Congressional Research Service Reports - 105 Matching Results
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- Recycling Computers and Electronic Equipment: Legislative and Regulatory Approaches for "E-Waste"
- No Description Available.
- "Innocent Landowners" and "Prospective Purchasers" in the Superfund Act
- The Superfund Act contains several devices that eliminate the liability or reduce the transaction costs normally incurred under the Act by persons that acquire contaminated land. This report focuses on three of them, two addressed in the recently enacted brownfields law (P.L. 107-118). The first device is the innocent-landowner defense, available to persons who acquire land after the hazardous substance is put there, and who (among other things) find no contamination before acquisition despite “all appropriate inquiry.” The second device allows use of innocent-landowner status as a basis for early de minimis settlement with EPA. The third exempts the “bona fide prospective purchaser” from “owner” and “operator” liability despite pre-acquisition awareness of contamination on the property, if certain conditions are met.
- Managing Disaster Debris: Overview of Regulatory Requirements, Agency Roles, and Selected Challenges
- Report that addresses the challenges in removing debris resulting from a "major disaster" or "emergency" declared by the President, as well as the role of federal agencies in debris removal.
- Managing Disaster Debris: Overview of Regulatory Requirements, Agency Roles, and Selected Challenges
- This report addresses debris resulting from a "major disaster" or "emergency" declared by the President. First, it discusses the types of debris commonly generated during and after a disaster and selected factors that can make "debris removal"2 such a costly, complex operation. Second, it discusses the roles of federal, state, and local agencies after a disaster has been declared--with regard to both funding debris removal and the actual physical process of removal.
- Managing Disaster Debris: Overview of Regulatory Requirements, Agency Roles, and Selected Challenges
- This report addresses debris resulting from a “major disaster” or “emergency” declared by the President. First, it discusses the types of debris commonly generated during and after a disaster and selected factors that can make “debris removal” such a costly, complex operation. Second, it discusses the roles of federal, state, and local agencies after a disaster has been declared — with regard to both funding debris removal and the actual physical process of removal.
- Animal Waste and Hazardous Substances: Current Laws and Legislative Issues
- This report describes the provisions of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA, the Superfund law) and the 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 two House hearings are discussed. Bills intended to exempt animal manure from the requirements of Superfund and EPCRA were introduced in the 109th Congress. Similar bills were introduced in the 110th Congress (H.R. 1398 and S. 807), but no legislation has been enacted. Issues raised by the legislation are analyzed.
- Superfund Cleanup Standards Reconsidered
- The reauthorization of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA), commonly known as Superfund, has focused on two major areas of reform: liability, and cleanup standards/remedy selection.
- Environmental Pollution: Legislation and Programs in the Areas of Water and Air Pollution and Solid Waste Management
- This report discusses past and current legislation related to air and water pollution as well as solid waste management.
- Brownfields and Superfund Issues in the 108th Congress
- This report discusses recent development and background issues, superfund issues, revenue issues, comprehensive reauthorization, and legislation regarding superfund program.
- Closing Yucca Mountain: Litigation Associated with Attempts to Abandon the Planned Nuclear Waste Repository
- 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. The Obama Administration, in conjunction with DOE, has taken three important steps directed toward terminating the Yucca Mountain project. While the result of the ongoing dispute over the legality of the attempted termination of the Yucca Mountain program remains uncertain, congressional action could have a significant impact on the fate of the Yucca Mountain facility. A number of leading House Republicans have voiced strong opposition to shutting down the Yucca Mountain facility. Consequently, the Yucca Mountain dispute will not only be contested before the NRC and the D.C. Circuit, but also in Congress.
- Closing Yucca Mountain: Litigation Associated with Attempts to Abandon the Planned Nuclear Waste Repository
- This report covers steps taken by the Obama Administration, in conjunction with Department of Energy, to terminate the Yucca Mountain project.
- Closing Yucca Mountain: Litigation Associated with Attempts to Abandon the Planned Nuclear Waste Repository
- This report covers steps taken by the Obama Administration, in conjunction with Department of Energy, to terminate the Yucca Mountain project.
