An environmental lawyer offers an analysis of practices that contribute to the failure of successful waste disposal and suggests alternative methods to tackle various forms of waste and effectively allocate land with a minimum of risk. UP. In Whose Backyard, Whose Risk, environmental lawyer, professor, and commentator Michael B. Gerrard tackles the thorny issue of how and where to dispose of hazardous and radioactive waste. Gerrard, who has represented dozens of municipalities and community groups fighting landfills and incinerators, as well as companies seeking permits, clearly and succinctly analyzes a problem that has generated a tremendous amount of political conflict, emotional anguish, and transaction costs. He proposes a new system of waste disposal that involves local control, state responsibility, and national allocation to deal comprehensively with multiple waste streams. In Whose Backyard, Whose Risk, environmental lawyer, professor,and commentator Michael B. Gerrard tackles the thorny issue of how and where to dispose of hazardousand radioactive waste. Gerrard, who has represented dozens of municipalities and community groupsthat have fought landfills and incinerators, as well as companies seeking permits, clearly andsuccinctly analyzes a problem that has generated a tremendous amount of political conflict,emotional anguish, and transaction costs. He proposes a new system of waste disposal that involveslocal control, state responsibility, and national allocation to deal comprehensively with multiplewaste streams.Gerrard draws on the literature of law, economics, politicalscience, and other disciplines to analyze the domestic and international origins of wastes and theirdisposal patterns. Based on a study of the many failures and few successes of past siting efforts,he identifies the mistaken assumptions and policy blunders that have helped doom sitingefforts.Gerrard first describes the different kinds of nonradioactive andradioactive wastes and how each is generated and disposed of. He explains historical and currentsiting decisions and considers the effects of the current mechanisms for making those decisions(including the hidden economics and psychology of the siting process). A typology of permit rulesreveals the divergence between what underlies most siting disputes and what environmental lawsactually protect. Gerrard then looks at proposals for dealing with the siting dilemma and examinesthe successes and failures of each. He outlines a new alternative for facility siting that combinesa political solution and a legal framework for implementation. A hypothetical example of how asiting decision might be made in a particular case is presented in an epilogue.
