ENVIRONMENTAL INDICATORS AND STANDARDS

What, then, are environmental standards? The word "standard" has been used differently for different purposes in legal literature. In environmental law, the term means the specific limits which the law imposes on the amount of permissible pollution of the environment or specific qualitative measures to be achieved for the purposes of protection of the environment. As correctly pointed out in the NCSSD, the existence of environmental standards is a necessary pre-condition to effective environmental management.

 Environmental standards may be divided into three broad categories, namely:

1.   Ambient and receptor standards,

2.   Emission standards, and

3.   Specification standards.

Ambient and Receptor Standards.

Ambient and receptor standards are the oldest form of environmental standards. They seek to limit not the activities of the potential polluter or even its discharges but the effects of the discharges on the environment. They are concerned with the amount of harm to or the deterioration of the environment. Ambient standards state the maximum pollutant concentration permitted in the environment at any given place. Such standards are not common in countries which follow the classic English approach to environmental protection as it was in England before she joined the EEC.

An example of ambient standards in Tanzania is found in the Water Utilization and Control Act, which establishes that certain receiving water bodies should be at least as clean as provided for in the Act's narrative descriptions.

Receptor standards on their part apply to an individual discharger, rendering it liable for causing perceptible harm to the environment. Examples of such standards in Tanzania are the provisions of the Penal Code which relate to common nuisance ( s. 170); fouling water (s. 184); and offensive trades (s. 186). Like the English Nuisance Removal Acts of 1848 and the Public Health Acts of 1848 anzards.

Emissions Standards.

Since the late 19th Century, there has been a shift from setting ambient and receptor standards towards controlling discharges as a more effective approach to environmental protection. This is achieved by setting standards for permissible emissions. The shift in approach was mainly precipitated by technological advances which made it possible to establish with conviction that particular types and levels of discharges were harmful to health and the environment.

Emissions standards focus mainly on concentration of noxious matters in an effluent. An example of a law setting emissions standards in Tanzania is the Water Utilization and Control Act of 1974, which, among other standards, imposes certain standards in respect of effluent into receiving waters. The standards have to be complied with by water rights holders, as discussed further in the analytical section in Chapter 4.0. Other jurisdictions with advanced environmental laws have made standards to limit noxious emissions into the air and the atmosphere generally.

The use of emission standards as a technique of environmental protection is only feasible if there exist monitoring techniques capable of quantifying the limits imposed and sufficient resources to monitor compliance with the standards. In Tanzania, both quantification techniques as well as compliance monitoring resources are not very sophisticated. However, as noted above, businesses should understand and voluntarily comply with these standards.

Specification Standards.

These are standards which seek not to regulate the discharge itself but rather to control the industrial activities which are the source of pollution by directing that they shall conform to certain pre-determined specifications. Specification standards may lay down prescription as to the construction of a plant or business infrastructure, e.g., a hotel lodge in a game reserve; give directions as to how a plant may be used or prescribe the materials that may or may not be used. The Tanzania Bureau of Standards has set a few specification standards for several industries.

Like emissions standards, specification standards require agencies to conduct research to set them, as well as to monitor their observance. However, the cost involved is generally lower than that of monitoring voluntary compliance with emissions standards.

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1.    A. Ogus, "The Regulation of Pollution" in G. Richardson et al, Policing Pollution: A Study of Regulation and Enforcement, Clarendon Press, Oxford (1982), pp. 30-68.

2.    NCSSD, p. 83, para. 5.8.

The English Air Quality Standards Regulations, 1989, SI.1989 No. 317 and the US Air Pollution Prevention and Control Act, 42 U.S.C. ss 7401 to 7671q.