Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
proposed investigations, regulatory compliance, sensitive environmen-
tal resources, investigation methods, and public outreach. The stations are
staffed typically by members of the environmental impact analysis team or
project proponent's technical staff and include informational displays. The
stakeholders are free to visit the stations that interest them, talk one-on-one
with environmental analysis team members, and ignore topics of little or
no interest. This format can simultaneously accommodate both social and
technical scoping. The displays should be designed to answer anticipated
stakeholder questions such as:
r Why do we need this action?
r What are the environmental analysis requirements that must be met
and what is your process to fulfill these requirements?
r How is the proposed action going to work?
r Why didn't you consider,
x
,
y
, and
z
?
r Where is it going to be located?
r Will you consider how it will affect me?
It is also helpful to make the displays interesting to attack attention. For
example, during a poster session for the USCG Live Fire Training program,
there were waiting lines at several of the stations. The most popular had
the automatic firearm proposed for use on small USCG vessels in the Great
Lakes on display. Others, almost as popular, showed videos of training exer-
cises, examples of ammunition, actual targets used in the training, and nav-
igation charts showing the proposed training locations. Less popular, but
critical to technical scoping, was a station addressing the aquatic toxicity of
the proposed ammunition.
The poster/workshop approach can provide a number of benefits for suc-
cessful scoping including:
r Providing adequate detail for full understanding to stakeholders
interested in a topic without boring others to distraction.
r Encouraging one-on-one two-way discussions in an informal set-
ting which not only conveys information but can foster trust and
positive working relationships.
r Discourages non productive “grandstanding” by stakeholders with
the primary objective of public exposure by making inflammatory
comments in the more formal setting of a structured scoping meet-
ing with a large audience and the press in attendance.
r Presents environmental impact analysis team members as people
and not just talking heads on a stage.
r Presents stakeholders as people not just adversaries.
Search WWH ::
Custom Search