Success Stories Answers

Many groups have an interest in environmental issues including governments, businesses, and environmental groups, but these groups’ interests do not always overlap. Therefore, in order to keep large groups of these stakeholders from being disenfranchised from environmental efforts, their concerns and opinions need to be included in a collaborative format. If stakeholder groups are disenfranchised, their discontent is likely to be seen as an indicator that the effort was discriminatory and not fully successful.

Even when pollution originates on one side of a border, it often spreads through the environment beyond the point of origin, becoming a shared problem. It is important to track the sources of pollution to identify the policies and sources for prevention efforts, but regardless of the source of pollution, once a border area becomes polluted, the pollution is a health threat for all individuals on either side of the border.

Working with all chemicals carries some level of health risk, and modern society is dependent upon thousands of chemicals to maintain our standard of living. Therefore it is not reasonable to eliminate all chemical related health risks because that would require we stop using chemicals like cleaning supplies, gasoline, and fertilizers. The more practical approach is to minimize and manage the health risks associated with chemical exposure.

Environmental risk can be managed by a number of strategies. The first employed is to prevent pollution at its source because this strategy eliminates the need to dispose of waste, restore habitats, or remediate contamination. In situations where pollution prevention is not possible or practical, then other strategies become important. Minimizing the amount of waste generated and properly disposing of the waste that is generated is one strategy, as is avoiding habitat damage.

Brownfields are properties that are potentially polluted. Unlike other properties, their development may be complicated due to environmental laws and regulations. If they must be remediated before development or redevelopment, this can significantly increase the cost of the project and result in developers seeking alternate, less expensive locations.