An important issue in public policy decisionmaking is protecting the environment by limiting the amount of pollution that can be tolerated without endangering the health and welfare of human beings and the ecological systems in which we live. Protecting the environment involves regulatory and financial assistance programs to control and abate hazardous wastes, toxic chemicals, and other pollutants that seep into the nation's water, contaminate the land, and poison the air. Which pollutants and what levels of controls are needed, how to balance environmental protection with other equally desirable national goals, and how to maximize the billions of dollars spent on environmental controls—all represent important national concerns.
This bibliography includes information on U.S. General Accounting
Office (GAO) documents issued between August 1988 and April 1990
that directly or indirectly discuss environmental protection. A previous
GAO environmental bibliography GAO/RCED-89-23, included
documents issued between January 1985 and August 1988. Although the
Resources, Community, and Economic Development Division (RCED) is
GAO's lead division for reviews of environmental protection, a broad
interrelationship exists between the environmental area and other
areas GAO addresses such as health, energy, transportation,
agriculture, and natural resources. This bibliography, therefore,
includes information on documents issued by other GAO divisions and
offices that have linkages to environmental protection issues.
This bibliography should be useful for general information and research
purposes and for understanding issues in the environmental protection
area that are being addressed by GAO. Questions regarding its contents
should be directed to Peter Guerrero, Associate Director, or Bernice
Steinhardt, Issue Area Planner, U.S. General Accounting Office, Room
M-1002, 401 M Street, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20460, (202) 252-0600.
Readers interested in ordering individual documents in the
environmental protection or other areas, or in requesting
bibliographic searches on a specific topic, should call the GAO
Document Handling and Information Service (202) 275-6241. The
cards included in this book also may be used to order documents.
Richard L. Hembra, Director
Environmental Protection Issues
Resources, Community, and
Economic Development Division