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Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act: A Summary of Superfund Cleanup Authorities and Related Provisions of the Act

Description: This report discusses the background and current status of CERCLA (the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980), which was a response to a growing desire for the federal government to ensure the cleanup of the nation's most contaminated sites to protect the public from potential harm. Concerns for Congress include funding for this act; most funding comes from potentially responsible parties (PRPs), but some also comes from the CERCLA established Hazardous S… more
Date: June 14, 2012
Creator: Bearden, David M.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Chemical Facility Security: Issues and Options for the 112th Congress

Description: The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has statutory authority to regulate chemical facilities for security purposes. This report provides a brief overview of the existing statutory authority and the regulation implementing this authority. It describes several policy issues raised in previous debates regarding chemical facility security and identifies policy options for congressional consideration. Finally, the report discusses legislation in the Congress regarding whether funding should be… more
Date: September 29, 2011
Creator: Shea, Dana A.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Chemical Facility Security: Issues and Options for the 112th Congress

Description: This report provides a brief overview of the existing statutory authority and the regulation implementing this authority. It describes several policy issues raised in previous debates regarding chemical facility security and identifies policy options for congressional consideration. Finally, legislation in the 112th Congress is discussed.
Date: June 11, 2012
Creator: Shea, Dana A.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Animal Waste and Hazardous Substances: Current Laws and Legislative Issues

Description: This report describes the provisions of Superfund and Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA), and enforcement actions under these laws that have increasingly been receiving attention. Congressional scrutiny in the form of legislative proposals and a House hearing in the 109th Congress are discussed.
Date: January 25, 2008
Creator: Copeland, Claudia
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA): Implementation and New Challenges

Description: This report provides an overview of basic Toxic Supstances Control Act (TSCA) provisions, briefly examines the history of TSCA implementation by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and describes the legal, scientific, and technological developments that are being used to provide support to calls for TSCA reform.
Date: September 18, 2008
Creator: Schierow, Linda-Jo
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Lead-Based Paint Poisoning Prevention: Summary of Federal Mandates and Financial Assistance for Reducing Hazards in Housing

Description: This report discusses the federal strategy to reduce childhood exposure to lead-based paint (LBP). The federal Lead-Based Paint Poisoning Prevention Act (LBPPPA), as amended, establishes requirements and authorizes funding for the detection and control of LBP hazards in federally assisted housing.
Date: June 12, 2008
Creator: Schierow, Linda-Jo
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Closing Yucca Mountain: Litigation Associated with Attempts to Abandon the Planned Nuclear Waste Repository

Description: Passed in 1982, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) was an effort to establish an explicit statutory basis for the Department of Energy (DOE) to dispose of the nation's most highly radioactive nuclear waste. Congress amended the NWPA's site selection process in 1987, however, and designated Yucca Mountain, Nevada, as the sole candidate site for the repository by terminating site specific activities at all other sites. This report discusses the Obama Administration and the DOE's steps to termina… more
Date: June 4, 2012
Creator: Garvey, Todd
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Effects of Radiation from Fukushima Dai-ichi on the U.S. Marine Environment

Description: The massive Tohoku earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011, caused extensive damage in northeastern Japan, including damage to the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power installation, which resulted in the release of radiation. Concerns arose about the potential effects of this released radiation on the U.S. marine environment and resources.
Date: April 2, 2012
Creator: Buck, Eugene H. & Upton, Harold F.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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The Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA): A Summary

Description: This report summarizes the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) and the major regulatory programs that mandate reporting by industrial facilities of releases of potentially hazardous chemicals to the environment, as well as local planning to respond in the event of significant, accidental releases.
Date: April 5, 2012
Creator: Schierow, Linda-Jo
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Chemical Facility Security: Issues and Options for the 112th Congress

Description: This report provides a brief overview of the existing statutory authority and the regulation implementing this authority. It describes several policy issues raised in previous debates regarding chemical facility security and identifies policy options for congressional consideration. Finally, legislation in the 112th Congress is discussed.
Date: January 13, 2012
Creator: Shea, Dana A.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Chemical Facility Security: Issues and Options for the 112th Congress

