What is the future of environmental regulations? If you've spent any time with a teenager or at the local mall lately, you've probably sensed the time warp phenomenon of the 1970s. Back in style are platform shoes, hip-hugger jeans and tank tops. Even the Volkswagen Bug has returned. Is this what your teachers really meant when they said, "History will repeat itself"?

Well, it just may be that a similar return to a 1970s type of environmental regulatory expansion is about to occur. I bring this theory to your attention because I want the aggregates industry to be especially alert for a potential new wave of self-regulations as we approach the millennium.

Unlike many industries, the construction materials industry is basically exempt from highly technical self-monitoring devices. Our water quality testing requirements are generally minimal. Our dust suppression equipment is fairly simplistic. In some locations, aggregate operations rarely see an environmental inspector. This industry has been given a wide berth to practice self-regulation-a great and terrible responsibility.

One problem with the self-regulation is that it takes a heck of a lot more work these days to be an honorable, law-abiding company than it used to when Elvis was king. Not only do we have to follow the laws, but we spend a significant amount of time trying to determine what those laws are and how we might be able to comply with them without taking an economic bath. I wonder how much money is spent complying with laws that don't exist or have been repealed. Or even more likely, how much money is spent on trying to decipher exactly which laws apply to our industry.

You may infer that I think self-regulation is a bad thing. I don't. I'm sure it's the right thing for this industry, if not all industries. But it's not an easy path, and I doubt we'll ever be able to put environmental concerns on the back burner again. Because if we let our guard down, there are many opportunities to lose the positive aspect of today's regulatory climate. I have been told (and tend to agree), that during good economic times, regulators like to practice enforcement and generate revenue. During recessionary times, they secretly huddle up and create new regulations as a means of job security.

We have to attempt to control our own regulatory destiny. Therefore, God bless those state and national associations that watch out for our industry and our interests in D.C., as well as the state capitals across the country. Not only do they help us keep abreast of the latest rules, but they often lobby on our behalf to reduce the overtly burdensome ones, and even try to simplify permit procedures.

The world we live in is an ever-expanding and contracting universe of regulations, and I sense that we're at the cusp of a great expansion. How we handle a potential onslaught of more technical monitoring and self-policing regulations is squarely on our shoulders. It's not very often we can count on government employees to steer us in the right direction. It is up to us, and our designated corporate and association leaders, to hold tight to that old VW wheel as we drive into that brave new world. Let's make sure that the good old days are in the future, not in the past.