For Release: November 14, 1997

Contact: Ronald Gagnon 277-4700

Stephanie Powell 277-2771 ext. 4418

PROVIDENCE - The Department of Environmental Management has begun formal operation of its site on the World Wide Web, DEM Director Andy McLeod announced today.

The address of DEM's website is www.dem.state.ri.us.

"Rhode Island's environmental agency is on-line," McLeod said. "Creation of the web page is a great step forward in making information on DEM's programs and services more accessible to the public at any hour of the day or night. The web page contains basic information about DEM programs and policies that will be helpful to businesses, cities and towns, environmental advocates, and all citizens. The DEM web site also provides links to many related web sites in and outside Rhode Island."

For instance, access is provided to the Environmental Protection Agency's animated daily ground-level ozone map, which illustrates ozone movement through Rhode Island. Air monitoring data from more than 200 air quality stations from 14 eastern states, including three sites in Rhode Island, is collected continuously and is uploaded several times daily to EPA to provide data for the map.

DEM regulations on the web site are in a downloadable format for user convenience. Other web page offerings include an organizational chart, a key word index for department programs by topic, news releases, and links to related environmental issues. Users will be able to access information about, for instance, pollution prevention in Greenwich Bay, ticks and Lyme Disease, and mosquitoes.

The DEM web page will grow in the future. Plans for the page include a calendar of events, copies of DEM's legal ads notifying the public of hearings, and topical fact sheets. Plans also include accessibility to data bases for tracking permits, a recommendation of the permit streamlining committee that last year reviewed DEM's permitting procedures.

The web page was developed by DEM's Office of Technical and Customer Assistance, an office created last fall to provide better assistance to permit applicants, the business community, and the general public seeking information about DEM programs.

McLeod specifically applauded the work of Tom Epstein and Ron Gagnon in developing the new web page.