Editors' Summary: EPA's toxics release inventory (TRI), compiled under § 313 of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA), is the most comprehensive national database on toxic chemical emissions. TRI data have helped direct national, state, and local efforts to evaluate patterns in industrial toxic pollution, and have been instrumental in attempts to encourage industrial source reduction, such as EPA's 33/50 initiative, which aims for a 33 percent voluntary reduction of releases and transfers of 17 high-priority TRI chemicals by 1992 and 50 percent by 1995.

Editors' Summary: This Article examines the burning of hazardous waste in incinerators, boilers, and industrial furnaces, as regulated by RCRA. After providing a background on the controversy and competing claims about the thermal destruction of hazardous waste, the Article describes how thermal destruction devices operate and why these devices pose regulatory difficulties. The Article then analyzes how EPA and the states regulate incinerators, boilers, and industrial furnaces.

Editors' Summary: RCRA allows EPA to authorize any state that has a qualified hazardous waste program to operate its program in lieu of the federal RCRA hazardous waste (subchapter III) program. When a state has received such authorization, questions arise as to whether the state program suspends portions of RCRA, and whether RCRA citizen suit enforcement of the state's hazardous waste regulations against regulated entities is permissible.

At its heart, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)¹ is an informational statute.

Editors' Summary: "Delisting" is the process by which the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) excludes a particular facility's waste from otherwise applicable lists that would designate it as hazardous under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). Delisting is available for wastes that do not warrant management as hazardous, due to plant-specific variations in processes, raw materials, or other factors.

My object all sublime

I shall achieve in time —

To make the punishment fit the crime.

— Gilbert and Sullivan, The Mikado

Privatization — the transfer of state owned and managed enterprises into the hands of the private sector — is a central task for the emerging democracies of Central and Eastern Europe. This process, which requires the untangling of 45 years of state control and management, is even more difficult than was earlier imagined because of the parallel legacy of 45 or more years of environmental neglect.

Editors' Summary: From June 1 to June 12, 1992, the United Nations (U.N.) Conference on Environment and Development, commonly referred to as the Earth Summit, is scheduled to meet in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This conference has been hailed as a "constitutional convention" for the global environment. Conference organizers estimate that 15,000 representatives from more than 150 nations will participate. Issues on the agenda include such high-profile topics as climate change, forest conservation, and biodiversity.

Editors' Summary: 1993 will mark the 20th anniversary of Oregon's experiment in managing growth and land use through a statewide planning program. As a pioneering effort, Oregon's program has evolved and weathered implementation battles in court, as well as repeal initiatives at the ballot box. Yet, the original proponents of Oregon's program knew that wresting control over local land use decisions from local governments in order to achieve statewide growth management policies would not be easy.

Editors' Summary: EPA has set numerous records in recent years in assessing civil penalties against violators of environmental laws. This Comment explains how EPA uses guidance documents called civil penalty policies to calculate civil penalties. The various federal environmental statutes leave EPA with considerable discretion in setting a civil penalty amount. The author describes this statutory framework and then discusses the role of EPA's civil penalty policies in administrative and judicial enforcement actions.