leased
computer.
(3) Pricing; The formula used to measure the use of
resources on the RTP computer is similar to that
used at OSI. Elements measured include resource
287 index systems inc
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hours, storage costs, etc. However, RTF uses
variable rates adjusted as required to recover
the hardware rental and maintenance cost of the
RTF facility. In September, the charge out rate
was $323 per resource hour.
(4) Equipment; The RTF computer configuration consists
of a Univac 1110-2x1 computer with two arithmetic
processors and one I/O processor (16 I/O channels).
This machine contains 96 thousand words of main
storage and 262 thousand words of extended main
storage. The configuration also contains one
billion bytes of disk storage, 15 tape drives and
64 phone circuits including 4 RJE leased lines,
2 RJE WATS lines, 8 low speed leased lines, 6
hardwired terminals, and 40 dial-up lines.
The 1110 is the latest model in the Univac 1100
series, which dates back to 1964. The 1110 computer
was introduced in 1970, and supercedes the earlier
1108 model in terms of price performance. The
entire 1100 line of computers is upward program-
compatible .
Instead of offering many different model numbers
as does IBM, Univac has designed the 1110 to be
288 index systems inc
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capable of containing a variable number of pro-
cessing units. To increase computational power,
the user adds processors to his 1110 rather than
changing to a different model. The system at RTF
currently has 2 (of a possible 4) Command/Arithmetic
units, and 1 (of a possible 4) I/O Access units.
The software offered by Univac includes RJE, time
sharing, data management packages, and five high
level computer languages including Fortran and Cobol.
Though Univac has a PL/1 compiler under development,
it is not yet available. Therefore, programs
written in IBM PL/1 have been converted to Cobol
for operation at RTP.
(5) Work Load; The RTP computer processes approximately
16,000 jobs each month. These jobs use approxi-
mately 600 resource hours per month.
Although exact figures are not available, we have
estimated that the ratio of CPU hours to resource
hours is similar to that measured at OSI. This
is a conservative estimate because the Univac 1110
processor is approximately 2 to 4 times more power-
ful than the dual IBM 370/158 machines. Therefore
289 index systems inc
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equivalent work performed at RTF should consume
fewer CPU hours than at OSI. Using this ratio of
200/700, we have estimated the Univac to be using
175 CPU hours per month.
(6) Costs; Billing rates at RTF are set to recover
$190,000 per month in fixed costs or a total of
$2,280,000 per year. This covers the costs of
equipment rental, telecommunications and main-
tenance. Additional costs for facilities manage-
ment and supplies are not charged back to the user
at present.
3. OTHER COMPUTERS USED BY EPA
This section describes briefly the six other major
computers and computer service bureaus used by EPA.
(1) Health Services Administration (HSA)
HSA's computer is used to operate the Agency's
Financial Management System (FMS). Current plans
call for this system to be moved to OSI. Expendi-
tures in FY'74 at HSA were $317,500. HSA is a
government facility.
(2) Department of the Interior-U.S. Geodetic Service (USG)
The Agency's Departmental Integrated Personnel System
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(DIPS) runs on the IBM computer at USGS. The
personnel system is operated for the benefit of
the Department of the Interior, EPA, and several
other government agencies. There are no current
plans to move DIPS from USG. Expenditures in FY'74
were $390,400. This is a government facility.
(3) National Institute of Health (NIH)
Many of the programs and systems used by the Agency
were developed at NIH before EPA had any major
computational facilities. Recently, NIH has been
unable to expand their equipment to handle rising
work loads, and have therefore requested other
agencies to remove their work from the NIH facility.
EPA is transfering all work from NIH to the OSI
facility. Many systems have been transferred
already, but some, such as SWIRS, cannot be trans-
ferred, and must be re-programmed. EPA expendi-
tures at NIH in FY'74 were $1,461,624. NIH is a
government facility.
(4) Informatics Inc. (ENVIRON system)
Informatics operates a specialized commercial time
sharing service on which EPA operates several
application systems. NOISE bibliographic informa-
tion, the oil and hazardous materials Spills Infor-
mation Retrieval (SIRS) tracking and monitoring
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system, and the Technical Assistance Data System
(TADS) are run on ENVIRON, along with a part of
the Office of Research and Development project
management system. ENVIRON provides a very sophis-
ticated full text search and retrieval capability.
This capability facilitates text manipulation and
search as used in various bibliographic applica-
tions.
The EPA expenditures on ENVIRON in FY'74 were
$526,700. This is a commercially owned and oper-
ated facility.
