New federalism and state implementation of the Clean Water Act

An important goal of the Reagan administration has been to shift responsibility for many public programs from the US federal government to the states. This New Federalism seeks to restore a proper balance to the federal system and to ensure an effective working partnership between the states and the federal government. Such a partnership is especially important for many environmental laws because these laws often give states primary responsibility for the control and abatement of pollution.This research examines the extent to which the Reagan administration has succeeded in improving intergovernmental environmental relations in terms of state implementation of the Clean Water Act. Data from a 1985 survey of directors of state water quality control programs are compared with responses to a similar survey that the US General Accounting Office conducted in 1979. The latter survey found considerable dissatisfaction on the part of state directors with the quality of their relations with the US Environmental Protection Agency. Although some improvement can be noted between 1979 and 1985, the Reagan administration's efforts to improve intergovernmental relations appear to have been of limited consequence, to the possible detriment of effective implementation of the Clean Water Act.     

Eco-Labeling and ISO 14000: An Analysis of US Regulatory Systems and Issues Concerning Adoption of Type II Standards

/ Current private and public regulatory systems may not provide an optimal degree of regulation for labels bearing environmental information, and established institutions may detract from efforts to provide for better environmental management. The advent of ISO 14000 offers new opportunities for making eco-labeling a meaningful tool to encourage environmental stewardship. While new federal legislation offers the best vehicle to introduce these standards into US law, the slow pace of the legislative process may recommend an alternative system. Multinational and civic-minded firms may be expected to employ private programs to nurture benevolent environmental management practices until more definitive governmental institutions can be put in place.KEY WORDS: Eco-labels; Environmental labeling; International standards; ISO 14000     

美国环境与健康管理体制借鉴

美国为应对环境污染带来的公共健康灾难,建立了环保局与卫生部既分工又协作的体制,两个部门都关注环境污染对人类健康的危害。在职能上,环保局侧重于管制和"污染者",卫生部侧重于服务和"潜在受害者"。联邦层面,环保局与卫生部在管制方面和研究(信息共享)方面紧密合作。地方层面,环保局的主要职能是监督各州执行联邦标准,卫生部的主要职能是提供健康和医疗服务,并在具体工作中密切配合。借鉴美国的经验教训,明确建立"公众健康优先"的环境管理价值取向,针对环境与健康风险管理的特点推进生态环境统一监管机构改革,以法治思维和法治方法推进环境与健康治理体系建设;加强科学研究,加快建设环境与健康风险控制信息系统。     

Science in the public process of ecosystem management: lessons from Hawaii, Southeast Asia, Africa and the US Mainland

Partnerships and co-operative environmental management are increasing worldwide as is the call for scientific input in the public process of ecosystem management. In Hawaii, private landowners, non-governmental organizations, and state and federal agencies have formed watershed partnerships to conserve and better manage upland forested watersheds. In this paper, findings of an international workshop convened in Hawaii to explore the strengths of approaches used to assess stakeholder values of environmental resources and foster consensus in the public process of ecosystem management are presented. Authors draw upon field experience in projects throughout Hawaii, Southeast Asia, Africa and the US mainland to derive a set of lessons learned that can be applied to Hawaiian and other watershed partnerships in an effort to promote consensus and sustainable ecosystem management. Interdisciplinary science-based models can serve as effective tools to identify areas of potential consensus in the process of ecosystem management. Effective integration of scientific input in co-operative ecosystem management depends on the role of science, the stakeholders and decision-makers involved, and the common language utilized to compare tradeoffs. Trust is essential to consensus building and the integration of scientific input must be transparent and inclusive of public feedback. Consideration of all relevant stakeholders and the actual benefits and costs of management activities to each stakeholder is essential. Perceptions and intuitive responses of people can be as influential as analytical processes in decision-making and must be addressed. Deliberative, dynamic and iterative decision-making processes all influence the level of stakeholder achievement of consensus. In Hawaii, application of lessons learned can promote more informed and democratic decision processes, quality scientific analysis that is relevant, and legitimacy and public acceptance of ecosystem management.     

A Nationally Consistent NHDPlus Framework for Identifying Interstate Waters: Implications for Integrated Assessments and Interjurisdictional TMDLs

The US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDL) program promotes nationally consistent approaches for documenting the progress in restoring impaired waters. EPA’s TMDL program provides tracking systems comprising both database and geographic information systems (GIS) mapping components. The GIS mapping is implemented using the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD). The EPA and the US Geological Survey have developed an enhanced NHD product (NHDPlus) that is applied in this study to define an interstate waters framework for the conterminous United States. This NHDPlus-based framework provides an efficient watershed-oriented approach for selecting interstate waters. Greater consistency in approaches for interstate waters is essential for providing improved techniques for integrated assessment and management programs. Improved analysis tools for interstate waters are clearly important from a federal perspective. Insights based on tools for federal interstate waters are also of interest for state water quality agencies when they deal with complicated interjurisdictional challenges that can require leveraging support from a wide range of stakeholders. Summaries are provided on the degree of consistency documented for inland waters where states have provided TMDL listing GIS information for shared interstate NHD reaches, and summaries are provided on the patterns for interstate assessments organized according to the ecoregions developed for EPA’s Wadeable Streams Assessment. The relevance of this interstate waters framework in leveraging the TMDL program to provide enhanced support for watershed oriented management approaches is also explored.     

The environmental dimension to security issues

Summary Citing topical international instances the author demonstrates that environmental impoverishment is a major cause for tension and hostilities between nations. He makes a strong case that an assessment of security concepts should include a measure of environmental and resource-based stability.Few threats to peace and survival of the human community are greater than those posed by the prospects of cumulative and irreversible degradation of the biosphere on which human life depends. In a global context, true security cannot be achieved by mounting buildup of weapons (defense in a narrow sense), but only by providing basic conditions for solving non-military problems which threaten them. Our survival depends not only on military balance, but on global cooperation to ensure a sustainable biological environment.Report of the Brandt Commission, 1980Dr Norman Myers is a consultant in environment and development. He is a prolific author and served as the General Editor toThe GaiaAtlas of Planet Management (1985). In 1983, Dr Myers was awarded the World Wildlife Fund Gold Medal for his work on conservation.     

Environmental Impact and Sustainable Development: An Analysis in the Context of Standards ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and OHSAS 18001

In this study, we seek to verify the contributions made by three international standards to efforts by eight companies to reduce their environmental impacts and move toward sustainable development. The standards considered in this article are the International Organization for Standardization's (ISO) 9001 (quality), ISO 14001 (environmental management systems), and the Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series (OHSAS) 18001. The eight companies analyzed for this study are located in the state of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil. As part of this work, the authors generated a proposed sustainable positioning matrix and placed each company within one of four quadrants—economic approach, environmental approach, social approach, and sustainability approach—derived from the context of the Triple Bottom Line (Elkington, 2004 ).     

A CRITIQUE OF WATERSHED MANAGEMENT EFFORTS IN THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI ALLUVIAL PLAIN1

ABSTRACT: Integrated watershed management in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Plain (Delta) requires blending federal, state, and local authority. The federal government has preeminent authority over interstate navigable waters. Conversely, state and local governments have authority vital for comprehensive watershed management. In the Delta, integrating three broad legal and administrative regimes: (1) flood control, (2) agricultural watershed management, and (3) natural resources and environmental management, is vital for comprehensive intrastate watershed, and interstate river basin management. Federal Mississippi River flood control projects incorporated previous state and local efforts. Similarly, federal agricultural programs in the River's tributary headwaters adopted watershed management and were integrated into flood control efforts. These legal and administrative regimes implement national policy largely in cooperation with and through technical and financial assistance to local agencies such as levee commissions and soil and water conservation districts. This administrative infrastructure could address new national concerns such as nonpoint source pollution which require a watershed scale management approach. However, the natural resources and environmental management regime lacks a local administrative infrastructure. Many governmental and non governmental coordinating organizations have recently formed to address this shortcoming in the Delta. With federal and state leadership and support, these organizations could provide mechanisms to better integrate natural resources and environmental issues into the Delta's existing local administrative infrastructure.     

