Environmental Law
| Lead |
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| Lead is one of the six common pollutants--referred to by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as "criteria pollutants"--for which the EPA sets air quality standards under the mandates of the Clean Air Act. Lead is a naturally occurring metal that has unique properties and has been used almost throughout civilization for a wide variety of purposes even though its highly toxic nature has been recognized for thousands of years. Lead compounds are emitted into the air primarily from metal-processing operations, large incinerators, lead-acid battery manufacturers, and gasoline combustion. More... |
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| Noise |
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| The Noise Control Act of 1972 (NAC) acknowledged that the primary responsibility for noise control rested with state and local authority but at the same time concluded that federal regulation of certain major sources of noise pollution that stemmed from commerce was necessary. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) no longer has the financial resources to carry out the mandates of the NAC. Although the EPA continues to carry on some regulatory activity under the NAC, problems of noise pollution and abatement once again largely rest in the hands of state and local governments. More... |
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| The Coastal Zone Management Act |
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| Recognizing that the coastal zones of the United States represent diverse and abundant natural resources useful for many purposes and that the exploitation of those resources was having an increasingly adverse effect on both those resources and on coastal zone ecosystems, Congress passed the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA) in 1972. The CZMA provides financial grants for states that develop federally-approved coastal zone management plans. In 1990, amendments to the Coastal Zone Management Act required states having approved coastal zone management plans to establish additional plans for the control of nonpoint source pollution in order to restore and protect coastal zone water quality. More... |
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| The EPA Pollution Prevention Office |
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| The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) gave responsibility for the administration of the Pollution Prevention Act of 1990 to the Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT), established in 1977 to administer the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act. More... |
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| The Kyoto Protocol |
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| In 1997, 170 countries met in Kyoto, Japan, to negotiate an extension of the Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC) that would impose mandatory reductions in carbon dioxide emissions. Negotiations stalled over the relative amount of reductions each country would be responsible for.In the end, a compromise was worked out by which Japan was to reduce emissions by six percent, the United States by 7 percent, and the European Union by 8 percent. Other industrialized countries, with a few exceptions, were required to reduce their emissions within a similar range. The plan under which the emissions reductions were to carried out was called the Kyoto Protocol. More... |
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