Regulation and monitoring of pollution
Encyclopedia
To protect the environment from the adverse effects of pollution, many nations worldwide have enacted legislation to regulate various types of pollution as well as to mitigate the adverse effects of pollution.
and its agencies to address international pollution issues.
is an amendment to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC), an international treaty on global warming
. It also reaffirms sections of the UNFCCC. Countries which ratify this protocol commit to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide
and five other greenhouse gases, or engage in emissions trading
if they maintain or increase emissions of these gases. A total of 141 countries have ratified the agreement. Notable exceptions include the United States
and Australia
, who have signed but not ratified the agreement. The stated reason for the United States not ratifying is the exemption of large emitters of greenhouse gases who are also developing countries
, like China
and India
.
An UN environmental conference
held in Bali
3–14 December 2007 with the participation from 180 countries aims to replace the Kyoto Protocol
, which will end in 2012. During the first day of the conference USA, Saudi Arabia
and Canada
were presented with the "Fossil-of-the-day-award", a symbolic bag of coal for their negative impact on the global climate. The bags included the flags of the respective countries.
reluctantly censored a report revealing that 750,000 people in China die every year as a result of pollution-related diseases. China's State Environment Protection Agency and the Health Ministry asked the World Bank to cut the calculations of premature deaths from the report fearing the revelation would provoke "social unrest".
96/61/EC of 24 September 1996 concerning integrated pollution prevention and control (IPCC) and the National Emission Ceilings Directive.
brought onto the statute books legislation to control water pollution. It was extended to all rivers and coastal water by 1961. However, currently the clean up of historic contamination is controlled under a specific statutory scheme found in Part IIA of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (Part IIA), as inserted by the Environment Act 1995, and other ‘rules’ found in regulations and statutory guidance. The Act came into force in England in April 2000.
Within the current regulatory framework, Pollution Prevention and Control (PPC) is a regime for controlling pollution from certain industrial activities. The regime introduces the concept of Best Available Techniques ("BAT") to environmental regulations. Operators must use the BAT to control pollution from their industrial activities to prevent, and where that is not practicable, to reduce to acceptable levels, pollution to air, land and water from industrial activities. The Best Available Techniques also aim to balance the cost to the operator against benefits to the environment.
The system of Pollution Prevention and Control is replacing that of Integrated Pollution Control (IPC) (which was established by the Environmental Protection Act 1990) and is taking effect between 2000 and 2007. The Pollution Prevention and Control regime implements the European Directive (EC/96/61) on integrated pollution prevention and control.
The United States Congress
passed the Clean Air Act
in 1963 to legislate the reduction of smog
and atmospheric pollution
in general. That legislation has subsequently been amended and extended in 1966, 1970, 1977 and 1990. Numerous state and local governments have enacted similar legislation either implementing or filling in locally important gaps in the national program. The national Clean Air Act and similar state legislative acts have led to the widespread use of atmospheric dispersion modeling
in order to analyze the air quality impacts of proposed major actions. With the 1990 Clean Air Act
, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) began a controversial carbon trading
system in which tradable rights to emit a specified level of carbon are granted to polluters.
Enactment of the 1972 Clean Water Act
required facilities to obtain permits for discharges to navigable waters and establishment of national discharge standards for municipal sewage treatment
plants and many industrial categories. It required use of best management practices
for a wide range of other water discharges including nonpoint source pollution
. Amendments in 1977 required stricter regulation of toxic pollutants. In 1987 Congress added permit coverage for municipal and industrial stormwater
discharges.
Congress passed the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
(RCRA) in 1976, which created a regulatory framework for both municipal solid waste
and hazardous waste
disposed on land. RCRA requires that all hazardous wastes be managed and tracked from generation of the waste, through transport and processing, to final disposal, by means of a nationwide permit system. The Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments of 1984 mandated regulation of underground storage tank
s containing petroleum and hazardous chemicals, and the phasing out of land disposal of hazardous waste. The Federal Facilities Compliance Act, passed in 1992, clarified RCRA coverage of federally-owned properties such as military bases. Illegal disposal of waste is punishable by fines of up to $25,000 per occurrence.
