Analytical Framework for Waste-Facility Siting

Abstract

Waste-facility siting processes are complex because they involve four sets of causal elements and relationships: (1) Facility need, design, and operation cause facility effects by interacting with site, environmental, and community characteristics; (2) facility effects and stakeholders’ background beliefs and values determine stakeholders’ beliefs, attitudes, and actions; (3) proponents siting interventions can tangibly change the facility effects and the siting process; and (4) stakeholders’ actions interact and result in an outcome. This study structures the main elements and connections into a framework to explain stakeholder attitudes and siting outcome. Propositions about the four sets of causal factors were developed to test the framework as a theoretical construct. The propositions are investigated by content analyses of siting documents, stakeholder interviews, and siting chronologies for a municipal landfill and a hazardous-waste treatment facility. The case-study analysis uses pattern matching, explanation building, and time-sequence analysis to test the framework. The framework contains over 85% of the pertinent elements and connections. The revised framework provides a tool to compare siting cases with a complete, consistent set of variables; screen facilities in prospective host communities; and design siting interventions to negotiate siting agreements.