A Review of Integrated Pollution Control Efforts in Selected Countries

This report describes the reasons why integrated pollution control (IPC) became accepted as a necessary part of the environmental regulatory systems of the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Sweden and examines the experience these countries have had with unified environmental statutes, alternative compliance approaches, cross-media permitting, and other aspects of IPC that are under consideration in this country. The report is organized into five chapters. In the first chapter we provide a brief overview of the intellectual pedigree of integrated pollution control and discuss arguments that have been put forward by advocates of IPC as well as the counter-arguments of those who have taken a more skeptical view of the technical and political feasibility of implementing IPC measures. Chapter two details how the United Kingdom, long considered the dirty man of Europe, is developing an integrated system of industrial pollution control based on its 1990 Environmental Protection Act. The Act introduced new controls to limit and prevent pollution from a wide range of industries and has created a unified pollution inspectorate to ensure that the best practical environmental option (BPEO) for all media is achieved. We consider both the progress the UK Environmental Agency has made in IPC as well as the barriers it has encountered. In chapter three, we examine how the Dutch Environmental Ministry (VROM) was able to forge a consensus among diverse groups for the need to embrace innovative, integrated policies and then examine in detail the Dutch experience with alternative compliance efforts, notably their covenant system. The long-standing success of Sweden’s industrial permitting system is analyzed in chapter 4 and in the fifth and final chapter we consider the development and implications of the European Union’s recently adopted Directive on Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control, a document which is likely to have a profound influence on environmental management in Europe and elsewhere.

Land Spreading of Animal Manures, Farm Wastes & Non-Agricultural Organic Wastes. Part 1 manure (and other organic wastes) management guidelines for intensive agricultural enterprises.

End of Project ReportThe objective of the Teagasc Manure (and Other Organic Wastes) Management Guidelines for IAE are to provide an operational framework for the agronomically efficient and environmentally safe recycling of these organic by-products, maximising the benefits of nutrients they contain at minimum cost. The principles of the approach are equally applicable to the management of all manures and organic wastes applied to land. The approach includes programmes for controlling manure quantity and quality; operational procedures covering storage, transport and nutrient management; and a quality assurance programme. These Guidelines assign the importance of manure management on an equal footing with other production practices. Implementation of these Guidelines may entail higher costs c o m p a red with traditional practices. However, some of the benefits accruing from the improved management practices can partly or wholly offset the costs of implementation.European Unio

Implementation - More than Monitoring and Enforcement: Evidence from the Implementation of the 1989 Municipal Waste Incineration Directive (89/429/EEC) in Four Member States

Researchers and policy-makers accept that implementation decisively influences the effectiveness of European (EU) environmental policy. Some Member States lead the development of EU policy and implement Directives with little problem. Others follow a variety of compliance (or non-compliance) paths. Implementation gaps and policy failures are prevalent. Policy outcomes often differ radically between even neighbouring Member States. What are the reasons for these differences? Why do Member States follow different compliance paths? Why do implementation gaps and policy failures occur? What factors can explain the different policy outcomes achieved? Is it only 'classical' implementation variables i.e. the monitoring and enforcement actions of public authorities that count? What lessons can we draw for the future? This paper addresses these questions through a comparative analysis of the implementation of the European Directive on the reduction of air pollution from existing municipal waste incineration plants (89/429/EEC) in Germany, the Netherlands, France and the United Kingdom: four neighbouring Member States that exhibit quite divergent compliance paths and policy outcomes. Monitoring and enforcement are found to have only limited explanatory power. In practice national contextual variables, such as: public and political environmental awareness; interactions both with environmental and non-environmental policies; regulatory anticipation and uncertainty; the degree of autonomy and scope of regulatory agencies; and, industrial and market structure of the regulated industry, must also be considered

Learning to change: the role of organisational capabilities in industry response to environmental regulation.

