This article appeared today in a trade journal. It isn't directly related, but it certainly indicates that some people in the government are not comfortable with keeping the public informed.
Toxic info to stay off Web
BY William Matthews
08/14/2000 Federal Computer Week
"EPA trying to ease toxic reporting" [FCW.com, May 3, 2000]
"EPA: Clean toxic data from Web site" [FCW.com, April 28, 2000]
Fearing that the global reach of the Internet will prove too helpful to terrorists, the Justice Department and the Environmental Protection Agency have issued a final rule for keeping information about potentially deadly chemical spills at U.S. industrial plants off government World Wide Web pages.
However, in an effort to inform the public of chemical risks, the agencies propose creating a World Wide Web-based "risk indicator system" that would tell people if their homes, schools or workplaces are in a "vulnerable zone" for a chemical spill.
The EPA also proposes making less sensitive chemical plant information available on the Web "to facilitate risk reduction dialogues" with the public, plant operators and local officials. Those two steps represent at least a partial effort to accomplish what the EPA set out to do in the mid-1990s by posting risk-management plans on the Internet. The intent was to keep the American public informed about chemical dangers in their communities.
"The problem is, of course, they still do not tell citizens why they are at risk," said Ari Schwartz, a policy analyst at the Center for Democracy and Technology in Washington, D.C.
The decision to pull detailed chemical risk information from federal Web sites has helped fuel a debate about freedom of speech, open government and the public’s right to know, and privacy and security.
Some argue that the worldwide reach of the Internet makes it dangerous to post information on Web sites even when it is considered safe to publish the same information on paper.
But others say muzzling the Internet violates the government’s obligation to inform the public. The debate may be taken up in Congress, where Sen. Frank Lautenberg and Rep. Rush Holt, both New Jersey Democrats, have introduced legislation that would require tighter security at plants that use hazardous chemicals and that would permit chemical spill information to return to the Internet.
On Aug. 9, Holt and Lautenberg decried the "virtual blackout of information to millions of workers and citizens who work and live near chemical plants."
For now, though, the detailed "risk-management plans" that the EPA has collected from more than 15,000 companies are banned from EPA Web sites. Instead, the plans will be made available to the public only in closely monitored federal reading rooms on a limited basis.
Toxic info to stay off Web
BY William Matthews
08/14/2000 Federal Computer Week
"EPA trying to ease toxic reporting" [FCW.com, May 3, 2000]
"EPA: Clean toxic data from Web site" [FCW.com, April 28, 2000]
Fearing that the global reach of the Internet will prove too helpful to terrorists, the Justice Department and the Environmental Protection Agency have issued a final rule for keeping information about potentially deadly chemical spills at U.S. industrial plants off government World Wide Web pages.
However, in an effort to inform the public of chemical risks, the agencies propose creating a World Wide Web-based "risk indicator system" that would tell people if their homes, schools or workplaces are in a "vulnerable zone" for a chemical spill.
The EPA also proposes making less sensitive chemical plant information available on the Web "to facilitate risk reduction dialogues" with the public, plant operators and local officials. Those two steps represent at least a partial effort to accomplish what the EPA set out to do in the mid-1990s by posting risk-management plans on the Internet. The intent was to keep the American public informed about chemical dangers in their communities.
"The problem is, of course, they still do not tell citizens why they are at risk," said Ari Schwartz, a policy analyst at the Center for Democracy and Technology in Washington, D.C.
The decision to pull detailed chemical risk information from federal Web sites has helped fuel a debate about freedom of speech, open government and the public’s right to know, and privacy and security.
Some argue that the worldwide reach of the Internet makes it dangerous to post information on Web sites even when it is considered safe to publish the same information on paper.
But others say muzzling the Internet violates the government’s obligation to inform the public. The debate may be taken up in Congress, where Sen. Frank Lautenberg and Rep. Rush Holt, both New Jersey Democrats, have introduced legislation that would require tighter security at plants that use hazardous chemicals and that would permit chemical spill information to return to the Internet.
On Aug. 9, Holt and Lautenberg decried the "virtual blackout of information to millions of workers and citizens who work and live near chemical plants."
For now, though, the detailed "risk-management plans" that the EPA has collected from more than 15,000 companies are banned from EPA Web sites. Instead, the plans will be made available to the public only in closely monitored federal reading rooms on a limited basis.