Tales of a Specialized Generalist
Posted on July 18th, 2008 - 10:30 AMAbout the author: Karen Reshkin manages the Web site in EPA’s Chicago office. She’s been there since 1991, and can still remember life before the Internet.
I’ve worked at US EPA since the early 90s. I must enjoy my work, because I’m always surprised to watch the years mount up.
A more unsettling surprise comes when people ask me about EPA’s policies or recent actions that get into the news. More often than I like to admit, my answer is, “I don’t know.”
Why not? Well, I don’t follow news as closely as I probably should. But also, my job at EPA is mainly concerned with our Web site. I can help you find info on epa.gov, or tell you all about our Web standards (though you might never ask), but I can’t always tell you what was in the news release I posted yesterday.
One of the things I know best, oddly, is what we don’t do. Michelangelo is credited with saying that when creating a sculpture, he’d start with a block of stone and chip away everything that didn’t look like a horse (or an elephant, or an angel, depending on who’s telling the story). When I worked answering our hotline, I found that many calls and emails were “wrong numbers” – people contacting us for things we don’t do. For example, if you can’t renew your license plates because you didn’t get an emissions test for your vehicle, you’ll need to contact your state transportation or environmental department, not US EPA.
When I was invited to write for this blog, I decided to repair my ignorance. I plan to find out about some of the things that EPA does and tell about them as plainly as I can. It’s sort of the “inside outsider” approach. I’ll also do some sculpting and tell you about a few things you might think we handle, but we really don’t.
Tags: answers, EPA Web, what we don't do
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Question of the Week
July 21st, 2008 at 12:43 pm
I use reusable bags whenever I make a planned trip to the/a store. Some of my ‘permanent’ bags are made up of polypropylene from recycled bottles but most are canvas bags. I am still using a couple of heavy duck canvas bags made for the first Earth Day in 1970! I have not seen any of that quality since.
I am trying to avoid the use of paper or plastic bags even when I do ‘chance’ shopping. Since I usually carry some reading materials and other items in a knapsack, courier’s bag, or canvas portfolio when I travel around the city, I now add a folded permanent bag or two as part of my regular package.
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