- Superfund: Overview and Selected Issues
- No Description Available.
- Civilian Nuclear Waste Disposal
- This report looks at the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (NWPA), Yucca Mountain, and the Obama Administration's de-funding of Yucca Mountain. Federal policy is based on the premise that nuclear waste can be disposed of safely, but proposed storage and disposal facilities have frequently been challenged on safety, health, and environmental grounds. Most of the current debate surrounding civilian radioactive waste focuses on highly radioactive spent fuel from nuclear power plants.
- Civilian Nuclear Waste Disposal
- This report discusses the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (NWPA), which calls for disposal of spent nuclear fuel in a deep geologic repository.
- Civilian Nuclear Waste Disposal
- This report looks at the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (NWPA), Yucca Mountain, and the Obama Administration's de-funding of Yucca Mountain. Federal policy is based on the premise that nuclear waste can be disposed of safely, but proposed storage and disposal facilities have frequently been challenged on safety, health, and environmental grounds. Most of the current debate surrounding civilian radioactive waste focuses on highly radioactive spent fuel from nuclear power plants.
- Civilian Nuclear Waste Disposal
- This report looks at the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (NWPA), Yucca Mountain. Most of the current debate surrounding civilian radioactive waste focuses on highly radioactive spent fuel from nuclear power plants.
- Civilian Nuclear Waste Disposal
- This report looks at the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (NWPA), Yucca Mountain, and the Obama Administration's de-funding of Yucca Mountain. Federal policy is based on the premise that nuclear waste can be disposed of safely, but proposed storage and disposal facilities have frequently been challenged on safety, health, and environmental grounds. Most of the current debate surrounding civilian radioactive waste focuses on highly radioactive spent fuel from nuclear power plants.
- Treatment Technologies at Superfund Sites
- The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation. and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA), commonly known as Superfund, authorizes the Federal Government, through the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to clean up hazardous waste sites. There are currently about 1,200 sites on Superfund's National Priorities List, with remedial costs expected to be around $40 billion.
- Civilian Nuclear Waste Disposal
- This report looks at the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (NWPA), Yucca Mountain, and the Obama Administration's de-funding of Yucca Mountain. Federal policy is based on the premise that nuclear waste can be disposed of safely, but proposed storage and disposal facilities have frequently been challenged on safety, health, and environmental grounds. Most of the current debate surrounding civilian radioactive waste focuses on highly radioactive spent fuel from nuclear power plants.
- The Liability Exemptions in the Senate Brownfields Bill (S. 350)
- No Description Available.
- The Liability Exemptions in the Senate Brownfields Bill (S. 350)
- 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.
- Nuclear Waste Repository Siting: Expedited Procedures for Congressional Approval
- No Description Available.
- Nuclear Waste Repository Siting: Expedited Procedures for Congressional Approval
- No Description Available.
- Radioactive Tank Wastes: Disposal Authority in the Ronald W. Reagan National Defense Authorization Act for FY2005
- No Description Available.
- Civilian Nuclear Waste Disposal
- The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (NWPA) calls for disposal of spent nuclear fuel in a deep geologic repository that is unlikely to be disturbed for thousands of years. Low-level waste sites are a state responsibility under the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Policy Act of 1980. Pursuant to that act, 10 regional compacts for disposal of low level waste have been approved by Congress. Three commercial low-level waste sites are currently operating, in the states of South Carolina, Utah, and Washington.
- Hurricane-Damaged Drinking Water and Wastewater Facilities: Impacts, Needs, and Response
- This report describes information that has been gathered about impacts of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita on drinking water and wastewater treatment facilities and on ongoing efforts to assess damages and needs to repair and reconstruct damaged systems.
- Hurricane-Damaged Drinking Water and Wastewater Facilities: Impacts, Needs, and Response
- This report describes information that has been gathered about impacts of the August 29 hurricane (Hurricane Katrina) on drinking water and wastewater treatment facilities, and on ongoing efforts to assess damages and needs to repair and reconstruct damaged systems.