Passage of the Noise Control Act
in 1972 established mechanisms of setting emission standards for virtually every source of noise including motor vehicles, aircraft, certain types of HVAC
equipment and major appliances. It also put local government on notice as to their responsibilities in land use
planning to address noise mitigation
. This noise regulation
framework comprised a broad data base detailing the extent of noise health effects
. Congress ended funding of the federal noise control program in 1981, which curtailed development of further national regulations.
The state of California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has maintained an independent list of substances with product labeling requirements as part of Proposition 65 since 1986.
International
Since pollution crosses political boundaries international treaties have been made through the United NationsUnited Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
and its agencies to address international pollution issues.
Greenhouse gas emissions
The Kyoto ProtocolKyoto Protocol
The Kyoto Protocol is a protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change , aimed at fighting global warming...
is an amendment to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is an international environmental treaty produced at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development , informally known as the Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro from June 3 to 14, 1992...
(UNFCCC), an international treaty on global warming
Global warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
. It also reaffirms sections of the UNFCCC. Countries which ratify this protocol commit to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom...
and five other greenhouse gases, or engage in emissions trading
Emissions trading
Emissions trading is a market-based approach used to control pollution by providing economic incentives for achieving reductions in the emissions of pollutants....
if they maintain or increase emissions of these gases. A total of 141 countries have ratified the agreement. Notable exceptions include the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, who have signed but not ratified the agreement. The stated reason for the United States not ratifying is the exemption of large emitters of greenhouse gases who are also developing countries
Developing country
A developing country, also known as a less-developed country, is a nation with a low level of material well-being. Since no single definition of the term developing country is recognized internationally, the levels of development may vary widely within so-called developing countries...
, like China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
and India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
.
An UN environmental conference
2007 United Nations Climate Change Conference
The 2007 United Nations Climate Change Conference took place at the Bali International Conference Centre, Nusa Dua, in Bali, Indonesia, between December 3 and December 15, 2007 . Representatives from over 180 countries attended, together with observers from intergovernmental and nongovernmental...
held in Bali
Bali
Bali is an Indonesian island located in the westernmost end of the Lesser Sunda Islands, lying between Java to the west and Lombok to the east...
3–14 December 2007 with the participation from 180 countries aims to replace the Kyoto Protocol
Kyoto Protocol
The Kyoto Protocol is a protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change , aimed at fighting global warming...
, which will end in 2012. During the first day of the conference USA, Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
were presented with the "Fossil-of-the-day-award", a symbolic bag of coal for their negative impact on the global climate. The bags included the flags of the respective countries.
Canada
In Canada the regulation of pollution and its effects are monitored by a number of organizations depending on the nature of the pollution and its location. The three levels of government (Federal - Canada Wide; Provincial; and Municipal) equally share in the responsibilities, and in the monitoring and correction of pollution.China
China's rapid industrialization has substantially increased pollution. China has some relevant regulations: the 1979 Environmental Protection Law, which was largely modelled on U.S. legislation. But the environment continues to deteriorate. Twelve years after the law, only one Chinese city was making an effort to clean up its water discharges. This indicates that China is about 30 years behind the U.S. schedule of environmental regulation and 10 to 20 years behind Europe. In July 2007, it was reported that the World BankWorld Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
reluctantly censored a report revealing that 750,000 people in China die every year as a result of pollution-related diseases. China's State Environment Protection Agency and the Health Ministry asked the World Bank to cut the calculations of premature deaths from the report fearing the revelation would provoke "social unrest".
Europe
The basic European rules are included in the DirectiveDirective
Directive may refer to:* Directive , a legislative act of the European Union* Directive , a highly-acclaimed poem by Robert Frost...
96/61/EC of 24 September 1996 concerning integrated pollution prevention and control (IPCC) and the National Emission Ceilings Directive.
United Kingdom
In the 1840s, the United KingdomUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
brought onto the statute books legislation to control water pollution. It was extended to all rivers and coastal water by 1961. However, currently the clean up of historic contamination is controlled under a specific statutory scheme found in Part IIA of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (Part IIA), as inserted by the Environment Act 1995, and other ‘rules’ found in regulations and statutory guidance. The Act came into force in England in April 2000.
