A lot has changed since the Exchange Network was first envisioned in 1997. Kurt Rakouskas has been working on the Exchange Network for over 11 years, first as ECOS’ Project Manager and most notably as the Exchange Network Coordinator. Kurt’s last day as the Coordinator was June 30th and we wish him the very best as he pursues his next endeavor. Much can be said about Kurt and his indelible contributions to the Exchange Network, chief among them is that he steadfastly led the completion of Phase 1 and has well positioned the Network closer to the realization of Phase 2. Kurt embodied the Exchange Network – reliable, always available, service-oriented, an enabler of better decisions, principled (standards-based), and RESTful. As lucky as the Exchange Network was to have his services, we are equally lucky to have the services of the next Coordinator, Lynn Capuano.

Lynn comes to the Exchange Network from EPA Region 2, where she was the Data Management Team Leader. Two of her notable contributions were to establish a Region-wide workgroup to address data access and data integration issues, as well as to oversee the Region’s efforts to incorporate “next generation” tools into its permits and settlements. Lynn recently completed an M.S. in Environmental Technology at New York Institute of Technology, where she combined her experience as an attorney with her knowledge of the environment and technology to study sustainability in Port Washington, NY. Lynn received a B.A. in History from the University of Chicago and a J.D. from Fordham University School of Law. She is a Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve, currently stationed with Atlantic Area Command, Portsmouth, VA. In her spare time she enjoys her family, the outdoors, and sewing. Starting July 27, Lynn can reached by phone at 516.744.0307 and email at lynn [at] exchangenetwork.net.

Please join us and the Exchange Network Leadership Council in both thanking Kurt for his remarkable contributions and outstanding years of service and welcoming Lynn!

Matt Leopard, ENLC EPA Co-Chair
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
P: 202.566.1698
E: leopard.matthew [at] epa.gov

Andrew Putnam, ENLC State Co-Chair
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment
P: 303.692.3579
E: andrew.putnam [at] state.co.us

EPA has published two new websites to support both the Cross-Media Electronic Reporting Rule (CROMERR) program and the Exchange Network grant program. Both sites conform to the look and feel of epa.gov, which features improved search functionality and layouts that are easier to navigate. They also contain enhanced content that reflects recent program improvements and initiatives.

The CROMERR website, www2.epa.gov/cromerr, offers new technical assistance tools to better support customers, such as:

• A help desk for technical guidance;
• New application templates for off-the-shelf solutions; and
• Online application forms.

Data visualizations also display the status of CROMERR applications received from States.

EPA’s new Exchange Network grant program website, www2.epa.gov/exchangenetwork, will host all EPA-owned documents and information related to the EN grant program.

Please update any bookmarks to the new URLs: www2.epa.gov/cromerr and www2.epa.gov/exchangenetwork.

Jessica Lavash
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
P: 202.566.1298
E: lavash.jessica [at] epa.gov

Karen Seeh
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
P: 202.566.1175
E: seeh.karen [at] epa.gov

In preparation for the FY 2016 Exchange Network grant application process, EPA will hold two stakeholder conference calls to review the Draft FY 2016 Exchange Network Grant Solicitation Notice and answer questions from the Exchange Network community. The Draft Notice and an overview of the significant changes from FY 2015 are available at http://www2.epa.gov/exchangenetwork/exchange-network-grant-program.

The first call will be held on Wednesday, July 8, 2015, from 3:00-4:00 PM EDT. The second call will be held on Monday, July 13, 2015, from 2:00-3:00 PM EDT. To participate in either call, please dial: 1.866.299.3188, and enter conference code: 202 566 1984#.

EPA will accept comments on the Draft Notice until 5:00 PM EDT, July 13, 2015. Written comments should be emailed to Jonathan Jacobson at jacobson.jonathan [at] epa.gov. EPA plans to issue the Final FY 2016 EN Grant Solicitation Notice by early September 2015

Jonathan Jacobson
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
P: 202.566.1984
E: jacobson.jonathan [at] epa.gov

In 2015, Exchange Network Governance is convening a series of EN Open Calls to help increase information sharing among Network Partners and build upon planned discussions at EN2015. These webinars are an opportunity for the EN community to gather and discuss topics of interest.

Please join us for the next Open Call on July 6, from 1:00-2:00pm Eastern. Phase 2 of the Exchange Network is all about making environmental data more accessible and easier to use. Roy Duelfer of the Montana Department of Environmental Quality will present the agency’s work to provide more seamless access to several of the agency’s datasets. Using funding from the Exchange Network grant program, Montana was able to develop a suite of environmental data APIs and an accompanying Data Search Tool to efficiently serve the needs of its customers. The call will include a discussion of the APIs, a demonstration of the Data Search Tool, and lessons learned during the development process that are helping them to expand the effort to other datasets. Please join this Open Call to hear about Montana’s work, ask questions, and share relevant information and lessons learned that are happening in your organization.

