All these documents underline the importance of decentralization and public participation in environmental management, as well as the importance of understanding the need to develop local-level environmental programs. However, there is not enough experience in this field. None of the communities have a comprehensive environmental program coordinated with economic issues, nor take into account the role of the public.
The city of Troyan was selected as the first city to develop a local environmental action plan following a process by the Institute for Sustainable Communities (ISC) in Vermont, U.S.A., but adapted to local conditions. Selection criteria were as follows:
The Troyan Environmental Action Project was a 21-month demonstration project which enabled citizen committees to identify, analyze and rank environmental problems facing their community. The ISC, supported by a grant from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), in coordination with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), initiated this pilot project at the beginning of 1992. Project members identified and proposed strategies to resolve priority problems, taking into account the community's limited financial resources.
Approximately half a year later, the Community-Based Environmental Action Project started in the city of Stara Zagora. It was perceived to serve as a model project for large Bulgarian municipalities by bringing together data-collecting and monitoring institutions, involving the public in the decisionmaking process, setting environmental priorities and making environmental protection investments in a market economy. The project was initiated by local environmental NGO Ecoglasnost-Stara Zagora. An agreement related to the project development was signed between Ecoglasnost, the Municipality, and the ISC. In 1994, the second phase of the project started entitled the Environmental Policy Development in Stara Zagora Municipality; it has converted research work into real action.
Environmental action projects for both cities were conceived as community-oriented projects, resulting in development and implementation of Local Environmental Action Plans (LEAPs) designed to deal with the most serious environmental threats posed to municipalities.
The development process requires access to information on environmental problems. This right of citizens is included in the Environmental Protection Act which states that all people, state and municipal authorities, have the right to access available information on the state of the environment. However, this does not solve the information-collection problem, as legislation fails to provide information request procedures, appeal procedures in cases of refusal, and listings of information which must be available at respective institutions.
The implementation of a plan also depends on the competency of the local government in managing specific areas concerning environmental protection. The Law on Local Self-Governance and Local Administration stipulates that local self-governance of a municipality involves the rights of citizens or institutions, within their delegated competence, in decisions regarding the management of areas connected to municipal utilities, municipal finances, municipal administration, the development of the municipal territory, as well as welfare, water supply, sewage system, electrification, communication, the development of green zones in residential areas, solid waste treatment, municipal transportation, etc.
The development and implementation of a LEAP is also connected to local legislation, which, while not initially well developed, does not restrict activities either.
Village Cherni Osum is 12 km away from Troyan and is located near the Stenito Biosphere Reserve. The reserve was established in 1979 and is included in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) program "Human and Biosphere".
Troyan used to be one of the centers of Bulgarian cultural life and also a well developed center of the revolutionary movement. In 1887, the town was completely burned down, but later rebuilt.
Despite good climactic conditions which provide the opportunity for year-round tourist activities, tourism in the region of Troyan is not well developed, but the beauty of the mountains and the historical heritage are important prerequisites for future extension of these activities.
The region is well-developed industrially, having facilities for lumber, food and machinery production, situated around the town of Troyan. There are three large tree felling enterprises and a plant for the production of fabricated lumber. The main environmental pollution associated with this industry comes from waste water containing timber residue and resin. A waste water treatment plant of the wood processing enterprise is not designed for the needed capacity, and large amounts of waste water are bypassed. Recently, Austrian incineration equipment was purchased which solved the solid waste problem of the plant. The Troyan region accommodates three state-owned furniture producing enterprises and a large number of smaller, private establishments. Some of the environmental problems associated with this industry come from petroleum spills posing risks for groundwater pollution. There are two state-owned enterprises for the production of meat and dairy products without workable waste water treatment plants. There are also two producers using sand in the casting process: research is currently underway to determine carcinogenic effects of that hazardous waste.
The local government decisionmaking body is the City Council. It is comprised of 45 people who are elected in local elections. The decisions made and projects approved by the Council are implemented by the municipal administration, which has a mayor at its head. There are two permanent employees responsible for environmental issues under the Environmental Protection section of the Territorial and Residential Management Department.
The budget for environmental improvement is formed from two sources: The Municipal Environmental Protection Fund, which receives 40 percent of the pollution taxes, fines and certain percentage of the sanctions from pollution; and targeted funds from the municipal budget.
The municipality provides some services for its citizens funded by taxes and the budget - waste collection and transportation, cleaning up, greening activities and drinking water supply. The only comprehensive environmental protection program carried out by the municipality is the LEAP. Currently, there are certain environmental projects carried out in Troyan; e.g. the building of a municipal waste water treatment plant, and a managed landfill for municipal solid waste.
