United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
EPA-910-K-15-001
www.epa.gov
July 2015
FY15 - FY18
Region 10 Strategic Plan
July 2015
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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 10 serves Alaska,
Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and 271 federally-recognized tribes.
Photos submitted by EPA Region 10 employees.
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Introduction
In order to accomplish EPA's mission of protecting human health and the environment, we in
Region 10 have set objectives modeled on the agency's four cross-agency strategies:
A Working Towards a Sustainable Future
A Working to Make a Visible Difference in Communities
A Launching a New Era of State, Tribal, Local and International Partnerships
A Embracing EPA as a High-Performing Organization
This high-level, forward-looking plan identifies a small set of regional objectives that
demonstrate how we will support EPA's cross-agency strategies from fiscal years (FY) 2015
through 2018. The plan provides a clear link between the work of Region 10 and EPA's cross-
agency strategies.
It is not intended to be all-encompassing of Region 10's work - in fact, beyond the objectives
identified in this plan, the region contributes directly and indirectly to all four cross-agency
strategies, as well as the agency's strategic goals. We want to highlight this important body
of work and encourage regional staff to post their stories of success on the regional blog.
Your stories demonstrate the ways in which Region 10's work reaches across programs
and cross-agency strategies. I am confident that together we can accomplish our mission of
protecting human health and the environment.
Dennis J. McLerran
Regional Administrator
EPA Region 10
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Core Values
SCIENCE | TRANSPARENCY | RULE OF LAW
Region 10 upholds the agency's three core values of science, transparency and the rule of
law. The importance of sound science and scientific integrity is a cornerstone of the Agency's
mission and the work performed in Region 10. We rely on excellent scientific work to inform
us of environmental conditions and help shape our decisions. Collaboration and establishing
strong working relationships, whether within our organization or externally, are hallmarks of
Region 10's approach to conducting scientific research, assessment, and program support.
Our decisions will reflect fair, efficient, consistent, enforcement of environmental laws.
We are fully committed to openness and transparency in all activities, and continue to
support robust community engagement for a wide range of projects and stakeholders.
Transparency is critical to the effectiveness of our mission, and our investments in our
operations reflect our efforts to be open and transparent. We affirm our commitment to
transparency and accountability under the law and strive to ensure that decisions are clearly
publicized and explained.
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Cross-Agency Strategies and Objectives
CROSS-AGENCY STRATEGY 1: WORKING
TOWARD A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
Regional Objective 1.1: Ask the Sustainability Question
Region 10 will evaluate its programs, workplans, and decisions through a sustainability lens.
The goal is to have sustainability routinely
considered in all of our programmatic,
financial, and operational decisions
through a strategic look of the potential
social, environmental and economic
impacts.
Ensuring Success for
Regional Objective 1.1
Outcome Measures: The frequency with
which we are considering sustainability
prior to a decision being made, the
breadth of employees who know how to
have this conversation, our ability to track
and evaluate progress.
Actions:
1. All units will have an annual
conversation about how they are
integrating sustainability into their work.
2. All executives and managers will
ask staff during decision-making
discussions - "How does this achieve
more sustainable outcomes?"
3. Each office will target at least one
project/program area per year to
conduct an in-depth evaluation
of opportunities for increasing
sustainability in their program delivery.
Greening America's Capitals Program (2014) - Before
and After Design of Green Infrastructure in Olympia, WA
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Regional Objective 1.2: Showcase Sustainability Efforts
Region 10 will have three to five flagship programs/initiatives (between FY15 - FY18) that
showcase a sustainable/systems approach to environmental protection and involve two or
more of our offices (e.g., the Federal Green Challenge, the Puget Sound). Sustainability is
overtly evaluated as part of the planning and decision-making process.
Ensuring Success for Regional Objective 1.2
Outcome Measures: The number of offices involved, environmental, economic, and social
results.
Actions:
1. The Region will conduct an annual assessment of our priority Sustainability
projects including an evaluation of needs to be successful.
2. Project updates will be shared through the In the Loop newsletter and quarterly brown bags.
3. The Region will host an annual Sustainability Day to showcase efforts and to provide
focused information and education
to support the projects.
4. Each office will track their projects
and provide biannual updates to
the Sustainability Advisor.
