Case Study

• Utilize exercise six page 356

• Write no more than two pages

Consider the following case. You have recently been appointed head of a new agency established to monitor pollution emissions from coal-fired power plants through put the Midwest. The data you collect will have a direct impact on an anticipated presidential decision concerning acid rain in the Northeast and Canada.

You must try to develop the most comprehensive and precise measures possible and then monitor as many plants as you reasonably can during the relatively short period prior to the presidential decision. Most of your staff have been in the pollution control field much longer than you and are highly committed to the goals of your agency.

They have been arguing that a new piece of equipment, and Emission Systems Monitoring Instrument (EMSI), is the only device that is capable of taking precise measurements of the particular pollutants with which you are concerned.

The problem is that the ESMI is both extremely expensive and would require nearly half the time you have available just to be delivered.

You are skeptical about whether the ESMI is worth the cost, but even more concerned that its limited availability will mean that you will fail to meet your deadline, you also think, though you a not sure, that the rough estimates generated by the existing equipment are sufficient for the purposes of your report to the president. Do you go ahead with the existing equipment, or do you buy the EMSI?