PS 3480, Environmental Politics, October 1, 2012

   

 

Next time: Quiz

Wilderness & Urban Land

1. Wild By Law: How Ideas become public policy

    Questions

 

2.  Urban land

 

        ...  is the most intensely used land in developed nations

 

 

  •  American Land use regulation: Zoning





    •  
  • Urban sprawl


     

     
  • What Public Policies Contribute to Sprawl?

    • Housing, Transportation, Special Districts, Interjurisdictional Competition

     

How does the United States Govern Its Water?

1. Water in America

 

        Water and Economic development

   

      

        Water used for transportation, power, mining, waste disposal, and irrigation

 

 

       Water Problems:

               

                The west: water scarcity

 

                The east: water pollution

 

                Shorelines: Access

 

                Suburban development: drainage

 

2.  Water Pollution

 

  • A wider range of pollutants can be carried by water than air

 

  • Two sources of pollution:· Point  &  Non point


     
  • Water Quality Today

 

 

3.  The Politics of Water
 

        Access to water can be controlled more easily than access to air

 

                Water can be cleaned before people use it

 

       

         Many water projects are expensive public construction projects that have high stakes, for developers, industries, and construction interests.

 

        Dams, levees, harbors, sewers, water filtration plants

 

Water projects are local - so that elected politicians have strong incentives to seek and claim credit for them

 

        Dams, levees, harbors, sewers, water filtration plants


  •  

 

4.  Water and Environmental Policy
 

a.  The Conservation Era 

 

Urban water: St. Louis

 

Federal responsibility

   

        1899: Rivers and Harbors Act

 


 

b.  The Environmental Era 

 

         Policy succession: from information to grants and command and control

        · 1948: Republicans put forward a federal water pollution policy proposal

 

        · 1956: Water Pollution Control Act; grants to the cities
                          for wastewater treatment

        · 1965: Water Quality Act

        · 1972: Clean Water Act

 

        · 1989: The Politics of Disaster: the Exxon Valdez &
          Oil Pollution, Prevention, Response, Liability and Compensation Act

 


        · The Politics of Fear; Safe Drinking Water in the 1990s

 

 

   
        · Red v. Blue: Wetlands

 

 

        The Dead Zone