SUMMARY
REPORT
Volume 1
ENVIRONMENTAL
INFORMATION
SYMPOSIUM
U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH CENTER
CINCINNATI, OHIO
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NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION SYMPOSIUM
An Agenda for Progress
September 24-27,1972
Cincinnati, Ohio
VOLUME 1. SUMMARY REPORT
U. S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
National Environmental Research Center
Cincinnati, Ohio 45268
May 1973
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FOREWORD
Today's concern for the quality of life and the quest for effective
means to protect and preserve the environment have led to
initiation of many new local, State, and Federal programs. Success
of these programs is dependent, in large degree, on efficient
dissemination and utilization of environmental information from
many sources and disciplines.
The critical role of information technology in support of what
has become one of the Nation's highest priority endeavors was the
raison d'etre for the National Environmental Information
Symposium. On the following pages the results of that meeting are
summarized. The general findings and recommendations, and
especially the reports from the five major user groups, point the
way to an innovative program for improvement in a vital field that
affects every citizen. They will be given careful consideration.
I wish to thank every person who worked to make NEIS a
success. The exchange of views begun here can help all of us do a
better job in moving the Nation toward a better life for all its
citizens.
William D. Ruckelshaus
Administrator
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
in
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CONTENTS
I BACKGROUND 1
II SUMMARY 5
IE USER PANEL REPORTS 9
Citizens' Action 10
Press and Publications 16
Industry and Trade Associations 20
Academia, Research Organizations,
and Professional Societies 23
Government 28
APPENDICES
A. List of Exhibitors 33
B. Steering and Program Committees 41
C. Speakers at Environmental Information
Sessions 42
D. Speakers at User Group Panel Sessions 43
E. Speakers at General Sessions 44
F. Moderators for Informal Forum Sessions 45
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NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL
INFORMATION SYMPOSIUM:
An Agenda for Progress
SUMMARY REPORT
I - BACKGROUND
The National Environmental Information Symposium (NEIS),
held in Cincinnati, Ohio, from September 24 through 27, 1972, was
sponsored by the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
and hosted by EPA's National Environmental Research Center in
Cincinnati. The more than 1700 participants represented a
substantial portion of the United States, community of producers
and users of environmental information. In addition, about 50
international observers also were present. The program was enriched
through the participation of about 125 exhibitors (Appendix A)
who gave detailed descriptions and demonstrations of the
information sources and services available.
The Symposium was the first general, convocation of the
environmental information community. It grew out of the
conviction that environmental problems could be more easily solved
if the information required were readily available to all segments of
society. A widening interest and sharply growing demand for
improved organization, processing, and dissemination of
environmental information, as expressed in a governmental
institutional context, has been reflected in the activities of the
Study of Environmental Quality Information Programs (SEQUIP)
Committee, activities and programs of the Office of Science and
Technology, and the U.N. Conference on the Human Environment
held in June 1972, in Stockholm.
The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, in cooperation with
other Government organizations (Appendix B), undertook to
organize the Symposium with three basic purposes:
To bring together concerned citizens, trade associations,
professional societies, and governmental bodies to share ideas,
interests, and common concerns.
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To identify specific directions which governmental and private
organizations could take to strengthen coordination and
cooperation, and improve environmental information
exchange.
To provide a forum for producers and processors of
environmental data to demonstrate the most up-to-date
techniques, methods, and equipment to users in the
information science and systems fields.
A fairly complex program was developed and carried out at the
Symposium. It divided the types of environmental information into
scientific and technical; legal, legislative and regulatory;
management and planning; and socioeconomic. Services provided to
users in each of these information areas were broken down further
into three categories: information and data centers, publications,
and document services and referral activities. A moderator for each
type of information area was selected and speakers generally
knowledgeable in the services provided in each type were asked to
present papers in concurrent sessions on Monday afternoon,
Tuesday morning and afternoon (Appendix C). The moderator was
responsible for avoiding overlap and gaps in coverage and for the
conduct of the sessions.
Following each speaker session, the general audience broke into
five user group panels, identified as: citizens' action; press and
publications; industry and trade associations; academia, research
organizations and professional societies; and government (Appendix
D). A chairman, co-chairman, and EPA representa'tive and at least
four panel members were selected to organize and operate these
user group panels.
Interspersed in this structured program of speaker sessions and
user group meetings were a number of general sessions (Appendix
E) with key speakers, designed to set the tone for the meeting,
represent various segments of producers and users at policy-making
levels, and address specific issues. In the final plenary session on
Wednesday morning, representatives of the five user group panels
presented then* findings.
The Monday and Tuesday evening forum sessions were designed
to provide more detailed and informal discussion of specific aspects
of environmental information. Twenty-four of these were held on
Monday evening, eight on Tuesday (Appendix F).
The Proceedings of the National Environmental Information
Symposium are being issued in two volumes. Volume 1 contains a
statement of the background and purpose of the Symposium, a
summary of participant comments and recommendations gleaned
from verbal and written communications with members of the
Symposium committees, as well as the full text of the user panel
reports. Volume 2 (Proceedings) includes the papers presented by
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the general session speakers, introductory statements by the
moderators, papers presented by the session speakers, and any
reports submitted from the evening forum sessions. The Proceedings
will be published and distributed by the National Technical
Information Service, U. S. Department of Commerce.
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H-SUMMARY
The most common concern expressed by the Symposium
participants, regardless of attitudinal or professional orientation,
was the need for improved awareness of, and access to,
environmental information. The concept of access ranged from
dissemination of bibliographic information to a desire for direct
access to raw and interpreted data. The need for interpreted data
was modified by a concern that the interpretation should be free
from bias.
Much discussion centered around the user fee or other charges
levied by organizations, specifically the Federal Government, for
information. One user group felt strongly that the Government is
obligated to provide information cost-free to all comers, regardless
of levels of detail and volume. However, it was more generally
agreed that referral services, accurately directing the potential user
to sources of information, should be cost-free, even though some
referenced sources may charge for their services. Regional
information centers and libraries could play a role in making the
information available free to local users.
Specific attention was paid to the problems of access to literature
and data used by organizations to support Environmental Impact
Statements. It was felt that, at present, this supporting information
does not become available early enough and that its acquisition by
interested parties is too expensive.
Users, whether public or private, experience great difficulties in
obtaining accurate and comprehensive information about the
location and availability of environmental information resources.
A general desire exists for a climate of open decision-making
throughout the environmental field, with all interested groups
having full right of access not only to digested position papers,
impact statements, and recommendations, but to supporting raw
data and background information as well.
Information should be specifically packaged for various user
groups or presented in language understandable to all (i.e., laymen
in the various disciplines involved).
Growing concerns about the environment have brought about a
new interdisciplinary alignment throughout the information
producer/user communities. Because of the nature and growth of
ecology as a field, there has been a coming together of chemists,
biologists, administrators, engineers, and other specialists into
common lines of endeavor. As a result, there is a growing
recognition of commonality of interest in environmental
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information; this calls for decisive action to establish
environmentally-oriented national information facilities and
services.
A national program is needed to coordinate efforts to handle and
disseminate environmental information, whether it be the
responsibility of one or of several organizations.
Channels for information transfer must be opened among
Federal, State and local government organizations. These
bodies must establish links with private organizations, groups,
and individuals. An environmental information network may
be needed.
An intergovernmental joint planning group could strengthen
and coordinate environmental information delivery systems.
This group should include representation from the Federal,
State and local government agencies having significant
environmental responsibilities.
A group representing the private sector, academia, citizens,
industry and trade associations should exist, either as part of or
similar to the intergovernmental group, to provide a balanced
approach to problems and decisions. This group might include
producers and handlers of information in the private sector, or
their interests might form a third group. User service systems
can only be designed with the assistance of users.
