Editors' Summary: The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 finally became law on November 15, 1990. The Amendments, the first major revision of the Clean Air Act since 1977, include titles on nonattainment areas, mobile sources, hazardous air pollutants, acid rain, and stratospheric ozone protection. Two other titles—the permits and enforcement titles—will be vital to the implementation of the revised Clean Air Act. The full potential of the Act cannot be realized without effective enforcement power and an efficient permit program.

Editors' Summary: In an early decision on private-party recovery of attorney fees under CERCLA, T&E Industries v. Safety Light Corp., the court refused to create a right to recovery of attorney fees because Congress had not expressly provided that such a right exists. A distinction then evolved in the case law between enforcement-related and response-related attorney fees, and ultimately the Eighth Circuit held in General Electric Co. v.

Editors' Summary: This Article opens with a brief discussion of RCRA's passage and implementation; it then discusses EPA's rules for determining whether a material is a solid waste and a hazardous waste. The Article then outlines the requirements for generators and transporters of hazardous waste. The standards applicable to facilities that treat, store, or dispose of hazardous waste (TSDFs), including the specific rules and regulations for the land disposal of hazardous wastes, are also discussed, as are the standards and procedures for obtaining a TSDF permit under Subtitle C.

There are an estimated six million work places¹ and hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of pollution sources in the United States. It is impossible for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or the Agency) or the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to inspect every pollution source or workplace.

Editors' Summary: The Corps of Engineers has historically had the unenviable task of making water resource project decisions knowing that any decision, for or against development of a project, will be criticized by the interests that lose out. Congress, currently in the process of reauthorizing the FWPCA, is in the throes of deciding whether the Corps' wetlands delineation manual and mitigation policies should be revised. That Congress, and other interested parties, have become so interested in the Corps' growing environmental protection efforts is at the heart of this Article.

Editors' Summary: RCRA is often perceived as establishing a comprehensive regulatory scheme for managing hazardous waste from "cradle to grave." However, when a substance becomes a solid waste subject to RCRA's jurisdiction remains unclear. This Article examines how RCRA defines solid waste and EPA's attempts to clarify that definition. The Article focuses on how this lack of clarity has impacted RCRA's goal of encouraging recycling and recovery of resources from solid waste. The Article analyzes three D.C.

Editors' Summary: Much has happened since the authors published their initial survey of CERCLA case law in the October 1989 issue of ELR. EPA issued substantial revisions to the NCP in March 1990. In November 1990, Congress reauthorized the Superfund for three more years. And, of course, there have been new cases. A glance at the number of cases cited in the footnotes of this Article will give the reader an idea of the volume of CERCLA case law. The authors have bravely confronted the new cases and have produced a summary of the decade of CERCLA case law.

Editors' Summary: This Comment examines the district court's decision in B.F. Goodrich Co. v. Murtha that municipal solid waste (MSW) is not exempt from CERCLA for purposes of apportioning cleanup costs, and that EPA's Municipal Settlement Policy does not insulate municipalities from CERCLA liability at the expense of private waste generators.

Editors' Summary: The principle of environmental lender liability holds that in certain instances a creditor may be found liable for damages to the environment caused by his debtor. Despite the simplicity of this definition, the application of this principle has proven to be very complex. Courts that have addressed environmental lender liability issues have not agreed on what a creditor must do to become liable.

Editors' Summary: One of the most significant issues in nonresidential real estate transactions today is determining what level of due diligence by a prospective property owner is sufficient to qualify for the "innocent landowner" defense under CERCLA §101(35). One reason for this is that a large percentage of commercial property, and virtually all industrial property, is impacted by environmental contamination, and few properties can be properly valued without assessing such contamination.