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201 records in 1985
United States · United States Congress · 19 March 1985
Amends the Clean Air Act to prohibit after 90 days after this Act's enactment any gasoline retailer, refiner, distributor, or reseller from selling leaded gasoline at a price below that for unleaded gasoline. Prohibits after 1985 the selling of gasoline with more than 0.1 grams per gallon of lead or lead additives.
European Union · European Commission · 19 March 1985
Germany · German Bundestag · 15 March 1985
United States · United States Congress · 7 March 1985
Construction Grants Transition Act of 1985 - Amends the Clean Water Act (Federal Water Pollution Control Act) to extend the authorization of appropriations for five years, through FY 1990, in decreasing amounts for grants to States for the construction of publicly-owned waste treatment plants. Authorizes appropriations for FY 1989 through 1994 for capitalization grants to States which establish Water Pollution Control Revolving Funds which would gradually take over the Federal program. Requires a participating State to: (1) enter into agreements with the Administrator; (2) establish the required Fund; (3) deposit in its Fund from State monies an amount equal to 15 percent of the capitalization grant; (4) make loan commitments for publicly-owned waste treatment plants within one year which commit all of the Fund; (5) submit required annual and intended use reports; and (6) comply with generally accepted procedures and standards. Sets forth permitted uses of the Fund. Authorizes the Administrator to reallot a noncomplying State's capitalization grant. Sets forth required accounting procedures. Directs the Administrator to review annually each State plan and report for using the Fund. Authorizes a State to use Federal grant funds to set up a Water Pollution Control Revolving Fund upon request. Directs the Administrator to report to the Congress by February 10, 1990, on the operation of the State Funds. Limits the use of Federal funds for phased-segment projects and reserved capacity after FY 1990. Continues through FY 1994 the Administrator's authority to reserve a percentage of authorized funds for grants to States for management assistance. Continues the mandatory four percent set-aside for the innovative and alternative technology program in FY 1988, reducing such set-aside to two percent in FY 1987 and 1988 after which point such program becomes discretionary. Permits a State, beginning in FY 1989, to set-aside up to seven and one-half percent of a State's allotment to be applied instead to increase the Federal share for innovative and alternative techniques and processes. Prohibits water quality-based waivers for nonconventional pollutants after a specified date. Directs the Administrator to convene an estuarine management conference for no more than five years whenever the Administrator determines interstate or international control of sources of pollution is required. Requires such conference to assess the trends in the use, resources, and water quality in such estuary, identify the sources of pollution, and develop a conservation, management, and monitoring plan for restoring and maintaining the biological integrity of such estuary. Requires the participation of affected foreign nations, States, agencies, local governments, and institutions, and plan approval by the Administrator. Permits the use of Federal grant funds and Federal capitalization grant funds for plan implementation. Authorizes appropriations for conference expenses in FY 1986 through FY 1990.
United States · United States Congress · 7 March 1985
Water Quality Renewal Act of 1985 - Amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (the Act) (also known as the Clean Water Act) to authorize appropriations for FY 1983 through 1989 for: (1) specified research, investigation, and training programs in water pollution control; (2) State and interstate pollution control programs; (3) undergraduate programs in water quality control; (4) grants for developing waste treatment management plans for areas with substantial water quality control problems; (5) water pollution control programs in agricultural areas; (6) agreements among Government agencies providing for maximum use of existing programs for water quality control; (7) grants to States for lake pollution control; and (8) carrying out the Act generally. Increases the authorization for grants for construction of waste treatment works for FY 1984 and 1985. Authorizes appropriations for such grants for FY 1986 through 1989. Revises the timetable for compliance of all pollutants with effluent limitations. Extends the compliance date for all toxic pollutants referred to in a specified table of a congressional committee print (the priority toxic pollutants). Requires such compliance as expeditiously as possible, but in no case later than three years and six months after the date effluent limitations are established. Extends the compliance date for all other toxic pollutants which may be listed under specified provisions of the Act. Requires such compliance as expeditiously as possible, but in no case later than three years and six months after the date effluent limitations are established. Extends the compliance date for application of best conventional technology (for specified conventional pollutants) from July 1, 1984, to July 1, 1987. Extends the compliance date for application of best available technology for all other pollutants. Requires such compliance as expeditiously as possible, but no later than three years and six months after effluent limitations are established. Directs the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to promulgate final regulations establishing effluent limitations for direct dischargers and limitations requiring pretreatment for all the priority toxic pollutants which are discharged from certain categories of point sources in accordance with a specified schedule. Requires the Administrator to publish in the Federal Register a list of all navigable waters in each State the water quality of which is being impaired by the discharge from specific sources of toxic pollutants. Directs the Administrator to establish an individual control strategy for each listed segment of navigable waters which shall reduce the discharge of toxic pollutants from such sources so as to allow the achievement of water quality which provides for the protection and propagation of fish, shellfish, and wildlife and provides for recreation in and on the water. Increases the civil penalties for violations of requirements with respect to water quality standards under the Act, but provides that States are not required by the Act to have civil penalties in the same monetary amount for such violations. Requires the Administrator to monitor, study, and report to the Congress on the effects of the impoundment and discharge of waters by dams upon the quality of navigable waters. Sets forth provisions for nonpoint source control implementation programs. Provides for State nonpoint source control reports, and plans and grants to States for implementation of such plans. Directs the Governor of each State to prepare and submit for the approval of the Administrator a report on: (1) those portions of the navigable waters within a State that, as a result of pollution from nonpoint sources in whole or in part, are not meeting applicable water quality standards or the goals and requirements of the Act; (2) those categories and subcategories of nonpoint sources which add significant pollutant loadings to each portion of such waters in amounts which contribute to nonattainment of such water quality standards for such goals and requirements; (3) State and local programs for controlling pollutant loadings added from nonpoint sources to such waters, including but not limited to programs receiving Federal assistance under this Act; and (4) the process, including intergovernmental coordination and public participation, for identifying best management practices and measures to control such categories and subcategories of nonpoint sources and to reduce, to the maximum extent practicable, the level of pollution resulting from such categories and subcategories. Requires that such reports and updates be based on available information. Permits such reports or updates to include all or part of an approved existing water quality management program. Directs the Governor of each State to prepare and submit for the approval of the Administrator: (1) a plan which the State proposes to implement in the four-fiscal-year period beginning after the date of submission of the report for controlling pollution added from nonpoint sources to navigable waters within the State and for improving the quality of such waters; and (2) a report identifying each Federal department, agency, or instrumentality which is likely to be engaging in, supporting, or providing financial assistance for any activity or program within the State during such four-fiscal-year period and which would be inconsistent with plan implementation, and recommending appropriate administrative modification of such program or activity. Requires that such plans specify the following State practices and measures during the four-fiscal-year period: (1) each portion of navigable waters and land area contributing to nonpoint source pollution which significantly affects portions of such waters; (2) the order of, and schedule for, such implementation; (3) the categories and subcategories of nonpoint sources of pollution; (4) the best management practices and measures; (5) the methods by which the State will encourage, assist, or require such implementation (by category and subcategory of pollution source); and (6) sources of Federal and other assistance other than that provided under this Act which will be available for support of such implementation and the purposes for which such assistance will be used. Requires that such plan be accompanied by a certification by the State attorney general or the head attorney of the State water pollution control agency that State laws provide adequate authority to carry out such programs or a list of any additional authority needed. Requires that such schedule: (1) establish for each category and subcategory of sources an expeditious time period for implementation of best management practices and measures; and (2) indicate estimated dates for such implementation. Requires States to utilize local public and private agencies and organizations with expertise in nonpoint source pollution control, to the maximum extent practicable, in developing and implementing such plan. Requires States, to the maximum extent possible, to develop and implement such plan on a watershed-by-watershed basis. Requires that any State reports or plans required under these nonpoint source control program provisions be submitted to the Administrator within 270 days after enactment of this Act, but provides for a 270-day extension upon request of the Governor. Directs the Administrator to prepare a report which makes specified identifications for a State if the Governor does not submit such report within the required period. Directs the Administrator to consolidate and submit recommendations for modifications of Federal activities and programs submitted by the States to the appropriate Federal departments, agencies, and instrumentalities. Directs such entities to carry out their activities and programs in a manner consistent with the approved State plan and helpful to its implementation. Sets forth procedures and deadlines for approval, disapproval, or revision of reports, plans, and updates. Directs the Administrator to provide technical assistance to local agencies or organizations in developing plans, whenever a State fails to submit or the Administrator does not approve a plan. Makes such local agencies or organizations eligible to receive implementation assistance after development of such plan. Authorizes the Administrator, upon State request, to provide technical assistance to a State in developing a plan. Sets forth requirements for State petitions, interstate management conferences and agreements, and State plans for reduction of interstate water pollution from nonpoint sources. Directs the Administrator, upon State application, to make grants to each State for which a report and a plan is approved. Provides that such grants shall be made to assist States in implementing such plans. Limits the Federal share of the cost of each plan implemented with Federal assistance in any fiscal year to 50 percent of the cost to the State in implementing such plan, but requires that the Federal share be at least 50 percent and not more than 60 percent of those costs of a plan which are attributable to a watershed area with respect to which the Administrator determines that a significant number of non-Federal, non-State interests of such area are willing and able to enter into agreements to participate in such year in nonsource pollution control measures under such plan. Limits administrative costs (except costs of implementing enforcement and regulatory activities, education, training, technical assistance, demonstration projects or technology transfer programs) to ten percent of the grant amount. Sets forth maintenance of effort requirements for such grants. Limits to 15 percent of the amount appropriated for such grants which may be used to make grants to any one State, including any grants to any local agency or organization with authority to control pollution from nonpoint sources in any area in such State. Authorizes the Administrator to give priority in making grants for each fiscal year beginning after FY 1987 to any State which has included effective regulatory mechanisms in its plan and has implemented such mechanisms in the preceding fiscal year. Directs the Secretary to give consideration to a State's inclusion and implementation of effective regulatory mechanisms in determining the Federal share of any such grant. Authorizes appropriations for such grants for FY 1986 through 1990. Directs the Administrator, upon application of a State with an approved report and plan, to make grants to assist such State in carrying out groundwater water quality protection activities which will advance the State toward implementation of a comprehensive nonpoint source pollution control program. Requires that such activities include research, planning, groundwater assessments, demonstration programs, enforcement, technical assistance, education, and training to protect groundwater quality and prevent groundwater contamination from nonpoint pollution sources. Makes the Federal share of the cost of assisting a State in such groundwater protection activities in any fiscal year 50 percent of the costs incurred by the State in carrying out such activities, but sets a maximum amount for such Federal assistance to a State in any fiscal year. Authorizes appropriations for such grants for FY 1986 through 1990. Directs the Administrator, by January 1, 1986, and each January 1 thereafter, to report to specified congressional committees on the activities carried out under this Act for the preceding fiscal year and the progress made in reducing nonpoint source pollution in the navigable waters. Directs the Administrator, by January 1, 1989, to transmit a final report to the Congress on the activities carried out under this Act, with specified analyses and recommendations. Requires that at least five percent of appropriations for such grants in any fiscal year be available to the Administrator to maintain personnel levels at the Environmental Protection Agency which are adequate to carry out this Act. Increases the percentage of funds the Administrator may hold back from the States for alternative systems for small communities. Permits such funds to be used for grants related to nonpoint source pollution control programs. Allows an increased Federal share for such programs utilizing innovative processes and techniques. Allows the Administrator to make grants and enter into agreements with the Secretaries of Agriculture, of the Army, and of the Interior for projects related to nonpoint source pollution control. Declares that it is the national policy that plans for the control of nonpoint sources of pollution be developed and implemented in an expeditious manner so as to enable the goals of the Act to be met through the control of both point and nonpoint sources of pollution. Directs the Administrator, within one year after the enactment of this Act, to submit to specified congressional committees a lake restoration guidance manual establishing procedures to guide future State and local efforts to improve water quality in lakes. Adds to the authorized uses of grants for construction of treatment works projects to address water quality problems due to impacts of discharges from combined storm water and sanitary sewer overflows. Increases for FY 1986 and subsequent fiscal years the amount of additional funds which the Administrator shall have available for addressing water quality problems of marine bays and estuaries subject to lower levels of water quality due to the impact of discharges from combined storm water and sanitary sewer overflows. Increases to 65 percent the Federal share of construction costs under the treatment works construction grants program for FY 1985 and subsequent fiscal years. (Current