Regulatory reform revisited
!t
Richard M. h w d
Regulatory refilrm has k e n a popular theme in the effort to streamline environmental management practices. During different EPA administrations the phrase has implied degrees of change ranging from rcgulatory relief. to iniproving the efficiency and cost effcctiveness of regulations, to requiring niinor modifications in mathematical models used to predict conditions. When viewed over the long term. however, environmental regulatory reform has tended toward achieving more pollution reduction per control dollar spent or obtaining the same pollutant reductions at a lower cost, so that regulatory or statutory goals are still met or exceeded. In practice. environmental regulatory reforms can entail a number of options, including trading control obligations among neighhoring sources or p r d u c in: required results where it is lcast costly to do so. Seasonal controls (limited to water quality), which ad,just pollutant discharge limits to variable environmental conditions, have been put in place. EPA has also developed incentives for companies to adopt innovative (often technology-forcing) controls. processes, and products. Alternative management practices. such as self-auditing for compliance with applicable requirements, also have k e n used.
Air program changes Other innovations have included air quality "huhhling" and emissions tradW13-936X1851WlP0903%015010
ing. The Clean Air Act allows regulated sources to use less expensive reductions at one stack to meet more costly control requirements at others in the same plant, as long as equal environmental progress is achieved. EPA is continuing to develop its huhhle policy. and the agency has further resolved some of the issues arising from earlier court rulings (Regulatory Focus. €S&T August 1984, p. 249A). In most instanccs, source operators proposing huhhles in their air quality permits must obtain revisions to state implementation plans (SIPS). unless the state has promulgated its own generic huhhlc rules. By early 198% EPA had approved 40 huhhles as revisions to SIPS: 33 other huhhles had heen a p proved under state rules. More than 200 existing source bubbles-primarily for total suspended particulates and volatile organic compound emissionswere approved, proposed. or under review at power plants, refineries. greenhouses, and numerous manufacturing plants in 29 states. The estimate of the amount that these actions will reduce costs exceeds $800 million. Tn date. air quality huhhles have been restricted to existing sources. However. EPA recently proposed approval of the first huhhle for a source that is subject to a new source performance standard. In another air quality program, EPA's lead phase-down regulations authorize refiners to hank surplus lead reductions through 1987 to ease attainment of reduced lead levels in gasoline. This lead trading is estimated to have been used by nearly 60% of gasoline refiners, resulting in a $30-million saving in its first year of operation.
Water program changes EPA and several states have been exploring the cost effectiveness of seven innovative water quality control strate-
1985 American Chemical Society
gies where current technology has heen found inadequate in the anainment of water quality standards. Four of these innovations allow more efficient use of stream assimilative capacity (seasonal and variable permits, seasonal and sitespecific standards). Three of these approaches seek to optimize the allocation of controls for the same pollutant among discharges from industrial plants and between publicly owned trcatnient works (POTWs) and nonpoint sources. The state of Wisconsin has estimated that such innovative approaches for controlling biological oxygen demand may result in control cost savings of up to 512 million annually for 14 pulp and paper mills on the Fox and Wisconsin rivers. In Colorado, a 90% reduction in conventional control costs (totaling $1.3 million per year) was achieved at four POTWs from point-nonpoint source trading of controls on phosphorus loadings and urban runoff to the Dillon Reservoir. In another environmental program. several jurisdictions have used mitigation banking (through the purchase and donation of equivalcnt wetlands to the public) under wetland dredge-and-fill permits. where normal controls were infeasihle. Other reform efforts to improve environmental management practices include the development of an agency policy statement on performing public and private facility audits for compliance with applicable regulatory requirements. As in any reform movement. real change comes slowly, and achieving success in applying these innovations clearly depends on cooperative efforts between industry and government. Richard M. Dond, Ph.D., is a Washingron. D. C., ronsulranr ro Environnirnral Research & Tcchnolog?, Inc. Enviion. Sci. Technol.. Vol. 19. NO. 10, 1985 903
