-
Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA)
This is a United States federal law that deals with pesticide regulation, and protects the people that apply it, consume the food that is grown after it is used, and the environment that it is used on. It made regulations that pesticides had to be registered with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and it also established guidelines for labeling insecticides, fungicides, and rodenticides. -
Federal Water Pollution Control Act
Was originally passed in 1948 and was known as the Clean Water Act, and in 1972 there were amendments that were passed. This act is the main law that controls water pollution in the United States and its goal is to return water to its natural chemical and biological state, to prevent water pollution, and preserve the current state of wetlands. -
National Air Pollution Control Act
Passed in 1955 it was the first United States Clean Air Act that directly dealt with air pollution. This act put each individual state in charge of the responsibility of enforcing the law the reduce air pollution, with the federal government only providing information and not having any regulatory power. -
Clean Air Act
This is a United States federal law made to manage air pollution and it states that the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, must create regulations and enforce them to prevent people from being exposed to and having adverse affects from any type of hazardous airborne contaminant. -
Wilderness Act
The National Wilderness Preservation System was made by this act and it was written by Howard Zahniser of The Wilderness Society and signed by President Lyndon Johnson. It sates that wilderness is, “an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.” -
National Emissions Standards Act
It was passed in 1965 and is an amendment to the Clean Air Act of 1963 that set emission standards for automobiles beginning with car models of 1968. One of the requirements was that emissions had to be reduced by 72% for hydrocarbons, 56% for carbon monoxide, and 100% for crankcase hydrocarbons. -
Motor Vehicle Air Pollution Control Act
This act was also an amendment to the Clean Air Act of 1965. Each state must have an SIP or State Implementation Plan, that states the steps it will take to enforce the legislation. Since each state has to create its own written framework that follow the federal framework, it must hold public hearings that allow people to have their say and add ideas and give feedback on how the laws are working. -
Solid Waste Disposal Act
The EPA said, “it was the first federal act to improve waste disposal technology.” This was created because at that time new technological advancements had created more and more types of garbage that had to be dealt with. Also, in urban areas there was more trash created that made it difficult to manage trash disposal. It was passed under the administration of Lynden Johnson, and his administration supported it, and he referred to this act a few times in a speech to Congress. -
California Air Resources Board
This act is abbreviated at CARB or ARB and it was created as the a clean air agency for California. When Ronald Reagan signed the Mulford-Carell Act this board was founded. Only CA has this type of board and is the only state that had one before the Clean Air Act was passed. The purpose of this agency is to prevent the public from being exposed to toxic air pollutants and to create new ways to follow laws concerning air pollution. Half of the positions are appointed and they are professionals in -
Air Quality Act (amendment to CAA)
1967 It was passed by the federal government to control air pollution. In 1955 the Air Pollution Control Act was the first legal acts about air pollution. It was an amendment to the Clean Air Act of 1963. It required $428.3 million dollars to be spend on federal pollution control over three years. It also instituted an advisory board made of 15 members. -
Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act
This act is also referred to as the Coal Act and it was passed into law under the administration of Richard Nixon. This requires an inspection of every surface coal mine twice a year, and four inspections for underground coal mines. If there were violations there would be a fine and it also made a criminal consequence for knowing violations and not reporting them. It created new heath and safety standards. Also miners were given compensation it they were completely disabled by inhaling coal dust -
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
1970 It is a law that created a United States national policy to improve the environment. It also created the President’s Council on Environmental Quality, or CEQ. This law was created after the 1969 oil spill in Santa Barbara that resulted in a large public response and more awareness about the well being of the environment. -
Environmental Quality Improvement Act
This law works directly with the National Environmental Policy Act passed in 1969. The passing of this law resulted in the creation the Office of Environmental Quality. It had a large support in the political sphere as the bill passed with all of the members of the Senate and House voting in favor. -
Williams-Steiger Occupational Safety and Health Act
This law was signed by President Rochard Nixon. This act is also known as OSHA. It sets standards for the health and safety of people in many occupations. Workers are to be able to work in an environment that does not have loud and dangerous noises, hazardous chemicals, too hot or cold temperatures, and physical dangers from machines. -
