Editors' Summary: Wetlands protection is at once one of the most important environmental needs as well as one in which the workings of federal environmental law are most intricate. Wetlands are fragile ecosystems that serve important roles in bringing together water, groundwater, soil, and the life that lives in and depends on this unique combination.
Editors" Summary: Congress is a body often at conflict with itself, and disputes between its authorizing committees and its appropriating committees are among the most pervasive and antagonistic. To administer their programs, executive branch agencies need both authorizing legislation from the authorizing committees and appropriated funds from the appropriating committees. Often, political realities are such that the two sets of committees disagree about the proper way to run the executive agencies.
Editors' Summary: The 100th Congress closed out its term with a flurry of activity, enacting several environmental bills and introducing a number of bills that will set the stage for the 101st Congress. A FIFRA reauthorization bill passed, and the Endangered Species Act was reauthorized after three years' delay with few significant changes. Yet, in many respects the session that just ended was disappointing, and resulted in more form than substance.
In September of last year the Fourth Circuit handed down its decision in United States v. Monsanto Co.1 The court affirmed the imposition of joint and several liability under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act2 (CERCLA) on site owners and waste generators for governmental response costs incurred at the Bluff Road site in South Carolina.
The long national debate on the acid rain problem may be approaching a turning point. President Bush and his EPA Administrator, William Reilly, have stated their belief that the time has come to take action. The new Senate majority leader, George Mitchell of Maine, is one of the leading advocates in Congress for acid rain control. The ten-year National Acid Precipitation Assessment Program (NAPAP) is nearing its conclusion. These developments may shift the focus of the national debate from whether there should be a new acid rain control program to how that program should be designed.
Keynote Address
Laying the Groundwork: The Techniques and Applications of Recombinant DNA Technology
Federal, State, and Local Regulation of Biotechnology
Current Models of Risk Assessment Used in Biotechnology Regulation
USDA's Regulation of Genetically Engineered Plants, Microorganisms, and Veterinary Biological Products
Current Litigation Issues Associated With Biotechnology
Panel Discussion: Enforcement of Regulations
International Aspects of Biotechnology and Its Use in the Environment
Editors' Summary: Criminal prosecution is becoming an increasingly important component of the federal government's environmental enforcement strategy. The recent issuance of the federal Sentencing Guidelines has dramatically increased the role of criminal enforcement in environmental law. The guidelines require judges to impose specific sentences within certain ranges for various categories of environment crimes. Defendants are unlikely to escape with probation, as was often the case in preguideline prosecutions. This Article analyzes the impacts and mechanics of the guidelines.
In an 8-to-1 decision authored by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit's decision that the South Florida Water Management District's (District's) operation of a pumping station required a national pollutant discharge elimination system (NPDES) permit because pollutants transferred from a canal to a water conservation area would not have occurred but for the operation of the pump.
One of the most fundamental tenets of toxicology is that "the dose determines the poison." This simple phrase provides the basis for the belief that all agents—chemicals and physical phenomena that are capable of producing some effect—have the potential to cause toxicity. Whether toxicity actually occurs is principally a matter of dose: the greater the exposure to a given agent, the more pronounced or severe the response of a cell or organism.
In recent years, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has expanded its programs to assist governments around the world in building their capacity to protect the environment. This effort serves policies embodied in a variety of treaties, appropriations, and other legislative and executive decisions. A small but important part of this work is the effort to help other countries develop an effective legal framework for environmental protection.