ECONOMY
Concentric Circles of Sustainability
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CROSS-AGENCY STRATEGY 2: WORKING TO MAKE
A VISIBLE DIFFERENCE IN COMMUNITIES
Regional Objective 2.1: Making a Difference in Communities
We continue to provide assistance to communities in a coordinated, impactful way. Key
regional programs and partner agencies work together to support our communities with
strategic and effective use of sufficient funding, technical assistance, and other resources.
The goal is to help communities address environmental and public health challenges while
supporting local economic development and community empowerment.
Ensuring Success for Regional Objective 2.1
1. Utilize a strategic approach for identifying and supporting communities that will best
benefit from our time and attention, such as communities that are overburdened and
underserved, those adapting to climate change, or those participating in the Partnership
for Sustainable Communities. For example, we will use information from EJ Screen and
awareness from community involvement efforts to inform decision-making and prioritization;
2. We provide courses, identify best
practices, and bring in trainers for
regional staff, which will enhance
community involvement skills and
foster a community-aware culture
within the region. One example includes
the Region 10 Community College;
3. We develop a mechanism to
formally share information about
communities we work with, and to
identify who, where, and when staff
are working in communities;
4. Taking advantage of and supporting
the Agency's focus on communities
through the national Cross-Agency
Strategy Action Plans for 2015
and 2016, we will work within the
agency and with external partners
to bring more resources to five underserved and overburdened communities and
participating in and utilizing the national Community Resource Network.
Soil Kitchen in West Eugene, OR
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Regional Objective 2.2: Making the Difference Visible
We will aim to inform communities about resources and support through strategic and
priority-driven high profile communications efforts. To do so, we will develop a Region-wide
visibility plan that includes specific actions that engage with our partners to target key
audiences on how our collective work benefits them. We develop and use a broad suite of
communications tools to get our messages to targeted audiences (e.g., Facebook, Twitter,
video, Rotary clubs and schools events, organized speakers bureau, invitation to community
organizations, etc.).
Ensuring Success for Regional Objective 2.2
1. We implement existing EJ outreach guidance by identifying and targeting media- and
community-organizations that provide outreach specifically to underserved and
overburdened communities in our press releases and other announcements.
2. Regional staff are empowered to craft and deliver messages that effectively and
appropriately communicate to their unique audience in a culturally sensitive, community
needs driven manner.
• Identify the difference EPA is making
• Identify the audience
(public, partners, etc.)
• Use the tools best suited
to tell the story
• Use plain language to
communicate with the public
• Use maps, diagrams, photographs,
video, charts, and other visual
elements to more effectively
and clearly inform the public
3. Develop and present environmental
information to schools and educators.
4. High profile communications efforts
are strategic and priority driven. Senior
staff and managers will support
communication efforts (listening sessions, meetings, ribbon cutting, public statements)
strategically, on high impact efforts that incorporate cross-agency goals and strategies.
5. Programs will routinely share (via brown-bag, all-hands, webinars, blog
posts, etc.) the work they are performing in communities, sharing failures
as well as successes, and lessons learned, within the region.
6. Amplify success stories - share with our partners and community groups the success
other communities are having in bringing resources and improving their health
and environment (see http://blog.epa.gov/ej/2014/08/a-dream-realized/).
Arctic onshore wetlands and the Trans-
Alaska Pipeline System
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CROSS-AGENCY STRATEGY 3: LAUNCHING A NEW ERA OF
STATE, TRIBAL, LOCAL AND INTERNATIONAL PARTNERSHIPS
Regional Objective 3.1: Align EPA RIO priorities with the
President's National Strategy for the Arctic Region
In parallel with the 2015-2017 U.S. Chairmanship of the Arctic Council, Region 10 will
implement the Regional Arctic Strategy to be responsive to emerging national and
international priorities through focused coordination and collaboration across offices, and
in partnership with Federal, State, local, and tribal governments. Region 10 will leverage its
unique Alaska presence to develop, recommend, coordinate and align interagency efforts,
and prioritize and track implementation of agency actions consistent with the President's
National Strategy for the Arctic Region (NSAR), its Implementation Plan, and the Executive
Order on Enhancing Coordination of National Efforts in the Arctic. These efforts will inform
Arctic policy decision-making to better protect the
people, ecosystems and resources of the Arctic at a
time of dramatic environmental, social, and economic
changes.
