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Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA
• This act prevents manufactures from distributing ineffective products and labels that are too vague for pest control products to consumers. It didn’t regulate the use of pesticides but it did establish procedures for registering pesticides with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In 1970, the FIFRA act was amended by the Federal Environmental Pesticide Control Act (FEPCA) in which the EPA was given authority over the regulations of pesticides. -
Federal Water Pollution Control Act
Sought to reduce and eliminate the polution of interstate waters and tributaries. It also sought to imporve sanitary conditions of both surface and underground waters. It further controlled the quality of the water and the procedures in which waste was discharged. The act was amended several times to further control the standards and procedures of the water management. -
National Air Pollution Control Act
Sought to reduce and eliminate the pollution of interstate waters and tributaries. It also sought to improve sanitary conditions of both surface and underground waters. It further controlled the quality of the water and the procedures in which waste was discharched. The act was amended several times to further control the standards and procedures of the water management. -
Wilderness Act
Ensured federal land that was undeveloped to remain intact without any human interference. The U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and National Park Service are the only agencies that are allowed to manage the wilderness land. They are in charge of keeping the land in its most natural state and to restore any damaged areas back to its natural state. The Congress is responsible in designated a wilderness area and can also change the status of a federa -
National Emissions Standards Act
It is most commonly called Motor Vehicle Pollution Control Act and serves to regulate pollutants generated by motor vehicles by creating standards at which vehicles must sustain in order to be operated. The Secretary of the Department of Health, Education and Environment operates the standards at which the vehicles must meet in order to be operational. They also govern fuel additives according to human health concerns. -
Motor Vehicle Air Pollution Control Act
• Enlisted the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare to set emission standards for motor vehicles that were deemed “light-duty”. It required that 72% of hydrocarbons be reduced, 56% of carbon monoxide be reduced, and a 100% of crankcase hydrocarbons be reduced. The National Air Pollution Control Administration (NAPCA) was given responsibility of ensuring future pollution control efforts. -
Solid Waste Disposal Act
It promoted better solid waste management. The US Public Health Service (PHS) was given responsibility of the collection, transportation, recycling and disposal of solid waste. Gave states financial equity to study and enlist better methods of solid waste management. It also supported resource recovery. -
Water Quality Act.
• The act sought to protect and make sure the quality of surface and ground waters. It made states raise or investigate their water quality standards. It also determined that a federally directed initiative was necessary because watersheds and waterways crossed state boundaries. This meant that the issue was not solely in the responsibility of the States. -
California Air Resources Board
• The Mulford-Carrell Act combined the Bureau of Air Sanitation and the Motor Vehicle Pollution Control Board. The two Department of Heath bureaus came up with the Air Resources Board (ARB), in which board members work to find solutions to the pollution problem in California. The mission of the board is to reduce pollutants in the air while remaining in the limits of the economy of the State of California. -
Air Quality Act (amendment to CAA)
The act regulates air emissions from every source. It is also known as the Clean Air Act. In 1970, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was authorized to initiate the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) that promoted the protection of public health and the environment. -
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
• Federal agencies such as airports, buildings, military complexes, highways, parkland purchases and other federal activities much take into consideration the environment in which they will build before starting any new project. Requirements established by the Environmental Assessments (EAs) and Environmental Impact Statements (EISs) must be met in order for building processes could start -
Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act
Ensures the health and safety of miners by improving working conditions and practices in the prevention of death and serious injury. The States and the coal mining industry are required to conduct research, development, and training programs that would prevent coal mine accidents and diseases. -
Environmental Quality Improvement Act
• This act was implemented onto the State and local government to control and prevent environmental pollution. It recognized that there is environmental pollution and that the human population mainly causes it. It also sought to have authority figures – such as law enforcement – enforce this policy onto the public. All Federal departments and agencies that support and direct public work activities that affect the environment were also given the responsibility of acknowledge this policy into exi -
Clean Air Act (Extension).