Planning and coordinating groups should be responsible for
reviewing the problems existing in the field and for identifying
ways to relieve them. These groups should provide a
mechanism for sharing, on a national scale, environmental
information systems experiences at all levels; they should
recommend use of funds as needed to set up user-oriented
environmental information systems; and they should provide
leadership in establishing standards for such systems that will
promote compatability and information exchange.
A mechanism should be found for establishing evaluation
procedures for the data going into environmental data banks.
Centralized information programs and services may become
under-utilized because of lack of convenience and difficulties in
maintaining contact with the managers/shapers of the system. A
consensus of belief at the Symposium seemed to be that certain
information sources should be readily accessible to the user and
that more effective methods of advertising these sources and their
services must be developed. Direct regional or state access to
information networks, without intermediaries, is preferable to
approaches "through organizational channels" to remote national
information sources and data banks.
Decentralized organizations, such as regional environmental
centers could serve as local access points.
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Local libraries could play a greater role. The listing of
Depository Libraries, which automatically receive Government
Printing Office published government documents, should be
widely distributed, and a method devised for keeping this
listing up to date and well advertised.
A system of Regional Environmental Libraries similar to the
Regional Medical Library network could be established to serve
the environmental information users.
Procedures for obtaining accurate information about the
location and availability of environmental information
resources should be tailored to local needs and the special
conditions affecting regional problems and populations.
Referral activities may be the single most important element in
the transfer of vital and timely environmental information. Useful
functions of these referral activities are seen as:
The provision of reliable and comprehensive data on the
location, content, form, and availability of environmental
information services nationwide, regardless of their
sponsorship;
the provision of referral services at nominal or no cost to the
user and with no restrictions placed on their use; and
the. creation, maintenance and low-cost distribution of general
or specialized directories of environmental information
services, conveniently indexed by subject.
The subject coverage should be well defined and directories
limited to responsive systems. Some permanent organization should
have the responsibility for preparing and up-dating each directory;
items should contain thorough descriptions and be up-dated on a
consistent basis. Computers should be used to facilitate the
maintenance of the directories.
Activities of the National Referral Center (NRC), Library of
Congress, should be made more widely known. Consideration
should be given to adding an "800" number (in-WATS)
telephone system to the National Referral Center, and to
developing a special environmental unit within the NRC.
The National Environmental Information Symposium was a first
big step. Follow-up activities should continue at Federal, State and
regional levels, whether through symposia or other mechanisms.
Emphasis in regional meetings should be placed on
dissemination of information about the availability of
environmental information resources.
Regional meetings should involve State and local government
personnel, as well as private groups and individual citizens.
Where appropriate, the regional meetings could include specific
training hi the use of certain information systems or services to
meet planning and decision-making needs.
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The subject matter for regional meetings should be narrower,
possibly requiring a lesser level of technical expertise than the
national meetings.
Meetings should be held over week-ends when possible to
facilitate attendance.
Meetings should be free to citizens. Where possible, college and
university facilities could be used for inexpensive housing.
National symposia, perhaps scheduled biannually, should
address more general questions of information policy
development.
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ffl - USER PANEL REPORTS
Introduction
The five user panels of the National Environmental Information
Symposium were designed to bring together representatives of the
major interest groups active in environmental affairs. A wide
divergence of viewpoint is recorded in the panel reports that follow,
but a common interest in improvement of communication is
evident in all of them. The differences stem mainly from the activist
orientation of each group as reflected in the various priority lists of
most important problems affecting the environmental information
field.
It is important to note that the reports represent the majority,
not necessarily unanimous, views of the panel. Specific points,
therefore, are not to be attributed to each panel member listed.
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Report of Citizen Action User Group Panel
Chairman:
Charles M. Clusen
Sierra Club
Co-Chairman:
Ms. Alice R. Klavans
League of Women Voters of the United States
EPA Representative:
Edwin Cubbison
Office of Public Affairs
Members:
Edward Lee Rogers
Environmental Defense Fund
William G. Painter
Washington Ecology Center
Barbara Reid
Environmental Policy Center
John L. Franson
National Audubon Society
Dr. Emily Alman
Rutgers University
Introduction
The Citizen Action Panel is encouraged by increasing attempts to
organize the exploding volume of information regarding
environmental matters. We hope that this information can be made
available widely and made easily accessible to the public as a whole,
since this is essential to rational public decisionmaking on these
very complex issues. Information on environmental, and other
cultural, sociological, and scientific matters can be a liberating
factor in our society if made freely available. But, if the public does
not have access to such information, it will not be able to make
judgments, to express its views, and have an impact on the
decisionmaking process, to the detriment of the quality of that
process and public morale. To limit availability of the relevant data
on the basis of one's apparent expertise or one's ability to pay is
not in keeping with the concepts of a democratic society.
Recommendations
Legislative
The panel noted with some concern that the presentations
relating to congressional and other legislative information services
were particularly complex and would be costly to citizens and
public interest organizations. Most citizens said that their
information needs on day-to-day congressional activities were
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served by informal methods such as congressional inquiry,
communications with congressional staff members, etc. In addition,
much information is obtained from national environmental groups.
Adequate information about municipal and State regulations
across the country is particularly hard to locate. No adequate
presentation of data base was made at the Symposium to fill this
gap. Perhaps legislation will be necessary to remedy this problem.
There should be statutory recognition of a Federal right to a
quality environment, enforceable in Federal courts by any aggrieved
party, against any offender, whether it be a governmental unit, an
individual, a group, or a corporate entity.
There should be a Federal statute prohibiting anyone from
interfering with any person attempting lawfully to gather or
disseminate environmental information. The threats which would
be prohibited would include threats of bodily harm and threats to
job security, as already provided in the current Federal pesticide
and water pollution control laws.
Tax-exempt environmental organizations, to which contributions
are deductible, should be permitted to lobby within the area of
their interests without losing their tax-exempt status. This will
allow many environmental groups which are presently constrained
to transmit information and views to Congress and State legislatures
on subjects with which they have concern and expertise.
Regulatory
Governmental regulatory agencies' procedures should provide
that the agencies solicit views and information equally from citizens
with no direct profit-making interest and the private interests to be
regulated.
It should be established Federal policy that Federal agencies
provide environmental information and expertise in environmental
controversies to any interested parties whether or not such data and
opinions are in conflict with positions taken by that or any other
Federal agency.
Both industry and citizen action groups could assist one another
much more than they do now in the use of each other's facilities.
This possibility of a cooperative effort between the two should be
encouraged, possibly through the active efforts of the relevant
Federal agencies.
The Citizen Action Panel praised the summary report of various
information sources available from EPA that was prepared and
distributed at the Symposium. We recommend that other Federal
agencies adopt procedures for doing the same and thus make their
reports also readily accessible in a concise form to citizens.
The panel noted with approval that many regional offices of EPA
and certain portions of the Federal EPA establishment, notably the
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Office of Air Programs, have been very cooperative in providing
citizens with relevant Federal technical and scientific documents,
copies of proposed and final regulations, reprints of the Federal
Register, etc. We urge that other constituent portions of EPA adopt
the same distribution policy, particularly important now in the light
of the new water and noise pollution control legislation, and other
pending legislation. Further, we urge that other Federal agencies
concerned with environmental problems also adopt procedures to
make then" reports readily available to citizens and citizen
organizations.
Scientific and Technical Information
Very often citizens and their organizations require the raw data
gathered and interpreted by a Federal agency, as well as the final
conclusions based on that data. In its information dissemination
activities, Federal agencies should continually provide citizens and
their organizations with access to that raw or basic data, including
details on methodology and the assumptions behind studies being
conducted.
We recommend that there be created an independent private
corporation, chartered by Congress, and funded both by Federal
funds and private foundations, to act as a scientific research source
for citizen action groups concerned with environmental quality.
This corporation would provide hard scientific, as well as
sociological and economic, data to such groups. These centers
would also act as training schools for interested citizens to help
them interpret and evaluate environmental data.
