New Community Involvement Plan (CIP) Tool: Guidelines to Plan and Write your CIP

1. New Community Involvement Plan (CIP) Tool: Guidelines to Plan and Write your CIP L’Tonya Spencer & Yolanda Anita Sanchez

2. New Community Involvement Plan (CIP) Tool: Guidelines to Plan and Write your CIP Outline: • CIP in Practice: Koppers Superfund Site • Planning for Participation: Trends and Opportunities in Superfund CIPs • New CIP Tool: Guidelines to Plan and Write Your CIP • Facilitated Discussion

3. CIP in Practice: Koppers Superfund Site L’Tonya Spencer 2011 CIP-of-the-Year Author

4. CIP in Practice: Koppers Superfund Site OUTLINE: • Background Information • Community Information • Current Status • CIP of the Year Perspectives (Uniqueness/Challenges/Revision) • Facilitated Discussion (Questions)

5. Koppers Superfund SiteBackground Information

6. Koppers Superfund SiteCommunity Information • Technical Assistance Grant (TAG) awarded in Spring 2010 to Protect Gainesville’s Citizens, Inc. • Community is comprised of commercial industrial; rental housing; and close to University of Florida campus and downtown Gainesville, Florida • Several community groups claim to represent area • Actively involved local government

7. Koppers Superfund SiteCurrent Status • Consent Decree lodged in February 2013 • Consent Decree meeting held February 2013 • Indoor air sampling completed • Preparing for residential access for off-site soil cleanup • Preparing Remedial Design (RD) for Remedial Action (RA) • Revision of Community Involvement Plan (CIP)

8. Koppers Superfund SiteCIP of the Year Perspectives What was unique about the CIP? • Pictures • Tables • Technical Jargon • Summary of Outreach • Comment Period • Revision Request

9. Koppers Superfund SiteCIP of the Year Perspectives (cont.) What were the challenges for the CIP? • Four community groups • Close involvement of local government officials • Meeting locations • Environmental Justice

10. Koppers Superfund SiteCIP of the Year Perspectives (cont.) What’s the revision for the CIP? • Additional methods of communication • New schedule for CIP Revision • Region 4 Superfund Art Project • Additional Site Information (Technical/Background) • New local officials

11. Questions & Facilitated Discussion

12. Planning for Participation: Trends & Opportunities in Superfund’s CIPs Justin Hellier’s summer research project National Network for Environmental Management Studies Fellow

13. Planning for Participation: Trends & Opportunities in Superfund’s CIPs Research project was designed to: • Examine how CIPs are developed and used • Identify innovative practices that strengthen the effectiveness of the CIP • Offer recommendations to the CIP Workgroup for strengthening the CIP guidelines and developing other resources

14. Planning for Participation: Trends & Opportunities in Superfund’s CIPs Research methods included: • Online survey of Superfund Community Involvement Coordinators (CICs) {n=41} • Document review of 20 randomly-selected CIPs (2 from each Region) • Interviews with 10 randomly selected CICs and 4 targeted CICs (based on their innovative use of CIPs)

15. Planning for Participation: Trends & Opportunities in Superfund’s CIPs Formal conclusions include: • Format, quality, and use of CIPs vary widely between (and within) Regions • Never been a review/evaluation on the ways CIPs are created or used • No general consensus on the “purpose” CIPs serve

16. Planning for Participation: Trends & Opportunities in Superfund’s CIPs Recommendations include: • Consider the participation of other site team staff and contractors • Utilize CI Mangers to improve the quality • Consider community review of the CIP • Move from a set of isolated “templates” to a more purposeful, strategic, and collaborative planning process.

17. Clarifying Questions?

18. A Community Involvement Plan is… Student Exercise

19. New CIP Tool: Guidelines to Plan and Write your CIP Yolanda Anita Sanchez Chair, CIP Workgroup

20. “I think you should be more explicit here in step two.”

21. New CIP Tool: Guidelines to Plan and Write Your CIP The Community Involvement Plan: • Provides a site-specific strategy for involving the public

22. New CIP Tool: Guidelines to Plan and Write Your CIP The Community Involvement Plan: • Provides a site-specific strategy for involving the public • Is the “roadmap” of the involvement program

23. New CIP Tool: Guidelines to Plan and Write Your CIP The Community Involvement Plan: • Provides a site-specific strategy for involving the public • Is the “roadmap” of the involvement program • Enables the community affected by a Superfund understand the ways in which it can participate

24. New CIP Tool: Guidelines to Plan and Write Your CIP The Community Involvement Plan (cont): • Is the culmination of a planning process summarized in a document • Should be a “living” document and is most effective when it is updated as site conditions change • Involves all Site Team members – RPM, OSC, CIC, contractor, state or local agents, and others – in the development and implementation

25. New CIP Tool: Guidelines to Plan and Write Your CIP Major Components of a CIP: • Site description – brief history, overview of the type and extent of contamination, environmental exposures and concerns • Community profile – description of affected community • Community needs, concerns, questions, and expectations – summary of interviews and other communication with residents • Action plan – description of EPA’s planned outreach activities (i.e., schedule) and how activities address site-related needs/concerns