• The EPA set national standards for proper air quality. It required new automobiles to have 90% reduction of emissions by 1975. It also enforced federal authority and established a program to monitor and control air toxins. The National Ambient Quality Standard (NAAQA) program standardized six pollutants: sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, ozone and lead. -
Williams-Steiger Occupational Safety and Health Act
• Requires employers to provide their employee’s to optimal working environments. This includes an environment that does not contain recognized hazards that could lead to death or physical injury. Employers must also educate their employee’s in safety and health standards. It also allows the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare to inspect and question both employers and employees that would contribute to research an other activities related to research. -
Lead-Based Paint Poisoning Prevention Act
• The purpose of this act is to eliminate potential lead-based pain poisoning and for local programs to detect and treat occurrences where of lead-based paint poisoning. It also established a research program to further investigate lead-based paint poisoning problems and to come up with ways to remove lead-based paint safely. It also prohibited any future use of lead-based paint in any federal or federally assisted construction or rehabilitation units. -
Clean Water Act
• Regulated pollutant disposal into water supplies or water resources of the United States. It also regulates surface waters quality standards. The Environmental Protection Agency also established pollution control programs for industries to standardize wastewater settings. One of the programs of the EPA is the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) that controlled waste discharges. -
Clean Air Act
The Clean Air Act was instilled to control the pollution in the air. It required the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate the pollution in the air. This was to protect the general public from harmful pollutants that were emitted into the air by cars, factories and other contributors to pollution. -
Endangered Species Act
• Species that are endangered or threatened are under the protection of this act. It assures that the ecosystems and areas on which the species live in are protected and can not be interfered with. It established an endangered species if it was in danger of extinction in a significant portion of land. To be considered threatened, the species has to be at risk of becoming endangered in the near future. The Endangered Species Conservation Act later amended the act in 1969. -
Safe Drinking Water Act
• Regulated public water supplies to protect the health of the public. It authorized the US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) to have certain standards on drinking water to protect the national public from naturally- occurring and man-made contaminants that can be found in drinking water. It united the US EPA, states and water systems to work together in order to ensure the standards for public drinking water supplies were met. -
Hazardous Materials Transportation Act
• This act prevented an illegal dumping of hazardous waste and materials into highways, roads or any other area that wasn’t designated for hazardous materials. It implemented standards to regulate the transportation of hazardous materials by the means of ships, air, rails, and motor vehicles. The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) was given the authority to regulate the packaging, labeling, handling, vehicle routing, and manufacture of packaging and transport containers for the transportati -
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)
• The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was given authority to control the generation, transportation, treatment, storage and disposal of hazardous waste. It also set up the outline for managing non-hazardous solid waste. Amendments to the RCRA in 1986 focused on environmental problems in the practice of storing petroleum tanks and other hazardous materials underground. -
Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)
• Authorized the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to require manufactures to have record-keeping and testing requirements of chemical substances or mixtures. It also had authority to any reports or restrictions of any chemical substance or mixtures. Food, drugs, cosmetics and pesticides and others are excluded from this act. This act focused on specific chemicals that included: polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), asbestos, radon and lead-based paint. It looked over the production, importation -
Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act
• United the Secretary of the Interior and the States to regulate surface coal mining operations. The act also reclaimed and took control of abandoned mines. The act also established the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE). It also provides other coal mining purposes that further regulate their use and practices for handling abandoned coalmines. -
National Energy Conservation Policy Act
• Gave authority to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to establish the Minimum Energy Performance Standards (MEPS). These new standards replaced the standards implemented by the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) in 1975). It gave the DOE authority to set procedures for submitting, approving, implementing and monitoring residential energy conservation plans by state utility regulatory managers. It’s purpose was to reduce the consumption of nonrenewable energy in buildings, vehicles, equ -
Fish and Wildlife Conservation