The panel found that there was apparently a sufficient supply of
journals, reference services, abstracting services and the like in the
field of scientific and technological information, but that citizen
groups and the public in general had not been sufficiently apprised
of their existence and the services that they can provide.
Planning and Management
Users should be brought into the preliminary formation and
organization of information planning and management systems.
There are often barriers among agencies at the Federal, State, and
local levels that impede the free flow of information among them.
We therefore recbmmend that there be instituted reforms to assure
a free flow of information among all such agencies so that the
planning agencies freely and routinely receive all relevant
information both horizontally and vertically from all agencies
having such information.
When projects are first suggested, citizens concerned about
environmental quality are not made a part of the evaluation of the
goals, objectives, and priority of needs. Methods should be devised
to assure that a public hearing be held (for example, when the idea
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of a dam or highway is first conceived) so that concerned citizens,
as well as other groups involved, can make their views known at
that time.
All systems containing data needed for making environmental
planning decisions ought to be made available to citizen groups on a
completely equal basis with all other governmental and
nongovernmental groups.
The planning process should be broadened to include not only
citizens in its initial stages but also the many fields of relevant
expertise, training, new techniques and methodologies necessary to
attain maximum protection for the environment. For example, in
the planning process it is imperative that a qualitative analysis of
the environment involved be undertaken and included in the data
base so that the extent of various factors, such as vegetative blight,
pollution sensitivity, and assimilative pollution capacities of plants
and animals, etc., will be fully tabulated.
Socioeconomic
There appears to be a lack of information on the social and
economic impact of environmental problems, including problems
arising from governmental activities and projects. The first priority
ought to be the providing of information to answer relevant
questions such as why and under what circumstances people resist
environmental change and what the effect of current environmental
decisions will be on the communities involved (rural, urban, and
suburban) and on family life in those communities, including the
economic impacts.
There is no satisfactory mechanism for the exchange of relevant
information among citizens. The Symposium made little or no
mention of existing data banks relating to information about citizen
projects, organizing techniques, legal tactics, and fund raising ideas,
to list only a few of the many things directly relevant to citizen and
citizen groups. However, such matters are of importance and should
be included in environmental information services.
Followup to Symposium
There should be extracted from all presentations at the
symposium a listing of publications, reference sources, libraries,
abstracting services, etc. and the extracts should be distributed to
all conference participants and made available to the public at
nominal cost.
Environmental data gathered by governmental agencies should be
made available free or, if absolutely necessary, at minimal cost.
Such data should be provided as a public service paid for out of tax
revenues because all citizens benefit from citizen participation and
activities directed towards the preservation and enhancement of
environmental quality.
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The citizen panel has concluded after careful deliberation that
several different concepts of information and training are necessary
and desirable to facilitate meaningful and responsible citizen
participation in environmental planning and decisionmaking.
There should be regional centers, as indicated above, to supply
information to citizens.
These centers would, in addition to providing information,
promote the training of skills and expertise.
Around these centers, regional conferences for the exchange of
information, expertise and ideas would evolve. Conferences
would be primarily for citizens and citizen groups. Registration
fees should be nominal (less than $5) or non-existent. The
conferences should be widely publicized among citizen
environmental organizations and the general public. Citizens
should be deeply involved in the planning of such conferences.
These conferences would apprise citizens of sources of
environmental information and help train them in handling and
analyzing such information.
The regional centers would be directly responsible to and
under the jurisdiction of the regional offices of EPA; in this
way those offices would be responsive to citizens throughout
the country.
The centers would provide EPA some contact with the grass
roots; at the same time, the centers would provide
encouragement at the grass roots level by assuring people of
Federal backing for their efforts to achieve environmental
quality.
Environmental Impact Statements Procedures
The draft and final Environmental Impact Statements (EIS)
should include a bibliography of all source materials upon which
the statements are based, with appropriate references by way of
footnotes or other notations, indicating the relevance of such
materials.
This data should be located at the district office of the agency
involved and at a local library nearest the site of the project or
other activities, and should be available upon request to any
interested group or individual.
The bibliography should indicate the source where the material
may be obtained, and the price therefor.
Each Federal agency should adopt the practice now outlined in
the Corps of Engineers Guidelines for Environmental Statements
calling for public hearings prior to the preparation of a preliminary
draft statement which is then followed by a draft statement.
Federal agencies seem to be preparing better environmental
impact statements as required by the National Environmental
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Policy Act, but all too often the agencies are not fulfilling the full
intent of the law by substantially changing their objectives and plan
formulations as the result of fully considering the environmental
data and assessments obtained from the EIS preparation process.
Agencies must increase their environmental sensitivity and make
better decisions affecting the environment by fully integrating the
EIS process into agency decisionmaking.
Freedom of Information
In keeping with the intent and policies of the Freedom of
Information Act, each Federal agency should make available within
ten (10) working days of the request therefor, all working papers,
whether or not in final form, excluding only policy determinations
of a tentative nature, but including all factual data.
Citizens' Right to Sue on Environmental Matters
The Hart-McGovern bill (S.I032), providing for citizens' right to
sue on environmental suits, ought to be enacted into law.
Conclusion
For the reasons stated above, we urge that the recommendations
we have made be adopted as promptly and fully as possible. We
further ask that EPA respond to our recommendations by advising
us which recommendations will be accepted and why any
recommendations or any part of them are not acceptable.
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Report of Press and Publications Panel
Chairman:
Stanley E. Degler
Environment Reporter
Co-Chairman:
Paul Brodeur
New Yorker Magazine
EPA Representative:
Thomas F. Williams
Solid Waste Management Program
Members:
Paul G. Hayes
The Milwaukee Journal
Eliot F. Porter, Jr.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Ms. Abbi Foerstner
Scranton Publishing Company
Ralph E. O'Dette
Chemical Abstracts Service
The Symposium was not especially relevant to the information
concerns of the press. This opinion was shared by publications over
a wide spectrum, ranging from newspapers and popular magazines,
through the specialized environmental press, to technical and
scientific publications. The relatively small amount of press
coverage of the Symposium was some evidence of this. The
coverage that did exist was concerned more with some of the
personalities who spoke than with the business of the Symposium.
The press is concerned not primarily with information, but with
the communication of meaningful information. We suggest that any
future meetings on environmental information pay more attention
to problems of communication. This distinction between
information and communications pervades the rest of our
comments.
We suggest birth control procedures to curb the proliferation of
new Environmental Protection Agency information systems and
those of other government organizations. Our impression is that
some systems have been created and some reports have been
prepared without sufficient consideration of their intended use. We
urge that the user be kept in mind.
Our meaning is not that information should be suppressed, but
that proliferation of meaningless information and useless reports be
curtailed.
While there is a need for basic and comprehensive information
systems, there is a greater need for discrimination. Data must be
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processed. It must be interpreted and made meaningful to be
communicated. It should not be the property of the elite in any
discipline, but should be available to the press and to the public in
general. All of us are laymen except in our own specialty, and
therefore are dependent on such interpretation and communica-
tions for most of our knowledge.
Because of the need to communicate in a variety of ways to a
multitude of groups, there is a need for diversity of publications
and a number of different ways of communicating by EPA and
other agencies. There is a place for commercial publications that
should not be preempted by the government, and a place for
government communications programs, and for the spectrum in
between.
EPA's role should include the accumulation of basic data and its
interpretation. The Agency also has an obligation to communicate
information about its own activities. This communication should
take place in a variety of ways, including ways that can be
understood by the general public.
In this connection, it is essential that EPA's Public Affairs Office
have access to information about the Agency. It is essential that its
employees be knowledgeable about all functions of the Agency and
that they know where to obtain all information about its activities.
We look with disfavor on the current division of information
activities among the Public Affairs Office, the Technology Transfer
Program, the research and monitoring activities, and other
programs.