美国湖泊调查评价技术及对我国湖泊生态环境管理的启示

自2006年起,美国环保署(EPA)在美国本土开展了两次湖泊生态状况调查和评估,从营养状态、生物健康和休闲娱乐的关键指标开展评估,旨在摸清美国湖泊生态环境现状和影响湖泊生态健康的关键胁迫因子。EPA逐步形成了涵盖水文、水质、水生生物等多重指标在内的湖泊调查评估体系,该体系已成为美国湖泊环境管理系统的重要组成部分,为湖泊环境保护和水生态系统恢复提供了有力支持。本文从清单建立、重点调查湖泊清单筛选、采样布点、监测指标、评估方法等方面系统研究总结美国湖泊调查评估的关键技术方法体系,以期为我国湖泊生态环境保护和环境管理工作提供借鉴。     

美国《清洁空气法》中的环境质量达标制度研究——以联邦与地方的权限为视角

虽然针对美国《清洁空气法》(CAA)的研究众多,然而诸多研究并未发掘至其之所以先进的核心。CAA之所以先进的关键在于重新分配法律(EPA是其代表)与州政府之间权力与义务的环境质量达标制度。CAA要求在联邦层面构建一个约束美国各州的大气环境质量标准体系,并且以各州的客观环境与发展程度为前提,赋予各州政府一系列的大气环境质量目标。各州政府需要在自身的权限范围内采取行动,从而为这一系列目标向联邦负责。CAA将自身的法律设置分为两大内容(或称两大原则):国家空气质量标准原则与州政府独立实施原则,并将两大原则转化为具体的程序:NAAQS与SIP。代表国家法律的环保署与代表实际环境义务承担者的州政府之间,是互相依赖又互相独立的关系。     

State wetlands and riparian area protection programs

The protection of wetlands and riparian areas has emerged as an important environmental planning issue. In the United States, several federal and state laws have been enacted to protect wetlands and riparian areas. Specifically, the federal Clean Water Act includes protection requirements in Sections 301 and 303 for state water quality standards, Section 401 for state certification of federal actions (projects, permits, and licenses), and Section 404 for dredge and fill permits. The Section 401 water quality state certification element has been called the “sleeping giant” of wetlands protection because it empowers state officials to veto or condition federally permitted or licensed activities that do not comply with state water quality standards. State officials have used this power infrequently. The purpose of this research was to analyze the effectiveness of state wetland and riparian programs. Contacts were established with officials in each state and in the national and regional offices of key federal agencies. Based on interviews and on a review of federal and state laws, state program effectiveness was analyzed. From this analysis, several problems and opportunities facing state wetland protection efforts are presented.     

Promoting Good Environmental Management: Lessons from BS 5750

This paper evaluates the adoption of standards as proof of and an incentive for sound environmental practice in business and industry. The paper outlines the origins of environmental management and the development of the first environmental management standard BS 7750. The background to quality management is outlined to provide a context for these developments. The paper then goes on to examine the likely success of BS 7750 in actually improving the environmental performance of organizations in the light of experience in the field of quality. Finally, alternative approaches are looked at as ways of achieving environmental improvement.     

Creating and sustaining community capacity for ecosystem-based management: Is local government the key?

Recently, collaborative approaches to natural resource management have been widely promoted as ways to broaden participation and community involvement in furthering the goals of ecosystem management. The language of collaboration has even been incorporated into controversial legislation, such as the US Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003. This research examines collaboration and sharing management responsibility for federal public land with local communities through a case study of the Ashland Municipal Watershed in southern Oregon. A policy sciences approach is used to analyze community participation and institutional relationships between the US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, and local city government in the planning processes of five land management actions occurring over a 7-year period. The knowledge gained from examining differing approaches to planning and decision making in the Ashland watershed is used to suggest future planning processes to develop and sustain the community capacity necessary to support implementation of community-based ecosystem management.     

