Effectiveness of environmental regulations: Monitoring by the regulated community under clean water act industrial stormwater runoff requirements

• Main Author: Gleaton, Kelly L
• Format: Others
• Published: Scholar Commons 2006
• Subjects: Industrial pollution; Water quality monitoring; Industry compliance; Visual examination; Stormwater runoff; American Studies; Arts and Humanities
• Online Access: http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/2534; http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3533&context=etd

This research identified and evaluated possible uses of environmental monitoring data collected and reported by industrial facilities under the Clean Water Act requirements and determined whether the current regulatory system supported any of those uses. Federal policies and state-level policies in the United States, Florida, and California were evaluated in order to determine whether the current regulatory system supported any of the identified uses. Monitoring programs and currently available monitoring data were evaluated from Hillsborough County, Florida, and Los Angeles County, California, from the perspective of 1) the current implementation of the monitoring program, and 2) perfect implementation under full compliance with the monitoring program. Four possible uses for monitoring data were identified by this research: (1) identification of high polluting facilities within a given jurisdiction, (2) assessment of pollutant load to receiving waterbodies, (3) documentat ion of improvement over time in the amount of pollutants discharged from a given industrial facility, (4) self-evaluation purposes, such as identifying on-site pollutant sources, adapting pollution prevention efforts, and evaluating the monitoring protocol. The research conducted a telephone survey and evaluated industrial facilities' reported analytical monitoring data. Telephone questionnaires were administered to 63 industrial facilities, and analytical monitoring data were obtained from industrial facilities in Hillsborough County, Florida and Los Angeles County California. The representativeness, sampling frequency and variation in the industrial facilities' analytical monitoring data do not assist in the identification of high polluting facilities within a given jurisdiction nor provide for documentation of facilities' improvements. Pollutant loads to receiving watebodies can not be assessed through the use of industrial facilities' analytical monitoring data because of the sampl e measurement, variation, and sample frequency of the data. Therefore, these uses can not be supported under current implementation/current data submitted or under perfect compliance. However, the telephone survey revealed facility operators are attempting to use the results from monitoring for self evaluation purposes.