Enforcing
Environmental Regulations
Corporate interests and their political allies have increasingly promoted
state "compliance assistance programs," which include everything
from voluntary guidelines to educational outreach to technical assistance,
while at the same time trimming regulatory agency budgets and staff. With
the decline in "deterrence-based enforcement" that actually
punishes environmental polluters with penalties, violators often receive
little or no disincentive for putting the public at risk. It is often
more profitable to pay fines than to quit polluting. While state regulatory
agencies are typically staffed with dedicated professionals, the lack
of time, resources, authority and, most of all, money have taken their
toll and resulted in dramatic declines in environmental regulation and
enforcement. It is essential that these public servants be given the tools
to do their job adequately, while also giving the public and legislators
the ability to chart how effective ALL current programs are in achieving
compliance. While taking a cooperative approach to achieving compliance
is a laudable goal, it becomes laughable if such efforts are not backed
with tough and reliable penalties for noncompliance. To learn more about
how you can improve environmental enforcement in your state, visit http://www.serconline.org/enforce/pkg_frameset.html. |
States
Take Over Wetlands Protection (Great Falls Tribune 3/10/3)
States are taking steps to protect their isolated wetlands after federal
agencies announced one month ago that federal protection of these areas
was coming to an end. According to estimates made by the US EPA, 20 percent
of all wetlands in the lower 48 states are isolated. Isolated wetlands
are key to regional water health, as they recharge groundwater, soak up
floodwaters, filter out pollutants, and provide habitat for wildlife.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that up to 43 percent of
the nation's endangered species rely on wetlands for their survival. Seventeen
states have taken specific measures to protect these wetlands. Many states
are, however, still unwilling to undertake new regulatory systems to protect
isolated wetlands in the face of severe budget shortfalls. Instead, states
are using new interpretations of existing legislation to protect these
important areas. For example, Montana, Nevada, and Idaho are using laws
that prohibit developers from dumping sediment or debris into state waters
to protect isolated wetlands. For more on how your state can protect wetlands,
see http://www.serconline.org/wetlands/index.html. |
In
Southwest, 'Xeriscaping' Replacing Lawns
(Washington Post 3/11/3)
After three dry summers, watching the water bills skyrocket as she
battled to save the lush manicured grass surrounding her Denver
home, Jan Dvorak prepared detailed charts of her lawn and garden
and paid $65 for a planning session with an expert who showed her
how to switch from traditional green landscaping to a "xeriscape"
– the use of plants and ground covers specifically chosen for the
semi-arid climate of the southwestern United States. The xeriscaping
revolution taking hold across this drought-stricken region promises
to bring a startling new look to cities such as Denver, Phoenix,
Salt Lake City and Los Angeles, where residential neighborhoods
have traditionally been marked by block after curving block of pampered
lawns of Kentucky bluegrass or similar species imported from the
rainy East Coast. "This whole section of the country is undergoing
a paradigm shift," says Ken Ball, a Denver landscape architect
who was one of the pioneers of the xeriscape concept two decades
ago. The term, coined by the Denver Water Board in 1981, stems from
the ancient Greek word for "dry" – xeros. Because lawn
watering is by far the biggest form of residential consumption,
water districts have issued warnings that sprinkling could be limited
or banned this summer. Homeowners are deciding that switching to
xeriscape is better than watching their lawns endure a long, slow
death by drought. |
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Illinois
Far Behind on Clean Air Law (Chicago
Tribune 3/11/3)
Nearly 150 Illinois power plants, factories and other businesses
are operating without federal clean air permits, putting communities
at risk from high levels of air pollution, according to a coalition
of environmental and public health groups. The program in charge
of issuing the federal Title V permits is funded entirely by permit
fees but the fees have remained too low to adequately run the program
and previous attempts at raising fees have been defeated. Although
80 percent of operating permits have been issued, 147 facilities,
including the state's largest polluters, coal-fired power plants,
have been left out. When the EPA approved the Illinois program in
1995, the state estimated that its fees would generate $17.8 million
a year, enough to support the necessary staff to administer the
program. That amount was never realized, in part because industry
reduced emissions. Although this year permit fees are expected to
generate $11 million, a minimum of $18 million is needed to sufficiently
run the program; the EPA fears that unless fees are increased, the
program will fall apart. |
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ATV
Use Is Topic of Several Maine Proposals
(AP 3/10/3)
Maine is taking steps to protect the environment from the use of
ATVs amid complaints of their effects on private property. The Inland
Fisheries and Wildlife committee will review nine bills aimed at
increasing regulations on ATV users. Private land owners have complained
of ATV users disregarding signs prohibiting ATV use on their land,
carving new trails and destroying old ones. In addition to the environmental
cost of ATVs, human life has also taken a toll – one death
and 292 injuries were reported in Maine during 2002 from ATV use.
