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2007 Web Content Management Plans

(Approved March 12, 2007)

At the March 12, 2007 Web Council meeting, the following Web Content Action Plans were approved. Among these plans is the OPA Office of Web Communications (OWC) Web Content Plan, which was adopted as the Web Content Priority Actions for 2007. The OWC plan is the over-arching agency-wide plan, while the office plans lay out how to accomplish these goals.

Office Priority Plans

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OWC Web Content Management Plan - 2007

  1. Expand Non-English translation processes.
  2. Continue training staff on critical Web skills.
  3. Identify ways to drive visitors to EPA.gov
  4. Assist offices prepare for Web CMS.
  5. Continue topical Web content re-organization.
    1. Risk Assessment
    2. Asbestos
    3. CAFO/AFO
    4. Nanotechnology
    5. Biotechnology
    6. Laws & Regulations
    7. Tribal Content
  6. Participate in Crisis Communications exercise.
  7. Develop new standards, procedures and guidance, as needed.
  8. Continue educating EPA's senior leaders and management team about the central role of effective Web content on mission accomplishment and saving resources.

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OAR Web Content Management Plan - 2007

Priority Actions

  1. Locomotives and New Marine Diesel
  2. Yucca Mountain
  3. RFS
  4. Small Spark Ignition Engine Rule
  5. 20th Anniversary of Montreal Protocol
  6. 5th Anniversary of Climate Leaders
  7. ENERGY STAR Specification for Televisions, Servers, and Digital to Analog Adapters
  8. Fortune 500 Challenge for Green Power Partnership
  9. Ozone Standards
  10. Lead Standard
  11. 16 Area Source Air Toxics Rule

Topical re-organizations

  1. AFO/CAFO
  2. Emergency Response Radiation Site

Life-Cycle Management

  1. Criteria Pollutants—create cover page for criteria pollutants and pages for each, merge existing content on criteria pollutants into these pages.  Particulate Matter (PM) is complete.  The ozone page is in the final stages of development and will start the review phase in April 2007.
  2. Ozone—create cover page (at epa.gov/ozone/) with explanation of distinction between stratospheric ozone and ground level ozone, include links to existing pages for each. The ozone page is in the final stages of development and will start the review phase in April 2007.
  3. Smartway—create cover page with description of program and divider links to consumer page (new) and industry page (existing), reorganization/consolidation of existing content, new content, links to related pages (such as Green Vehicle Guide).  The Smartway page is in the final stages of development and will be ready for review in April 2007.
  4. RadNet—the existing ERAMS page will be updated and reorganized into RadNet
    1. Existing ERAMS and related pages were updated to reflect and explain the name change. 
    2. http://www.epa.gov/enviro/html/erams/
    3. http://www.epa.gov/radiation/news/radnet_plan.htm (news section announcement)
    4. http://www.epa.gov/radiation/rert/incidents.htm
    5. http://www.epa.gov/radiation/rert/nuclear_blast.html
    6. http://oaspub.epa.gov/enviro/ef_home2.radiation
  5. TTN—restore to library of technical documents, other info placed on OAR pages.   
    1. Merging info from TTN to epa.gov; working with technical staff to redesign and redevelop technical information.  The TTN page is in the planning stages.
  6. Radiation site redesign – to improve navigation and apply new template.
  7. New Template Conversion

Individual office priorities

  1. Template Conversion - Each program office is responsible for the new template conversion.  Despite resource issues that have surfaced, most offices are estimating a complete site conversion to the new template by September 2007.  OAR will update OPA Web about resource issues as they develop.
  2. Web Emergency Plan
  3. Web Standard Operating Plan

Top Three Tasks

  1. Current events/news
  2. Where you live information
  3. Education/Outreach materials

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OARM Web Content Management Plan– 2007

Priority Actions/Individual Office Priorities

  1. Continue with the web template 3.2.1 conversion in order to meet the Web Council established deadline of September 28, 2007.
    1. OAM has seven accounts.  Five accounts have been converted to the new template and at this time OAM is in the process of converting the sixth account (oamsrpod).  The seventh account (oamhpod) will be completed following the conversion of oamsrpod and is expected to be completed by the Web Council agreed upon due date.
    2. The OAS public site is in the process of being converted to template 3.2.1.
    3. OARM-RTP is 85% complete with their conversion.  Their internal deadline for full conversion is February 28, 2007.
    4. OARM Cincinnati is in the process of converting to template 3.2.1.  They hope to have the final conversion done by the end of April.
    5. OHR and OGD have completed the conversion to template 3.2.1 in their content areas.
  2. Addition/deletion of notable content areas on OAM’s website.

Life-Cycle Management

  1. OHR will make modifications to the OHR and Career website templates for consistency (several pages of the current “Careers” site do not have links to the OHR homepage.)
  2. OAS will maintain quarterly content changes to the Greening EPA site.
  3. OGD will continue with updates to the Internet Training, Grant Policy, and Competition web pages.
  4. OAM will continue with routine updates to Policy and Competition web pages.
  5. OARM-RTP will implement scheduled Internet content review/link validation to ensure content accuracy and information accessibility.

Topical re-organizations

The findings of the usability test of the RTP Internet suggested that they review their information architecture to ensure a structured environment; these findings may lead to a reorganization of content.

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OCFO Web Content Management Plan– 2007

Priority Actions

  1. FY 2008 Budget in Brief, FY 2008 Congressional Justification (February 5, 2007)
  2. FY 2008 draft and final National Program Guidance (Feb and April 2007)
  3. FY 2007 Annual Report (November 15, 2007)

Life-Cycle Management
Currently our site undergoes “spring cleaning” monthly for broken links, etc. However, OCFO staff performs major content reviews periodically. 
Other key updates:

  1. News release for the upcoming year’s budget (new attachment to be posted)
  2. News release for the past year’s Performance and Accountability Report (new attachment to be posted)

Individual office priorities
In 2006 the entire OCFO public website was redesigned and streamlined (“put on a diet”).  OCFO will focus on intranet content management and content approval processes in 2007.

