Pollution Prevention - Urban Watersheds: Geology, Contamination, and Sustainable Development - page 439

It is beyond the scope of this topic to carry out this type of analysis. What can be man-
aged here is the presentation of a procedure for pollution prevention that has had success
with industrial point source applications, and an extension of this procedure to nonpoint
sources. These experiences can then be applied to help achieve the broader quantitative
and qualitative goals of pollution prevention outlined above.
13.3 Implementing Pollution Prevention
Techniques: Industrial Point Sources
Successful implementation of pollution prevention involves careful planning. Within the
broad array of planning venues and forms (e.g., urban, environmental, strategic, and busi-
ness), there are common threads to the planning process:
• Identification of what you want to do (goals/objectives)
• Collection of data
• Specification of methods for achieving the goals/objectives
• Implementation using the selected methods
• Assessment of the results
The planning process shown here is cyclical. Assessment may lead back to more data
collection, or if implementation fails with the methods selected, new methods can be
developed and implemented until success is achieved. Sometimes, the outcome changes
the entire goal of the project, especially in cases where you bit off more than you could
chew.
Science should be infused into the planning process wherever appropriate. Accurate
measurement is a foundation of good science, so to ensure scientific standards for data
collection are met, the procedures should include a statistically sound specification of the
sample size. As noted in earlier chapters, the samples should also be collected, transported,
and analyzed according to existing professional standards and methods.
Another area where science must be incorporated into the execution of a plan is the
experimental design . Science is fundamentally about identifying and explaining varia-
tion, and the experimental design—which is the assignment of subjects to experimental
groups—provides the roadmap. Although it may sound obvious, at contaminated sites
there are two types of locations: contaminated and uncontaminated. Assigning these
locations into two groups allows investigators to study the similarities and differences
between them. This separation is how we learned that contamination tends to occur more
frequently near low points in buildings, which is described in greater detail later in this
chapter. We then use this knowledge to help design the most effective measures for pollu-
tion prevention—the “where” of intervention.
Successful source control also requires an understanding of the process producing the
pollution. Processes occur over time, so the specification of where to intervene should be
accompanied by the proper timing of our pollution prevention efforts—the “when” of
intervention. If loading docks are areas in a facility more prone to a contaminant release,
then busy times at these locations require special diligence.