COMMUNICATING GEOLOGY - EXPERIENTIALLY DERIVED TRENDS IN PUBLIC DECISION MAKING

Geologic knowledge is a part of many public decisions, from selecting text books to land use. Public decisions are always more complex than simple science and are made by processes involving as few as one to many decision makers. Exemplars considered range from legislative decisions through special boards to the courts.

The legislative exemplar looked at how to present evolution in high school classrooms. The process was a legislative hearing. Special boards considered landfill siting in the U.S. and selection of remedial alternatives in the U.S. and Holland. The landfill siting was done through a "nominal group" process. Remedial alternatives were selected for a SuperFund site and a manufactured gas plant through processes deeply involving the public. Jury and bench trials decided issues of responsibility and restitution. These exemplars included decisions of cummulative impact of forestry practice to oil field brine contamination. In all cases, complex geologic understandings needed to be communicated to the public decision makers. Cultural norms and the very decision process are important.

Base on experience, three trends appear. The first is: the smaller the body of decision makers, the wider the bounds of apparently acceptable decisions. The legislative decision process involves many and apparrently is kept in bounds by the governed. The second is: geologists' truth is only part of the common weal. The decision will be made according to the decision makers priorities and assessments. The third is: making a decision may ignore completely applicable geologic and scientific input and yet be acceptable and perhaps even "correct."