Top Three Tasks

  1. Look at EPA’s Budget.
  2. Look at EPA’s annual Performance and Accountability Report or Strategic Plan
  3. Learn about EPA’s financial systems, service, information, etc.
  4. OCFO promptly posts the budget, performance reports, and the Strategic Plan when they become available (as well as drafts for public comment as appropriate for the Strategic Plan).  These documents and the Financial System Modernization Project are highlighted on the OCFO home page and the pages are frequently updated with relevant information.

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OCHP Web Content Management Plan - 2007

Priority Actions

  1. 2007 Children’s Environmental Health Executive Order Anniversary page – continue updates to this page to reflect year-long anniversary activities
  2. Potential Environmental Hazards page – explore new topic areas to add to page database

Topical Reorganizations
None identified at this time

Life-Cycle Management

  1. Specific “team”  (e.g., outreach and partnerships, standards and regulations, etc) pages will need to be updated; these pages are updated every six months or so.
  2. Update of office organization chart

Individual Office Priorities
2007 Children’s Environmental Health Executive Order Anniversary page –ensure accurate and timely additions to this page as this is one of the major focuses of the office this year.

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OECA Web Content Management Plan– 2007

Priority Actions

  1. Convert Compliance and Enforcement Web portal pages, both static and dynamic, to the new Agency template standard, using consistent Cascading Style Sheets.
  2. Policy/Docket Project: 
    1. Revise process for ensuring documents populate under all relevant subject matter areas
    2. Perform QA/QC of existing metadata records for all documents
    3. Identify and presentation of Good Guidance documents
    4. Investigate the possibility of updating the docket database that provides dynamic delivery of documents to OECA’s internet Web site
  3. EPA Audit Policy Submission Web interface:
    1. Explore the development of an on-line form allowing users to submit audit policy submissions through OECA’s Web site, enabling OECA to receive, manage and track them
  4. Finalize the Financial Assurance Web page for the newest National Priority Results
  5. Produce OECA 2007 Annual Results Web pages

Topical Re-Organizations

  1. Expand the Tribal area of the Web site to contain the information from the new Tribal Sector Notebook
  2. Participate in the coordination of the Land Revitalization Web page development
  3. Participate in the coordination of the Superfund Web page redesign

Life-Cycle Management

  1. OECA will perform a thorough content and infrastructure review of four out of the fourteen Areas under Compliance and Enforcement (potentially Cleanup Enforcement, Criminal Enforcement, Tribal, and NEPA)
  2. “High Profile” Web Page Review: OECA will perform technical and content review on all pages that get feature treatment from OECA’s home page, including Quickfinder links, Area page links, and Popular Resources links
  3. Web Governance:
    1. Pilot the consolidation of Web content coordination and Web infrastructure coordination under one office in OECA. 
    2. Review current OECA Web submission standard operating procedures for potential streamlining. 
    3. Review OECA Web policies and design standards in light of new templates and use of CSS on Web pages.

Individual office priorities

  1. National Cases and Settlement database:
    1. Enable regional offices to input regional case/settlement information into OECA’s database, for presentation on the Web, thus enabling a single interface for users to find case and settlement information
    2. Investigate possibility of updating the National Cases and Settlements database to include ECHO/OTIS-specific case numbers for cross-system queries

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OEI Web Content Management Plan - 2007

Priority Actions

  1. TRI Public Data Release (PDR): new page for 2005 data. 
  2. OEI marketing Web site for Working Capital Fund Services:  new page to offer OEI services to other federal clients.  Page will initially feature Working Capital Fund services.
  3. Glossary of Quality Terms:  establish new site containing a glossary of terms related to Quality.
  4. ROE-Highlights Document (HD) Web page:  establish new site in conjunction with release of HD hard copy.

Life-Cycle Management

  1. TRI Web site:  reorganize the TRI Web site.
  2. Exchange Network:  reorganize the Exchange Network site and expand to include more on CROMERR.
  3. Data Standards and System of Registries:  redesign the Data Standards and System of Registries sites.
  4. ROE: redesign ROE Web in stages.
    1. ROE Homepage URL www.epa.gov/indicators changed to www.epa.gov/roe
    2. Redesign www.epa.gov/roe
    3. Continued redesign of www.epa.gov/roe to add information on environmental conditions and trends. 
  5. Continuous review of OEI Web to assess the currency of the information.

Topical Reorganization

  1. PCB subject reorganization
  2. Lead subject reorganization

OEI Individual Office Priorities

  1. Update OEI’s online guidance for product approval.
  2. Educate staff on product approval process.

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OIA Web Content Management Plan - 2007

Priority Actions

  1. OIA is still in the process of implementing a redesign of its public access web site.  The new design moves us from an OIA-specific site to a new Agency-wide International Programs site, which should provide access to information on all of EPA’s international work. 
  2. As part of the redesign, OIA will update all content currently on its International Affairs site.  A new OIA office brochure should be posted soon once OPA clearance is received.
  3. The international air program pages are the first part of the new site ready for posting—final amendments have been completed.  The next set of pages, on Environment & Trade, will be available for review shortly.

Life-Cycle Management
Some information on the International Affairs site remains out of date despite update efforts in 2006.  As part of the ongoing move to the International Programs site, OIA will be reviewing and updating all of the content that it has on the web and, as appropriate, revising outdated information.

Individual Office Priorities
OIA’s priority remains implementation of the new International Programs site.

When the new design is more fully implemented, an Editorial Board consisting of the OIA Communications Officer and our four Associate Office Directors will review content quarterly to ensure that it remains current.  This Editorial Board will also be responsible for reviewing proposed additions to the International Program site and recommending site revisions to the Content Coordinator.