- Packaging: The Pro and Con of Restrictive Legislation
- This report discusses the pros and cons of legislative proposals regarding package manufacturing standards aimed at reducing waste and littering and increasing recycling.
- Brownfields Program: Cleaning Up Urban Industrial Sites
- The Brownfields Economic Redevelopment Initiative is a pilot project to return idle or underused industrial and commercial facilities back to productive use, in situations where redevelopment is complicated by potential environmental contamination. The program is flexible, allowing cities to use a variety of approaches in utilizing grants of up to $200,000 to develop abandoned and underused sites, neighborhoods, and small regional areas. States and Indian tribes are eligible as well as local governments.
- Superfund Reauthorization in the Senate: A Summary of S. 1285
- The Superfund reauthorization vehicle in the Senate is S. 1285, introduced on September 29, 1995, by Senator Bob Smith, chairman of a subcommittee of the Environment and Public Works Committee.
- Superfund: A Brief Comparison of the Chairmen's Bills
- No Description Available.
- Superfund and Brownfields in the 107th Congress
- No Description Available.
- Superfund and Brownfields in the 107th Congress
- No Description Available.
- Superfund and Brownfields in the 107th Congress
- No Description Available.
- Superfund and Brownfields in the 107th Congress
- No Description Available.
- Superfund and Brownfields in the 107th Congress
- No Description Available.
- Superfund and Brownfields in the 107th Congress
- No Description Available.
- Superfund and Brownfields in the 107th Congress
- No Description Available.
- Waste Trade and the Basel Convention: Background and Update
- The United States played a major role in developing the 1989 United Nations-sponsored Basel Convention on the Control of the Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal, a key purpose of which is to protect countries from receiving unwanted shipments of wastes. The Convention entered into force in 1992, and by mid-1998, 121 countries (but not the United States) had ratified it. In 1991, the Bush Administration transmitted the Convention to the Senate for advice and consent to ratification aid offered implementing legislation. The Senate consented to ratification in 1992; however, implementing legislation has not been enacted. (Although existing U.S. law regulates hazardous waste,
- Superfund and the Brownfields Issue
- No Description Available.
- Superfund Taxes or General Revenues: Future Funding Options for the Superfund Program
- No Description Available.
- Brownfields and Superfund Issues in the 108th Congress
- This report discusses the Superfund program designed for cleaning up the nation’s worst hazardous waste sites was created by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980, or CERCLA (P.L. 96-510, as amended). This report discusses recent development and background issues, superfund issues, revenue issues, comprehensive reauthorization, and legislation regarding superfund program.
- Superfund and Natural Resource Damages
- No Description Available.
- The Environmental Protection Agency's Brownfields Program: Scope, Authorities, and Implementation
- The federal role in assisting states and communities to clean up brownfield sites -- real property affected by the potential presence of environmental contamination -- has been an ongoing issue for more than a decade. While there appears to be a broad consensus that a federal role in the cleanup and redevelopment of brownfields is desirable, issues regarding the degree of financial assistance and overall program effectiveness have been raised.
- Cleanup After Hurricane Katrina: Environmental Considerations
- This report aims to provide an overview of the immediate and intermediate cleanup tasks across the diverse communities in the affected region, and federal legal authorities and plans for tackling them. The report also discusses coordinated roles and activities among local, state, and federal agencies and officials. Finally, the report serves to reference other, more detailed CRS reports and other sources on particular Katrina cleanup activities.
- The Radwaste Paradox
- No Description Available.
- The Radwaste Paradox
- No Description Available.
- Ocean Dumping: A Time to Reappraise?
- No Description Available.
- Cleanup After Hurricane Katrina: Environmental Considerations
- This report aims to provide an overview of the immediate and intermediate cleanup tasks across the diverse communities in the affected region, and federal legal authorities and plans for tackling them. The report also discusses coordinated roles and activities among local, state, and federal agencies and officials. Finally, the report serves to reference other, more detailed CRS reports and other sources on particular Katrina cleanup activities.