(5) Bowne Time Sharing
Bowne operates a specialized time sharing system
for word processing. Text is typed in by secret-
aries, edited, and^retyped in final form. The
text also may be retained in the machine for
further editing changes in the future. The soft-
ware used for the word processing system is the
proprietary product of Bowne. The Agency spent
$569,500 for services on Bowne in FY'74. This
is a commercially owned and operated facility.
(6) Minicomputers
The Agency currently has several dozen minicomputers
292 index systems inc
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operating as specialized equipment in various
parts of the Agency. They are used primarily in
laboratories and in other areas to perform data
collection tasks. Because most minicomputers are
purchased rather than leased, the only operating
costs associated with these machines are mainten-
ance charges. The purchase price and maintenance
are both funded with program funds instead of with
money from the ADP Fund.
4. OTHER EQUIPMENT
In addition to the large scale general purpose computers
described above, the Agency also employs a large number
of remote terminals to request computer runs, prepare
and enter data, and receive printouts of computer results.
EPA currently has 500 low speed (10-30 character/second
typewriter-like) terminals, and 42 medium speed (200-700
character/second) devices for use in communicating with
OSI, RTP and other computer service bureaus.
Procurement requests for lease or purchase of this type
of equipment totaled over $990,000 in FY'74. However,
though Agency offices must submit procurement requests
for ADP equipment to headquarters for approval, funding
293 index systems inc
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for these devices usually is provided out of program
funds. Therefore the cost for these devices is not
included in the ADP Fund expenditure totals.
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APPENDIX D
COST PROJECTION CALCULATIONS
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APPENDIX D - COST PROJECTION CALCULATIONS
This Appendix describes the procedures used to calculate
the costs for consulting and new systems development and
for the resulting equipment and timesharing charges for
operating Agency systems during the next five years. Sec-
tions 1 and 2 describe the estimation procedures as applied
to project development costs. Section 3 describes the
derivation of equipment and timesharing estimates. Note
that all costs both here and throughout the report are
unadjusted for inflation.
1. PROCEDURES FOR ESTIMATING CONSULTING AND SYSTEMS
DEVELOPMENT COSTS.
A variety of procedures were used for estimating devel-
opment costs. In no case did we perform a detailed study
of system design and implementation characteristics as
would be required in a system feasibility study. Rather,
we used the following estimation rules in decreasing
order of priority depending upon their applicability.
Use the results of earlier feasibility
studies, where appropriate.
Apply the development and operating costs
of similar EPA systems within the same
application class adjusted for differences
in data volume, number of users, and other
special features.
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Apply the development and operating costs
of similar non-EPA systems adjusted for
technical differences such as system ar-
chitecture, data base complexity, types of
reporting, user interface and operating
environment.
Cost estimates for non-development consulting activities
such as system audits, planning studies, and evaluations
of current procedures were based upon the following
factors:
Scope and magnitude of the consulting
assignment
Number of people and elapsed time appro-
priate for the project
Level of interaction with Agency personnel
Number of people affected by the study
Travel time and associated expenses
2. COST ESTIMATES FOR CONSULTING AND SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT
PROJECTS.
This section presents the underlying assumptions used in
developing our overall consulting and system development
estimates. All final estimates were rounded to the
nearest $10,000 consistent with the level of precision
implicit in the estimation procedures. Responses to
RFP's or feasibility studies would develop more accurate
estimates. Note also that we have not assumed the use
296 index systems inc
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of current EPA software such as System 2000. We expect,
however, that these packages will be applicable to several
of the development projects and may reduce actual costs
below our conservative estimates. For estimation pur-
poses we have assumed the following average man month
rates:
Contractor-consulting project $8,000
Contractor-system development $5,500
EPA personnel $1,500
Computer time expenses have been included in the overall
ADP Fund costs for associated systems. Other expenses
have been included for contractors but not for EPA per-
sonnel. These cost estimates are presented for eight
projects, as follows:
GPSF development
Word processing study
STORET development
TADS/SIRS evaluation
Administrative systems study and development
. OEGC plan
ORD plan
. Energy system development
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All estimates are calculated in man months (m.m.).
There are five estimation categories for development
projects, as follows:
. Design - functional specification and
design, general system design
Programming - module flowcharting, coding,
unit tests
Conversion - data conversion, full system
testing, installation, acceptance testing
. Training - user documentation and training
. Expenses - travel, supplies, clerical
support, report production
Consulting estimates have been categorized only into
personnel and expense categories.
