Explain the advantages and disadvantages of having pollution control under local and state rather than federal jurisdiction.

Local government officials are outraged by unfunded mandates-regulations imposed from Washington but paid for locally. For example, Montanans must clean up the naturally-occurring arsenic in the Madison River because arsenic levels coming from geysers in Yellowstone Park exceed national standards. Yet, according to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates, a person would have to consume two liters of untreated water from the source and eat 6.5 grams of fish every day for 70 years to increase his or her risk of cancer by 1 in 10,000. Towns such as Aspen, Colorado, and Triumph, Idaho, are locked in an unending battle with the EPA because it claims that hazardous waste sites (places that have old mine tailings) must be cleaned up even though the communities do not feel the risks warrant the disruptions (Stroup 1996). Federal regulations to protect endangered species and wetlands have forced property owners to stop farming, logging, and building on their property (Lund 1995)