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OIG Web Content Management Plan– 2007

Priority Actions

  1. Implement Template 3.2
  2. New Content and New Pages
    1. Frequently Asked Questions
    2. Success Stories
    3. Posting Office of Investigation Summaries
    4. Work in Progress – A page to provide a repository of notification memoranda.
  3. Work with Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance to post links to each other’s violation/hotline reporting pages.

Topical re-organizations
Not applicable

Life-Cycle Management
Continue to review top 20 downloaded OIG pages and address organizational changes as necessary.

Individual office priorities

  1. Develop an internal Web Content Management Plan
    1. Include establishing a semiannual presentation to OIG Senior Staff by OCPL and OMS
  2. Maintain Standard Operating Procedure
    1. OIG Policy and Procedure 620 scheduled for review 11/21/2007

Top Three Tasks

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OPPTS Web Content Management Plan - 2007  

Priority Actions

  1. Pesticide Re-evaluation – Unify under one topic the regulatory processes of Reregistration and Registration Review. Currently these are separate topical areas.
  2. Endangered Species – Provide easy public access to endangered species maps and bulletins through a new part of EPA’s web site and a database jointly developed with USGS.
  3. Strategic Agricultural Initiative (SAI) – New site to provide information, measurement tools, and results of OPPTS’ Strategic Agricultural Initiative (SAI) program.
  4. Data Requirements – Revise current information on pesticide registration data requirements incorporating the revision of 40 CFR Part 158.
  5. Pesticide Registration topic – revise the pesticide registration area impacted by the impending issuance of “Pesticide Registration Handbook” (previously known as the “Registration Blue Book”.)
  6. Court Ordered Deadlines  -  Endangered species and pesticides information.
  7. Biotechnology – Continue efforts to coordinate and consolidate the Agency’s biotechnology web pages into a single site. Subject to resource availability in late 2007
  8. Pesticide Registration Improvement Act (PRIA) – Web application for registrants to assist them in determining their PRIA fee category.
  9. Asbestos brakes brochure
  10. Green Chemistry awards
  11. IUR -  Keep current
  12. Lead Poisoning Prevention Site, e.g., for Lead Poisoning Prevention Week , release of R&R dust studies and ongoing for final rule in early 2008
  13. Nanotechnology
  14. OPP and OPPT Accomplishments Report
  15. PFOA
  16. Pollution Prevention Week
  17. TSCA 101 document conversion to html

Topical re-organizations

  1. Asbestos (When the project starts from OPPTS and OPA leadership, OPPT will participate provided OPPTS IO and OPA are able to lead the effort.)
  2. Biotech (strictly participants)
  3. PCBs (not a portal—OPPT will work with OSWER as a participant)

Life-Cycle Management

  1. Continue work on evaluating content relevancy and currency across pesticides topical web site.
  2. Remove outdated material.
  3. Retire material deemed not currently relevant.
  4. Continue work on updating site to new Agency template standards.
  5. Revise pesticides home page and subtopical navigation pages.
  6. Determine if content in the Domino databases, “PMReG”, and  “NAFTA Technical Working Group on Pesticides”, is current and if Domino is the best solution for that content.
  7. Environmental Preferable Products (EPP)
  8. Green Buildings
  9. High Production Chemical Challenge Program
  10. OPPT Library
  11. NPPTAC – Stakeholder committee activities
  12. Sustainable Futures

Individual office priorities

  1. Review and revise our internal web governance and publishing policies. Crisis communication procedures need to be included.
  2. Reissue approval delegation memo.
  3. Define and prioritize content to translate in order to serve non-English speakers.
  4. Apply new template to all OPPT sites by September 2007.
  5. Promote Product Review Procedures.
  6. Promote new sites and pages to conform to the new OPPT directory structure. 
  7. Promote web development services within OPPTS.
  8. Encourage OPPTS staff to take free OPA web training.

Planning for the unexpected

Top Three Tasks

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ORD Web Content Management Plan- 2007

Priority Actions

  1. Human Health Research Program (HHRP) web site.  In support of the National Program Director for Human Health Research, a new web site will be deployed to describe the program and provide links to appropriate subject areas within ORD and EPA.
  2. Additional NPD web sites will be developed following the model of the HHRP site.  Topics to be covered and priority for development are being reviewed by ORD management.
  3. National Program Director web page.  A landing page will be developed to explain the National Program Director program within ORD and provide links to the NPD web sites as they are developed.
  4. Newsroom.  An interim Newsroom will be published combining both ORD and OPA news releases.  Following the posting of the interim Newsroom a more permanent process will be developed based on the EPA news release database system if possible.
  5. Report on the Environment 2007.  Content will be developed in support of the release of the 2007 ROE.

Topical re-organizations

  1. An Aquatic Habitat Research website will be developed.  OSP has a workgroup established in cooperation with OW and the Regions.
  2. The Sustainability website will be updated.  Links to Regional sustainability pages will be included.
  3. Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care products in the environment. The site will reflect the Agency's research and information on the subject. The subject matter expert is already working on a cross office work group for the subject. That includes OSWER, OPPTS, OW, and a Regional Workgroup.

Life-Cycle Management

  1. Science Features will continue to be produced on a regular basis in support of the Labs and Centers.
  2. The ORD Homepage will be updated to include a link to the EPA Science Newsletter including the ability to view a PDF copy of the latest version and a subscription section.
  3. The ORD Newsroom will continue to be updated with news releases.
  4. Lab and Center pages will be updated as required.
  5. Broken links will be addressed on an on-going basis.
  6. Site will be converted to the new EPA template.

