and the government. The nublie. TRI. alone with other provisi&s of the Emergeky Planning and Community Right to Know Act, is designed to empower the public to learn about and become involved in environmental management decisions that pertain to toxic chemicals in their own communities. The relatively straightforward nature of the data, reported in pounds per year of chemical release, and the ease of access will be a step toward meeting the congressional goal of insuring the public's right to know. Industry. Increased industry awareness at upper management levels-both of the quantity of materials lost as wastes and of the costs and potential liability of these losses-is often an effective spur to reducing loss and thus safeguarding the environment and the financial bottom line at the same time. TRI will be an important tool for fostering waste reduction. In addition, the release data-particularly the data on waste minimization-will provide facilities that practice waste reduction an opportunity to document their progress in reducing toxic chemical releases. Government. Which environmental programs are working well? Which are not? What chemicals are effectively controlled, and which escape through the regulatory net? TRI will enable EPA, states, and others to answer these questions and to commit program resources to achieving the best environmental results for a finite amount of resources. The documentation of mnds in toxic chemical waste releases and management will provide unambiguous evidence of the impact of regulatory controls.
stantial community concern just the same. The onus of giving meaning to TRI numbers will fall on the public, government, and industry. Companies likely will find themselves justifying the release of a particular chemical or demonstrating to the public their efforts to reduce releases. States, EPA, and other environmental agencies will need to reevaluate the efficiency of their own control programs in light of legitimate questions from the public. The public,
The question of risks What will happen when the public learns that a certain amount of a given chemical, perhaps a carcinogen, is being released as waste to the air, water, or soil by Company X down the road? Release data alone is a poor indicator of environmental concentrations or ultimate exposure. Chemical and environmental properties complicate our understanding of risk because context plays a large role. For example, releases of 87,000 lb/year sounds much worse to some than 10 pounds per hour, even though the two are equivalent. Even when adequate health and fate data are available, formal risk assessments are costly and cumbersome; in the end, the assessment is difficult to describe meaningfully to a concerned community. As TRI reveals a large number of apparent toxics problems, the situation will become even more complicated; sizable emission numbers do not necessarily mean sizable risk, but these numbers can generate sub-
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for its part, will need to understand that waste is an inevitable part of industrial processes and that zero risk can at best be a goal to strive for, but not one ever to be attained.
David Sarokin is on environmentalprotection specialist with EPAs @ice of Ton'c Substances. Previously, Sarokin worked on industrial waste reduaion issuesfor the stafe of New Jersey. He is also the author of Cutting Chemical Wastes, published by Inform, Inc.
Environmental impact statements Videotapingprovides a new dimension
Sam Diamond
By John S. Mills Md Sam Diamond Everyone involved in the business of preparing environmental impact statements knows that it's often difficult to get the public involved in a positive way-particularly for large projects. When people hear that a hydroelectric dam is going to be built, for example, they immditely conjure up a picture of wholesale environmental destruction. Even if they have never visited the area in question, they become outraged at the potential loss of recreational opportunities such as white-water rafting, fishing, or hiking and camping. Anticipating this type of knee-jerk reaction, officials in 'holnmne County and the 'hrloch Imgation District in , northern California decided to do their best to inform the public and involve them in a proposed hydroelectric proj-
ect on the Clavey River. Our first step was to prepare a short information videotape that addressed the anticipated environmental concerns head-on. We wanted the videotape to explain why the project was needed and how it would actually improve trout fishing and other recreational opportunities. We soon realized that preparing a professional videotape that would hold the viewers' interest and could be shown on local cable television was no easy task. Fortunately, we decided that we had about as much chance of accomplishing this objective as a professional videotape producer would have of successfully completing an environmental impact statement. Our next step was to go out and actively seek bids and proposals for the project. The winning bid came from Yonchenko-Hecht Communications, a
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public relations firm based in San Francisco. They realized that the videotape would be a critical component of our public participation program; they also recognized that the commonly produced “talking heads” video, which merely shows people talking, would not be well received. The Yonchenko-Hecht firm suggested a “60 Minutes” type of approach-a video magazine format in which people were interviewed in various locations. The tape also included actual footage of the Clavey River, showing the proposed site of the dam, and used computer graphics to illustrate how environmental migration steps would enhance the recreational value of the entire area. The video made it clear, for example, that although the trout population currently varies with seasonal changes in water level, the water levels would be held constant and trout habitat would improve once the dam was completed.
