NPDES and TMDL

NPDES

According to http://cfpub.epa.gov/npdes/:          

"As authorized by the Clean Water Act, the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit program controls water pollution by regulating point sources that discharge pollutants into waters of the United States. Point sources are discrete conveyances such as pipes or man-made ditches.... Industrial, municipal, and other facilities must obtain permits if their discharges go directly to surface waters."

Basically the cycle is as follows... The industrial facility brews something up and is left with chemical waste. What do they do with it? Well ideally they just run it out through some pipes and forget about it. The problem then arises when the rain comes and further washes all of these chemicals into fresh water systems that we humans use for resources such as drinking water. Chemicals don't taste good.

The NPDES is in charge of keeping up with how many of these chemicals are making their way into our water and also investigating the origin of such chemicals. Long story short they police and manage the polluters. Sounds good right?

                          ***SPOILER ALERT***

                                        They aren't perfect

                                 **********************************

Many environmentalists have noted a few looming issues they have with the permitting requirements as established by the NPDES. First and foremost the primary method the NPDES has of measuring individual pollution runoff for each permitted is through as accurate as possible estimation and reporting by managers of the permitted industry. (Raise your hand if you think that sounds like a really bad honor code) Then if that was not bad enough, if the NPDES decides a particular source is polluting too much they simply ask them nicely to "Please don't pollute anymore than you have to" (How's that for a slap on the wrist?)

However, despite such complaints the NPDES has reported great improvements in the amount of pollution that is showing up in subsequent testings of waters. To deny that it has had an impact on pollution runoff would be tragically erroneous, but many think that it could do even more.

TMDL

Many have proposed that NPDES make better use of Total Mass Daily Load statistics (TMDL) that measure how much pollution can safely be dumped into a water source before it becomes dangerous for human consumption.

By implementing such methods the NPDES would be able to more proactively seek out and correct areas where water pol-lution is at especially dangerous levels. This would mean being able to excess polluters and impose harder more concrete requirements when necessary.

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Early Environmental Policy

Although the term is fairly new the idea of "Environmental Policies" have been around for thousands and thousands of years. Long before Homo sapiens even knew what they were up to necessity had driven man to exist according to methods and rules that ensured survival and stability while also maintaining the environment in which he lived. This blog post will work to chronicle some of the earliest and most interesting of these policies and explain why they could be considered "Environmental Policy."

1. The Earliest and Simplest

It makes sense that the earliest environmental policies would occur due to necessity. Few things have a driving force such as ones will to live happily and comfortably.

The Policy:

Long before dates existed, humans emerged as a species on the earth with the basic needs of survival and reproduction. To accomplish the former the earliest humans found that if they turned to the resources of the earth on which they lived they could find the tools and nutrition necessary live comfortably enough to hope for the latter. They quickly realized that these resources were not a dime a dozen and that they should be used sparingly and efficiently. They could not just kill a mammoth take a few bites and continue on their journey, but instead must learn to use every resource the parts of a mammoth could provide. The meat - stored and saved for continued nutrition. The hide - used for clothing or shelter. The bones - used for weapons or in later cases jewelry. Thus the simplest environmental policy imaginable was formed; "waste not want not."

2 - Not for the Faint of Heart

Sure this could have ended after that explanation of why early humans were resourceful, but that is so boring. This isn't. Kids, cover your ears.

The Policy:

Believe it or not life is not always rainbows and puppy dogs. Sometimes life gets tough, good fortune is hard to come by and you are stuck eating Ramen for days on end until your student loans go through. So think about it, if resources are slim and life is hard what is the one thing you do not want to have around? Bingo. Someone else competing for your resource that you know will not put them to good use.

Research has found that Spartan mothers used to bathe their newborns in wine to see if it was strong or not. If it survived the wine bath it was then taken to elders and inspected. If the elders found any deformities (Kids keep your ears closed) it was thrown off a cliff.

Sounds harsh I know but put everything you know about ethics aside. Spartans were a society based on military, only the strongest most beneficial to this society were respected and nourished. There were not enough resources to go around so they turned to early eugenics to weed out the weak links and ensure the strongest were well fed and trained. How's that for a policy? Oh yeah history has it Spartans were not even close to being the first to think of this, Babylon, Rome, all the ancient powerhouses were apparently in on it.

Today many scientists have theorized that there may be a "maximum population" that our earth and its resources can support and *Spoiler Alert* most think we are already above it. 

3 - Banned Resources

Human health policy at its best, when people get sick it is only natural to figure out what is making them sick then find a way to stop it from sticking around.

The Policy:

So after those evil baby killing Spartans fell the population began to boom and people began discovering new resources that could be used in efficient ways to make really cool things. Then the strangest thing happened, as people began to use these really cool things they began to get really really sick. Some scientists began to investigate what was making everyone sick and guess who took all the blame? Not the cool things, just these new resources.

I once read an interesting section of A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson that summed up the story of lead. Apparently this really smart guy found a way to keep engines from knocking and effectively keep a car running forever. The downside, the emissions form your car would end up killing you. After a few people died and the research was completed boom lead was banned and unleaded gasoline emerged. Long story short 1978 was a good year for environmentalists and a bad year for China's lead medallion industry.

If only the same process could be complete for other chemicals that are poisonous to humans....

4 - Protect the Earth

The late 1980's were great for environmentalists. They were finally able to start convincing the masses that their actions could alter the environment in ways such that the world may become unable to support human life. 

The Policy:
So as people became more environmentally conscious terms such as "greenhouse gases" and "global warming" and the ozone layer started getting tossed around and some people started to think about how their actions may affect the stability of earth for future generations. Extra research started taking place as to which of these actions held the biggest detriment to the environment and different political groups were put in place to create real laws that would work as the big time environmental policies, protecting the earth and the people that live on it.

It was 1987 when they took Bon Jovi's cool feathered bangs away. Ends up these political groups had teamed up with scientists and discovered that CFCs the chemicals emitted by household aerosol were actually eating the ozone layer and allowing dangerous UV rays in to heat up the earth. This was an important moment, banning a chemical not because it was dangerous to humans, or because it got you feeling really light headed and hungry, but because it posed a threat to the earth itself.

Strangely enough plenty of replacement chemicals for CFCs were quickly found and Bon Jovi got his feathered bangs back; however, few strict policies have since emerged even though other chemicals *cough* CO2 *cough* are now though to be threatening the stability of the planet. Oh well at least Al Gore explained what global warming was.


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