Environmental And Natural Resource Economics Protection: A Comparison Of EU And USA Legislative Frameworks

Comparison in between legislative framework by EU and USA

Discuss about the Environmental and Natural Resource Economics Protection.

In the recent year there is an increase demand by the citizen for cleaner rivers, lakes, groundwater and coastal beaches is taken under consideration by eminent bodies. The average result for EU25 has shown that nearly half of the European Countries are facing the issues related to water pollution. The demand made by the people has created urgency in every individual European country (Kaika, 2003). The New European policy is based on cleaning the polluted water to ensure safety of environment.  The role of citizen is crucial in achieving the targets in order to enforce a new European Water Policy. The European Water policy has undergone crucial changes so that people can actively participate equally towards protection of environment (Monte, Fuente, Blanco and Negro, 2009.).  A new framework directive was adopted in the year 2000 whereas The Clean Water Act (CWA) is the Federal law followed in the United States which governs water pollution.  The main objective of the act is to reinstate and preserve the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation's waters. The act prevents point and nonpoint pollution sources by providing help to publicly owned treatment works (Greenstone and Hanna, 2014).

Early European water legislation was passed in the year 1975 for the purpose of rivers and lakes used for drinking water abstraction which was culminated in the year 1980 for setting compulsory targets for drinking water.  It also included a variety of quality objective legislation on fish waters, shellfish water and ground water. The main purpose of the legislation was to include the dangerous substances Directives. In the year 1988 Frankfurt Ministerial has introduced many changes in order to fill the gap which resulted in development of the second phase. The Urban Water treatment directive provides a secondary option in order to introduce stringent treatment procedure and the nitrates directive to reduce pollution created from agriculture.  A new drinking water directive was reviewed the quality standards which was adopted in November 1998. A directive for integrated pollution and prevention control was adopted in 1996 while addressing the large industrial installations.

In USA, the technical name of the Clean Water Act is the Federal Water Pollution Control Act.  It was firstly enacted in 1948. The act took its modern form in the year 1972 after the amendments. The changes were subsequently introduced via amendatory legislation to incorporate changes as per the requirements.

The Water Framework Directive

As per the WFD the European water policy has faced multiple changes during the process of restructuring. The framework of current legislature is to protect inland surface waters, transitional waters, coastal waters and groundwater in order to protect environment. The purpose is to improve the status of aquatic life. River basin Management plan is used to promote good environment status. In the year 2007 the Commission launched WISE for the collection and exchange of data at EU level in order to monitor release of pollutant at river basin (Griffiths,2002).

The Commission has initiated Blueprint in year 2012 regarding safeguarding Europe’s Water Resources. Their aim was to make certain that the policies are well incorporated through current EU water policy, integrating water policy. There area is to employ the best practices while filling gaps in the current framework. The main purpose is to make a concrete plan in order to attain objectives in coordination with EU standards for water reuse (Demmke and Deakin, 2001).

75 percent of the European Union Drinking water is supplied through the ground water supplies. The agricultural dump and industrial waste poses a serious threat on the health risk. The WFD makes special contribution towards monitoring the ground water establishment to protect it from contamination (Mininni, Blanch, Lucena and Berselli, 2015).

The council directive has essentially mentioned the quality standard for human consumption. The member of state has to regularly monitor the sample in order to mark high standards. Member states are allowed to make additional requirements into the standards. The sampling point method is being used to incorporate policies into system.

The Clean water act has helped in improvement of wastewater treatment and has helped in preserving the honor of wetlands. This law is known to be United States' most powerful modern environmental laws.  The act is administered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and state governments (Davies and Mazurek, 2014).

In February 2006 the commission has adopted directive aim to improve public health and environment protection by laying down provisions.  The monitoring and classification of bathing water is integrated into the WFD.  The purpose is to ensure efficient quality of water for the people living in different pat of Europe.

Urban waste water treatment aims to protect environment from the adverse effect of the urban waste water discharge. The directive has set minimum standards and time-tables for collecting urban waste. It has introduced control on disposal at various points. The directive has also issued required measures to check dumping at various stages (Kelessidis and Stasinakis, 2012).

The Clean Water Act

The Clean Water Act of the USA does not openly deal with groundwater contamination. Safe Drinking Water Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and the Superfund act include provisions related to the ground water.

Legislation from the 1970s and 1980s provides important measures against the chemical pollution of surface waters. The previous legislation expired at the end of 2012. It was soon replaced by provisions of the WFD. It requires establishment of priority substance that presents a significant risk to the aquatics life.  The list entails all significant information regarding hazardous substances that might cause harm to surrounding (Page and Kaika, 2003).

