United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Enhancing
Facility-Community
Relations
Strengthening the Bridge
between
Hazardous Waste Facilities
and
Their Neighbors
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With more than 2,260 hazardous waste facilities
in the U.S., developing and maintaining good
community relations is vital. It is important for
facilities to maintain continuous, strong relation-
ships with neighboring communities throughout
their operation and after closure. Although not all
communities are affected by federal hazardous
waste regulations, for those that are, their con-
cerns need to be addressed early, collaboratively,
and compassionately.
Establishing Trust
Since the enactment of the Resource
Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) of
1976, both industry and government have
learned the importance of developing and
maintaining strong community relations during
the siting and permitting of a new hazardous
waste facility and when renewing or modifying
permits at existing facilities.
Once a hazardous waste management facility is
sited and operational, neighbors are reminded
daily of its presence. This presence can greatly
affect a community's spirit and motivation. For
example, if a facility owner is slow to respond
to or ignores a community's concerns, tensions
may form. Conversely, if a facility owner con-
tinues to maintain open channels of communi-
cation and address community concerns
promptly and honestly, a spirit of cooperation
between the facility and the community is fos-
tered, building a better place to live.
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Continuing the Dialogue...
When a facility receives its RCRA permit, the
relationship between the facility and the
nearby community is just beginning. The facility
should continue to play a leading role by sustain-
ing dialogue with neighbors, community groups,
and local businesses. This continuous communica-
tion between a facility and its neighbors can be the
key to a positive relationship. A steady, open dia-
logue is necessary to build trust and also to identify
and address community concerns. It enables com-
munities to voice their opinions about issues affect-
ing them and allows a facility more opportunities
to offer solutions and work with the community to
achieve them.
Ensuring the Community's
Weil-Being
Some important questions facility owners should
ask themselves about the community are:
How familiar is the facility's owner with the com-
munity's residents? How healthy are they? Are
there home-bound individuals? Are there children
in the community? Is there a seasonal population,
such as retirees or migrants? Do residents have
vegetable gardens, and do they fish locally? Do
they keep livestock for milk and meat? How do
they spend their leisure time? Are there any cultur-
al or community issues or events that predate the
facility's startup? Are there traffic safety issues?
Understanding and consistently addressing com-
munity health, environment, and quality-of-life
concerns are important parts of being a good neigh-
bor. When a facility gets involved with a communi-
ty's interests and helps seek solutions to its con-
cerns, a strong, productive relationship can be built.
This relationship can generate mutual respect and
awareness of each other's role in the community.
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How can you improve the
community's well-being?
• Know your community: age distribution,
lifestyle, general sources of income (e.g., farm-
ing, service, or industrial employers), children's
play habits, and local game and produce eaten.
• Collect information informally on the public's
exposure to other sources of harmful substances
and note if some groups have increased expo-
sures (e.g., farmers exposed to pesticides).
• Obtain anecdotal health information from long-
term residents.
• Find out residents' opinions on how nearby
facilities affect their health.
• Notify the community early of any accidental
releases and your plans to clean up the releases.
• Be prepared to give a straightforward answer to
public questions (e.g., "How dangerous is the
facility to our residents?").
• Know the location of environmentally sensitive
areas.
• Develop an understanding of the community's
values and issues of most concern.
• Create employment or contract opportunities
(e.g., catering, desktop publishing).
Understanding is a two-
way street.
- Eleanor Roosevelt
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How can you enhance your dialogue
with the community?
• Continue to go the extra mile. Don't expect the
community to come to you.
• Learn how residents communicate among themselves,
and then stay connected with communities using their
networks and groups.
• Identify values you share with the community.
• Always be open, clear, and honest with communities.
If you don't have an answer to their question, let them
know!
• Try to always be accessible. Hold "open houses" for
the community on a regular basis.
• Publish a community newsletter or annual report to
the community.
• Use local academic institutions to advance knowledge
or improve dialogue, especially historically black col-
leges and universities, and institutions belonging
to the Hispanic Association of Colleges and
Universities.
• Be sensitive to culturally diverse groups. Understand
that each culture sees issues differently.
• Hire an experienced facilitator with the same cultural
background as those in the community, or someone
who speaks the local language (if needed).
How can you assure communities
that you hear and will address their
concerns?
• Appoint a community relations liaison person to con-
tinually raise community questions and concerns.
• Be clear about details, such as who owns the facility,
who operates it, how long it will operate, where the
waste comes from, and how hazardous the waste is.
• Develop a public communications plan with active
input from the community.
• Negotiate and keep a current good neighbor agree-
ment.
• Establish a complaint/question hotline and a response
protocol.
• Involve the community early in all facility
modifications.
• Continually monitor and coordinate land use with
neighbors and existing and future businesses.
• Establish and stay actively involved in a community
advisory panel.
• Routinely ask citizens what they think of the facility
through annual surveys and focus groups. Let neigh-
bors help design, distribute, evaluate, and report.
This will help track the facility's performance with
the community.
This is the third document in a series of U.S. EPA Office of Solid Waste (OSW) publications on hazardous waste management
facility locations as they relate to social and environmental issues. For more information, read
Social Aspects of Siting RCRA Hazardous Waste Facilities, EPA530-K-00-005, April 2000.
Sensitive Environments and the Siting of Hazardous Waste Management Facilities, EPA530-K-97-003, May 1997.
Both are available at http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/hazwaste/tsds/site/sites.htm
or order paper copies from the RCRA Call Center at 1-800-424-9346.
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Are there ways you can
continually enrich and improve
the community's quality of life?
• Ask the community to suggest new ways
to enhance its members' quality of life.
• Investigate and get the community involved
in helping you address nuisance concerns
(odors, noise, aesthetics).
• Find out from the community what is needed
to establish a sense of community and belong-
ing and follow through with it.
• Continually work with residents to improve
the economic value of their community.
• Help community residents establish a commu-
nity garden.
• Take an active and consistent interest in the
community's employment and education
concerns.
• Welcome and respond to suggestions on how
your business can help the community.
• Stay abreast of the location and needs of
culturally significant properties as well as
common lifestyle practices.
• Visibly participate in community events
(e.g., have a booth at local festivals).
• Sponsor or provide community grants or
scholarships (e.g., tuition for "Send a Kid
to Camp" and child enrichment programs).
• Participate in community agency initiatives;
volunteer to serve on nonprofit boards.
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