Citizens and communities need information on contamination, routes of exposure, possible health effects, and alternatives for cleanup at Superfund hazardous waste sites in order to participate effectively and meaningfully in government decisions about site remediation and cleanup. It is unclear what kinds of information these stakeholders want, need, and/or can use. This paper assessed how technical and scientific information was used at four North Carolina case study sites and proposed effective ways to communicate to citizens and other stakeholders in communities near hazardous waste sites. The research used three surveys to examine stakeholder views, including how hazardous waste information is distributed, how community involvement activities are conducted, whether technical assistance was available, and the level of trust in different information sources and entities. Results showed that local government officials had received and understood technical and scientific information. Community members reported that they did not know where to go for technical and scientific information, but were uniformly interested the health and environmental effects of contamination. Although the effectiveness of public meetings was perceived to be low by community respondents, both local government officials and community respondents wanted more information on the dates, times, and locations of public meetings. Engaging the public early in the process increased their involvement. Although responses at different sites showed some commonalities, each site should be approached individually. No one-size-fits- all plan for community involvement will be adequate.Master of Science in Public Healt
