Download or read book Federal Barriers to Common Sense Cleanups written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Commerce. Subcommittee on Finance and Hazardous Materials and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Federal Barriers to Environmental Cleanups written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Commerce. Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Hazardous Materials and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Federal Barriers to Environmental Cleanups written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Commerce. Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Hazardous Materials and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Federal Barriers to Common Sense Cleanups written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Commerce. Subcommittee on Finance and Hazardous Materials and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book A Smarter Partnership written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Energy and Commerce. Subcommittee on Environment and Hazardous Materials and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Federal Barriers to Common Sense Cleanups written by Michael G. Oxley and published by . This book was released on 1997-06-01 with total page 121 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hearings on how the U.S. can get toxic waste cleaned up faster; held nearly two decades since Congress passed the Superfund Act, to clean up toxic waste sites & hold people liable for the toxic contamination they create. Problems with cleanup include: resistance by people who think they have been unfairly tagged for cleanup, long period of time for cleanup process, or even shutting down the cleanup. This hearing focuses on cleanups conducted under State law, such as the voluntary cleanup law passed in Ohio that offers owners of contaminated sites a chance to clean up now in exchange for an agree. from the State that it will not sue later. Today there are 450,000 sites that are sitting idle or underutilized because of fear of environ. liabilities.

Download or read book Environmental Problems in the Federal Government written by United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Governmental Affairs and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Science and Technology for Environmental Cleanup at Hanford written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2001-11-23 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Hanford Site was established by the federal government in 1943 as part of the secret wartime effort to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons. The site operated for about four decades and produced roughly two thirds of the 100 metric tons of plutonium in the U.S. inventory. Millions of cubic meters of radioactive and chemically hazardous wastes, the by-product of plutonium production, were stored in tanks and ancillary facilities at the site or disposed or discharged to the subsurface, the atmosphere, or the Columbia River. In the late 1980s, the primary mission of the Hanford Site changed from plutonium production to environmental restoration. The federal government, through the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), began to invest human and financial resources to stabilize and, where possible, remediate the legacy of environmental contamination created by the defense mission. During the past few years, this financial investment has exceeded $1 billion annually. DOE, which is responsible for cleanup of the entire weapons complex, estimates that the cleanup program at Hanford will last until at least 2046 and will cost U.S. taxpayers on the order of $85 billion. Science and Technology for Environmental Cleanup at Hanford provides background information on the Hanford Site and its Integration Project,discusses the System Assessment Capability, an Integration Project-developed risk assessment tool to estimate quantitative effects of contaminant releases, and reviews the technical elements of the scierovides programmatic-level recommendations.

Download or read book Environmental Protection Agency written by United States. Government Accountability Office and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: EPA faces the following challenges that hinder its ability to implement its programs effectively: (1) improving agencywide management, (2) transforming EPA's processes for assessing and controlling toxic chemicals, (3) improving implementation of the Clean Air Act, (4) reducing pollution in the nation's waters, (5) speeding the pace of cleanup at Superfund and other hazardous waste sites, and (6) addressing emerging climate change issues. EPA has launched various initiatives to address crosscutting general management issues, including environmental enforcement and compliance, human capital management, and the development and use of environmental information. However, these initiatives have generally fallen considerably short of their intended results. EPA has failed to develop sufficient chemical assessment information to limit public exposure to many chemicals that may pose substantial health risks. In January 2009, GAO added a new issue--the need to transform EPA's process for assessing and controlling toxic chemicals--to its list of high-risk areas warranting increased attention by Congress and the executive branch. EPA faces many important challenges related to implementation of the Clean Air Act, including those highlighted by GAO regarding its coordination with other federal agencies, analyses of health impacts from air pollution, and delays in regulating mercury and other air toxics. EPA also faces challenges relating to numerous regulatory proposals that have been overturned or remanded by the courts. EPA partners with federal, state, and local agencies and others to reduce pollution in the nation's waters. Among the most daunting water pollution control problems, the nation's water utilities face billions of dollars in upgrades to aging and deteriorating infrastructures that left unaddressed can affect the quality of our water. EPA will receive $6 billion in additional water infrastructure funding from the recently passed stimulus bill. Congress passed the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, better known as Superfund, in 1980, giving the federal government the authority to ensure the cleanup of hazardous waste sites both on private and public lands. Nonetheless, several key management problems have not been resolved since that time. For example, citing competing priorities and lack of funds, EPA has not implemented a 1980 statutory mandate under Superfund to require businesses handling hazardous substances to provide financial assurances to pay for potential environmental cleanups. In GAO's view, the federal government's approach to climate change has been ad hoc and is not well coordinated across government agencies. For example, the federal government lacks a comprehensive approach for targeting federal research dollars toward the development and deployment of low-carbon technologies.