For more information or to provide ideas for future EN Open Calls, please contact Megan Parker at mparker [at] rossstrategic.com.

July 8, 2015 Update

A recording of this Open Call is available at:
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/recording/3723187532365062658.

In only 101 days, the Exchange Network Community will convene in Philadelphia for EN2015, the 2015 Exchange Network National Meeting!

Want to know who will be there? See the up-to-date EN2015 Attendee List at http://en2015.eventbrite.com/.

Online registration; an updated agenda; hotel reservation information; and travel reimbursement guidance for State, Territorial, and Tribal EN Partners are all available now at http://www.exchangenetwork.net/en2015.

Andrew Battin, EN2015 Co-Chair
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
P: 202.566.2140
E: battin.andrew [at] epa.gov

Matt Leopard, EN2015 Co-Chair
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
P: 202.566.1698
E: leopard.matthew [at] epa.gov

Victoria Phillips, EN2015 Co-Chair
Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection
P: 617.292.5956
E: victoria.phillips [at] state.ma.us

Andrew Putnam, EN2015 Co-Chair
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment
P: 303.692.3579
E: andrew.putnam [at] state.co.us

The Exchange Network Leadership Council (ENLC) is looking for individuals that are interested in joining a new Integrated Project Team (IPT) on sharing core information on regulated facilities. Agencies often collect and store data on regulated facilities in highly fragmented ways. This practice leads to duplicative reporting processes and discrepancies that complicate accurate data correlation across programs and agencies.

The Exchange Network and E-Enterprise for the Environment support a more unified approach to environmental regulation. This IPT will scope out options for better integrating and sharing master facility record information across programs and environmental agencies. The IPT will develop an understanding of current EPA, State, and Tribal efforts to integrate facility data, identify a shared set of goals for supporting more comprehensive facility integration, and identify and test options for achieving those shared goals.

More information on the Facility Data Integration IPT’s anticipated work and structure is available in the Final Draft Charter available here.

The ENLC is seeking individuals with expertise in collecting, managing, and using core facility information to serve on the IPT. If you would like to volunteer to participate, please prepare a very brief statement of interest along with a brief characterization of the level of facility data integration in your agency or program. This will help the ENLC assemble a diverse team that includes representatives with a wide array of perspectives. Please email your response to Kurt Rakouskas at kurt [at] exchangenetwork.net no later than June 19, 2015.

Kimberly Hoke (State IPT Co-Chair)
Missouri Department of Natural Resources
573.751.6621
kimberly.hoke [at] dnr.mo.gov

Lee Kyle (EPA IPT Co-Chair)
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
202.564.4622
kyle.lee [at] epa.gov

Kurt Rakouskas
Exchange Network Coordinator
P: 301.531.5186
E: kurt [at] exchangenetwork.net

The EN2015 Program Committee is excited to announce release of the 2015 Exchange Network National Meeting Draft Agenda. EN2015 will be held September 29-October 1, 2015, in Philadelphia. NEW: Two Pre-Meeting Sessions have been added the afternoon of September 28.

For all the latest information on EN2015, visit http://www.exchangenetwork.net/en2015.

Andrew Battin, EN2015 Co-Chair
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
P: 202.566.2140
E: battin.andrew [at] epa.gov

Matt Leopard, EN2015 Co-Chair
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
P: 202.566.1698
E: leopard.matthew [at] epa.gov

Victoria Phillips, EN2015 Co-Chair
Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection
P: 617.292.5956
E: victoria.phillips [at] state.ma.us

Andrew Putnam, EN2015 Co-Chair
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment
P: 303.692.3579
E: andrew.putnam [at] state.co.us

In 2015, Exchange Network Governance is convening a series of EN Open Calls to help increase information sharing among Network Partners and build upon planned discussions at EN2015. These webinars are an opportunity for the EN community to gather and discuss topics of interest.

The next EN Open Call will be held May 12, 2015, at 2:00pm ET, and will focus on environmental information challenges and innovations. This Call will be oriented around peer-to-peer sharing, so come prepared to share updates from your organization and to hear about what other EN Partners are doing. During the Call, participants will be called upon to share information on the major information challenges that your agency is facing and how you are thinking of or are addressing them. Examples topics for information management challenges and innovations could include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Integration of facility ID data
• Digital records management
• IT service centralization
• Meeting demands for online service offerings
• Cybersecurity

To participate in the Open Call, please register at: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/7154470850952096002.

For more information or to provide ideas for future EN Open Calls, please contact Megan Parker at mparker [at] rossstrategic.com.