law provides that the 75 percent Federal share shall be decreased to 55 percent for FY 1985 and subsequent fiscal years.) Provides that the activated bio-filter feature of the project for treatment works of the city of Little Falls, Minnesota, shall be deemed to be an innovative wastewater process and technique for purposes of specified provisions of the Act. Provides that the amount of any grant under the Act for such feature shall be 85 percent of the cost thereof. Authorizes the Administrator, in addition to any grant for innovative technology in treatment works, to make a grant to fund all of the costs of the modification or replacement of biodisc equipment (rotating biological contactors) in any publicly owned treatment works if the Administrator finds that such equipment has not met design performance specifications, unless such failure is attributable to negligence on the part of any person, and if such failure has significantly increased capital or operating and maintenance expenditures. Directs the Administrator, before taking final action on plans, specifications, and estimates for treatment works construction, to enter into a written agreement with the grant applicant which establishes and specifies which items of the proposed project are eligible for Federal payment under specified provisions of the Act. Prohibits the Administrator from later modifying such eligibility determinations unless they are found to have been made in violation of applicable Federal statutes and regulations. Provides that such eligibility determinations shall not preclude the Administrator from auditing a project pursuant to specified provisions of the Act, or other authority, or from withholding or recovering Federal funds for costs which are found to be unallowable or which are incurred on a project which fails to meet design specifications or effluent limitations contained in the grant agreement and permit. Provides for grantee certification of the treatment process. Provides that the approval of construction plans by the Administrator shall not include a determination or approval of the treatment work's unit processes, which constitute the treatment technology. Prohibits the Administrator from approving plans, specifications, and estimates for a project unless the applicant certifies that the proposed unit processes and treatment technology are capable of meeting the effluent limitations for which such process and technology are designed. Revises local treatment works grant conditions to require, within two years after enactment of this Act, that: (1) any required areawide waste treatment management plan is being implemented or is being developed with reasonable progress toward implementation; and (2) the State is implementing or developing any required State plan and is in compliance with water quality reporting requirements. Provides that a system of user charges which imposes a lower charge for low-income residential users (as defined by the Administrator) shall be deemed to be a user charge system meeting specified requirements for treatment works grants if the Administrator determines that such system was adopted after public notice and hearing. Requires that State allotments for the treatment works construction grants programs for FY 1986 through 1989 be allotted, in accordance with a specified table, for each such year by the Administrator not later than the tenth day which begins after the enactment of this Act. Extends through FY 1989 the authorization of appropriations for minimum allotments to States and specified U.S. territories and possessions. Increases, from thirty-three one-hundredths of one percent to two-thirds of one percent the portion of the total allotment which shall be allotted to specified U.S. territories and possessions. Extends through FY 1989 specified provisions relating to the reservation of certain amounts from State allotments in order to make grants to States for administration of such allotments. Directs the Administrator to reserve specified amounts from the allotments to the States of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut in order to make grants in FY 1986 and subsequent fiscal years to the Interstate Sanitation Commission established by such States by interstate compact to carry out the functions of such Commission under the Act. Extends through FY 1989 specified provisions relating to minimum expenditures for increasing the Federal share of grants for construction of treatment works utilizing innovative processes and techniques. Requires a State to allocate at least 50 percent of its water quality management planning grant in any fiscal year to regional and interstate public comprehensive organizations in such State, except when the Administrator and the Governor determine that such allocation will not substantially assist in achieving the goals of the Act. Directs the Administrator to reserve one-quarter of one percent of appropriations for the treatment works construction grants program for FY 1986 and subsequent fiscal years for carrying out investigations and audits of such construction projects. Provides that such sums shall be in addition to any sums otherwise appropriated for or allocated to the Office of the Inspector General. Directs the Administrator to make grants for specified purposes from the appropriate State allotments for treatment works construction to: (1) the city of Avalon, California; (2) the owners of the Rocky River Wastewater Treatment Plant in Rocky River, Ohio; (3) Walker and Smithfield Townships, Pennsylvania; (4) the Elk Pinch Public Service District, Kanawha County, West Virginia; and (5) the city of Taylor Mill, Kentucky. Establishes a program of grants to States for establishment of State water pollution control revolving funds for providing assistance to municipalities and intermunicipal and interstate agencies for construction of publicly owned treatment works. Requires a State to first deposit an amount equal to 20 percent of such grant allotted to the State for a fiscal year before such grant can be made. Sets forth certification, reporting, and other requirements relating to such grants and the types of assistance which such revolving funds may offer. Authorizes appropriations for such grants for FY 1986 through 1989. Revises innovative technology compliance deadlines for direct dischargers. Requires such compliance within two years after the date for compliance with an effluent limitation which is otherwise applicable. Directs the Administrator, in carrying out specified provisions of the Act, to conduct research, in conjunction with other Federal, State, and interstate agencies, on the harmful effects on the health and welfare of persons caused by pollutants in water. Requires that such research: (1) place special emphasis on the effect that bioaccumulation of pollutants in aquatic species has in reducing the value of aquatic commercial and sport industries; and (2) study methods to reduce and remove pollutants from aquatic species so as to restore and enhance these resources. Authorizes appropriations for FY 1986 through 1989 for such research. Directs the Administrator, in developing, publishing, and revising water quality criteria, to consider the effects of specified factors on the ecosystem. Requires that new or revised water quality criteria should be established so as to provide an ample margin of safety to protect human health and fish and wildlife resources, and, if there is a well-founded and significant difference of opinion as to the latest scientific and research knowledge in such matters with respect to a pollutant, directs the Administrator to publish a description of such difference of opinion along with the publication of such criteria. Directs the Administrator to increase the number of employees of the Environmental Protection Agency if necessary to effectively implement pretreatment requirements under specified provisions of the Act. Authorizes the owner or operator of a publicly owned treatment works which receives the treated effluent to grant up to a two-year extension for compliance with a categorical pretreatment standard to any new or existing facility (indirect discharger) which proposes to comply with such standard by using an innovative treatment system meeting specified standards, if: (1) the Administrator determines that the innovative system has the potential for industry-wide application and the action will not cause the publicly owned treatment works to be in violation of its permit; and (2) the Administrator (or a State with an approved pretreatment program) concurs with the proposed action of the owner or operator of such treatment works. Revises provisions for criminal penalties for specified violations under the Act. Adds provisions for civil penalties to be assessed by the Administrator or the Secretary of the Army for specified violations under the Act. Revises provisions for the Clean Lakes Program (a grant assistance program to improve the water quality of lakes). Makes such program applicable to saline, as well as fresh water, lakes. Adds provisions for grants to States for priority projects for control of nonpoint sources of pollution which are contributing to the degradation of water quality in lakes. Directs the Administrator to distribute such grants equitably among the States. Limits the amount of such a grant to not more than 70 percent of the project cost. Authorizes appropriations for FY 1986 through 1990 for such grants. Adds provisions for grants to States to carry out approved methods and procedures which may be applied to lakes and other waters to restore water quality, insofar as such quality has deteriorated as a result of high acidity which may be due to acid deposition. Allows any State to submit for approval to the Administrator: (1) a survey of such water quality deterioration; and (2) methods and procedures which may be applied. Specifies some of the methods which may be approved for such purpose. Limits the amount so granted to any State in any fiscal year to more than 80 percent of the funds expended by such State in such year for carrying out such approved methods and procedures. Directs the Administrator to distribute such grant funds equitably on the basis of the relative need of each applicant State for the restoration of water quality as a result of such deterioration. Provides that such assistance shall be in addition to any other Federal financial assistance. Authorizes appropriations for such grants for FY 1986 through 1990. Directs the Administrator to report annually to specified congressional committees on the status and trend of water quality in lakes in the United States, including the nature and extent of pollution loading from point and nonpoint sources and the extent to which the use of lakes is impaired as a result of pollution, particularly with respect to toxic pollution. Directs the Administrator, in cooperation with the State of Texas, to study water quality problems in Lake Houston, Houston, Texas, and undertake control measures to improve water quality. Requires such study to include specified evaluations. Directs the Administrator to report, with recommendations, to specified congressional committees on such study and control measures. Authorizes appropriations for FY 1986 and subsequent fiscal years for such purposes. Directs the Administrator to conduct a demonstration program to restore the biological integrity of acidified lakes and watersheds through liming. Directs the Administrator to report to specified congressional committees after completion of such project. Authorizes appropriations for FY 1986 and subsequent fiscal years for such purpose. Directs the Administrator, in cooperation with the Secretary of the Army and in consultation with appropriate State and local agencies, to: (1) conduct a one-year comprehensive study of the Beaver Lake, Arkansas; (2) undertake a demonstration project for measures identified in such study for preserving and enhancing the reservoir's water quality; and (3) report, with recommendations, on such study and project to specified congressional committees. Makes specified funds available for such purposes. Directs the Administrator to undertake demonstration projects for specified cleanup operations for the following New Jersey bodies of water: (1) Greenwood Lake and Belcher Creek; (2) Deal Lake; and (3) Alcyon Lake. Directs the Administrator to report, with recommendations, on such projects to specified congressional committees. Authorizes appropriations for such projects. Revises provisions for permits under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES). Authorizes a State Governor to submit an NPDES permit program for a portion of the discharges into the navigable waters in such State. Requires that such a partial permit program cover at a minimum administration of a major category of the discharges into the navigable waters of the State or a major component of the State's NPDES permit program. Authorizes the Administrator, if specified conditions are met, to approve: (1) a partial permit program covering administration of a major category of discharges; or (2) a partial and phased permit program covering administration of a major component (including discharge categories) of a State permit program. Provides that a State may return, or the Administrator may withdraw approval of, delegated NPDES permit program responsibilities. Prohibits the renewal or reissuance of permits for the discharge of pollutants which are less stringent than the limitations in the previous permit. Allows a permit renewed or reissued after the installation of treatment facilities required by the original permit to reflect the level of pollutant control actually achieved, provided that level is not less stringent than required by effluent guidelines in effect at the time. Provides that the term "point source" does not include agricultural stormwater discharges. Authorizes the Administrator to make a grant to the city of New York to install additional facilities and make modifications necessary for the Newtown Creek sewage treatment plant to provide secondary treatment. Makes the Federal share 75 percent of the cost of such project. Authorizes appropriations for such purpose for FY 1986 and subsequent fiscal years. Provides that such funds shall be in addition to any other amounts authorized under the construction grants program provisions of the Act. Directs the Administrator to make grants to the city of San Diego, California, for construction of a project consisting of: (1) a publicly owned treatment works in such city to provide primary or advanced treatment of not less than 60,000,000 gallons of municipal sewage and industrial waste per day for the city of Tijuana, Mexico; and (2) a publicly owned treatment works in such city to provide primary or more advanced treatment of such amount of municipal sewage and industrial waste per day for the city of San Diego as may be necessary to meet the objectives of the Act. Sets forth requirements relating to such grants and projects. Permits, through 1993, the discharge of pollutants for any ocean outfall constructed with such Federal assistance if such pollutants have received primary or more advanced treatment. Authorizes appropriations to the Administrator for such grants for FY 1986 and subsequent fiscal years. Directs the Administrator to make grants to the city of Naco, Arizona, for construction of a project consisting of a publicly owned treatment works in such city to provide primary or more advanced treatment of not less than 150,000 gallons of untreated sewage emanating from the community of Naco, Sonora, Mexico. Sets forth requirements relating to such grants and project. Authorizes appropriations to the Administrator to make such grants for FY 1986 and subsequent fiscal years. Prohibits the city of New York, after March 15, 1986, from discharging raw sewage into navigable waters in an amount which is greater for any 30-day period than an amount equal to 30 times the average daily discharge by the city during the 12-month period preceding such date. Authorizes the Administrator to waive such limitation to the extent and for such limited period of time as may be reasonably necessary for the city to resume operation of a wastewater treatment plant operated by the city, in the event of any significant interruption in such operation. Directs the Administrator to undertake measures, including modifications of compliance schedules, to reduce and eliminate at the earliest practicable date the discharge of raw sewage by the city of New York, taking into account any increase in the authorization for grants for the construction of treatment works made by this Act and standards and practices necessary for attaining a specified level of water quality. Provides that the Okolona Sewer Construction District, Jefferson County, Kentucky, shall be permitted to operate the Okolona Sewage Construction District Treatment Works and shall not be required to use any other facility for wastewater treatment until the West County Wastewater Treatment Plant, Jefferson County, Kentucky, is completed. Directs the Administrator to issue a permit under the Act for such purpose. Directs the Administrator to make grants to the Metropolitan District Commission, Massachusetts, for a project to undertake emergency improvements at the Deer Island Waste Water Treatment Plant in