Unconventional Pollution Control Politics: The Reformation of the US Safe Drinking Water Act

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" Unconventional Pollution Control Politics: The Reformation of the US Safe Drinking Water Act "
Zarkin, Michael

Document Type	:	AL
Record Number	:	930630
Doc. No	:	LA69s0f9s0
Language of Document	:	English
Main Entry	:	Zarkin, Michael
Title & Author	:	Unconventional Pollution Control Politics: The Reformation of the US Safe Drinking Water Act [Article]\ Zarkin, Michael
Title of Periodical	:	Electronic Green Journal
Volume/ Issue Number	:	Issue 38
Date	:	2015
Abstract	:	During the 1980s and early 1990s, the US Environmental Protection Agency proposed to reform federal environmental regulation around “risk management” principles that stressed pollution prevention, better priorities, and cost control. In spite of the fact that risk management were strongly supported by three successive presidential administrations, only one major federal statute – the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) Amendments of 1996 – was developed around these principles. The purpose of this paper is to understand why Congress succeeded in reforming the SDWA around risk management principles at a time when legislative reform of other federal pollution control policies remained stalled. Through a historical analysis of federal drinking water politics between 1970 and 1996, it is concluded that the somewhat unique politics surrounding the drinking water issue enabled risk management principles to serve as a “persuasive discourse” that bound together key interests within the policy community.