Kurt Rakouskas
Exchange Network Coordinator
P: 301.531.5186
E: kurt [at] exchangenetwork.net

ICIS Production will be down Friday, April 24, 2015, starting at 5pm ET through Saturday, April 25, 2015, until approximately 12:00pm ET for implementation of ICIS version 7.2 and the Facility Registry System (FRS) incoming transfer. Please note the following expected conditions when ICIS Production is down:

• Any Business Intelligence (B.I.) reports scheduled to execute during the system down-times will execute as soon as the system comes back up. Users will not need to change the times that their reports are scheduled to execute.
• The Federal Version of NetDMR will be up, but submissions from NetDMR to ICIS that take place during the down-time will be held and processed when ICIS becomes available.
• Electronic Data Transfer (EDT) submissions from all NPDES States and Air States/Locals submitted during the down-time will not execute and will not be queued to be processed through ICIS when the system resumes operation. Users will need to resubmit any submissions that failed due to ICIS being down.
• EPA’s NeT electronic notice of intent web forms will be down during the outage.

Thank you for your patience during this period.

Alison Kittle
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
P: 202.564.6233
E: kittle.alison [at] epa.gov

On behalf of the Exchange Network Leadership Council (ENLC), the Environmental Council of the States (ECOS) is seeking an experienced, highly motivated, self-employed, contract professional with strong collaboration skills to serve as the Exchange Network Coordinator (Coordinator). The Coordinator’s sole objective is to advance the success of the Exchange Network, its joint Governance structure, and its Partners (i.e., EPA, States, Territories, Tribes, local governments, non-governmental organizations, educational institutions, regulated communities, and others). The Exchange Network Coordinator is an independent contractor to ECOS.

ECOS’ Request for Proposal (RFP) EN-ENC-15 is available at: http://www.exchangenetwork.net/en-coordinator-rfp/.

Responses are due to ECOS by 5:00 PM ET on Thursday, April 30, 2015.

Andrew Putnam
ENLC State Co-Chair
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment
P: 303.692.3579
E: andrew.putnam [at] state.co.us

On behalf of the Exchange Network Leadership Council (ENLC), the Environmental Council of the States (ECOS) is seeking an experienced, highly motivated, self-employed, contract professional with strong collaboration skills to serve as the Exchange Network Coordinator (Coordinator). The Coordinator’s sole objective is to advance the success of the Exchange Network, its joint Governance structure, and its Partners (i.e., EPA, States, Territories, Tribes, local governments, non-governmental organizations, educational institutions, regulated communities, and others). The Exchange Network Coordinator is an independent contractor to ECOS.

ECOS’ Request for Proposal (RFP) EN-ENC-15 is available at: http://www.exchangenetwork.net/en-coordinator-rfp/.

Responses are due to ECOS by 5:00 PM ET on Tuesday, March 31, 2015.

Andrew Putnam
ENLC State Co-Chair
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment
P: 303.692.3579
E: andrew.putnam [at] state.co.us

Peter Soyka has been selected to serve as the new E-Enterprise for the Environment Coordinator. Soyka is an environmental policy, strategy, and management expert and the founder and President of Soyka & Company, LLC, a business strategy and sustainability consultancy. He has performed scores of projects for U.S. EPA over the years, ranging from regulatory development support and program evaluation to stakeholder engagement and meeting and conference planning. Prior to founding Soyka & Company, Peter served in executive and director positions at several consulting and engineering firms.

Peter holds Master of Business Administration and Master of Environmental Management degrees from Duke University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Zoology from the University of Vermont. He may be contacted at: peter [at] soykaandcompany.com.

Until now, Rob Willis of Ross Strategic has been serving as Interim E-Enterprise Coordinator. States, Tribes, and EPA are very grateful for Rob’s service and look forward to having Peter fill this role on a permanent basis.

Beth Graves
Environmental Council of the States
P: 202.266.4923
E: bgraves [at] ecos.org

EPA has issued a Final Rule revising the requirements for how state, tribal, and local implementation plans (SIPs) under Section 110 of the Clean Air Act (CAA) are required to be submitted to the EPA. Specifically, EPA is providing state, tribal, and local air agencies an option for electronic submittal of SIPs, including any necessary supporting documents. The new electronic SIP (eSIP) submission system, is web-based and is supported by EPA’s Central Data Exchange. The effective date of this action is March 16, 2015.

For more information, see:

EPA’s SIP Webpage: http://www.epa.gov/oaqps001/urbanair/sipstatus/efficiency.html

Final Rule: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2015-02-10/pdf/2015-02602.pdf

Fact Sheet: http://www.epa.gov/oaqps001/urbanair/sipstatus/docs/20150202esipfs.pdf

Mia South
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
P: 919.541.5550
E: south.mia [at] epa.gov

On behalf of the E-Enterprise for the Environment Leadership Council and the Exchange Network Leadership Council, the Environmental Council of States (ECOS) is seeking a bidder or group of bidders to provide services in support of communications objectives related to E-Enterprise for the Environment and the Exchange Network. The Request for Proposal and supporting documents are available at http://www.exchangenetwork.net/e-enterprise/.

Proposals are due to ECOS by 5:00pm ET on Thursday, February 5, 2015.

For more information, please contact ECOS’ Beth Graves at bgraves [at] ecos.org.

Beth Graves
Environmental Council of the States
P: 202.266.4923
E: bgraves [at] ecos.org