Greenversations

I have to admit that after 15 years of working at EPA, I still have trouble finding environmental data. Web searches don’t help that much so I rely on people like my friend Tim to email me data about hazardous waste. But I shouldn’t have to know every database manager to get EPA’s data.

It turns out that I’m not the only person with this problem. Last year EPA’s Office of Environmental Information hosted the National Dialogue on Access to Environmental Information to learn about the information access needs of our major audiences. We held listening sessions throughout the country and encouraged people to comment using blogs and wikis. From the thousands of comments we received we developed EPA’s Information Access Strategy, which describes key themes and a direction for EPA to address these needs. One of the common themes was: we need environmental data, but we don’t know where to find it. In response to these comments we’ve built Data Finder, a single place to find EPA’s data sources, so people can access and understand environmental information.

Data Finder points to data sources: EPA-hosted web sites where numerical data can be downloaded. You can find data sources by clicking on key words or by typing terms into a search box. One click brings you to the source itself. By making data EPA information easier to find, understand, and use, Data Finder complements the Obama Administration’s commitment to a transparent and participatory government. It helps lay the foundation for more open conduct of Agency business and broader, more effective participation by the public.

I think Data Finder is a good first step for finding EPA’s data, but I know it only contains a subset of the data that’s out there. Please try Data Finder and tell us what information you’d like to see and how to make the site more useful. We’ll post your comments and tell you how we’re updating the site in response to your comments. And let’s leave Tim out of this.

About the author: Ethan McMahon has worked at EPA since 1994. Most recently he helped develop the Agency’s Information Access Strategy and the 40-page Report on the Environment: Highlights Document. Prior to working at EPA he evaluated alternative refrigerants and designed high efficiency heat pumps. Ethan believes that making information available can enable lots of people to find solutions to environmental problems.

About the author: Linda Travers is EPA’s Acting Assistant Administrator for the Office of Environmental Information and Chief Information Officer

… pronoun. 1. That which belongs to you <as in, “The data we – the federal government – collect is yours.”>

President Obama believes you should have much better access to the data government collects on your behalf, and has launched an exciting government-wide effort to make sure that happens. It’s called Data.gov. The White House unveiled this web site last month as one of the leading examples of its Open Government Initiative, created to bring greater transparency, openness and collaboration to how the government conducts the public’s business. I was fortunate enough to be tapped as co-chair of the Data.gov effort.

Data.gov is designed to deliver a variety of machine readable datasets and tools over the Internet that the public can download for their own use. We think that easier access to these resources will prove valuable to a broad array of individuals and communities - from researchers to business people to educators and volunteer groups. One of the basic ethics underlying Data.gov can be found in its Data Policy on secondary use, “Data accessed through Data.gov do not, and should not, include controls over its end use.” Simple.

We’ve also designed Data.gov to be a two-way street. We’d like to understand what data and tools you’re curious about and need. And we’re encouraging you to share your own innovative ideas to help us provide the best possible service to the public.

With millions of hits on the web site over the past two weeks, Data.gov has already generated some real interest. But this is just the beginning. We expect that the types and volume of data and tools residing in Data.gov will grow steadily over time. We hope you find our work valuable and stimulating, and we ask that you join us in enhancing this public resource. After all, it’s yours.

Each week we write about the science behind environmental protection. Previous Science Wednesdays.

About the Author: Aaron Ferster is the science writer-editor in EPA’s Office of Research and Development, and the Science Wednesday Editor.

A few weeks ago I noticed the crosswalk I traverse to get from the office to the local coffee joint had a fresh coat of deep red paint. Then its dingy, frayed stripes were replaced with new ones, screaming white and perhaps twice as wide as the originals. It was shortly after that that grandstands and a big viewing platform along Pennsylvania Avenue outside my downtown office building began to appear. And yesterday, a million porta-potties were installed along the cross streets.

Washington, DC is bracing for a big party.

Preparations for the Presidential Inaugural parade and other festivities are in full swing. It’s an exciting time to be working here. Clearly, that excitement is also being felt in other places, because I’ve been getting lots e-mails from out-of-town friends asking me what’s going on around town.

They also ask how much different I expect my job to be once the up-coming “changing of the guard” is complete. Good question. But as this is my first Presidential transition while here at EPA, I can’t really predict.

It’s easier to be certain about what I know won’t change. As a science writer, I fully expect to continue to work with lots of busy scientists and engineers to communicate what they do, and why it’s important. Science and research play a critical role in helping EPA meet its primary mission: protecting the natural environment and safeguarding human health.

Lisa P. Jackson, President Obama’s choice for EPA Administrator, said “science must be the backbone of what EPA does” during her confirmation hearing before the U.S. Senate. Exciting stuff, and I’m eager to help tell the EPA science story. But first I’ll be meeting a few million of my closest friends at a parade.

