|
MORE INVESTIGATION FOR MID-VALLEY
(CONT’D FROM P. 5) |
|
the maximum RDX detection in the spring 2009 event, a surface-water sample will be collected before and within 24 hours after a rain event to check whether RDX is due to runoff. The work plan also includes the installation of six proposed monitoring wells. The newly installed wells |
|
According to documentation issued under the auspices of the Federal Facilities Restoration and Reuse Office (FFRRO) the FFRRO is a subsidiary office of the USEPA. The FFRRO works with the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and with other federal agencies to foster and encourage public participation and to also link communication networks. The responsibilities of the FFRRO include the promotion of the following: · Partnerships for improved cleanups. · Innovative treatment technology projects. · Citizen and stakeholder involvement · Policy development Such FFRRO documents as its Federal Facilities Stakeholder Involvement-Blueprint for Action and its Federal Facilities Environmental Restoration Dialogue Committee—A Federal Agency Collaboration, both dated June 1999, indicate that the USEPA established in 1993 the Federal Facilities Environmental Restoration Dialogue Committee (FFERDC) with the avowed purpose of creating a blueprint for multi-stakeholder environmental restoration/protection efforts at federal facilities. This blueprint or template is intended to guide all stakeholders in their collaborative efforts to develop solutions to the particular difficulties and challenges posed by environmental pollution at federal facilities. |
|
In this context, federal facilities consist of the following types of sites: installations, bases, plants, field offices, and laboratories owned and operated by the federal government, or operated under contract to the federal government. Federal agencies operating such facilities include the following: DoD; DOE; Department of the Interior including the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and the Bureau of Reclamation. The FFRRO explains that the FFERDC released a report, variously referred to as the “Keystone” or “Teal” report, in April of 1996 whose principles and recommendations reflect a consensus agreement or view arrived at by FFERDC participants who allegedly represented a total of 50 different perspectives. The FFRRO elaborates further by stating that the FFERDC released 14 principles presumably deemed by it to be the proper fundamental basis for the federal facility cleanup decision-making process. Apparently the FFERDC concluded that these 14 principles should apply to all individuals and organizations involved in the cleanup process. The FFRRO appears to have essentially reduced these down to the following: 1. Share Information 2. Ensure Environmental Justice 3. Establish Advisory Boards 4. Understand the Federal Budget Process |
|
Clarifying further the FFRRO states that links should be established and developed between communities and public stakeholders throughout our nation to effectively share information about both the establishment of priorities and the determination of decisions impacting cleanup efforts at federal facilities. In particular, the FFRRO declares that the FFERDC specifically recommended that regulated agencies do the following: · Develop information-sharing policies and procedures. · Establish points of contact for providing information. · Alert the public to preliminary draft documents and to their interim status as draft works which can still be modified. The USEPA has defined stakeholders as being the following: the public, including indigenous peoples, minorities and low-income communities; the environmental regulators, both state and federal; and those federal agencies which are themselves the cause of pollution. Stakeholders broadly defined are all those who are affected by or who have an interest or “stake” in the cleanup of federal facilities. Since they have a “stake” in the cleanup they also have an interest in those decisions affecting the cleanup. As for environmental justice the FFRRO clarifies that the recommendations of the FFERDC were intended to be in |
Synergistic template for environmental cleanup by Michael Glaab
|
