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California now has a waste management system but it is based entirely upon an "input" concept; that is, the problem is assumed to be one of "disposal" at least cost and attention is focussed upon kinds and quantities of unwanted materials and the shortest distance to a "dumping place". In this study, the controlling considerations are "output". Three classes of output are identified: (1) The degree of environmental pollution to be permitted;

(2) The waste bound natural resources to be reclaimed; and

(3) New natural resources to be developed by waste management methods. The second concept is that waste management deals with one single systemthe environment-which, in turn, is divided into three closely related subsystems-air, water, and land. At the present time in California, there is a large number of virtually independent State, regional, and local bodies regulating, collecting and disposing of different wastes.

The report points out that unless these diverse and dispersed activities are properly articulated, and unless the interfaces between solid, liquid, and atmospheric wastes are recognized, no effective waste management system can be developed.

A corollary to this concept is the realization that wastes cannot be efficiently managed in geographic plots dictated by the boundaries of political jurisdictions, but that the geographic boundaries must stem from the analysis of the waste system itself. These considerations lead inexorably to a concept of a statewide plan, large operating regions, and a multiplicity of "independent" but articulated activities within each region.

A new aspect of the approach is the establishment of the goal of optimizing the waste management system for the total population rather than for the waste possessors. This may represent a breakthrough. It is achieved by identifying standards of environmental quality which are optimum for the public and recognizing a scale of worths for such optimum qualities. By comparing these worths with the costs of maintaining these levels of environmental quality, for the first time a means is devised of optimizing the system for society as a whole. The second new aspect in this report is the recognition that political, legal, and social factors must enter into the design of the system. The study recognized that considerations related to politics, legal constraints, established social institutions, jurisdictional boundaries, private versus social action, sources of funding and popular acceptance have not heretofore been controlling forces in designing either military or civilian systems, and, in fact, make the straightforward optimization of the strictly technical elements an extremely complex process. The study demonstrated, however, that the logic of system analysis allows an ordering of the total problem including these factors and the presentation of alternatives to the decisionmakers in clear and unambiguous terms. The approach used in this study has three strengths:

1. It leads to a valid long-range plan as distinguished from a rearguard action of "containment" that amounts to a slow retreat. It seeks a steady state system that can be planned into the distant future as contrasted to a short-range program of expediency.

2. It is based on a recognition of the full spectrum of environmental quality values ranging from conditions of simple survival through levels of safety, freedom from direct impairment of animal and plant life, adequate physiologic performance and comfort, to levels of maximum aesthetic enjoyment of the environment.

3. Finally, it recognizes the need to select operating regions large enough to include in the same system those who gain and those who pay; in other words, it permits the worths and costs to be internalized in the same system.

INTRODUCTION

I would like to show a few pictures (illustrations A through I) which will help to paint the waste and pollution problem confronting California today vividly in your minds. The mere fact that such pictures can be taken in our state today indicates that a problem exists for which there is no ready solution. This study had as one of its major objectives, the determination of whether aerospace technology and the techniques of systems engineering could fruitfully be applied to the problem of waste management in California. A further goal of this study was to set forth a plan which could be used in California for attacking the problems produced by the increasing amounts of waste generated in the State.

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