Citation:

Williams, K. AND R. Holifield. The management of stakeholder and public participation at US and binational AOCs: Overcoming challenges and looking beyond delisting. 2016 Great Lakes Areas of Concern Conference, Dearborn, MI, March 02 - 03, 2016.

Impact/Purpose:

N/A

Description:

Although stakeholder and public participation has been important throughout the history of the AOC program, the process of involving stakeholders in preparing and implementing RAPs—along with the challenges involved with this process—has varied both historically and geographically. What lessons have we learned about how to overcome these challenges, and what challenges remain as the acceleration of delisting leads us toward the “post-AOC” era? We present findings from a survey and interviews conducted in 2014 with RAP coordinators, public advisory council leaders, and outreach personnel from a sample of US and binational AOCs. On the one hand, the results of the survey suggest that stakeholder and public participation in AOCs are healthier than we might expect, certainly in part because of major federal funding for AOC projects within the past few years on the US side of the border.However, both the survey and interviews suggest that there remain several key challenges to address as AOCs move toward or beyond delisting. Some of the most important of these are perpetual challenges that extend beyond the scope of individual AOCs, such as the fluctuation and uncertainty of funding and policy priorities at state/provincial and federal levels of government. But other common challenges may lend themselves more to action at the level of the AOC, such as the low visibility of many remediation and restoration activities, the lack of community awareness or interest, the difficulty of attracting younger participants or enlisting particular groups as active stakeholders, and the need to coordinate across territorial and jurisdictional complexity. In addition, the AOC program has raised important questions about the relationship between how we achieve management objectives for participation and how we define the geographical boundaries of impacted areas in the first place. We share insights from our participants as to specific ways they have addressed or overcome such outreach and management challenges, but we also reflect on potential new ways forward as AOCs continue to transition into the delisted phase of their recovery.

Record Details: