Page 98 - Fundamentals of Air Pollution

68 5. The Philosophy of Air Pollution Control

per dollar expended for control. It gives information on how to economically
optimize an attack on pollution, but it gives no information on the reduction
in pollution required to achieve acceptable public health and well-being.
However, when these goals can be achieved by different control alterna-
tives, it behooves us to utilize the alternatives that show the greatest cost
effectiveness.
To determine what pollution concentrations in air are compatible with
acceptable public health and well-being, use is made of Air Quality Criteria,
which are statements of the air pollution effects associated with various air
quality levels. It is inconceivable that any jurisdiction would accept levels
of pollution it recognizes as damaging to health. However, the question
of what constitutes damage to health is judgmental and therefore debatable.
The question of what damage to well-being is acceptable is even more
judgmental and debatable. Because they are debatable, the same Social and
Political Considerations come into the decision-making process as in the
previously discussed case of arriving at episode control tactics. Cost Effec-
tiveness is not a factor in the acceptability of damage to health, but it is a
factor in determining acceptable damage to public well-being. Some juris-
dictions may opt for a pollution level that allows some damage to vegetation,
animals, materials, structures, and the atmosphere as long as they are
assured that there will be no damage to their constituents' health. The
concentration level the jurisdiction selects by this process is called an Air
Quality Standard. This is the level the jurisdiction says it wishes to maintain.
Adoption of air quality standards by a jurisdiction produces no air pollu-
tion control. Control is produced by the limitation of emission from sources,
which, in turn, is achieved by the adoption and enforcement of Emission
Standards. However, before emission standards are adopted, the jurisdic-
tion must make some social and political decisions on which of several
philosophies of emission standard development are to be utilized and which
of the several responsible groups in the jurisdiction should bear the brunt
of the control effort—its homeowners, landlords, industries, or institutions.
This latter type of decision making is called Emission Allocation. It will be
seen in Fig. 5-1 that the system for strategic control is closed by the line
connecting Emission Standards and Sources, which means that long-range
pollution control strategy consists of applying emission limitation to
sources.

IV. ALTERNATIVE CONTROL STRATEGIES

There are several different strategies for air pollution control. The strategy
just discussed and shown in Fig. 5-1 is called the air quality management
strategy. It is distinguished from other strategies by its primary reliance
on the development and promulgation of ambient air quality standards.