Saving the Hidden Treasure: The Evolution of Ground Water Policy, Henry C. Kenski, (California: Regina Books, 1990), 156 pp.
Understanding environmental problems; making effective use of technical information; administrative procedures; politics; applicable to water use issues; written for the first party participant.
Saving the Hidden Treasure: The Evolution of Ground Water Policy is an examination of the development of groundwater into a political issue and the subsequent Federal, State and local attempts to protect this resource.
Saving the Hidden Treasure: The Evolution of Ground Water Policy will be of interest to those who seek an understanding of groundwater policy. The first chapter examines the emergence of groundwater as a policy issue. Specifically, it offers: a definition of the issue, and compares groundwater to surface water. Further, the author explores: the importance of groundwater, the severity of the groundwater problem, and the US policy context. Chapter two addresses groundwater contamination and protection. The author discusses three sources of contamination: natural pollution, waste disposal practices, and non-disposal sources due to human activities. Following clean-up options, the author examines technical and economic constraints on such clean-up. The chapter closes with consideration of prevention responses.
Chapter three discusses the origins of discovery. Kenski addresses discovery of groundwater contamination of three types: citizen complaints, accidental testing, and regular testing, each with its own set of implications. Further, the author discusses incentives for discovery of groundwater pollution. Discovery by the business community, community interests and governmental bureaucracies are considered. The next chapter addresses Federal protection of groundwater, beginning with the problematic nature of the multiple sources of authority and diffusion of responsibility in the Federal bureaucracy. Kenski examines the: Clean Water Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, Superfund, Toxic Substances Control Act, and Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act. He acknowledges the important link between agricultural activities and groundwater, and closes with consideration of Federal policy options.
Chapter six addresses the political and social factors affecting response to groundwater pollution problems. The chapter discusses: the changing decision-making context in groundwater policy-making, activists and their resources, local environmental organisations, industry strategies, state and local environmental protection agencies and cooperative lobbying. The final chapter offers possible scenarios for the future of groundwater protection. The author examines: the role of science and technology, the scope and magnitude of the problem, the current emphasis on fiscal constraint, and the fragmentation of governmental authority. The text is followed by selected general references, listed by chapter.
Saving the Hidden Treasure: The Evolution of Ground Water Policy is careful consideration of groundwater as a policy issue. It will serve the reader as a foundation for further exploration.
T. A. O'Lonergan
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