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The U.S. EPA Draft Guide for Industrial Waste Management—Too Little, Too Late?

Editors' Summary: EPA recently proposed for public comment a draft guidance document that discusses voluntary federal recommendations for hundreds of thousands of nonhazardous industrial waste sites that currently escape RCRA regulation. In this Dialogue, a member of the chartered advisory group that assisted the Agency in the development of the document discusses its attributes and shortcomings. The Dialogue describes the history of EPA's use of RCRA Subtitle D and the statutory and programmatic obstacles to meaningful federal regulation.

Pursuing Sustainable Solid Waste Management

This Article discusses the original goals of Agenda 211 related to achieving "environmentally sound" solid waste management and reviews U.S. activities and policies with regard to solid waste over the last decade. Of greatest interest to the public and the media has been municipal solid waste (MSW)—ordinary household, commercial and institutional garbage or trash. Overall, the record of the United States in achieving sustainable solid waste management, including steady state or decreasing levels of waste generation and disposal, is mixed.

Great Lakes Water Exports and Diversions: Annex 2001 and the Looming Environmental Battle

On June 18, 2001, all eight governors of the Great Lakes states and the premiers of the two Canadian provinces bordering the Great Lakes basin gathered at the impressive Prospect Point in Niagara Falls to sign a sweeping joint declaration. Known as "Annex 2001," the document is a supplementary agreement to the Great Lakes Charter of 1985. But unlike the loose and informal charter, Annex 2001 commits this diverse and multipartisan group of political leaders to find a way to collectively manage the Great Lakes basin.

Gardner v. New Jersey Pinelands Comm'n

The court holds that zoning regulations of a state commission that limit the use of land in an environmentally sensitive area protected under federal law do not constitute an unconstitutional taking of private property. Congress established the Pinelands National Reserve in New Jersey under the Nati...

Board of County Comm'rs v. Water Quality Control Comm'n

The court holds that the statistical methodologies used by the Colorado Water Quality Control Commission in promulgating water quality standards for cadmium, lead, and silver in the North Fork of the South Platte River were not compatible with water quality data, and the standards are thus based on ...

El Pueblo Para el Aire y Agua Limpio v. Kings, County of

The court rules that the final environmental impact report that resulted in issuance of a conditional use permit for the construction and operation of a hazardous waste incinerator at the Kettleman Hills site in Kings County, California, was inadequate as an informational document under the Californ...

Armotek Indus. v. Employers Ins. of Wausau

The court, applying Pennsylvania law, holds that an insured cannot recover the costs of a state-mandated cleanup of hazardous waste under general liability insurance policies. The court first holds that Pennsylvania rather than New Jersey law applies. Pennsylvania was the place of contracting and pe...

Broderick Inv. Co. v. Hartford Accident & Indem. Co.

The court holds that under Colorado law, the pollution exclusion clause in a comprehensive general liability insurance policy bars coverage for environmental response costs sought by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in connection with a wood product company's discharge of waste materia...

Idaho Dep't of Health & Welfare v. Department of Energy

The court holds that the Department of Energy's (DOE's) storage of additional nuclear waste at an existing storage facility does not constitute construction or modification subject to permitting under Idaho's clean air regulations. Idaho's regulations under the Clean Air Act do not require DOE to ob...

Chemical Waste Management, Inc. v. Hunt

The Court holds that an Alabama act that imposes a disposal fee on hazardous wastes generated outside the state, but not on hazardous wastes from sources within Alabama, violates the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The operator of a commercial hazardous waste landfill in Alabama, which is ...