Home > Services > Risk Communication

Our company works with organizations and professional spokespersons to translate, develop, and deliver messages in a forthright and sensitive manner about potential and perceived health and safety risks.

Experience

• Designed a strategy, trained government staff and senior management and successfully facilitated a highly contentious public meeting for a proposed hazardous waste facility expansion in south Phoenix involving community charges of environmental racism.
  
  
• Worked with a south Phoenix neighborhood dealing with a proposed voluntary investigation and remediation of an historic manufactured gas plant site overbuilt by single family homes and apartment complexes.
  
  
• Managed a Superfund information/risk communication project for Robson Communities' Pebble Creek Development. Worked with the builder, land developer, US EPA and state regulatory agency to reach consensus on production of a newsletter for residents and prospective buyers concerned with remedial activity at a nearby National Priority List site. Conducted briefing and training for in-house real estate sales staff and presented the results of the investigation to residents.
  
  
• Edited newsletter and fact sheet to be distributed to local community surrounding the Union Pacific Railroad Bandini cleanup site in southern California.
  
  
• Conducted reconnaissance and research on EPA policies and protocol related to Environmental Justice and permanent residential relocations managed under Superfund.
  
  
• Managed community relations for Cyprus/Miami Copper Co. Pinal Creek State Superfund remedial investigation and design with oversight by the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ). Co-wrote and produced newsletter, hosted informational open house events, worked with a responsible party contractor in production of informational materials, displays and video. Acted as news-media spokesperson answering health and environmental questions. Established relationships with local environmental activists.
  
  
• Worked with ADEQ to develop strategy and facilitate a highly charged public meeting in Pearce, Arizona dealing with an air quality permit application for a proposed controversial municipal solid waste incinerator.
  
• Co-managed communication strategy for a high profile groundwater investigation for GTE Corp. in Illinois. Devised a protocol and plan to communicate with various publics including potentially affected neighbors, elected officials, regulators, local and regional media and the community. Conducted intensive media response and risk communication training for staff. Effort resulted in muted and appreciative community response and well-balanced, complimentary media coverage. Subsequently was asked to manage communication strategy for a similar issue at a GTE facility in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
  
  
• Managed development of informational materials, fact sheets and conducted risk communication and media relations training for administrators of Grass Valley, California's Bear River High School after the discovery of high soil-lead levels on school grounds.
  
  
• Developed key messages for anonymous California developer proposing to convert an industrial zoned parcel to a residential area.
  
  
• Served on an 11-member strategic planning panel at the Risk Management and Emergency Communication workshop sponsored by the National Governor's Association and Agency for Toxic Substances Disease Registry. Panel developed risk communication protocol and manual for use by Governors' offices nationwide.
  
  
• Handled public information and involvement and served as media spokesperson dealing with community outrage in Bowie, Arizona, over a proposal by a cotton farmer to import New York City sewage sludge for agricultural applications. Worked with the Arizona departments of Environmental Quality and Health Services, New York Department of Health, US EPA, Agency for Toxic Substances Disease Registry, Cochise County Health Department and local officials to prepare and handle responses to local concerns. Hosted public meetings, held numerous media interviews and helped facilitate the revision of state rules dealing with agricultural application of sludge.
  
  
• Served as spokesperson and produced fact sheets in response to organized environmental opposition to an air quality permit granted to the developer of a proposed oil refinery near Mobile, Arizona. Granted interviews, guested on radio talk shows and attended public meetings discussing the facts, science and legalities of the issue.
  
  
• Conducted community relations activity on a proposal for a petroleum contaminated soil thermal remediation facility in Phoenix. Served as regulatory agency spokesperson at a public protest at the ADEQ headquarters building. Produced news releases and fact sheets pertaining to the issue and helped plan and manage a formal public hearing.
  
  
• Planned and conducted public information/community relations activity for a permit application by Phoenix Cement Company in Clarkdale, Arizona, to burn used tires as fuel in cement kilns. Hosted open house, served as regulatory spokesperson for the project, and produced news releases and fact sheets. Hosted and moderated a highly polarized public meeting in Cottonwood, Arizona, attended by an estimated 700 people. Responded to Greenpeace-led activism and public protest. Planned and helped orchestrate a public hearing on the issue several weeks later.
  
  
• Worked with Phoenix neighborhood residents on their suspicion of hazardous chemicals located under homes and causing health problems for children. Managed extensive public information campaign working with authorities to develop investigative protocol. Facilitated and co-hosted contentious public meetings, handled media inquiries and worked with the real estate community developing communication strategy.
  
  
• Co-authored "Arizona's Great Salt River Cleanup Campaign: An Exemplary Model of Environmental Risk Communication, Planning and Implementation" for the Journal of Environmental Education .