Overrepresentation of private interests and underrepresentation of public interests has been endemic in citizen participation in water planning in the USA for many years. Attempts to correct imbalance in interest representation have not been successful. Such failure is explained by showing that traditional perceptions may not be valid. Empirical evidence from the North Carolina nonpoint pollution control planning program is used. Categories of public and private participants are developed. Agency staff interpretations of representation are reported—staff believed private participants were heavily overrepresented. The participant categories are tested. Staff interpretations are tested against participant attitudes. Surprisingly, participant attitudes do not support the staff interpretations. Possible explanations are considered. Conclusions identify limitations in traditional categorizations of interests and suggest that participants respond to a wide array of incentives and disincentives, not just material rewards.
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