Boston, Massachusetts. Limits the Federal share to 75 percent of the cost of such improvements. Authorizes appropriations for each of FY 1986 through 1988 for such grants. Directs the Administrator, notwithstanding any provision of the Act, to pay, to the extent provided in appropriation Acts, in the same proportion as the Federal share of other project costs, all expenses for the relocation of facilities for the distribution of natural gas with respect to the entire wastewater treatment works known as Oakwood Beach and Red Hook projects, New York. Authorizes appropriations for FY 1986 and subsequent fiscal years for such purpose. Directs the Administrator to undertake necessary measures, including removal of accumulated raw sewage, to restore the quality of the waters adversely affected by the raw sewage discharge into Brady's Run, Pennsylvania, which resulted from the destruction of the Chippewa Township, Pennsylvania, sewage treatment facility. Directs the Administrator to study the feasibility and desirability of eliminating the regulation of discharges of pollutants into navigable waters in amounts which, in terms of volume, concentration, and type of pollutant, are not significant (de minimis discharges). Directs the Administrator to report, with recommendations, in such study to specified congressional committees within one year after enactment of this Act. Directs the Administrator to study the effectiveness of specified innovative and alternative wastewater treatment processes and techniques which have been used in treatment works constructed under the Act. Sets forth requirements relating to such study. Directs the Administrator to report, with recommendations, to specified congressional committees within two years after enactment of this Act. Directs the Administrator to study the water quality improvements which have been achieved by application of best available technology economically achievable pursuant to specified provisions of the Act. Sets forth requirements relating to such study. Directs the Administrator to report, with recommendations, on such study to specified congressional committees within two years after the enactment of this Act. Directs the Administrator to study the testing procedures for analysis of pollutants established under specified provisions of the Act. Sets forth requirements relating to such study. Directs the Administrator to report, with recommendations, on such study to specified congressional committees within one year after the enactment of this Act. Directs the Administrator, biennially after the date of submission of such report, to conduct a state-of-the-art review of such test procedures to determine their adequacy and effectiveness. Directs the Administrator to submit to such congressional committees recommendations, based on such review, for modifying such test procedures to improve their effectiveness. Directs the Administrator to study the pretreatment of toxic pollutants, including a study of: (1) the adequacy of data on environmental impacts of toxic industrial pollutants discharged through publicly owned treatment works; (2) the extent to which secondary treatment at publicly owned treatment works removes toxic pollutants; (3) the capability of publicly owned treatment works to revise pretreatment requirements under specified provisions of the Act; (4) possible alternative regulatory strategies for protecting the operations of publicly owned treatment works from industrial discharges, including evaluation of each such strategy's potential to achieve the goals of the Act; and (5) the adequacy of Federal, State, and local resources to establish, implement, and enforce multiple pretreatment limits for toxic pollutants for each alternative strategy identified. Directs the Administrator to report, with recommendations, on such study to specified congressional committees within two years after the enactment of this Act. Directs the Administrator to study the problem of the corrosive effects of sulfides in collection and treatment systems, the extent to which the uniform imposition of categorical pretreatment standards will exacerbate this problem, and the range of available options to deal with the effects. Requires that such study be conducted in consultation with the Los Angeles City and County sanitation agencies which have observed examples of corrosion probably caused by sulfides. Directs the Administrator to report, with recommendations, on such study to specified congressional committees within one year after the enactment of this Act. Authorizes appropriations for FY 1986 and subsequent fiscal years for such study and report. Requires as new conditions for the modification of treatment requirements with respect to the discharge of pollutants from a publicly owned treatment works that an applicant for such modification demonstrate that: (1) in the case of a treatment works serving a population of 50,000 or more, there is in effect a specified pretreatment program for toxic pollutants introduced into such works for which there is no pretreatment requirement in effect; and (2) the effluent which is discharged from such works is receiving primary treatment and meets the criteria for water quality established by the Administrator. Revises the meaning of the phrase "discharge of any pollutant into marine water." Sets forth provisions relating to maintenance of water quality in estuaries. Directs the Administrator to convene a management conference upon determination that the attainment or maintenance of water quality in an estuary requires the control of sources of pollution in more than one State. Sets forth requirements for conference membership. Requires that an interstate agency be the lead agency for carrying out such provisions in any case in which such agency has jurisdiction over all or a significant part of the estuary. Directs the Administrator to give priority consideration under such provisions to: (1) Long Island Sound; (2) Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts; and (3) Delaware Bay, Delaware and New Jersey. Prohibits convening such a conference before a final adjudication has been made in any pending State boundary dispute involving the estuary. Provides that such a management conference shall establish and provide for the implementation of a master plan which addresses the pollution problems of the estuary involved. Authorizes the Administrator to make grants to States participating in such a management conference which are equal to 50 percent of a State's cost of implementing a master plan for a fiscal year. Authorizes appropriations for FY 1985 through 1989 for such grants. Authorizes appropriations to the Administrator for FY 1985 through 1989 for: (1) administrative expenses with respect to such management conferences; (2) grants for the development of master plans for estuaries; and (3) monitoring the implementation of such master plans. Adds provisions relating to Chesapeake and Narragansett Bays. Directs the Administrator to continue the Chesapeake Bay Program and to establish and maintain in the EPA an office, division, or branch of Chesapeake Bay Programs to: (1) collect and disseminate research and other information on the environmental quality of the Bay; (2) coordinate Federal and State efforts to improve the quality of research projects pertaining to the Bay; (3) conduct research on sediment deposition in the Bay; and (4) conduct research on how natural and man-induced environmental changes impact on the living resources of the Bay, with particular emphasis on the impact of pollutant loadings of nutrients, chlorine, acid precipitation, dissolved oxygen, and toxic pollutants, (including organic chemicals and heavy metals), and with special attention to the impact on the striped bass. Directs the Administrator, at the request of the Governor of a State affected by the interstate management plan developed under the Chesapeake Bay program, to make a grant to implement management mechanisms in the plan if the State has, within one year after the date of enactment of this Act, approved and committed to implement all or substantially all aspects of the plan. Requires a State or combination of States, in order to qualify for such grants, to submit a plan for proposed abatement actions and estimated costs for the approval of the Administrator. Limits such grants to 50 percent of the plan implementation costs in any year and requires non-Federal sources to provide the remainder of such costs during such fiscal year. Limits administrative costs to ten percent of the annual Federal grant to a State. Requires States to submit progress reports to the Administrator within 18 months after the receipt of such grants, and biennially thereafter. Directs the Administrator to transmit such reports, with comments, to the Congress. Directs the Administrator, at the request of the Governor of an affected State and after consultation with appropriate Federal and State agencies and other interested persons, to make a grant for purposes of assessing the principal factors having an adverse effect on the environmental quality of the Narragansett Bay, as perceived by both scientists and users, in conjunction with developing and implementing a management program to improve such Bay's water quality. Limits such grants to 50 percent of the program implementation costs and requires non-Federal sources to provide the remainder. Requires States to submit descriptions of the proposed programs for the approval of the Administrator. Directs the Administrator to approve each such program within three months of receipt if the applicant State demonstrates that it will: (1) establish a committee to provide advice on design and implementation of a management program and to coordinate communication on issues affecting such Bay's water quality; (2) review and coordinate Federal and State water pollution abatement programs to address adverse water quality factors; (3) establish methods for improving sampling data collection and a system for collecting, analyzing, storing, and disseminating such data; and (4) develop and implement, within three years after enactment of this Act, water quality management practices and measures (including land use requirements) to reduce to the greatest extent feasible pollutant loadings in such Bay and to improve its water quality. Requires States to submit progress reports to the Administrator, within two years after issuance of such grants and annually thereafter. Authorizes appropriations for FY 1986 through 1989 for such Chesapeake and Narragansett Bays programs. Sets forth provisions relating to the New York and New Jersey Harbor area (the Harbor). Directs the Administrator to: (1) collect and make available information on the environmental quality of the Harbor; (2) coordinate Federal and State efforts to improve the Harbor's water quality; and (3) determine the impact of natural and man-induced environmental changes on the living resources of the Harbor and on adjacent coastal areas and the relationships among such changes, with particular emphasis on the impact of pollutant loadings of sewage, dissolved oxygen, and toxic pollutants, including organic chemicals and heavy metals. Directs the Administrator, at the request of the Governor of a State affected by any interstate management plan relating to the Harbor and developed pursuant to specified provisions of this Act for maintenance of water quality in estuaries, to make a grant to implement the management mechanisms contained in such plan. Allows an affected State or combination of States to submit to the Administrator a plan including the estimated cost of the abatement actions proposed to be taken during the next fiscal year. Directs the Administrator, if the plan is consistent with specified national policies and goals under the Act, to approve such plan and to finance up to 50 percent of the costs of implementing such plan in any fiscal year, on condition that non-Federal sources provide the remainder of such costs. Limits administrative costs to ten percent of such annual Federal grant to a State. Requires such States to submit progress reports on the implementation of such plans within 18 months after the date of receipt of such grant and biennially thereafter. Directs the Administrator to transmit such reports, with comments, to the Congress. Authorizes appropriations for FY 1986 through 1989 for purposes of such provisions for the Harbor. Authorizes the Administrator to undertake a study on consumptive uses of Great Lakes water. Authorizes the Administrator to conduct such study in cooperation with other interested Federal agencies and the eight Great Lake States and their local governments. Requires such study to focus on all possible control measures which can be implemented to reduce the quantity of Great Lakes water consumed without adversely affecting the projected growth of the Great Lakes region. Requires that such study include an analysis of both existing and new technology which appears to be feasible in the foreseeable future. Requires that such study include at a minimum: (1) a review of methodologies used to forecast Great Lakes consumptive uses; (2) an analysis of the effect that enforcement of provisions of the Act relating to thermal discharges has had on consumption of Great Lakes water; (3) an analysis of the effect of laws, regulations, and national policy objectives on consumptive uses of Great Lakes water used in manufacturing; (4) an analysis of the economic effects on a consuming industry and other Great Lakes interests associated with a particular consumptive use control strategy; (5) an analysis of associated environmental impacts, both singularly and in combination with other consumptive use control strategies; and (6) a summary discussion with recommendations for methods of controlling consumptive use so as to maximize benefits to the Great Lakes ecosystem and also provide for continued full economic growth for consuming industries as well as other industries which depend on the use of Great Lakes water. Authorizes appropriations for such study for FY 1986 and subsequent fiscal years. Grants an exception to a time limitation relating to an application for a permit modification for less than secondary treatment involving an ocean discharge. Provides that a publicly owned treatment works which, before December 1, 1982, had a contractual arrangement to use a portion of the capacity of another publicly owned treatment works which has applied for or receives such a modification, may apply for such a modification for itself within 30 days after enactment of this Act. Designates the Great Lakes National Program Office of the Environmental Protection Agency as the Great Lakes International Coordination Office. Directs the head of the Office to serve as the principal liaison person on Great Lakes matters to the International Joint Commission, United States and Canada. Requires the Office to: (1) develop and implement specific action plans to carry out U.S. responsibility under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement of 1978; (2) coordinate Agency actions aimed at improving Great Lakes water quality; (3) coordinate Agency actions with other Federal, State, and local authorities; (4) establish a Great Lakes system-wide surveillance network to monitor the water quality of the Great Lakes, with emphasis on monitoring toxic pollutants; and (5) serve as liaison with, and provide information to, the Canadian members of the Commission and the Canadian counterpart of the Agency. Directs the Administrator to: (1) ensure that the Office enters into specified agreements with Agency organizational elements involved in Great Lakes activities in the appropriate State agencies; and (2) include a funding request for the office as a separate budget line item in the Agency's annual budget submission to the Congress. Authorizes appropriations for FY 1987 through 1991 for the Office. Authorizes appropriations for FY 1986 to carry out water quality studies of the Great Lakes under the Act. Directs the Administrator, within 120 days after enactment of this Act and at the beginning of each fiscal year thereafter, to submit to the Congress a comprehensive assessment of the planned efforts to be pursued in the succeeding fiscal year for implementing the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement of 1978. Requires such assessment to include specified information. Directs the Administrator, within 150 days after the end of each fiscal year, to submit to the Congress a comprehensive report which describes specified achievements, progress, and long-term prospects for improving Great Lakes water quality. Authorizes the Administrator (or an approved State program) to issue a permit which modifies specified requirements with respect to the pH level of any discharge, and with respect to discharges of iron and manganese, from the remined area of any coal remining operation. Requires that such modified requirements apply the best available technology economically achievable on a case-by-case basis, using best professional judgment. Prohibits such a permit from allowing the pH level of any discharge, or the discharges of iron and manganese, to exceed the levels being discharged from the remined area before the coal remining operation begins. Provides that no payment may be made under this Act except to the extent provided in advance in appropriation Acts.
