This document reports the results of the State Environmental Goals and Indicators Project’s Survey of Environmental Management Activity in State Environmental and Natural Resource Agencies. The Survey was undertaken to describe for the first time state agencies’ efforts to use environmental management techniques and tools. The results of the Survey will be used to comprehensively inform the State Environmental Goals and Indicators Project, U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the states about the use of environmental management techniques in state environmental management agencies and where best to focus future technical assistance efforts to meet identified needs.

In September 1995, the Project formally contacted over 90 state environmental management agencies (both those dealing with environmental protection and natural resources) through their director/secretary/commissioner's offices. The Project requested identification of an individual who has management and policymaking responsibilities or who has direct access to such an individual to act as a liaison. The Project also asked agencies to identify up to five technical and policy staff who are qualified to provide comments and information with regard to the development of environmental indicators. A listing of the persons identified by the agencies serves as a part of the Project Network of Environmental Indicator Practitioners.

Seventy-six of the agencies contacted were identified as respondents to the Survey. The Survey was sent out December 8, 1995 with a request for a rapid response. Partial results were reported at the National Environmental Management Practitioners Conference January 30, 1996. By early March 1996, responses had trailed off and the Project formally ceased its efforts to contact environmental management agencies that had not yet responded.

The Survey, which is included as Appendix D to the report, requested information regarding environmental status and trends reporting, environmental goals projects, state comparative risk projects, strategic planning, benchmarks, place-based or ecosystem management activities, sustainable development initiatives, geographic information systems, and general, technical, and data needs.

In addition to the basic Survey responses, the Project solicited and received a rich variety of reports and other information that demands further attention and that can serve as a source of high quality, detailed information about specific state and agency environmental management efforts.

The results section of the report is based on the responses received. Some of the results reported differ from actual figures because 22%, or 17, agencies did not respond. For instance, the Project is aware that more than 18 states have undertaken comparative risk assessment projects. At least seven state environmental management agencies who are undertaking comparative risk projects did not respond to the Survey. However, the results do offer trends in the use of environmental management techniques and in the needs of agencies. A matrix of states and environmental management techniques based on Survey responses and other information available to the Project has been added to display the state of environmental management graphically.

For those agencies who did not respond, the Project would still value a response to add to the overall database that has been created and to add to this document, which will be available on the Project’s Internet site. The document will be able to be downloaded as a whole or available for investigation on a state-by-state basis.

In an effort to limit the profusion of paper, the hard copy version of the Survey results is being distributed to the heads of all 76 agencies surveyed, all 51 respondents who completed the survey, the Project’s Advisory Board, and the Assistant Administrators, Regional Administrators, Deputy Regional Administrators, and Planning Branch Chiefs of U.S. EPA. A small number of additional copies will be available by request.

Finally, a number of directories (one for each environmental management technique) of practitioners will be developed using the responses, as well as other information available to the Project, to present complete, thorough information that will be made available by the Project in hard copy and on the Internet.

The Project thanks all respondents and encourages appropriate use of the document to better assist state environmental management agencies.