Point-Source Emissions Technology-based Standards in Ontario: The Municipal and Industrial Strategy for Abatement (MISA)
In the mid-80s, Ontario initiated a major program to deal with all types of water pollutants: conventional discharges, toxins, metals, and organic chemicals.
The goal of MISA was ―the elimination of toxic contaminants in municipal and industrial discharges into waterways.
Misa is based on the federal water-pollution policy of the United States that began in the early 70s.
The intent was to base the standard on technologies for pollution control that take into account economic conditions in each industry.
It is unlikely that BATEA will be socially efficient when a standard is based on what is technically feasible, rather than marginal benefits and damages.
It is also unclear in practice what role economic achievability plays in establishing the standard. Economic achievability could include the same factors that are measured by the MAC curve.
It found that for a number of the regulated sources MACs were far lower than expected at the initiation of the program.
This was due in part to the economic downturn of the early 1990s that reduced production and hence emission levels and to lower costs for the technologies than expected.
MISA is no longer a high-profile regulation in Ontario, due to political and budgetary factors.
