Managing environmental pollution Managing Environmental Pollution presents a comprehensive introduction to the nature of pollution, its impact on the environment, and the practical options and regulatory frameworks for pollution control. Sources of pollution, regulatory controls including the role of authorities and precautionary and polluter pays principles, technological solutions, management and mitigation techniques and assessment tools, are examined in each key area: air, freshwater and marine pollution, contaminated land and radioactive substances. Illustrated with a wide range of case examples from the UK, Europe, North America and world-wide, this book offers an invaluable up-to-date guide to both the principles and practice of pollution management. Andrew Farmer is a Fellow of the Institute for European Environmental Policy. Educated at Oxford and York Universities, he undertook aquatic ecological research at the Universities of St Andrews, Florida and Wisconsin, before joining the air pollution research group at Imperial College. Following this he spent six years as a pollution specialist with English Nature. Routledge Environmental Management Series This important series presents a comprehensive introduction to the principles and practices of environmental management across a wide range of fields. Introducing the theories and practices fundamental to modern environmental management, the series features a number of focused volumes to examine applications in specific environments and topics, all offering a wealth of real-life examples and practical guidance. MANAGING ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION Andrew Farmer COASTAL AND ESTUARINE MANAGEMENT Peter W.French Forthcoming titles: ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT A.Nixon WETLAND MANAGEMENT L.Heathwaite COUNTRYSIDE MANAGEMENT R.Clarke Routledge Managing environmental pollution Andrew Farmer London and New York First published 1997 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2002. Disclaimer: For copyright reasons, some images in the original version of this book are not available for inclusion in the eBook. Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 © 1997 Andrew Farmer The right of Andrew Farmer to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book has been requested ISBN 0-203-44011-0 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-74835-2 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0-415-14514-7 (hbk) ISBN 0-415-14515-5 (pbk) Contents List of illustrations viii Preface xiii Acknowledgements xv Abbreviations and acronyms xvi 1 Introduction and basic principles 1 Introduction 2 What is pollution? 2 Sustainable development 4 Carrying capacity 5 The management of environmental risks: using the precautionary principle 6 Setting standards 9 Polluter pays and user pays 11 Economic analysis 13 Monitoring 16 Chapter summary 18 Recommended reading 19 2 Air pollution and its impacts 21 Introduction 22 Air pollutants and their sources 22 Air pollution impacts on health 34 Impacts of air pollution on the natural environment 40 v CONTENTS Impacts of air pollution on the built environment 51 Impacts on visibility 53 Economic impacts 54 Chapter summary 55 Recommended reading 56 3 Air pollution, regulation and management 57 Introduction 58 Air pollution regulation in the United Kingdom 58 Air quality standards in the United Kingdom 63 Air pollution regulation by the European Union 70 The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) 75 The critical loads approach: assessing national and international policies 77 Monitoring air pollution 79 Modelling air pollution dispersion 82 Techniques to reduce air pollution 87 Environmental assessment 99 Chapter summary 100 Recommended reading 101 4 The freshwater environment 103 Introduction 104 Threats to freshwater 104 United Kingdom and European Union legislative background 105 A strategy for water quality in England and Wales 109 Sources of pollution in freshwater 112 Groundwater 149 Chapter summary 151 Recommended reading 152 5 Pollution of the marine environment 155 Introduction 156 Types of marine pollution and their impacts 156 Managing marine pollution 182 Chapter summary 186 Recommended reading 187 6 Managing pollution from radioactive substances 189 Introduction 190 What are radioactive substances? 