Download or read book Environmental Cleanup at Navy Facilities written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2003-08-16 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The number of hazardous waste sites across the United States has grown to approximately 217,000, with billions of cubic yards of soil, sediment, and groundwater plumes requiring remediation. Sites contaminated with recalcitrant contaminants or with complex hydrogeological features have proved to be a significant challenge to cleanup on every levelâ€"technologically, financially, legally, and sociopolitically. Like many federal agencies, the Navy is a responsible party with a large liability in hazardous waste sites. Environmental Cleanup at Navy Facilitites applies the concepts of adaptive management to complex, high-risk hazardous waste sites that are typical of the military, EPA, and other responsible parties. The report suggests ways to make forward progress at sites with recalcitrant contamination that have stalled prior to meeting cleanup goals. This encompasses more rigorous data collection and analysis, consideration of alternative treatment technologies, and comprehensive long-term stewardship.

Download or read book The Voluntary Cleanup of New York s Contaminated Property written by Erin M. Crotty and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 46 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Major Management Challenges and Program Risks written by United States. General Accounting Office and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Long Term Institutional Management of U S Department of Energy Legacy Waste Sites written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2000-11-09 with total page 179 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is now becoming clear that relatively few U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) waste sites will be cleaned up to the point where they can be released for unrestricted use. "Long-term stewardship" (activities to protect human health and the environment from hazards that may remain at its sites after cessation of remediation) will be required for over 100 of the 144 waste sites under DOE control (U.S. Department of Energy, 1999). After stabilizing wastes that remain on site and containing them as well as is feasible, DOE intends to rely on stewardship for as long as hazards persistâ€"in many cases, indefinitely. Physical containment barriers, the management systems upon which their long-term reliability depends, and institutional controls intended to prevent exposure of people and the environment to the remaining site hazards, will have to be maintained at some DOE sites for an indefinite period of time. The Committee on Remediation of Buried and Tank Wastes finds that much regarding DOE's intended reliance on long-term stewardship is at this point problematic. The details of long-term stewardship planning are yet to be specified, the adequacy of funding is not assured, and there is no convincing evidence that institutional controls and other stewardship measures are reliable over the long term. Scientific understanding of the factors that govern the long-term behavior of residual contaminants in the environment is not adequate. Yet, the likelihood that institutional management measures will fail at some point is relatively high, underscoring the need to assure that decisions made in the near term are based on the best available science. Improving institutional capabilities can be expected to be every bit as difficult as improving scientific and technical ones, but without improved understanding of why and how institutions succeed and fail, the follow-through necessary to assure that long-term stewardship remains effective cannot reliably be counted on to occur. Long-Term Institutional Management of U.S. Department of Energy Legacy Waste Sites examines the capabilities and limitations of the scientific, technical, and human and institutional systems that compose the measures that DOE expects to put into place at potentially hazardous, residually contaminated sites.