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(1) GPSF Development (12 month elapsed time)
Design
Programming
Conversion
Training
Total Manpower
x m.m. cost
Total Manpower Cost
Expenses
Total Cost
Contractor
12 m.m.
12 m.m.
14 m.m.
10 m.m.
48 m.m.
x $ 5,500
$264,000
$ 36,000
$300,000
EPA
18 m.m.
12 m.m.
18 m.m.
18 m.m.
66 m.m.
x $ 1,500
. $99,000
$99,000 rounded to
$100,000
299
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(2) Word Processing Study (3 month elapsed time)
Analysis
x m.m. cost
Total Manpower Cost
Expenses
Total Cost
Contractor
3 m.m.
x $ 8,000
$24,000
$ 6,000
$30,000
EPA
6 m.m.
x $1,500
$9,000
$9,000 rounded to
$10,000
300
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(3) STORET Development
Reduce On-Line Data (6 month elapsed time)
Design
Programming
Conversion
Training
Total Manpower
x m.m. cost
Total Manpower Cost
Expenses
Total Cost
Contractor
2 m.m.
2 m.m.
3 m.m.
2 m.m.
9 m.m.
x $ 5,500
$49,500
$10,500
EPA
6 m.m.
6 m.m.
8 m.m.
8 m.m.
28 m.m.
x $ 1,500
$42,000
$59,500 $42,000 rounded to
rounded to $60,000 $40,000
301
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Reprogram for Shift to RTF (12 month elapsed time)
Design
Programming
Conversion
Training
Total Manpower
x m.m. cost
Total Manpower Cost
Expenses
Total Cost
Contractor
20 m
24 m
24 m
24 m
.m.
m.
.m.
.m.
EPA
30
30
36
36
m.m.
m.m.
m.m.
m.m.
92 m.m.
x $ 5,500
$506,000
$ 90,000
132 m.m.
x $ 1,500
$198,000
$596,000 $198,000 rounded to
rounded to $600,000 $200,000
302
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Develop New Retrieval Capabilities (9 month elapsed time)
Design
Programming
Conversion
Training
Total Manpower
x m.m. cost
Total Manpower Cost
Expenses
Total Cost
Contractor
15 m
15 m
15 m
15 m
.m.
.m.
.m.
.m.
EPA
15
15
18
18
m.m.
m.m.
m.m.
m.m.
60 m.m.
x $ 5,500
$330,000
$ 70,000
$400,000
66 m.m.
x $ 1,500
$ 99,000
$ 99,000 rounded to
$100,000
303
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(4) TADS/SIRS Evaluation (3 month elapsed time)
Analysis
x m.m. cost
Total Manpower Cost
Expenses
Total Cost
Contractor
1 m.m.
x $ 8,000
$ 8,000
$ 2,000
$10,000
304
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(5) Administrative Systems
Systems and Procedures Analysis (6 month elapsed time)
Analysis
x m.m. cost
Total Manpower Cost
Expenses
Total Cost
Contractor
10 m.m.
x $ 8,000
$ 80,000
$ 20,000
$100,000
EPA
12 m.m.
x $ 1,500
$ 18,000
$ 18,000 rounded to
$20,000
305
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Administrative Systems Reprogramming (9 month elapsed time)
Design
Programming
Conversion
Training
Total Manpower
x m.m. cost
Total Manpower Cost
Expenses
Total Cost
Contractor
6 m
9 m
9 m
6 m
.m.
.m.
.m.
.m.
EPA
18
12
18
18
m.m.
m.m.
m.m.
m.m.
30 m.m.
x $ 5,500
$165,000
$ 35,000
$200,000
66 m.m.
x $ 1,500
$ 99,000
$100,000
306
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(6) OEGC Planning Study (3 month elapsed time)
Analysis
x m.m. cost
Total Manpower Cost
Expenses
Total Cost
Contractor
6 m.m.
x $ 8,000
$48,000
$12,000
$60,000
EPA
12 m.m.
x $ 1,500
$18,000
$18,000 rounded to
$20,000
307
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(7) ORD Planning Study (6 month elapsed time)
Analysis
x m.m. cost
Total Manpower Cost
Expenses
Total Cost
Contractor
10 m.m.
x $ 8,000
$ 80,000
$ 20,000
$100,000
EPA
12 m.m.
x $ 1,500
$18,000
$18,000 rounded to
$20,000
308
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(8) Energy System Development (9 month elapsed time)
Design
Programming
Conversion
Training
Total Manpower
x m.m. cost
Total Manpower Cost
Expenses
Total Cost
Contractor
12 m.m.
