Our Man In Washington
(Page 2 of 3)
March/April 1973
By Mike Kiernan
The report also criticizes EPA for the way it conducts environmental hearings. These hearings often provide the only opportunity for volunteers to participate in environmental decisions. Stet the study charges that "hearings usually take place after the basic decisions are made".
RELATED CONTENT
Residents of Ames have managed to combine a small town feel with big city amenities. Great public t...
Experience natural gardens, Disneyland and airplanes in Japan....
9 Great Places You’ve Never Heard Of: Traverse City, Michigan 300 million reasons to love outdoor l...
Opt for green energy by choosing to purchase green power from your local utility company....
Plug into solar! Here's our roundup of online courses; hands-on workshops; college degree programs;...
Even good relations with agency field representatives can be "a source of frustration", because decisions by such local agents are often overruled by bureaucrats in Washington. "It is not unusual in western areas of the county to find a local Forest Service agent who is well-liked and respected," states the NCVA report. "He lives in the community and understands its problems. But residents of the community do not transfer the liking for him to the agency. They believe the local representative is as impotent as they are."
Despite the many achievements of environmental volunteers and their continued impact on the American scene, the authors of the report conclude: "We often found a feeling of helplessness .... (and) a deep sense of frustration and distrust that extends to the whole governmental process."
What can government, industry and environmentalists do to redress such complaints? The NCVA study makes dozens of recommendations and here are some of the highlights:
• Establish 10 Regional Citizens Advisory Boards and a National Citizens Advisory Board to EPA to bring about more effective public participation cipation in agency decisions. Only environmentalists would be allowed to sit on these panels. The report notes that there are currently 30 advisory boards to EPA, only two of which are non-technical in nature. On these two committees only two individuals come from recognizable environmental backgrounds.
• Establish on a trial basis an Office of Citizen Advocate to handle complaints from the public regarding EPA actions. "The need for machinery to handle citizen complaints on environmental decision making is sufficiently urgent to warrant an experiment with an EPA Citizen Advocate." At the same time the report urges Congress and the White House to consider funding an Office of Environmental Ombudsman: The jurisdiction of the ombudsman would extend beyond EPA to the environmental activities of all Federal agencies.
• Expand ACTION, the Federal agency for voluntary social work; to include a Corps of Environmental Volunteers. Currently, ACTI ON's domestic role is limited largely to poverty programs. The report tyroprises that ACTION recruit and train individuals who would be available to environmental organizations already created and managed by local volunteers: Care should be taken; notes the report, not to usurp local autonomy. Only people with specific skills—such as biologists, hydrologists, engineers, economists and attorneys—should be recruited. In addition, those workers should be signed up only to the extent that local :ups afire unable to find volunteers with these skills in their own community.