Show and tell The completed videotape, which was shown on local cable television and made available for loan at county offices and local libraries, so successfully informed the public that we decided to utilize the videotape medium in the actual environmental impact report (EIR), the California state equivalent of an environmental impact statement (EIS). Like an EIS, an EIR is supposed to be a full disclosure document, completely describing the existing environmental and economic consequences of the project and how these impacts might be mitigated through changes in project design or through other measures. Our dilemma was that, although we wanted the public to participate in the approval process, we knew that the average citizen who wanted information about the project was unlikely to sit down and review a document about three times the size of the Los Angeles phone book. After the success of our first videotape, it seemed obvious that the objectives of an EIR could be condensed into an easy-to-understand format with an hour-long videotape. Once again we enlisted the expertise and services of the San Francisco public relations firm. We agreed to prepare a videotape showing the area that would be affected by the hydroelectric project and used a technique called rotoscoping to overlay images of how the region would look once the project was completed. Rotoscoping is not a new technology, but thanks to enhanced computer graphics techniques the overlaid images looked like the real thing. In other words, the Clavey River basin was
shown with a real-looking dam, roads, and campgrounds all in place. Besides demonstrating the impacts of the project to the citizenry, the videotape also will assist regulators in Washington, D.C. Without benefit of the tape they would have to base their decisions on nothing more than the final EIS document-unless they were prepared to make a personal fact-finding journey. The problem here, aside from the expense of a transcontinental trip, is that the Clavey River is 33 miles long from its headwaters to where it enters the lkolumne River. Because the powerhouse of the proposed project will be located upstream from the lholumne on the Clavey and will encompass close to 50 miles of power lines, the overall area of the project is about 70 linear miles. An area this size is far too large to be evaluated on a cursory look. Even if regulators opted for an onsite visit, they would then be confronted with the logistical problems of imagining the diverse impacts of the project over this large region. With the videotape, the same objective can be achieved in a one-hour viewing, at no cost to the regulator. Designed to support the written EIR or EIS, the videotape will function as a visual executive summary of the document. In addition, each time a new topic is introduced on the videotape, a graphic box referencing specific pages in the report will be displayed. When referring to the report, the reader will be guided to the appropriateparagraphs by small marginal graphics. We recognize that videotaped EIRs may not become as popular as sliced bread, but videotape production is cost effective for large projects, for projects in remote locations, and for projects in environmentally sensitive areas where public approval may be difficult to obtain. In our case, there is no doubt of its cost effectiveness.
Status of the project The Clavey River Project is now in its third year of environmental studies, and more than $2 million has already been spent in preparation for environmental and engineering studies. Although the percentage of cost budgeted to the videotape is truly minimal-less than 1%-it will provide us with the most effectivemeans of communicating our message to the public and to geographically remote regulators, both in California and in Washington, D.C. Our one major concern when we decided to go with the videotaped EIR was that the tape might become a public relations gimmick. The San Francisco firm assured us this would not happen and took steps to ensure that the tape be
as unbiased as possible. Specifically, the firm maintained the same camera crews, engineers, and technicians throughout the project, requiring each participant to keep a detailed log book. Thus we have documents that support the reasons for taking each shot. The EIR and videotape for the Clavey River Project are scheduled for completion in early 1989, and we look forward to the public response to our unique approach. We anticipate that, as a result of these ground-breaking efforts in EIR/EIS presentation, the medium will start to become more widely used. Each year there are an estimated 400 projects in the country that could benefit from a videotape. Large timber sales at remote national forests, the siting of new power substations, or construction of housing in sensitive shoreline areas are just some of the types of projects that could demonstrate their impacts more completely with visual support. The cost of the videotape should be a concern, but in some situations it may be insignificant. In the case of a proposed 2000-unit housing project along beach-front land, for example, a videotape would likely add a cost of $125 per housing unit-less than the cost of an extra window. Yet the videotape could make the difference between approval or denial of a project; without a videotape, impact assessment would be incomplete. Generally, decision makers and the public react to what they think will happen, and not necessarily to what really will occur. Rumors abound, and it’s much easier to lay the C ~ U Son the table, showing the impacts of the proposed project and the environmental mitigation steps that will be taken. Our experience with the YonchenkoHecht has convinced us that professionally produced videotapes can inform the public with a level of efficiency and a degree of completeness never before achieved with paper documents alone. John Mills, project director of the Clavey River Project, is an independent consultant and has a Jirm, Foothill Planning Associates, in the Sierra Nevada mountains near Jamestown, CaliJ: He has worked on environmental analysis and impact assessment methodology for more than 13 years. For s h years he worked for local government in California in the administration of the California Environmental Quality Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, and related regulations. Sam Diamond is a free-lance environmental technology writer based in Ridge, N. Y Environ. Sci. Technol., Vol. 22,No. 6,1988 619