Lead-Based Paint Poisoning Prevention Act
This is another act signed by Presiden Richard Nixon and it limited the amount of lead used in paint for houses that were built and funded by the federal government. It also gave funds to reduce lead in paint for the states. This was created because lead was determined to be detrimental to human health, especially children. -
Clean Water Act
Abbreviated and commonly called the CWA, this is the main law that regulates water safety in the United States. It is meant to limit the amount and type of polluting substances in water, such as rivers and lakes in the Unites States. This act does not directly address issue with groundwater. This act was based on the previous act passed in 1948 called the Federal Water Pollution Act. -
Endangered Species Act
This is another U.S. environmental law that was passed by President Richard Nixon. It is the strongest law concerning endangered species. It was designed to stop species extinction. This law has administration in the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, FWS, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). It established a listing order for species such as E = Endangered, T = Threatened, C= Candidate. -
Safe Drinking Water Act
Also shortened as SDWA this law makes sure that in the United States the drinking water is safe for the public. This law oversees all public water systems, PWS, of which there are over 160,000. Note this act does not apply to privately owned well or bottled water. Bottled water is managed by the Food and Drug Administration, FDA. -
Hazardous Materials Transportation Act
Shortened as HMTA, this is the main law that deals with transporting hazardous materials in the United States. This law was created because in the 1970s there was an increasing problem with transporting hazardous materials, and people wanted to prevents accidents and dumping toxic chemicals illegally, and endangered public health and the environment. -
Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)
This is a United States federal law that regulates new chemicals or existing ones. It assumed that all existing chemicals were safe, and the new law applied to new chemicals to be put on the market or used. This law regulates particularly polychlorinated biphenyl or PCB chemicals. Also it does now state which chemicals are toxic or not. -
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)
Abbreviated as RCRA, this is the main law that deals with disposing toxic and solid waste in the United States. Congress passed this law because there was an increasing problem with a large amount of waste from residential and business areas. The original act was the Solid Waste Disposal Act passed in 1965. The key components were to protect health and the environment and the conserve energy and natural resources. Other goals include reducing the amount of waste created and that it is disposed o -
Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act
This is abbreviated as SMCRA and is a United States federal law that regulates coal mining. The passage of this law regulates surface mines and reclaimed lands that had coal mining. It has two programs, one deals with regulating coal mines that are currently active, and the other affects lands that had mines and are reclaimed. -
National Energy Conservation Policy Act
This act made the Department of Energy set minimum standards, called Minimum Energy Performance Standards. This act replaced the standards made in 1975 by the Energy Policy and Conservation Act. It made mandatory energy standards so energy could be conserved. There was $100,000,000 of funds set aside for programs as a result of this act. It also made a programs that could give loans to individuals to buy solar powered heating and cooling devices. -
Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act
This act gave funds to the individual States in order prevent problems, maintain, and make improvements for nongame fish and wildlife. It created $5 million to be available for programs and grants to carry out the plans from 1982 – 1985. It made it mandatory to have a report to Congress on the feedback of the consequences of the act from the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service by 1984. -
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act
This is commonly known as CERCLA or Superfund, and it is a law that added a tax on industries that produce chemicals and petroleum. This tax made a $1.6 billion dollar fund over five years in the 1980s that was to be spent on a trust fund for cleaning hazardous waste sites. -
Nuclear Waste Policy Act
This law established in the United States to safely remove and throw away high lever radioactive nuclear waste so it would not harm living organisms or leach into the environment. It created the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management to deal with nuclear waste. Nuclear waste was to be place in a repository that is geologically mined and the waste would be transported from nuclear power plants to those repositories. -
Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRKA)
There are three main goals to this law, which are to have local and state plans for how to response to chemical emergencies, to give prompt and clear notice of when there is an emergency because toxic chemicals were released, and to give the public timely and correct information about what toxic chemicals are, consequences of being exposed to them, and what to do in an emergency. -
Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA)
