Citation:

Impact/Purpose:

The goal of this multi-year project is to develop methods that can be used to better characterize the costs, benefits and other impacts of OSWER programs. Once the methods are developed in final form and implemented, OSWER expects that the resulting program assessments would be used by both internal EPA management and external parties interested in the performance of OSWER programs.

Description:

Current status of project: Based on the economic literature, EPA internal economic guidance, and interviews with OSWER managers and staff, OSWER first developed a comprehensive list of attributes that identifies a broad range of potential types of benefits, costs, and other impacts that may result from OSWER programs. The second step in this project was to develop potential methods OSWER could use to quantitatively or qualitatively characterize/measure these program attributes. Two pilot programs were selected -- the RCRA Subtitle C hazardous waste prevention program and the UST cleanup program. Two draft reports have now been produced that present a range of possible methodological options to characterize the relevant attributes for these programs, along with the advantages, disadvantages, and data requirements of the methods. OSWER sought SAB advice on whether the options presented in the reports are sound and defensible, and whether there are other options we should consider. On May 20-21, 2002, the SAB Panel met in Washington DC for additional presentations by OSWER to enable them to begin developing their recommendations to EPA. The SAB Panel sent their recomendations to the Administrator, along with a letter on December 20, 2002, responding to four charged questions addressing the issues contained in the two EPA's reports.

URLs/Downloads:

Record Details: