Enforcing pollution control laws / Clifford S. Russell, Winston Harrington and William J. Vaughan.

Includes bibliographies and index.

First published in 1986 by Resources for the Future.

1 Introduction to the Problem -- Monitoring and Enforcement in the Context of Pollution Control Policy -- A Source of Confusion: Initial Versus Continuing Compliance -- Complications -- The Plan of the Book -- Current Efforts to Induce Continuous Compliance -- What Is Being Monitored and Enforced? -- What Methods of Monitoring and Enforcement Are Commonly Used? -- Surveillance Activities in the States -- Enforcement Actions -- Conclusion

For many years, Resources for the Future has been known as a center for research on alternatives to direct regulation in environmental management. Probably the best-known research coming out of RFF in this field has been the advocacy of effluent or emission charges by Allen Kneese. His early writings on this subject have inspired many other economists to investigate and evaluate the characteristics of such policy instruments when used in various settings. One of the criteria called on by some researchers in their evaluations is the ease (or difficulty) of monitoring the performance of dischargers under the policy instrument and enforcing the intended behavior of the dischargers, whether it be installation of some technology, maintenance of some discharge level, or honest reporting of actual discharges. Some analysts have asserted, for example, that imposing charges on polluters presents a tougher monitoring and enforcement problem than standard methods of management -- often referred to as command-and-control regulation. But others have asserted virtually the opposite: that a charge system would be "self-enforcing." Certainly there is room here for clarification.