Editors' Summary: In recent years, fewer and fewer parties liable for Superfund site cleanup have successfully challenged the costs of cleanup reflected in claims made against them by the government. The government's burden in CERCLA cost recovery is to establish the amount of its response costs by a preponderance of the evidence. In this Article, the authors, who are U.S.

Editors' Summary: One of the lessons of recent Superfund litigation is that, in general, defendants unhappy with the government's cleanup plans face an uphill battle challenging those plans in court. Congress wrote the 1986 Superfund Amendments to favor a free hand for EPA in cleaning up hazardous waste sites, even if the cleanup bill will later be handed to a private defendant. Generally, this reflects Congress' policy preference for speedy cleanups.

Editors' Summary: No single federal law comprehensively addresses wetlands protection. Rather, federal laws and regulations addressing activities and interests in wetlands have evolved with water law in general, and with other laws, such as those specifically targeting agriculture and coastal zone programs. The result is a complex federal regulatory structure that spreads jurisdiction among EPA, the Army Corps of Engineers, and other federal agencies.

Editors' Summary: In this second of a three-part series on federal wetlands law, the author continues her comprehensive review of the current state of federal wetlands laws and regulations. The author first analyzes individual permits under the Clean Water Act § 404 program, including the application process, interagency consultations, the substantive standards for § 404 permits, and EPA's § 404(c) veto authority. She next covers enforcement mechanisms in the § 404 program, including administrative enforcement options and civil and criminal judicial enforcement.

Editors' Summary: The Water Resources Development Act of 1992 (WRDA 92 or the Act), enacted on October 31, 1992, is an omnibus water projectauthorization and policy bill of the type traditionally used to authorize the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' (Corps') civil works projects. However, WRDA 92 differs from its predecessors by going farther in fostering a "greener," more "environmental" Corps. It authorizes more projects directly related to environmental protection and restoration, and signals Congress' growing inclination to use the Corps as environmental engineers.

Editors' Summary: Whether Congress intended it or not, the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA) has shaken the entire oil exploration and production industry to its core. Precipitated by the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the Act represents Congress' decision to create a regulatory framework for preventing oil spills and for responding to actual or threatened discharges of oil into U.S. waters, and to change the historical limits on civil and criminal liability to a degree that will almost certainly cause some industry participants to discontinue doing business in the offshore area.

Editors' Summary: The principles of federalism, state primacy, and tribal sovereignty all impact how federal environmental regulations are implemented and enforced on Indian lands. In recent years, Congress increasingly has crafted environmental protection laws that expressly provide recognized tribes with mechanisms for assuming authority to operate programs under those statutes, similar to provisions for states to obtain such authority. Yet many important federal environmental laws leave uncertain the role of Indian tribes in enforcing federal regulations on Indian lands.

Editors' Summary: CERCLA § 113(h) sets forth limits on the timing for review in federal courts of EPA hazardous waste removal and remedial actions. To prevent delays in cleaning up hazardous waste sites, EPA and the courts have interpreted § 113(h) as shielding any disputes under CERCLA from judicial scrutiny until EPA commences a cleanup action. This Article inquires into the conflict between constitutional due process and interpreting CERCLA § 113(h) as a shield that insulates EPA preenforcement, preimplementation, and post-completion cleanup activities from judicial review.

In the fall of 1993, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in its opinion in In re Bell Petroleum Services, Inc., articulated its standard for determining joint and several liability under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA). In so doing, it joined the ranks of four other circuit courts that have spoken on this issue.

One of the most prominent issues in the Congressional debate over reauthorization of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA or Superfund) has been how to reduce "transaction costs" while at the same time fairly and expeditiously resolving liability disputes. This Dialogue asks: Would the allocation procedures proposed in last year's Superfund reauthorization bills meet those sometimes conflicting goals?