Information Dissemination

Cost of Mailing Environmental Impact Statement for Super Collider Gao ID: GGD-89-104 July 28, 1989

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO examined the Department of Energy's (DOE) decisions and actions in distributing the final environmental impact statement for the superconducting super collider, focusing on whether the printing and distribution expenses of the 8,000-page statement to almost 17,000 recipients was necessary to comply with federal regulations.

GAO found that: (1) DOE issued a four-volume statement in December 1988 that consisted of 23 separately bound documents and cost about $1.4 million to print and distribute; (2) the DOE decisions to include individual comments, send copies to all who participated in the process, and send the copies by overnight express mail were consistent with federal regulations; (3) although DOE could have sent less than the entire statement to a significant number of recipients, it did not use the four categories in the regulations to classify its recipients; (4) a DOE decision to disseminate less than the entire statement could have resulted in a 15-day delay in completing the required 30-day process; and (5) DOE did not consider using less costly means of mailing that could have saved about $217,535 for delivery in about the same time period.



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