This agreement is an innovative way to identify priorities, solve problems, and make the most effective use of our collective resources. It emphasizes performance rather than process and environmental results rather than administrative details. It gives a State greater freedom to focus resources on its highest environmental priorities and to select the best strategies for getting results. Prior to developing an agreement, a participating State assesses its environmental problems and conditions, while actively involving citizens in the process. Based on this information, the state then proposes environmental and public health objectives along with a plan of action.
States now can consolidate a variety of individual grants into one.
It also allows the States more flexibility to use grant money to address their most pressing environmental problems. Forty-four States have chosen this option. Mississippi's interest in targeting resources to solve priority problems resulted in a reorganization around specific functions, business sectors, and geographic areas. Minnesota shifted staff and resources from the main state office closer to where the real problems occur - out in the districts. Washington saw the paperwork associated with its annual work plan for grants fall by an order of magnitude - from about 40 to 4 pages.