Germany · German Bundestag · 7 March 1985
Bodenschutz als Querschnittaufgabe des Umweltschutzes, Arbeitsgruppen beim Bodenschutz, Leitlinien und programmatische Grundlagen des Bodenschutzes, Informationsgrundlagen, Forschungs- und Entwicklungsaufgaben, Bodenschutzaspekte im geltenden Recht, stoffliche Einwirkungen auf den Boden, Veränderungen der Bodenstruktur und räumliche Einwirkungen auf den Boden, Schwerpunkte des Bodenschutzes und Lösungsansätze
United States · United States Congress · 6 March 1985
Superfund Extension and Improvement Act of 1985 - Title I: Amends the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA) (Superfund) to specify how such program operates within Indian lands. Exempts remedial actions on Indian lands from the cost-sharing and future maintenance requirements imposed on States and requires the President to assure the availability of off-site disposal capability. Authorizes Indian tribes to recover damages for injury to or loss of natural resources resulting from releases of hazardous substances. Treats Indian tribes substantially like States for certain information, notification, and planning provisions. Includes within removal costs the costs of permanent relocation of residents, business debt installments during the evacuation period, and assistance for lost wages. Includes within remedial action the offsite transport and treatment and storage of hazardous substances and associated contaminated materials. Includes household water supplies within the scope of alternative water supplies for replacement purposes. Requires State and local officials to be notified as well as the National Response Center of releases of hazardous substances in a quantities determined to potentially require emergency response. Increases criminal penalties for failure to notify. Authorizes the President to assess civil penalties for such failure. Sets forth hearing and review procedures for such assessment. Increases criminal penalties for recordkeeping violations and for failure to follow required abatement actions. Requires each manufacturer of hazardous substances to complete and update a Hazardous Substance Inventory form which describes the nature, inventory, emissions, and disposal method for each such substance at a facility. Requires the facility owner or operator to attach to such form a copy of the Material Safety Data Sheet required under the Occupational Safety and Health Act and distribute such forms to the President and the appropriate State and local health, fire, and law enforcement officials. Directs the President to establish a toll-free telephone number for inquiries concerning the Hazardous Substances Inventory. Establishes criminal penalties for knowingly omitting material information or providing false information on such Inventory. Provides that State authority in this area is not preempted. Requires the National Toxicology Program to conduct biennial assessments of new and existing chemicals for placement on a supplemental list. Directs the President to select those chemicals requiring a Hazardous Substance Inventory, requiring explanations of noninclusions. Directs the President to give primary attention to those releases which may present a public health threat. Prohibits the President from providing removal or remedial actions for releases or threatened releases which are the product of naturally occurring processes or are in a facility of which such substance forms a structural part. Permits the President to respond despite such prohibition if a public health or environmental emergency exists and no other authority can respond in a timely and competent fashion. Increases from six months to one year the maximum time limit on hazardous substance removal actions. Limits credits to States for Superfund-reimbursable cleanup costs to those cleanup costs paid by such States out of non-Federal funds and incurred at sites on the National Priorities List (NPL). Limits the 50 percent or greater State cleanup obligation for the release of hazardous substances at State- or municipally-owned facilities to those facilities which are also operated by such State or municipality. Provides for reimbursement to States for cleanup costs in excess of ten percent at State- or municipally-owned, but not operated facilities. Requires the President to consider long-term as well as short-term costs and to stress permanent solutions to waste contamination when selecting cost-effective remedial responses. Establishes a general cleanup standard for remedial actions which at least provides for the protection of human health and the environment. Requires site specific solutions where needed. States that onsite cleanup must comply with this standard but permits are not required under the Solid Waste Disposal Act, the Clean Water Act, or the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899. Makes the cleanup of contaminated ground and surface water at National Priority List sites remedial action requiring State and Federal participation. Limits such designation and Federal involvement to five years or until the general protection standard is met. Requires as a condition of receiving Superfund money for remedial actions that a State provide assurances that there will be adequate capacity and access to hazardous waste management facilities in compliance with the Solid Waste Disposal Act for a State's hazardous waste for the next 20 years. Permits the President to enter into cooperative agreements with States for hazardous waste cleanup on a multi-site basis with reimbursement of costs associated with securing site responses from responsible parties. Grants the appropriate Federal officials access to information relevant to a release or threatened release of a hazardous substance for purposes of determining the appropriate response or enforcement action. Establishes civil penalties for violations of access requirements. Revises the health-related authorities of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) to require ATSDR to: (1) provide State and local governments with consultations on toxic or hazardous substances health-related issues; (2) perform health assessments at all NPL sites and certain Solid Waste Disposal Act hazardous waste disposal facilities; (3) provide health assessments for certain individuals upon request; (4) establish a priority system for assessing CERCLA and Solid Waste Disposal Act sites based upon the degree of risk to human health; (5) receive and if necessary act upon State and local health assessments as well as its own; (6) report results and recommendations on assessments to the applicable State and the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); (7) recover assessment costs from the site owner or operator; (8) conduct pilot epidemiological studies; (9) establish a registry of exposed persons if necessary; and (10) study and report to the Congress on the cost-effectiveness of medical surveillance programs. Directs the President to reduce exposures which an assessment or study finds present significant risks to human health and to mitigate such risks by providing alternative water supplies and individual relocations, among other steps. Prohibits health-related activities from impeding cleanup activities. Directs the Administrator of ATSDR to prepare and update a list of hazardous substances which present the most significant potential threat to human health because of their pervasiveness or toxicity. Requires the Administrator to initiate research programs for substances of which little is known and to coordinate them with toxicological testing techniques. Requires such research to be coordinated with other research efforts of EPA. Expresses the sense of the Congress that the costs of such research should be borne by the manufacturers and processors of the substance in question or, where this is not practical, by the parties responsible for the release of such substance. Directs the Administrator to prepare and update toxicological profiles on each listed substance. Subjects all such research findings to peer review before dissemination. Authorizes the Administrator to establish and report to the Congress on a toxic substance diagnostic education program for health professionals. Earmarks funding from Superfund for the expenses of ATSDR. Amends the Solid Waste Disposal Act to require owners and operators of landfills and surface impoundments to submit to EPA or a State with an authorized program an assessment of the potential for public exposure to hazardous substances released from their units. Makes such information available to ATSDR, which may then conduct its own assessment of a particular site if necessary. Amends CERCLA to require an opportunity for public comment before a particular remedial action is chosen for any site or any settlement agreement is made. Directs the Administrator of EPA to place high priority on purchasing the remaining properties in the Love Canal emergency declaration area, Niagara Falls, New York. Reaffirms presidential discretion to decide when the responsible parties are authorized to conduct cleanup of a hazardous substance in lieu of Superfund-financed response. Directs the President to revise the National Hazardous Substance Plan Part of the National Contingency Plan to provide procedures and standards for remedial actions pursuant to this Act. Requires the President to amend the hazard ranking system to accurately reflect the relative degree of risk to human health and the environment posed by sites and facilities subject to review. Requires such system to be applied to sites and facilities newly listed on the NPL. Deletes the requirement that the National Contingency Plan (NCP) include at least 400 high priority facilities as response targets. Permits States to make only one highest priority designation on the National Priorities List (NPL) under the NCP. Subjects foreign vessels releasing hazardous substances in areas subject to U.S. jurisdiction to CERCLA. Renders State or local governments not liable for damages from non-negligent actions taken in response to emergencies created by the release of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant from a site or facilities owned by another person. Authorizes the Administrator to indemnify contractors engaged to respond to the release of a hazardous substances. Restates the responsibility of Federal and State natural resources trustees to assess damages to resources under their jurisdiction. Permits Federal trustees to perform a State's assessment on a reimbursable basis. Eliminates the use of Superfund to pay trustees for damages to natural resources but maintains such trustees' ability to recover from responsible parties. Limits the bringing of claims for contribution or indemnification in imminent hazard and cost recovery actions once enforcement is underway until after a judgment or settlement is reached. Excludes from liability for contribution for a particular release any person who has settled with the Federal or State Government concerning such release. Subordinates all others' claims to those of the Federal Government. States that response costs and damages owed the United States constitute a lien against the affected real property. Permits direct claims against the financial guarantor of certain vessels carrying hazardous substances only if the owner or operator is in bankruptcy, insolvency, or out of the jurisdiction of the Federal courts. Entitles the guarantor to use all defenses that such guarantor would have available if an action has been brought by the owner or operator against such guarantor. Limits the liability of guarantors acting in good faith. Authorizes the President to specify conditions for establishing evidence of financial responsibility. Directs the Administrator to select five States to establish and operate for three to five years a victim assistance demonstration program for individuals injured through exposure to hazardous substances. Sets forth application and program criteria and conditions for such grants. Requires such programs to include group insurance benefits for medical treatment and disability. Permits the use of Superfund to pay for alternative water supplies in cases involving federally-owned facilities where groundwater contamination exists beyond the Federal boundary and such facility is not the only potentially responsible party. Extends the statute of limitations for filing claims against Superfund or responsible parties for damages to natural resources until the later of three years after discovery or the promulgation of damages assessment regulations. Establishes a six-year statute of limitations for filing cost recovery actions. Establishes a three year statute of limitations for damage, contribution, and subrogated rights actions. Permits the review of CERCLA regulation in any U.S. Court of Appeals. Provides a procedure to determine the forum when more than one appeal has been made. States that there is no pre-enforcement judicial review of selected response actions. Limits review of the adequacy of a federally-selected response action to the administrative record. Sets forth petition procedures for reimbursement of responsible parties after completion of the required action. Permits the United States to serve process on a defendant under CERCLA in any district where such defendant may be found. Deletes the provision preempting States from imposing taxes already covered by CERCLA. Directs the Administrator to establish a Federal Agency Hazardous Waste Compliance Docket (Compliance Docket) to record each listed facility and subsequent actions taken. Requires preliminary assessment of each facility for possible evaluation under the NCP and inclusion on the NPL. Requires Federal agencies or departments responsible for facilities placed on the NPL to commence a remedial investigation and feasibility study (RIFS) for such facility and enter into an interagency agreement with the Administrator to conduct remedial action. Requires continuous, substantial onsite response within 12 months of the agreement. Requires that such agreements: (1) review alternative remedial actions with the Administrator selecting the construction design; (2) schedule completion of remedial actions; and (3) arrange for long-term operation and maintenance of the facility. Requires completion of remedial actions as soon as practicable, with status reports and explanation to be included in the agency's or department's annual report to the Congress on its progress on reaching and implementing interagency agreements. Requires such annual report to also include cost information and public comments. Provides that the Administrator shall retain enforcement and administrative authority. Includes Federal facilities within CERCLA guidelines for preliminary assessments, NCP evaluations, and inclusion on the NPL. Permits citizen action lawsuits against any party, including the Federal Government, involved with a hazardous substance in such a way as may present an imminent and substantial danger to health or the environment or against the President for failure to perform a required duty. Requires potential plaintiffs to give 90 days notice to the appropriate Federal and State officials as well as the alleged violator before commencing an action. Prohibits such action if the President or the State has commenced and is prosecuting a court action already or a settlement has been reached. Permits intervention as a matter of right. Prohibits citizen actions for the siting or issuance of permit to a hazardous waste disposal facility. Authorizes the Federal district court to award costs to any substantially prevailing party. Deems consistent with CERCLA, and directs the Administrator to consider using, recommendation 84-4 of the Administrative Conference of the United States relating to facilitating negotiated private party cleanup of hazardous substances. Establishes as a goal the commencement by the Administrator of remedial investigations and feasibility studies for all facilities on the NPL at the rate of at least 130 per year. Establishes the goal of not fewer than 1,600 facilities on the NPL by the start of 1988. Establishes the goal of commencement of remedial investigations and feasibility studies for facilities listed on the NPL after this Act's enactment according to a specified schedule starting two years after enactment. Establishes as a goal the commencement of substantial and continuous onsite remedial action at NPL facilities at a rate of at least 130 per year by FY 1987. Directs the Administrator, by the start of 1987, to complete preliminary assessments of all facilities on the Emergency and Remedial Response Information System (ERRIS) list. Establishes the goal of completing remedial actions on the NPL as of the date of enactment within five years, requiring a published explanation of any noncompletions. Reauthorizes Superfund for an additional five years, through FY 1990. Title II: Amends the Internal Revenue Code to terminate the tax on petroleum and certain chemicals after FY 1990 or when Superfund tax revenues reach $7,280,000,000. Imposes an environmental excise tax on the disposal or long-term storage of hazardous waste. Sets such tax at: (1) $45 for each ton of hazardous waste disposed of by landfill, in waste piles, or by surface impoundment; (2) $25 for each ton of hazardous waste which is disposed of by ocean dumping or land treatment; (3) $5 for each ton of hazardous waste which is disposed of by underground injection; and (4) $45 for each ton of hazardous waste which is placed in long-term storage. Allows the owner or operator of a qualified hazardous waste disposal or long-term storage facility to elect to pay a tax of $50 per ton in lieu of such schedule. Excludes from such tax wastes which are: (1) exempt from regulation as hazardous waste or not listed under specified provisions of the Solid Waste Disposal Act; (2) treated waste waters in a surface impoundment which is in compliance with water monitoring requirements for facilities with permits under the Solid Waste Disposal Act; and (3) being disposed of or stored by any person in the course of carrying out any removal or remedial action under CERCLA in accordance with an approved plan, removed from any facility listed on the National Priorities List, or removed from a facility for which notification has been provided to the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency pursuant to specified provisions of CERCLA. Imposes such tax on: (1) the owner or operator of the qualified hazardous waste disposal or storage facility; or (2) the person disposing of the hazardous waste, against regulations, at other than a qualified disposal or storage facility. Requires that a credit be allowed for any tax previously paid under this Act by the disposer or the deliverer to a qualified facility on the long-term storage of such hazardous waste. Presumes last in, first out for tax credit purposes for fungible waste placed in qualified storage. Imposes the excise tax prospectively only. Terminates such tax after FY 1990. Sets forth requirements for recordkeeping, statements, and tax returns for persons disposing of or storing hazardous waste for one year or more, consistent with requirements for reports to be submitted to the Administrator under the Solid Waste Disposal Act. Authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury to receive copies of reports such persons are required to make under the Solid Waste Disposal Act, the Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act of 1972, or the Safe Drinking Water Act. Directs the Secretary to report annually to the Congress through January 1989 on the amount of revenues collected and the effectiveness of this Act in raising revenue and discouraging the environmentally unsound disposal of waste. Includes these revenues in the Hazardous Substance Response Trust Fund (Superfund). Imposes an environmental net receipts tax on corporations with annual gross receipts in excess of $50,000,000 for inclusion in Superfund. Terminates such tax after 1990.
