Pollution Prevention: EPA Should Reexamine the Objectives and
Sustainability of State Programs (Chapter Report, 01/25/94,
GAO/PEMD-94-8).
GAO found major differences in the operations of the 105 state pollution
programs it identified nationwide. Both regulatory and nonregulatory
programs exist--the former require pollution prevention planning by
industry while the latter promote voluntary prevention via technical
assistance, education and outreach to industry. GAO discovered, however,
that many state programs claiming to conduct pollution prevention
activities were inordinately involved in waste recycling, treatment, or
disposal. These programs obtain funding from the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) that rewards their after-the-fact strategies
without examining whether prevention was possible. This is inconsistent
with the policy established by the Pollution Prevention Act. GAO also
found that many programs depend on EPA funding for their existence, even
though this funding is not expected to be permanent. Thus, the state
programs expected to implement pollution prevention were instead
concentrating on other strategies and, in any case, do not appear likely
to survive once federal money is withdrawn.
--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------
REPORTNUM: PEMD-94-8
TITLE: Pollution Prevention: EPA Should Reexamine the Objectives
and Sustainability of State Programs
DATE: 01/25/94
SUBJECT: Federal/state relations
Program evaluation
Reporting requirements
Data collection operations
Information analysis operations
Waste management
Pollution control
Environmental policies
State-administered programs
Federal aid to states
IDENTIFIER: EPA Source Reduction and Recycling Technical Assistance
Program
EPA Pollution Prevention Incentives for States
************************************************************************
We regret that the full text of this item is presently unavailable.
See the GAO FAQ - Section 2.0 for printed copy ordering information.
The FAQ is automatically retrieved with all WAIS search results or
can be obtained by sending e-mail to: [email protected]