A State Approach to Effluent Charge

Although the concept of effluent charge as a means of dealing with water pollution has been widely discussed in this country for more than a decade and widely used with documented success in parts of Europe for over fifty years, there is a surprising lack of specific material on methods of implementation. We are, after all, a complex society with overlaying levels of government and close working relationships between the public and private sectors of the economy. Furthermore, the statutory, constitutional, and institutional framework of the federal government and that of each state government are different in varying degree from one another. Thus, the most persuasive and useful plan must, if it is to become the basis for action, be translated into a set of working arrangements which take cognizance of the existing constitutional, statutory, and institutional arrangements in a particular jurisdiction. The purpose of this paper is to propose a working set of arrangements for Maine. To the extent that the paper succeeds in outlining specific approaches which would enable effluent charges to be levied and used in Maine, its more general utility may be limited.