United States · United States Congress · 6 March 1985
Community Right to Know Act of 1985 - Requires the owner or operator of any facility generating, treating, or storing any hazardous substance to notify at least annually the appropriate local officials within a ten-mile radius of the nature and amount of and emergency procedures applicable to each such substance. Requires such owners or operators to notify such officials as soon as possible in case of any health- or environment-threatening accident involving such substances. Exempts quantities below 100 kilograms from these requirements unless their inclusion is necessary to protect the environment or human health or safety. Establishes criminal penalties for the knowing violation of the emergency notification procedures. Permits States to establish more stringent requirements. Requires the coordination of these provisions with other applicable Federal law.
United States · United States Congress · 6 March 1985
Superfund Extension and Improvement Act of 1985 - Title I: Amends the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA) (Superfund) to specify how such program operates within Indian lands. Exempts remedial actions on Indian lands from the cost-sharing and future maintenance requirements imposed on States and requires the President to assure the availability of off-site disposal capability. Authorizes Indian tribes to recover damages for injury to or loss of natural resources resulting from releases of hazardous substances. Treats Indian tribes substantially like States for certain information, notification, and planning provisions. Includes within removal costs the costs of permanent relocation of residents, business debt installments during the evacuation period, and assistance for lost wages. Includes within remedial action the offsite transport and treatment and storage of hazardous substances and associated contaminated materials. Includes household water supplies within the scope of alternative water supplies for replacement purposes. Requires State and local officials to be notified as well as the National Response Center of releases of hazardous substances in a quantities determined to potentially require emergency response. Increases criminal penalties for failure to notify. Authorizes the President to assess civil penalties for such failure. Sets forth hearing and review procedures for such assessment. Increases criminal penalties for recordkeeping violations and for failure to follow required abatement actions. Requires each manufacturer of hazardous substances to complete and update a Hazardous Substance Inventory form which describes the nature, inventory, emissions, and disposal method for each such substance at a facility. Requires the facility owner or operator to attach to such form a copy of the Material Safety Data Sheet required under the Occupational Safety and Health Act and distribute such forms to the President and the appropriate State and local health, fire, and law enforcement officials. Directs the President to establish a toll-free telephone number for inquiries concerning the Hazardous Substances Inventory. Establishes criminal penalties for knowingly omitting material information or providing false information on such Inventory. Provides that State authority in this area is not preempted. Requires the National Toxicology Program to conduct biennial assessments of new and existing chemicals for placement on a supplemental list. Directs the President to select those chemicals requiring a Hazardous Substance Inventory, requiring explanations of noninclusions. Directs the President to give primary attention to those releases which may present a public health threat. Prohibits the President from providing removal or remedial actions for releases or threatened releases which are the product of naturally occurring processes or are in a facility of which such substance forms a structural part. Permits the President to respond despite such prohibition if a public health or environmental emergency exists and no other authority can respond in a timely and competent fashion. Increases from six months to one year the maximum time limit on hazardous substance removal actions. Limits credits to States for Superfund-reimbursable cleanup costs to those cleanup costs paid by such States out of non-Federal funds and incurred at sites on the National Priorities List (NPL). Limits the 50 percent or greater State cleanup obligation for the release of hazardous substances at State- or municipally-owned facilities to those facilities which are also operated by such State or municipality. Provides for reimbursement to States for cleanup costs in excess of ten percent at State- or municipally-owned, but not operated facilities. Requires the President to consider long-term as well as short-term costs and to stress permanent solutions to waste contamination when selecting cost-effective remedial responses. Establishes a general cleanup standard for remedial actions which at least provides for the protection of human health and the environment. Requires site specific solutions where needed. States that onsite cleanup must comply with this standard but permits are not required under the Solid Waste Disposal Act, the Clean Water Act, or the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899. Makes the cleanup of contaminated ground and surface water at National Priority List sites remedial action requiring State and Federal participation. Limits such designation and Federal involvement to five years or until the general protection standard is met. Requires as a condition of receiving Superfund money for remedial actions that a State provide assurances that there will be adequate capacity and access to hazardous waste management facilities in compliance with the Solid Waste Disposal Act for a State's hazardous waste for the next 20 years. Permits the President to enter into cooperative agreements with States for hazardous waste cleanup on a multi-site basis with reimbursement of costs associated with securing site responses from responsible parties. Grants the appropriate Federal officials access to information relevant to a release or threatened release of a hazardous substance for purposes of determining the appropriate response or enforcement action. Establishes civil penalties for violations of access requirements. Revises the health-related authorities of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) to require ATSDR to: (1) provide State and local governments with consultations on toxic or hazardous substances health-related issues; (2) perform health assessments at all NPL sites and certain Solid Waste Disposal Act hazardous waste disposal facilities; (3) provide health assessments for certain individuals upon request; (4) establish a priority system for assessing CERCLA and Solid Waste Disposal Act sites based upon the degree of risk to human health; (5) receive and if necessary act upon State and local health assessments as well as its own; (6) report results and recommendations on assessments to the applicable State and the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); (7) recover assessment costs from the site owner or operator; (8) conduct pilot epidemiological studies; (9) establish a registry of exposed persons if necessary; and (10) study and report to the Congress on the cost-effectiveness of medical surveillance programs. Directs the President to reduce exposures which an assessment or study finds present significant risks to human health and to mitigate such risks by providing alternative water supplies and individual relocations, among other steps. Prohibits health-related activities from impeding cleanup activities. Directs the Administrator of ATSDR to prepare and update a list of hazardous substances which present the most significant potential threat to human health because of their pervasiveness or toxicity. Requires the Administrator to initiate research programs for substances of which little is known and to coordinate them with toxicological testing techniques. Requires such research to be coordinated with other research efforts of EPA. Expresses the sense of the Congress that the costs of such research should be borne by the manufacturers and processors of the substance in question or, where this is not practical, by the parties responsible for the release of such substance. Directs the Administrator to prepare and update toxicological profiles on each listed substance. Subjects all such research findings to peer review before dissemination. Authorizes the Administrator to establish and report to the Congress on a toxic substance diagnostic education program for health professionals. Earmarks funding from Superfund for the expenses of ATSDR. Amends the Solid Waste Disposal Act to require owners and operators of landfills and surface impoundments to submit to EPA or a State with an authorized program an assessment of the potential for public exposure to hazardous substances released from their units. Makes such information available to ATSDR, which may then conduct its own assessment of a particular site if necessary. Amends CERCLA to require an opportunity for public comment before a particular remedial action is chosen for any site or any settlement agreement is made. Directs the Administrator of EPA to place high priority on purchasing the remaining properties in the Love Canal emergency declaration area, Niagara Falls, New York. Reaffirms presidential discretion to decide when the responsible parties are authorized to conduct cleanup of a hazardous substance in lieu of Superfund-financed response. Directs the President to revise the National Hazardous Substance Plan Part of the National Contingency Plan to provide procedures and standards for remedial actions pursuant to this Act. Requires the President to amend the hazard ranking system to accurately reflect the relative degree of risk to human health and the environment posed by sites and facilities subject to review. Requires such system to be applied to sites and facilities newly listed on the NPL. Deletes the requirement that the National Contingency Plan (NCP) include at least 400 high priority facilities as response targets. Permits States to make only one highest priority designation on the National Priorities List (NPL) under the NCP. Subjects foreign vessels releasing hazardous substances in areas subject to U.S. jurisdiction to CERCLA. Renders State or local governments not liable for damages from non-negligent actions taken in response to emergencies created by the release of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant from a site or facilities owned by another person. Authorizes the Administrator to indemnify contractors engaged to respond to the release of a hazardous substances. Restates the responsibility of Federal and State natural resources trustees to assess damages to resources under their jurisdiction. Permits Federal trustees to perform a State's assessment on a reimbursable basis. Eliminates the use of Superfund to pay trustees for damages to natural resources but maintains such trustees' ability to recover from responsible parties. Limits the bringing of claims for contribution or indemnification in imminent hazard and cost recovery actions once enforcement is underway until after a judgment or settlement is reached. Excludes from liability for contribution for a particular release any person who has settled with the Federal or State Government concerning such release. Subordinates all others' claims to those of the Federal Government. States that response costs and damages owed the United States constitute a lien against the affected real property. Permits direct claims against the financial guarantor of certain vessels carrying hazardous substances only if the owner or operator is in bankruptcy, insolvency, or out of the jurisdiction of the Federal courts. Entitles the guarantor to use all defenses that such guarantor would have available if an action has been brought by the owner or operator against such guarantor. Limits the liability of guarantors acting in good faith. Authorizes the President to specify conditions for establishing evidence of financial responsibility. Directs the Administrator to select five States to establish and operate for three to five years a victim assistance demonstration program for individuals injured through exposure to hazardous substances. Sets forth application and program criteria and conditions for such grants. Requires such programs to include group insurance benefits for medical treatment and disability. Permits the use of Superfund to pay for alternative water supplies in cases involving federally-owned facilities where groundwater contamination exists beyond the Federal boundary and such facility is not the only potentially responsible party. Extends the statute of limitations for filing claims against Superfund or responsible parties for damages to natural resources until the later of three years after discovery or the promulgation of damages assessment regulations. Establishes a six-year statute of limitations for filing cost recovery actions. Establishes a three year statute of limitations for damage, contribution, and subrogated rights actions. Permits the review of CERCLA regulation in any U.S. Court of Appeals. Provides a procedure to determine the forum when more than one appeal has been made. States that there is no pre-enforcement