Environmental Progress - Summer/Fall 2003

Environmental Progress : Summer/Fall 2003

Outreach Partnership Essential to Achieving Our Goals

New division will provide better IEPA access

by Director Renee Cipriano

The Illinois EPA's mission is to safeguard environmental quality, consistent with the social and economic needs of the state and to protect health, welfare, property and the quality of life.

I strongly believe that an essential part of achieving that mission is to work closely with all entities and individuals who are impacted by how we carry out our statutory responsibilities.

Yet, the Illinois EPA has, deservedly or undeservedly, often been perceived as solely an enforcement and regulatory body. When I became Director, I felt that it was our duty to increase our efforts to reach out to communities to provide them with the full array of services that our Agency offers. Protecting the environment does not mean that we only interact through our enforcement arm. We must provide the best possible services to either prevent environmental mishaps or assist in rectifying those situations after they occur. While our enforcement role is, and will remain, a critical function of the agency, I want to increase awareness of the broad range of proactive services and programs this Agency has to offer.

Workshops first step

My senior managers and I spent July and August traveling across the state to offer eight different local government roundtables. This was the first time in the Illinois EPA's 32-year history that we specifically reached out on such a scale to these key partners across the state. We have worked with many local officials through our low-interest loan programs for wastewater and drinking water infrastructure, in our brownfields programs to clean up and restore to productive use abandoned industrial and commercial sites and in our household hazardous waste collection events. But Illinois is a very large state and I found that many other local officials still were not aware of what programs and services we offer.

I am happy to report that hundreds of local officials attended our workshops and not only were we able to talk about all the great programs that the IEPA has to offer communities as we work to achieve a cleaner and stronger environment, but we gained insight on how to better meet the needs of local government.

Since I was afforded the opportunity to serve as Director, I have heard time and time again that many of our constituents are not aware of the programs we offer. I felt that it was extremely important for my staff and me to make ourselves more accessible and work to improve the channels of communication. I am extremely pleased and thankful for the attendance at these roundtables and the feedback that we have received thus far, but I do not want to stop there.

As a result, I have just created the Division of Environmental Outreach within the Agency.

New division for easier access

This new Division was created for the sole purpose of providing better access to Agency programs and activities. I have appointed Jim Kaitschuk to head the new division. This Division is intended to work closely with agricultural groups, units of local government, business groups and trade associations to provide specialized constituent services. It is my vision that we can build coalitions with all types of constituencies to better serve the public interest.

I will mention a few outreach efforts with the agricultural community, as an example. Our Bureau of Water recently initiated a project in northwest Illinois to provide financial and technical assistance to dairy farmers in collecting and storing milk house and milking parlor wastewater. A similar project is underway in Clinton County. The Bureau of Water recently hosted a field day in Macon County to demonstrate stream survey and sampling techniques. In September I met with livestock organizations, the Illinois Farm Bureau and the Farmers Union to discuss issues of mutual concern, the third such meeting this year.

Jim and his new Division are available to all of you and welcome any comments/suggestions that you might have to help you and the Agency meet the ever-changing climate in which we work. I intend for this Division to offer updates and informational services to individuals and groups across the state. It is also our intention to include information on new and pending federal/state requirements and how we can work with you to achieve compliance.

Many times we become so involved in managing the various situations that we encounter on a daily basis that we forget to provide outreach and listen to those that we are here to serve. I would like to pledge to all of you that we do intend to continue the outreach activities that we have initiated this summer, but I need your help.

Please take a close look at environmental challenges that you face and share with Jim and his staff how we, together, can address them.

I know that sometimes the phrase "I'm with the government and am here to help" has unfortunately become the subject of jokes, but I pledge to all of you that we really mean that at Illinois EPA.