Project Manager Simulation: Waste Disposal Facility

I completed this project for my Technical Writing course as a part of my Professional Writing Major. The objective for this project was to create a proposal for city board members about where the new waste disposal facility should be located, choosing from three different locations-- each with their own benefits and shortcomings. The essay below was intended for the city management, followed by a multimedia presentation, highlighting proposal-writing and presentation-creation skills.

As project manager for the reappropriation of our city’s land to a new waste disposal facility, it is my responsibility to put the safety and wellbeing of the people first, as the new facility is intended to benefit our people, after all. That being said, the task of choosing where to place the new facility was not uncomplicated and effortless. There are a total of three options in where the new facility can be placed: 1) near the water treatment facility, 2) near the park, taking 15 acres of land from the park itself and 15 acres of land surrounding the park, or 3) located between the lower income housing communities and the city center. In the best interest of our citizens, I have decided to use 15 acres of public land in addition to 15 acres of our park’s land to create 30 acres of land for the facility, as this is the minimum amount of land needed for full functionality. Although this decision was made with heavy heart, it does not have a direct impact on the people of our city, or at least not to the degree of the alternative options: these would be seen if we put the waste disposal facility near the water treatment facility (posing a risk to public health), or if we put it in between our low income housing and the city center (potentially negatively impacting commute times and availability of public transportation).

To begin, I have made my decision according to a series of articles related to the topic, and have guided my decision making through the three C’s of making ethical decisions (as this is largely an ethical dilemma): commitment, or putting the people first and the costs/payouts and the building second; consciousness, which is the awareness of the current issues and intricacies of our people in order to make decisions accordingly; and finally, competency, which is the ability to see both the advantages and disadvantages from every side of an issue, and considering all information when making a decision (Josephson Institute of Ethics, 2016). Commitment is something that is decided for me as project manager—the numbers have all been decided and we know how much land we need; it is just a matter of deciding which of the land options best suits the needs of our people. When making a decision that impacts every citizen in this city, it is imperative that the people are put first, which is why I have chosen the second option for the land reappropriation for the new waste disposal facility.

The reason why I decided not to place it near low income housing is intended to be a proactive decision—according to data provided by the U.S Census in 2020, national poverty rates and low incomes are predominately held by the non-white citizens of the United States. If we then decided that we should put the lower income peoples of our city at a disadvantage for growth or success, then we, as a city, and as project manager, would be contributing to systemic racism. Now, this might seem as if I am not treating all people of our city equally, but in fact I am actively denying the “color-blind” people’s ideology who insist that there are racist incidents or racist “deviations”, but the presence of racism in our governments and city systems is nonexistent (Dijk, 2008). If we are to use our privilege to disadvantage those of lower incomes, then we are reinforcing the polarization between the lower and upper class, and therefore, separating the minorities from white people. We should not only protect their land, but even promote greater access to city centers, open more jobs, and dismantle “environmental racism” (Pulido, 2017).

Along the same lines as before, I chose not to place the waste disposal facility in close proximity to the water treatment facility, as this greatly increases the chance of water contamination, which is a risk I am not willing to take for the waste disposal facility. This option would have allocated a whopping 40 acres for the new facility, but the sum of land does not make up for the series of potential dangers and threats to our people, the benefits do not outweigh the downfalls. Also, having both facilities in the same location would cause a lot of land destruction in one area to allow for the buildings to have enough space and for parking lots for the employees, and possible road additions, which would bring on an expansion we may not have accounted for prior and may turn out more expensive than it is worth. It also would require a lot of power to run this specific area of the city if two facilities were near each other, and the chance of outages is likely.

For this type of project I have chosen to do a PowerPoint with audio, converting it to a video file. Because this is a virtual assignment and it is simulating the role of a project manager, I did not want the user to have to scroll through a PowerPoint and click on each audio, as this is too much work and takes away from the content. Recording the narrations and having timings for each slide allows me to have control of the presentation just as if it were done in person. I also believe it should be done from an accessible format, so I chose to convert it to a video and post it to YouTube because it is simpler to click a link than it is to download and navigate through a file. YouTube also creates closed captioning for its videos, making it more accessible to the hard of hearing, and the audio is more accessible for those with poor/no vision.

Sources:

Bureau, U. S. C. (2020, September 15). Poverty Rates for Blacks and Hispanics Reached Historic Lows in 2019. The United States Census Bureau. https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2020/09/poverty-rates-for-blacks-and-hispanics- reached-historic-lows-in-2019.html.

Dijk, Van, T. A. (2008). Discourse and the Denial of Racism. Discourse and Power, 120–154. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-07299-3_6

Josephson Institute of Ethics. (2016, May 4). Making Ethical Decisions: Process. https://blink.ucsd.edu/finance/accountability/ethics/process.html#:~:text=Ethical%20deci sion%2Dmaking%20refers%20to,select%20the%20best%20ethical%20alternative.

Pulido, L. (2017). Rethinking Environmental Racism: White Privilege and Urban Development in Southern California. Environment, 379–407. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315256351-17