Impact of BODs on Fish

Types of

organisms

Dissolved

oxygen

(ppm)

Biological

oxygen

demand

Normal clean water organisms

(Trout, perch, bass,

mayfly, stonefly)

8 ppm

Trash fish

(carp, gar,

leeches)

Fish absent,

fungi, sludge

worms,

bacteria

(anaerobic)

Trash fish

(carp, gar,

leeches)

Normal clean water organisms

(Trout, perch, bass,

mayfly, stonefly)

8 ppm

Clean ZoneDecomposition

Zone

Septic

Zone

Recovery

Zone

Clean

Zone

NPEDES

• Rulemaking Process

• Regulatory Output

• Abatement Costs

• Compliance

• Environmental Impact

• Perverse Incentives

Permitting

• “Permits are the legally binding terms that a control authority imposes on a pollution sources as a conditions for building or operating the sources. Permits are designed to reconcile what the source emits with what standards allow. Permits are the basis for compliance, the key to pollution control, the nexus between the control authority and the pollution sources.”– Davies, Reforming Permitting

Permitting Process

• Expensive• Complex, Long• Many agencies, • Separate permit for each media

– CAA, Title V– CWA– RCRA

• Dynamic nature of process

Regulatory Impact

• Permits = Bargaining

• Consent of regulated Success

• New facilities versus Renewal

Compliance

• Bethlehem Steel, MD– 48th biggest toxic metal

polluter

– CWA permit expires 1985

• Fragmentation- Frigidaire

Power!

• Administrative Discretion = Power!– Manchester Sewer

Overflow

– Permit requirements are in “policy guidance” to states

– No one sues, it is legal

the initial

                                                                      

A Better Way?

“Cheaper, Faster, Better”

• “Goals of the program are to achieve a cleaner environment at the lowest cost.”– President Clinton

• "The old way of doing business was that government dictates every move a business must take to protect the environment. The new system, envisioned by Project XL, is to work cooperatively and focus on the results: a cleaner environment; a faster, less costly system; with more input from the local community."– Intel CEO, Gordon Moore

Project XL

• Flexibility for Superior Environmental Performance (SEP)

• Site-specific plans • Stakeholder

negotiations• Voluntary

Intel

• Why go XL?• Deliver SEP?• Stakeholders?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

SEP

• Intel trades– 50% less air pollutants

– Conserve water

– Reduce Chemical waste 60%

– Pretty Campus

• EPA– Modest flexibility

• Sound good?

Weyerhaeuser, GA

• 500 jobs, $75 million• 320,000 mton of

bleached softwood kraft market fluff pulp

Weyerhauser

• SEP– 60% air emissions

– Renewable forest mgmt practices 300k acres

– Stricter h2o effluents limits

• Innovation– Closed loop

– No bleach dumping

– Reduce hazardous waste 90%

Merck Stonewall Plant

• Trading Ozone for Smog

Substantive Issues

• What is “superior environmental performance”– What’s the baseline, Kenneth?– “Clear reduction in risk” ?– Whose environmental priorities– habitat, green

space, parks – Okay to trade for social/political benefits

Procedural Issues

• Role of “outside stakeholders”

• Power of stakeholders, veto?– Absolute conesnes

• Expertise

• Time Consuming

• Legal?– No protection from citizen suits

Big ?s

• Goals of Reinvention?– Balance between environmental quality and

reducing compliance costs– When to trade-off– Who makes trade off?

• What if no-one wanted to reinvent the process?