Individual office priorities
Support for the web has been identified as a priority by ORD senior management.  As a part of the ORD Information Technology Improvement Project (ITIP), ORD’s web operations will be evaluated and a project plan implemented which will lead to increased operational efficiency in web operations, improved communication of web content and reduced cost of operation of web infrastructure.

Top Three Tasks

  1. Identification of research in a particular subject area (e.g. mercury or drinking water or both).
  2. Information on grants and funding.
  3. Information on research programs in a particular area (such as air).
  4. The current site architecture (Quick Finder, Homepage Navigation and search) assist with these tasks.  The ITIP study will better define the stakeholders and tasks and will suggest ways to improve site navigation in support of them.

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OSWER Web Content Management Plan– 2007  

Priority Actions

  1. Superfund National Priorities Listings (spring and fall)
  2. Release of the Superfund oral histories (summer)
  3. Superfund end-of-year numbers (summer)
  4. Brownfields ARC grants (March/April)
  5. Brownfields job training grants (November/December)
  6. Updates to Brownfields success stories (throughout 2007)
  7. MACT Rule (summer)
  8. SPCC Rule (fall)
  9. Comparable Fuels rule (summer)
  10. Hazardous Waste Manifest rule (summer)
  11. Implementation of various underground storage tank-related provisions of the Energy Policy Actof 2005 (throughout 2007)
  12. State corrective actions rule (summer)
  13. Hazardous Waste Recovery rule (fall)
  14. Hydrotreating and Hydrorefining Catalysts rule (fall/winter)
  15. Redesign of OEM Web area (March/April)
  16. Updating of top stories on the OSWER home page (throughout 2007)

Topical re-organizations
OSWER will participate in the EPA-wide reorganization of PCB content. OSWER’s Office of Solid Waste will have the lead on this project; Vern Myers will be the contact.

Life-Cycle Management

  1. OSWER home page
  2. Innovations Web area
  3. Superfund “in the news” section
  4. Office of Emergency Management Web area
  5. Superfund home page (news articles)
  6. Brownfields Grants page
  7. Brownfields success stories page
  8. OSW topic pages relating to a rule (e.g.: hazardous waste manifests, definition of solid waste)
  9. OUST Energy Policy Act of 2005 page

Individual office priorities

  1. Complete the template conversion
  2. Conduct a “spring cleaning” to remove outdated and duplicative pages
  3. Establish an OSWER communications resources page (intranet)
  4. Raise the level of awareness of Web standards and procedures across OSWER
  5. Assess the need for redesign of Program Office Web areas along the lines of the recent OEM redesign
  6. Raise the quality of OSWER pages – as measured by compliance with Web standards – across OSWER

Top Three Tasks – OSWER’s top three tasks are:

  1. Information about risk assessment
  2. General information about Superfund sites
  3. General information about recycling

OSWER will consider the importance of quickly directing users to this information when assessing the need for redesign of Program Office Web areas and raising the quality of OSWER pages (see bullets five and six above). Furthermore, OSWER will consider the usefulness and practicality of developing new ways to direct users to this information from the OSWER home page.

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OW Web Content Management Plan - 2007

Priority Actions

  1. Complete the OW Web Modernization Project. The large project is comprised of six sub-projects:
    1. Develop the OW taxonomy extension - complete
    2. Develop the OW Web Information Architecture (IA) (this will allow end users to navigate the OW Website topically and abstract the OW organizational structure) - draft complete
    3. Modernize the OW Website for dynamic content delivery - prototype complete
    4. Convert content to the new Agency template that OW is enhancing with dynamic components
    5. Unify OW Website data - in progress
    6. Develop automated cross-topic pages - in progress
  1. Create reusable Web application frameworks that align with the Agency’s Service Oriented Architecture initiative:
    1. OW is developing an Oracle-based news database to serve its intranet and internet sites. This application framework will be available to all OW organizations, and will replace manual news announcements.
    2. Version 2.0 of the centralized OW Calendar is nearly complete. A registration engine has been added, as well as formatting changes that will allow OW and other EPA organizations to incorporate it into their sites.
    3. Re-design OW Intranet pages.
      Status: The new design is complete. This design will be further enhanced with the dynamic components that are being used in the OW Website Modernization project.

  1. Content clean-up is integrated into the OW Web modernization project. Content Managers will be identifying and archiving outdated, office-specific web content.

  2. Implement a Web SOP that aligns with the Web Information Architecture and is positioned for deployment in the forthcoming Web content management system (CMS).

Life-Cycle Management

  1. As part of our deployment of a new Web Information Architecture, OW will:

    1. Make an inventory of current content
    2. Identify and remove outdated, orphaned and/or redundant content
    3. Organize content by topic and utilize the developing OW and Agency taxonomies

  2. OW will be implementing a very robust Web CMS and authoring tool that ensures content freshness, and leverages the OW Web IA to ensure content uniqueness.

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Region 1 Web Content Management Plan - 2007

Priority Actions

  1. R1 Urban Rivers Web content
  2. R1 SSO Pages (underway, Rhode Island complete; will need other states as initiative expands)
  3. Finalizing R1 “Green Team” Web pages (Walk the Talk tips)
  4. Green Conferences Web Content

Topical re-organizations

  1. Risk Assessment: Participate in creation of EPA Risk Assessment Web pages; part of sub team overseeing regional web content.
  2. Perchlorate: (Region 1 has several prominent sites with known perchlorate contamination, and the Commonwealth of Mass. has been very involved in this issue.)

Life-Cycle Management

  1. Updates to R1 Climate Change Web site
  2. R1 Air Quality Pages: creating Criteria Pollutants in Region 1 content
  3. R1 Water Quality Pages: creating Sustainable Water Infrastructure site
  4. Update “Reuse Guide”
  5. Update “Innovations & Experimental Projects” site
  6. R1 Children’s Health Web Content (underway)

Individual office priorities
Region 1 has an active web council that meets weekly.  Areas for our continued improvement include increasing coordination among all of our offices, and between the region and HQ.