Bottom-Up Risk Regulation? How Nanotechnology Risk Knowledge Gaps Challenge Federal and State Environmental Agencies

Nanotechnologies have been called the "Next Industrial Revolution." At the same time, scientists are raising concerns about the potential health and environmental risks related to the nano-sized materials used in nanotechnologies. Analyses suggest that current U.S. federal regulatory structures are not likely to adequately address these risks in a proactive manner. Given these trends, the premise of this paper is that state and local-level agencies will likely deal with many "end-of-pipe" issues as nanomaterials enter environmental media without prior toxicity testing, federal standards, or emissions controls. In this paper we (1) briefly describe potential environmental risks and benefits related to emerging nanotechnologies; (2) outline the capacities of the Toxic Substances Control Act, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Resources Conservation and Recovery Act to address potential nanotechnology risks, and how risk data gaps challenge these regulations; (3) outline some of the key data gaps that challenge state-level regulatory capacities to address nanotechnologies' potential risks, using Wisconsin as a case study; and (4) discuss advantages and disadvantages of state versus federal approaches to nanotechnology risk regulation. In summary, we suggest some ways government agencies can be better prepared to address nanotechnology risk knowledge gaps and risk management.     

Institutions for Interstate Water Resources Management1

Abstract:  This paper evaluates alternative approaches to management of interstate water resources in the United States (U.S.), including interstate compacts, interstate associations, federal‐state partnerships, and federal‐interstate compacts. These governance structures provide alternatives to traditional federalism or U.S. Supreme Court litigation for addressing problems that transcend political boundaries and functional responsibilities. Interstate compacts can provide a forum for ongoing collaboration and are popular mechanisms for allocating water rights among the states. Federal‐interstate compacts, such as the Delaware River Basin Compact and federal‐state partnerships, such as the National Estuary Program, are also effective and complementary approaches to managing water resources. However, all of these approaches can only make modest improvements in managing water resources given the complicated and fragmented nature of our federalist system of government.     

Corporations and the environment: A new perspective

Summary The author presents the results of a pilot study which explored the voluntary support given by seven Pittsburgh multinationals to environmental goals and objectives through their foundations and operations. While much of the information is national in scope, the findings have international significance. Fundamental common key factors and patterns were identified which already have and will continue to guide most corporate international environmental activities. As interest grows in developing cooperative undertakings with the corporate community, it is important for environmental organizations, government, and academia to understand these patterns. Based on the findings and on suggestions by corporate representatives, recommendations are given as to how support of the goal of creating sustainable societies by the corporate and environmental communities can be improved and increased. Dr Langord's interest in urban and environmental policies range from issues dealing with coastal zone and floodplain management to urban waterfront re-vitalization and environmental aesthetics. Most recently she is studying the role of industry in helping to meet critical resource and environmental needs. She is exploring new patterns of cooperation with government, industry and environmental organizations. Currently Director of the International Environment Program, Center for International Studies, University of Pittsburgh, Dr Langord has held a number of academic positions, served as a resource policy analyst for the US Department of Interior, and has acted as a consultant to government and industry.     

Planning for environmental project implementation and development: as exemplified by the songklha lake basin planning study,Thailand

