Citizen participation in environmental decisionmaking [sic] : the Department of Energy experience with site specific advisory boards

Rosenstone and Hansen observe that; "Distinct among the world's political systems, democracies offer citizens opportunities to participate in their own governance" (1993: 1). This is a study of the effort of public agencies to better incorporate citizen participation in the administrative process. Its focus is the continuing effort of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to use citizen advisory boards composed of stakeholders (those who stand most to gain or lose from policy implementation) in its economic transition, waste management, and environmental restoration programs.The stakeholder involvement group examined was the Fernald CitizensAdvisory Board at Fernald, Ohio. The Fernald Feed Materials Production Center Was a DOE plant that produced uranium fuel from 1951 to 1989 for the nuclear weapons program. As a byproduct, the facility produced significant volumes of hazardous and toxic wastes. It also polluted the surrounding area posing a significant and persistent threat to humans and the ecosystem.We found the DOE adoption of the stakeholder involvement model atFernald to be effective. The advisory board was expeditiously organized,reached consensus on critical issues, and accomplished its primary mission. The Board's performance was such that the Clinton Administration considered it a major example of how federal agencies could be reinvented to produce a government that works better and costs less.