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Region 2 Web Content Management Plan - 2007

Priority Actions

  1. Superfund NPL and removal sites
  2. Caribbean pages
  3. Lead / Lead Paint
  4. Lakes, Rivers and Streams
  5. Hudson River
  6. Recycling
  7. Pollution Prevention
  8. Compliance
  9. Media Center
  10. State Implementation Plans (Air)
  11. New York City Watershed
  12. Energy
  13. Solid Waste Management

Topical Re-organizations

  1. Lead
  2. Asbestos
  3. Mold

Life-Cycle Management

  1. Continue to remove unneeded folders and files.
  2. Convert all pages to the new CSS template by August.
  3. Complete upgrade of our metadata tags.
  4. Reduce number of broken links.
  5. Increase the amount of translated content available on our web site.

Individual office priorities
We have an established Web Team within the Public Affairs Division consisting of the Web Content Coordinator, our Senior Writer/Editor, the region's Webmaster, and a Web author, with additional writing support from one to two summer interns and ad hoc members from our press team.  We maintain a matrix of Web projects in various stages of development, and have a standard procedure for content approval that we plan to formalize.  We have addressed procedures that would be followed during a crisis that are consistent with the national draft crisis communications plan.

Top Three Tasks

  1. Permit-related questions, mostly of the TSCA or pesticide variety
  2. Environmental violation reporting

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Region 3 Web Content Management Plan - 2007

Priority Actions

  1. Air permits (revision): more extensive information will be added (similar to Regions 1, 5 and 9)
  2. Lead paint (revision): pages will be consolidated for easier navigation, with more links to related national information.
  3. Environmental indicators (continuing): with initial focus on water indicators and their relationship to environmental outcomes and program accomplishments; coordination with other media will also be pursued.
  4. Air FAQs (revision): with emphasis on indoor air quality and vehicle inspection/maintenance, a database of FAQs and answers will be created.
  5. Watersheds (new): with emphasis on watersheds of special interest, including useful information on training, funding and technical assistance.
  6. Voluntary programs (continuing): will integrate existing and new content on the many non-regulatory programs--many aimed at reducing resource use, pollution and contamination.
  7. Air quality (revision): More monitoring and trends data, with easier access.
  8. Brownfields sustainability (continuing): to help Brownfields grant applicants understand the environmental sustainability component of the application process.
  9. No discharge zones (new): to identify water bodies where discharge of treated and untreated boat sewage is prohibited.
  10. Pesticides (revision): More information about enforcement, grants, public outreach and news releases.
  11. Water quality standards (new): will describe regional WQS and provide EPA and state contact information.
  12. Mid-Atlantic clean diesel (revision): project-specific information will be added.
  13. Enforcement/compliance (revision): the existing site will be enhanced with greater linkage to relevant program content, news releases and national information.

Topical re-organizations
Although in 2007 Region 3 will not lead a topical reorganization, we hope to be involved with two or three (including, perhaps, environmental indicators) if other offices choose to lead.

Life-Cycle Management

  1. Structured consultations with program divisions: This year’s meetings with each program division (senior manager, web coordinator, communications coordinator) follow initial sessions by the content and infrastructure coordinators in 2006, covering Web priorities, needed technical assistance and training, Web outreach priorities, roles and responsibilities, and carrying out this annual plan.
  2. Web analytics: Following initial training in Maxamine, the Web Committee will begin a more systematic review of Web readership data and learn how to use this data to guide and improve the regional Website.
  3. Translation: The Web Committee will identify Websites for priority translation and explore in-house and HQ-assisted means of doing and reviewing two or three translations.
  4. Template conversion: The CSS conversion will be complete by the October 1 deadline.
  5. Area names: A 2006 review of area names revealed several requiring consolidation and more consistent naming; those that weren’t completed will be done in 2007.
  6. Training: Training needs will be identified for the various kinds of people—content originators, coders, reviewers—who have ongoing Web responsibilities; free and low cost courses offered by EPA and Web Content University will be publicized to fill several of these needs.
  7. Web diet: This ongoing review will now be aided by Maxamine data to identify files for conversion to HTML, reduced file size, PDF chunking and deletion. 

Individual office priorities
 “Top 10” existing Websites for priority review (in no particular order):

  1. Don’t Top Off Your Gas Tank! http://www.epa.gov/donttopoff/
  2. Mid-Atlantic Drinking Water http://www.epa.gov/reg3wapd/drinkingwater/index.htm
  3. Seeking information? http://www.epa.gov/region03/seeking.htm
  4. Superfund Administrative Records—ARWeb http://loggerhead.epa.gov/arweb/public/advanced_search.jsp
  5. Mid-Atlantic Air Quality http://www.epa.gov/reg3artd/airquality/airquality.htm
  6. Mid-Atlantic Children’s Health http://www.epa.gov/reg3esd1/childhealth/
  7. Vehicle Emissions Inspection/Maintenance http://www.epa.gov/reg3artd/vehicletran/vehicles/vehicle_emissions_testing.htm
  8. Mid-Atlantic RCRA Corrective Action http://www.epa.gov/reg3wcmd/correctiveaction.htm
  9. Mid-Atlantic Environmental Management Systems http://www.epa.gov/region03/ems/
  10. Mid-Atlantic Total Maximum Daily Loads http://www.epa.gov/reg3wapd/tmdl/
  11. Mid-Atlantic e-Cyling http://www.epa.gov/reg3wcmd/eCycling.htm
  12. Mid-Atlantic Storm Water http://www.epa.gov/reg3wapd/stormwater/

Most important reader tasks

  1. Our “Seeking Information?” page (http://www.epa.gov/region03/seeking.htm) --a left-hand navigation entry on our homepage--links to many regional and national pages that enable readers to, for example, submit a FOIA request, write an inquiry or comment about the environment or the Website, report an emergency or criminal allegation, find a news release, locate an employee, gain access to many EPA data bases, or learn the definition of a term or acronym. Similarly, links to state environmental agencies are important features of our homepage and more specific pages.
  2. Varying largely by season and weather, health and consumer advisories are always very popular. A few top examples are “Don’t Top Off Your Gas Tank,” radon, flooding, drought, asthma, mold, winter and summer energy conservation, air quality conditions, and green landscaping.
  3. People want in-depth knowledge and understanding of issues that, for varying periods of time, make the news nationally or locally. Recent examples are DC lead in drinking water, Hurricane Katrina, mountaintop mining, Delaware River oil spill, any of a number of Superfund sites, and Chesapeake Bay.
  4. Environmental education information and activities for children, teenagers and teachers.

