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Environmental Information About YOUR Facility

Jane Showalter Thomas, P.E., CPEA


Course Outline

This two-hour course leads you through some of the publicly available, Internet-accessible sources of environmental information about facilities and communities. This course will show you how to access facility-specific environmental information and information on environmental conditions of a community or region.

Websites with environmental information on the following topics will be addressed:

The course includes an exercise to gather environmental information about a facility of your choice as you investigate the websites discussed.

The course includes a multiple-choice quiz at the end, which is designed to enhance the understanding of the course materials.

Learning Objective

At the conclusion of this two-hour course, the student will be familiar with:

Intended Audience

This course is intended for the following:


Benefit to Attendees

Attendees of this course will be able to access publicly available, Internet-accessible environmental information about facilities and communities. This will allow them to know what environmental information the press, non-government organizations, competitors, and others can access with just a few clicks of a mouse. If incorrect information is found, they can begin the process of getting it corrected. Additionally these readily available sources of information can be mined to better understand the environmental issues of the attendees' neighbors, suppliers, clients, and competitors.


Course Introduction

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, some state environmental regulatory agencies, and other organization have established Internet-accessible databases that make environmental information about companies and individual facilities readily available to the public. In the next two hours, you will learn about some of that information and how to access it.

Course Content

The course content is in a PDF file (5 MB) Environmental Information About YOUR Facility. You need to open or download this document to study this course.


Course Summary

Many environmental regulatory agencies and organizations have made a significant amount of environmental information readily available to the public. This course provided direction to many of the Internet-accessible sources of such information, summarized what information was available at each site, and provided guidance on how to request corrections, if needed. Engineers and managers should be aware of the environmental information about their facilities that is readily available to the public.

The items discussed in this course included: website addresses, summary of the information contained there, how to access the information for a specific facility or community, and guidance on requesting corrections, where needed.


Related Links

For additional technical information related to this subject, please visit the following websites or web pages:

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Homepage
Major Environmental Laws
Right-to-Know Homepage
Toxic Release Inventory Homepage
Plain English Guide to the Clean Air Act
USEPA Programs with a Geographic Focus
Climate Change
Water Quality - What You Can Do
USEPA Industry Partnerships
USEPA Hotlines and Clearinghouses


Quiz

Once you finish studying the above course content, you need to take a quiz to obtain the PDH credits.

Take a Quiz


DISCLAIMER: The materials contained in the online course are not intended as a representation or warranty on the part of PDH Center or any other person/organization named herein. The materials are for general information only. They are not a substitute for competent professional advice. Application of this information to a specific project should be reviewed by a registered architect and/or professional engineer/surveyor. Anyone making use of the information set forth herein does so at their own risk and assumes any and all resulting liability arising therefrom.