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Save
the Bay Develops Civic Approach to Estuary Protection
Save the
Bay Develops Civic Approach to Estuary Protection. Like most environmental
organizations, Save the Bay has often found itself in legal and
political confrontations with the EPA and local and state officials
and employers. But it has defined its overall mission in terms
of civic education and the collaborative development of creative
alternatives for using the bay area in an environmentally responsible
manner that is sensitive to continued economic growth. It has
increasingly broadened its focus, working with local toxics groups,
as well as with employers seeking to introduce more environmentally
sound methods of production. Case study
plus.
Case
Study Plus: Save the Bay Develops Civic Approach to Estuary Protection
Case
study provided by Carmen
Sirianni, who is a member of the CPN Managing Editorial Team.
The case is based on discussions in 1994 with Fred Massie and
Gayle Gifford of Save the Bay, activities described in annual
reports and the Bay Bulletin, writings by the former executive
director (Coxe 1987), and by the study of citizen participation
in the Narragansett Bay by Kim Herman Goslant that appeared in
the Harvard Environmental Law Review (1988).
Narragansett
Bay, Rhode Island, has a long history of industrial pollution
from the cotton and woolen mills of old to the jewelry manufacturing
and electroplating of today. These have left the bay heavily contaminated
with toxic metals and chemicals, in addition to the typical problems
of sewage treatment and the like that must also be managed. In
the early 1970s the Narragansett Bay Homeowners Association evolved
into a statewide citizens action group called Save the Bay during
attempts to stop a proposed oil refinery and a nuclear power plant.
The group has developed substantial organizing, technical and
educational capacities in the years since, with a staff of eighteen
and a budget of more than a million dollars derived primarily
from member contributions from some ten thousand families, as
well as from special events and foundations.
Save the
Bay has often found itself in legal and political confrontations
with the EPA and local and state officials and employers. But
it has defined its overall mission in terms of civic education
and the collaborative development of creative alternatives for
using the bay area in an environmentally responsible manner that
is sensitive to continued economic growth. It has increasingly
broadened its focus, working with local toxics groups, as well
as with employers seeking to introduce more environmentally sound
methods of production. These activities have generated important
local perspectives for EPA organizational learning, such as the
counterproductiveness of relatively large sums of Superfund monies
starving other worthy local environmental programs, or overly
complex and rigid regulations hampering local employers from responding
effectively to environmental challenges. In 1984 it served on
the EPA's National Pretreatment Task Force that reviewed regulations
on the discharge of toxic chemicals and metals into waterways.
In its attempts
to continually broaden the political base for environmentalism,
Save the Bay seeks to identify common interests as much as possible,
and thus highlights the aesthetics of the bay and inland areas,
the recreational and gaming uses available to all, and the need
to preserve the environment for our children and future generations.
Conflicting interests and ideologies tend to be downplayed, and
purely obstructionist methods avoided.
Thus, when
EPA began to implement the National Estuaries Program, Save the
Bay had already developed a strong independent organizational
base, impressive educational capacities, and broad legitimacy
in the region. It was was an active participant in the Narragansett
Bay Project, which was designated by EPA to receive a five million
dollar grant to lead an ambitious program of further research
and public education on the Narragansett Bay. EPA also made available
for two years one of its own research scientists to aid these
efforts and to help Save the Bay organize a national network of
citizen groups committed to protecting estuaries and coastlines
across the country. And it provided funds for a national conference
of such groups that Save the Bay itself hosted in October 1987.
In Rhode Island, Save the Bay has campaigned to open up the selection
process to the state's Coastal Resources Management Council, on
which its own founder and former director subsequently served
as chairperson, and to increase the budget and authority of the
council.
In short,
Save the Bay has developed a model of an independent citizen organization
that can collaborate with environmental regulatory agencies and
industry without being coopted, and can define its essential mission
in terms of ongoing civic education and broad consensus seeking
without losing the capacity to engage in conflict, if need be.
EPA, for its part, has been able to utilize this collaboration
to develop support for its programs, in terms of an educated public
more aware of the costs of cleanup and conservation, and more
willing to support sewer fee increases and the like, as well as
in the broader political arena where its programs have been vulnerable
to benign neglect or frontal attack. And together EPA and Save
the Bay have demonstrated some of the potential of a democratic
approach that focuses on specific regional and local ecologies,
and on utilizing public policy to capitalize on, and further invest
in, the social capital embodied in networks of civic engagement.
A Strategy
for Action, 1992-1997, which is available by writing or calling
Save the Bay, outlines current programs, and emphasizes the development
of citizen leadership and expanded volunteer efforts in all program
work these include:
- Save the
Bay's Narragansett Baykeeper, an action-oriented program built
around a specially-equipped boat and crew dedicated to defending
the environmental integrity of Narragansett Bay and its rivers.
The program includes developing a public hotline, computer mapping,
a legal clinic, and a support network of local volunteers;
- Citizen
Monitoring of Narragansett Bay. This involves citizens and students
monitoring the water quality, habitat and living resources of
critical areas of the bay. It builds upon cooperative efforts
already in place on many ponds and rivers;
- Business
Outreach. This is a cooperative effort with local businesses
that includes workplace-based employee education and leadership
initiatives. It also aims to develop local companies as national
examples in proving that long-term prosperity and environmental
protection can exist.
Save the
Bay has also been recognized for its volunteer efforts when it
was awarded the 76th "Point of Light" by President Bush in 1989.
More
Information
Save the
Bay
434 Smith Street
Providence, Rhode Island
Phone: (401) 272-3540 (in Rhode Island)
Phone: (508) 676-5007 (in Massachusetts)
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