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Federal Water Pollution Control Act
In cooperation with Federal, state, and local entities the Surgeon General of the Public Health Service would organize programs that eliminate or reduce the pollution of interstate waters and tributaries and improve the sanitary conditions of both surface and underground waters. Great care would be given towards making necessary improvements that conserve water for recreational purposes, the propagation of fish and aquatic life, agricultural and industrial uses, and public water supplies. -
National Air Pollution Control Act
Declaring air pollution to be a danger to public health and welfare, this law was the first federal law that addressed the nation’s environmental problem. Its purpose was to provide technical aid and research that related to controlling air pollution. By preserving the primary responsibilities and rights of the states and local governments, the act left them principally in command of managing the prevention and control of air pollution. -
Clean Air Act
A federal law that regulates the air emissions of both mobile and stationary sources. In order to protect the public’s health and welfare, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was authorized to create National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). This allowed them to manage the emissions of hazardous air pollutants. Research was also given commission to look into techniques for monitoring and controlling air pollution. -
Wilderness Act
The Wilderness Act was responsible for founding the National Wilderness Preservation System. It legally declares the wilderness to be “an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.” Thus, it designated an area that had amounted to 9.1 million acres of protected federal land for the American people to use and benefit from. -
National Emissions Standards Act
The main concern of this act was to set up a national automobile pollution standard. The act called for the Secretary of the Department of Health, Education and Environment to stipulate emissions standards for any sort of pollutant considered to be a threat to human health and welfare. However, they also had to take into consideration the economic costs and technological feasibility when doing so. As a result this became the federal framework which has regulated automobile pollution. -
Motor Vehicle Air Pollution Control Act
Legislation which allowed the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare to create the first ever federal mandates for light-duty vehicles to have emission standards. By 1968 all new models would adhere to these new standards. On top of this, it also called for reducing emissions of considerable amount of 1963 models as well. The act called for a 100% reduction of crankcase hydrocarbons, 72% reduction of hydrocarbons, and a 56% reduction of carbon monoxide. -
Solid Waste Disposal Act
The law became the first federal effort, headed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, to improve and regulate waste disposal technology. It set out to develop standards for protecting human health and the environment, reducing wastes, and to limit the generation of hazardous waste. They addressed how to do so safely and in large volumes with both municipal and industrial solid wastes. -
California Air Resources Board
This board was created within the cabinet-level California Environmental Protection Agency. It states its objectives as being able to achieve and advance a healthy level of air quality, to offer new and creative ways of abiding by the rules and regulations that have been set for air pollution, and to shield the public from toxic air contaminants. On account of California establishing this agency before the federal Clean Air Act, they are the only state allowed to have one. -
Air Quality Act (amendment to CAA)
This act held both state and local governments directly accountable for addressing issues of air quality. It tasked the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare to setup “Air Quality Control Regions” wherever the public’s health and welfare was affected due to poor air quality. A state within one of these regions would then be responsible for not only creating “State Implementation Plans” but for enforcing them as well with the assistance of other pollution control agencies. -
Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act
The 1952 Federal Coal Mine Safety Act was amended to include specific procedures that would not only give coal miners mandatory health standards but also ensure the betterment of safety standards. It increased the amount of annual inspections for both surface and underground coal mines to two and four respectively. Miners would also be compensated if they were totally and permanently disabled by pneumoconiosis, a progressive respiratory disease caused by inhaling fine coal dust. -
National Environment Policy Act (NEPA)
This law created a national environmental policy that some have chosen to describe as the “environmental Magna Carta” of our time. It establishes goals that would maintain, protect, and improve the environment. A series of actions is then implemented so that these goals can be achieved by federal agencies. This policy has become one of the most imitated throughout the world. -
Environmental Quality Improvement Act
The Office of Environmental Quality was created to support the Council on Environmental Quality with administrative and professional staff. It guaranteed that the policies stated in the law would be included in public work functions performed by federal departments and agencies when they had an effect on the environment. Further authority was granted to the Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality by promoting the position to the Director of the Office of Environmental Quality. -
Williams-Steiger Occupational Safety and Health Act
This guaranteed that employees with an employer that is covered under the act must receive employment and a place of employment which contains no hazards, risk of death and or physical harm. It made sure that employers, and employees when applicable, would have to follow all health and occupational safety standards declared in the act. Inspections by the Department of Labor were now authorized so that they may issue citations and even suggest additional penalties for any alleged violations. -
Clean Air Act (Extension)