These amendments made changes to the original Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) laws that were passed. The changes to the program included making permanent solutions to clean up and remove hazardouse waste, to follow other already existing State and Federal laws, made new positions to enforce the laws, made the States more involved in the program, shifted the goals to be on health problems made by hazardous waste, and increased the funding for a trust -
Water Quality Act
This act set minimum standards for the quality of water between states. It created a new authorization for the a new administration with the title of Federal Water Pollution Control Administration. There were new standards set by this administration because previously individual states had not been able to set standards for interstate waters and follow through in maintaining them. -
Montreal Protocol
This is an international treaty made to control substances that deplete the ozone layer and slowly reduce the amount of halogenated hydrocardbons reduce layers of the ozone. After this was enacted the hole over Antarctica slowly recovered. This is often quoted as the only successful international agreement that has had a positive global effect. -
Basel Convention
This was an international treaty that was created to reduce the amounts of hazardous waste transported between countries. This specifically also was meant to prevent hazardous waste from being sent from developed nations to developing nations. One of the events that occurred before this treaty was the Khian Sea waste disposal incident. In this incident incinerator ash from Philadelphia, United States on a ship was unloaded on the coat of Haiti and was forced away. The ship traveled for months tr -
Clean Air Act (Extension)
These were amendments to the Clean Air Act. It made programs to regulate amounts of acid rain, ozone depletion, and toxic air pollution. It instituted four new programs that include: 1) National Ambient Air Quality Standards that made standards for pollutants such as carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and nitrogen dioxide, 2) State Implementation Plans (SIPs) 3) New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) 4) National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAPs) -
Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act
This is also abbreviated as RLBPHRA and was approved by President George H.W. Bush. The main purpose was to communicate to people renting or buying a house built before 1978 if the paint on the outside or inside of the house has lead in it. They must be notified that lead is a health danger to all living things, especially young and growing children. -
Executive Order 12898 on Environmental Justice
This was signed by Bill Clinton and the goal was to create environmental justice for minority populations, such as adverse health effects of people living in low-income areas. It was created as a result of many cases of bad environmental conditions and health effects of people in low-income areas. This also introduced the Interagency Working Group or IWG that is run by an EPA administration. -
Kyoto Protocol
This was a legally binding agreement that industrialized nations would reduce their total greenhouse gas emissions by 5.2% compared to the emissions measured in 1990. The six greenhouse gases measured are carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane, sufur hexafluoride, hydrofluorocarbons, and perfluorinated compounds. The countries involved had different percentages to reduce. It was signed in Kyoto, Japan, and 192 different countries and groups are a part of it. -
Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21)
This public law gave a new authorization to transportation programs run by the federal government for freeways, freeway safety, and transit programs for 6 years from 1998 to 2003. There were seven factors that had to be included such as increasing the economy of the aread, protecting and improving the environment and improve the safety of people using motorized vehicles. -
California AB 1493
This was signed by Governor Gray Davis and it states that the California Air Resources Board or CARB must enforce restrictions on vehicles emitted greenhouse gases starting with 2009 model vehicles. This standard measure the grams per mile average of CO2 . The automotive industry sued and and the federal court was against the EPA and the law did not have to be enforced because they stated that the amount of emission released had a miniscule effect on global warming. -
Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA)
This law controlled federal spending on land transportation until 2009 and was signed by President George W. Bush. It expired on September 30, 2009. This gave $286 billion for the improvement and maintenance of the transportation infrastructure such as the interstate highway system, transit systems, bike pathways, and rail systems. -
Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA)
This was passed by Congress and was originally called the Clean Energy Act of 2007 and its goal was to increase the energy independence of the United States. This would be done by producing more renewable fuels and the energy use in buildings and vehicles. There were originally tax changes on the petroleum industry that were eventually removed. -
North American Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act
This is abbreviated at NAFTA, and it is an agreement between Mexico, Canada, and the United States, about trading rules between the nations. The goal of this was to make trading goods easier between the countries, as it immediately removed many tariffs and taxes on the items imported into the US from Mexico and exported from the US to Mexico.
