Improving the Federal-State Partnership in Hazardous Waste Control

ABSTRACT Students of environmental policy have for the last decade been taught that a federally conceived regulatory program is the best means of ensuring that problems are addressed because 1) individual states will not voluntarily set strong controls for fear that industry will move to states where standards are not as strict, and 2) because pollution does not obey political boundaries. Recent experience with hazardous waste management shows that the first assumption is open to question, as several state programs are either more stringent or broader in scope than the federal. This paper describes federal and state efforts in hazardous waste regulation, and discusses some of the problems with the current system. Included are recommendations for improving government's effectiveness in hazardous waste control.