Facility Siting And Public Opposition

"The book addresses a growing policy problem confronting all democratic nations. By exploring the lessons to be learned from international siting experiences, it will prove invaluable reading for academics, policymakers, government agencies, NGOs, and other societal interests involved in environmental and siting issues."--BOOK JACKET.

This volume analyzes the politics of hazardous waste siting and explores promising new strategies for siting facilities. Existing approaches to waste siting facilities have almost entirely failed, across all industrialized countries, largely because of community or NIMBY (Not in My Backyard) opposition. This volume examines a new strategy, voluntary choice siting--a process requiring mutual decisions negotiated between facility developers and the host communities. This bottom-up approach preserves democratic rights, recognizes the importance of public perceptions, and addresses issues of equity. In this collection, an interdisciplinary group of experts probes recent examples of waste facilities siting in the United States, Canada, Germany, and Japan. Both the successes and the failures presented offer practical insights into the siting process. The book includes an introductory review of the literature on facility siting and the NIMBY phenomenon as well as instructive essays on the use of voluntary processes in facilities siting. This book will be of value to policymakers, industry, and environmental groups, as well as to those working in environmental studies and engineering, political science, public health, geography, planning, and business economics.

Since the 1960s and 70s, a wave of environmental awareness has swept the United States. News reports of oil spills, DDT damage to wildlife, and the nuclear near-disaster at Three Mile Island have, along with other incidents, contributed to a widespread distrust of industry and a collective fear of all chemical processing facilities. This fear has been translated, according to Kent Portney, into local political opposition to the siting of much needed hazardous waste treatment plants--the NIMBY (not in my backyard) syndrome. The failure of federal, state, and local governments to effectively control improper hazardous waste disposal has further strengthened the NIMBY syndrome. Portney argues that once it is understood what motivates the array of local attitudes toward hazardous waste treatment facilities, and the political constraints placed on the search for solutions, effective compromises can be reached. The book begins by focusing on the facility siting dilemma and what can be done to find new policies that work. Chapter two analyzes what does and does not work in easing the effects of the NIMBY syndrome. Democratic political processes are investigated in chapter three, especially those that contribute to the development of NIMBY opposition. Chapters four and five present empirical correlates of changes in peoples' attitudes and explain how people can ultimately be convinced to support local hazardous waste treatment facilities. Social, cultural, and psychological construction of opposition to facility siting is studied in chapter six. Portney presents viable solutions to the facility siting problem, in light of the NIMBY syndrome, in the concluding chapter. This important book will be of great value to practitioners facing actual siting decisions, members of statewide siting boards, private sector parties wishing to site facilities, and those teaching courses in environmental policy or politics.