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MEMORANDUM
June 30, 2000
SUBJECT: EPA's Policy Regarding the Agency's Central Public Access Server
TO: Assistant Administrators
General Counsel
Inspector General
Chief Information Officer
Associate Administrators
Regional Administrators
Staff Office Directors
The purpose of this memorandum is to restate the Agency's central public access server
policy, to ensure that all EPA World Wide Web information is at one simple address
(www.epa.gov). With this address, anyone on the Web can reach the EPA home page and browse
or search through the thousands of files available.
Our Agency Web site has grown exponentially over the past several years. From the time
that our home page first went live in late 1994, we have expanded our information offerings to
over 360,000 Web pages, which received over 95,000,000 "hits" in May 2000. In order to
maintain security safeguards and to effectively manage our growing Web site, we must use a
central cluster of computers with our corporate address, epa.gov.
In 1996, the Deputy Administrator issued a memorandum (see attached) that stated an
Agency-wide commitment to "maintaining a unified approach to our Internet presence ... with one
corporate address." I am restating this commitment as policy: the Agency central server cluster
will be the official location for both regulatory and programmatic Agency public communications.
All EPA-generated and approved Web products should be published at the "epa.gov" address.
Information that is offered on EPA's Web site may be copied or mirrored to other sites
(e.g., universities or other non-governmental organizations), but it must first reside on the central
public access server. Only in unique situations will the Office of Environmental Information
(OEI) grant waivers for information that resides on a server maintained by a consortium,
interstate or international commission or similar organization that is collaborating with EPA.
Please review how you provide information on the Web. If you find that some of your
information needs to be transferred to the EPA central server, or want to apply for a waiver, or
have questions about this issue, please contact Emma McNamara, 202-566-0707, in the Office of
Information Analysis and Access in OEI.
/s/
W. Michael McCabe
Acting Deputy Administrator
Attachment
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