Ensuring Success for Regional Objective 3.1:
Priority areas of emphasis that will result in tangible
and measurable outcomes consistent with national
goals are:
1. Inform high-level EPA decision makers and Arctic
E.O. Executive Steering Committee member (EPA
Deputy Administrator) on local issues by integrating
and synthesizing federal, state, local and tribal
perspectives related to NSAR Implementation
Plan action items. We will support efforts to define
EPA's responsibilities in the Arctic and assist with
meeting agency commitments. We will provide value-
added comprehensive regional perspectives and
recommendations on evolving national priorities,
including but not limited to, climate change, ocean
acidification, and tribal trust responsibilities.
2. Enhance partnerships and collaboration with
stakeholders in Alaska, including the State, local
governments, tribal governments, and Alaska native corporations and organizations. To
reflect a clear Region 10 decision making process for all agency activities in the Arctic,
we will institutionalize and share the best practices for: (a) tribal consultations, (b) native
corporation consultation, (c) federal and state agencies coordination, (d) public engagement,
and (e) regional efforts to appropriately and respectfully integrate Traditional Knowledge.
3. Meet the challenges of timely permitting, compliance reviews, and spill response planning
for the Arctic Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) oil and gas activities while working collaboratively
with the Interagency Working Group (E013580) partners, State of Alaska, and Tribal
Barrow, AK Coastal
Community Sod Homes
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partners. We will strive to balance competing interests and viewpoints through regulatory
actions that protect the sensitive Arctic environment and conserve its valuable resources.
4. Facilitate and participate in a multi-agency/stakeholder effort for the Arctic North Slope/
National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska to integrate Clean Water Act 404 permitting activities
with National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process requirements and timelines.
The goal of this work is to streamline the process for efficient and integrated federal
actions while ensuring tribal interests and concerns are reflected in decision-making
through acknowledgement and protection of traditional values and ecosystems.
Regional Objective 3.2: Engaging with Partners on
Puget Sound National Estuary Program Decisions
EPA Region 10's Puget Sound Program has partnered with Puget Sound tribes and tribal
consortia, state agencies, local government entities, federal agencies, boards and panels
of the Puget Sound National Estuary Program (NEP) Management Conference, and other
interested parties to modify the funding model EPA uses to distribute appropriated Puget
Sound recovery funds to the Puget Sound Management Conference. The new funding
model, through which Puget Sound funds will be allocated beginning in FY16, stresses
the importance of supporting all
partners and ensuring that the Puget
Sound Action Agenda is the primary
strategic pathway to recovery. The
proposed associated decision-making
processes will also strengthen the roles
of Treaty Tribes and the Puget Sound
Management Conference in establishing
funding priorities and allocating
funds. As the model is adopted and
successfully implemented, by FY18
we will achieve stronger agreement
between all partners on Puget Sound
priorities, a corresponding alignment in
funding decisions, and focused work to
achieve better, and more measurable
environmental results.
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Ensuring Success for Regional Objective 3.2
1. EPA will provide funds to the Local Integrating Organizations (LIOs) in Puget Sound
to develop local watershed recovery strategies and two-year work plans.
2. The Puget Sound Partnership (PSP) will work with the LIOs to ensure all LIO strategies
follow the same structure, use consistent terms, develop scientifically sound
projects, and address the priority problems preventing Puget Sound recovery.
3. Develop additional "vital sign indicators" (http://www.psp.wa.gov/vitalsigns/)
and strategies for focusing investments on the Puget Sound Action Agenda.
4. Involve all partners early on in decision-making processes through strategic and priority-
driven communication efforts (meetings, discussions, listening sessions, briefings).
5. Periodically evaluate the funding model and associated processes. Disseminate this
information widely for discussion and possible adaptive management actions.
6. Accelerate achievement of desired environmental outcomes such as the restoration of
nearshore and upstream riparian salmon habitat areas, protecting and improving water
quality for more shellfish growing areas, and work to increase restoration of eelgrass (a
critical marine habitat feature).
7. Ensure the recently completed Record
of Decision to clean up sediments
in the Lower Duwamish Waterway
is coordinated as appropriate with
the broader efforts to clean up the
Green-Duwamish River Watershed,
such as the state's efforts to control
upland sources of pollution and
to develop a Pollutant Loading
Assessment for the entire watershed.
Pacific Salmon
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CROSS-AGENCY STRATEGY 4: EMBRACING EPA
AS A HIGH-PERFORMING ORGANIZATION
Regional Objective 4.1: Actively Prioritize and Manage Workloads
through Staffing Planning and Workforce Development
The Region will maintain and enhance our ability to conduct staffing planning and workforce
development in order to actively prioritize and manage workloads in a constrained budget
environment.
