Page 24 - Environmental Control in Petroleum Engineering

Introduction to Environmental Control in the Petroleum Industry 13

Because funds available for environmental compliance are limited
to those received within a project's minimum profitability level, these
funds should be spent in ways that provide maximum protection
for the environment. Bad regulations can require that available funds
be spent in ways that provide little environmental protection. This
increases the cost of doing business and can make many marginal projects
uneconomical, resulting in a loss of jobs and reduction in domestic
production. Thus, the conflict between the benefits of inexpensive energy
and environmental protection are magnified by bad regulations.
The following hypothetical situation illustrates how misinformation
and misunderstanding about sound scientific environmental principles
can lead to the economic destruction of an industry:

A company applied for a discharge permit for a process and
reported that the effluent concentrations of a particular chemical
would be 75 parts per thousand. The discharge permit was denied
on the grounds that the effluent concentration was too high. The
company then spent thousands of dollars to upgrade their waste
treatment stream and reduced the effluent concentration to 75
parts per million. Their discharge permit was again denied on the
same grounds. The company then spent millions of dollars more
to install the best available technology for treating the waste
effluent. They successfully reduced the discharge concentration
to 75 parts per billion. Unfortunately, the discharge permit was
again denied on the grounds that the effluent concentration was
still to high. The company then invested billions of dollars in
research and development to create a new way to treat the
effluent and lower the discharge concentration to 75 parts per
trillion. The discharge permit was again denied. At this point, the
company went bankrupt and was forced out of business because
it spent all of its money trying to comply with environmental
regulations. When they asked the permitting agency why their
discharge permits were denied, they were simply told that 75
parts was just too high.

Although this story incorrectly implies that regulatory agencies do not
base their regulations on sound scientific principles, the sad truth is
that regulatory agencies must operate within laws passed by people
who may lack an understanding of scientific environmental principles.