Environmental Legislation and Land Use -Fact Sheet
National Environmental Policy Act of 1969
(Prompted by the Santa Barbara Oil Spill)
Title I of NEPA contains a Declaration of National Environmental Policy, which requires the
federal government to use all practicable means to create and maintain conditions under which
man and nature can exist in productive harmony. Section 102 requires federal agencies to
incorporate environmental considerations in their planning and decision-making through a
systematic interdisciplinary approach. Specifically, all federal agencies are to prepare detailed
statements assessing the environmental impact of and alternatives to major federal actions
significantly affecting the environment. These statements are commonly referred to as
environmental impact statements (EISs). Section 102 also requires federal agencies to lend
appropriate support to initiatives and programs designed to anticipate and prevent a decline in the
quality of mankind's world environment. (Source: www.epa.gov/oecaerth/basics/nepa.html)
The Clean Water Act of 1972
The Clean Water Act is the primary federal law in the United States governing water pollution.
Commonly abbreviated as the CWA, the act established the goals of eliminating releases to
water of high amounts of toxic substances, eliminating additional water pollution by 1985, and
ensuring that surface waters would meet standards necessary for human sports and recreation by
1983.
The principal body of law currently in effect is based on the Federal Water Pollution Control
Amendments of 1972, which significantly expanded and strengthened earlier legislation. Major
amendments were enacted in the Clean Water Act of 1977 and the Water Quality Act of 1987.
Wikipedia
The 1972 act introduced a permit system for regulating point sources of pollution. Point sources
include:
▪
industrial facilities (including manufacturing, mining, oil and gas extraction, and service
industries)
▪ municipal governments and other government facilities (such as military bases), and
▪ some agricultural facilities, such as animal feedlots.
Point sources may not discharge pollutants to surface waters without a permit from the National
Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES). This system is managed by the United States
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in partnership with state environmental agencies. EPA
has authorized 46 states to issue permits directly to the discharging facilities. The CWA also
allows tribes to issue permits, but no tribes have been authorized by EPA. In the remaining states
and territories, the permits are issued by an EPA regional office. (See Titles III and IV.) In
previous legislation, Congress had authorized states to develop water quality standards, which
would limit discharges from facilities based on the characteristics of individual water bodies.
However, these standards were only to be developed for interstate waters, and the science to
support this process (i.e. data, methodology) was in the early stages of development. This system
was not effective and there was no permit system in place to enforce the requirements. In the
1972 CWA Congress added the permit system and a requirement for technology-based effluent
limitations. (Source: Wikipedia)
Common problem in real estate and development is non-point source pollution.
The Endangered Species Act of 1973
The Endangered Species Act of 1973 (7 U.S.C. § 136, 16 U.S.C. § 1531 et seq., ESA) is one of
the dozens of United States environmental laws passed in the 1970s. Signed into law by
President Nixon on December 28, 1973, it was designed to protect critically imperiled species
from extinction as a "consequence of economic growth and development untempered by
adequate concern and conservation."
The Act is administered by two federal agencies, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service
(FWS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The listing of salmon in the Pacific Northwest on the Endangered Species list prompted the
development of the Built Green Program. (Source: Wikipedia)
The Clean Air Act Amendment 1990
The Clean Air Act is the law that defines EPA's responsibilities for protecting and improving the
nation's air quality and the stratospheric ozone layer. The last major change in the law, the Clean
Air Act Amendments of 1990, was enacted by Congress in 1990. Legislation passed since then
has made several minor changes. (Source: EPA)
The Clean Air Act is significant in that it was the first major environmental law in the United
States to include a provision for citizen suits. Numerous state and local governments have
enacted similar legislation, either implementing federal programs or filling in locally important
gaps in federal programs.
The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 proposed emissions trading, added provisions for
addressing acid rain, ozone depletion and toxic air pollution, and established a national permits
program. The amendments once approved also established new auto gasoline reformulation
requirements, set Reid Vapor Pressure (RVP) standards to control evaporative emissions from
gasoline, and mandated that the new gasoline formulations be sold from May to September in
many states. (Source: Wikipedia)
National Historic Preservation Act of 1966
The National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA; Public Law 89-665; 16 U.S.C. 470 et seq.) is
legislation intended to preserve historical and archaeological sites in the United States of
America. The act created the National Register of Historic Places, the list of National Historic
Landmarks, and the State Historic Preservation Offices.
Senate Bill 3035, the National Historic Preservation Act, was signed into law on October 15,
1966, and is the most far-reaching preservation legislation ever enacted in the United States.
Several amendments have been made since. Among other things, the act requires Federal
agencies to evaluate the impact of all Federally funded or permitted projects on historic
properties (buildings, archaeological sites, etc.) through a process known as Section 106 Review.
(Source: Wikipedia)
The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and
Liability Act (CERCLA)
Superfund is the common name for the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation,
and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA), a United States federal law designed to clean up sites
contaminated with hazardous substances.[l] Superfund created the Agency for Toxic Substances
and Disease Registry (ATSDR), and it provides broad federal authority to clean up releases or
threatened releases of hazardous substances that may endanger public health or the environment.
The law authorized the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to identify parties responsible
for contamination of sites and compel the parties to clean up the sites. Where responsible parties
cannot be found, the Agency is authorized to clean up sites itself, using a special trust fund.
(Source: Wikipedia)
Partnership for Sustainable Communities: Brownfields Pilot Projects
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD), and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) are working together
under the Partnership for Sustainable Communities to ensure that federal investments, policies,
and actions do not subsidize sprawl, but do support development in more efficient and
sustainable locations. The partnership selected five community pilot projects to receive direct
technical assistance from EPA.
Green Buildings on Brownfields Initiative
The Green Buildings on Brownfields Initiative is an EPA effort designed to promote the use of
green building techniques at brownfield properties in conjunction with assessment and cleanup.
Through several pilot projects, EPA is providing communities with technical assistance to
facilitate the development of green buildings on their brownfields. Building environmentally
friendly buildings on what was once contaminated (or perceived to be contaminated) land can be
symbolic of a new, environmentally-sound direction for communities, as well as tangible growth
for their economies. (Source: http://www.epa.gov/brownflelds/sustain.htm)