Eight Hypotheses

The Environmental Protection Agency and the Freshwater Society both deal with water pollution in the Great Lakes, however in their own different ways. Since the Environmental Protection Agency is an agency of the U.S. federal government, they may have more options when it comes to proposing solutions. The Freshwater Society is a non-profit organization and may not have as many options to solutions since it is not as large as the EPA and has a lot of volunteers that work on smaller projects rather than more bigger, complicated projects. Even though the Freshwater Society does work on smaller projects, they still are making an effort to work together and educate people to protect and conserve our fresh water resources.

Some strengths that the EPA consist of is the power to control. The EPA controls many pollutants and protects a lot of endangered species. In my opinion, I believe the most promising ways of addressing water pollution is by everyone working together. Like I stated, the EPA has a lot of power, so by working with other agencies and organizations and finding solutions together on individual problems, over time, things can improve. One of the eight hypotheses Evans discussed was Getting the mix of approaches right is critical. I specified that to solve problems, individual solutions need to be proposed. “There is no magic bullet for solving environmental issues because the problems and potential solutions vary greatly.” I believe this definitely applies to this case since every area of water has its own problem; for example a different source of pollution. Another of the eight hypotheses is the Duality of structure is critical. Since the EPA has volunteer programs, such as monitoring conditions of local streams, it has to take into consideration just what those volunteers should do. “A critical question for environmental governance involves deciding what form this duality should take. For example, how much small-scale freedom it is desirable or possible to facilitate while still allowing actions to be sufficiently coordinated, and what form should large-scale structure assume. Should an overarching body have enforcement and monitoring duties, should it set and promulgate a common vision, or should it simply provide a platform to share knowledge?”

The Freshwater Society focuses on educating the public on the importance of our freshwater and things they can do to help with the many problems. This non-profit organization deals with many other volunteer organizations, so a strength they have is having the public get more involved. One of the eight hypotheses that have to do with this society is the Governance requires political vision. Since a lot of these organizations are based locally, they have individual goals for each place. “In order to steer, a society needs to have goals. While participation is costly, and requires decision-makers to loosen their grip on power to order to allow the public to meaningfully affect a decision, it has a critical role to play in generating a shared vision concerning the direction society should be steered in.” 

Overall, the eight hypotheses apply to many issues when it comes to pollution of the Great Lakes. Since the Freshwater Society has so many volunteer programs, the public is more aware of pollution issues around them. The only weakness with the Freshwater Society is that they can only do so much, unless it grows and receives more funds. The EPA has many projects going on, and one of the main problems with this is funding a lot of them. However, by organizations working together, solutions to these issues regarding water pollution can be resolved over time. 

Sources:

http://www2.epa.gov/aboutepa

Evans, J.P. Environmental Governance. New York: Routledge, 2012. Print.