Off With the Head!

In an article entitled “The Republicans” in this past week’s Economist, former GOP nominee hopeful, Michelle Bachmann, is quoted as saying if she were elected she would have the “doors locked and lights turned off” at the Environmental Protection Agency.  – Before going further, it is important for the reader to know that Bureaucracy runs through my veins.  I was born and raised by two bureaucrats and have lived in the D.C. area, supported by the federal government’s money my whole life. – Of course my first reaction was dismay at Bachmann’s comment.  How could we do away with what seems like a fundamental part of our government?

The thought remained in my head until later in the week when I was sitting in my Environmental Systems Engineering class.  For those who don’t know, Environmental Engineering is essentially the study of meeting EPA standards for pollution, water, wastewater, and pretty much everything else.   As I sat in class listening to my professor describe the typical process for increasing the stringency of regulations I became thoroughly disenchanted with the system.  The issue I saw was that the whole thing is built on the idea of doing the bare minimum to meet the standards of the EPA.  There are approved processes, which have to meet approved standards, and if a change is made everyone protests.  But, if you step back and look at the reason that change is being made, it is directly intended to improve the health of the end users of the water or whatever is being processed.  What our whole system of standards and regulations succeeds in doing is removing that human element from the equation and replacing it with numbers, methods, and cost benefit analyses.  From this perspective, the EPA is the head of the snake that has wrapped itself around the systems which support our society and has strangled the life out of them.  Off with the head! Right?

Wait, don’t drop the axe yet.  Let’s dig a little deeper into this idea of the humanity of the process. Sure, on the surface improving people’s health is a powerful incentive. The issue is that even without the help of the EPA that incentive gets lost.  First of all, the connection between how clean the Huron is and what is coming out the faucet in your kitchen is a long and winding road.  Second, we are right-here right-now creatures.  Negative health effects that don’t show up for years are of little concern compared to the economic and more immediate woes of today.  In the end, that human incentive to do well by others needs to cross a lot of hurdles.

I would love to see a world where the water supply system for each city is made as clean as humanly possible by incorporating unique processes without relying on a central regulating body.  Cutting off the head would probably get us there, but not quickly or without many issues along the way.  Instead, building the mentality to take over for the EPA from the ground up would be the ideal path.  Of course, that road may be even longer, but, for now, the EPA and all those other regulatory agencies should probably stick around.

By: Matt Friedrichs

(Photo by Rainforest Action Network under a Creative Commons license)