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Atomic Energy Act
This establishes the Atomic Energy Commission to promote peaceful uses of atomic energy and the common security and safety of the people. Since AEC was abolished, most of AEA’s job has been done by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, but when EPA was formed, the authority to create environmental radiation standards transferred to EPA. The EPA also has the power from AEA to work with states, create radiation protection programs, and develop guidance for federal/state agencies. -
Clean Air Act
This act regulates stationary and mobile air emissions. It authorizes EPA to establish National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) and was amended twice (1977 and 1990) to set new dates for achieving NAAQS goals. Section 112 of the act specifically addresses dangerous air pollutants. The 1990 amendment of the act revised this section and required EPA to set standards for the amount of air pollutant emission. These are commonly referred to as MACT (maximum achievable control energy) standards. -
National Environmental Policy Act
Establishing the overall national framework to protect our environment, NEPA requires each branch of government to properly consider the effects on the environment before undertaking major federal action that would affect the environment. Known as the "Environmental Magna Carta," this act began requiring environmental impact statements for major projects. NEPA also includes deciding permit applications, adopting federal land management actions, and constructing highways. -
First Earth Day
Gaylord Nelson, then US Senator from WI, created Earth Day after the 1969 oil spill in Santa Barbara, California, hoping to inform the public about air and water pollution so that environmental protection could reach the national political agenda. On that day, 20 million Americans demonstrated, rallying for a healthy, sustainable environment. Republicans and Democrats supported it, and it led to the creation of the EPA and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts. -
United States Environmental Protection Agency
Abbreviated as EPA, this agency’s goal is to protect the environment and human health. It works to ensure that U.S. citizens are living in a healthy and clean environment. They try to meet their goals through creating and enforcing regulations. Also almost half of their budget turns into grants for state environmental programs and educational and non profit programs that educate people about the environment. -
Clean Water Action
This is a single issue interest group with branches in many different states that organizes grassroots groups and campaigns to support environmental candidates to solve environmental problems. Their main focus is on clean water for the people. By taking out hazardous toxic out of everyday products and protecting water from energy threats, the interest group is reaching their goal. Their endorsements over the years 2014 to 2017 seem to be leaning towards the Democrats. -
Clean Water Act
Used by the EPA to implement pollution control programs, the Clean Water Act creates the basic structure for regulating the release of pollutants into US waters and surface water quality standards. This act forbids discharging pollutants from a point source into navigable waters unless one gets a permit, hoping to maintain the quality of the waters so that people can continue to swim and fish in them. -
Marine Mammal Protection Act
To protect all marine mammals and maintain the health security of the marine ecosystem, MMPA makes it illegal to harass, feed, hunt, capture, collect, or kill them without a permit. It resulted from concerns that marine mammals were in danger of extinction or depletion because of human activities. The act also improves the marine mammal health and stranding response program. As a result, marine mammal numbers began to gradually recover. -
Endangered Species Act
Both international and domestic, this act aims to protect endangered/threatened species and preserve their habitats by providing financial support to the states so that they may create and maintain conservation programs. This act serves to accomplish a lot of the United States's international duties to different conventions and treaties such as the convention on CITES. It grants EPA the authority to provide financial funding for programs that work to conserve endangered species and habitats. -
Safe Drinking Water Act
This act was established to protect the quality of drinkable water in the United States. It also gives EPA the authority to set limits to protect tap water and asks all owners or operators of the water system to comply to the primary health related standards. An amendment was later added to this in 1996, requiring EPA to consider costs and risks when establishing these standards. Lastly, EPA sets minimum standards for state programs to protect underground drinking water. -
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species
CITES is an agreement between international governments to protect wild animals and plants from international trade. Parties include the US, Nigeria, Switzerland, and Tunisia. CITES, which was drafted at an IUCN meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, works towards sustainable trade involving plant and animal species. The international trade of certain species are subjected to certain controls, and their movement must be authorized through a licensing system. -
Nuclear Waste Policy Act
Supporting the use of deep geological treatment for the safekeeping or disposal of radioactive waste, this act also establishes steps to evaluate and find sites that would be good for geologic deposits of radioactive materials. It creates a timetable of key milestones the federal government must accomplish when it carries out the program and assigns the Department of Energy the responsibility to find, build, and regulate deep geologic repository sites for discarding high-level radioactive waste. -
Chernobyl Disaster
Due to a flawed reactor design which was operated by inadequately trained personnel, the Chernobyl 4 reactor outside Pripyat, Ukraine melted down, killing 31 operators and firemen and possibly thousands more later and to come due to the release of radiation, the largest uncontrolled one into the environment ever for a civilian operation. The lighter released radioactive material was blown over Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia. -
Anderson v. Cryovac, Inc.
