Work Plan & Progress Report - Rhode Island Department of ...

There were a number of areas where RIDEM was interested in working on in the future and included:
• Fats, Oils & Grease (FOG) - DEMs OCTA is participating in the FOG work through a
partnership with Narragansett Bay Commission (NBC) and University of Rhode Island (URI) .
NBC is the lead, this project includes conducting energy audits at wastewater treatment plants
(being done by Gene Park, URI P2 Program)
• Energy Management at Waste Water Treatment Plants
• Sectors: Dry cleaners, Auto Recyclers/Salvage
• Need for discussion and training regarding environmental justice mapping/targeting tools to
help states and EPA Region I consider risk and environmental justice issues. Tools mentioned
were EJSEAT, OTIS, RSEI and others. It was suggested that a webinar could be used to
demonstrate use of these tools for all compliance assurance staff. We should also identify any
potential EJ overlays in each of the areas we discuss.
Overarching topics that were of interest to many:
Using "Better Communication options for EPA Region I and NE State Assistance and P2 Programs"
(e.g. Web 2.0, Wikis, Blogs, Twitter, etc.) to share info about our successes and to market our
programs.
It was noted there are legal deliberations going on in EPA and at the White House as to federal policy
on use of these communication tools. Some states indicated that they are prohibited from using some
of these progressive tools. However, there is some current active use of these tools by EPA and some
states. The focus on follow-up therefore should be on what we can use right now to better tell our
stories and market our programs.
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