NCJ Number
147156
Date Published
1993
Length
52 pages
Annotation
Federal regulation of industrial water pollution is discussed.
Abstract
Twenty years' experience with the Environmental Protection Agency's efforts to enforce the 1972 Clear Water Act's (CWA) controls on water pollution have demonstrated the scientific, bureaucratic, political, and organizational complexities of regulating industrial organizations. Industrial representatives play much more active and influential roles in standard setting and rule enforcement than do environmental and other public interest groups. Political ideology and political influence play an important role in the process. Enforcement efforts have relied more on consensual and negotiative strategies than on deterrent and civil or criminal law enforcement strategies. This results from trade-offs between concerns for economic viability and public benefit, from the ability of large organizations to deploy human and financial capital, from insufficient funding of environmental regulatory agencies, and from scientific uncertainties about appropriate standards and feasible amelioration methods. This essay explains the CWA and subsequent amendments, illustrates the regulatory dynamic underlying compliance and enforcement, and offering the example of toxic water pollution, the control of which was the highest priority in the CWA, examines industrial offense patterns, reviews Federal Government enforcement policies and practices, and draws implications for theory, research, and policy from the various findings. References