EPA's principles of organization are an impediment to
communications, both in administering the Agency and in
informing the public. These principles are functionalism and
regionalization. We pass no judgment on whether these are the best
administrative principles in other respects, but we wish to call
attention to the fact that both are barriers to the free flow of
information.
Functionalism tends to prevent communication between the
parts of EPA. To take an obvious example, monitoring information
must be communicated to enforcement officials before it becomes
meaningful and can be put to use. It is not possible to have either a
good monitoring program or a good enforcement program, unless
this communication takes place. EPA's organization does not
facilitate this communication. The Agency should be aware of this
problem, and should take steps to overcome this disadvantage of
functionalism.
There may be good reason also for substantial autonomy of
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EPA's regions, although we express no opinion about that.
However, the regions must be informed of national policies and
actions, and Washington must be aware of what actions the regions
are taking in carrying out policies. EPA should take steps to make
sure that national information is available regionally and that
regional information is available nationally.
We are concerned by the cost of information. One of the
questions raised during the Symposium was whether the
government (that is, the whole public) should bear a greater part of
the cost of the public's right to know. The issue has been raised
particularly with respect to administrative proceedings, which seem
destined to play an increasingly important part hi the development
of environmental law. Transcripts in such proceedings, and in court
proceedings, are costly and put some parties at a disadvantage in
terms of access to information. Similar questions arise when
government agencies make charges for access to information in their
possession.
The press always is concerned about the availability of
information. We are happy to endorse EPA Administrator William
D. Ruckelshaus' statements about access to information in his
keynote speech to the Symposium. The right to information about
government activity is basic to American freedoms, and while the
press is especially conscious of the right, it is equally important to
citizen groups, the academic community, and indeed to the whole
public.
The principle we propose is that information anyone may have is
information that everyone may have.
We are concerned by the closed meetings of the National
Industrial Pollution Control Council, for instance. While we have
been told that industrialists would not take part in this group
without closed meetings, we are not convinced that secrecy is
defensible in such instances, even if the Council could not otherwise
exist.
We are concerned by rules of the National Academy of Sciences
that require its committee meetings to be closed. While we
understand that NAS is not subject to the Freedom of Information
Act, and is not a government Agency, it operates under a
government charter and is charged with performing work and
making important determinations for the government that place its
functions in the public sphere.
We are concerned that scientists communicate their knowledge.
We believe that there is an obligation on their part to inform the
public about the social consequences of scientific information.
We are concerned that EPA has seen fit to communicate advance
information about proposed rule making to the representatives of
some organizations on advisory committees. While we understand
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and accept the need for EPA to receive advice from the technical
and scientific community, we believe such information should be
available simultaneously to the public and that meetings with
advisory groups should be held in public.
Finally, we wish to commend to all bureaucrats, scientists, and
writers of reports and proposals, the virtues of using the English
language. Too often, we have the impression that verbiage has been
used to obscure meaning rather than clarify it. We feel that
specialists in a discipline tend to develop a jargon that hides
significance, both from the public and from specialists in other
disciplines. Too many research reports seem to be written to
conceal the fact that nothing significant was learned.
This is an appeal not just for grammar, therefore, but for
intellectual honesty. In the information field above all others, there
is a need to speak and write the plain, unvarnished fact or opinion.
There is a need to communicate.
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Report of Industry and Trade Associations Panel
Chairman:
Arne E. Gubrud
American Petroleum Institute
Co-Chairman:
Richard J. Wiechmann
American Paper Institute
EPA Representative:
C. HoffStauffer
Office of Planning and Evaluation
Members:
Thomas Boyd
American Stock Exchange
J. Morton Nicholson
Procter and Gamble
William A. Horton
American Telephone and Telegraph Company
Ms. Retha Odom
Shell Oil Company
Wade St. Clair
National Center for Resource Recovery
Stanley Dempsey
American Metals Climax, Inc.
The National Environmental Information Symposium (NEIS) was
a worthy attempt to address a difficult subject and provide an
opportunity for a much needed stock-taking of available
information services in the environmental field. The sponsors are to
be congratulated for recognizing the need for such a stock-taking
and for attempting to stimulate a dialogue concerning the future
course of environmental information services.
The failure of NEIS to achieve the latter objective was a
disappointment to the Industry and Trade Association User Group.
This failure was, we believe, an inevitable consequence of the
Symposium format, which arbitrarily classified information users
by the type of organization they represent the press, academia,
industry, government, and citizen action groups rather than by
the types of information they need and use. This segregation of
NEIS participants into user groups effectively prevented productive
dialogue among people with similar information needs.
Despite this weakness, however, NEIS did serve a useful purpose.
The prepared presentations at the general, or plenary, sessions and
the concurrent topic sessions were, on the whole, excellent. A
wealth of valuable information on current information services was
presented. The bringing together of all this information in one place
20
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was, in itself, a useful exercise and probably could not have been
accomplished without NEIS.
Unfortunately, because four topic sessions were scheduled
concurrently, it was impossible to be exposed to more than 25
percent of the papers, and copies of many of the papers were not
readily available. We therefore recommend that all of the NEIS
papers be reproduced and disseminated widely.
As a longer-range project, it is recommended that EPA attempt to
catalogue the myriad periodicals, referral services, information
retrieval systems, indexing and abstracting services, and other
information sources described in the NEIS papers, as well as others
not covered at NEIS.
For the future, the Industry and Trade Associations User Group
favors consolidation and integration of existing EPA information
services, as well as the establishment of a central referral
directory-type service that would make use of existing government
and nongovernment information sources. We do not believe any use-
ful purpose would be served by establishing a Federal super
environmental information agency. Moreover, we would have
serious reservations concerning any proposal to vest responsibility
for development of the environmental data base in the same Agency
that develops and enforces environmental regulations.
In general, we believe that if there is a demonstrable market for a
given type of information service or any service, for that matter
- the private sector will provide it. In the area of pollution control
technology assessment, for example, industry would prefer to retain
experts from the private sector, such as engineering consultants, for
advice. Government should, we believe, prescribe the performance
required to meet environmental goals, but it should leave the
determination of means of compliance to the private sector.
Competition in the private sector will then tend to favor the use of
more cost-effective solutions and to stimulate innovative
approaches.
Government, of course, has an obligation to make information
obtained with public funds publicly available. We believe that EPA
could perform a much needed service by making available, in
understandable form, information on air and water quality trends;
environmental legislation, regulations, and court decisions;- and
scientific, technical, and economic documentation on which its own
proposed administrative rule makings are based.
A major problem faced by industry is the difficulty of obtaining
early warning of changing and often seemingly arbitrary
regulations. Although legal authority for such regulations may be
beyond question, the scientific, technical, and economic
justification presented is frequently unconvincing, particularly to
those who find that huge capital projects designed to comply with
21
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State requirements may be rendered obsolete overnight by more
stringent Federal requirements, or vice-versa. Increasingly,
legislators are making scientific and technological judgments and
writing them into law, so that even if they prove unsound they
cannot be reversed except by further legislation.
The Congress, State legislators, and city and county councilmen
although among the most important users of environmental
information were poorly represented at NEIS. An important
question that might be addressed at any follow-up Symposium is:
How can legislators obtain the information they need to legislate
wisely in the environmental field?
NEIS gave little recognition - except in isolated papers - to the
fact that industry is a major producer of environmental
information, particularly information on control technology, but
also on sources and environmental effects of pollution. It is to be
hoped that industry will be invited to play some role in the
planning of any follow-up Symposium to NEIS. Certainly, the cause
of environmental quality can advance no more rapidly than the
technical, scientific, and economic expertise of the private sector
brought to bear on the problem.
There is a critical need to develop a data base on the economics
of pollution control, including data on the relative cost
effectiveness of available control options and strategies and data on
the incremental benefits of various degrees of environmental
improvement. Regulatory or legislative decisions made in the
absence of such information may prove unworkable or, at the very
least, economically wasteful. Moreover, the public has a right to
know what price tag is likely to be associated with a proposed
regulation, so that the price tag can be compared with those for
other vital programs such as health care, public housing,
education, nutrition, and so on and some judgment can be made
as to its merit and the priority it should receive.
