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March 20, 2003
Rebecca Kane
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance
Mail Code 2222A
1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, D.C. 20460
Dear Ms. Kane:
The Society of Environmental Journalists
(www.sej.org) is the largest and oldest organization of
individual working journalists covering environmental
issues. On behalf of our more than 1,280 members, we
are writing to comment on the EPA's new ECHO website.
In an increasingly complex world, journalists
reporting in the public interest have turned to
computer-assisted techniques to help them make sense of
issues they cover. This is certainly the case with
journalists who cover the environment.
In general, the evolution of access to
environmental data at EPA websites has been very
positive. We want to see that trend continue, and
appreciate the agency's initial steps with its ECHO
database. Our additional comments follow:
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Please allow for both Web analysis as well
as the downloading of raw compliance data. It's
important for journalists to be able to look at
facility data within varied geographic areas, and to
be able to sort, tally and otherwise analyze that
data from different angles.
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Please do everything you can to make sure
the information is as accurate as possible. But
journalists understand that no database is 100
percent perfect. Don't let some level of
imperfection, perhaps based on lack of data reported
from state and local agencies, stop your efforts to
make compliance data available to the public in a
timely manner.
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Efforts you have already made to show why
data may be lacking are helpful. If you fully
disclose and discuss any possible causes of
inaccuracies or absence of data, this will help the
public — and journalists — understand the
limits of the data and take those into account.
A searchable online database of
enforcement/compliance information is an essential and
irreplaceable tool for journalists. It vastly improves
journalists' ability to write stories that not only hold
permit holders accountable, but also allows them to
better understand how these environmental laws are being
enforced.
Please keep up your work to bring this vital
information to the public. In doing so, you will assist
journalists who are dependent upon the free flow of
information in their own efforts to serve the public
with coverage of environmental issues that is essential
to the proper functioning of our democracy.
Sincerely,
James Bruggers
SEJ board and First Amendment Task Force member
Dan Fagin
SEJ President
Ken Ward, Jr.
SEJ First Amendment Task Force chair
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Telephone: (215) 884-8174 Fax: (215)
884-8175
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Society of Environmental Journalists
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