judicial review of selected response actions. Limits review of the adequacy of a federally-selected response action to the administrative record. Sets forth petition procedures for reimbursement of responsible parties after completion of the required action. Permits the United States to serve process on a defendant under CERCLA in any district where such defendant may be found. Deletes the provision preempting States from imposing taxes already covered by CERCLA. Directs the Administrator to establish a Federal Agency Hazardous Waste Compliance Docket (Compliance Docket) to record each listed facility and subsequent actions taken. Requires preliminary assessment of each facility for possible evaluation under the NCP and inclusion on the NPL. Requires Federal agencies or departments responsible for facilities placed on the NPL to commence a remedial investigation and feasibility study (RIFS) for such facility and enter into an interagency agreement with the Administrator to conduct remedial action. Requires continuous, substantial onsite response within 12 months of the agreement. Requires that such agreements: (1) review alternative remedial actions with the Administrator selecting the construction design; (2) schedule completion of remedial actions; and (3) arrange for long-term operation and maintenance of the facility. Requires completion of remedial actions as soon as practicable, with status reports and explanation to be included in the agency's or department's annual report to the Congress on its progress on reaching and implementing interagency agreements. Requires such annual report to also include cost information and public comments. Provides that the Administrator shall retain enforcement and administrative authority. Includes Federal facilities within CERCLA guidelines for preliminary assessments, NCP evaluations, and inclusion on the NPL. Permits citizen action lawsuits against any party, including the Federal Government, involved with a hazardous substance in such a way as may present an imminent and substantial danger to health or the environment or against the President for failure to perform a required duty. Requires potential plaintiffs to give 90 days notice to the appropriate Federal and State officials as well as the alleged violator before commencing an action. Prohibits such action if the President or the State has commenced and is prosecuting a court action already or a settlement has been reached. Permits intervention as a matter of right. Prohibits citizen actions for the siting or issuance of permit to a hazardous waste disposal facility. Authorizes the Federal district court to award costs to any substantially prevailing party. Deems consistent with CERCLA, and directs the Administrator to consider using, recommendation 84-4 of the Administrative Conference of the United States relating to facilitating negotiated private party cleanup of hazardous substances. Establishes as a goal the commencement by the Administrator of remedial investigations and feasibility studies for all facilities on the NPL at the rate of at least 130 per year. Establishes the goal of not fewer than 1,600 facilities on the NPL by the start of 1988. Establishes the goal of commencement of remedial investigations and feasibility studies for facilities listed on the NPL after this Act's enactment according to a specified schedule starting two years after enactment. Establishes as a goal the commencement of substantial and continuous onsite remedial action at NPL facilities at a rate of at least 130 per year by FY 1987. Directs the Administrator, by the start of 1987, to complete preliminary assessments of all facilities on the Emergency and Remedial Response Information System (ERRIS) list. Establishes the goal of completing remedial actions on the NPL as of the date of enactment within five years, requiring a published explanation of any noncompletions. Reauthorizes Superfund for an additional five years, through FY 1990. Title II: Amends the Internal Revenue Code to terminate the tax on petroleum and certain chemicals after FY 1990 or when Superfund tax revenues reach $7,280,000,000. Imposes an environmental excise tax on the disposal or long-term storage of hazardous waste. Sets such tax at: (1) $45 for each ton of hazardous waste disposed of by landfill, in waste piles, or by surface impoundment; (2) $25 for each ton of hazardous waste which is disposed of by ocean dumping or land treatment; (3) $5 for each ton of hazardous waste which is disposed of by underground injection; and (4) $45 for each ton of hazardous waste which is placed in long-term storage. Allows the owner or operator of a qualified hazardous waste disposal or long-term storage facility to elect to pay a tax of $50 per ton in lieu of such schedule. Excludes from such tax wastes which are: (1) exempt from regulation as hazardous waste or not listed under specified provisions of the Solid Waste Disposal Act; (2) treated waste waters in a surface impoundment which is in compliance with water monitoring requirements for facilities with permits under the Solid Waste Disposal Act; and (3) being disposed of or stored by any person in the course of carrying out any removal or remedial action under CERCLA in accordance with an approved plan, removed from any facility listed on the National Priorities List, or removed from a facility for which notification has been provided to the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency pursuant to specified provisions of CERCLA. Imposes such tax on: (1) the owner or operator of the qualified hazardous waste disposal or storage facility; or (2) the person disposing of the hazardous waste, against regulations, at other than a qualified disposal or storage facility. Requires that a credit be allowed for any tax previously paid under this Act by the disposer or the deliverer to a qualified facility on the long-term storage of such hazardous waste. Presumes last in, first out for tax credit purposes for fungible waste placed in qualified storage. Imposes the excise tax prospectively only. Terminates such tax after FY 1990. Sets forth requirements for recordkeeping, statements, and tax returns for persons disposing of or storing hazardous waste for one year or more, consistent with requirements for reports to be submitted to the Administrator under the Solid Waste Disposal Act. Authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury to receive copies of reports such persons are required to make under the Solid Waste Disposal Act, the Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act of 1972, or the Safe Drinking Water Act. Directs the Secretary to report annually to the Congress through January 1989 on the amount of revenues collected and the effectiveness of this Act in raising revenue and discouraging the environmentally unsound disposal of waste. Includes these revenues in the Hazardous Substance Response Trust Fund (Superfund). Imposes an environmental net receipts tax on corporations with annual gross receipts in excess of $50,000,000 for inclusion in Superfund. Terminates such tax after 1990.
United States · United States Congress · 6 March 1985
Designates the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, Florida, as the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge.
United States · United States Congress · 5 March 1985
Authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to acquire specified lands in Northampton County, Virginia, and establish the Eastern Shore of Virginia National Wildlife Refuge. Requires the Secretary to establish training facilities on such refuge which may be leased for a fee for environmental research and education. Authorizes appropriations.
United States · United States Congress · 5 March 1985
Amends the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act of 1980 to extend the authorization of appropriations through FY 1988 for State nongame fish and wildlife conservation plans.
United States · United States Congress · 5 March 1985
Authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to acquire specified lands in Northampton County, Virginia, and establish the Eastern Shore of Virginia National Wildlife Refuge. Requires the Secretary to establish training facilities on such refuge which may be leased for a fee for environmental research and education. Authorizes appropriations.
United States · United States Congress · 5 March 1985
National Acid Deposition Control Act of 1985 - Title I: Acid Deposition Control and Assistance Program - Amends the Clean Air Act to direct the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), within four months after the enactment of this Act, to compute a State share for each of the 48 contiguous States of a 10,000,000 ton reduction in annual emissions of sulfur dioxide by 1993 below that of 1980. Sets forth a formula for determining State shares. Permits States to reallot shares among themselves if the required total reduction in annual emissions of sulfur dioxide can still be achieved. Sets deadlines and procedures for submission and approval of State plans for such State shares. Directs the Administrator to promulgate a State plan in the absence of a State submitted Administrator-approved plan. Requires State plans to provide for emission limitations applicable to any existing stationary sources in the State for which the actual annual sulfur dioxide emission rates have been calculated by the Administrator for the calendar year 1980. Requires that the emission limitations for each stationary source subject to the State plan establish an allowable average annual sulfur dioxide rate at a level such that the total reduction would equal the State share. Permits State plans to provide for compliance with emission limitations through use of fuel having a lower sulfur content than the fuel used in 1980, precombustion removal of sulfur (such as coal washing), technological systems of continuous emission reduction, or any other means which the State deems appropriate. Authorizes the Administrator to commence a civil action for permanent or temporary injunction or to assess and recover a civil penalty of up to $25,000 per day of violation, or both, whenever any person violates any requirement in effect under this Act. Eliminates a percentage reduction requirement with respect to sulfur dioxide emissions from any fossil fuel fired stationary source which: (1) commences construction after the date of enactment of this Act; and (2) complies with a standard of performance which prohibits sulfur dioxide emissions in excess of 1.2 pounds per million Btu. Title II: Control of Nitrogen Oxide Emissions - Directs the Administrator to revise standards of performance for new stationary sources for emissions of nitrogen oxides from electric utility steam generating units which burn bituminous or subbituminous coal and which commence construction after the enactment of this Act. Prohibits the emission of nitrogen oxides from such units at a rate which exceeds: (1) 0.30 pounds per million Btu, in the case of subbituminous coal; and (2) 0.40 pounds per million Btu, in the case of bituminous coal. Establishes nitrogen oxides emissions standards for light-duty trucks after model year 1987.
United States · United States Congress · 5 March 1985
Amends the Solid Waste Disposal Act to prohibit the reissuance of a permit for a landfill in a densely populated area if residents in the vicinity of such landfill were relocated before January 1, 1985, because of a release or threatened release of any hazardous substance and the landfill, at any time after January 1, 1985, would qualify for inclusion on the National Priorities List under the National Contingency Plan if the Hazard Ranking System were applied.
Germany · German Bundestag · 5 March 1985
Bericht gem. BT-Drs 10/870, Nr.5.1: Verminderung von Schwefeldioxid- und Stickoxidemissionen, Erfolg der Großfeuerungsanlagen-Verordnung, Novellierung des Bundes-Immissionsschutzgesetzes, insbesondere Einführung eines zeitlich befristeten Auflagenvorbehalts, Arbeiten an einer Novellierung der Ta Luft, Prüfung ökonomischer Instrumente, insbesondere von Emissionszertifikaten, flexiblen Kompensationslösungen und Umweltabgaben
United States · United States Congress · 28 February 1985
Nebraska Streambank Erosion Prevention and Control Demonstration Act of 1985 - Authorizes and directs the Secretary of the Army, acting through the Chief of Engineers, to establish and conduct for a period of five fiscal years a streambank erosion prevention and control demonstration program at multiple sites in Nebraska. Directs the Secretary, for each demonstration project under this Act, to evaluate the environmental impacts of such project, with the view of minimizing environmental losses. Specifies various sites within the State of Nebraska at which such demonstration projects shall be conducted. Directs the Secretary to establish a Nebraska Advisory Group. Provides that all projects shall be carried out at full Federal expense. Directs non-Federal interests to agree to provide without cost to the United States all lands, easements, and rights-of-way necessary for conducting such projects, to hold the United States free from liability for work done under such projects, and to operate and maintain such projects upon completion. Authorizes appropriations for fiscal years beginning after September 30, 1985. Directs the Secretary to report annually to the Congress concerning such programs.
