| Topics: Environment Army Corps Districts Use Alternative Dispute Resolution Army Corps Districts Use Alternative Dispute Resolution. Faced with continual disputes among environmentalists, developers, communities, and industry, mid-level civil servants in the Jacksonville, Florida and Vicksburg, Louisiana districts took the initiative to develop a general permitting process that was innovative, even revolutionary for the Corps. Instead of acting as a technical evaluator, or as a proponent for a particular position, the Corps decided to act as a neutral facilitator of a consensus seeking process among all stakeholders. The results were striking in terms of preventing litigation and promoting collaboration. Additional case studies and agency-wide evaluation of public involvement programs. Case study plus. Index Story: Army Corps Districts Use Alternative Dispute Resolution
Case Study Plus: An Organizational Assessment of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in regard to Public Involvement Practices and Challenges: an extensive, 150-page assessment conducted by Stuart Langton in January 1994. Includes executive summary and recommendations, 3 long case studies, an historical profile, and bibliography. I. Forward
II. Executive Summary
III. Organizational Assessment
IV. Case Studies - Case Study #1: Public Involvement Related to HTRW Problems Associated with the Expansion of the Winfield Locks and Dam.
- Case Study #2: The Experience of the White River Dissolved Oxygen Committee.
- Case Study #3: The Fort Ord Reuse Case.
V. Appendices A. Selected Opinions
B. Historical Profile and Bibliography Contents Story: Army Corps Districts Use Alternative Dispute Resolution
Story: Army Corps Districts Use Alternative Dispute Resolution In the 1980s, the Army Corps districts of Vicksburg in Louisiana and Mississippi, and Jacksonville in Florida, were confronted with permitting disputes that typically produce conflict and delay, are enormously costly in time and money to all parties involved, and still end up in court or are unable to be implemented. In Vicksburg, the issue was hydrocarbon exploration drilling across both states, and the Sierra Club and other environmentalists, determined to fight on every issue, had already filed lawsuits. In the Jacksonville District, the new Sanibel Island city government confronted the problem of how to regulate development in ways consistent with protecting the island's unique ecology. Mid-level civil servants in both districts took the initiative to develop a general permitting process that was revolutionary. Instead of acting as a technical evaluator, or as a proponent for a particular position, the Corps decided to act as a neutral facilitator of a consnesus seeking process among all stakeholders. It would not write the general permit in house, but invite the parties to develop one collaboratively themselves. It pledged to environmentalists, citizen groups, contractors, industry representatives and government agencies that, if they could agree to the specifications of a permit within the broad legal constraints of Section 404, the Corps would simply confirm the agreement and call it a general permit. If they did not, permitting would continue on a slow and costly case-by-case basis, with no party certain that its interests and values would be respected in the final outcome. In each case, Corps personnel faciltated four workshops among relevant stakeholders, who in turn spoke with their constituencies in between. The workshops generated increased trust and mutual respect, as well as a broader understanding of their shared and separate interests. Conflict was transformed into positive benefits to all stakeholders. Not only were the agreements seen as broadly legitimate, and hence more able to be implemented, but they were also viewed as technically superior to what otherwise would have been produced. By the fourth workshop, groups that had been locked in conflict were claiming joint ownership of solutions, and taking joint responsibility for discussing them with the general public. Lawsuits were dropped, and the general permits have since been renewed. The Corps was able to achieve such results (and save millions) because it used its authority and expertise in new ways. Training in alternative dispute resolution enabled staff to take initiative in bringing parties together in a mutual learning process—parties that, in some cases, had never sat at the same table together before. Rather than remaining simply a regulator or becoming itself a party in the dispute, the Corps reconceived its authority as a carrot in moving opponents away from costly adversarialism, and its expertise as a tool for collaborative problem solving among citizens and interest groups themselves. In doing so, it set important examples of how a government agency can actively promote a civic culture of constructive participation. More Information Jerome Delli Priscoli, Senior Policy Analyst
Institute for Water Resources
Army Corps of Engineers
703-355-2015 Index Story: Army Corps Districts Use Alternative Dispute Resolution
Case Study Plus: An Organizational Assessment of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in regard to Public Involvement Practices and Challenges: an extensive, 150-page assessment conducted by Stuart Langton in January 1994. Includes executive summary and recommendations, 3 long case studies, an historical profile, and bibliography. I. Forward
II. Executive Summary
III. Organizational Assessment
IV. Case Studies - Case Study #1: Public Involvement Related to HTRW Problems Associated with the Expansion of the Winfield Locks and Dam.
- Case Study #2: The Experience of the White River Dissolved Oxygen Committee.
- Case Study #3: The Fort Ord Reuse Case.
V. Appendices A. Selected Opinions
B. Historical Profile and Bibliography Back to Environment Index | 