12 m.m.
14 m.m.
10 m.m.
48 m.m.
x $ 5,500
$264,000
$ 36,000
$300,000
EPA
18 m.m.
12 m.m.
18 m.m.
18 m.m.
66 m.m.
x $ 1,500
$99,000
$99,000 rounded to
$100,000
309
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3. EQUIPMENT AND TIMESHARING COST CALCULATIONS
In order to estimate the ADP Fund expenditures of the
Agency over the next 5 years, as indicated in the
coordinated plan, each of the current major systems
was examined. Assumptions were made concerning the
growth pattern expected for each of these systems.
Smaller computer systems at each Assistant Administra-
tor level office were aggregated as "other systems",
and their growth estimates were based on the growth
trends of the office as a whole. The results of the
proposed ADP plan action steps were included also in
the projection numbers.
Exhibits D-l through D-6 present the detailed cost
estimates of each major system, categorized by office.
Under each system name is a brief description of the
assumed growth pattern or a footnote indicating the
projection pattern used. These estimates represent
growth of current systems and of new systems currently
under development. No estimates were made reflecting
the impact of inflation, or changes in mission scope
caused by new legislation.
310 index systems inc
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For FY'76 and FY'77f cost estimates are shown on a
quarterly and annual basis.
Exhibit D-7 presents the EPA equipment and related
charges for OSI, RTF, Cincinnati and Headquarters.
These charges are in addition to the timesharing
charges at OSI and other service bureaus. The total
ADP Fund is comprised of both the timesharing and
equipment expenditures.
311 index systems inc
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Exhibit U-l
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Cost Projections-OPM
SYSTEM
FY75
FY76
FY77
FY78 FY79 FY80
Office of Planning
and Management
DIPS
(*)
Personal Property
(1)
GICS up 50% in
2 yrs. then +10%/
year
TSSMS
(2)
FMS
(3)
Other 0PM
(*)
RTF Admin.
RTF Conversion
OFFICE TOTAL
612
150
150
76
323
777
R
R
2144
Ql 0.2 Q3 Q4 TOTAL
156 156 160 160 632
37 38 40 41 156
62 62 67 67 258
19 19 20 21 79
82 83 82 83 330
210 210 213 213 846
R
R
2301
Ql 0.2 Q3 Q4 TOTAL
163 163 164 164 654
41 41 41 42 165
68 68 68 68 272
20 21 20 21 62
84 84 84 84 336
235 235 197 197 864
R
R
2373
667
168
278
82
343
866
R
R
2404
680
172
283
82
349
953
R
R
2519
793
175
288
82
356
1048
R
R
2742
(*) System affected by 5 year plan action steps.
(1) 10% growth in 5 years for system at OSI. Increases are: +2%/year.
(2) Level Cost. System useage expected to remain at current level. Adjustment for 8% OSI
Increase in Third Quarter FY '76.
(3) 10% growth in 5 years - Government owned Facility +2%/year.
R Run at RTP and subsumed by RTP fixed costs.
-------
COST PROJECTIONS
Exhibit D-2
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Cost Projections-OEGC
SYSTEM
FY75
FY76
FY77
FY78 FY79 FY80
Office of Enforce-
ment and General
Counsel
PEMS
(*)
CDS increase by
$ 5 0 0/mont h/reg ion
in 5 years
GPSF
(*)
Interim GPSF
Start IQ'76 level
usage
Other OEGC
(*)
New Enforcement
Tracking System
(*)
OFFICE TOTAL
150
57
960
60
36
1263
Ql Q2 Q3 Q4 TOTAL
17 18 19 19 73
...
30 30 32 33 125
10 10 6 6 32
230
Ql Q2 Q3 Q4 TOTAL
22 22 22 22 88
R R
32 33 32 33 130
6 6 6 7 25
100
343
-
102
R
130
27
400
659
___
115
R
130
30
400
675
___
128
R
130
33
400
691
(*) System affected by 5 year plan action steps,
R Run at RTP and subsumed by RTP fixed costs.
-------
COST PROJECTIONS
Exhibit D-3
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Cost Projections-OWHM
SYSTEM
FY75
FY76
FY77
FY78 FY79 FY80
Office of Water
and Hazardous
Materials
SIRS/SPCC
(*)
TADS
(*)
Bowns Timesharing
(*)
FARCS +100/yr '76
& '77 then flat
STORET
(*)
Other OWHM
(1)
OFFICE TOTAL
100
40
285
525
2«39
68
3991
Ql Q2 Q3 Q4 TOTAL
25 25
in 10
73 73
156 156 169 169 650
615 570 625 625 2435
17 17 18 18 70
3263
Ql Q2 O3 04 TOTAL
193 193 193 193 772
R R R R R
21 21 21 21 84
856
775
R
94
869
775
R
105
880
775
R
115
890
CO
(1) 10%/year growth +8% OSI Increase Third Quarter FY '76,
(*) System affected by 5 year plan action steps.
