The Puget Sound sulphite pulp mills and the tragedy of the commons

• Published in: Biological conservation Vol. 4; no. 1; pp. 31 - 38
• Main Author: Fonda, R.W.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 1971
• Subjects: water pollution
• ISSN: 0006-3207; 1873-2917
• DOI: 10.1016/0006-3207(71)90052-8

This paper demonstrates that Garrett Hardin's thesis of ‘mutual coercion, mutually agreed upon by the majority of the people affected’, is well-founded, and that it represents a feasible approach to pollution control. Eight pulp-mills discharging waste into Puget Sound were the objects of four years of research into the biological impact of pulping wastes. A Federal-State Conference proposed recommendations that have been incorporated into discharge permits to stop biologically harmful waste discharge into Puget Sound. All mills were treated equally in the process, and all must meet the same effective level of biologically adequate waste discharge. Mutual coercion of this type was the only solution to the problem. Left to themselves, it is doubtful whether the mills would have made an effort to intercept wastes.