Download or read book Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act a Summary of Superfund Cleanup Authorities and Related Provisions of the Act written by David M. Bearden and published by Createspace Independent Pub. This book was released on 2012-08-10 with total page 46 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Congress enacted the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA; P.L. 96-510) in response to a growing desire for the federal government to ensure the cleanup of the nation's most contaminated sites to protect the public from potential harm. The Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986 (P.L. 99-499, SARA) clarified the applicability of the statute's requirements to federal facilities, and modified various response, liability, and enforcement provisions. Several other laws also have amended CERCLA for specific purposes, including relief from cleanup liability for certain categories of parties, and the authorization of federal assistance for the cleanup of abandoned or idled “brownfields” where the presence or perception of contamination may impede economic redevelopment. CERCLA authorizes cleanup and enforcement actions to respond to actual or threatened releases of hazardous substances into the environment, but generally excludes releases of petroleum and certain other materials covered by other federal laws. Considering the limitation of federal resources to address the many contaminated sites across the United States, CERCLA directs the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to maintain a National Priorities List (NPL) to identify the most hazardous sites for the purpose of prioritizing cleanup actions. The states and the public may participate in federal cleanup decisions at NPL sites. The states primarily are responsible for pursuing the cleanup of sites not listed on the NPL, with the federal role at these sites limited mainly to addressing emergency situations. CERCLA established a broad liability scheme that holds past and current owners and operators of facilities from which a release occurs financially responsible for cleanup costs, natural resource damages, and the costs of federal public health studies. At waste disposal sites, generators of the wastes and transporters of the wastes who selected the site for disposal also are liable under CERCLA. The liability of these “potentially responsible parties” (PRPs) has been interpreted by the courts to be strict, joint and several, and retroactive. At contaminated federal facilities, federal agencies are subject to liability under CERCLA as the owners and operators of those facilities on behalf of the United States. Federal agencies also may be liable in instances in which an agency generated or transported waste for disposal at a non-federal facility. CERCLA established the Hazardous Substance Superfund Trust Fund to pay for the cleanup of sites where the PRPs cannot be found or cannot pay. A combination of special taxes on industry and general taxpayer revenues originally financed the Superfund Trust Fund, but the authority to collect the industry taxes expired on December 31, 1995. Over time, Congress increased the contribution of general revenues to make up for the shortfall from the expired industry taxes. General revenues now provide most of the funding for the trust fund, but other monies continue to contribute some revenues (i.e., cost-recoveries from PRPs, fines and penalties for violations of cleanup requirements, and interest on the trust fund balance). The availability of these trust fund monies under the Superfund program is subject to appropriations by Congress. Private settlement funds deposited into site-specific Special Accounts within the Superfund Trust Fund also are available to EPA, but are not subject to discretionary appropriations. Considering the liability of the federal government at its own facilities, the cleanup of federal facilities is not funded with Superfund Trust Fund monies under the Superfund program, but with other federal monies appropriated to the agencies responsible for administering the facilities. However, EPA and the states remain responsible for overseeing and enforcing the implementation of CERCLA at federal facilities to ensure that applicable cleanup requirements are met.

Download or read book The Politics of Cleanup written by Seth Kirshenberg and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Research to Protect Restore and Manage the Environment written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 1993-02-01 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book assesses the strengths and weaknesses of current environmental research programs, describes the desirable characteristics of an effective program, and recommends cultural and organizational changes to improve the performance of environmental research. Research areas in need of greater emphasis are identified, and overall directions for environmental research are recommended. The book also comments on the proposal to establish a National Institute for the Environment and on the elevation of the Environmental Protection Agency to cabinet status.

Download or read book Superfund written by DIANE Publishing Company and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 1994-12 with total page 46 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provides data on (1) how the EPA used funds obligated for the Superfund program in FY 1987 through 1993; (2) the status of cleanup work at each Superfund site, including federal facilities; (3) the time differences in the cleanup work financed by EPA & parties responsible for the contamination, usually private enterprises; & (4) the extent to which limits on judicial review of EPA's cleanup decisions have eliminated cleanup delays. 15 charts & tables.