R Run at RTP and subsumed by*RTP fixed costs.
-------
Exhibit D-4
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Cost Projections-OAWM
COST PROJECTIONS
SYSTEM
FY75
FY76
FY77
FY78 FY7Q FVflO
Office of Air and
Waste Materials
NOISE cut in '76
then flat usage
SWIRS cut in '76
then flat usage
TENIS
SAROAD
NEDS
Other OAWM
(1)
OFFICE TOTAL
120
120
R
R
R
198
438
Ql Q2 Q3 Q4 TOTAL
5556 21
5556 21
R
R
R
54 48 52 52 206
248
Ql 02 Q3 Q4 TOTAL
5 6 5 6 22
5 6 5 6 22
R
R
R
57 57 57 57 228
272
22
22
R
R
R
252
296
22
22
R
R
R
277
321
22
22
R
R
R
305
349
CO
(1) 10%/year growth +8% OSI Increase Third Quarter FY '76,
R Run at RTP and subsumed by RTP fixed costs.
-------
Exhibit D-5
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Cost Projections-ORD
COST PROJECTIONS
SYSTEM
FY75
FY76
FY77
FY78 FY79 FY80
Office of Research
and Development
Prog . . Management
(*>
Bowne Timesharing
(*)
SEAS Model
(*)
Lake Pollution
Model (*)
Energy Data System
Other ORD
(*)
OFFICE TOTAL
530
121
300
200
430
1581
Ql Q2 Q3 Q4 TOTAL
33 33
75 R R R 75
50 R R R 50
118 118 128 128 492
650
Ql Q2 Q3 Q4 TOTAL
R R R R R
R R R R R
140 140 140 140 560
560
R
R
R
616
616
R.
R
R
678
678
___
R
R
R
745
745
vo
H
ro
(*) System affected by 5 year plan action steps.
R Run at RTP and subsumed by RTF fixed costs.
-------
Exhibit D-6
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Cost Projections-Regions
COST PROJECTIONS
SYSTEM
FY75
FY76
FY77
FY78 FY79 FY80
REGIONAL MGMT.
(1)
REGIONAL MODELING
(*)
REGIONAL TOTAL
TOTAL AGENCY
TIMESHARING COSTS
281
200
481
9898
Ql Q2 Q3 Q4 TOTAL
72 72 77 77 298
52 52 56 56 216
514
6692
Ql 0.2 Q3 Q4 TOTAL
79 79 79 79 316
R
316
4720
322
R
322
5166
328
R
328
5401
334
R
r
(
334
5751
(1) 20% increase in system use, spread over 5 years plus 8% OSI Increase in FY '76,
(*) System affected by 5 year plan action steps.
R Run at RTP and subsumed by RTF fixed costs.
-------
Exhibit D-7
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Equipment Cost Projections
SYSTEM
FY75
FY76
COPT PROJECmIO!JS
FY77
FY78 FY70 FY80
Hardware & Other
OS I -Reduce backup
frequency & charges
Parallel Operation
during conversion
RTP Equipment
"Telecoromunications
Maintenance
Management
Analysis
Supplies
TOTAL RTP
NERC Cincinnati
Equipment
TOTAI/ CINNC.
Headquarters
Equipment
Misc.
Supplies
TOTAL HEADQUARTERS
TOTAL EQUIPMENT
1800
500
250
300
50
100
3000
155
20
en
SO
~TK
300
200
100
~&56
3875
-500
1000
1800
500
250
300
50
100
3000
89
BT
300
200
100
~&5o
4189
-200
1940
700
250
500
1-00
100
3590
89
BT
325
215
110
~5TjO~
4129
-200
2030
700
270
500
ion
110
TTTo"
89
8?
