Environmental Management

The nation's environmental programs have traditionally sought to control the amount of pollution released to a specific medium--air, water, or land. Although these programs have produced environmental benefits, concerns have been raised that the medium-specific approach encourages "end-of-the-pipe" pollution controls to treat, store, or dispose of waste, rather than encouraging pollution prevention. Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey have experimented with multimedia, or integrated, approaches to environmental management as alternatives to the traditional medium-specific approach. Although the three states have not fully assessed the effectiveness of integrating environmental management, this approach shows potential for reducing pollution and increasing regulatory efficiency. Industry representatives also report positive results from this approach. Nonetheless, drawbacks exist. For example, performing integrated inspections and promoting pollution prevention require inspectors to have more expertise. Each of the three states has found it difficult to fund its multimedia activities through the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) grants for medium-specific programs. Although EPA has worked with these states to resolve the funding problems, the extensive negotiations that were required could discourage other states from adopting multimedia initiations. A new grant program proposed by EPA holds the potential for resolving such funding and reporting issues.

GAO found that: (1) Massachusetts has adopted a single, integrated inspection approach to assess facilities' compliance with environmental statutes; (2) New York is using a facility-management strategy to coordinate medium-specific environmental programs; (3) New Jersey is testing the use of single, integrated permits for industrial facilities, rather than issuing separate permits for pollution releases; (4) although Massachusetts and New York intend to implement their integrated approaches statewide, New Jersey believes that it is too early to evaluate the success of its pilot program; (5) state industry officials believe these integrated management approaches are beneficial to the environment, achieve regulatory efficiencies, and reduce costs; and (6) EPA has proposed a new grant program that will help states gain easier access to funding for multimedia programs, as well as ease the reporting of multimedia activities.