Hudson River Blog

Created by a sophomore seminar at Hamilton College, this blog considers the past, present, and future of the Hudson River, once described by Robert Boyle as "the most beautiful, messed up, productive, ignored, and surprising piece of water on the face of the earth."

Monday, April 09, 2007

Wasted resources, time, effort, and opportunity

Wasted resources, time, effort, and opportunity. When reading “The History and Science of Managing the Hudson River,” an article by Dennis J. Suszkowski and Christopher F. D’Elia I was shocked by how these themes of inefficiency plague environmental protection policy for the Hudson River.

The first case cited in the text was a three year study of environmental problems and institutional issues funded by the Rockefeller Foundation. This study produced incredible amounts of information totaling about four thousand pages of memoranda which when published in 1979 combined into a two volume report. Unfortunately the results of this report did not directly affect environmental policy or influence and independent agency to bolster support for environmental issues.

In 1976 the Hudson River Level B Study took place. Funded by the Federal government, the objective of this study was to assess the basin’s condition and project the needs of the water and related land up until the year 2000. This study again did not influence any existing policy.

Why do we waste our resources on these studies? Although they are useful as training for scientists they are intended and funded to affect environmental policy.

Other managerial flaws add to the inefficiencies which plague environmental policy on the Hudson as well. Currently there are nine federal agencies, five state agencies, three regional authorities, and numerous municipalities which are in charge on protecting and managing the water. This structure is inefficient because not one organization can be held responsible for problems which rise.

In order to fix the problems which have manifested in the management of the Hudson’s environmental policy it is important to research ways to improve it. This research, if it is not plagued like the cases listed above, can help make a more efficient environmental policy.

posted by Alex Caruso @ 10:56 PM 

1 Comments:

Blogger John said...

In my opinion, a lot of the wastefulness is due to inept government bureaucracy. I firmly believe that anything run by the government is inherently inefficient. What incentives do they have to be as efficient as possible? Often times the government operates outside of real world and market constraints that have made our economy the strongest in the world. I’m not saying that the government shouldn’t be concerned or involved in environmental protection but I think well funded and managed private organizations can do it better. If private groups are inefficient, people will stop donating to them until they clean up their act. You can’t take back your tax money though. This problem is not unique to public environmental protection groups. Waste is rampant throughout all government organizations at all levels. This is more proof, in my mind, that average citizens must take fate into their own hands and be the ones to initiate the changes they see appropriate.

9:45 AM  

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