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Region 4 Web Content Management Plan - 2007

Priority Actions

  1. Land/Reuse – Expansion of regional-level reuse topic sites, Land Revitalization and Resource Conservation Challenge (recycle) to provide information and to encourage public involvement.  These sites were initially launched first quarter, FY07, as part of OSWER’s previous Web Content Management Plan.
  2. Land/Innovation – Development of a Triad website for Land Cleanup & Wastes to provide staff and the public with information on how to use this methodology for site restoration.  This will be a new site.
  3. Land/Community Involvement - Enhance multimedia Web presence by providing a webcast & streamed video of at least one public meeting.
  4. Watersheds – Posting related watershed and drinking water pages (these are new sites)
  5. Continue work to build QuickPlace and the E-Library.  The goal is to use QuickPlace to provide a virtual desktop for attorneys and paralegals. 

Life-Cycle Management

  1. Continue identification of national information systems that can be linked to as opposed to putting redundant information on our regional website.
  2. Clean-up of files on server that are redundant, no longer applicable, or outdated.
  3. Template Conversion – Conversion of all Region 4 web pages to the new standard template is underway.  This process is currently underway, and Region 4 Land Cleanup & Wastes pages are complete.
  4. Redesign of the wetlands site and devise a system for removing old public notices in a timely manner.  Plans are underway to run Xenu broken link reports for each folder on a regular basis.

Individual Office Priorities

Training – Provide Contribute training for section/branch web masters

Cross-Agency Subject Reorganization

Underground Storage Tanks

Top Three Tasks

We need and plan to get Web Trends back on-line to address these issues. 

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Region 5 Web Content Management Plan - 2007

Priority Actions

  1. Our priority actions do not involve new content at this time; it is difficult to predict what new content will be needed.
  2. Our chief goal is to establish a web content management framework which will work across our 9 tssms accounts that comprise the Region 5 web site. (see more details under “Individual office priorities.”)

Topical re-organizations

We are not currently participating in any agency-wide topical reorganizations.

Life-Cycle Management

  1. Complete the conversion to Template 3 by the deadline (which is not itself a content goal, but will probably entail reorganizing, updating, and archiving content).
  2. All parts of the site need updating. Need to develop new process for updating the Region 5 Experts list; may need to revise how it is generated as well (move from Lotus Approach database to another database).

Individual office priorities

  1. Establish a regular working group of web managers from different parts of the Region 5 organization. Major goals of this group: cooperate and coordinate on web content, share intelligence and best practices and train one another.
  2. Establish a monthly or quarterly routine of providing web traffic analysis reports for the Region 5 site as a whole, and for various areas of the site as requested.
  3. Seek management support for managing web content; target the branch chief and office/division director levels.
  4. Get content approval SOPs in place; this could be a single region-wide SOP, or more likely individual SOPs for each tssms, division/office, or site area (for areas that don’t map to a tssms or a division).
  5. Set Region-wide standards about what content is appropriate to post on the web site. This should result in some content moving to intranet instead.

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Region 6 Web Content Management Plan - 2007

Priority Actions
Our Website content is guided by our region’s 300 Day Plan.  Our new strategic plan was released on March 1, 2007.  During the upcoming year (300 Days), we will continue to focus our Website content to report on our priorities and accomplishments under the plan. 

  1. Air – Clean air plans and permits
  2. Water – drinking water, waste water infrastructure, watersheds, and coastal restoration     
  3. Land – reuse, urban site assessment and cleanup, facility waste management     
  4. Compliance – air enforcement, environmental benefit, cost recovery
  5. Innovation – water and energy conservation, decentralized wastewater treatment, supplemental environmental projects
  6. Collaboration – state priorities, tribal capacity, Tar Creek, Gulf of Mexico, Environmental Justice, energy sector
  7. Homeland Security – preparedness, water & air infrastructure, continuity of operations
  8. US/Mexico – colonias, untreated waste, Rio Grande River, Mexico’s initiatives
  9. Energy Production – promote innovative energy projects, expedite review and permitting

Topical re-organizations
U.S. - Mexico Border – This is a regional priority.  It involves multiple organizations including Regions 6, 9 and OIA.

Life-Cycle Management

  1. Continue across the board evaluation of low ‘hit’ pages, age, relevancy, consistency
  2. Web editorial content management – lifecycle Web planning
  3. Explore and enhance multimedia Web presence – graphics, audio and video
  4. Homepage content, loading, freshness and infrastructure repairs to documents

Individual office priorities

CSS and CMS Implementation – Conversion of all Region 6 Web pages to Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is well underway.  Region 6 home page and most division home pages are complete.  Integration of Region 6 pages with national content management system (CMS) is currently under development.

Top Three Tasks

  1. Katrina data, interactive map and EnviroMapper data search.
  2. Report spills, hot link to national report database.
  3. Press releases – front page summary, links to the national database of the press release archives.

