Western North Carolina is water rich, with high annual rainfall and historically low population. Therefore, water management has traditionally not been a significant policy issue. Recent droughts and high population growth, however, have stressed many water supply systems. To deal effectively with these stresses, new policies and management practices have been initiated, prompted by both state mandates and local pressure. As pressures are likely to continue, there is a need to understand what motivates policy development and what processes decision makers use when creating water management policies and programs. Previous research finds that decision makers are apt to base decisions on perceptions, personal beliefs and historical practice rather than on relevant water data. In this study, survey results are used to understand how decision-maker perceptions about water availability, growth, and environmental concerns correlate with water allocation and conservation policies. Results indicate that respondents are only moderately concerned about water availability and drought is the primary concern, rather than population growth. Few of these decision makers have implemented water education programs, but many have implemented drought-related conservation programs. Environmental concerns related to water management are quite low among all respondents.

Environmental Practice 16: 94–101 (2014)

Significant controversy surrounds the use of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in oil and gas extraction in the United States. To address some of these concerns, states are leading the charge by regulating the process. Yet, variations exist in state regulatory approaches, and it is still unclear what drives these differences. Thus, this research applies policy subsystem theory to examine original interview data to determine what may cause these variations in regulations through an examination of Colorado, Wyoming, and Louisiana. This research finds that policy subsystem theory is useful in explaining this variation. In particular, the position of agency staff and privileged stakeholder groups, often industry related, help to explain why Colorado has a much stronger regulatory program than Louisiana. In comparison, Wyoming’s stringent regulations represent the anomaly in this case, but the results of this research suggest that this dominant energy subsystem will likely not be setting any pro-environment trends going forward.

Environmental Practice 16: 102–112 (2014)

Communication challenges of environmental management are magnified for uncertain policy options and trade-offs involving complex issues. A novel risk-trading option authorized by Congress for setting standards for radon levels in drinking water illustrates interactions and gaps among scholarly advice, practitioner behavior, and citizen responses, as revealed in utility-customer focus groups. The aim of the focus groups was to identify citizen-preferred options (including any not yet suggested by policy makers) and difficulties in presenting needed background information so that policy preferences are valid and reliable if elicited in the future. This commentary covers such topics as effects of knowledge, risk comparisons and information framing, values clarification, presentation of policy options and evaluation, and their implications for risk communication and policy development.

Environmental Practice 16: 113–126 (2014)

China is advancing in its development of nuclear energy in order to satisfy its hunger for increased energy. Several legal instruments have been part of the historical change in the development of China’s open-information culture, including the Regulations on Open Government Information, the Measures on Open Environmental Information, and specific institutional arrangements on nuclear information disclosure. However, it might be difficult for the newly formulated nuclear safety information disclosure system to grant people real access to nuclear information. This is principally because of the lower rank of the new instruments in the legislative hierarchy, numerous exceptions for disclosure, legislative objectives that are more propagandistic than human-oriented, and, above all, the absence of a clear definition of the people’s right to know.

Environmental Practice 16: 127–137 (2014)

In order to inform natural resource policy and land management decisions, landscape values mapping (LVM) is increasingly used to collect data about the meanings that people attach to places and the activities associated with those places. This type of mapping provides geographically referenced data on areas of high density of values or associated with different types of values. This article focuses on issues and challenges that commonly occur in LVM, drawing on lessons learned in the US Forest Service Olympic Peninsula Human Ecology Mapping Project. The discussion covers choosing a spatial scale for collecting data, creating the base map, developing data collection strategies, the use of ascribed versus assigned values, and the pros and cons of different mapping formats. Understanding the common issues and challenges in LVM will assist policy makers, land managers, and researchers in designing a LVM project that effectively balances project goals, time and budgetary constraints, and personnel resources in a way that ensures the most robust data and inclusive public participation.

Environmental Practice 16: 138–150 (2014)

In the United States (US), interstate water compacts are used to ensure the equitable division of water resources. It is necessary to understand how interstate water compacts affect intrastate water management so that administrators of water resources can effectively manage state water resources and comply with the agreed-upon allocation schemes. Although interstate compacts are more prevalent in the western US, concerns surrounding changing climate conditions, as well as water scarcity issues, have increased disputes over the management of shared water resources throughout the US. Drawing upon a case study from Colorado, the question this article seeks to answer is, how effectively does Colorado implement compliance of interstate compacts? More specifically, this report assesses implementation at the local level of government: water divisions. Using a modified version of Denise Scheberle’s implementation model, this article examines how Colorado’s Water Division 2 ensures compliance by water users party to the Arkansas River Compact. This research provides useful lessons for both academics interested in implementation studies and practitioners who are responsible for managing state resources such as water effectively, equitably, and in line with state laws and regulations. Findings suggest that compact compliance is contingent upon the effective implementation of rules curtailing water use at the local level and includes water divisions having the capacity to communicate effectively with water users and other entities involved in the maintenance of compact compliance.

Environmental Practice 16: 151–161 (2014)

With the recent rise in merger and acquisition activities among polluting firms, a rigorous study of the complex relationship between environmental variables and merger incentives is very important. While there is a wide array of literature on incentives to merge, the following questions have not yet been satisfactorily resolved: Could environmental policies alter the incentive to acquire or merge with other firms in the industry? Could antitrust policies be improved to consider environmental externalities? Could huge mergers in polluting sectors possibly have a say in environmental policy making?

Environmental Practice 16: 162–163 (2014)