한강수계 오염총량관리제도와 지역갈등 = TMDL on Han-River Water System and Regional Conflict

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

To keep the National River-system from contamination, TMDL (Total Maximum Daily Load) clauses were incorporated into the Act on the Improvement of Water Quality and Support for Residents of the Riverhead of the Han-River System of 1998 and Acts on the other 3 national rivers. TMDL is based on the concept of limiting contaminant load into the open water under the carrying capacity of the water system so as to maintain the water quality objective of the water system. The concept is popular in developed countries.The new TMDL clauses in the Acts are different from the conventional water quality policy in a few perspectives: establishing the water quality objective for the domain of each local government; founding the water quality management system for each basin; preparing the bases of water quality management strategies; and assigning maximum permissible quantity of contaminant (or the amount of contaminant discharge) for each contaminant source.To accomplish these regulatory objectives, it is critical to understand the limits of the TMDL approaches and to respond to the issues flexibly. The Korea ministry of environment had worked to lead the local government to join the TMDL approaches by stick (the implementation of the TMDL system) and carrot ( permit and/or license issuance of facility changes, basic plan for the maintenance of the drainage system, sewage treatment system, basic plan for the urban development of the National Land Planning and Utilization Act ) approach. So far, it was less successful than expected.It is, thus, necessary to exempt the basic environmental facilities from the requirement of inspection and/or consultation for the area where the regional TMDL plan was approved. Further regulatory reformation would be necessary for the TMDL incorporated regional development plan to be regarded as one that passed the inspection and/or consultation procedure that is required from the related Acts.A regulatory system is path-dependent. We can not guarantee that a successful foreign system will be transplanted accordingly in the host country. Rather, it depends on the contexts of history, culture, politics, economy, and ecology of the region where it is introduced.The TMDL approaches must be implemented based on the objective of integrated basin management. Due to some practical limitations, however, it will be implemented independently region by region and this can deteriorate the conflicts among the local government. To resolve the regional conflicts from the implementation of the TMDL approaches, it is recommended to buildup and to reinforce the inter-basin committees for the basin management, and to construct the governance system from the participation of all interested parties for the management of the basin/watershed.