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EIPAC Committee Charge

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CHARGE FOR THE 1998 ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION AND PUBLIC ACCESS COMMITTEE (EIPAC) of the National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy and Technology

BACKGROUND

Since 1993, several of NACEPT's committee activities have been focused on EPA information access and dissemination processes, and on issues directly related to the development and use of environmental statistics. Three separate NACEPT committees (NACEPT IRM Task Force; Ecosystems Information & Assesments Committee; Information Impacts Committee) have addressed components of EPA's IRM processes. Additionally, the Environmental Statistics Committee of NACEPT has been providing advice to the Agency for several years on the development, use, and quality of environmental statistics.

Much of the information management and environmental statistics work produced by NACEPT has been invaluable to the agency as it developed and implemented an agencywide IRM strategic plan, Community-Based Environmental Protection (CBEP) strategies, and its new Center for Environmental Information and Statitistics (CEIS). NACEPT has been instrumental in providing stakeholder insights and sound advice as EPA commenced development of these initiatives and concepts.

Now that the IRM strategic planning process, CBEP, and the CEIS have become a permanent part of the Agency's operations, the need for a different level of stakeholder input must be defined. To that end, three of NACEPT's current advisory bodies (IIC, CBEP, ES) focusing on information management, community-based environmental protection, and environmental statistics, should be examined, and where possible, merged. Similarly, the charges for these three committees having been met, a new charge should evolve that more accurately reflects where EPA is in its information management processes, and brings together concepts no longer needing to be separately examined and assessed.

CHARGE

With the creation of the Center for Environmental Information and Statistics, as well as with the the implementation of an agencywide IRM strategic plan, EPA is now better positioned to take a more holistic view of issues involving environmental information and public access. As EPA continues development of the tools necessary to support its legislative mandates, as well as the tools necessary to provide stakeholders with environmental information that can support their decision-making processes, various issues need to be addressed. Some of those issues include:

Although all of the issues identified above are critical, the CEIS is scheduled to open its doors in January, 1998. Because of that accelerated schedule, the committee will be asked to focus its initial efforts on the CEIS (issue #3). Specifically, the members are asked to focus on the following:

a. Examine and provide input regarding the CEIS' long-term goals and objectives.

Specifically:

b. Address and recommend how the CEIS should fit within the Agency's current Information Management Model.
c. Address and recommend measures of success for the Center, including:
d. Address and recommend a process to support a continuous stakeholder involvement.
Beyond that initial focus, the committee will be asked to address the other seven issues identified, and provide recommendations to the agency. The committee, supported and managed by the Office of Cooperative Environmental Management (OCEM), will work closely with the Office of Policy, Planning, and Evaluation (OPPE), as well as the Office of Administration and Resources Management (OARM), in meeting its charge. The committee will develop a report that will be submitted to the Administrator, as well as the Assistant Administrators for OPPE and OARM, identifying both issues and recommendations.

 

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