A local branch of the largest Bulgarian environmental NGO, Ecoglasnost, has been working in Troyan. At the time of the LEAP development it involved 10 environmental activists. Public awareness of environmental issues was not very high at the beginning of the project.
In addition, the project will bring these benefits:
The signing of the agreement was preceded by active preparatory work. The November 1991 study on Bulgaria's environmental strategy, which was a joint report of the Bulgarian and American governments and the World Bank, recommended that serious attention be given and full support be granted by the government and foreign assistance organizations to municipal environmental protection programs, based on risk assessment. The report pointed out that such a program should include public education and the establishment of an active relationship between community members and the local government.
As this was a model project for Bulgaria, and there was no experience in this field, a foreign methodology for ranking environmental problems was utilized. This methodology, known as "comparative risk analysis," proved to be the most appropriate. Under the guidance of the ISC, two project committees were established: the Technical Committee (TC) and the Strategy Committee (SC). The members of the SC were representatives of public organizations and the community. Their tasks and duties were to:
The TC - local experts with technical education and experience - conducted research work in various fields. Their task was to collect, analyze and provide information on the threats resulting from Troyan's environmental problems. The ultimate task of both committees was the preparation of a municipal policy document: the Environmental Action Plan.
The Mayor officially appointed the members of both committees, as well as their chairpersons. Both committees were composed of volunteers - government employees, public activists, representatives of nongovernmental organizations, scientific workers at research institutes, medical workers, teachers, students and citizens interested in environmental issues.
Committees' members participated in a workshop "Introduction into the Methods of Comparative Risk Analysis and Team Decision-Making" to obtain knowledge related to analyzing environmental problems, setting priorities, developing strategies to educate the public, involving the public in democratic decisionmaking, conflict resolution, and team work.
With a grant provided by the ISC, financial assistance was provided to Troyan for a fulltime coordinator, consultants, operating and office expenses, report preparation, and other related expenses. An additional grant of US$35,000 was provided by the ISC to start the implementation phase of the project. The Municipality was responsible for providing 10 percent in the form of labor or material.
1. Approval of a list of environmental problems subject to analysis.
The SC prepared a questionnaire for a public poll entitled "What ecological problems are considered most dangerous to human health and ecosystems?". It was based on the preliminary list of environmental problems in the municipality. The questionnaire helped rank problems according to their importance, and also added other problems which the respondents considered important. Five thousand questionnaires were distributed among the citizens (80 percent rate of return). Analyzing the results of this poll, the SC corrected the list of problems, thus obtaining the revised list of environmental issues reflecting the opinion of both experts and the public. They were broken down into three risk categories: high, medium, and low.
2. Data collection and assessment of the scope of ecological problems.
The TC faced serious data collection problems. These problems were due to both a lack of information on certain problems and the refusal of some institutions to either provide information or to demand payment for the information. The workshop on comparative risk analysis focused on methods of collecting additional information and risk evaluation for members of the TC. The data collection form included this information: description of the problem; sources; additional stress factors; problem assessment criteria; data sources; basic information about the problem; problems in data collecting; suggestions about additional data.
These forms helped to discover critical gaps in the data. Different approaches, based on a prepared workplan, were used to collect data. This involved meetings with representatives from ministries, local agencies, institutes and industry. The ISC and the municipality cooperated with the Ministry of Environment in carrying out the first pollution monitor of ambient air in Troyan. Ecoglasnost - Troyan, with the assistance of the municipal council, carried out independent monitoring of the quality of drinking water from the central city water main.
3. Environmental Risk Assessment.
The TC prepared reports on all problems; they were designed for use by the SC and the public. A workshop to rank ecological problems for the TC's members was held. In addition to learning about various approaches to problem ranking, participants role-played a team decisionmaking and consensus-building exercise.
The TC used the available information pool to define and describe risks according to the individual problem. To that end, sub-committees were set up to prepare a summary for every problem. The Citizen Committees were charged with studying 16 environmental problems in the municipality. In order to answer the question, "which of these problems pose the greatest risk to Troyan," the committees reached the conclusion that the environmental problems pose numerous risks to human health, ecosystems, and the quality of life (quality of life risks include aesthetics, economic welfare, justice, future generations, psychological balance of the population, and sense of belonging to the community). Thus, each individual problem was analyzed according to the magnitude and severity of the risk to health, ecological systems and quality of life.
In identifying the risks, the data on the studied environmental problems in Troyan was compared with national standards in the areas of investigation which are published in various official documents. Indicators used for that comparison are specific to each problem and are determined by measurements and monitoring conducted by institutions such as the Regional Environmental Inspectorate, Hygienic Epidemiological Inspectorate, etc. In the case of Drinking Water Quality and Quantity, the indicators were chlorine and fluorine content, mechanical composition, presence of purifying plants, water supply system, bacterial contamination, reliability of water supply.