Within the current regulatory framework, Pollution Prevention and Control (PPC) is a regime for controlling pollution from certain industrial activities. The regime introduces the concept of Best Available Techniques ("BAT") to environmental regulations. Operators must use the BAT to control pollution from their industrial activities to prevent, and where that is not practicable, to reduce to acceptable levels, pollution to air, land and water from industrial activities. The Best Available Techniques also aim to balance the cost to the operator against benefits to the environment.
The system of Pollution Prevention and Control is replacing that of Integrated Pollution Control (IPC) (which was established by the Environmental Protection Act 1990) and is taking effect between 2000 and 2007. The Pollution Prevention and Control regime implements the European Directive (EC/96/61) on integrated pollution prevention and control.
United States
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
passed the Clean Air Act
Clean Air Act
A Clean Air Act is one of a number of pieces of legislation relating to the reduction of airborne contaminants, smog and air pollution in general. The use by governments to enforce clean air standards has contributed to an improvement in human health and longer life spans...
in 1963 to legislate the reduction of smog
Smog
Smog is a type of air pollution; the word "smog" is a portmanteau of smoke and fog. Modern smog is a type of air pollution derived from vehicular emission from internal combustion engines and industrial fumes that react in the atmosphere with sunlight to form secondary pollutants that also combine...
and atmospheric pollution
Air pollution
Air pollution is the introduction of chemicals, particulate matter, or biological materials that cause harm or discomfort to humans or other living organisms, or cause damage to the natural environment or built environment, into the atmosphere....
in general. That legislation has subsequently been amended and extended in 1966, 1970, 1977 and 1990. Numerous state and local governments have enacted similar legislation either implementing or filling in locally important gaps in the national program. The national Clean Air Act and similar state legislative acts have led to the widespread use of atmospheric dispersion modeling
Atmospheric dispersion modeling
Atmospheric dispersion modeling is the mathematical simulation of how air pollutants disperse in the ambient atmosphere. It is performed with computer programs that solve the mathematical equations and algorithms which simulate the pollutant dispersion...
in order to analyze the air quality impacts of proposed major actions. With the 1990 Clean Air Act
Clean Air Act
A Clean Air Act is one of a number of pieces of legislation relating to the reduction of airborne contaminants, smog and air pollution in general. The use by governments to enforce clean air standards has contributed to an improvement in human health and longer life spans...
, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) began a controversial carbon trading
Carbon trading
Carbon trading may refer to:*Carbon emission trading*Personal carbon trading*Emissions trading...
system in which tradable rights to emit a specified level of carbon are granted to polluters.
Enactment of the 1972 Clean Water Act
Clean Water Act
The Clean Water Act is the primary federal law in the United States governing water pollution. Commonly abbreviated as the CWA, the act established the goals of eliminating releases of high amounts of toxic substances into water, eliminating additional water pollution by 1985, and ensuring that...
required facilities to obtain permits for discharges to navigable waters and establishment of national discharge standards for municipal sewage treatment
Sewage treatment
Sewage treatment, or domestic wastewater treatment, is the process of removing contaminants from wastewater and household sewage, both runoff and domestic. It includes physical, chemical, and biological processes to remove physical, chemical and biological contaminants...
plants and many industrial categories. It required use of best management practices
Best management practice for water pollution
Best Management Practices is a term used in the United States and Canada to describe a type of water pollution control. Historically the term has referred to auxiliary pollution controls in the fields of industrial wastewater control and municipal sewage control, while in stormwater management ...
for a wide range of other water discharges including nonpoint source pollution
Nonpoint source pollution
Nonpoint source pollution refers to both water and air pollution from diffuse sources. Nonpoint source water pollution affects a water body from sources such as polluted runoff from agricultural areas draining into a river, or wind-borne debris blowing out to sea. Nonpoint source air pollution...
. Amendments in 1977 required stricter regulation of toxic pollutants. In 1987 Congress added permit coverage for municipal and industrial stormwater
Stormwater
Stormwater is water that originates during precipitation events. It may also be used to apply to water that originates with snowmelt that enters the stormwater system...
discharges.
Congress passed the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act , enacted in 1976, is the principal Federal law in the United States governing the disposal of solid waste and hazardous waste.-History and Goals:...