United States · United States Congress · 28 February 1985
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act Amendments of 1985 - Amends the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA) (Superfund) to include under CERCLA any hazardous substance identified under the Solid Waste Disposal Act and not just hazardous wastes. Title I: Provisions Relating Primarily to Response - Confirms presidential discretion to decide when the responsible parties are authorized to conduct cleanup of a hazardous substance in lieu of a Superfund-financed response. Limits Superfund response authority to the release of hazardous substances (current law includes pollutants or contaminants) from uncontrolled waste sites which represent a risk to the public health and environment. (Current law is not limited to uncontrolled sites and includes risk to the public welfare.) Increases from six months to one year the time limit on hazardous substances removal actions. Includes among the criteria for waiving the one year and one million dollar limit a presidential finding that a response action is appropriate and consistent with a permanent remedy. Includes the permanence of the remedy among the criteria for selecting a remedial action as well. Eliminates additional criteria for off-site disposal, rendering CERCLA neutral as to choice of on-site or off-site remedies. Deletes the requirement that the National Contingency Plan (NCP) include at least 400 high priority facilities as response targets. Permits States to make only one highest priority designation on the National Priorities List (NPL) under the NCP. Permits a cooperative agreement or contract between the Federal Government and a State for cleanup to cover more than one facility, reimbursable from Superfund. Increases from 50 to 75 percent the minimum State share of cleanup for releases from State or municipally owned and operated facilities, excluding navigable waters and underlying beds. Prohibits the use of Superfund for cleanup actions in States that do not assure the availability of hazardous waste disposal capacity sufficient to handle that State's needs during a time period to be specified by the President. Excludes the provision of alternative drinking water supplies, the temporary relocation of affected residents, or emergency actions from such prohibition. Increases a State's share of costs for such nonemergency actions and for out-of-State transporting of wastes. Requires public notice and an opportunity for public comment on any proposed response action. Restates the role of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) to implement the health-related authorities of CERCLA to support response actions through health assessment, technical assistance, and research. Authorizes the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as well as the States or local governments to request the ATSDR to conduct health assessments or provide assistance. Authorizes EPA to perform exposure and risk assessments at a release site. Directs the President to specify in the NCP the extent to which removal or remedial actions under Superfund should comply with other laws or standards, considering: (1) the level of protection provided by other standards; (2) the technical feasibility; (3) the nature of the response; (4) the need for expediency; and (5) the need to preserve Superfund for response to other releases. Limits cleanup contractor liability for future response costs. Restates the responsibility of Federal and State natural resources trustees to assess damages to resources under their jurisdiction. Permits Federal trustees to perform a State's assessment on a reimbursable basis. Eliminates the use of Superfund to pay trustees for damage to natural resources but maintains such trustees' ability to recover from responsible parties. Makes Federal agencies with accountability for specific Federal facilities sole trustees of natural resources on, under, or above such facilities for CERCLA purposes. Revises response claims procedures for NCP costs from Superfund by restating the President's authority to preauthorize claims, reducing the number of steps, and substituting an administrative hearing process for the arbitration procedure. Increases fines for false claims. Treats Indian tribes like States for purposes of CERCLA, granting to them the authority to enter into cooperative cleanup agreements, be reimbursed from Superfund, and be notified of releases affecting Indian lands. Permits the Department of the Interior to make assurances of future maintenance of remedial actions for response actions on Indian lands held in trust by the Federal Government. Deletes the provision preempting States from imposing taxes already covered by CERCLA. Increases from ten to 20 percent the State share of remedial action costs at privately-owned facilities. Title II: Provisions Relating Primarily to Enforcement - Increases criminal and adds civil penalties for failure to report the release of hazardous substances in excess of prescribed levels. Limits the bringing of claims for contribution or indemnification in imminent hazard and cost recovery actions once enforcement is underway until after a judgment or settlement is reached. Excludes from liability for contribution for a particular release any person who has settled with the Federal or State government concerning such release. Subordinates all others' claims to those of the Federal Government. Restates the President's right to access and information concerning the release or threatened release of hazardous substances, including procedures for acquiring such access and information through civil action if consent is not granted or entry is greeted with interference. Authorizes the President to enter into a consent administrative order with the affected party to conduct remedial investigations and feasibility studies (RIFS) to serve as the basis for EPA's choice of the appropriate remedy. Establishes civil enforcement measures. Removes treble damage provisions for failure to comply with response authority orders. Makes a responsible party liable for Federal cleanup costs in response to a post-Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 (RCRA) (Solid Waste Disposal Act) release or threatened release of a hazardous substance from a treatment, storage, or disposal facility. Establishes a six-year statute of limitations for filing cost recovery actions. Establishes a three-year statute of limitations for damage, contribution, and subrogated rights actions. States that there is no pre-enforcement judicial review of selected response actions. Limits review of the adequacy of a federally-selected response action to the administrative record. Sets forth petition procedures for reimbursement of responsible parties after completion of the required action. Permits the United States to serve process on a defendant under CERCLA in any district where such defendant may be found. Limits abatement authority to situations where an imminent and substantial endangerment to the public health or the environment exists because of an actual or threatened release of a hazardous substance from a facility. (Deletes current law references to endangerment of the public welfare.) States that response costs and damages owed the United States constitute a lien against the affected real property. Increases criminal penalties for records destructions. Increases civil penalties for violation of abatement orders. Provides procedures for administrative settlement of CERCLA claims. Subjects foreign vessels releasing hazardous substances in areas subject to U.S. jurisdiction to CERCLA. Title III: Amendments to the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 - Superfund Revenue Act of 1985 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 to extend the tax on petroleum through FY 1990 unless the unobligated balance in the Hazardous Substance Response Trust Fund (Superfund) exceeds one and one half billion dollars and is likely to continue to do so for the following calendar year as of the end of FY 1988 or 1989. Amends the taxes on hazardous wastes to impose a tax on the receipt of hazardous waste for transport from the United States for the purpose of ocean disposal and on the exportation of hazardous waste from the United States as well as on the receipt of hazardous waste at a qualified hazardous waste management unit. Sets forth tax rates for each ton of hazardous waste received on land, starting at $9.80 per ton in FY 1986 and increasing gradually to $16.32 in FY 1990 and 1991. Sets tax rates for hazardous waste exported or received for ocean disposal at $2.61 per ton in FY 1986, with a gradual increase to $4.37 in FY 1990 and 1991. Excludes from such tax waste disposal actions pursuant to approved removal or remedial action under CERCLA for releases before FY 1986. Imposes the tax on the receipt of hazardous waste on the owner or operator of the hazardous waste management unit or the vessel used to transport such waste for ocean disposal. Imposes the tax on the exportation of hazardous waste on the exporter of such waste. Terminates such tax after FY 1990 unless the Superfund receipts total less than $5,200,000, in which case such tax may be extended through March 31, 1991. Requires these tax rates to be adjusted annually based upon the total revenue collected in Superfund to meet projected revenue amounts. Sets forth the formula for adjusting each fiscal year's tax rates. Grants a credit for tax paid upon the covered hazardous waste being received at another qualified facility, dumped in the ocean, or exported. Sets forth the formula for computing such credit or refund. Directs each person on whom a tax on hazardous waste is imposed to report to the Secretary of the Treasury required information as well as information such person provides the Administrator under the Solid Waste Disposal Act. Establishes civil penalties for violations of such reporting requirements. Repeals the Post-Closure Liability Trust Fund. Establishes in the Treasury the Hazardous Substance Superfund (Superfund) to consist of taxes received pursuant to this Act, amounts recovered under CERCLA and the oil spill cleanup provisions of the Clean Water Act, and the balance of the Post-Closure Liability Trust Fund. Authorizes the use of Superfund only for releases or threatened releases of hazardous substances as specified in CERCLA. Authorizes Superfund to borrow necessary funds on a limited basis. Sets forth terms of repayment of advances. Limits the liability of the United States to the amount in Superfund, on a first come, first served basis. Terminates the authority to collect these taxes when the amount in the Superfund reaches $5,300,000,000. Treats the Hazardous Substance Superfund as a continuation of the Hazardous Substance Response Trust Fund. Title IV: Miscellaneous Provisions - Makes limited response amendments under this Act effective for release sites listed on the NPL after January 1, 1985.
United States · United States Congress · 28 February 1985
Authorizes the Secretary of the Army, acting through the Chief of Engineers, to construct a project, at a specified cost, to provide shoreline protection for the Atlantic Coast of New York City from Rockaway Inlet to Norton Point.
United States · United States Congress · 27 February 1985
Amends the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA) (Superfund) to require each Federal agency and department to notify the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) within six months of this Act's enactment of any hazardous substance treated, stored, or disposed of at Federal facilities under their control. Requires such agencies and departments to make annual reports to the Administrator on all facilities not on the initial notice. Requires such initial notice to describe the location, nature, toxicity, contamination, response actions, and cleanup techniques for the hazardous substances. Directs the Administrator to establish a public Federal Agency Hazardous Waste Compliance Docket (Compliance Docket) to record each listed facility and subsequent actions taken. Requires preliminary assessment of each facility for possible evaluation under the National Contingency Plan (NCP) and inclusion on the National Priorities List (NPL). Requires Federal agencies or departments responsible for facilities placed on the NPL to commence a remedial investigation and feasibility study for such facility and enter into an interagency agreement with the Administrator to conduct remedial action. Requires continuous, substantial onsite response within six months of the agreement. Requires that such agreements: (1) review alternative remedial actions and construction design selection by the Administrator; (2) schedule completion of remedial actions; and (3) arrange for long-term operation and maintenance of the facility. Requires completion of remedial actions within two years of the agreement to the extent practicable. Requires explanations of noncompletion which would be included on the Compliance Docket and in the agency's or department's annual report to the Congress on its progress on reaching and implementing interagency agreements. Requires such annual report to also include cost information and public comments. Makes Federal facility cleanup actions ineligible for Superfund monies. Provides that the Administrator shall retain the authority to enforce this Act. Includes Federal facilities within CERCLA guidelines for preliminary assessments, NCP evaluations, and inclusion on the NPL. Requires public participation before adoption of any remedial action and public notice of the final remedial plan adopted or any significant deviations therefrom. Authorizes the Administrator to make grants available to groups affected by releases or threatened releases from any NPL facility to obtain expert advice and technical assistance. Permits the Administrator to bring action under CERCLA against any Federal agency or department and prohibits the Attorney General from representing such agencies or departments in such actions.
United States · United States Congress · 27 February 1985
Amends the Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act of 1972 to prohibit the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from issuing a permit authorizing the incineration of hazardous waste at sea before the Congress receives a hazardous waste reduction and management feasibility report and plan and recommendations from the Administrator to assure that responsible parties are held liable and pay cleanup costs and damages, and the Administrator issues final permit regulations based upon such report and plan and public comments. Directs the Administrator to contract with the Office of Technology Assessment to prepare within three years of this Act's enactment a hazardous waste reduction and managment feasibility report which includes: (1) descriptive surveys of location and types of hazardous wastes and hazardous waste streams; (2) alternative storage and land-based technologies; (3) an assessment of wastes released into the environment and the impact of at sea incineration on human health and the marine environment; (4) epidemiological studies; and (5) an analysis of the transportation impacts for the land or barge transport of the hazardous wastes to the loading site for ocean incineration. Directs the Administrator to submit to the Congress within three years of the report a hazardous waste reduction and management plan which includes: (1) a comprehensive waste management plan; (2) coordination with Federal agencies for major spills of hazardous waste in port, in transit, and during incineration at sea; and (3) legislation which encourages the development of environmentally sound hazardous waste reduction and treatment technologies. Requires the Administrator to involve the public in formulating this plan through hearings and comment. Directs the Administrator to submit to the Congress transcripts of public hearings together with EPA's written response. Authorizes appropriations.
United States · United States Congress · 27 February 1985
Amends the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA) (Superfund) to require each Federal agency and department to notify the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) within six months of this Act's enactment of any hazardous substance treated, stored, or disposed of at Federal facilities under their control. Requires such agencies and departments to make annual reports to the Administrator on all facilities not on the initial notice. Requires such initial notice to describe the location, nature, toxicity, contamination, response actions, and cleanup techniques for the hazardous substances. Directs the Administrator to establish a public Federal Agency Hazardous Waste Compliance Docket (Compliance Docket) to record each listed facility and subsequent actions taken. Requires preliminary assessment of each facility for possible evaluation under the National Contingency Plan (NCP) and inclusion on the National Priorities List (NPL). Requires Federal agencies or departments responsible for facilities placed on the NPL to commence a remedial investigation and feasibility study for such facility and enter into an interagency agreement with the Administrator to conduct remedial action. Requires continuous, substantial onsite response within six months of the agreement. Requires that such agreements: (1) review alternative remedial actions and construction design selection by the Administrator; (2) schedule completion of remedial actions; and (3) arrange for long-term operation and maintenance of the facility. Requires completion of remedial actions within two years of the agreement to the extent practicable. Requires explanations of noncompletion which would be included on the Compliance Docket and in the agency's or department's annual report to the Congress on its progress on reaching and implementing interagency agreements. Requires such annual report to also include cost information and public comments. Makes Federal facility cleanup actions ineligible for Superfund monies. Provides that the Administrator shall retain the authority to enforce this Act. Includes Federal facilities within CERCLA guidelines for preliminary assessments, NCP evaluations, and inclusion on the NPL. Requires public participation before adoption of any remedial action and public notice of the final remedial plan adopted or any significant deviations therefrom. Authorizes the Administrator to make grants available to groups affected by releases or threatened releases from any NPL facility to obtain expert advice and technical assistance. Permits the Administrator to bring action under CERCLA against any Federal agency or department and prohibits the Attorney General from representing such agencies or departments in such actions.
