NPCC Hosts Colloquium on Using Environmental Penalties to Go Beyond Compliance
Twenty-five participants at the Colloquium represented federal and state environmental enforcement agencies, environmental and economic justice organizations, and others. Participants considered how the SEP process could be employed to produce replicable, measurable, and sustainable (beyond compliance) benefits for affected communities. There was considerable interest in seeing how SEPs could enhance community benefits and be integrated into community priorities, such as redevelopment and natural resource restoration.
Greg Wolf, Director of NPCC, presented the Public Solutions model as one approach to involving all interests in a community in developing a SEPs project. Participants thought that a collaborative approach, such as the Solutions model, could help overcome challenges such as limited resources, overlapping jurisdictions, and the complexities of public-private collaboration in the enforcement context. And they agreed a collaborative approach could enhance the leadership capacity of community stakeholders, and through resource leveraging, produce an enduring solution, one that would go beyond mere compliance. For a example of an application of the Solutions model, see www.orsolutions.org
The colloquium concluded with agreement around thirteen next steps. First was the creation of a SEPs listserve for colloquium participants and others working to implement, and evaluate, the application of collaborative enforcement approaches. Participants are also moving forward with the selection of one or two demonstration pilot projects applying collaborative approaches to enforcement actions.
Publication of a report is planned for Fall 2006. For more information on the Colloquium, or to be added to the SEPs listserve, contact Lang Marsh or Monica Kirk.