Innovative technologies - Antiquated procedures how do we romove the barriers?

This paper share the author's perspective, based on her experience, on the procedural, regulatory, institutional, and human barriers limiting the progress and effectiveness of decision making in the Federal government's efforts to develop and demonstrate innovative environmental cleanup technologies. The author has drawn upon her experience as a facilitator for the DOIT Committee process, the EPA/Clean Sites Public/Private Partnership, private industry technology development and demonstration consortia, knowledge gained from facilitating workshops on regulatory and institutional barriers to technology development, and ten years experience as a Superfund attorney. Two main topics are covered in this paper, the first focuses on the use of group processes for decision-making and makes recommendations for improving the success of these processes. The second focus of this paper is on barriers to and solutions for successful development, demonstration, and commercialization of new environmental technologies