Feedback Meeting on ECHO - July 14, 2003 Vol. 4 No. 14

July 14, 2003 Vol. 4 No. 14:

Published: 07/14/2003

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Feedback Meeting on ECHO

On July 8th Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials from the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) met with various environmental and public interest groups to hear feedback on the Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO) project. JP Suarez, the Assistant Administrator for Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, chaired the meeting.

Both EPA and the public interest groups present felt that the ECHO project is a strong first step in providing greater access to environmental compliance data. OECA expressed its interest in making improvements to the project and solicited suggestions from the meeting participants. Recommendations ranged from increased detail on the information already provided on the site to adding entirely new sources of information. It was noted that budget restraints would need to be strongly considered, with costs for maintaining the site already rising with its increased use.

Accuracy of information on the site was also discussed. EPA reported that it received thousands of error reports during the public comment period, of which about half pertained to compliance issues. The EPA’s response time averaged 26 days, with approximately 60 percent of the requests resulting in a correction. The agency also noted that on average it received an error report for every 76 searches conducted on ECHO during the public comment period. Since the public comment period, that average has dropped to roughly an error report for every three searches. This clearly demonstrates the useful role that information dissemination plays in improving data quality.

EPA received a great deal of comments from industry representatives during the website’s public comment period, including recommendations that the ECHO project be suspended because of inaccurate or misleading information. However, EPA now reports that in other feedback meetings, members of the regulated community focused more on specific changes they would like to see rather than objections to the entire project.

EPA expects to transition the ECHO website from a “pilot site” to permanent site very soon. The agency’s anticipates publication of its response to public comments by late September. Once OECA has an idea of what its budget for the next fiscal year, it will put together a schedule of modifications for the ECHO website.