Theodore Tomasi – författare

The text provides an overview of recent advances in the theoretical analysis of NPS pollution and regulation from an economic perspective. Besides specific policy recommendations, a common theme in the essays is the attempt to suggest regulatory approaches starting from the recognition of the problems of incomplete information encountered when dealing with NPS problems. Such problems, which can be traced back to the difficulty of identifying sources and measuring individual discharges, imply that, rather than monitoring emissions at source, alternative solutions have to be found to set regulatory policy instruments. In this sense, besides problems classified in the technical literature as NPS pollution, many of the considerations are also applicable to phenomena labelled as point-source problems, whenever - despite the availability of technical means for measuring the volume and quality of emissions - widespread and continuous monitoring of individual discharges is economically unfeasible, and alternative ways of establishing cause and effect links between economic activities and observed environmental quality impairments are required.

In April 1992 the Foundation Eni Enrico Mattei organized a workshop on the regulation of nonpoint source pollution. This volume inc1udes the proceedings of that meeting, as well as additional original contributions, in an attempt to provide an overview of recent theoretical developments in the field. Research on the causes, consequences, and control of nonpoint source pol­ lution has been carried out over the last two decades. Interest in this subject has grown as a result of the increasing recognition of the insufficiency of traditional pollution control policies focused on the large scale, confined, and general­ ly predictable pollutant discharges. In fact, many contemporary problems are caused by the combined activities of small polluters, along with natural pro­ cesses, intermittent and unpredictable events, and often involve pollutants with complex environmental outcomes. Despite the progress made in understanding the nature and size of pollution from diffuse sources, the issue of regulation is still far from being system at­ ically and adequately addressed. This policy vacuum is partly attributable to the difficulty of adapting the traditional point source regulatory tool kit to the specific features of nonpoint source problems. Such features inc1ude the tech­ nical difficulty of identifying sources and measuring individual emissions, their variability over time and space, the role played by natural processes in detennin­ ing pollutant discharges at source and their ultimate impacts on the receiving environmental media.