![[logo] US EPA](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081107023323im_/http://www.epa.gov/epafiles/images/logo_epaseal.gif){kind=logo}
Final Report: Risk Communication in Community Participation: Comparing Regional Programs in South Florida
EPA Grant Number: R830843Title: Risk Communication in Community Participation: Comparing Regional Programs in South Florida
Investigators: Light, Alfred R. , Espino, Maria Dolores
Institution: Saint Thomas University
EPA Project Officer: Savage, Nora
Project Period: November 1, 2003 through October 31, 2005
Project Amount: $192,029
RFA: Superfund Minority Institutions Program: Hazardous Substance Research (2002)
Research Category: Hazardous Waste/Remediation
Description:
Objective:This project assessed the relative viability of various risk communication strategies for enhancing citizen involvement in and acceptance of public environmental decision-making in a large geographic area. The objectives of this project were to: (1) assess the level of citizen participation and involvement at various stages of the agency decision-making process, using federal and state projects in South Florida as examples; (2) assess acceptance within various relevant affected communities, especially African-American, Hispanic, and Native American communities; (3) examine risk communication processes and strategies associated with these projects and related costs accounting methodologies used in feasibility studies; and (4) develop recommendations for communities regarding effective risk communication strategies and costs accounting for larger, diverse geographic areas.
Summary/Accomplishments (Outputs/Outcomes):Comparison of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) decision-making regimes revealed several parallels. Both regimes envision government acting as a force to remediate environmental damage rather than to restrain or prevent ongoing or future pollution. Thus, there were similar uneasy relationships in both programs between these regimes and environmental regulatory regimes under other statutes. However, the two programs developed differing approaches to accommodating environmental regulatory statutes, such as the Safe Drinking Water Act or the Clean Water Act. An important contrast between the two regimes is their varying perspectives on the role of judicial review.
Florida’s Acceler8 initiative, begun in the fall of 2004 during the project period, permitted the state to accelerate from CERP’s timetable a number of Everglades restoration projects through the use of state borrowing authority. The initiative was partly an intergovernmental response to an emerging cumbersome, federal CERP decision-making process. For many months during the project period, the Corps’ guidance, procedures, and practices limited interaction between the public and scientists, engineers, and managers at meetings nominally open to the public. Where the Corps needed regular stakeholder involvement in decision-making, it had to “work around” statutes such as the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) to structure that involvement. Ironically, federal law intended to guarantee public openness and access ended up complicating the Corps’ objective of providing meaningful public involvement. Adaptive management led to reliance on more streamlined state financing and administrative processes, with federal influences limited to regulatory requirements that are not a special part of CERP, such as the Clean Water Act’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) and Section 404 processes. The project identified a small group of key career public servants who are making CERP implementation and intergovernmental cooperation work despite the obstacles noted above.
The general public’s misconceptions about Everglades restoration in part resulted from a higher degree of publicity about particularly sensational, affectively charged aspects of the enterprise, such as controversial litigation. These included misperceptions about the sources of phosphorus contamination, risks associated with aquifer storage and recovery systems, and the role of various governmental institutions in Everglades decision-making.
Conclusions:The CERCLA legal experience indicated two legal reforms that might improve long-term prospects for Everglades restoration. First, CERP might benefit from a federal “waiver” authority similar to CERCLA Section 121(f) for situations in which it becomes too irrational, inefficient, or costly for a restoration project to accommodate regulatory standards devised for other purposes, such as under the Clean Water Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. Second, CERP would benefit from federal control of court jurisdiction, similar to CERCLA Section 113(h), to rationalize judicial review of agency decisions and to ensure that litigation does not unreasonably delay restoration projects.
Florida’s Acceler8 initiative, begun in 2004 during the project period, avoided serious obstacles to timely restoration, such as congressional delays in appropriations and a ponderously slow federal process for making project decisions and procuring construction. Mechanisms for involving the public in environmental decision-making continue to evolve within an adaptive management framework. It is recommended that interested members of the public focus their attention and efforts on existing intergovernmental mechanisms coordinating ecosystem restoration in South Florida, such as the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Task Force and Working Group and the Water Resources Advisory Committee of the South Florida Water Management District. They should also focus on stakeholder involvement efforts created for specific projects, such as the Combined Structural and Operation Plan Advisory Group, which the Task Force created for a portion of the project period.
Journal Articles on this Report: 5 Displayed | Download in RIS Format
| Other project views: | All 14 publications | 5 publications in selected types | All 5 journal articles |
| Type | Citation | ||
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
Light AR. Risk communication to enhance sustainability: public participation in environmental agency decision-making in South Florida. International Journal of Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability 2005;1(2):95-100. |
R830843 (Final) |
not available |
|
|
Light AR. Spark plugs of policy implementation: intergovernmental relations and public participation in Florida’s Acceler8 Initiative to speed Everglades restoration. Vermont Law Review 2006;30(4):939-968. |
R830843 (Final) |
not available |
|
|
Light AR. Tales of the Tamiami Trail: implementing adaptive management in Everglades restoration. Journal of Land Use & Environmental Law 2006;22(1):59-99. |
R830843 (Final) |
not available |
|
|
Light AR. The waiter at the party: a parable of ecosystem management in the Everglades. Environmental Law Reporter 2006:10771-10785. |
R830843 (Final) |
not available |
|
|
Light AR. Of square pegs, round holes and recalcitrants lying in the weeds: Superfund’s legal lessons for Everglades restoration. Missouri Environmental Law & Policy Review 2005;91-129. |
R830843 (Final) |
not available |
groundwater, ecosystem, regionalization, indicators, public policy, cost benefit, non-market valuation, contingent valuation, socioeconomic, Economic, Social, & Behavioral Science Research Program, ecological risk assessment, economics & decision making, economics and business, social science, state, decisionmaking, Florida, community participation, consumer perception, contingent valuation, cost benefit, cost-effective ecosystem protection, cost/benefit analysis,econometric analysis, environmental decisionmaking, environmental policy, environmental risk assessment,
,
Economic, Social, & Behavioral Science Research Program, Geographic Area, Scientific Discipline, RFA, Social Science, decision-making, Ecological Risk Assessment, Economics & Decision Making, Economics and Business, State, econometric analysis, environmental risk assessment, consumer perception, decision making, risk communication strategies, environmental policy, community participation, cost/benefit analysis, Florida, cost-effective ecosysem protection, contingent valuation, environmental decision making
Relevant Websites:
http://www.evergladesplan.org 
http://www.evergladesnow.org
Progress and Final Reports:
2004 Progress Report
Original Abstract