• Give the States financial and technical help to develop, revise and implement conservation plans and programs for nongame fish and wildlife. It established the Secretary of the Interior (Secretary) that was given the authority to develop, protect, rear and stock all species of wildlife, their resources and their habitat. The secretary also works along with federal, state and public or private agencies of organizations. -
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act
• It is also referred to as Superfund. It gave Federal authorities to directly control a release or threatened release of hazardous substances that could possibly endanger the health of the population and the environment. It further regulated the requirements and prohibitions of hazardous waste sites that were either closed or abandoned. It also opened a trust fund to clean up any hazardous substances in the case that there wasn’t a party to be liable. -
Nuclear Waste Policy Act
• It was passed by Congress to develop repositories to dispose of high-level radioactive waste and to spend nuclear fuel. It also generated the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management within the Department of Energy (DOE) in order to further direct the repositories. The office is responsible for the building, monitoring and operating of the geologically mined repositories. It also developed a transportation system that connected the nuclear power plants and repositories to make sure tran -
Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRKA)
• This act enabled communities to have a proper plan for emergencies that involved hazardous substances. It requires the federal, state and local governments, Indian tribes and industries to have a plan for a hazardous chemical emergency. Industries are also required to report the storage, use and release of hazardous chemicals to federal, state, and local governments. -
Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA)
• This act amended the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). The amended act made changes and made additions to the program implemented by the EPA. It focused on the permanent remedies and treatment technologies in order to clean up hazardous waste sites. It also encouraged Superfund to research other State and Federal environmental laws and regulations. -
Montreal Protocol
• This is an international agreement that established the protection of the stratospheric ozone layer. It also specified that the use of compounds that depleted the ozone in the stratosphere would have to cease by the year 2000. These compounds include: chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), halons, carbon tetrachloride and methyl chloroform. Methyl chloroform was allowed to cease any usage by the year 2005. -
Basel Convention
• The purpose of this convention is to protect both human health and the environment from the effects of hazardous wastes. It seeks to reduce the generation of hazardous waste and to promote environmentally sound management of hazardous wastes in which ever place it is disposed of. It also regulates the trans boundary movements where ever they are permitted. -
Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act
• Regulates the use of lead-based pain in housing and it applies to owners that own more than four residential housing units. The units were built before 1978. This act excludes dorms that have “0-bedroom dwellings” units. This means that the living area is not separated by the sleeping area. -
Kyoto Protocol
• Industrialised countries had to legally cut down on their greenhouse gas emissions by 5% to meet 1990 levels by the 2008-2012. This act was established because of global warming issues rising and man-made CO2 emissions that have shown to have caused global warming. -
North American Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act
• It made sure that the trading among the United States, Canada, and Mexico was efficient and fair. Its main goal was to eliminate tariffs, which are the taxes each nation imposed on the other imports. The agreement included side agreements that made sure that each nation enforced its own labor and environmental laws. -
Executive Order 12898 on Environmental Justice
• It focuses the federal attention of the environmental and human health effects of federal actions on minority and low-income populations. It also strives to achieve environmental protection of all communities. It directs federal agencies to determine and address different levels of human health or environmental effects of actions on minority and low-income populations. -
Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21)
• The act supported the vitality of a metropolitan planning area economically that enabled global competitiveness, productivity and efficiency. It also increased the safety and security of the transportation system for motorized and non-motorized users. -
California AB 1493
• The legislation was created to reduce levels of greenhouse gas emission levels per mile traveled of new cars that were sold in the state. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) set the requirements for how much greenhouse gas emissions vehicles could be reduced down to. -
Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA)
• Governed the federal surface transportation spending in the United States. The act was intended to improve and maintain the surface transportation infrastructure that included the interstate highway system, transit system around the country, bicycling and pedestrian facilities and freight rail operations. -
Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA)
• This act is also known as the Clean Energy Act and it concerned the energy policy in the United States. It raised the fuel economy standards for passenger and it was the first time that medium-duty and heavy-duty commercial vehicles were able to be fuel-efficient.