Summary This paper describes use of the economic-cumenvironmental regional development planning process (as differentiated from regional economic planning and regional environmental planning) for its first application in the Asia-Pacific region, for The Songkhla Lake Basin Planning Study, in southern Thailand. The study project was carried out, with Asian Development Bank (ADB) loan financing, as a joint venture of the national economic and national environmental planning agencies. Because of its pioneering nature, in both technical and institutional aspects, numerous lessons were learned from the project. These are described, and yield guidelines valuable for future studies of this type.Dr Harvey F. Ludwig, Chairman of Seatec International Consulting Engineers in Bangkok, has a unique record of distinguished experience in environmental engineering. This includes, in addition to his present role, experience as a professor at the University of California at Berkeley, in research (four USA national awards), in government (as Assistant Chief Engineer of the US Public Health Service Engineering Group, the predecessor to USEPA), and with numerous international assistance agencies including the World Bank, ADB, and many UN affiliates. Dr Ludwig moved to live in Bangkok in 1973 and has since been a continuing adviser to the National Environment Board of Thailand and to the Institutes of Water Resources Research of Indonesia. He is the author/coauthor of some 160 professional publications and the senior author of a textbook onEnvironmental Technology in Developing Countries, now being printed by CRC Press of Boca Raton, Florida. His work record includes projects in more than 30 Developing countries.     

The Supreme Court,the commerce clause,and natural resources

The Supreme Court's interpretation of the commerce clause controls the balance of power between state and federal governments in the United States. An understanding of the relationship between the different government levels is essential for resource managers concerned with resource and environmental issues. This study examines selected Supreme Court decisions between 1976 and 1988 to answer three questions raised by the commerce clause: (1) Is the regulated item an article of commerce? (2) Do state laws burden interstate commerce? (3) Is federal commerce regulation limited? The balance of power among the justices and the commerce clause theories affecting the federal role in resource management are also examined. Since ratification of the Constitution, the Supreme Court has continuously increased federal power, but states have power to act independently as long as contradictory federal laws do not exist and state law does not impermissively affect commerce. If Congress regulates an individual's use of resources, their power is unquestioned. Future Court decisions will not significantly reduce the federal role in resource management even if the Court's membership changes. Even the supporters of states' rights on the Court realize increased federal power is a necessary part of the country's evolution. The purpose of the commerce clause is to create a national economic unit with free location principles. The Court supports this purpose today and will in the future.     

Environmental Management and the New Politics of Western Water: The Animas-La Plata Project and Implementation of the Endangered Species Act

/ This paper explores the new politics of western water policy through an examination of the Animas-La Plata water project and implementation of the Endangered Species Act. It is suggested that the focus of western water programming has shifted from the source of distributed funds, the United States Congress, to the agencies originally created to deliver federal benefits because funding for new project construction has not been forthcoming. Under this new system, members of Congress continue to excite their constituents with promises of money for new project starts, while the administrative agencies perform the myriad duties needed to keep these projects alive. The result is that political objectives have replaced operational/management objectives in administrative processes. In this case, the author demonstrates how resource managers in the Bureau of Reclamation manipulated hydrological analysis to control administrative process, why their manipulation was unfair, and perhaps illegal, and why biologists from the US Fish and Wildlife Service accepted the analysis. While ostensibly protecting all interests, the result is that none of the objectives of federal water programming are achieved. KEY WORDS: Environmental management; Administrative politics; Water policy; Endangered Species Act; Animas-La Plata, Bureau of Reclamation     

The Tribal Environment: Solid Waste in Indian Country

The issue of solid waste management in Indian country is multidimensional in scope because it affects more than just regulatory concerns. There are more than 550 federally recognized Alaska Native and American Indian Tribes in the United States. Tribes are sovereign nations that have a special relationship to the federal government and a unique legal status. The environmental problems faced by tribes are many, and it is only fair that tribes, as sovereigns, specify the levels of protection on their lands. The one-size-fits-all regulatory approach to environmental problems and solid waste management in particular does not work and often leads to conflict between tribes and the federal and state governments. Inherent tensions also exist between tribes and various levels of government concerning jurisdiction of lands and managing solid waste. These intergovernmental relationships are often complex and present unique challenges to all. More research needs to be done on targeting resources to meet the capacity-building needs of tribes, as well as the overall environmental management needs of Indian country under the federal trust obligation. Successful intergovernmental relationships can be fostered through partnership arrangements between tribes and federal, state, and local governments. In the area of solid waste such partnerships have worked. It requires that all levels of government deal with tribes with careful consideration of their cultural, historic, and socioeconomic aspects, which are often intertwined.