The EPA sets a ceiling for some contaminant, then the states adopt an even lower number that industry struggles to attain, paying fines and going out of business. The crazy part is the regulators seem to believe that the ability to detect smaller and smaller quantities of something equates to industries being able to achieve lower and lower quantities in their processes. Sometimes going offshore looks really, really, good.
I worked for 41 years as a chemical engineer in the chemical and refining industry. Much of my time was in environmentally related projects. One thing I saw ... many years ago instrumentation could detect components in a sample to a level of parts per thousands. As the years passed, those detections became more precise up to levels of parts per billion or parts per trillion.
And you know what ... each time the instrumentation became more precise, suddenly the acceptable levels of contamination were lowered to the levels of precision of current measurement. So, if lead was acceptable in water at 1 part per thousand, years ago, then the current acceptable level is probably in the parts per billion range.
That's OK. I have been assured, in no uncertain terms, that if we just impose sufficiently high import tariffs, these industries will stay in America, or even come back.