that technical assistance should not be used to underwrite legal actions in any way, including the preparation of testimony or the hiring of expert witnesses. The work of any advisory board technical consultant should occur concurrently with the on-going efforts of the regulated and regulating agencies so as not to slow down or impede the process. It is the responsibility of the regulated agency to help coordinate this review process and to provide information to expedite the ability of the board to provide timely input”.

 

Apparently intending to foster the generation of helpful synergistic processes on the national level this report recommends on pages 73 and 74 (PDF - 90 to 91) the  following:

 

“...linking public stakeholders and agencies across the country may allow public stakeholders to share the burden of extensive technical and legal research that currently overwhelms many public stakeholders. When advisory

boards, agencies, and regulators share information, solutions can arise more quickly than when parties work in isolation. Often, this exchange of information can

save time and money for all involved. A network may also be used as a resource for communities and site level agency personnel looking for new cleanup remedies and clarification on environmental laws and regulations, pending legislation and budget updates.

 

Some efforts are already underway to establish communications between facilities in regions

of the nation, as well as across federal agency complexes...

 

Specifically, the Committee encourages federal agencies to support efforts that will assist

communication between public stakeholders at a national level.

 

 

 

For example, DOE guidance

suggests that DOE headquarters may play a role in establishing communication among advisory

boards across facilities, through the use of an electronic bulletin board.¹¹ Efforts to increase communication across facilities might include:

 

· Providing information to existing networks;

 

· A national electronic clearinghouse where information is posted almost as it is happening;

 

· A newsletter that addresses the vast array of issues in federal facility cleanup;

 

· Making effective use of the media, including the Internet, World Wide Web, local access television, local print media, and radio stations;…”

 

To discover additional documents issued by the Federal Facilities Environmental Restoration Dialogue Committee and/or the Federal Facilities Restoration and Reuse Office consider first examining those publicly available documents provided at the following location:  

 

                 http://www.epa.gov/fedfac/.

On page 67 and 68 (PDF - 84 to 85) the 1996 report affirms the utilization of technical consultants by advisory boards:

 

“In many instances, citizen members serving on advisory boards lack the technical resources to monitor and comment effectively on the technical aspects of investigation and cleanup at these facilities. Also, some advisory members lack trust and confidence in the governments' technical advisors due to past environmental and health problems in their communities. Investing such funds in developing the knowledge and the expertise of the community can lead to more cooperative efforts and improved cleanups.

 

Therefore, to help ensure more effective and meaningful participation, the Committee

recommends that advisory boards receive technical funding supportin cases where there is a clear need. Specific examples of uses of such funding include: providing travel, per diem, and compensation for an outside expert to make a presentation to the board, hiring a consultant to assist board members in reviewing documents, and providing local training courses to educate advisory board members regarding relevant regulatory processes.

 

The Committee agrees that technical assistance funding should be used to complement, rather than duplicate, the technical programs of both the regulated and regulating agencies. Therefore, regulated and regulating agencies first have the responsibility to produce technical

documents that are clear and concise, to the extent feasible.

Further, to avoid duplication,

advisory board technical assistance funds should not be used for performing additional sampling. In addition, the Committee agrees

 

 

 

 

 

  FFERDC Guidance (pre 2000)  (CONT’D FROM P. 22)