Community Involvement

A crucial part of the RACER process is the involvement of community members. The New Mexico Community Foundation (NMCF) has the responsibility for broadening and enhancing public involvement in the RACER process.

The New Mexico Community Foundation has sponsored public meetings, focus groups, community workshops, and testing sessions to seek input from stakeholders about RACER. In particular, the Foundation has actively sought out groups that are often not heard with regard to operations at LANL. Time, money, and cultural beliefs are common barriers to community members being able to express opinions about issues they face and input from this interaction has shaped RACER. Regardless of personal points of view, almost everyone believes that making environmental data readily and universally accessible in a way that promotes an understanding of the data is essential for building trust and credibility between LANL and the communities surrounding it.

There is a strong consensus among community members that RACER is a huge step forward in building and maintaining this trust and is a promising way to gather ideas about the type of information the community believes should be factored into making decisions about reducing impacts from LANL operations. Some of the factors discussed have been cultural and spiritual values, land use, protection of natural habitat and environment, and the long-term safety of New Mexico’s diverse cultures.

The diversity of stakeholder viewpoints is a tremendous benefit to the project, although it also presents challenges. The NMCF firmly believe in the following principles:

  • Stakeholders can play a role in guiding policy recommendations and can contribute to making better decisions about protecting public health and the environment
  • Stakeholders can help encourage better scientific studies to achieve more credible results that can be used in making recommendations about protection of public health and the environment
  • Stakeholder involvement in the decision-making process today will help ensure that the process and outcomes will be better-supported, more enduring, and representative of the interests of stakeholders in the future.

For more information on how you can get involved with the RACER Project, please visit the Workshops & Events page.