Plain Writing Act: 2022 Annual Report

I. Senior Agency Official for Plain Writing

Eric E. Wachter
Director
Office of the Executive Secretariat
wachter.eric@epa.gov
(202) 564-1878

II. Training

1. The EPA offers an agencywide plain-writing training through its learning and development program, EPA University. The course adheres to federal plain writing guidelines.
2. The Office of Research and Development held a series of plain-writing trainings and presentation for its senior leaders, communications staff and scientists. These included three presentations in data visualization and storytelling; a seminar in science storytelling; and a senior-leadership workshop in presenting and writing science for non-science audiences.
3. The Office of Emergency Management conducted in FY20 an internal training on how to write effective emails and again linked and distributed it to OEM staff in FY22. This office also has internal training on communicating technical topics to a nontechnical audience.
4. The Seattle regional office holds an annual series of public involvement trainings available for all staff. These trainings cover various aspects of external communication, many of which include plain-writing concepts.

III. Ongoing Compliance and Sustaining Change

1. The national-program and regional offices have designated or are identifying officials for plain writing who work in collaboration with the senior official.
2. The Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights was just created September 24, 2002, but is included in this report for completeness.
3. See appendix for a list of the designated officials.
4. These designated officials possess institutional knowledge of the unique processes and suite of documents produced in their offices to implement processes for ongoing compliance.
5. These processes include communications officials’ approval of documents; multi-level managerial review for plain writing; designating plain-writing coordinators in individual offices; and refresher training courses.
6. Offices continue to follow plain-writing procedures to satisfy the executive order and administrative orders that predate the Plain Writing Act.
7. The initiative of the New York office to revamp its websites for Superfund sites so they better meet plain writing principles and are easier to understand is ongoing. These Superfund pages are called Site Profile Pages, and the office has completed about 25 of 200 pages.
8. Colleagues in New York also continue to translate public documents to make them more accessible to the diverse communities of the region. Recent examples include translation of information about the hazardous air pollutant ethylene oxide and community updates at a variety of Superfund sites.
9. The Seattle office offers an annual series of public-involvement trainings available to all staff that cover a range of external communication, many of which include plain writing concepts. The course list includes “Creating Good Web Content” and “Media Relations 101.”
10. The brownfields program put together a glossary of common translations for brownfields terms that do not translate accurately using direct Spanish translation.
11. The Office of Air and Radiation has resources for its staff to better aid the public’s understanding of climate change terminology.
12. The Office of Research and Development hosts and promotes an intranet page to promote effective communication.
13. The Office of Underground Storage Tanks provides plain writing resources from the Plain Language Action and Information Network on Digital.gov, while the Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery conducted an hourlong plain writing training on September 29.

IV. Agency's plain-writing website

1. The EPA’s plain-writing website is EPA.gov/web-policies-and-procedures/plain-writing.
2. The site is linked from the EPA’s homepage.

Appendix: EPA Plain Writing Designated Officials

Office of the Administrator

• Taylor Gillespie

Office of Air and Radiation

• Katherine Stevens

Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention

• Terri Green

Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance

• Keith Bartlett

Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights

• TBD

Office of the Chief Financial Officer

• Diane Kelty

Office of the General Counsel

• TBD

Office of the Inspector General

• Elise Packard

Office of International and Tribal Affairs

• Martin Dieu

Office of Land and Emergency Management

• Matt Colip

Office of Mission Support

• Barbara Galloway

Office of Research and Development

• Dayna Gibbons

Office of Water

• TBD

Region 1 (Boston)

• TBD

Region 2 (New York)

• Mary Mears

Region 3 (Philadelphia)

• TBD

Region 4 (Atlanta)

• Brandi Jenkins

Region 5 (Chicago)

• Rhiannon Dee

Region 6 (Dallas)

• Jeffrey McAtee

Region 7 (Kansas City)

• Curtis Carey

Region 8 (Denver)

• Wendy Dew

Region 9 (San Francisco)

• David Yogi

Region 10 (Seattle)

• Charles Bert