Congress made an addition to the federal mandate that forced state and federal regulations to include extensive requirements that would reduce emissions from both mobile and industrial sources. Thus began the initiation into four leading regulatory programs: Nation Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP), State Implementation Plans (SIPs), National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), and New Source Performance Standards (NSPS). -
Lead-Based Paint Poisoning Prevention Act
For any houses being built with federal money, the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare was mandated to restrict the lead content in paint that was used. Cities and communities would now be provided with assistance by the government to hold comprehensive local programs whose aim was to eliminate all causes of lead-based poisoning, detecting and treating occurrences of poisoning and how to remove lead-based paint. -
Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA)
The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) was enacted in 1910 and revised by congress in 1972. The U.S. System of pesticide regulation was established by this act. Its goal was the protection of the consumer, the environment and any applicator. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) manages and controls the system in conjunction with the appropriate state environmental agency. -
Clean Water Act
This act is the central piece of legislation that regulates water pollution in the U.S. The goal was for the physical, chemical, and biological integrity of the country’s water to be improved and preserved. This is accomplished by contributing aid to publicly owned treatment works that improve wastewater treatment, the restriction of point and non-point pollution sources, and regulating the integrity of the wetlands. -
Endangered Species Act
The U.S. Supreme Court saw that the goal of Congress was to stop and turn around the growing trend towards species extension with this act. Arranged to look after any species that was gravely endangered of facing extinction due to economic growth and development that had thrived with no regard towards conservation. It is conducted by both the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). -
Safe Drinking Water Act
The main purpose of this act was to secure the safety of the public’s drinking water. All public water systems (PWS) in the country would follow this law. It would be the responsibility of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to create standards for the quality of drinking water. They would provide protection against both man-made and naturally-occurring impurities. In addition they would supervise all localities, states, and water suppliers to make sure these standards were enforced. -
Hazardous Materials Transportation Act
Regulations that were established for the transportation of hazardous materials, to prohibit illegal dumping and to protect against spills that threatened the safety of the environment and public had become broken and incompetent. This new law would enhance these regulations by protecting the risk made to the environment, life, and property when transporting hazardous materials throughout the country and any foreign commerce authorized by the U.S Secretary of Transportation. -
Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)
After its passage by congress this act was governed by the U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Simply put it managed the introduction of new and existent chemicals. Three primary objectives were set to accomplish this goal. The regulation of exiting chemicals of the time period that posed a sufficient risk to the environment and to public health. New chemicals commercially available would have to undergo an assessment and then be regulated before entering the market. -
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)
The nation faced accumulating problems that stemmed from the rapid growth of industrial and municipal waste. It led to congress passing this law. They authorized the Environmental Protection Agency to direct the disposal of hazardous waste. This would cover everything from transportation, storage, generation, disposal, and treatment of hazardous waste. The act laid out a foundation to manage non-hazardous solid waste as well. -
Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act
Environmental effects of coal mining in the United States would now be controlled under this act. As a result two programs were founded, one that would handle the reclamation of abandoned mine lands and another that would direct active coal mines. It was responsible for funding state regulatory and reclamation efforts of lands that were coal-mined, making surface mining activity regulations known, and for a level of coherence amongst state regulatory programs. -
National Energy Conservation Policy Act
The functions of this act were to save and protect non-renewable energy resources while at the same time having no hindrance to profitable economic growth as well as the governance of interstate commerce to decrease the advancing demand for energy. It also administered the United States Department of Energy to establish Minimum Energy Performance Standards (MEPS) to supplant the ones made by the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) in 1975. -
Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act
This law acknowledges fish and wildlife to hold educational, cultural, ecological, recreational, economic, esthetic and scientific value to the country. Thus the law grants protection and governance of non-game fish and wildlife. All federal departments and agencies must conserve and promote conservation efforts of fish wildlife and their habitats. Technical and financial aid must be given to the states to perform inventories and conservation plans for non-game fish and wildlife. -
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act
The goal of this act was to cleanse sites polluted by hazardous materials. A broad definition was given to “pollutants or contaminants”. A tax was produced for petroleum and chemical industries. Native American tribes, states, and federal natural resource agencies would have authority to recover natural resource damages inflicted by the release of hazardous substances. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATRSD) was also established. -
Nuclear Waste Policy Act