Curiously, the terms "ecology" and "economics," though
frequently the battle cries of opposing camps in environmental
disputes, are not antithetical. Both are from the same Greek root,
"ecos," meaning "house." Ecology is the study of the house:
economics is the management of the house, or applied ecology. It
must follow, therefore, that bad economics is bad ecology, and
vice-versa.
As any good ecologist knows, diversity, rather than dominance of
a single species, is a sign of a vigorous, healthy ecosystem. Our NEIS
User Group believes the present diversity in environmental
information systems is also a healthy sign - a sign of the growing
vigor with which the nation is attacking its environmental problems.
22
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Report of Academia, Research Organizations,
and Professional Societies Panel
Chairman:
Dr. John E. Ross
Institute for Environmental Studies
University of Wisconsin
Co-Chairman:
James E. Freeman
Denver Research Institute
EPA Representative:
Luther E. Garrett
Research Information Division
Members:
Dr. Morton J. Klein
IIT Research Institute
Dr. Fred Lundberg
Institute for Urban Information Systems
James B. MacDonald
University of Wisconsin Law School
Dr. Michael V. Nevitt
Argonne National Laboratory
H. Floyd Sherrod, Jr.
University of Georgia
Dr. Jack R. Van Lopik
Louisiana State University
Environmental Information
In its deliberations and summary discussions, the panel developed
the following description of environmental information and set of
user problems.
Environmental information may be divided conveniently into
two broad categories, data and report summary information.
Data include remote sensing measurements (usually covering
geographical areas) and monitoring measurements (usually focused
on point sources); "raw" measurements gathered in research
projects. Data may be time dependent or time independent.
Report summary information includes research project results;
synthesis reports of disciplinary information; synthesis of reports
in an interdisciplinary mode; and information on information
sources and systems.
User Problems
It appears that formal information systems include a minimum of
three elements or dimensions: producers, handlers, and users.
23
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Handlers or system managers seem to view the information
dissemination process as follows:
Producers > Handlers » Users
To the research interest group, such a view is not adequate.
Academic and other research user groups suggest that more
adequate information services include additional mechanisms for
feeding the information they generate back into the system, and
techniques for relating information they draw from the services to
the information they generate during the course of their work.
Frequently, the failure of information services to address these
requirements limits their usefulness.
Most academic research has progressed from trial and error to
more sophisticated research methods. Implied in the operation of
many computer-based information delivery systems, however, are
some additional changes that will have to occur in the way such
research is conducted. For example, a researcher drawing data from
the ERTS satellite program typically did not participate in
conceptualizing, designing, or operating the hardware; nor did he
design the information delivery system used to distribute
ERTS-generated data. The occurrence of such conditions has
serious implications for the way research projects are designed and
managed. Thus, researchers are asked frequently to use data they
have not generated when they become involved in environmental
research problems. Changes in research methodologies are being
required as well by the interdisciplinary nature of the work involved
in environmental problem areas.
This panel recognizes that technical problems in the operation of
information services have been listed and defined many times in the
recent past. It seems important, however, that some attention be
given the following technical difficulties:
Awareness of what services are available
Knowledge of how to access those centers
Time and cost issues limiting access
The role of information specialists at the interface between
users and complex systems
Certain facets of coding (e.g., methodology, key word indices)
Quality assurance or control
Preservation of non-replaceable point source data
System response to user orientation
Aggregation and disaggregation capabilities
Social problems in the management and use of environmental
information services appear to be a source of great frustration to
24
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researchers. Researchers beginning to use information systems
experience difficulties understanding the complex system languages
often used; in addition, novices entering interdisciplinary
environmental research experience fundamental problems
understanding the languages of different disciplines. Complicating
the adoption and use of environmental information systems even
more is the fact that many of the computerized information
services are experimental or have only recently been made
operational. Thus, the research community is really in an "early
adopter" state in its use of many newly emerging services.
Sorting out Environmental Information to the Problem at Hand
Environmental information is applicable in analysis and the broad
categorization of decisionmaking. Decisionmaking may involve
policymakers, planners, and managers; communicators; intervenors;
and citizens (often uninformed but not uninformable). The level of
decision often determines the kind and form of information.
Researchers will in some cases be interested in analyzing the
decisionmaking process. The point here is that the condition of use
does determine how the information is stored and processed.
Gaps in Environmental Information
Our collective judgment is that information systems are generally
well developed to encode and/or deliver material on
discipline-oriented research results. There are probably some
research areas not well covered. It also appears that systems are well
developed to gather and synthesize data. But we do not have
adequate systems for many environmental monitoring categories, or
for that matter, basic information such as topography and natural
resources. There appear to be more gaps in storage and delivery of
socio-economic information, with the exception of census data. For
example, changing land use patterns are not recorded, let alone
understood. There are virtually no systems devised to interrelate
different classes of information brought to bear on a geographic
case or a generic problem.
Research Organization Response
It is incumbent on research organizations to make some
organizational changes to deal with environmental problems if not
with information systems. Organizations to conduct interdisciplinary
studies are not well developed. This is not a proposal to supplant
disciplines or departments, rather to provide flexibility in research
organizations to bring talent together representing the disciplines and
to deal with environmental problems. The universities lag behind
research laboratories in this capability. On the other hand, they
possess a much wider range of needed expertise than do the labora-
25
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tories. Organizational response in both is needed. Funding
flexibility is one base for such adjustment.
Research Organizations and Public Responsibility
Public research laboratories (and universities) have a public
responsibility. Universities are (or should be) a microcosm of
society. They have multiple missions including a responsibility to
provide the public with information and insights. Many universities
are taking a new look at their public communication
responsibilities. This is a more complicated problem than the
dissemination of technical information which is a traditional role of
universities. Environmental decisionmaking requires consensus
and/or constraint or regulation. The process of environmental
decisionmaking is complex and usually controversial. Researchers
must consider the differentials between advocacy and analysis. In
spite of these difficulties, universities must develop and modify
their points of public contact on environmental issues.
Summary
Academia, research organizations, and professional societies are
beginning to use information available from environmental
information systems, usually in an interdisciplinary mode. As these
programs develop they will insist that the information systems be
more relevant to their needs than they now are. The speed,
efficiency and competence with which this is done will depend in
large part on the researchers' knowledge of and confidence in the
systems. The volume and complexity of data seem mind-boggling
until one zeros in on the environmental issue at hand. Then it seems
less staggering and even possible. The key to it all is to ask the right
question.
Following are some generalizations about information problems
of researchers:
1. Research people are generators of information as well as users.
Therefore, information systems should be in a position to encode
and receive information from the researcher and to transmit
information that will relate to the information researchers generate.
There needs to be more flexibility within the research organizations
to organize for interdisciplinary studies. This does not mean that
one abandons disciplines and departments, but there need to be
experimental modes in research organizations so people can come
together to work on these problems. While we are experimenting
with new ways of using information, we should be experimenting
with methods in the ways we organize research. We need more
flexibility than we have.
There was considerable discussion in our panel on the research
organization's role in dealing with public agencies. Research
organizations have been extremely important in the past in the
26
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dissemination of technology. There are some different conditions
on environmental problems and issues; to resolve many of these
problems public consensus, and in many cases constraint, are
required. This is a different information transmittal problem than
just the dissemination of technology. Controversy abounds. People
in research organizations must deal with the role of advocacy versus
the role of analysis and how they can move back and forth in this
arena. The problems are complex and controversial and yet the
mission is clear cut, and so we would expect research organizations
in the future to be developing new kinds of programs of extension
of information.
2. The capability of the systems to deliver information is ahead
of the research organization's ability to accept it. Many research
organizations are still in the early awareness stage of how they
might use remotely generated information.
