Cleaning Up the Nation's Waste Sites PDF Download

Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Hazardous waste site remediation
Languages : en
Pages : 344

View

Book Description

Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 80

View

Book Description

Author: Thomas W. Church
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 9780815723066
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 236

View

Book Description
The federal Superfund program for cleaning up America's inactive toxic waste sites is noteworthy not only for its enormous cost - $15.2 billion has been authorized thus far - but also for its unique design. The legislation that created Superfund provided the Environmental Protection Agency with a diverse set of policy tools. Preeminent among them is a civil liability scheme that imposes responsibility for multimillion dollar cleanups on businesses and government units linked - even tangentially - to hazardous waste sites. Armed with this potent policy implement, the agency can order the parties who are legally responsible for the toxic substances at a site to clean it up, with large fines and damages for failure to comply. EPA can also offer conciliatory measures to bring about voluntary, privately financed cleanup; or it can launch a cleanup initially paid for by Superfund and later force the responsible parties to reimburse the government. In this book, Thomas W. Church and Robert T. Nakamura provide the first in-depth study of Superfund operations at hazardous waste sites. They examine six Superfund cleanups, including three regions and both 'hard' and 'easy' sites, to ask 'what works?' Based on detailed case studies, the book describes various strategies that have been applied by government regulators and lawyers and the responses to those different strategies by businesses and local government officials. The authors characterize the implementation strategies used by the EPA as prosecution, accommodation, and public works. They point out that the choice of strategy involves setting priorities among Superfund's competing objectives. They conclude that the best implementation strategy is one that considers the context of each site and the particular priorities in each case. Looking toward the reauthorization of Superfund, they also offer recommendations for improvements in the organization of the program and discuss proposals for change in its

Author: James F. Donaghy
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
ISBN: 9780788147913
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 60

View

Book Description
Superfund cleanup timing has been a long-standing concern of the Congress & EPA. In the Superfund Amendments & Reauthorization Act of 1986, the Congress set time goals for EPA & federal agencies to evaluate individual nonfederal & federal sites for placement on the National Priorities List (NPL) & begin various cleanup actions. In 1992, EPA introduced several initiatives designed to expedite Superfund cleanups. This report examines trends in the time taken to evaluate & process hazardous waste sites for possible placement on the NPL & to clean up these sites following their listing. Tables & graphs.

Author: United States. General Accounting Office
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Hazardous waste sites
Languages : en
Pages : 28

View

Book Description

Author: United States. Environmental Protection Agency. Federal Facilities Restoration and Reuse Office
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Environmental protection
Languages : en
Pages : 8

View

Book Description

Author: U S Government Accountability Office (G
Publisher: BiblioGov
ISBN: 9781289151935
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 32

View

Book Description
In response to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the status of cleanup efforts at three hazardous waste sites, provided information on progress at the sites, and discussed the lack of cost-effectiveness evaluations for remedial measures by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). GAO found that, since 1980, cleanup actions have taken place at the three sites, and studies are underway to determine how to complete the tasks. Although the Superfund program provides that the long-term remedies be cost effective, no standards exist as to the extent of the required cleanup. Specifically, at the Laskin/Poplar Oil Company site in Ohio, EPA has disposed of contaminated oil and water. At the LiPari Landfill site in New Jersey, EPA has constructed an underground containment wall and, at the Picillo Farm site in Rhode Island, EPA has instituted a number of cleanup strategies. However, EPA has indicated that total cleanup of the LiPari site may not be practical because contaminants continue to leak from underground containment into ground and surface waters. GAO expressed concern that standards for cost-effective cleanup have not been developed and noted that an Office of Technology Assessment study is examining the extent to which the absence of specific national standard affects the selection of cleanup technologies and whether sufficient data exist to develop such standards.

Author: United States. General Accounting Office
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Hazardous waste sites
Languages : en
Pages : 40

View

Book Description

Author: Spencer Banzhaf
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 0804782695
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 298

View

Book Description
The environmental justice literature convincingly shows that poor people and minorities live in more polluted neighborhoods than do other groups. These findings have sparked a broad activist movement, numerous local lawsuits, and several federal policy reforms. Despite the importance of environmental justice, the topic has received little attention from economists. And yet, economists have much to contribute, as several explanations for the correlation between pollution and marginalized citizens rely on market mechanisms. Understanding the role of these mechanisms is crucial to designing policy remedies, for each lends itself to a different interpretation to the locus of injustices. Moreover, the different mechanisms have varied implications for the efficacy of policy responses—and who gains and loses from them. In the first book-length examination of environmental justice from the perspective of economics, a cast of top contributors evaluates why underprivileged citizens are overexposed to toxic environments and what policy can do to help. While the text engages economic methods, it is written for an interdisciplinary audience.

Author: U S Government Accountability Office (G
Publisher: BiblioGov
ISBN: 9781289150112
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 40

View

Book Description
In response to a congressional request, GAO: (1) reported on the extent to which the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has considered the use of treatment technologies that permanently destroy or detoxify wastes at the nation's worst hazardous waste sites; and (2) identified the barriers to the increased use of such technologies and EPA efforts to overcome them. GAO found that: (1) in the first 5 years of its program to clean up hazardous waste sites, EPA selected permanent treatment technologies as remedies in 27 of the 121 targeted areas; (2) EPA did not choose these methods more often because it considered them too costly or ineffective; (3) EPA selected permanent treatment technologies more frequently each year the program operated, due to a revised cleanup policy in 1983 which encouraged more use of permanent treatments over land-based disposal options; (4) lengthy permitting procedures, which are required to ensure the safety and reliability of the new technologies, and community resistance are two of the barriers slowing EPA implementation of the permanent treatments; and (5) EPA has established a program to demonstrate and evaluate selected technologies to provide cost-effectiveness information and to enhance the development, demonstration, and commercial availability of innovative technologies as alternatives to the containment systems now in use.