Environment Agency - Regulatory Role

The main regulatory roles under Part IIA fall to local authorities. As the Environment Act 1995 which introduced Part IIA also created the Environment Agencies, there was clearly an opportunity to give this role to the these new Agencies. However, a deliberate decision was taken to give the main role to local authorities. This reflected the following factors ... 

The Environment Agency (EA) has a role in regulation of licensed nuclear sites alongside the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (Nil). Essentially, the EA role is to ensure protection of the environment. Section 1.2.2 of the Environment Report (Reference 14.4) summarises the full range of possible regulatory duties for the Environment Agency. 

The relevance and importance of the regulatory environment cannot be overemphasized. This overview of the roles and responsibilities of both the sponsor and the regulatory agency serves to illustrate the interaction between the two, both before and after a drug is approved for marketing. As well as being experts on... 

Environmental Assessment The public was interested in how they could participate in the environmental assessment process and whether a full public review was necessary. As well, they wanted information on the roles assumed by the environmental regulatory agencies (Environment Canada and Alberta Environment) in the project. 

Environmental Agencies Roles Very early in the environmental assessment process, DND informed Environment Canada and Alberta Environment of the project aims and proposed technical approach. Environment Canada assumed the role as lead regulatory agency for the project since DND, a federal department, was the project proponent. Project-specific limits were established by Environment Canada for incinerator stack emissions and ambient air quality, as shown in Table 6.2. Certain limits (e.g., particulates) were guidelines which were more stringent than the current regulatory standards. 

U.S. laws related to biotechnology, identifying the major regulatory agencies that review research and product development. It is an effort to coordinate the Federal role in the assessment of biotechnology as it moves from contained research laboratories into full contact with the public and the environment through commercial development and actual application (48). 

The direct discharge of liquid and gaseous effluents from a nuclear facility and their subsequent dilution and dispersion is permitted by regulatory agencies provided that releases are controlled to ensure that human health and the environment are protected. But as alternatives to containment and isolation of most types of radioactive waste, dilution and dispersion generally are not viable disposal options. It should be noted, however, that dilution and dispersion have an important role in geological disposal concepts. They are a safety factor in any system that cannot guarantee "zero release", which is to say that they are a factor in any system that must function over many thousands of years. 

Natural resource and regulatory agencies are confronted with evaluating a vast and growing number of chemicals that have been detected in or potentially are being released to the aquatic environment. At the same time the abundance and diversity of aquatic species has diminished in many areas. In the Great Lakes, chemical contaminants are suspected to play a causal role in such fishery resource problems as the increase in the incidence of cancerous tumors in brown bullheads, Ictalurus nebulosus (Baumann 1984), and the reproductive impairment of lake trout, Salvelinus namaycush (Mac etal. 1985). A hazard assessment of the chemicals in the environment and the biota is the first step in evaluating the role of chemicals in fishery resource problems. 

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