Our story: Using StakeholderDesigned Web Sites to Facilitate Community Involvement

1
Our story Using Stakeholder-Designed Web Sites
to Facilitate Community Involvement
Cindy Cook Adamant Accord, Inc. Senior Dispute
Resolution Professional

• Nancy Serrell
• CEHS at Dartmouth
• Associate Director for Outreach

2
Project collaborators
3
Nested perspectives, processes
4
The Elizabeth Mine Superfund site
5
Elizabeth Mine site aerial overview
6
Elizabeth Mine Tailings Piles 1, 2
7
Elizabeth Mine Tailings Pile 3
8
History of EPA involvement

• Citizens group brought site to the states
  attention
• Vermont DEC requested EPA involvement in 1999
• EPA proposed and announced Time-Critical Action
• High level of community opposition voiced at
  public meeting

9
Community concerns

• Construction-related impacts (truck traffic,
  noise, dust)
• Cleanup impacts on the historic mine landscape
• Impacts on landowners and former mine workers
• Community image (A Superfund site in our
  town?!?)
• Environmental quality
• Human health
• Environmental justice (Who gets a seat on the
  EMCAG?)
• The cost of the cleanup

10
Response to community concerns

• Governor and legislature request high level of
  community involvement
• Elizabeth Mine Community Advisory Group formed
  (10 community groups)
• Shift to Non-Time-Critical Removal Action (NTCRA)
  focus

11
Community involvement plan development

• Neutral facilitator selected by community
• Facilitator interviewed local officials and
• community leaders and drafted a summary
• of community concerns
• Community involvement plan addresses
• each of the concerns

12
Community involvement plan

• Organic development of community involvement
  plan led to vastly increased trust of EPA

13
Community involvement

• After facilitated discussion of cleanup options
  and development of the community involvement plan
  EMCAG fully supported NPL listing
• Governors concurrence on NPL listing, based on
  community acceptance
• NPL listing finalized June 2001

14
Challenge finding common ground

• Vermont Agency of Natural Resources
• US Environmental Protection Agency
• Scientists, engineering consultants
• The Elizabeth Mine Non-Residential Property
  Owners
• The Elizabeth Mine Residential Property Owners
• The Elizabeth Mine Study Group
• The Thetford Conservation Commission
• The Thetford Selectboard
• The Strafford Historical Society
• The Strafford Planning Commission
• The Strafford Selectboard
• Citizens for a Sensible Solution
• The Elizabeth Mine Survivors

15
Challenge sharing documents

• EPA
• technical experts
• community groups
• CAG meeting schedule, summaries

16
News values

• Here (may neglect broad context)
• Now (emphasis on crisis
• perspectives and short-term view)
• This is big! (emphasis on high
• thresholds as many as rather
• than as few as)

• So what? (may prompt premature jumping to
  conclusions)
• Controversy! (tension makes good stories)
• Who? (personalized situations)
• The usual suspects (reporting of stock
  characters, situations)

17
Elizabeth Mine as news
April 27, 2000 Neighbors Fear Mine is Poisoning
Us July 9, 2000 Old Mines Prospects
Uncertain Health Effects and Superfund
Designation Among Debated Topics in
Strafford Sept 16, 2000 Mine Neighbors Ask
Relocation EPA Sees No Data Yet to Back Move
18
Newton School Elizabeth Mine project
19
Newton School Elizabeth Mine project
20
Newton School Elizabeth Mine project
21
Newton School Elizabeth Mine web site
22
Newton School Elizabeth Mine web
sitehttp//www.dartmouth.edu/cehs/ElizabethMine/
indexEM.html
23
Principles for managing knowledge from here and
knowledge from away

• integrate information that makes sense
  culturally, scientifically, economically and
  politically
• ensure all kinds of information technical and
  local, scientific and cultural are accessible
  to everyone
• stakeholders drive the gathering of information,
  its analysis and meaning making
• all information is subject to respectful
  questioning
• improve the capacity of all participants to learn
  from different kinds of knowledge

Building Trust, Adler Birkhoff, The National
Policy Consensus Center
24
A CAG web site? Community concerns

• Whose web site is this?
• What will get posted?
• How will those decisions be made?
• Will documents be vulnerable to changes?
• Will the web site invite trespassing?

25
Citizens Advisory Group site planning stage
26
Community Advisory Group draft site
27
Community Advisory Group site launchedhttp//www.
dartmouth.edu/7Ecehs/CAGsite/index.html
28
Elizabeth Mine CAG site

• Official documents
• Resource on process
• Background reference

• Meeting calendar
• Meeting summary archive
• Control over access

29
What a community web site can do...

• Provides the long view
• Puts science into community context
• Creates record of "where we agree"
• Tells story in communitys terms

30
Why the CAG site worked

• Recognized need
• Trust established
• Web access
• Clear roles
• Simple process

31
Finding partnersNIEHS Superfund Basic Research
Program
32
Finding partnersNIEHS Community Outreach and
Education Programs (COEPs)
33
Theyve shown that they really listened to us
we need to trust them.
A very active member of the Community
Advisory Group
34
(No Transcript)