The proposed bills include mandatory written permission from private
landholders to use ATVs on their land, triple liability for damages
caused to private land, and an increase of registration fees to
pay for increased regulations. For more on how your state can control
ATVs, see http://www.serconline.org/orv/pkg_frameset.html. |
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Anti-Light
Pollution Bill Gets Arizona Senate Push
(Arizona Daily Star 3/14/3)
SB 1218, which would limit light pollution in the six major cities,
was approved in the Arizona senate this week. Sen. Griffords remarked,
"There's a great concern that there's not a priority by the
state or an emphasis . . . at the state level that we're going to
try to do what we can to make sure that we limit the proliferation
of light pollution." Current regulations mandate that all new
lighting in all buildings must be fully or partially shielded. Under
the approved bill all new lighting would need to be fully shaded
because of the dramatic difference between partially and fully shielded
lights. Partially shielded lights only reduce, rather than eliminate,
stray light. The bill applies to communities with populations of
50,000 or more, along with state buildings of more than 6,000 sq.
ft, but does not require that lighting on existing buildings be
updated. Similar laws already exist in a dozen states, including
Colorado which passed its law in 2001. |
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Washington
State Tackles Electronic Waste (ENN
3/12/3)
Rep. Mike Cooper of WA recently introduced a bill that addresses
the growing problem of electronic waste disposal. HB1942 establishes
extended producer responsibility of electronic products, requiring
manufacturers to provide consumers with a way to recycle products
such as televisions, computers and cell phones, which can contain
toxic metals such as lead, mercury and cadmium. Similar approaches
have been instituted in Europe and Japan. The bill would also exclude
electronic waste from landfills, preventing toxic leaching and saving
taxpayers money. "Producer responsibility makes a lot of sense,"
said Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels. "It takes costs away from
our garbage rate payers and creates financial incentives for manufacturers
to make more environmentally responsible products." Similar
bills are expected to be introduced in at least 15 states this session.
For more information, see http://www.serconline.org/ewaste.html. |
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Massachusetts
Proposes Trimming Enforcement Attorneys
(Boston Globe 3/12/3)
Massachusetts will pass up millions of dollars in pollution fines
and virtually abandon enforcement of environmental laws if Gov.
Mitt Romney follows through with a plan to reduce the number of
state attorneys at the Dept. of Environmental Protection, an advocacy
group says. In an analysis to be released today, the group estimates
that $2.6 million is collected each year in fines through enforcement
actions and civil cases that the department's 38 full-time attorneys
generate for violations of clean air and water laws or rules on
wetlands or hazardous waste disposal. The estimated 800 attorneys
throughout state government – from social services to the Dept.
of Revenue – would be cut by half and consolidated under the office
of the solicitor general in a restructuring plan Romney has put
forward. DEP lawyers have complained that the move would be especially
counterproductive in the area of environmental law, which is highly
specialized and complex, and where well-paid lawyers work for corporate
clients and developers. |
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Maine
Bill Aims to Curb Greenhouse Emissions
(Kennebec Journal 3/14/3)
Rep. Theodore Koffman is sponsoring a bill that proposes several
steps to curb global warming, including an inventory of emissions
of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from state-owned facilities
and a plan to reduce those emissions to pre-1990 levels by 2010.
The bill requires Maine to enter into carbon emission reduction
agreements with at least 50 nonprofit organizations and businesses,
participate in a regional greenhouse gas registry, and set phased-in
goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 80 percent.
Advisers to President Bush say expensive measures to reduce emissions
are unjustified and question the science used in models forecasting
climate change. Other opponents, including Maine Oil Dealers and
Maine Petroleum associations, argue measures to regulate greenhouse
emissions cost too much and will drain away billions of dollars
as nearly all states face budget deficits. Supporters of the bill,
including the Maine Small Business Alliance, Physicians for Social
Responsibility, the Natural Resources Council of Maine, and the
Maine Council of Churches, stand behind scientific evidence confirming
gases produced from the burning of oil and coal, among other sources,
are blamed for contributing to greenhouse warming and global climate
change. |
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Integrating
Land Use Planning and Biodiversity
(Defenders of Wildlife, Feb. ‘03)
The Natural Resources Inventory estimates that in the United States,
2.2 million acres are now being converted to development each year.
If the ecological problems this loss of habitat presents are to
be solved, conservationists and land use planners must work together.
Many planners understand the importance of the natural environment
to their communities' quality of life, and realize that their decisions
can affect human society and wildlife habitats far into the future.
Despite this understanding and land use planning's influence on
the landscape, conservationists have traditionally made little use
of the local planning process in working toward biodiversity protection.
A new report from Defenders of Wildlife attempts to draw attention
to the numerous fledgling efforts at conservation planning currently
underway in communities throughout the country. These efforts show
how a variety of existing land use planning tools, such as incentive-based
programs and regulations, can be applied locally to protect biodiversity.
To read the report online, click on http://www.biodiversitypartners.org/Pubs/landuse/001.html. |
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