International Law

?Easing Environmental Regulations? Not A Surrender to Pollution

I saw an interesting piece in the Dong-A Ilbo and dug up the English edition. Pres. Lee Myung-bak’s “business-friendly” government is easing environmental regulations to allow expansion of factories near water sources. This is part of a massive wave of deregulation and rationalization of government activity forecast to take place under LMB.

Right now, factories cannot be constructed within 20km of upstream water sources, while there is no similar restriction on non-factory construction. The Environment Ministry intends to shrink the factory exclusion zone to 7km, so long as waste water is not discharged. In other words, the Environment Ministry in the past assumed that all factories were going to dump pollution, but because the Ministry—like most Korean government agencies—does very little actual monitoring of industry, the only way to reduce harm was to bar all factory establishments in areas where the discharge was likely to get into water sources.

LMB’s Environment Ministry signals a different approach, one in which government regulators are going to have to actively inspect and monitor industrial sites on a regular basis. This is the way that most industrial states operate, and will be a welcome improvement.

Full post as published by Korea Law Blog on March 22, 2008 (boomark / email).