Description: The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has statutory authority to regulate chemical facilities for security purposes. The 112th Congress extended this authority through March 18, 2011. Debate continues in Congress over whether to let this extension expire or continue funding the authority. This report provides a brief overview of the existing statutory authority and the regulation implementing this authority. It describes several policy issues raised in previous debates regarding chemical fa… more
Date: March 8, 2011
Creator: Shea, Dana A.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Chemical Facility Security: Reauthorization, Policy Issues, and Options for Congress

Description: This report discusses the efforts undertaken since even prior to September 11, 2001, to increase safety and security measures for facilities possessing certain amounts of hazardous chemicals. The 109th congress passed legislation in 2006 providing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) statutory authority to regulate chemical facilities for security purposes. This statutory authority expires in December 2010. This report provides a brief overview of the existing statutory authority and the r… more
Date: November 15, 2010
Creator: Shea, Dana A.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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The Federal Food Safety System: A Primer

Description: The combined efforts of the food industry and the regulatory agencies often are credited with making the U.S. food supply among the safest in the world. Nonetheless, many food-related health issues persist. At issue is whether the current U.S. regulatory system has the resources and structural organization to protect consumers from these dangers. Also at issue is whether the federal food safety laws themselves, first enacted in the early 1900s, have kept pace with the significant changes that h… more
Date: December 15, 2010
Creator: Johnson, Renée
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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The Federal Food Safety System: A Primer

Description: The combined efforts of the food industry and the regulatory agencies often are credited with making the U.S. food supply among the safest in the world. Nonetheless, many food-related health issues persist. At issue is whether the current U.S. regulatory system has the resources and structural organization to protect consumers from these dangers. Also at issue is whether the federal food safety laws themselves, first enacted in the early 1900s, have kept pace with the significant changes that h… more
Date: September 22, 2010
Creator: Johnson, Renée
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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The Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA): A Summary

Description: This report summarizes the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) and the major regulatory programs that mandate reporting by industrial facilities of releases of hazardous chemicals to the environment, as well as local planning to respond in the event of significant, accidental releases.
Date: October 28, 2010
Creator: Schierow, Linda-Jo
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Pesticide Use and Water Quality: Are the Laws Complementary or in Conflict?

Description: This report provides background on the conflict over interpretation and implementation of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and the Clean Water Act. A brief discussion of the two laws is followed by a review of the major litigation of interest. EPA's efforts to clarify its policy in this area and the November 2006 rule and the 2009 federal court ruling are discussed, as well as possible options for EPA and Congress to further address the FIFRA-CWA issues. In June, … more
Date: October 13, 2010
Creator: Copeland, Claudia
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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The Liability Exemptions in the Senate Brownfields Bill (S. 350)

Description: This report deals solely with the liability provisions of S. 350, found in Title II of the bill. (The manager’s amendment does not concern these.) These provisions cover three types of innocent parties: (1) owners of properties contaminated from contiguous properties, (2) prospective purchasers, and (3) innocent landowners.
Date: June 15, 2001
Creator: Meltz, Robert
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Implementing International Agreements on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs): Proposed Amendments to the Toxic Substances Control Act

Description: The focus of this report is on proposed amendments to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). This report does not constitute a legal analysis of the bills or of existing law. Instead, it begins by describing the three international agreements and relevant provisions of TSCA. The report then summarizes selected provisions of H.R. 4591 and H.R. 4800, as introduced, and compares them in a brief narrative and more detailed table.
Date: March 28, 2006
Creator: Schierow, Linda-Jo
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Fruits, Vegetables, and Other Specialty Crops: A Primer on Government Programs

Description: U.S. farmers grow more than 250 types of fruit, vegetable, tree nut, flower, ornamental nursery, and turfgrass crops in addition to the major bulk commodity crops. Although specialty crops are ineligible for the federal commodity price and income support programs, they are eligible for other types of U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) support, such as crop insurance, disaster assistance, and, under certain conditions, ad hoc market loss assistance payments. This report describes the federal … more
Date: January 26, 2005
Creator: Rawson, Jean M.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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