ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK FOR WASTE-FACILITY SITING

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, environ mental, and community characteristics; (2) facility effects and stakeh olders' background beliefs and values determine stakeholders' beliefs, attitudes, and actions; (3) proponents siting interventions can tangi bly change the facility effects and the siting process; and (4) stakeh olders' actions interact and result in an outcome. This study structur es the main elements and connections into a framework to explain stake holder attitudes and siting outcome. Propositions about the four sets of causal factors were developed to test the framework as a theoretica l 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 cas e-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 p rovides 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.