Filed in May of 1982 in Woburn, Massachusetts, this landmark case focused on the contamination of water at several industries that led to the contraction of leukemia to children of seven of the families being served by municipal wells. The federal jury later found that W. R. Grace and Company had negligently contaminated the wells. Eventually an $8 million settlement was reached and in 1995, a book called A Civil Action was published about the case. -
Medical Waste Tracking Act
Enacted after medical waste was found on many East Coast beaches where children played, MWTA was an amendment to the Solid Waste Disposal Act and worked towards tracking medical waste. MWTA defined medical waste, established a tracking system, required management standards for segregating, packaging, labeling, marking and storing medical waste, and established record keeping requirements and penalties. -
Shore Protection Act
Abbreviated as SPA, this act bans vessels from transportating commercial waste in coastal areas without a permit. Permits have renewable 5 year terms and end once the vessel is sold. Of course, EPA is responsible for regulating the loading, securing, and cleaning of such wastes from vessels and other waste sources working with the U.S. Coast Guard. The goals of this act are to reduce waste deposit in coastal areas and to make sure waste is deposited and taken care of. -
Exxon Valdez Oil Spill
When Exxon Valdez, an oil tanker, hit Bligh Reef, 11 million gallons of crude oil were dumped into Alaska's Prince WIlliam Sound. The worst oil spill in US history prior to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the spilled Exxon Valdez oil covered about 1300 miles of coastline, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of sea creatures. Later Joseph Hazelwood, the drunk captain of Exxon Valdez, was charged with negligence for allowing an unlicensed third mate to take control of the ship. -
Oil Pollution Act
This act helps the EPA react to disastrous oil spills more effectively and creates a trust fund (supported by tax on oil) to clean up oil spills when the responsible party refuses to or isn’t capable of doing so. It requires oil storing facilities to submit detailed plans to the federal government expressing their plan for large spills. The EPA had created regulations for above the ground storage and requires development of Area Contingency Plans to have a response plan to regional oil spills. -
Pollution Prevention Act
This act focuses on decreasing pollution by making effective changes in production, using raw materials, and reducing sources. Less hazardous materials are let into the environment before treatment, recycle, or disposal through technology/equipment modification, steps/procedure changes, perfecting creations, and substituting raw material with other substances. Pollution prevention requires frugal use of energy/resources, protecting our environment from the fundamental. -
Earth Summit
Held in Rio de Janeiro, this was the biggest UN conference in size and extent of concerns. The message was that we must change our attitudes and behavior towards the environment in order to effectively create change. During the two weeks, UN member states worked on Agenda 21, a blueprint for achieving sustainable development worldwide. They also agreed upon the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Global Warming Convention, the Rio Declaration, and the Statement of Principles on Forests. -
Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act
Abbreviated as FIFRA, this act regulates the use, sale, and distribution of pesticides. All pesticides used or distributed need to be registered and licensed by EPA, and the applicant must prove that the usage of this pesticide will not show an unreasonable threat to humans or the environment or cause a dietary risk because of the residue from pesticides with the standards set under section 408 of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. -
BEACH Act
An amendment to the Clean Water Act, this act was created to decrease the risk of developing illnesses by giving grants to state/local governments for microbiological testing and monitoring coastal recreational waters (any water bodies near beaches and similar places that are public). It also supports programs informing the risks of diseases from microorganisms in coastal recreational waters. EPA created BEACON to provide pollution occurrence data in coastal recreational waters to the people. -
Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act
Abbreviated as FFDCA, section 408 of this act gives EPA the authority to set a maximum limit for the amount of pesticide. If pesticide residue is found to be above limit, the product is subject for seizure. Depending on the toxicity of the pesticide and its broken down components, some pesticides are excluded from the regulation. EPA may grant exemption of certain pesticides according to this act if the pesticide remains do not leave dietary risks under reasonable situations. -
Energy Policy Act
Also abbreviated as EPA, this act addresses energy production in the United States and includes energy efficiency and consumption, renewable/non-renewable resources, coal, oil and gas, electricity, tax incentives, climate change technology, and even more. Another function of the Energy Policy Act is to increase the amount of biofuel that would be required to be mixed with gasoline in the United States. -
Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
The largest marine oil spill ever and caused by an oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, this oil spill discharged 1000-60000 barrels per day into the gulf, creating a slick covering thousands of square miles of the gulf and polluting about 1100 miles of shoreline. As a result, over a third of federal waters were closed to fishing because of possible contamination, oil covered thousands of animals, and half of the dolphins in Barataria Bay were found to have disorders linked to oil exposure. -
Paris Climate Agreement
Created to fight climate change, the Paris Agreement brings the nations together to slow down the increase in the global average temperature. Reached at COP 21 in Paris and signed by every country as of now, except the United States, who withdrew on June 1, 2017, but even includes North Korea and Syria, the Paris Agreement strives to limit global warming by reducing emissions, strengthening countries against the impacts of climate change, and creating a transparency and accountability system. -
Preserve Our Lakes and Keep Our Environment Safe Act
Introduced to learn more about the economic and environmental risks of liquids spilling into the Straits of Mackinac, this act strives to better help the Great Lakes by providing more information to Congress on how to preserve their water quality. The Preserve Our Lakes and Keep Our Environment Safe Act is sponsored by Representative Trott from Michigan and was referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. -
Delta House Oil Spill
When a pipeline of the Delta house floating production system was fractured about one mile below sea level, 627000 gallons of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico. Due to outside environmental forces such as oil degrading bacteria in the Gulf and the pressure that made the oil droplets so small that they had to be measured in microns, the oil spill did not have a very big environmental impact even though the spill was big, which may be why the oil spill was not visible on the ocean surface. -
Healthy Environment for Children Act
Introduced prevent the NCER from being combined with other offices, this act strives to maintain the EPA's power in improving public health and protecting the environment by allowing the NCER to continue to effectively research how to protect children's health. The Healthy Environment for Children Act is sponsored by Representative McEachin from Virginia and was referred to the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. -
Water Resources Development Act of 2018
Introduced to improve the harbors and rivers of the United States in an effort to preserve and develop the waters, this act concentrates on the health and conservation of the various waterways and sources in the US. The Water Resources Development Act of 2018 is sponsored by Representative Shuster of Pennsylvania, was referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, and has been ordered to be reported by a voice vote.