Ensuring Success for Regional Objective 4.1
1. Strategic Position Management: Complete the FY15 strategic position management
exercise in order to have staffing priorities identified to enable the region to
address future vacancies and staff alignment opportunities strategically.
2. Focus Central Training and Development staff efforts and budget on administrative staff
and Supervisory Core Competency Training and Development Needs. This will involve:
• Identifying top priority skills,
knowledge and competencies.
* Assessing regional training
and development needs.
• Promoting the use of Individual
Development Plans (IDPs) to
identify how and when gaps in
knowledge and skills will be filled.
• Analyzing assessments and
identifying courses or other learning
activities based on the most
wide-spread needs of supervisors
and administrative staff.
ML Washington at Black Butte Ranch, OR
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Regional Objective 4.2: Modernize Region 10's Administration of Freedom
of Information Act (FOIA) and Records Management Functions
Modernize Region 10's administration of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and Records
Management functions
Ensuring Success for Regional Objective 4.2
1. Implement formation of a centralized Region 10 FOIA team and accompanying
procedures, according to Region 10's FOIA process and defined roles.
2. Establish and track metrics for the FOIA process identified by the FOIA Lean project team.
3. Provide training on the latest FOIA requirements, and the results of the FOIA Lean, to each
office within Region 10. This should increase compliance, while improving performance.
4. Establish a workgroup to determine investment model for records management
in order to institute regular and effective records management.
Regional Objective 4.3: Make Business Practices More
Efficient through Lean and Process Improvement
Continue to make business practices more
efficient by completing implementation of current
Lean projects, undertaking new high-priority Lean
projects (e.g. Grants, Records Management,
others), and enhance understanding and
application of Lean principles and processes.
Ensuring Success for Regional Objective 4.3
1. Implement Lean process improvements
for managing controlled correspondence
(Correspondence Management System
(CMS)) and responses to FOIA requests.
2. Institutionalize Lean by having each
of the four Lean practitioners conduct
one outreach event each year and
lead one Lean process improvement
project each year with an emphasis on projects undertaken at the unit level.
3. Leverage existing tracking efforts, such as Management
Metrics, to ensure project goals are being achieved.
4. Provide a one-day Rapid Office Kaizen (ROK) training to all interested
Region 10 staff, to be followed by a one-day Rapid Office Kaizen train-
the-trainer for targeted staff. Both of these sessions should diffuse Lean
knowledge throughout the region, while increasing Lean participation.
Water Quality Standards Lean Event
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EPA's Mission
TO PROTECT HUMAN HEALTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT.
EPA's Strategic Goals
Goal 1: Addressing Climate Change and Improving Air Quality
Goal 2: Protecting America's Waters
Goal 3: Cleaning Up Communities and Advancing Sustainable Development
Goal 4: Ensuring the Safety of Chemicals and Preventing Pollution
Goal 5: Protecting Human Health and the Environment by Enforcing Laws and Assuring
Compliance
Region 10 Guiding Statements
Vision
A healthy, sustainable environment for all.
Mission
We will use science to make sound,
principled decisions to:
A Protect and restore ecosystems. Ensure
healthy airsheds and watersheds;
A Take action on climate change;
A Prevent pollution through source
reduction and chemical safety;
A Cleanup contaminated sites; and
A Enforce federal environmental laws.
Hurricane Ridge, WA
We are accountable for achieving our mission. Our success as stewards of the public trust
will be measured by meaningful and lasting environmental results.
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Values
Make a difference through people and teamwork. We support each other and the people
we work with by working cooperatively and collaboratively. We build bridges between
organizations within Region 10 and across the Agency.
Promote transparency, communication and dialogue. We share information and expertise,
listen to our customers, celebrate our successes and learn from our mistakes.
Expect excellence. We set and meet high standards of quality, taking pride in the fact that we
are public servants and hold the public trust.
Be professional and respectful. We treat our colleagues at EPA, representatives of other
governmental entities, stakeholders and the regulated community with professionalism and
respect, addressing conflict constructively.
Demonstrate honesty and integrity. We deal forthrightly with each other and the public. We
meet our commitments.
Take well-considered risks. We are willing to take risks, while making environmentally sound
decisions, based on science, statutes and regulations.
Apply principled decision-making. Our
decisions will be based on principles of
equity, fairness and applicable laws and
regulations.
Seward, AK
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©EPA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Region 10
1200 Sixth Avenue, Suite 900
Seattle, WA 98101-1128
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