ARCHIVED - Risk Assessment and Public Involvement at Contaminated Sites

2006
ISBN: 0-662-42961-3
Cat. No.: H128-1/06-445-4E
HC Pub.: 4150

Making the Connection

What is Risk Assessment?

Risk assessment is a tool used to estimate whether or not a chemical in air, water, soil or sediment might pose a risk to human health, and if so, under what circumstances.

The four key steps to the risk assessment process are outlined in Figure 1.

Figure 1. The Risk Assessment Process

Risk assessment helps government agencies and scientists identify potential health impacts and determine realistic goals for reducing exposure to chemicals so that there are no significant health threats to the public.

What is Public Involvement?

Public involvement (PI) is an open dialogue and transparent process that allows affected communities and other stakeholders to participate in and influence the decision-making process at contaminated sites. Specifically, stakeholders can help identify what the problems are, how serious they are and how might they be corrected or mitigated.

There are many levels of public involvement, and a wide array of approaches that can be employed. Each level and approach represents a different degree of public interaction. As the degree of interaction increases, the degree of stakeholder influence also grows.

More Information

Contaminated Sites Division
5^th Floor, 269 Laurier Avenue West
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0K9
e-mail: cs-sc@hc-sc.gc.ca

What's the connection?

Risk assessment is a science-based process for determining the potential risk, where risk is defined as:

Risk = Exposure x Toxicity.

However, stakeholders often have a different perception of risk which is influenced by what they know and how they have been told about it.This perception can be summarized by the equation:

Risk = Hazard x Outrage.

Stakeholder outrage is often generated because of a failure to inform, poor communication of potential health risks, and lack of effective public engagement and involvement.

Meaningful, timely and effective public involvement will lead to better departmental decision-making and more effective management of contaminated sites under the Federal Contaminated Sites Action Plan. Consequently, involving stakeholders who have potential concerns about the health and safety of their families and communities in the risk assessment process will help to build better stakeholder relationships and reduce public outrage. Meaningful public involvement can also help to:

• effectively resolve problems;
• make informed decisions;
• reach a common goal;
• identify and implement risk management strategies acceptable to those most at risk;
• build trust; and,
• avoid conflicts and delays.

Public involvement should not be employed only after the risk assessment phase. Presenting a risk assessment as if it were un fait accompli fails to recognize the value that stakeholders can bring to hazard identification or perception. Public involvement is most effective if conducted throughout the entire process, from site identification/ assessment, through clean up and any follow-up and post-remediation monitoring phases (see Table 1).

Is public involvement always a part of the process?

Public Involvement should be considered when...

• Communities are located near the contaminated site
• Traditional and country foods currently being utilized in the area could be impacted
• There is public interest in the project
• There is a perceived threat to public health, whether real or not
• Those directly affected by the project expect to be involved
• There is a policy, program, or regulatory requirement
• There are emerging issues related to the project development (i.e., emerging legislation, policy or legal actions)

When public involvement is appropriate, the level of involvement may be different for each project.

Making it work!

The site identification/assessment, risk assessment and risk management/clean up phases offer many different opportunities to involve stakeholders. Each site will present unique circumstances and the level of public involvement must be tailored to needs and expectations of each community and/or stakeholder group that may be affected by the contaminated site.There is no one cookie-cutter approach to making it work. However, if there are any consistent components of a successful public involvement process, they are:

• Do it early
• Do it openly
• Do it often

Advice

The Contaminated Sites Division's team of Public Involvement Specialists is available to provide advice to custodial departments. We are committed to supporting you in your public involvement endeavors. Give us a call.

Ontario/Capital Region

• Brenda Pichette
  613-952-9349

Atlantic Region

• Rosanne LeBlanc
• 902-426-5397

Quebec

• Frédéric Valcin
• 450-646-1353

Alberta and NWT

• Tannis Topolnisky
• 780-495-4850

BC and Yukon

• Sharon McCarthy
• 604-666-5714

Table 1. Opportunities and Tools for Public Involvement (PI)