JoseCuervo
New member
Hmmmm, is tha lead parts per million or parts per Billion....???? Oh well, what is a small detail worrying us for...???
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>
DEQ employees told to worry less about details, clarity in some reports
HELENA – The head of the cleanup division at the state’s Department of Environmental Quality has asked her staff to no longer “strive for perfection,” and to stop expending extra efforts in writing some technical reports so they could be easily understood by the public.
In a memo to her staff sent late last week and early this week, Sandi Olsen, administrator of the DEQ’s Remediation Division, wrote, “My expectation is that we will not strive for perfection.”
In the memo, dated Dec. 5, the word “not” was capitalized and underlined.
“Our programs have neither the funding nor the resources to strive for, let alone achieve perfection.”
Olsen said Wednesday she did not mean for her staff to stop striving for perfection in all areas, only that they should not waste time aiming for grammatical perfection in reports or other types of “non-substantive” perfection.
Elsewhere, the three-page memo read “I do not expect all documents to be so detailed and plain language that the public can figure it out for themselves.”
Olsen said this suggested change, like all the eight suggestions listed in the memo, was intended to streamline the Remediation Division’s work, enabling it to work faster and more efficiently. She said the suggestion applies only to internal, technical documents and the supporting information behind cleanup plans and other public reports.
The Remediation Division is in charge of cleaning up abandoned mines and leaking underground petroleum tanks. Division staff members write a lot of technical documents – some required to be distributed to the public for comment and others, like reports about groundwater at an abandoned mine, that the public can request, but that are more technical in nature, Olsen said. It’s these documents that Olsen said she wanted no longer translated into plain language.
“Our job is not to train everybody in hydrology,” she said. “If you (translate hydrology) in every document, are you publishing a text book or are you publishing a technical report?”
Olsen said she wants staff to prepare easy-to-read narratives for such reports when it is appropriate, but not translate every technical document.
The memo also called for destroying the drafts of some documents, which Olsen said she meant to refer to drafts of things like parking policies, not the drafts of environmental studies.
Jim Jensen, executive director of the Helena-based environmental group Montana Environmental Information Center, said he thought some of the suggestions in the memo constituted fireable offenses for Olsen.
“The statement to all employees that they will not strive for perfection is almost beyond description,” he said. “What that implies is that mediocrity is the standard at DEQ. And while that may occasionally may be true, it should not be the desired goal.”
Olsen said mediocrity was in “no way” the stated goal of her division.
Jensen said he also thought that the agency should continue to translate technical documents for the public and to write them in such a way that people don’t have to read an exhaustive cleanup order to comprehend how one part of it works.
“If you live in Lockwood and you’re an ordinary person with a job and you don’t have the time or the money to hire an expert to interpret these things for you, you should still be able to look at these documents and understand what they mean for you and your family,” he said. “Ordinary people can’t afford to go sit in some Helena office and try to make sense of (scientific) cross-references.”
Don Allen, executive director of the Western Environmental Trade Association, a Helena-based industry group, said he thought the changes in the memo were probably for the best.
“I think what she was trying to do is streamline the process,” Allen said. “It seems like overall, she was trying to do some things to allow them to move more quickly and get the cleanups done.”
Olsen said changes to the division are inevitable; programs are running out of money.
“We need to run as efficiently and effectively as we can,” she said.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>
DEQ employees told to worry less about details, clarity in some reports
HELENA – The head of the cleanup division at the state’s Department of Environmental Quality has asked her staff to no longer “strive for perfection,” and to stop expending extra efforts in writing some technical reports so they could be easily understood by the public.
In a memo to her staff sent late last week and early this week, Sandi Olsen, administrator of the DEQ’s Remediation Division, wrote, “My expectation is that we will not strive for perfection.”
In the memo, dated Dec. 5, the word “not” was capitalized and underlined.
“Our programs have neither the funding nor the resources to strive for, let alone achieve perfection.”
Olsen said Wednesday she did not mean for her staff to stop striving for perfection in all areas, only that they should not waste time aiming for grammatical perfection in reports or other types of “non-substantive” perfection.
Elsewhere, the three-page memo read “I do not expect all documents to be so detailed and plain language that the public can figure it out for themselves.”
Olsen said this suggested change, like all the eight suggestions listed in the memo, was intended to streamline the Remediation Division’s work, enabling it to work faster and more efficiently. She said the suggestion applies only to internal, technical documents and the supporting information behind cleanup plans and other public reports.
The Remediation Division is in charge of cleaning up abandoned mines and leaking underground petroleum tanks. Division staff members write a lot of technical documents – some required to be distributed to the public for comment and others, like reports about groundwater at an abandoned mine, that the public can request, but that are more technical in nature, Olsen said. It’s these documents that Olsen said she wanted no longer translated into plain language.
“Our job is not to train everybody in hydrology,” she said. “If you (translate hydrology) in every document, are you publishing a text book or are you publishing a technical report?”
Olsen said she wants staff to prepare easy-to-read narratives for such reports when it is appropriate, but not translate every technical document.
The memo also called for destroying the drafts of some documents, which Olsen said she meant to refer to drafts of things like parking policies, not the drafts of environmental studies.
Jim Jensen, executive director of the Helena-based environmental group Montana Environmental Information Center, said he thought some of the suggestions in the memo constituted fireable offenses for Olsen.
“The statement to all employees that they will not strive for perfection is almost beyond description,” he said. “What that implies is that mediocrity is the standard at DEQ. And while that may occasionally may be true, it should not be the desired goal.”
Olsen said mediocrity was in “no way” the stated goal of her division.
Jensen said he also thought that the agency should continue to translate technical documents for the public and to write them in such a way that people don’t have to read an exhaustive cleanup order to comprehend how one part of it works.
“If you live in Lockwood and you’re an ordinary person with a job and you don’t have the time or the money to hire an expert to interpret these things for you, you should still be able to look at these documents and understand what they mean for you and your family,” he said. “Ordinary people can’t afford to go sit in some Helena office and try to make sense of (scientific) cross-references.”
Don Allen, executive director of the Western Environmental Trade Association, a Helena-based industry group, said he thought the changes in the memo were probably for the best.
“I think what she was trying to do is streamline the process,” Allen said. “It seems like overall, she was trying to do some things to allow them to move more quickly and get the cleanups done.”
Olsen said changes to the division are inevitable; programs are running out of money.
“We need to run as efficiently and effectively as we can,” she said.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
