Pollution Prevention Problems: A Case Study of the Status of P2 Programs on Whiteman AFB, Missouri With Comparison to Salt Lake City, Utah and Salt Lake County, Utah

摘要

Congress recognized the potential for serious harm to the environment and to human health and enacted several different legislative acts that were designed to prevent such harm. Congress stated the policy of the United States regarding pollution prevention when it enacted the Pollution Prevention Act of 1990 (PPA): 'The Congress hereby declares it to be the national policy of the United States that pollution should be prevented or reduced at the source whenever feasible; pollution that cannot be prevented should be recycled in an environmentally safe manner, whenever feasible; pollution that cannot be prevented or recycled should be treated in an environmentally safe manner whenever feasible; and disposal or other release into the environment should be employed only as a last resort and should be conducted in an environmentally safe manner'. Congress clearly identified the preferences in the treatment of waste in the above stated policy--pollution should be prevented at the source. Preventing pollution at its source was a major departure from earlier environmental statutes that focused on the treating of the waste, not the prevention of waste.