Marcus Peacock is EPA’s Deputy Administrator. This speech was written a year ago to be delivered next week. It didn’t need to be changed one whit.

A teacher once asked her third grade class if any of the students had heard of Julius Caesar. “Yes,” said one girl in the back of the classroom. “What do you know about him?” the teacher asked. “Well, I know he lived a long time ago and he was really important.” “Anything else?” the teacher prodded. “Yeah, he gave really long speeches . . . and they killed him.”

(pause)

I don’t intend to talk for long.

For over three years I’ve been in charge of making EPA run better. I think it’s the best job I’ll ever have. It’s tough to say ‘good-bye.’

It’s been an exciting 42 months. First we set up a system for governing at the ‘corporate’ level by creating quarterly management reports and meetings. Building off this I believe we have become the best-managed Agency in the Cabinet. Look at what we did in 2008 alone. We were:

• the second Agency to achieve, and keep, the highest possible score on the President’s Management Agenda
• the only Agency to create a new organization, the Program Analysis Division, whose full-time job is to look for ways to improve operations and outcomes.
• one of a few agencies to systematically capture, disseminate, and validate best practices;
• the first Agency to internally broadcast, live, regular senior management progress meetings;
• the only Agency I know of to have our senior career managers regularly meet to make decisions regarding improving our operations and management systems;
• and the first federal Agency to win the President’s Quality Award for overall management back-to-back.

Part of this success is due to the fact we used measures to manage rather than just using them to report. Since 2005 we’ve reduced the number of measures by 20 percent making those that remain more vital. In 2008:

• EPA, for the first time, corralled all our performance measures into one central repository;
• all EPA offices were able to access all our measures electronically and some offices were able to create tailored electronic dashboards; and
• managers were not slaves to measures but constantly asked the key question, “What are the outcomes we are really trying to achieve?”

We accomplished these things because hundreds of people at this Agency understand that when EPA works better, public health and the environment improve faster. Management initiatives are gobbledygook unless they lead to cleaner air, water, and/or land. It’s that simple.

I’ll miss working on EPA’s operations and on EPA’s mission. But most of all, I’ll miss working with people who get up every morning, look themselves in the mirror and ask, “How can I improve what we do today?”

Thanks and farewell.

About the author: Marcus Peacock is EPA’s Deputy Administrator.

Loretta Lynn once mused — to paraphrase — while everyone wants to go to heaven, nobody wants to make the trip.

It may not be everyone’s definition of heaven, but I carry around a punch list of my goals for 2008. It comprises ten numbered items.  When a goal is reached, I punch a hole in the list next to the appropriate number.

I say it is the list of my goals, but it is really a list of goals for a large team of people at the Environmental Protection Agency.  There is nothing on this list I could do alone.  For instance, I have little idea how to establish a best practices system or create an electronic dashboard.  Nonetheless, I am able to punch items off the list because people are willing to do the hard work necessary to make EPA a better agency and better protect human health and the environment.

I sat down with some of these team members almost a year ago and went through the goals.  When I got to item number 7, there was a groan.  Number 7 seemed impossible.  It was something that no agency had ever achieved and, it seemed likely, no agency ever would achieve.  I said, “That’s okay, we’ll leave it on the list and consider it a stretch goal.”

You see, in the many years it’s been available, only two agencies have ever won the President’s Quality Award for Overall Management Excellence. Think of it as a supercharged Malcolm Baldridge Award for the federal government.  It’s not like winning an Olympic Medal.  It’s more like winning 8 gold medals all at once.  It’s possible, but very rare.  And, certainly, no agency has ever won this award two years in a row.

And yet, last night, thanks to this team of EPA employees — employees who not only wanted to go to heaven, but were willing to take the trip — I took my hole puncher and punched out item number 7.  EPA won the President’s Quality Award for Overall Management . . .again.

Of  all the Cabinet and Cabinet rank agencies, EPA is the:

• first to publish quarterly performance data;
• first to have an ongoing public blog;
• first to broadcast management meetings throughout the agency;
• first to achieve and maintain the highest possible rating on the President’s Management Agenda; and, now,
• first to receive the top award for management excellence . . . back-to-back.

Not a bad pattern to keep going.

(Find out more about how we did it at http://www.epa.gov/pqa.)

About the author: Jeffery Robichaud is a second generation scientist with EPA who started in 1998. He serves as Chief of the Environmental Assessment and Monitoring Branch in Kansas City.

The silly season is finally over for my staff. No more traveling to small towns off the beaten path. No more chatting with folks at the grain elevator or eating chicken-fried steak smothered in gravy. No more coaxing the locals (of the four hoof variety) to shift their stance to the right or to the left. We won’t be back this way for another 4 years.

No I’m not talking about the election; I’m talking about our work supporting the National Rivers and Streams Survey (NRSA). This survey helps citizens and governments measure the health of our waters, take actions to prevent pollution, and evaluate the effectiveness of protection and restoration efforts.

