This comparative case study of the influence of community participation in environmental management, for the Valdez oil terminal in Alaska and the Sullom Voe oil terminal in the Shetland Islands, will contribute to several underdeveloped areas in the environmental policy literature: empirical studies of the mechanisms through which communities can contribute to environmental management, the effects of decisions involving national and sub-national regulatory bodies, and the relationship of community involvement to atrophy of vigilance in organizations. It will generate two detailed examples of how national and sub-national styles of regulation interact in shaping a specific set of policy choices and explore the processes and institutional arrangements through which various groups have debated proposals for and influenced deployment and maintenance of environmental safeguards at the two terminals throughout their histories. The study proposes that organizations responsible for pollution prevention are vulnerable to an atrophy of vigilance in which environmental safeguards are reduced over time to save costs, but that incorporation of the concerns of local communities into the environmental management process tends to counteract this phenomenon. Detailed examination of institutional arrangements, the substance and outcomes of public policy debates, and company and public records is necessary in order to measure whether or not and when organizational atrophy of vigilance occurs. Results from the research will provide a detailed empirical basis for theory development and hypothesis testing in the three areas of the environmental policy literature identified above. Results will be reported in articles and presentations.