A detailed national program that included a timetable and procedures for the indefinite disposal of radioactive waste. By the mid-1990s an underground repository was to be constructed and it gave temporary federal waste storage that included fuel from civilian nuclear reactors. National government decisions could be vetoed by the state when a waste depository would be placed within its borders. However votes from both houses of Congress would overrule it. -
Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRKA)
Growing environmental and safety hazard concerns regarding the storage and handling of toxic chemicals led to this legislation. Local, state and federal governments, industries, and tribes were given requirements to cover emergency plans and have “Community Right-to-Know” coverage on both toxic and hazardous chemicals. Coverage was intended to improve the public’s knowledge and their access to data on chemicals at facilities, their uses, and how they were discharged into the environment. -
Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA)
Amended the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERLA) to stress the dire need of lasting solutions and creative treatment technology for hazardous waste sites, especially when human health problems were caused. The act expanded state involvement throughout all phases of the Superfund program as regulations listed in state and federal laws had to be taken into consideration by all Superfund actions. It also required EPA to edit the Hazard Ranking System (HRS). -
Water Quality Act
Toxic pollutants that caused water pollution problems were deemed to be the most urgent by congress. This attention was caused by states relying on narrative criteria when controlling toxics. This resulted in complicating effluent limitations in permits issued. Thus new water quality standard provisions demanded the implementation of numeric criteria for water body segments that contained toxic pollutants that would affect designated uses. -
Montreal Protocol
This international treaty set out to shield the ozone layer by decreasing the production of multiple substances that were eradicating the ozone. It includes a stipulation that allows Parties to the Protocol to five rapid responses to new scientific information and consent to speed up reductions on chemical listed by the protocol. -
Basel Convention
This was an international treaty created to scale down the transport of hazardous wastes between nations, with an emphasis on prohibiting transfer to underdeveloped nations. It was also designated to lessen the amount and toxicity of waste created in order to guarantee management that was environmentally reasonable. Aid was also given to underdeveloped nations to help with the hazardous waste they produced, although nothing was said about radioactive waste. -
Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act
Lead could be found in paint, pipes and other sources widely used in the construction of houses before 1978. This act was implemented to assess the risk of lead poisoning in houses and to carry out procedures for the removal of this hazard. The disclosure of lead-based paint and other hazardous lead sources were mandatory for any homes built before 1978 due to the severity of potential health risks. -
North American Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act
Signed by the United States of America, Canada, and Mexico, this act formed a trilateral rule-based trade bloc to improve the equity and effectiveness of trade amongst themselves. It included eradicating the following: taxes placed on each nation by anthers imports, bureaucratic and legal barriers to trade, and tariffs. This immense and incredibly detailed agreement also contained side-agreements to assure each nation would execute their own labor and environmental laws. -
Executive Order 12898 on Environmental Justice
The aim of this act was to mandate federal agencies to discover excessively high and unfavorable effects on both the environment and human health caused by their own actions on low-income populations and minorities. Each agency was then tasked with creating a strategy to bring about environmental justice. It also required them to provide public information and participation for the communities. -
Kyoto Protocol
This was derived on the premise that global warming is not only real but that CO2 emissions from humans are the cause of it. This international treaty gave an extension to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) of 1992 and required State Parties to decrease greenhouse gas emissions to a point that would not bring about a harmful anthropogenic interference with the global climate. -
Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21)
From the years 1998-2003, $200 billion was commissioned to refine and advance the Nation’s transportation infrastructure with federal surface transportation programs for highways, highway safety, and transit. Its goal was the protection of the environment and to boost economic growth. Additionally, it stimulated new opportunities to restore natural habitats and wetlands, improve the quality of water and air, and created lasting alternatives breathing new life into the sprawl of urban areas. -
California AB 1493
This law was the first in the world to address the issue of global warming. As a result the California Air Resources Board forced automakers to reduce CO2 emissions to the amount decided for all 2008 car and light truck models. Since the board existed before the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), California could devise its own air quality regulations. This legislation became an example for the country and the world. -
Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETTEA)
This act funded and regulated the spending of the U.S. federal surface transportation. It included many stipulations that attempted to maintain and advance surface transportation infrastructure from freight and rail operations, transit systems throughout the country, pedestrian and cycle facilities, and the interstate highway system. Investments to fund public transit, highways, and highway safety were also made. -
Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA)
This act dealt with the United States energy policy. The goal was aimed at transitioning the nation to become more energy self-sufficient and secure, maximizing the energy performance of the federal government, improving the efficiency of products, vehicles, and buildings, progressing the production of clean and renewable fuels, providing consumers with protection, and helping to advance research on greenhouse gasses and their the containment.
