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Public involvement, coupled with an organized plan to follow through on all concerns raised, can facilitate project reviews and permitting, minimize design changes, and identify lower cost alternatives. An extended case study of a six-year effort in southern New Jersey to build a treatment plant and pipeline, forms the basis of this article. Two basic steps in soliciting and supporting public involvement included identifying public goals and maintaining public support. The latter was achieved, in part, by offering the public many opportunities to comment on the plan--and then responding to those comments. For example, when selecting the pipeline route, the New Jersey American Water Works Service Company identified a number of routes as well as six criteria that would be used to judge the routes; these were discussed over 18 months in public meetings. Changes were made to address public concerns; many of the changes resulted in cost savings. As a result of encouraging public involvement, the utility was able to acquire 70 easements at a fair price for the pipeline and the treatment plant and intake without condemnation; shorten the length of the proposed pipeline by coordinating with an office park developer, and minimize traffic disruptions by coordinating pipeline construction with highway department projects. See more