Seeking to curb the sharp rise in litigation over environmental disputes, Congress has created the first Federally financed institute to encourage mediation as an alternative to trial.
The newly formed Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution will become an extension of the Morris K. Udall Foundation based in Tucson, Ariz.
''We think we are doing what Mo would have wanted us to be doing, although he probably would not have known what a conflict resolution mediator was,'' said Chris Helms, director of the Udall Foundation.
With an average of 1,000 environmental cases a year filed with district courts, the need for an alternative has never been greater, said Dr. Kirk Emerson, the institute's director.
''We believe we can arrive at good ideas without the adversarial process,'' Dr. Emerson said.
After an initial appropriation of $3 million to pay for a staff of 14, the institute will receive $1.25 million annually until 2002, when it is expected to be drawing enough client fees to support itself.
The basic idea behind mediation is simple: if two parties are brought together and can speak with professional but neutral experts, the theory says, a solution might be worked out.
Although Federal money has been used for mediation efforts in environmental disputes, the institute is the first federally financed organization dedicated solely to environmental mediation.
Advocates of the process cite the Snohomish River Basin agreement of 1974 as a dispute in which mediation techniques were first used to resolve a complex problem.
When, in 1959, after a major flood, the Federal Government proposed a dam on the Snohomish River in Washington, it seemed that nearly everyone within 100 miles of the dam site had something to say. Farmers favored the dam as a way to prevent flooding, local tribal governments worried about the impact it would have on fish, and kayakers thought it would spoil the great white water.
For 15 years these groups, each with different lawyers, battled in the courts. The Governor, Dan Evans, looked for an alternative. He appointed a group of 10 citizens to review the case, and within nine months they reached an agreement.
Environmental cases take, on average, over two years to work their way through the courts, Dr. Emerson said, and 10 percent of the cases take more than five years to resolve.
''The goal is to deal with these more efficiently and effectively,'' Dr. Emerson said.