The protection of water bodies from nitrates through agricultural sources is covered by the directive measures. The members states have to send a report to the commission in every four years by providing detail s related to good agricultural practices. They have to mention in their report information regarding designated nitrate vulnerable zones, water monitoring and a summary related action programmes (Tietenberg and Lewis, 2016). 

The objective of the marine strategy directive is to attain good governance status of marine water by 2020 in order to continue protection and preservation of the marine biodiversity. It includes legislative framework required to manage ecosystem by balancing the marine environment. Each state has to manage a directive in order to achieve GES by 2020 (Williams, 2013). The discharge of pollutant discharged from the ship is considered as a criminal offence. The legislature has introduced penalties for infringement and it ensures effective adherence to policies under the guidelines. The Commission announced entitlement of ‘Blue Growth – opportunities to achieve the goals of the Europe 2020 strategy.  The national strategies need to be formulated considering sound coastal planning and management (EU legislation of water Quality,2016).

The guidelines related to protection of marine waters are governed by four cooperation structures.  The OSPAR Convention of 1992, the Helsinki Convention (HELCOM) of 1992, the Barcelona Convention (UNEP-MAP) of 1995; and the Bucharest Convention of 1992 governs the protection of marine water (Water protection and management, 2016).

As per the Clean Water Act the Water quality standards allows a degree of specified allowable pollutant level for a particular individual body. The organization set WQS by designating uses for the water bodies. An anti degradation policy is questioned by each state in order to maintain and protect obtainable uses and a high quality waters (Royston, 2013).

In European Union the parliament is actively participating in making decisions regarding the protection of water. The parliament in 2008 has supported the new EU water quality rules. The list regarding priority substance is being prepared in order to protect bio-diversity, eco-system. Parliament has ensured list of toxic substances in advance to all the member states. The parliament ensures that every citizen enjoys basic right related to water safety.

Urban Waste Water Treatment

Conclusion

The European Union provides legislature regarding protection of environment against wastage water. The European incorporates policies regarding the protection of waste water. The guidelines issues by the union are checked from time to time by the member states. The main purpose of the directive policies is to protect the ecological balance by managing the water wastage caused by different bodies. The act includes commands and action carried by European Union from time to time while managing the wastage caused due to chemicals and industries.

In the USA Clean Water Act (CWA) protect the water bodies against the wastage caused from different agent. The main purpose of the act is to issue directive measures in order to protect interest of every individual residing in the country. The Clean Water Act (CWA) does not directly control the ground water wastage whereas the European Union legislative includes provision related to safe ground and drinking water. The European Union law includes provision related to the treatment of waste water whereas the US Federal laws include separate legislation regarding treatment of clean water.

The capacity of legislation passed in different countries is similar on every ground but they differ on the basis of implementation.

References

Davies, J.C. and Mazurek, J., 2014. Pollution Control in United States: Evaluating the System. Routledge.

Demmke, C. and Deakin, S.F., 2001. Towards effective environmental regulation: innovative approaches in implementing and enforcing European environmental law and policy. New York University School of Law.

EU legislation of water Quality. 2016. Online. Available at: https://www.ukmarinesac.org.uk/activities/water-quality/wq1_3.htm Accessed on: 18 January 2017

Greenstone, M. and Hanna, R., 2014. Environmental regulations, air and water pollution, and infant mortality in India. The American Economic Review, 104(10), pp.3038-3072.

Griffiths, M., 2002. The European Water Framework Directive: an approach to integrated river basin management. European Water Management Online, 5, pp.1-14.

Kaika, M., 2003. The water framework directive: a new directive for a changing social, political and economic European framework. European Planning Studies, 11(3), pp.299-316.

Kelessidis, A. and Stasinakis, A.S., 2012. Comparative study of the methods used for treatment and final disposal of sewage sludge in European countries. Waste management, 32(6), pp.1186-1195.

Mininni, G., Blanch, A.R., Lucena, F. and Berselli, S., 2015. EU policy on sewage sludge utilization and perspectives on new approaches of sludge management. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 22(10), pp.7361-7374.

Monte, M.C., Fuente, E., Blanco, A. and Negro, C., 2009. Waste management from pulp and paper production in the European Union. Waste management, 29(1), pp.293-308.

Page, B. and Kaika, M., 2003. The EU Water Framework Directive: Part 2. Policy innovation and the shifting choreography of governance. European Environment, 13(6), pp.328-343.

Royston, M.G., 2013. Pollution prevention pays. Elsevier.

Tietenberg, T.H. and Lewis, L., 2016. Environmental and natural resource economics. Routledge.

Water protection and management. 2016. Online. Available at: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/atyourservice/en/displayFtu.html?ftuId=FTU_5.4.4.html Accessed on: 18 January 2017

Williams, P.T., 2013. Waste treatment and disposal. John Wiley & Sons.