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FOCUSING PRIVATE-SECTOR ACTION ON PUBLIC HAZARDS 192 original typesetting files. Page breaks are true to the original; line lengths, word breaks, heading styles, and other typesetting-specific formatting, however, cannot be About this PDF file: This new digital representation of the original work has been recomposed from XML files created from the original paper book, not from the retained, and some typographic errors may have been accidentally inserted. Please use the print version of this publication as the authoritative version for attribution. believed that the Clean Sites approach can reduce the expense of settlement even further. This relates directly to two other key equity criteria by which industry gauges its responsibilities for hazardous waste cleanupâputting limits on the financial commitment involved, and ensuring that a company's survival is not threatened by the agreement reached. Addressing the concerns of the community that surrounds a waste site can, in a narrow sense, also be viewed as part of the settlement process. Of course, it is much more than that. Because of the public health implications of a waste site, no one has as compelling a stake in the cleanup of a site as its neighbors. Public concern is fueled by the threats of cancer, genetic damage, and birth defects from exposure to hazardous substances. These considerations make the issue a volatile one that must be handled openly and with great sensitivity in any community surrounding an inactive disposal site. For if citizens come to believe that they are only receiving information and not exchanging it, or that they are being asked to comment on a project that is a fait accompli, the settlement process will not succeed. Thus, community involvement is crucial to the question of equity. Common senseâas well as all the best research on hazardous siting issuesâ dictates that citizens be brought into the process early and given opportunities to make a significant contribution. In practical terms, if citizens are not brought into the process, the alternative often is an unfortunate political and legal stalemate that can disrupt the process and substantially increase these transaction costs. DIRECTIONS FOR THE FUTURE Clean Sites Inc. is building models for negotiation, arbitration, and allocation that will significantly advance the state of the art in waste site settlement. For example, CSI is developing a ''cluster site" conceptâthe notion that major economies of scale in the settlement process could result from dealing with geographically proximate sites at the same time. This new approach arose not from abstract theoretical reflection but from a search by professionals within CSI for a way to deal with a specific hazardous waste site in the Texas Gulf Coast region. Clean Sites Inc. is developing models for helping potentially responsible parties organize themselves into appropriate working groups and subgroups at the start of settlement discussions. Work is also under way on a model for an independent allocation process for determining percentages of waste contribution at individual sites. Clean Sites Inc. receives site invitations from a variety of affected parties at the rate of about two per week. Since CSI clearly cannot work on that many sites, the challenge it faces is to screen and select appropriate sites.