325
215
110
~55lT
4249
-200
1000
2030
700
270
500
ino
110
3~7ToT
89
BT
325
215
110
~630~
5249
-200
2030
700'
270
300
1-OD
110
TTTTF
89
8T
325
215
110
Tsiy
4249
00
TOTAL EQUIPMENT
TOTAL .TIMESHARING
TOTAL ADP FUND
36?5
9898
13773
4189
6692
10881
4129
4720
8849
4249
5166
9415
5249
5401
10650
4244
5751
10111
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APPENDIX E
THE SIX PHASES OF THE SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
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APPENDIX E - THE SIX PHASES OF THE SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
Effective management requires that systems development be
divided into six phases to facilitate control. Breaking
the systems development process into well-defined phases
facilitates management and control by providing checkpoints,
at both the beginning and the end of each phase, whereby
management can make decisions on both the selection of
systems and the control of development costs.
There are six phases into which the systems development
process has been divided, as follows:
Identification of new systems ideas
Screening of new systems
Preliminary development and evaluation
Coordinated planning
Detailed development and evaluation
Implementation
Exhibit E-l, on the following page, summarizes each of
these six phases. These phases, together with the control
points between phases, give management the opportunity to
.answer the three fundamental questions: (1) Is the system
ft
in question likely to produce high savings in relation to
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Exhibit E-l
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Coordinated ADP Planning A
Managed and Controlled Process
PlltSF 1
IDENTIFICATION
PHASE ?
SCREENING
PHASF 3
PRELIMINARY
DEVELOPMENT AND
EVALUATION
PHASE «
COORDINATED
PLANNING
PHASE <
DETAILED DEVELOP-
MENT AND EVALUATION
INTfiP.'JAL NETWORK
LEGISLATIVE RCQUIREMENTS
ENVIRONMENTAL STRATEGIES
SCREENING CRITERIA
MANAGEMENT APPRAISAL
PRIORITY RANKING
SECOND
DECISION
SPECIFICATIONS
COSTS
SAVINGS
EVALUATION
THIRD
DECISION
SYSTEMS
SCHEDULE
MANPOWER AND EQUIPMENT
CASH OUTLAY AND PAYBACK
ORGANIZATION
SPECIFICATIONS
COSTS
SAVINGS
EVALUATION
JIIASi; f.
IIIIM.I:MI:NTATION
INSTALLATION
OK
RYTtTFM
TPAINIKR
pirr'S
(IVII'IITCK IM«x;i;VUi CYINVI'R-
SION OK KKL'OKIV
PIU'T OITIUTIONS
niM'KATIIIN
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risk? (2) Does the system look attractive enough to war-
rant the costs involved in the succeeding phases of devel-
opment? and (3) Is the system likely to meet the program
needs for which it will be designed?
The balance of this appendix describes the procedures which
EPA should follow in each of the six phases of systems
development.
1. THE FIRST PHASE OF SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT IS THE IDENTI-
FICATION OF NEW SYSTEM NEEDS.
In a field of rapidly-developing technology, such as
ADP, it is necessary to organize the identification
and development of new system requirements. To assure
a proper flow of new thinking on computer systems,
EPA should use the following procedures in identifying
ADP needs.
(1) Organize an internal network for gathering new
system needs.
A senior manager within each Agency office should
be designated to be responsible for stimulating
and organizing the formulation of new system
requirements. These requirements should be trans-
mitted to the head of MIDSD.
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(2) Analyze major legislative requirements and environ-
mental strategies.
Just as with other management tools, computer sys-
tems produce the best results when they are part
of the Agency's overall strategy. Analysis of
EPA's major legislative requirements and environ-
mental strategy is the most productive source of
new systems ideas. Such analysis tends toward the
selection of new systems which will not only meet
Agency requirements themselves, but which may
consolidate the functions already provided by older,
less efficient systems.
2. THE SECOND PHASE OF SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT IS THE SCREENING
OF POTENTIAL AUTOMATED APPLICATIONS.
Once new systems requirements have been identified and
formulated, they must be screened to determine which
requirements are of primary interest consistent with
overall Agency priorities. EPA should screen new ADP
systems by taking the following steps.
(1) Develop criteria for the screening process.
The criteria for the screening process, as well as
for the evaluations made in subsequent phases of
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systems development, should include:
Potential savings in the system per se,
which are determined by estimating, on an
"order of magnitude" basis:
Present displaceable costs
- One-time systems and programming devel-
opment costs
- ADP operating costs
Resultant savings
Potential savings in the program area which
the system is designed to service
Information or service improvement to users
. Potential technical risk, such as EPA's
capability to implement the system
Potential financial risk:
Probably investment in one-time costs
- probably months or years of payback
(2) Interview key EPA personnel and gain their informed
judgments, on the basis of the criteria established,
Of the identified new automated systems.