3. When the user seeks an element of information, he wants a
good product that fits neatly into his model. He wants high quality.
He is not basically interested in the intricacy of the delivery system,
only to the extent that he can use it and interface with it.
4. There are some gaps in information content in delivery
systems. Categorical coverage of research projects appears fairly
well recorded. There appears to be far less field data encoded. There
are large gaps in social data. There are few attempts to relate field
data to social data. There appear to be gaping holes in the collation
of information on some significant environmental problems. For
example, it is extremely difficult to get local, legal legislative
information as compared to regional, as compared to national, or
natural data that can be brought to bear on these issues.
5. It is incumbent on universities and research laboratories to
make some adjustments in their organization to respond to
information delivery systems.
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Report of Government Panel
Chairman:
Dr. Sidney R. Caller
Department of Commerce
Co-Chairman:
Allen E. Pritchard, Jr.
National League of Cities
EPA Representative:
Francis M. Middleton
National Environmental Research Center, Cincinnati
Members:
Dr. Clyde M. Burch
Former Assistant Attorney General of Missouri
Dr. Thomas Fox
Science Adviser to Governor of Pennsylvania
Dr. Frank Hersman
National Science Foundation
Dr. Roy Young
Science Adviser to Governor of Oregon
Dr. Douglas H. K. Lee
Department of Health, Education and Welfare
Dr. Jack Posner
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Since, in many ways, the Government Users Panel was the most
heterogeneous of all the users panels, representing several levels of
government, each with a diversity of constituencies, it felt that it
had to search first for a commonality of perceptions of the
environmental data and information issues.
The Panel's perceptions of the central issues were as follows: The
Government Users Panel recognizes that Federal, State, and
municipal interrelationships with regard to environmental
improvement responsibilities are undergoing rapid and substantial
changes for several reasons:
Presidential policies and legislative mandates expressed through
EPA's operational directives assign increasing responsibilities
for environmental standard setting, monitoring and regulatory
control to the States.
A direct consequence of the passage of Public Law 91.190, the
National Environmental Policy Act, is the increased sharing of
responsibility among the cities, States, and Federal government
for assessing the environmental impacts of planned major
actions. The responsibilities of municipal and State
governments for environmental impact statements are
becoming of prime importance. A case in point is the plan of
28
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the Cincinnati Gas and Electric Company to construct a
nuclear power plant with all of the associated responsibilities
for assessing the potential impact on the environment and
initiating the Environmental Impact Statement in a manner
that is acceptable to both Cincinnati and Ohio State agencies.
The General Revenue Sharing Bill which will provide States
and cities with greater responsibilities for ordering their
environmental priorities and implementing new initiatives will
accelerate the changing relationships among municipalities,
State and Federal environmental agencies.
Also, the Panel perceives a growing local citizen demand for
improved public understanding of complex environmental issues.
Indeed, the increasingly important role of local citizens' groups in
environmental decisionmaking imposes a heavy responsibility on
State and local public educational curricula for both teacher
training and public school education. The consensus of the Panel is
that these rapidly changing interrelationships focus attention not
only on the need for increased availability and accessibility of
environmental data and information but also on the need to
improve the translatability and the utility of environmental data
and information.
The Panel was able to identify two categories of need:
I. Data and information required for the establishment and
compliance with environmental control regulations.
2. Environmental data and information needed in the planning
and management of public programs which require an
understanding of both potential environmental impacts and
environmental constraints.
With regard to the first category, the Panel felt that the data and
information as well as the delivery systems must be designed to
facilitate:
Accurate assessment of the condition of the environment;
selection of the optimum choice from a number of identifiable
options; and
the ability to evaluate the rate and the quality of progress
towards achieving environmental corrective goals.
Also within this category, the data and the information must
have certain functional characteristics:
They must be useful in evaluating and authenticating the
underlying scientific assumptions for both environmental
diagnosis and corrective prescriptions.
They must be useful in identifying and assessing the status of
the technology which would be required to implement
corrective plans.
They must be useful in determining with reasonable accuracy
29
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the socio-economic costs and benefits associated with each
potential option for corrective action.
The data and information must be useful in achieving public
comprehension of the nature of the problem and the proposed
corrective action to permit implementation in a politically
acceptable manner. Mayor Luken's excellent presentation gave
special emphasis to the issue of political acceptability.
With regard to the second category of needs, the Panel felt:
Information, as well as the delivery system, must be "broad
band" to be fully responsive to user needs at all levels of
government.
Then it must be "tailored" to meet the specifications and
criteria presented by the potential user or "customer.'* The
Panel took note of the likelihood that the specifications and
requirements for data and information may extend beyond the
current capacity and limits of responsibilities of any single
mission-oriented Federal agency, including EPA.
The retrieval system must be capable of selecting and delivering
unexpurgated, accurate, primary scientific data directly to the
customer without any interpretive evaluation except on
demand.
In summary, the Panel offers the following general
recommendations.
A joint planning mechanism should be established to facilitate
consultation among all levels of government. Hopefully, this
would lead to the development of a communications feedback
loop to insure that user requirements at all levels are made
known to the suppliers of environmental data and information.
All too frequently information may be scientifically valid but
not in a format to be useful to the ultimate user.
In context of the foregoing, the Federal agencies should pilot a
project for developing user oriented information systems.
The Panel recommended the establishment of an integrated
Federal environmental data and information delivery system
that would be sensitive to the diversity of user needs at all
levels of government as well as the requirements of their
respective constituencies. This would help insure Federally
supplied environmental information that would be compatible
with other types of information needed by the ultimate users.
The Panel strongly recommended the development of a
mechanism for the lateral transfer of data and information to
optimize the sharing of experiences and knowledge gained by
one municipality with other cities and local governmental
entities.
In addition, a number of other thoughtful specific
recommendations formulated by a group of some 50 librarians and
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others attending the Symposium were delivered by the Panel
chairman to the sponsors of the Symposium for consideration in
the final publication.*
In closing, the Panel wishes to congratulate Mr. William
Ruckelshaus and his associates for assuming the initiative in
sponsoring this Symposium as a pioneering effort to identify and
address the basic issues and pressing problems confronting the
developing area of environmental data and information
management and delivery.
*Tbe Librarian^ report is included in Volume 2 as one of the Informal Session papers.
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Appendix A
List of Exhibitors
Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., Inc.
Reading, Massachusetts 01867
Agricultural Stabilization and
Conservation Service, USDA
14th and Independence Avenue, S. W.
Washington, D.C. 20250
Air Plastics, Inc.
1030 Summer Street
Cincinnati, Ohio 45204
Air Pollution Control Association
4400 Fifth Avenue
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213
American Chemical Society Publications
1155 Sixteenth Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20036
Anderson 2000 Inc.
2000 Sullivan Road
College Park, Georgia 30337
Battelle Memorial Institute
Columbus Laboratories
505 King Avenue
Columbus, Ohio 43201
Bee Publishing Corporation
National Pest Control Operators NEWS
4347 Pampas Road
Woodland Hills, California 91364
The Bendix Corporation
Process Instruments Division
P.O. Drawer 47 7
Ronceverte, West Virginia 24970
BIOSIS (BioSciences Information Service)
2100 Arch Street
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103
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Boeing Computer Services, Inc.
P.O. Box 708
Dover, New Jersey 07801
The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc.
123125th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20037
Center for Information Science
Lehigh University
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania 18015
Cincinnati Bell
602 Main Street
Cincinnati, Ohio 45202
Congressional Information Service
600 Montgomery Building
Washington, D.C. 20014
The Coordinating Research Council, Inc.
30 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, New York 10020
CRC Press Division of the Chemical Rubber Co.
18901 Granwood Parkway
Cleveland, Ohio 44128
Data Corporation
3481 Dayton Xenia Road
Dayton, Ohio 45432
E.B.S. Inc., Book Service
290 Broadway
Lynbrook, New York 11563
Ellison Instrument Div.
