Find the Hidden Message

By any measure, the best blogs are multidimensional. Usually, given time and wit, I try and add a little depth to this blog. You may notice that . . . or you may not. Examples run the gamut from obvious to arcane. Not many folks missed the connection with Irving Berlin when Annie Oakley suddenly popped up at the end of “Anything I Can Do, I Can Do Better.” Even fewer failed to spot the sprinkling of French expressions in the tour de force, "How Freeing Paris Saved Money.” Rarely do things go as badly, however, as when a majority of folks, at least in my office, had no idea what Dunder Mifflin was on America Recycles Day.

Given the difficulty of understanding all that may be going on in a 400 word blog entry, it’s understandable that it can be even harder to grasp the substance in EPA’s ten-page Quarterly Management Report. You may need to be an EPA geek to really ‘get’ all of what we are measuring. “Superfund Site Completions” and “TMDL Approvals” are not necessarily phrases you’ll hear while waiting in line at Starbucks. To be sure, the quarterly measures are important, but they are indirect, not direct, measures of environmental quality.

Click to Open Quarterly Management Report

A lack of context in the report makes the measures less accessible to the average citizen. Regular folks may need assistance understanding what the measures mean and how they relate to protecting health and the environment.

Let me introduce EPA’s latest and best Quarterly Management Report. In addition to simplifying some of the data boxes, once inside the report, just roll your cursor over a measure, left click, and a supplemental guide appears with background information and explanations.

Greater accessibility to what our quarterly report means will allow more people to study what we’re doing. However, what is more important than just reporting this information is learning from it. Take a look, if you want to see how we’re doing, and let us know what you think.

Stumped by the hidden message?

Comments

[Will Johnston]

“Superfund Site Completions” and “TMDL Approvals” are not necessarily phrases you’ll hear while waiting in line at Starbucks.

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Depends on which Starbucks you frequent :)

[Nora]

I've been reading here for quite some time (I'm even a subscriber!) and I've been enjoying your wit, your whimsey and most of all the way you have with words.

I can understand quite well how it can be trying to write something important and perhaps difficult for many to comprehend while at the same time trying to keep it simple and to get a very important message across.

Thank you for all you do here, you're truly a star. (yes, pun intended)

Peace and energy,

Nora aka MoonSage aka RubyShooZ

[Richard Sumpter]

You say above:
"To be sure, the quarterly measures are important, but they are indirect, not direct, measures of environmental quality."

I would argue that they don't actually measure 'environmental quality.' Insofar as they are able, they are indicators of the condition of the environment, not it's quality. Quality implies a value judgement. That's a further deduction we may or may not make. What set me off on this track, though, is not the value of the QMR and its measures, but rather the term "environmental quality." It would be more accurate to say "the quality of the environment." I have long been bemused by the use of the term "environmental" as in The Environmental Protection Agency. I submit that it should be The Environment Protection Agency. Why is our title-name reduced to a modifier? Most other agencies have full-fledged nouns: Departments of Labor, Agriculture, Justice, Defense. We are rather the "Protection" agency, modified by "Environmental." I don't care if we get Cabinet status, I just want us to be a noun instead of a weak adjective.

[Marcus]

Will: I did hear someone order a double ARARs with whipped CROMMERR on ICIS at the one on 15th and Penn last week.

Nora: "RubyShooz" . . . I love that.

Richard: You are right, but I think the fight over the name was lost when the states started copying the same construction. Another, faster, fix: strike the first six letters from "Environmental."