190 Measuring radiation 191 vi CONTENTS Sources of man-made radiation 192 The health effects of radiation 193 The effect of radionuclides in the wider environment 195 Radionuclides in the marine environment 203 Regulation 205 The peculiar case of radon gas 208 Chapter summary 211 Recommended reading 212 7 People, politics and the press 213 Introduction 214 The public 215 The media 219 Politicians 221 Industry 222 Non-governmental bodies 223 The anti-environmental backlash 224 Chapter summary 225 Recommended reading 225 Glossary 227 References 230 Index 240 vii Illustrations Plates 2.1 Smogs occurring in hot, dry conditions: Sydney 27 2.2 Growing plants in Solardomes to examine the effect of air pollution 43 3.1 A typical British coal-fired power station 59 4.1 Lower Swansea valley: heavy-metal contamination of soils and waters from industrial activity 117 4.2 Examining the effects of acid rain on catchments by roofing the entire catchment: Gardsjon, south-west Sweden 140 4.3 Liming to reduce acidification of freshwaters: Sweden 141 4.4 Liming forest soils: Sweden 142 4.5 Liming using a helicopter: Sweden 143 5.1 Tropical mangrove habitats 168 6.1 Arctic lichen community 202 7.1 Spanish protest against nuclear power 217 Figures 2.1 The distribution of acid soils in Great Britain 41 2.2 A diagrammatic representation of the possible mechanisms of forest damage that may be caused by acid deposition 42 2.3 A mechanistic model of the soil and plant processes affected by nitrogen deposition 45 2.4 The distribution of 2,164 Central European plant species across a gradient of nitrogen indicator values, showing that threatened species predominate in nitrogen-poor situations 46 viii ILLUSTRATIONS 2.5 Air pollution zones in Britain, as defined by the distribution of lichens 50 3.1 The distribution of the UK automatic air quality monitoring stations in 1994 80 3.2 The emission rates for different pollutants for non-catalytic cars driving at different speeds 97 4.1 Changes in total phosphorus, soluble phosphorus, chlorophyll a and Daphnia in Cockshoot Broad, Norfolk 135 4.2 Changes in lake pH for a range of Swedish lakes over thirty to forty years 137 4.3 Changes in pH at Lake Gardsjon, Sweden, over the last 100 years, as determined by changes in diatom populations 140 4.4 The predicted effect of distance from a target area on mortality among four aquatic invertebrates, following aerial spraying with the pesticide Deltamethrin: Asellus aquaticus, Gammarus pulex, Sigara dorsalis and Centroptilum pennulatum 148 5.1 A diagram of the environment flows of nitrogen within the European Union in 1988 181 6.1 The dispersion of the plume and reported arrival times of detectable activity in the air, following the Chernobyl accident in 1986 199 Tables 1.1 Costs of discharges (in Ecu in 1992) for five EU member states for two types of discharge, and the difference in costs between the two 13 1.2 Examples of economic values assigned by different workers to health conditions 15 1.3 Estimated costs to human health of road transport in 1993 in the UK 15 1.4 The external cost of road transport in the UK, by fuel type 16 2.1 Estimates of the percentage contribution to total UK annual ammonia emissions from two studies 24 2.2 Percentage of aerial emissions of pollutants from motor vehicles, by vehicle type, in the UK in 1990 25 2.3 UK 1990 emissions of pollutants from motor vehicles and the range of projected emissions for the year 2025, high and low forecasts 25 2.4 Estimated emissions of nitrogen oxides for different emission sources in the UK 27 2.5 The percentage contribution to PM10 emissions in the UK by different sources 30 2.6 UK emissions of sulphur dioxide, by source 31 2.7 Estimated emissions of volatile organic compounds in the UK in 1990 and 1980 33 2.8 Estimates of the increase in occurrence of respiratory problems in asthmatic patients with changing concentrations of PM10 37 ix ILLUSTRATIONS 2.9 Lowest observable adverse effect levels for health effects of lead in adults 39 2.10 Lowest observable adverse effect levels for health effects of lead in children 39 2.11 Changes in defoliation of selected tree species between 1988 and 1991, resulting from surveys across twenty-eight European countries under the International Cooperative Programme on Assessment and Monitoring of Air Pollution Effects on Forests 43 2.12 Examples of the types of impacts that have been recorded on vegetation and communities for different dusts 49 2.13 Damage caused to different types of material by different air pollutants 52 2.14 The present value of economic benefits resulting from the UNECE sulphur dioxide