Dieterich Standard Corp.
Drawer M
Boulder, Colorado 80302
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Environment Information Center, Inc.
124 E. 39th Street
New York, New York 10016
Environmental Law Reporter
1346 Connecticut Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20036
Environmental Management Association
1710 Drew Street
Clearwater, Florida 33515
Environmental Studies Institute of the
International Academy at Santa Barbara
2048 Alameda Padre Serra
Santa Barbara, California 93103
Eric Center for Science
Mathematics and Environmental Education
1460 W. Lane Avenue
Columbus, Ohio 43221
Esterline Angus
1201 Main Street
Indianapolis, Indiana 46224
The Franklin Institute
20th & The Parkway
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103
General Electric Company
Room M3041 - P.O. Box 8555
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19101
Geological Survey of Alabama
and State Oil & Gas Board
P. O. Drawer O
University, Alabama 35486
Glass Innovations, Inc.
P. O. Box B
Addison, New York 14801
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Incre-Data Corporation
6405 Acoma Road, S.W.
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87108
Informatics Inc., Systems and Services Co.
6000 Executive Boulevard
Rockville, Maryland 20852
Informatics Inc.
6000 Executive Boulevard
Rockville, Maryland 20852
Institute of Environmental Sciences
940 E. Northwest Highway
Mt. Prospect, Illinois 60056
The Institute of Paper Chemistry
1043 E. South River Street
Appleton, Wisconsin 54911
ISI Institute for Scientific Information
325 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19106
MC & B Manufacturing Chemists
2909 Highland Avenue
Norwood, Ohio 45212
Meloy Laboratories, Inc.
6631 Iron Place
Springfield, Virginia 22151
Micro-Gen Corporation
4318 Woodcock Drive
San Antonio, Texas 78228
National Bureau of Standards
Room A600 Building 101
Washington, D.C. 20234
National Library of Medicine - MEDLINE
Rockville, Maryland 20851
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The National Planning Association
1606 New Hampshire Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20009
National Referral Center, Library of Congress
10 First Street, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20540
National Technical Information Service
U. S. Department of Commerce
Washington, D.C. 20230
Neoterics, Inc.
2800 Euclid Avenue
Cleveland, Ohio 44115
North American Rockwell
1700 E. Imperial Highway
El Segundo, California 90245
Nuclear Safety Information Center
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
P. O. Box Y
Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37830
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Environmental Information System
P.O. Box X, Building 3017
Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37830
Parker Hannifin Corp. Fueling Division
18321 Jamboree Boulevard
Irvine, California 92664
Philips Electronic Instruments
750 South Fulton Avenue
Mt. Vernon, New York 10550
Pollution Abstracts, Inc.
P. O. Box 2369
LaJolla, California 92037
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Predicasts, Inc.
11001 Cedar Avenue
Cleveland, Ohio 44106
The Procter & Gamble Company
301 East Sixth Street
Cincinnati, Ohio 45202
Right to Life, Greater Cincinnati, Inc.
5715 Scarborough
Cincinnati, Ohio 45238
Rossnagel & Associates
1999 Route 70
Cherry Hill, New Jersey 08003
Roy G. Scarfo, Inc.
P.O. Box 217
Thorndale, Pennsylvania 19372
Scranton Publishing Co.
434 South Wabash Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60619
Smithsonian Science Information Exchange
1730 M Street, N.W., Room 300
Washington, D.C. 20036
State University College at Fredonia
Fredonia, New York 14063
3M Company, Microfilm Products Division
3M Center, 220-9E
St. Paul, Minnesota 55101
U. S. Army Mobility Equipment
Research & Development Center
Gunston Road & 23rd Street
Fort Belvoir, Virginia 22060
U. S. Atomic Energy Commission
Washington, D.C. 20545
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U. S. Department of Commerce
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Washington, B.C. 20235
U. S. Environmental Protection Agency
ENVIRON
U. S. EPA
General Information
U. S. EPA
Libraries
U. S. EPA
National Emissions Data Systems (NEDS)
National Aerometric Data Bank (SAROAD)
Air Pollution Technical Information Center (APTIC)
Technical Publications Branch (4 EPA Groups)
U. S. EPA
Contracts Management Division
4th & M Streets, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20460
U. S. EPA
Office of Federal Activities
401 M Street, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20460
U. S. EPA
Monitoring & Data Support Division
Crystal Mall #2, Room 916
Washington, D.C. 20460
U. S. EPA
National Environmental Research Center
Cincinnati, Ohio 45268
U. S. EPA
Division of Pesticide Community Studies
4770 Buford Highway
Chamblee, Georgia 30341
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U. S. EPA
Office of Radiation Programs
5600 Fishers Lane
Rockville, Maryland 20852
U. S. EPA
Solid Waste Information Retrieval Services
1835 K Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20460
U. S. EPA
Solid Waste Management Program
Cincinnati, Ohio 45268
U. S. Geological Survey
Exhibits Section B-212, G.S.A. Building
18th & E Streets, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20242
U. S. National Committee
for the International Hydrological Decade
National Academy of Sciences/National
Research Council
2101 Constitution Avenue
Washington, D.C. 20418
Water Pollution Control Federation
3900 Wisconsin Avenue
Washington, D.C. 20016
Westinghouse Electric Corporation -
Westinghouse Building, 6 Gateway Center
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15230
Xerox Education Publications
245 Long Hill Road
Middletown, Connecticut 06457
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Appendix: B
Steering and Program Committees
Steering:
Dr. Forest W. Horton, Jr., Chairman
William J. Benoit
Dr. J. Clarence Davies, III
Melvin S. Day
Dr. Murray Felsher
Luther E. Garrett
Charles Gentry
Nicholas Golubin
Dr. Henry M. Kissman
George Lehnert
Dr. A. Michael Noll
Norman E. Ross
David B. Walker
Program/Agenda/Speakers:
Sarah M. Thomas, Chairman
Andrew A. Aines
Dr. Andrew W. Breidenbach
Richard Carpenter
Melvin S. Day
Morton H. Friedman
Willis E. Greenstreet
Dr. Henry M. Kissman
Barbara Pedrini
EPA Hqs.
EPA/NERC Cincinnati
Council on Environmental Quality
National Science Foundation
EPA Hqs.
EPA Hqs.
EPA Hqs.
EPA Hqs.
National Library of Medicine
EPA Hqs.
Office of Science and Technology
Office of Management and Budget
Advisory Commission of Inter-
governmental Relations
EPA Hqs.
National Science Foundation
EPA/NERC Cincinnati
National Academy of Sciences
National Science Foundation
EPA/NERC Cincinnati
EPA/NERC Cincinnati
National Library of Medicine
EPA Hqs.
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Appendix C
Speakers at Environmental Information Sessions
Moderator
Information Centers and
Data Centers
Speakers (Mon. p.m.)
Publications
Speakers (Tues. a.m.)
Document Services;
Referral Activities
Speakers (Tues. p.m.)
A - Scientific and
Technical
Dr. Henry M. Kissman
Nat'l Library Medicine
Dr. William B. Cottrell
Oak Ridge Nat'l Lab
Dr. Edward L. Brady
Nat'l Bur. Standards
Arnold R. Hull
NOAA
D. H. Michael Bowen (ed.)
Environmental Science
& Technology1, American
Chemical Society
Bernard D. Rosenthal
Pollution Abstracts, Inc.
William T. Knox
National Technical
Information Service
Marvin W. McFarland
Library of Congress
B - Legal, Legislative,
Regulatory
Ms. Louise Giovane Becker
Cong. Research Service, LC
L. Clark Hamilton
Library of Congress
Lawrence H. Berul
Aspen Systems Corp.
George Grossman
Univ. of Utah Law Library
Frederick R. Anderson (ed.)
Environmental Law
Reporter
James B.Adler
Congressional Informa-
tion Service
Victor John Yannacone, Jr.
