Statewide Management—What Does the Future Hold?

In many states, people are now being asked through bond issues to decide on means for improving environmental quality, and considerable public and private funds will be spent on action programs. Also, in many states and regions attention is being focused on creating pollution control authorities, and there are numerous proposals to initiate effluents charges. If the public is to be involved in making some of the critical choices necessary to improve environmental quality, some better mechanisms must be developed to provide a public forum, including participation in the decision-making process. All of these factors must be taken into account—the social, economic, technical, and political-institutional—in developing an effective management program. There must be a vehicle for action. At least three states have taken action in this regard—in Maryland, there is the Maryland Environmental Service; in New York, the Environmental Facilities Corporation; and in Ohio, the Ohio Water Development Authority.