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Region 7 Web Content Management Plan - 2007

Priority Actions

  1. Storm water (new site) to expand on our efforts to inform and educate the public about storm water compliance and enforcement, particularly related to construction, that will feature regulations, resources, tools, contacts, and links.
  2. Risk assessment (new site) to expand on our efforts to inform and educate the public about regional risk assessment activities that will feature initiatives, studies, resources, contacts, and links.
  3. Program contacts (new sites and existing site revisions) to update contact names and imbedded links in existing pages and post new contact pages for those programs that don’t have one.
  4. Visitors guide (new site) will be a “How to Find Us” page with directions to our Regional Office and Science and Technology Center, links to maps, local visitor activities, etc.

Topical Reorganizations

  1. Agriculture:  The public is greatly interested in the Agency’s involvement in this cross-program subject, not only in Region 7 but across the country.
  2. Homeland security/counterterrorism:  This is another cross-program subject that is prominent in the public eye on a daily basis, covering emergency response, drinking water security, radiation protection, etc.

Life-Cycle Management

  1. New template will be adopted on regional pages to be in line with the other Regions who have already converted to it.  Quick Finder will also be added to the homepage, using the new EPA template.
  2. Non-HTML files (i.e., PDF and image), continuing to focus on linked presentations and proceedings that will be reviewed for conversion to HTML, metadata descriptions, reduced file size, and deletion.
    1. Outdated pages and files will continue to be removed using Webman, Dreamweaver and other software tools in an effort to greatly reduce the size of R7’s Web site.
    2. Contact information will be updated/created to work towards consistency of listings across programs and ease of contact for the public (tying to Priority Action #3).
Individual Office Priorities
  1. Resources: Additional resources are needed to ensure the continued maintenance of our Web pages and innovative improvements in the future.
  2. Internal crisis communications plan: Regional Web Team will draft a plan to formalize the current crisis communications process.
  3. SOP education: Regional Web Team will continue to inform and educate management and staff about standard operating procedures for content approval and any modifications to those procedures.
Top Three Tasks
  1. Teachers and students seeking educational materials: We’ll modify the content of the R7 Kids Page to include more information and make it more user-friendly.
  2. Public seeking accidental release and prevention information:  We plan to reduce the clicks required to access the Accidental Release and Prevention page and enhance the Toxics page, its parent page.
  3. Facilities seeking information on air permitting requirements: Facilities seeking information on air permitting requirements:  We plan to reduce the clicks required to access the air permitting pages and enhance the Air link description under Environmental Topics.

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Region 8 Web Content Management Plan - 2007

Priority Actions

  1. Implement new EPA template and standards
  2. Systematically eliminate content that is non-Region specific and is provided adequately by a HQ page
  3. Reorganize site so that R8 web pages use the same side navigation bar
  4. Create global areas for publications, contacts, calendars, news, events

Topical re-organizations

  1. Portal pages such as Water, Air and Superfund will work closely with the Web Team to create new streamlined pages.
  2. Reorganizations will focus improving regional priority areas such as Ag, Energy and Revitalization.
  3. Create new “state-based” portals to provide information.

Life-Cycle Management

  1. Region will systematically review content on site to eliminate non-region specific and outdated info.
  2. Web analytics will provide info about web site use, and inform future priority actions.

Individual office priorities

  1. Convene and reinvigorate web council to generate support for web plan activities
  2. Implement new EPA template and standards
  3. Significantly reduce number of pages and duplicative information
  4. Create new management system and web statistical tracking system
  5. Focus web efforts on usability, current information and Region specific goals

Top Three Tasks that people come to web site for

  1. Information about local environmental conditions
  2. Information about specific hot issues (Superfund sites, poor air quality episodes)
  3. Information pertaining to States and Tribes

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Region 9 Web Content Management Plan - 2007

Priority Actions

  1. Template Conversion
    1. Region 9 has completed conversion of all static pages. Some are yet to be placed on the public server as they are undergoing review.
    2. Domino database-generated pages are in progress. One of our Domino developers has developed a very clean template for this purpose and the other developers are in the process of adapting it for their applications.
    3. Continue adding meta tags to all pages, this task is approximately 50% complete.
  2. Web Emergency Plan
    1. Region 9 participated in an exercise with OPA in October 2006, which provided important experience for our regional plan. Our regional emergency website is 80% completed.
    2. Our preparations for remote web updates are nearly complete; a plan for emergency and remote web updates will be included in our SOP.
  3. Web Standard Operating Plan
    1. The Region 9 Web Team will develop a standard operating plan for Web processes including:
    2. managing project requests from initial request through online;
    3. preparation of materials for the Web (PDFs, scanned documents, photographs, videos);
    4. top stories and pushing them to HQ;
    5. coordination with Domino database developers and Superfund Web team
    6. interaction with Web contractor(s)
    7. plan for emergency and remote web updates

Topical Re-organizations

None.

Life-Cycle Management

  1. Continue to review topic areas for outdated material and remove it.
  2. Review web statistics for no-traffic topics and address next steps for those areas.
  3. Review Recycle City for update

Individual Office Priorities

  1. Crisis Communications and emergency preparedness Web site (focus on earthquake and tsunami)
  2. Centralize regional database management
  3. Photo and video archive management
  4. Consulting on the regional intranet redesign and development
  5. Take on the management of the US-Mexico agency Web site. (It is in the last stages of review for going live.)

Top Three Tasks

  1. Recycle City (#1 by far)
  2. Preliminary Remediation Goals
  3. Quality Assurance documents

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Region 10 Web Content Management Plan - 2007

The Region 10 Web area is now being managed by a centralized web team.  This move, a result of Competitive Sourcing, has provided the region with an opportunity to become more deliberate and consistent in the development of Web content.  Actions in 2007 will focus on adhering to EPA Web Standards, improving key entry points for readers, and a focus on usefulness for readers on each page created or updated.