This thesis looks at the potential for environmental regulation to induce economically beneficial technical change in industrial activity. This question is explored in the context of the recent introduction of Irish legislation aimed at promoting such technical change. The research focuses on the experience of one industrial sector, the pharmaceutical manufacturing sector, in making the adjustment to the new Integrated Pollution Control regulations. The key question of interest is the importance of organisational capabilities in determining firms’ ability to adjust to a changed regulatory environment, to develop new organisational processes and to implement technical change. The thesis presents an analysis of competing theoretical approaches to analysis of regulation and technical change. The evolutionary theory of the firm, with its emphasis on organisational capabilities as the driver of technical change in firms, is identified as the most appropriate framework for the development of a coherent model of the relationship between environmental regulation and firm technical change. The empirical research was undertaken using two, complementary approaches. Measures of capability were constructed for all pharmaceutical firms licensed in the first phase of IPC implementation. This allows for comparative analysis of the role of organisational capabilities in the sector’s response to new environmental regulations. Further analysis of questions around the origins, significance and contingent nature of capabilities is explored in qualitative, case study research in five selected case companies. The research presented in this dissertation show that firms are differentially able to respond to technology-forcing regulations and that these differences are associated with differences in organisational capabilities. Firms with high performing dynamic capability were able to ensure effective environmental performance, preserving flexibility of action and supporting overall competitiveness

Water regulation: the periodic review

Since the privatisation of the water industry in 1989, issues relating to the pricing of water, charging structures and the conduct of the water regulators have rarely been out of public attention. Water prices have increased ahead of inflation, in some cases by more than 10 per cent per annum, profits have been high, construction costs have fallen dramatically in the recession and the investment requirements to meet EC Directives have been revised upwards. In the first years following privatisation, the Director General (DG) of the Office of Water Services (OFWAT), the economic regulator of the industry, has, in the face of major shocks, used his discretion to intervene in the pricing and investment arrangements repeatedly. Indeed, the shocks have been so large that the DG has brought forward the review of the regulatory formula governing prices from 1999-2000 to 1994-95. It is this review of the price limits (called the Periodic Review) which is the subject of this paper. The review will be far reaching, involving decisions about the appropriate cost of capital for the industry, the valuation of existing assets, the capital expenditures required to meet environmental quality targets, and the level of operating costs and efficiency. To date, the DG has issued a series of consultation papers, culminating in Setting Price Limits for Water and Sewerage Services: The Framework and Approach to the 1994 Periodic Review, published in November 1993, which details his approach to the Periodic Review. The aim of this paper is to examine the economic principles underlying the DG’s approach and to consider the implications for the future of water regulation. The structure of the paper is as follows. Section II provides an overview of the current regulatory regime, which was set up at privatisation. Section III considers how the regulatory framework has developed since 1989, with particular focus on the capital expenditure out-turn, shareholder returns and the revisions to the process instigated by the DG. Section IV analyses the DG’s approach to the Periodic Review and describes the ways in which pressure has been brought to bear on the various components of the capital expenditure, cost of capital, asset valuation and operating expenditure to reduce the rate of increase in prices. Section V provides an assessment of the prospects for the success of the DG’s approach. Finally, in Section VI, we summarise our main conclusions.

Retrieving relevant parts from large environmental-related documents

When attempting to consider the environment, a large quantity of information is available. Historically, librarians have provided a facility for both sorting this information into storage, and guiding users to the material relevant to their queries. With the steady increase in volume, detail and character of this information, existing methods of handling cannot cope. This thesis addresses this problem by developing a novel information system framework and applying it to the environmental domain. A brief study was made of information retrieval systems. An information system. framework was developed through the project. It covers the areas of query augmentation and search execution. In particular, the framework considers the issues of: using a domain model to help in specifying queries; and assessing and retrieving sub-parts of large documents. In order to test the novel concepts, a case study, which covers many steps in the information retrieval process, was designed and carried out with supportive results