Abstract |
The Toxics Subcommittee of the Chesapeake Bay Program Implementation Committee, in responding to its mandate to revise the basinwide toxics reduction strategy; has actively sought the participation of diverse stakeholders. Several mechanisms were employed by the Subcommittee to include representative stakeholders from businesses, agricultural community, public interest groups, local government, state government, and federal agencies in evaluating the draft revised strategy and, in particular, the draft commitments. The commitments are organized under four areas of emphasis--pollution prevention, regulatory program implementation, regional focus, and directed toxics assessments. Stakeholder input was sought on how the commitments met four basic evaluation criteria: (1) understandable by the public, (2) feasible to achieve, (3) measurable so that progress can be reported, and (4) targeted to toxics problems in the Chesapeake Bay. At the stakeholders roundtables, attendees were provided an open forum to get feedback on the commitments. |