Page 96 - Fundamentals of Air Pollution

66 5. The Philosophy of Air Pollution Control

in Chapter 19, but at this point the foregoing discussion should explain
the reason for the box in Fig. 5-1 labeled Air Pollution Potential Forecasts.
The connecting box marked Social and Political Considerations provides a
place in the system for the public debates, hearings, and action processes
necessary to decide, well in advance of an episode, what control tactics to
use and when to call an end to the emergency. The public needs to be
involved because alternatives have to be written into the scenario concern-
ing where, when, and in what order to impose restrictions on sources.
This should be done in advance and should be well publicized, because
during the episode there is no time for public debate. In any systems
analysis, the system must form a closed loop with feedback to keep the
system under control. It will be noted that the system for tactical episode
control is closed by the line connecting Episode-Control Tactics to Sources,
which means that the episode control tactics are to limit sources severely
during the episode. Since it takes hours before emergency plans can be
put into effect and their impact on pollution levels felt, it is possible that
by the time the community responds, the situation has disappeared. Experi-
ence has shown that the time for community response is slowed by the
need to write orders to close down sources and to respond in court to
requests for judicial relief from such orders. To circumvent the former type
of delay, orders can be written in blank in advance. To circumvent the
latter type of delay, the agency's legal counsel must move as rapidly as
the counsel seeking such relief.

III. AIR QUALITY MANAGEMENT CONTROL STRATEGY

Now let us consider the system for long-range strategy for air pollution
control. The elements in this system that have not yet been discussed
include several listed in Fig. 5-1 under Sources and Their Control and all
those listed under Strategy for Air Pollution Control. Control of sources is
effected in several ways. We can (1) use devices to remove all or part of
the pollutant from the gases discharged to the atmosphere, (2) change the
raw materials used in the pollution-producing process, or (3) change the
operation of the process so as to decrease Pollutants Emitted. These are
Control Methods (Table 5-2). Such control methods have a cost associated
with them and are the Cost Functions that appear in the system. There is
always the option of seeking Alternate Products or Processes which will
provide the same utility to the public but with less Pollutants Emitted.
Such products and processes have their own Cost Functions.
Just as it costs money to control pollution, it also costs the public money
not to control pollution. All the adverse Air Pollution Effects represent
economic burdens on the public for which an attempt can be made to assign
dollar values, i.e., the cost to the public of damage to vegetation, materials,