Regulatory policy - institutional challenges to implementing the Clean Water Act in Arizona.

Abstract

This study of regulatory policy concerns issues and problems related to "new" social regulatory policies. These policies, initiated in the late 1960's, introduced fundamentally different approaches to regulatory policy, including comprehensive constraints on bureaucratic discretion, markedly increased federal oversight, and strong and absolutely worded statutes. While effective in many ways, these new approaches are blamed for seriously inhibiting the flexibility and creative problem-solving powers of implementing agencies. To illustrate these problems, this study focuses on the implementation of the Clean Water Act in Arizona, where regulation of effluent dominated waters in an arid state poses a unique situation. The thesis shows how characteristics associated with new social regulations have facilitated the resultant unfortunate regulatory outcome. By using the Arizona case, reforms that increase agency responsiveness yet maintain the strength and integrity of the innovative policies are recommended.