The Grey Area Between Federal and State Env. Policy

West Troy Contaminated Aquifer

                In West Troy Ohio there is an aquifer that supplies water to the citizens.(Herein known as WTA) The problem? It’s been contaminated by Tetrachloroethene (Herein known as PCE), which according to ASTDR’s article, “[it’s] a chemical used primarily in dry cleaning and metal degreasing products (ATDSR 1997). According to the EPA’s website they still haven’t found where exactly this contaminates is coming from. Which is very interesting, if you ask me. Now, the next question is who is handling this? Who should be handling this? Whoever is handling it, is it being done successfully?

                Who is handling this? According to the EPA’s website both the Federal EPA and Ohio’s EPA are working on a solution AS well as finding out the source of this contamination.  The Federal EPA has added the WTA to the Superfund list, which is a list of environmental problems/disasters and then lists them on by-severity level, WTA was added in September 2012 ("Region 5 Clean Up Sites: West Troy Aquifer" 2012). So at this point we can see that the Federal EPA seems to be making the larger impact upon the WTA contamination problem. Further, in regards to ‘waste water discharge’ there are actual permits that allow dry cleaners to discharge their waste into the water shed. The permit is called National Pollutant Discharge Elimination Systems. The permit allows dumping certain chemicals into ditch drains or sewers. One can argue that if said WTA contamination came from a dry cleaning facility that dumped their chemicals into a sewer system, and for argument let’s say that said sewer system over flowed and dumped into a feed system of the WTA. So by federal mandate, was the dry cleaning company in fault? This is when National/Federal rule becomes more difficult over the State Rule.

                So in this instance, I think, that the states should decide how to handle this matter. State regulation should take precedent because this is the state’s land. The state’s should have a say in how their water/lakes/streams ect… to have the ability to come in and say yes, dumping is allowed, but it must be regulated to extents is, in so many words, crazy. This is the time that I believe States should have complete rule over waste-dumping.  Further, the federal mandates and bills and what not, are not an effective way of fixing such solutions; all they provide are blankets to cover everyone, but what happens when the blanket starts to rip? Or the blanket is too short and loop holes begin to shine through?  What does the Government know about this small town in Ohio? (We can even argue that most politicians are nothing but career politicians that don’t care much about constituents, just their lobbyist groups)

                However, This is where it gets a little tricky. The Federal Government has added the site to the Super Fund. Thus, they will get some federal help and funding to help clean the site up. This goes back to the conversation we had in class on Friday, States don’t have the funding to actually deal with the problems they are faced. States can ask the Federal Government for the money (Grants, Loans ect…) but even then, why not just cut out the middle man and let the Federal Government run the cleanup processes? However, I just completely contradicted myself. But, that’s the point I am trying to make (at least that’s where I’m going with it) this is such a grey area. Who should regulate what? How should it be regulated? In one instance it should be the States to control everything within their own borders. Then again, the Federal Government should regulate the states so that they will be able to actually fund the clean-up process.

                So now we’re back to base one. What do we do? Who should regulate this kind of stuff? Well, I think It should be a hybrid. Both the State and the Federal government should work together to find/solve the problems.

PROBLEM

State                           Federal

Identifies Problem        Backs State Findings

Decides how to precede       Sets funds aside to help

                           Clean Up                           Funding for Clean-up/small assistance

EDUCATION TO PREVENT THIS PROBLEM AGAIN

Clean up                          Funding for Clean Up

PROBLEM SOLVED

                In this little graph I break down how I believe problems like the States and federal governments should go about cleaning messes up. At the beginning the state identifies the problem. The Federal level will back the state findings and make sure the state did a correct job at evaluating the problem. The next level is leaving the States alone to decide where they will go to clean up the problem. The Federal level is on its own to set up funds to help the States clean up their issue. The next stage is the actual clean-up process, the State will work to clean-up the problem. The Federal level however, will provide the funds and even perhaps some assistance to the State to help clean up the problem. The next stage involves both the State and the Federal. This is education. Education for both the public but as well as private sectors so that a problem like this will be less likely to happen in the future. Once again we are back to cleaning up and funding. The final outcome is that the problem is solved through a collaborative effort of the State and Federal levels.

                Should we adopt these measures, a collaborative step-by-step problem solving initiative by both the State and the Federal Governments, I believe that most environmental issues will be solved in a much more timely matter. As we talked about in class, State governments are quick and nimble. They’ll be able to pass agendas much quicker than the Federal Government. Also, the State government has a better ability to read the land. They are right there. The land is right in the back of their yards. Federal Government does care, but at the same level of a State government? Well, that’s debatable. While I believe the ATW problem should be solved BY the state, it should be funded and backed up through the Federal Government. This way, both the State AND the Federal are making a cohesive impact on the problem.

Works Cited

ATSDR, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry . Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry ToxFAQs, "TETRACHLOROETHYLENE…”

Federal Environmental Protection Agency, "Region 5 Clean Up Sites: West Troy Aquifer." Last modified 2012. Accessed February 22, 2013. http://epa.gov/region5/cleanup/westtroy/.