Stakeholder involvement and collaboration is essential to develop solutions to the complex issues in our society.  Some of the most intractable problems we have to address concern the balance between the needs of our environment, and our society.  

We have learned that the best solutions are discovered when stakeholders gather and share concerns, information, data and proposed solutions.  Synergistic Environmental Solutions is experienced in helping to build stakeholder involvement and ensure that practical, data based decisions, based in sound science are placed on the table for consideration.  The success of this strategy is evident in the Stage 1 PCB TMDL which was implemented in the Delaware Estuary.  This TMDL, though far from perfect, has provided real impact to the Delaware Estuary ecosystem and with relatively modest economic impact. 

One example of the power of collaboration and stakeholder involvement was the establishment of a data quality subcommittee by the DRBC's Toxics Advisory Committee (TAC).  This subcommittee of folks from State and Federal Agencies, Municipalities and Industry met developed a detailed data management strategy that has allowed the collection of high quality data using high resolution methods.   The top links on the right of this page are minutes for the DRBC TAC that contain reports from the Data Quality Subcommittee and provide some perspective on the level of detail and quality of this work.   

In addition, the Delaware Estuary TMDL Coalition, composed of municipal and industrial dischargers, supported the the DRBC staff with the development of a data management system for all ambient and discharge data related to the PCB TMDL.  This data base has proven to be instrumental in ensuring data quality and providing data accessibility to the stakeholders and is described in the paper and presentation accessible through the link on this page.     

Synergistic Environmental Solutions is ready to help you develop a stakeholder driven process to help ensure that sound science is used to drive regulatory decisions.