N. Y. State Travelers Assn.
Environmental Law Committee
C Management and
Planning
J. Clarence Davies, III
Council on Envt'l Quality
Claude G. Gurley
Office of Economic Oppty
Dr. John R. Totter
Atomic Energy Commission
Ms. Ramure Kubiliunas
Predicasts, Inc.
Robert D. Shriner
Indiana University
Dr. Leonard Lund
The Conference Board
Arthur S. Jenkins
Computer Sciences Corp.
Joseph E. Sizer
Minnesota Environmental
Planning Division
Dr. Myer M. Kessler
National Foundation for
Environmental Control
David L. Edgell
Dept. of Labor
John Rowe
Bureau of the Census
William B. DeVille
Gulf South Research
Institute
Ivais Gutmanis
National Planning Assn.
James G. Kollegger
Environmental Access
Public Technology, Inc.
Dr. Robert W. Howe
ERIC Center for Science,
Mathematics & Environ-
mental Education, Ohio
State University
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Appendix D
Speakers at User Group Panel Sessions*
Chairman
Co-Chairman
NEIS EPA
Representative
Members
1 - Citizen Action Groups
Charles M. Clusen
Sierra Cub
Alice R. Klavans
League of Women Voters
of the United States
Edwin Cubbison
Office of Public Affairs
Edward Lee Rogers
Environmental Defense
Fund
William G Painter
Washington Ecology
Center
Durham Reid
Environmental Policy
National Audubon
Rutgers University
2 - Press & Publications
Stanley E. Degler (ed.)
Environment Reporter
Paul Brodeur
New Yorker Magazine
Thomas F. Williams
Director, Technical Info
Solid Waste Mgmt Program
Paul G. Hayes
The Milwaukee Journal
Eliot Porter
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Ralph E. O'Dette
Chemical Abstract Serv.
Ms. Abbi Foerstner
Scran ton Publishing Co.
3 - Industry & Trade
Associations
Arne E. Gubrud
American Petroleum
Institute
Richard J. Wiechmann
American Paper Inst.
C. Hoff Stauffer
Office of Planning
and Evaluation
Neil H. Anderson
New York Board
of Trade, Inc.
Thomas Boyd
American Stock
Exchange
J.M.Nicholson
Proctor & Gamble
William A. Horton
American Telephone
& Telegraph Co.
Ms. Retha Odom
Shell Oil Company
Wade St. Clair
National Center for
Resource Recovery
Robert Waring
American Metal
Climax, Inc.
4 Academla, Research Orgs.,
Professional Societies
Dr. John Ross Inst. for
Environmental Studies,
Univ. of Wisconsin
James E. Freeman
Denver Research
Institute
Luther E. Garrett
Acting Director
Research Information Div.
Dr. Morton J. Klein
IIT Research Institute
Dr. Fred Lundberg
Institute for Urban
Information Systems
James B. MacDonald
University of Wisconsin
Law School
Dr. Michael V. Nevitt
Argonne National Lab
H. Floyd Sherrod, Jr.
University of Georgia
Dr. Jack R. Van Lopik
Louisiana State University
5 - Government
Dr. Sidney R. Caller
Deputy Asst. Secty.
for Environmental
Affairs, Commerce
Allen E. Pritchard, Jr.
National League
of Cities
Francis M, Middleton
EPA NERC, Cincinnati
Dr. Clyde M. Burch
Former Asst. Attorney
General of Missouri
Dr. Jack Posner
NASA
Dr. Thomas Fox
Science Adviser to
Gov. of Pennsylvania
Dr. Frank Hersman
National Science Fdn.
Dr. Roy Young
Science Adviser to
Gov. of Oregon
Dr. Douglas H. K. Lee
NIEHS/DHEW
These User Group Panels met following each of the speaker sessions on Monday Afternoon, Tuesday Morning and Tuesday Afternoon.
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Appendix E
Speakers at General Sessions
Monday, September 25:
William D. Ruckelshaus, Administrator
Environmental Protection Agency
Keynote Address
Dr. John W. Townsend, Jr.
National Oceanographic Atmospheric Administration
Mr. Albert C. Trakowski
EPA Office of Research and Monitoring
Luncheon Address
Tuesday, September 26:
Honorable Richard R. Lugar
Mayor of Indianapolis
Shirley Temple Black
Council on Environmental Quality
Luncheon Address
Andrew A. Aines
National Science Foundation
Wednesday, September 27:
W. A. Radlinski
U. S. Geological Survey
Honorable Peter G. Peterson
Secretary of Commerce
Davis B. McCain
National Library of Medicine
Thomas E. Carroll
EPA Office of Planning and Management
Reports by User Panel Chairmen
Citizen Action Groups - William G. Painter
Press and Publications - Stanley E. Degler
Industry and Trade Associations Arne E. Gubrud
Academia, Research Orgs., Professional Societies John E. Ross
Government Sidney R. Caller
Jules Bergman
ABC News Science Editor
44
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Appendix F
Moderators for Informal Forum Sessions
Monday, September 25:
Environmental Subject Category Listing
Phil Arberg
Research Information Division, EPA
Noise Information Systems and Services
David Bach
Noise Abatement and Control, EPA
Aspen Legislative System
Lawrence H. Berul
Aspen Systems Corporation
Monitoring Systems
M. W. Bloch
Research and Monitoring, EPA
Radiation Information Systems and Services
J. R. Buchanan
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Solid Waste Information Systems and Services
John Connolly
SWIRS, EPA
Water Information Systems and Services
Logan Cowgill
WRSIC, Department of the Interior
Environmental Reporter
(Bureau of National Affairs, Inc.)
Stanley E. Degler, Editor
DCASR's Role in Environmental Protection
(w/DOD Contractors)
Commander John Derr
DCASR, Cleveland, Ohio
Information Impact
James E. Freeman
University of Denver Research Institute
SEQUIP Report Review
Robert R. Freeman
NOAA
International Exchanges
Dolores Gregory
International Activities, EPA
45
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Air Information Systems and Services
Peter Halpin
APTIC, EPA
Computerized Information Services in the
Environmental and Biological Sciences
Thomas H. Hogan
BioSciences Information Service
Atlas for Presentation of Complex Data
for Costal Zone Planners
James Hunt
New York Ocean Science Laboratory
Science Information Association
Group Associate Program
Robert M. Landau
Science Information Association
Pesticides Information Systems and Services
Claudia Lewis
Division of Pesticide Community Studies, EPA
Use of the Computer
John Pruden, Kermit Day
Management Information & Data Systems, EPA
NEEDS (Neighborhood Environmental Evaluation
and Decision System) Program
Lee Tate
Community Management Studies, HEW, Cincinnati
Need for a National Economic Water Model
Russell G. Thompson
University of Texas
Environmental Thesaurus
Gerald U. Ulrikson, Gloria Caton, Jerry Olson
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Environmental Information System
Public Perceptions and Attitudes Relating
to Environmental Pollution
C. Michael York
Georgia Institute of Technology
NASA Regional Dissemination Centers
Representatives from four of the Centers
University Science Information Centers
under NSF Grants
Representatives from five of the Centers
46
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Tuesday, September 26:
Environmental Law Reporter
(Environmental Law Institute)
Frederick R. Anderson, Editor
Environmental Periodicals: Index-Article Titles
Eric H. Boehm
International Academy at Santa Barbara
Epidemiological and Monitoring
Pesticide Data Systems
Gus J. Caras
Division of Pesticide Community Studies, EPA
Environmental Libraries
Jean Circiello
Region IX, EPA
REIN (Regional Environmental Information Network)
Washington, D.C.
Audrey Hassanein
George Washington University & the World Bank
Integrity in Reporting
Robert W. Mason
Agatha Corporation
National Cartographic Center
George H. Rosenfield
U. S. Geological Survey
Environmental Simulation and Gaming
Herman Sievering
Governors State University
47
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