Growth as an American ideal is a fundamental component of the expansive pioneer spirit. It is vital to the maintenance of class mobility. But it is a truism whose hold upon the American approach to land use planning, or lack thereof, is being challenged for the first time in courts throughout the nation.

Garrison Diversion Project, or more simply Garrison Diversion, is the common name of an undertaking of the Bureau of Reclamation with the official title of, "Initial Stage, Garrison Diversion Unit, Pick-Sloan Missouri River Basin Program."¹ The basic scheme of the Garrison Diversion is the withdrawal of water from the Missouri River for irrigation of 250,000 acres of farmland in semi-arid areas of central and north-central North Dakota.² What gives the project international significance is that about 75 percent of the area to be irrigated

If the downfall of Richard Nixon had not monopolized the news media in 1974, the year just past might well be remembered for its dramatic revelations about the various dangers to public health. For the first time, Americans learned that ordinary tap water in many areas contained potent carcinogens and that chlorination of water may cause cancer.

On February 11, 1975, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that it will conduct a public proceeding and hold public hearings on whether it should require corporations to disclose information about "socially significant matters," and, in particular, about the environmental effects of corporate activities and about corporate fair employment practices.¹ The SEC has never before scheduled a formal public hearing to consider disclosures related to the interests of "ethical investors."² Nor has the SEC ever announced publicly t

The large number of federal facilities throughout the nation—military bases, nuclear fuel plants, the TVA, the Bonneville Power Administration—contribute significantly to ambient environmental pollution. Various efforts have been made at the federal level to bring federal facilities into conformity with federal and state pollution standards, but the problem still persists.

As urban populations in ever increasing numbers flee the smog and heat of city summers, they bring with them to formerly rural and wild areas the urban problems of crowding and environmental degradation. A case in point is the once remote Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge bordering the Atlantic Ocean in extreme southeastern Virginia, which today is sandwiched between burgeoning "second home" beach developments.

DAVID MORELL: Let me begin by saying that, outside Washington, D.C.,  you will find that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is a relatively minor player. The federal, state, and local regulatory systems are dominated not by the federal agency, but by many actors who engage in many activities. There are 50 sovereign entitites operating in different ways, and literally thousands of municipalities and communities that go either in no direction at all or in their own directions.

Industry has won the first round in the ongoing skirmish to determine whether local governments and municipalities are subject to the strict, joint, and several liability scheme of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA)¹ for the disposal of household garbage, or municipal solid waste (MSW), at municipal landfill sites across the country. In the first decisions to address the issue, U.S.

Editor's Introduction: On August 8, 1984, the House passed H.R. 5640, the Superfund Expansion and Protection Act of 1984. If agreed to by the Senate, the bill will greatly expand the hazardous waste cleanup program begun under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA).

It has been a year now since the term "energy crisis" burst into our vocabulary. To most of us, it meant sitting in a line for gasoline and hoping that we would make it to the pump. To some of us, it meant "dialing down" the heat in our homes and a hefty increase in our electric bills. But with the spring came the thaw. Gasoline was once more plentiful—no more lines and fearful waits. We turned off the heat and enjoyed the sunshine.