Because selected key personnel are well informed
about their specific functions, they can express
helpful judgments on proposed systems in relation
to the screening criteria.
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(3) Rank all new systems in terms of priority of interest
and prepare recommendations for senior management on
the next steps to be taken on each system.
All new systems should be ranked in terms of priority
of their interest to EPA based on the screening cri-
teria. Recommendations such as the following should
then be prepared for senior management regarding the
next steps to be taken on each system.
Proceed to a preliminary development and
evaluation project.
Proceed immediately to a detailed develop-
ment and evaluation project when it is rea-
sonably obvious that there is a paramount
need for the system and when, for this reason,
preliminary development and evaluation are
not necessary.
Put the system "into inventory" for future
development and evaluation as part of EPA's
coordinated ADP plan.
Eliminate the system from further consideration,
In preparing recommendations on systems that require
development and evaluation projects, preliminary
cost estimates should be prepared for carrying out
the projects.
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(4) Meet with senior management and obtain decisions
as t'o the actions to be take'n on e'ach system.
This step is recommended so that management can:
Select systems in relation to cost and risk
by making the decisions on (1) which systems
warrant preliminary development and evaluation,
(2) which warrant detailed development and
evaluation, and (3) which should be put "into
inventory" for future development, and which
should be dropped.
Control the costs of systems development by
approving, in advance, the expenditures in-
volved in development projects.
(5) Document and file senior management recommendations
and decisions with respect to all new systems and
revisions to existing systems.
Documentation and filing assure that:
EPA will not lose track of any system that
has once been considered.
The work that already has been done on a
system will not have to be repeated.
There is a record of management decisions
and the reasons for making them.
There is a record of estimated costs to be
incurred on recommended systems development
and evaluation projects, which can be used
as guidelines for project cost control.
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(6) Develop an inventory of systems which have current
low priority but may have high priority in the future.
These are systems which are "rejects" in terms of
current priority. These systems, however, may have
high priority in the future because of:
Changes in ADP technology
Changes in the legislative requirements
. Changes in program strategies
Changes in Agency workload. The Agency may
,; not have the people available to work on
low-priority systems because they are occu-
pied with high-priority systems. When the
workload changes, technical people would
become available to work on additional systems,
3. THE THIRD PHASE OF SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT IS PRELIMINARY
DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION.
The concept of preliminary development and evaluation
is that enough, but only enough, work will be done:
(1) to determine whether the system involved seems to
make sense from a cost standpoint, and (2) to determine
its priority with respect to other systems under consid-
eration. In doing this preliminary work, it should
always be kept in mind that, before a system is opera-
tional, more detailed and accurate work will be done in
the subsequent detailed development and evaluation phase.
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To carry out preliminary development and evaluation of
computer systems, EPA should use the following procedures,
(1) Develop preliminary specifications for each service.
The specifications should be prepared in terms of
how the system functions would be processed on
computer equipment. The specifications should be
in sufficient detail to permit estimation of pre-
liminary costs.
(2) Develop preliminary estimates of operating costs.
The cost estimates should be reasonably accurate
projections of the operating costs to be incurred.
(3) Develop preliminary estimates of one-time costs.
The one-time costs include ADP systems analysis
and programming development, and other implemen-
tation costs, such as documentation, parallel
operation and data conversion.
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(4) Evaluate each service in terms of the criteria
previously established.
These criteria, as established for the system
screening process and described above, are:
. Potential savings in the system per se
Potential savings in the program which
the system serves
. Information or service improvement to users
Risks, both technical and financial
(5) Prepare documented recommendations for senior
management on each system as to whether it warrants
detailed development and evaluation.
The documentation for each system should cover:
Preliminary specifications (e.g., scope,
input, output, processing, controls)
Preliminary estimates of operating costs
. Preliminary estimates of one-time ADP
development and implementation costs
. Evaluations in terms of the established
criteria
Recommendation as to whether the system war-
rants detailed development and evaluation
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(6) Meet with senior management and obtain decisions
on each system as to whether the system warrants
development and implementation.
This step is recommended so that management can:
Select systems in relation to cost and risk
by making the decisions as to whether sys-
tems warrant detailed development and eval-
uation
Control development costs by determining
whether the costs incurred in preliminary
development and evaluation projects corres-
pond to the costs originally estimated for
the project
(7) Develop an inventory of systems which have been
put through preliminary development and evaluation,
but which do not warrant immediate detailed dev-
elopment and evaluation.
These are the systems which are "rejects" in terms
of current priority. These systems, however, may
develop high priority in the future because of
changes in ADP technology, in legislative require-
ments, in program strategies, or in the workload
of the automated services program.
