The Repository @ St. Cloud State

Open Access Knowledge and Scholarship

Date of Award

5-1997

Culminating Project Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Criminal Justice: M.S.

Department

Criminal Justice

College

School of Public Affairs

First Advisor

F. Barry Schreiber

Second Advisor

Charles Seefeldt

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.

Keywords and Subject Headings

Hazardous, Waste, Minnesota, Generators, Violations

Abstract

Hazardous waste generators that deviate from federal and state environmental regulations pose a threat to the environment and the reputation of law-abiding businesses. The aim of this study was to identify characteristics of inspected Minnesota hazardous waste generators so that environmental enforcement officials may be better able to educate themselves and prevent future violations by hazardous waste generators by knowing where to focus their attention. A sample of 708 inspected hazardous waste generators for the years 1994 to 1996 was collected from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA). The data were examined by size of generator (Very Small Quantity Generators [VSQG], Small Quantity Generators [SQG], and Large Quantity Generators [LQG]) to determine whether statistically significant differences existed between generator size and the demographic variables, inspections, violations and penalties. The results of this study found that, generally, smaller quantity generators had significantly more inspections, more violations, were more likely to be from greater Minnesota counties and involved in agricultural-related industry; surprisingly, LQGs received more penalties. As a result of this study, the MPCA must either train smaller quantity generators through more inspections or seek alternative forms of enforcement (i.e., criminal sanctions) to ensure generators are in compliance with the law.

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