A water expert prepared ecological audits on five industrial enterprises in the city. These evaluations were made available to experts hired by the World Bank to conduct a pre-investment study of the Cherni Ossum River Basin. The final report was presented in January 1993.
On the basis of these summaries, the TC prepared comprehensive, individual reports on all problems. These reports, which included information on the causes of the problems, were designed for use by the SC and the public. On the basis of these reports, both the SC and TC conducted rankings related to health, ecology and quality of life risk. These three risks were combined to develop an integrated and final risk ranking of the problems. The combined risks were classified into three groups of problems, arranged in descending order according to the magnitude of the risk : high, medium, and low risk. The final ranking itself was based on the following criteria:
The comparative risk process resulted in the prioritized list of the community's environmental problems:
The committees worked out profiles for the two problems ranked as top priorities: Quality and Quantity of Drinking Water and Air Pollution. Brainstorm sessions, discussions and consensus-building were the processes usually used to prepare the profiles; committee members occasionally voted on decisions.
The profiles explain why the issue became a priority for the community. For instance, the quality and quantity of drinking water is a priority for Troyan because there are severe water supply restrictions. This, as well as other factors mentioned in the problem statement, contributes to higher concentrations of pollutants. One of the objectives outlined in the profile is to increase the quantity of drinking water. It is believed that this will also help to improve the quality and thus prevent some health and quality of life risks associated with water regime. Besides, a system of fair water distribution is required which should diminish the residents' belief that their interests are unprotected and compromised. The resulting tensions and conflicts among different groups of water users and government agencies involved in water supply and distribution should also be diffused.
The profiles of problems describe possible strategies, actions and programs.
Profile No. 1: Quality And Quantity Of Drinking Water
Three components of the drinking water problem were identified: shortage of drinking water, poor quality of drinking water, and an unequal distribution of drinking water in the community. Objectives addressing these problems are: increase the quantity of drinking water, improve the quality of drinking water, and improve the fair distribution of drinking water.
Profile No. 2: Air Pollution
Three components of the air pollution problem were identified: air pollution as a result of the use of different fuels for heating, air pollution as a result of traffic, and air pollution as a result of industrial technologies. These objectives were set up to address them: reduce air pollution caused by fuel and burning of waste, reduce air pollution caused by motor transportation, and reduce air pollution caused by certain industrial technologies.
Identification and selection of strategies
Representatives of the project from the municipality, Ecoglasnost and the Ministry of Environment travelled to the U.S. for two weeks to learn about U.S. community approaches to solving environmental problems. The strategies for resolving environmental problems identified in Troyan were used at a workshop organized there.
Since time was a factor of considerable importance in studying the problems and working out solutions, the committees decided to concentrate their attention on the high risk problems which were: Quality and Quantity of Drinking Water and Air Pollution. Public opinion supported the committees' decision.
The initial list of specific strategies was achieved by means of "brainstorming" - the following categories were identified :
Upon the outcome of workshops and brainstorming, the two committees merged into one citizen committee to increase work efficiency. This phase provided project members with knowledge and experience on programs and activities used in the U.S. to tackle environmental problems, especially those identified as top priority in Troyan.
The profile of each problem included a maximum number of strategies for its resolution. Obviously, due to limited financial resources, shortcomings in the respective laws, lack of suitable structures (executive bodies), etc., not all of them can be implemented. For this reason, the committee's task was to decide which strategies should be selected for implementation. In making these decisions, the committee collected information both in Bulgaria and abroad. For the selection of strategies with which to begin the implementation, the committee and external experts took into account which strategies could most realistically be put into operation immediately after the adoption of the Action Plan. The selected strategies were designed to bring fast results and be implemented with funding allotted for the Troyan project.
For the strategy ranking process, the committee used the following eight criteria:
During this evaluation, the committee took into account the fact that not every criterion was of equal importance to the implementation of each strategy.
In order to take into consideration the personal views of the voters, and to avoid a situation where everybody votes for all of the strategies because he/she likes them and believes that they are all good, every member received only 10 votes for each strategy. People voted separately for each strategy. The ranking session resulted in selection of these three strategies which were included in the Implementation Plan to address the drinking water problem:
These strategies were offered to the public for consideration and comment, and were adopted by the committees for presentation to the Troyan Municipal Council. A detailed Implementation Plan was developed for the three selected strategies with these goals:
In July 1993, the LEAP, including the Implementation Plan, was approved by the municipal council. It contains these elements:
A delay of approximately one year in the implementation was due to a number of factors including a breakdown in the system of accountability and program management and lack of support from the Mayor.