This paper assesses the continued community participation mechanisms, especially the Restoration Advisory Board, and the role of these mechanisms in the environmental cleanup of post U.S. military training operations in the current colonial situation of the Puerto Rican island municipality of Vieques. Today the community has many informal and formal mechanisms of organization meant to address the social, economic, health and environmental problems resulting from the Navy's presence on the island. These mechanisms are the cornerstone of the community's search for social and environmental justice. This paper provides a brief history of the Navy's presence on Vieques, the evolution of community participation mechanisms and an analysis of how these mechanisms allow the community to interact with public, private and government institutions involved in the cleanup. The research is centered around interviews with community members to discern whether they feel these mechanisms are effective in properly addressing community concerns. The case study of Vieques could also have international implications for the future of foreign military bases and toxic waste disposal around the world. Analysis of the effectiveness of community participation mechanisms could help marginalized communities deal with developed countries on issues that may concern human health and environmental risks as a result of the developed countries' activities. The analysis of community participation mechanisms can be used as a guide for Vieques and other communities around the world trying to achieve social, economic and environmental justice.

When citizens participate in risk assessment and decision-making for environmental and other issues that affect members of the public, more robust decisions may be made. Public participation in policy decisions is not only more democratic, but it also enables members of the public to contribute valuable expertise to the decision-making process. However, the development of an effective forum for such participatory projects has been difficult. Participation mechanisms that foster dialogue and interactive exchange between participants have been regarded as the most beneficial, but the practical application of these mechanisms has been observed to be problematic. The goal of this study is to examine the role of talk as a contributing factor to the limited success of dialogue-based participation mechanisms. To do this, this study performs a qualitative analysis of the dialogue that takes place when a group of scientists and a group of farmers participate in a project concerning sustainable biofuels in Iowa. This analysis finds that the scientists and farmers, as members of distinct communities of practice, have different ways of talking about their work, even as they talk about the same subjects. This observation illustrates that the discourse that takes place within participatory mechanisms, and not only the mechanism forum itself, is an important contribution to the success or failure of a citizen participation project.