26. New CIP Tool: Guidelines to Plan and Write Your CIP The Action Plan: • Describes the Superfund process and identifies key opportunities for public input, including significant milestones for community involvement activities • Outlines a comprehensive plan to address identified community needs related to cleanup • Identifies appropriate communication methods and activities

27. New CIP Tool: Guidelines to Plan and Write Your CIP CIP and the Community: • The CIP should offer a clear invitation to the community to participate • The CIP is for the community and should be informed by the community • The final CIP should be available to the community. At a minimum, it should be placed in an Information Repository and on the site webpage

28. New CIP Tool: Guidelines to Plan and Write Your CIP The CIP and the Site Team: • The Site Team’s input is critical to developing an accurate and complete site description and community profile Remedial Project Manager’s (RPM) should: • Participate in community interviews • Play a critical role in creating the Action Plan • Forecast potential milestones in the process for a comprehensive CIP revision

29. New CIP Tool: Guidelines to Plan and Write Your CIP • The CIP is a living document that may call for continuous updating. • The CIP can be updated when minor details of the site change, such as contact information and other reference material. • Updates may frequently occur. Updating the CIP :

30. New CIP Tool: Guidelines to Plan and Write Your CIP Revising the CIP: • A comprehensive revision involves much more than updating contacts or reference materials • A revision should occur when: • Specific benchmarks in the Superfund process are met (i.e., after ROD) • Community level of interest changes • A demographic, economic, or political change in the community has occurred • A change in EPA’s approach to involving the community is needed Image: Grant Cochrane / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

31. New CIP Tool: Guidelines to Plan and Write Your CIP Tips of the Trade: • Build/Maintain relationships with the Site Team • as well as state and local partners, EPA contractors, the risk assessor and other staff involved with the site • Make a draft CIP available to the community for feedback • Do not cut and paste from technical documents

32. New CIP Tool: Guidelines to Plan and Write Your CIP Tips of the Trade (continued): • Update the CIP often • Plan ahead, with the Site Team, to conduct a comprehensive revision • Effectively use your contract support • The CIC should be writing the “meat” of the CIP • Contract support can help with logistics: obtain demographic information, prepare contact lists, develop graphics, and format the document

33. New CIP Tool: Guidelines to Plan and Write Your CIP New CIP Tool is available… • As part of the Superfund Community Involvement Toolkit: http://www.epa.gov/superfund/community/toolkit.htm • Due to the hard work of: • David Cooper, CIC, Region 9 • LeanaRosetti, CIC Region 9 • Peggy Linn, CIC Region 8 • John Epps, RPM Region 3

34. New CIP Tool: Guidelines to Plan and Write Your CIP • Community interviews are the backbone of the CIP • Help build relationships and garner trust • Can yield incredibly useful information about the Superfund site contamination “Sister” Tools: Community Interviews

35. New CIP Tool: Guidelines to Plan and Write Your CIP • CICs are “in charge” of the interviews process • Contractors may help in scheduling interviews and taking notes • Community interviews are not a “social science” • Does not need to be scientifically defended • Does not need to reflect a statistically significant sample • Not all template questions need be asked • Media questions, in particular, can set unreasonable expectations about outreach plan “Sister” Tools: Community Interviews

36. New CIP Tool: Guidelines to Plan and Write Your CIP • RPMs should attend the interviews • Helps the RPM learn about the community • One-on-One discussions build community trust • Helps the community “humanize” the person behind the federal bureaucrat • Conclude interviews with a “site update” “Sister” Tools: Community Interviews

37. New CIP Tool: Guidelines to Plan and Write Your CIP • Number of interviews is determined by need • Start by stratifying your target audience • First tier: • Residents/businesses “on the fence line” • Nearby and interested people, including activists • Elected officials and their staffs (federal, state, local) • Local regulatory agencies (public works, city managers, county boards of health, etc.) • Second tier: • The press • Nearby schools, hospitals, churches, and community org’s “Sister” Tools: Community Interviews

38. New CIP Tool: Guidelines to Plan and Write Your CIP • Interview questions should be tailored • To the concerns of unique subpopulations • To where you are in the Superfund cleanup process • Consider the broad objectives you wish to address in the interviews • Community concerns or perceptions of “risk” • Information to help site characterization and risk assessment • Identifying the community leaders or trusted organizations • How people want to receive information • Perceptions of EPA, the state, or PRPs “Sister” Tools: Community Interviews

39. New CIP Tool: Guidelines to Plan and Write Your CIP • Description of the affected community • Demographic information • Computer literacy • Government structure • Unique environments • Popular hangouts, places to “meet” “Sister” Tools: Community Profile • Sets up the opportunity to better meet the needs of a community within the CIP

40. General Questions or Comments?

41. The most innovative thing I ever proposed for a CIP is…-OR-The most innovative technique I would like to try for a CIP is… Student Exercise

42. “If you don’t know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.” -- Yogi Berra

43. Contact Information • Yolanda Sanchez, Superfund Community Involvement and Program Initiatives Branch Sanchez.yolanda@epa.gov 703-603-9246 • L’Tonya Spencer, Community Involvement Coordinator, Region 4, Superfund Spencer.latonya@epa.gov 404-562-8463 Toll-free 800-231-3075