All hazardous waste politics is local: Grass-roots advocacy and public participation in siting and cleanup decisions

The combined effects of federalism and interest group pluralism pose particularly difficult problems for hazardous waste siting and cleanup decisions. Most national environmental groups have only limited involvement in local hazardous waste politics, while local grass-roots advocates have very different interests and sometimes are pitted against one another. Both the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy recently have begun to use site-specific citizen advisory boards at cleanup sites. This approach appears to improve communications at some sites, but does not address the issues of "not in my back yard" politics and alleged inequitable exposure to hazardous wastes.