Priority Actions

  1. New Template Implementation: The new template for formatting and layout of EPA’s Web pages was finalized by the EPA Web Council in December 2006.  An early priority for Region 10 is to convert all of our pages to utilize the new look and unique cascading styles included in the template.  The site will be converted in the following priority order:
  2. Homepage: www.epa.gov/region10/index.htm This is the primary entry point for our readers.  We will make this page the first Regional example of how the rest of the site will look.
  3. Lotus Notes Databases: Convert the 15 Lotus Notes Databases to include use of the template, and more importantly, the cascading styles.  While 11 are designed utilizing a standard Lotus Notes Template, three are a unique design that will require additional programming. 
  4. Puget Sound Georgia Basin:  This site, selected as one of five 2006 EPA Web Awards for Excellence in Web Publishing, was originally designed by contractor in 2005 and does not utilize the new template or recently released Web Standards.  It is the single most well developed site and includes hundreds of pages of content.  Conversion to the new template and standards is expected to be very labor intensive.
  5. Homepage Redesign: The Region 10 Homepage layout and initial site architecture has not been reviewed and updated since 2001.  The Web Team will engage a group of Region 10 users and content contributors to review this page and those pages linked directly from the homepage (Secondary Pages).  The Web Team will also engage in one external usability test to better inform the design process.
  6. Secondary Page Redesign:  In the process of redesigning the homepage and initial site architecture, the Secondary Pages will be reviewed to determine which content is most desired by our readers (search logs), which are most visited (page requests) and which best advance EPA Region 10’s Mission and Priorities.
  7. Region 10 Priorities: Create or update the pages directly associated with the Region 10 Priorities.  Currently, the EPA Region 10 Priorities Report is only accessible from the Index.  Once there, the reader can see what EPA staff are focusing on to achieve environmental results, but cannot learn how they can complete tasks meeting their own objectives.  To supplement the report, pages will be updated or created to assist the reader in completing specific tasks.  For example, someone visiting the Oil, Gas and Mining page may wish to know the regulations governing an oil exploration operation.  This type of information will be presented in an easy to navigate manner to direct the reader to existing EPA or other government content.  A link to the seven priority topics will also be available directly from the homepage.
  8. Dynamically Delivered Standard Content: Some of our content is published on a repetitive basis.  Content such as NPDES Permits, Public Notices, and Environmental Impact Statement Reviews can be organized using Lotus Notes programming to be easier to find and manage.  Readers can sort the individual documents by date, title or other criteria.
  9. Publish Environmental Success Stories: To better communicate successes regarding Region 10 activities, the Web Team, with the assistance of the Community Involvement Coordinators, will publish articles highlighting how the environment or public health is benefiting from specific projects or programs. 

Topical re-organizations
Typically, content and navigation pages on a specific environmental program (i.e. Tribal Environmental Programs, Sustainability, and Underground Injection Control) are created in Region 10 without full coordination with the other regions or with the respective HQ program office.  While we cannot set the publishing priorities for other EPA offices, the Web Team will make a more deliberate effort to notify our counterparts about our plans to revise existing content, and in some cases create content to fill gaps.  When content on Region 10’s site is of national significance and a HQ program also publishes similar content, we will remove our content in favor of having one EPA source for that content.

Two areas of content will be a priority for Region 10 to coordinate on improving national and regional content and navigation:

  1. Tribal Environmental Programs: Tribal governments are widely varied in their capacity and knowledge of environmental programs.  The Region 10 Web Team is proposing to use OECA Tribal Priority Funding to complete an extensive site reorganization using input from tribal users.  The objective is to create a site that quickly directs people to environmental compliance content and assists tribal governments in improving their own environmental programs.
  2. Sustainability:  The Region 10 Sustainability Web area was launched earlier this year to improve the understanding of sustainability as a concept as well as to encourage the adoption of sustainable practices.  Some of the regional content is more suitable for the national Sustainability Web area.  The Web Team will work with our regional and ORD counterparts to develop a standard layout for regional information, and improve the national area.

Life-Cycle Management:

  1. Content Review: The Web Team will evaluate all content in each Notes database for appropriate content, eliminate outdated information and make better links to good content.  Program office Web Liaisons will be consulted on the usefulness of content prior to removing the content from the regional Web area.
  2. Search Optimization: Use standard techniques to improve the ranking of key Region 10 Web pages for searches on EPA’s Northern Light search engine, as well as Google and Yahoo.
  3. Converting to New Web Standards: Beginning with programmatic entry pages, review pages and update according to new page layout standards. 
  4. Implement Focus Group or Usability Testing:  In addition to the specific project to improve the Tribal Environmental Programs and new homepage design, conduct at least one Focus Group or Usability Test.  Usability testing measures how well a reader is able to perform certain tasks when visiting a particular Web area.  Focus groups are engaged in a group discussion to provide feedback on their specific Web surfing needs and habits.   The Web area to be tested will be determined at a later date.

Individual office priorities
The Region 10 Web Team is now evolving into a stable and experienced group, having worked through the development of new processes and procedures to consolidate Web publishing.  Improved interactions and relationships with the staff in the program offices are the next step in creating a collaborative process that enhances the Regional environmental mission.

  1. Web Liaison Team Building:  To better engage the program office Web Liaisons, the Web Team will meet with them on a bi-monthly basis to discuss general advances and plans for Web development.  Session will include training in the use of the Web Project Tracking System, Web design and Writing for the Web.  A member of the Web Team will also meet with each Web Liaison periodically to conduct a needs assessment of the content and site architecture of their content.
  2. Internal Marketing: One clear obstacle to developing useful content for our readers is the lack of understanding of the value of epa.gov by regional staff.  The Web Team will employ an internal marketing campaign to staff, raising awareness of the usefulness of their site to both internal staff and our external customers.

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