We are listening to your description of evergreen communications, but after exploring the materials at length, and attending meetings, many engaged citizens don’t agree that you are offering access to materials that facilitate public conversations, delivering 1000 page documents for comment is not democratic. Your reports can easily be designed to make key data and decisions accessible to the public. And the question is are you willing to create living documents that are updated about the state of knowledge about contamination and incorporate public comment? This will make for authentic public conversation about the future of this incredibly important place in our city. The recent NYT article about PES and Philly Thrive shows that the world is watching how we do this. Evergreen can be an important leader.

The reports Evergreen is required to submit to regulators are inherently long and technical due to their specific requirements as related to the site’s history, size and complexity. Reports must include the incorporation of not just current data, but all historic data with back-up documentation for all referenced activities and interpretation in the reports.  While the reports have always been accessible to the public, Evergreen created the website to make them even more accessible, in addition to developing plain-language summaries and translating them into multiple languages indicative of Philadelphia’s demographics, which is not required by Act 2.

While the content and general format of the Act 2 reports themselves remain constant, Evergreen is interested in hearing ideas about other ways to provide digestible information to the public, in addition to the plain-language summaries and visual presentations made available from past public information sessions.  Evergreen also plans to create a page on the website for a calendar and project updates to provide more timely updates on Evergreen’s site activities, since the time between Act 2 reports is often long.