(RCRA) in 1976, which created a regulatory framework for both municipal solid waste
Municipal solid waste
Municipal solid waste , commonly known as trash or garbage , refuse or rubbish is a waste type consisting of everyday items we consume and discard. It predominantly includes food wastes, yard wastes, containers and product packaging, and other miscellaneous inorganic wastes from residential,...
and hazardous waste
Hazardous waste
A hazardous waste is waste that poses substantial or potential threats to public health or the environment. According to the U.S. environmental laws hazardous wastes fall into two major categories: characteristic wastes and listed wastes.Characteristic hazardous wastes are materials that are known...
disposed on land. RCRA requires that all hazardous wastes be managed and tracked from generation of the waste, through transport and processing, to final disposal, by means of a nationwide permit system. The Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments of 1984 mandated regulation of underground storage tank
Underground storage tank
An Underground Storage Tank , in United States environmental law, is a tank and any underground piping connected to the tank that has at least 10 percent of its combined volume underground.-Tank types:...
s containing petroleum and hazardous chemicals, and the phasing out of land disposal of hazardous waste. The Federal Facilities Compliance Act, passed in 1992, clarified RCRA coverage of federally-owned properties such as military bases. Illegal disposal of waste is punishable by fines of up to $25,000 per occurrence.
Passage of the Noise Control Act
Noise Control Act
The Noise Pollution and Abatement Act of 1972 is a statute of the United States initiating a federal program of regulating noise pollution with the intent of protecting human health and minimizing annoyance of noise to the general public....
in 1972 established mechanisms of setting emission standards for virtually every source of noise including motor vehicles, aircraft, certain types of HVAC
HVAC
HVAC refers to technology of indoor or automotive environmental comfort. HVAC system design is a major subdiscipline of mechanical engineering, based on the principles of thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and heat transfer...
equipment and major appliances. It also put local government on notice as to their responsibilities in land use
Land use
Land use is the human use of land. Land use involves the management and modification of natural environment or wilderness into built environment such as fields, pastures, and settlements. It has also been defined as "the arrangements, activities and inputs people undertake in a certain land cover...
planning to address noise mitigation
Noise mitigation
Noise mitigation is a set of strategies to reduce noise pollution. The main areas of noise mitigation or abatement are: transportation noise control, architectural design, and occupational noise control...
. This noise regulation
Noise regulation
Noise regulation includes statutes or guidelines relating to sound transmission established by national, state or provincial and municipal levels of government. After the watershed passage of the United States Noise Control Act of 1972, other local and state governments passed further regulations...
framework comprised a broad data base detailing the extent of noise health effects
Noise health effects
Noise health effects are the health consequences of elevated sound levels. Elevated workplace or other noise can cause hearing impairment, hypertension, ischemic heart disease, annoyance and sleep disturbance. Changes in the immune system and birth defects have been attributed to noise exposure...
. Congress ended funding of the federal noise control program in 1981, which curtailed development of further national regulations.
The state of California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has maintained an independent list of substances with product labeling requirements as part of Proposition 65 since 1986.
-
- See also
- Timeline of major US environmental and occupational health regulationTimeline of major US environmental and occupational health regulation* 1947 – Los Angeles Air Pollution Control District created; first air pollution agency in the US.* 1948 – Federal Water Pollution Control Act* 1955 – National Air Pollution Control Act...
- SuperfundSuperfundSuperfund is the common name for the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 , a United States federal law designed to clean up sites contaminated with hazardous substances...
- Cleanup program for abandoned hazardous waste sites - AP 42 Compilation of Air Pollutant Emission FactorsAP 42 Compilation of Air Pollutant Emission FactorsThe AP 42 Compilation of Air Pollutant Emission Factors, was first published by the U.S. Public Health Service in 1968. In 1972, it was revised and issued as the second edition by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency . In 1985, the subsequent fourth edition was split into two volumes...
- Timeline of major US environmental and occupational health regulation
- See also
See also
- List of environmental issues
- Dutch standardsDutch standardsDutch Standards are environmental pollutant reference values used in environmental remediation, investigation and cleanup....
, environmental pollutant reference values
External links
- Environment Agency (England and Wales)
- Environmental Assessment Agency - Canada
- Environmental Protection Agency - USA
- Extoxnet newsletters - environmental pollution news. Last update 1998.