Next year Region 7 will be sampling larger rivers and then take a year off as the survey moves to coastal waters. We won’t see our favorite small streams until we do some recon in 2012 in preparation for visiting them again the following year. I would like to say a special thanks to all of those scientists across the country that helped to “GET OUT THE BOAT,” as part of this survey.

A bit of parting wisdom for all of you future volunteers… I guarantee you getting a cow to change its position is tougher than getting a person. Just look at how distrustful these cows were of Shawn and Bray. They just wanted them to MOOOOOOOve on. Send all requests about the NRSA to riversurvey-ow@epa.gov. Send all complaints about bad puns to robichaud.jeffery@epa.gov.

About the author: John DeLashmit began his EPA career over twenty years ago in Chicago. He spent many years working in EPA’s hazardous waste cleanup programs, and now serves as Chief of the Water Quality Management Branch in EPA’s Kansas City office.

Regional personnel are frequently asked to speak at conferences and meetings to supply information on the latest developments in the Region and Headquarters. The folks want a heads up on what’s coming next in our varied programs, particularly EPA’s “hottest” issues.

We accept as many invitations to present information as our resources allow. We recognize a prime opportunity to meet/converse with the folks that are affected by our statutes, policies, and regulations…our stakeholders. Remember, these stakeholders actually want to hear what we have to say. It’s not an ambush…they’ll gather, of their own free will, in the meeting room or auditorium to listen to us. Many of them have paid registration fees to the organizations hosting the meeting. The pressure to provide something useful is intense!

Our interaction with stakeholders reminds us of our accountability, highlights the tremendous ramifications of our actions, and underscores the fact that we have a huge financial and quality-of-life impact.

Before attending a stakeholder gathering I give my staff some pointers:

1. Show up early for the event; we’re much more effective if we get a chance to meet members of the audience one-on-one before we take the podium;
2. Talk to people… conversation will reveal (hopefully) that we’re human beings, not Code of Federal Regulation-quoting robots lacking common sense;
3. Don’t be a glutton at the table of free coffee and pastries… nothing diminishes credibility like frosting fragments stuck in the corners of your mouth or a coffee stain racing stripe down the front of your shirt;
4. Make sure to take a quick look around for boxes of rotten tomatoes and rocks, which can be used to provide emphatic negative feedback, and;
5. Just in case things go in the wrong direction, wear shoes you can run in…you don’t see Olympic sprinters in wing tips, do you?

I’m presenting at one of these gatherings in a couple of days. I’ll be in a room with a couple hundred people, many of them listening raptly to me…I hope. I must admit that I’ve been a little worried since I had The Nightmare. When The Nightmare begins, I’ve just made a dramatic point, pausing in my presentation to look out at the room. Looking up, I see a room of bowed heads. I suddenly realize that they’re not saying an early grace for that rubber chicken lunch; they’re staring down into their laps at their Blackberries! Just before I wake, I realize that I’ve lost my audience to…email!

About the author: Alan J. Steinberg is the Regional Administrator for the New York Regional Office.

I might just be the biggest baseball fan in the world, and, you might say, I am also a major fan of the planet Earth. This year, I had the chance to truly combine business and pleasure, and I’m proud to share my story as the first contributor to a new Agency-wide blog.

As a baseball “nut,” I’ve been blessed. I grew up outside of Pittsburgh and rooted for the Pirates of Roberto Clemente. I also had great affection for a bunch of “Bums” from Brooklyn, including the courageous Jackie Roosevelt Robinson. In my adult years, I became a New York Mets fan. All’s right in my world when baseball is being played at Shea.

Next year, Shea Stadium will give way to the new Citi Field. Recently, I had the pleasure of announcing that our “green team,” a multi-discipline group of EPA staffers focused on pollution prevention, had hit a virtual homerun with the signing of an agreement with the Mets calling for many outstanding green practices at their new ballpark.

The agreement underscores the team’s innovative and comprehensive commitment to sustainable development, spelling out design, construction and operational principles that will ensure that the stadium meets the highest environmental standards. The Mets are building the new ballpark with 95% recycled steel. They’re installing a green roof to decrease energy needs. Water conserving measures, such as hands-free faucets and automated flush valves, will save millions of gallons of water every year.

When Citi Field is fully operational, the Mets plan to join EPA’s WasteWise program and Energy Star. And, that just scratches the surface of the many planned, environmentally friendly features of the new ballpark. Citi Field will be a model for other sports arenas (hint, hint…Yankees).

As I announced the agreement from Shea Stadium, I couldn’t help but think that the New York Mets had hit a grand slam, converting a “field of dreams” into a “field of green.”

And, what better time is there to be green than the start of baseball season and the Earth Day celebration? I hope you all do right by the planet, and I encourage you to keep reading this blog as staffers from across the Agency share their stories. Happy Earth Day everyone!