Character Background Sheet
EPA Remedial Project Manager (RPM)
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You are the RPM assigned to the Flowing Railroad site. Your job is to direct
the response effort and coordinate all cleanup activities at the site. You
are responsible for coordinating not only with EPA Regional and Headquarters
staff, but also with other Federal, state, and local agencies.
although you live and work in the city where the EPA Regional Office
is located, many of the sites for which you have been responsible were
in small towns and rural areas like this one, so you can empathize with
the concerns of the citizens of Ruralville. Your purpose at the community
meeting is to tell people about the investigation of the problems at the
site and the sort of cleanup options you are weighing as a result. In
addition, you want to give them the opportunity to ask any questions and
express any concerns they have about the cleanup in general or about specific
cleanup options.
When the meeting is over, you will have to make a final decision about
how to recommend that the site be cleaned up, balancing the data from
your investigation and the other information at your disposal with what
you hear in the meeting about what the community thinks. This is not an
easy decision to make, because there are a lot of needs and interests
you must try to satisfy—the requirements in the law, the needs of
the people who live in the community, the wishes of those who run businesses
in the community, the interests of FRR Enterprises which is a major employer
in the community, etc.
You are responsible for choosing a cleanup option that:
- protects human health and the environment
- complies with existing Federal and state laws and requirements
Your choice also must:
- be effective in the short-term, as well as over the long-term
- reduce the toxicity, mobility, or volume of the contaminants
- be realistic
- be reasonably cost-effective
- be acceptable to the community
You will prepare a Proposed Cleanup Plan describing your decision and
discussing why you chose to proceed in this way. You will have to present
that plan to the same group of people from the community and hear their
reactions.
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