In late 1999, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) proposed an expansive ergonomics standard. Its genesis, however, goes back to 1979, when OSHA hired its first ergonomist. Now, more than 20 years later, OSHA is moving forward with a proposed standard that is both extremely far-reaching and, in many ways, unique among health and safety requirements. The proposal, however, suffers from a number of serious deficiencies, including inherent ambiguities within the regulatory language itself.

One of the more daunting tasks facing environmental practitioners over the past decade or two has been the recovery of cleanup costs and related relief at sites contaminated with petroleum substances. Parties seeking relief face significant hurdles under the federal environmental statutes. The key federal environmental cost-recovery statute, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) often provides little help because of its petroleum exclusion.

Editors' Summary: On June 29, 1998, EPA published its PCB Mega Rule, a comprehensive revision of TSCA regulations that govern the remediation and disposal of PCB-contaminated material. The PCB Mega Rule affords the regulated community the option of remediating such material under self-implementing provisions or developing risk-based site-specific remedial measures that generally require Agency approval.

Editors' Summary: After TSCA was enacted in 1976, some commentators described it as the most powerful of all the environmental laws. Congress intended it to provide for the comprehensive and direct control of commercial chemicals' potential health or environmental effects in a true cradle-to-grave tracking system. Indeed, it was the single law addressing toxic substances that could cover all areas of environmental regulation, supplementing sections of existing toxic substances laws. In the 17 years since its enactment, however, TSCA has not fulfilled these goals or expectations.

Editors' Summary: This Article is the last in a three-part series intended to supplement Federal Wetlands Law, a primer that ELR published in 1993 and subsequently incorporated into the Wetlands Deskbook. The Article, which refers to the primer but stands on its own, focuses primarily on where wetlands law has changed since the primer's publication. The Article first addresses judicial review of agency wetlands decisions, including a proposed administrative appeal process for U.S.

Conventional wisdom says that the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) is an impediment to the reuse of brownfields. Examination of a decade of experience, however, reveals that properties "captured by the net" of RCRA jurisdiction have gone on to new, productive, and economically viable reuse. Contrary to conventional wisdom, there is also a great potential for many more RCRA properties to do so.