4. THE FOURTH PHASE OF SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT IS COORDINATED
PLANNING FOR ADP APPLICATIONS OF CURRENT PRIORITY.
After completion of the preliminary development and
evaluation phase of systems development, EPA normally
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will have a number of high-priority applications which
warrant detailed development and evaluation. However,
there will be a number of additional, lesser priority
internal applications that warrant attention also. Thus,
there are conflicting demands for the time of qualified
ADP personnel. Additionally, equipment requirements to
carry out a program embracing ADP applications may exceed
current capacity. Finally, there are questions as to
how the implementation of the coordinated ADP plan should
be organized.
Under the foregoing circumstances, coordinated planning
becomes a necessity. EPA should carry out its coordi-
nated planning by taking the following steps.
(1) Review any additipnal ADP applications that may
be planned.
The additional ADP applications should be reviewed
in terms of potential cost savings, improvements in
service, and other benefits.
(2) Develop, for planning purposes, a schedule of addi-
tional computer application's"!
In setting the schedule, the following factors should
be considered:
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. Relative value to EPA of new ADP services
. Equipment requirements
. Manpower requirements for designing and
programming systems
(3) Project the cash outlay and payback involved in
the development of each application and all appli-
cations in combination over the period covered by
the coordinated plan.
The projection of cash outlay and payback should
be a pro-forma statement of:
. Estimated savings from ADP systems
Estimated one-time ADP development and
implementation costs
(4) Make recommendations and obtain management decisions
on the coordinated program.
The coordinated program is intended to be management's
master process for the conduct of the ADP program. .
Management should make decisions on the following:
. The coordinated plan as proposed
. Budget and staffing requirements for carrying
out the program
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(5) Revise the coordinated program when new conditions
warrant.
It is not intended that the coordinated program be
"cast in bronze" and become inflexible because .of
i
an unwarranted desire not to upset plans. It is
anticipated that revisions in planning will become
necessary because systems once thought to have low
priority develop a higher priority because of
changed conditions.
5. THE FIFTH PHASE OF SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT IS DETAILED
DEVELOPMENT.
Detailed development and evaluation require essentially
the same steps as preliminary development and evaluation,
but in greater detail so that management has a firm
basis upon which to make final decisions to implement
new systems.
(1) Develop detailed ADP specifications.
Detailed ADP specifications should be prepared in
terms of:
The operations which the data processing
facility must perform
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The operations which the program users will
be asked to perform
(2) Develop detailed cost estimates.
Detailed cost estimates should be made in terms of:
Cost of the operations which the data pro-
cessing facility will perform
Cost of the operations which the program
users will perform
(3) Develop detailed one-time cost estimates.
Estimates should be prepared for one-time ADP im-
plementation costs.
(4) For the purpose of making a final decision to im-
plement the system, reappraise the value of the sys-
tem in terms of the criteria previously established,
As mentioned earlier, the criteria are:
. Potential savings in the system per se
Potential savings in the program which the
system supports
. Information or service improvement to users
. Risk, both technical and financial
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(5) Prepare documented recommendations for senior
management on whether to implement the system.
The documentation should include:
. Detailed ADP specifications
Detailed estimates of operating costs
. Detailed estimates of one-time ADP imple-
mentation costs
. Evaluation in terms of the established
criteria
. Recommendation as to whether the system
should continue to be implemented
(6) Obtain management's final decision on whether to
implement the systenu
It should be noted that this is the third opportu-
nity management has had to take a look at the pro-
posed system (first, during screening; second, after
preliminary development; and third, after detailed
development).
This step is required so that management can control
both the selection of systems in relation to cost
and risk and the costs involved in the next phase of
systems development, which is implementation.
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6. THE SIXTH PHASE OF SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT IS IMPLEMENTATION.
After detailed development and evaluation have been
completed and management has made a decision to implement
the system, the final phase of systems development is
implementation. EPA should carry out implementation by
taking the following steps.
(1) Develop a detailed ADP systems design for the
coordinated automation program.
The detailed system design includes:
Flow of work
. Input preparation
Computer runs
. Output forms
. Scheduling and conversion planning
. Controls and audit trails
(2) Write, test, and debug the computer programs.
(3) Plan the conversion of records and/or files where
applicable.
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(4) Test the system through a pilot operation.
(5) Train personnel to use the system.
(6) Make recommendations and obtain management decisions
on full-scale installation of the system.
(7) Begin full-scale use of the system.
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