Environmental information
essential to democracy
Contributions from Karen Krchnak
and Fran Iwrin, TAI-US
June 11, Oakland, California. Since the Earth
Summit in 1992, the world's governments have agreed that citizens
must have access to information about the environment, especially
hazardous materials and activities in their communities. Further,
those governments—including the United States—agreed that
citizens should not only participate in environmental decisionmaking,
but also have the legal rights to redress and remedy.
At a conference on Protecting California's Drinking Water at the
Source, The
Access Initiative–US launched its new report, At
the Frontlines of Democracy: Strengthening the Public Voice in State
Decisions That Affect the Environment. This report, prepared
with Clean Water Action/Clean
Water Fund, Silicon Valley Toxics
Coalition, the Ohio Citizen
Action Education Fund and others, is the start of an effort to
document progress in the United States, beginning with Ohio and California.
At the meeting, several participants pointed out the need for a "common
lanuage about water" and other technical issues, so that communities
could better understand and address the issues affecting them.
Both Ohio and California have served as incubators for important
ideas and mechanisms in public access to environmental information
and decision-making. However, these states also suffer lack of data
and obstacles to public input, requiring greater attention by citizens
and citizen groups in monitoring and pressuring authorities for citizen
access.
The report emphasizes the importance of the states in providing
innovate approaches to public participation in decision-making. Such
approaches are especially important in a national context where public
access mechanisms are facing "new challenges" from post-9/11
security concerns.