EP 1110-3-8
9 Apr 04
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSION
5-1. Interrelation of Public Involvement Program Elements. Perhaps the most salient feature of
the well ordered public involvement program, implicit throughout the discussion presented in
this pamphlet, is the interrelation of its elements. Community interviews, for example, serve to
highlight community concerns and issues which the Public Involvement Plan is developed, in
part, to address. These same interviews may be helpful to the PM in his or her decision whether
or not to establish a RAB at the FUDS project. If a RAB is established, the Public Involvement
Plan must be revised to incorporate appropriate RAB information. Administrative Record
documents will often be used by the RAB in its decision-making process, just as documentation
generated by the RAB or by community relations activities prescribed by the Public Involvement
Plan will become part of the Administrative Record. Interrelation of its elements clearly defines
the well ordered public involvement program.
5-2. Summary. As the discussion in this pamphlet of procedures for establishing and
maintaining public involvement programs, RABs, and Administrative Records has made clear,
public participation in DERP is both a legal requirement and a practical necessity. The legal
requirements for such participation are cited throughout the pamphlet and need not be restated
here. The practical necessity for such participation if environmental restoration is to succeed is
equally clear. As indicated in the overview discussion of public involvement programs in
chapter 2, the best public involvement programs and Public Involvement Plans those that most
effectively further the environmental restoration process are community specific. This
specificity cannot be achieved without substantial public participation. Just so, it is public
participation in the development of the Administrative Record that lends such credibility to the
Record that judicial review with respect to issues arising in relation to environmental restoration
decision making can be restricted to the Administrative Record. This restriction greatly speeds
the environmental restoration process. Public participation in DERP, both a legal requirement
and a practical necessity, is essential to successful environmental restoration.
5-1
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