Toxics Use Reduction in Massachusetts: The Blackstone Project

The article reports on the first year of the Blackstone Project, a joint pilot project of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the Department of Environmental Management (DEM). The project is being used to test the best approach to promoting toxics use reduction (similar to ”source reduction“ as defined by EPA). In the project, the two state agencies are testing different methods of inspecting compliance across media (i.e. compliance to air, water, hazardous waste, and Right-to-Know requirements), biasing enforcement actions towards toxics use reduction, and coordinating regulatory activity with technical assistance activity. The Blackstone Project Team finds that the approach tested in the Blackstone Project was successful in its setting. A wide range of environmental protection objectives was cost effectively met through the Blackstone approach. In FY91, DEP will test the approach in the other DEP Regional Offices, with more facilities of a wider variety.