Obtaining information about potential violations of environmental law has long been a key challenge for effective enforcement of environmental law. Facility inspections are, of course, a central element to collecting this information, but the number of inspectors compared to the number of regulated facilities severely limits how much data can be gathered about potential violations. Citizen complaints are another important source of information, but this can be very sporadic. Routine government monitoring is also a useful tool – however, here too the information can be quite limited.
Air quality monitoring for many common pollutants such as sulfur dioxide or nitrogen oxides, where it is available, is regional in nature, and often provides little information about what may be happening with exposures in neighborhoods or the impact of specific facilities. Monitoring required in permits for larger facilities can provide important information about releases, but many smaller facilities are not required to monitor. And even for larger facilities, the monitoring requirements may end at the property boundaries. For some pollutants of relatively recent concern, such as greenhouse gases, hydroflurocarbons (HFCs), and methane, little monitoring data is available for many locations where these gases are emitted. Especially for neighborhood-scale emissions of toxic air, this lack of data raises important environmental justice concerns. Significant exposures, sometimes from multiple sources, may be occurring without the regulators’ or the community’s knowledge. In several locations around the globe, government agencies have started to recognize this problem and begin expanding neighborhood air quality monitoring, but the extent of this monitoring remains very limited worldwide.
For water quality, similar problems exist. Government agencies typically conduct periodic monitoring of water quality, but this data often is unable to detect spikes in pollutants. Regulated facilities also often have permit requirements that mandate the monitoring of effluent. While such mandates can help to identify non-compliance, they may not provide sufficient information about the quality of water bodies, especially when non-permitted discharges such as runoff are considered. In several countries, citizen-based voluntary water quality monitoring has added to the data available to regulators. Nevertheless, important gaps remain in understanding the day-to-day water quality of most water bodies, identifying violations, and locating sources of hazardous water pollutants.
Technological advances in air and water quality monitoring have helped to bridge some of the gaps discussed above, allowing government personnel to gather more information remotely rather than through onsite inspections, providing environmental watchdog organizations new tools to identify violations, and enabling citizens to obtain and share data about pollutants in their own neighborhoods to government agencies (sometimes referred to as citizen environmental science). Examples of advanced technology include:
- Infrared cameras that can detect leaking volatile organic compounds from petroleum storage tanks or leaking refrigerants such as HFCs that are now being phased out because of their global warming potential;
- Drones equipped with sensors to detect water quality problems and potential illegal discharges;
- Real-time river sensor networks that can continuously monitor water quality in important water bodies;
- Satellites that can identify even relatively small methane leaks and spot air quality problem areas at close resolution; and
- Hand-held, low-cost cell phone-based monitors that can detect common air pollutants and facilitate citizen monitoring.
These and other new technologies hold important promise for improving environmental compliance and enforcement, as well as addressing important environmental justice concerns.
The International Network for Environmental Compliance and Enforcement (INECE) has been working on the impact of monitoring on compliance and enforcement for many years. In 2021, INECE held a six-part series on citizen environmental monitoring for which a synthesis report is available for download. And in April 2024, INECE organized a webinar on Compliance Challenges for HFCs Phase-down Under the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol that included a discussion of how technology is contributing to this effort.
In the last four years, INECE has focused on how advanced monitoring can improve environmental compliance and enforcement. For a more in-depth look at this topic, join INECE on September 11 for a free webinar on advances in air quality monitoring. Information about the webinar and registration is available here.
And on November 6-8, INECE and the Australian Environmental Regulators Network will hold an International Summit on Environmental Compliance and Enforcement in Brisbane, Australia. The role of advanced monitoring in environmental compliance and enforcement will be a central theme for the Summit. Be sure to check out the Summit website to learn more.