United States · United States Congress · 25 February 1985
Acid Deposition and Sulfur Loadings Reduction Act - Amends the Clean Air Act to limit the application of such Act's sulfur dioxide emissions limitations to sources constructed or modified in 1980 and earlier. Requires electric utilities in the acid deposition impact region which convert to coal after 1980 to meet an emission standard not in excess of 1.2 pounds of sulfur dioxide per million British thermal units (Btu's). Designates an acid deposition impact region comprising a long-range transport corridor of 31 States east of the Mississippi and the District of Columbia. Requires such region to achieve in two equal stages a total reduction of annual emissions of sulfur dioxide of ten million tons below 1980 levels, the first five million by the start of 1991, and all reductions by the start of 1998. Excludes post-1980 sources. Directs the Acid Precipitation Task Force to implement an accelerated research program during the first stage to examine the pattern of effects of atmospheric loading of pollutants such as sulfur and nitrogen oxides. Authorizes appropriations for FY 1986 through 1991. Requires the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to evaluate such results until no later than the start of 1994. Authorizes appropriations for such evaluations for FY 1991 through 1993. Authorizes the Administrator to vary through rulemaking by the start of 1993 the requirements of the second stage based upon the first stage research evaluations. Requires the Administrator to report to the Congress on proposed changes and requires such changes to increase protection of sensitive areas and mitigation of identified damage. Directs the Administrator to report to the Congress by the start of 1993 if a determination is made that individual State nitrogen oxides reduction standards should not be established. Requires each State to reduce its proportional share of annual sulfur dioxide emissions, permitting two or more States to reallot their shares among themselves so long as the total, required reduction is achieved. Requires each State to adopt enforceable reduction measures within two years of this Act's enactment, submitting them to the Administrator for approval and other States for comment. Provides for revisions of such measures by the State or the Administrator. Requires a major stationary source subject to a first stage emission limitation under this Act to notify its State within 18 months of this Act's enactment as to the method of compliance intended, which shall be transmitted to the Administrator. Requires compliance by fuel substitution or coal cleaning within three years. Requires sources complying through technological systems installation or facility replacement to enter into binding contracts for such solutions within four years. Requires notice of means of compliance for the second stage to be made to the State for transmission to the Administrator by the start of 1995. Requires second stage sources complying through technological systems or facility replacement to have binding contracts by the start of 1996. Applies Federal reduction standards of 1.2 pounds of sulfur dioxide per million Btu's on a 30-day average to covered sources in States in the impact region without the required enforcement measures. Requires the owner or operator of such sources to submit a compliance plan and schedule to the Administrator for approval. Permits the use of the following measures to reduce emissions in addition to enforceable continuous emission reduction measures if such measures are enforceable by entities and persons other than the State in which the emissions occur: (1) least emissions dispatch to meet electric generating demand at existing generating capacity; (2) retirement of major stationary sources at an earlier than provided for date; (3) investments in energy conservation where emission reductions can be identified with such investments; (4) trading of emission reduction requirements and actual reductions through emission reduction banks or brokerage institutions; and (5) precombustion cleaning of fuels. Directs the Administrator and the Secretaries of Energy, Commerce, and State to induce Canada to achieve comparable reductions. Requires the Administrator to certify that progress on such front is being made by Canada before the Department of Energy approves agreements for the importation of electric energy from Canada under the Federal Power Act. Directs the Administrator to establish a study commission to report to the Congress by the start of 1986 on mechanisms to reduce the potential economic disruption caused by implementation of this Act, including the possibility of a fee-generated trust fund.
United States · United States Congress · 22 February 1985
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act Amendments of 1985 - Amends the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA) (Superfund) to include under CERCLA any hazardous substance identified under the Solid Waste Disposal Act, not just hazardous wastes. Title I: Provisions Relating Primarily to Response - Confirms presidential discretion to decide when the responsible parties are authorized to conduct cleanup of a hazardous substance in lieu of Superfund-financed response. Limits Superfund response authority to the release of hazardous substances (current law includes pollutants or contaminants) from uncontrolled waste sites which represent a risk to the public health and environment. (Current law is not limited to uncontrolled sites and includes risk to the public welfare.) Increases from six months to one year the time limit on hazardous substances removal actions. Includes among the criteria for waiving the one year and one million dollar limit a presidential finding that a response action is appropriate and consistent with a permanent remedy. Includes the permanence of the remedy among the criteria for selecting a remedial action as well. Eliminates additional criteria for off-site disposal, rendering CERCLA neutral as to choice of on-site or off-site remedies. Deletes the requirement that the National Contingency Plan (NCP) include at least 400 high priority facilities as response targets. Permits States to make only one highest priority designation on the National Priorities List (NPL) under the NCP. Permits a cooperative agreement or contract between the Federal Government and a State for cleanup to cover more than one facility, reimbursable from Superfund. Increases from 50 to 75 percent the minimum State share of cleanup for releases from State or municipally owned and operated facilities, excluding navigable waters and underlying beds. Prohibits the use of Superfund for cleanup actions in States that do not assure the availability of hazardous waste disposal capacity sufficient to handle that State's needs during a to be specified period. Excludes the provision of alternative drinking water supplies, the temporary relocation of affected residents, or emergency actions from such prohibition. Increases a State's share of costs for such non-emergency actions and for out-of-State transporting of wastes. Requires public notice and an opportunity for public comment on any proposed response action. Restates the role of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) to implement the health-related authorities of CERCLA to support response actions through health assessment, technical assistance, and research. Authorizes the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as well as the States or local governments to request the ATSDR to conduct health assessments or provide assistance. Authorizes EPA to perform exposure and risk assessments at a release site. Directs the President to specify in the NCP the extent to which removal or remedial actions under Superfund should comply with other laws or standards, considering: (1) the level of protection provided by other standards; (2) the technical feasibility; (3) the nature of the response; (4) the need for expediency; and (5) the need to preserve Superfund for response to other releases. Limits cleanup contractor liability for future response costs. Restates the responsibility of Federal and State natural resources trustees to assess damages to resources under their jurisdiction. Permits Federal trustees to perform a State's assessment on a reimbursable basis. Eliminates the use of Superfund to pay trustees for damage to natural resources but maintains such trustees' ability to recover from responsible parties. Makes Federal agencies with accountability for specific Federal facilities sole trustee of natural resources on, under, or above such facilities for CERCLA purposes. Revises response claims procedures for NCP costs from Superfund by restating the President's authority to preauthorize claims, reducing the number of steps, and substituting an administrative hearing process for the arbitration procedure. Increases fines for false claims. Treats Indian tribes like States for purposes of CERCLA, granting to them the authority to enter into cooperative cleanup agreements, be reimbursed from Superfund, and be notified of releases affecting Indian lands. Permits the Department of the Interior to make assurances of future maintenance of remedial actions for response actions on Indian lands held in trust by the Federal Government. Deletes the provision preempting States from imposing taxes already covered by CERCLA. Increases from ten to 20 percent the State share of remedial action costs at privately-owned facilities. Title II: Provisions Relating Primarily to Enforcement - Increases criminal and adds civil penalties for failure to report the release of hazardous substances in excess of prescribed levels. Limits the bringing of claims for contribution or indemnification in imminent hazard and cost recovery actions once enforcement is underway until after a judgment or settlement is reached. Excludes from liability for contribution for a particular release any person who has settled with the Federal or State Government concerning such release. Subordinates all others' claims to those of the Federal Government. Restates the President's right to access and information concerning the release or threatened release of hazardous substances, including procedures for acquiring such access and information through civil action if consent is not granted or entry is greeted with interference. Authorizes the President to enter into a consent administration order with the affected party to conduct remedial investigations and feasibility studies (RIFS) to serve as the basis for EPA's choosing of the appropriate remedy. Establishes civil enforcement measures. Removes treble damage provisions for failure to comply with response authority orders. Makes a responsible party liable for Federal cleanup costs in response to a post Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 (RCRA) (Solid Waste Disposal Act), release or threatened release of a hazardous substance from a treatment, storage, or disposal facility. Establishes a six-year statute of limitations for filing cost recovery actions. Establishes a three-year statute of limitations for damage, contribution, and subrogated rights actions. States that there is no pre-enforcement judicial review of selected response actions. Limits review of the adequacy of a Federally-selected response action to the administrative record. Sets forth petition procedures for reimbursement of responsible parties after completion of the required action. Permits the United States to serve process on a defendant under CERCLA in any district where such defendant may be found. Limits abatement authority to situations where an imminent and substantial endangerment to the public health or the environment exists because of an actual or threatened release of a hazardous substance from a facility. (Deletes current law reference to endangerment of the public welfare.) States that response costs and damages owed the United States constitute a lien against the affected real property. Increases criminal penalties for records destructions. Increases civil penalties for violation of abatement orders. Provides procedures for administrative settlement of CERCLA claims. Subjects foreign vessels releasing hazardous substances in areas subject to U.S. jurisdiction to CERCLA. Title III: Amendments to the Internal Revenue Code of 1954: Reserved Makes limited response amendments under this Act effective for release sites listed on the NPL after January 1, 1985.
United States · United States Congress · 21 February 1985
Superfund Extension and Improvement Act of 1985 - Amends the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA) (Superfund) to specify how such program operates within Indian lands. Exempts remedial actions on Indian lands from the cost-sharing and future maintenance requirements imposed on States and requires the President to assure the availability of off-site disposal capability. Authorizes Indian tribes to recover damages for injury to or loss of natural resources resulting from releases of hazardous substances. Treats Indian tribes substantially like States for purposes of certain information, notification, and planning provisions. Includes household water supplies within the scope of alternative water supplies for replacement purposes. Permits a State to apply a credit for certain cleanup expenditures to a site other than the one at which the credit was earned, including credits earned at a National Priority List (NPL) site before the commitment of Federal funds. Requires the State to enter into a cooperative agreement or contract for this purpose. Requires the President to consider long-term as well as short-term costs and to stress permanent solutions to waste contamination when selecting cost-effective remedial responses. Establishes a general cleanup standard for remedial actions which at least provides for the protection of human health and the environment. Requires site specific solutions where needed. States that onsite cleanup must comply with this standard but permits are not required under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 (RCRA) (Solid Waste Disposal Act). Makes the cleanup of contaminated ground and surface water at NPL sites remedial action requiring State and Federal participation. Limits such designation and Federal involvement to five years or until the general protection standard is met. Requires as a condition of receiving Superfund money for remedial actions that a State provide assurances that there will be adequate capacity and access to hazardous waste management facilities in compliance with RCRA for a State's hazardous waste for the next 20 years. Permits the President to enter into cooperative agreements with States for hazardous waste cleanup on a multi-site basis with reimbursement of costs associated with securing site responses from responsible parties. Revises the health-related authorities of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) to require ATSDR to: (1) provide State and local governments with consultations on toxic or hazardous substances health-related issues; (2) perform health assessments at all NPL sites and certain RCRA hazardous waste disposal facilities; (3) provide health assessments for certain individuals upon request; (4) establish a priority system for assessing CERCLA and RCRA sites based upon the degree of risk to human health; (5) receive and if necessary act upon State and local health assessments as well as its own; (6) report results and recommendations on assessments to the applicable State and the Administrator of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); (7) recover assessment costs from the site owner or operator; (8) conduct pilot epidemiological studies; (9) establish a registry of exposed persons if necessary; and (10) study and report to the Congress on the cost-effectiveness of medical surveillance programs. Directs the President to reduce exposures which an assessment or study finds present significant risks to human health and to mitigate such risks by providing alternative water supplies and individual relocations among other steps. Prohibits health-related activities from impeding cleanup activities. Directs the Administrator of ATSDR to prepare and update a list of hazardous substances which present the most significant potential threat to human health because of their pervasiveness or toxicity. Requires the Administrator to initiate research programs for substances of which not much is known and to coordinate them with toxicological testing techniques. Requires such research to be coordinated with other research efforts of EPA. Expresses the sense of the Congress that the costs of such research should be borne by the manufacturers of the substance in question or, where this is not practical, by the parties responsible for the release of such substance. Directs the Administrator to prepare and update toxicological profiles on each listed substance. Subjects all such research findings to peer review before dissemination. Authorizes the Administrator to establish and report to the Congress on a toxic substance diagnostic education program for health professionals. Earmarks funding from Superfund for the expenses of ATSDR. Amends the Solid Waste Disposal Act to require owners and operators of landfills and surface impoundments to submit to EPA or a State with an authorized program an assessment of the potential for public exposure to hazardous substances released from their units. Makes such information available to ATSDR, which may then conduct its own assessment of a particular site if necessary. Amends CERCLA to require an opportunity for public comment before a particular remedial action is chosen for any site or any settlement agreement is made. Directs the Administrator of EPA to place a high priority on purchasing the remaining properties in the Love Canal emergency declaration area, Niagara Falls, New York. Directs the President to revise the National Hazardous Substance Plan part of the National Contingency Plan (NCP) to provide procedures and standards for remedial actions pursuant to this Act. Requires the President to amend the hazard ranking system to accurately reflect the relative degree of risk to human health and the environment posed by sites and facilities subject to review. Requires such system to be applied to sites and facilities newly listed on the NPL. Renders State or local governments not liable for damages from non-negligent actions taken in response to emergencies created by the release of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant from a site or facility owned by another person. Authorizes the Administrator to indemnify contractors engaged to respond to the release of hazardous substances. Directs the Administrator to select five States to establish and operate for at least five years a victim assistance demonstration program for individuals injured through exposure to hazardous substances. Sets forth application and program criteria and conditions upon such grants. Requires such programs to include group insurance benefits for burial, medical treatment, and disability. Permits the use of Superfund to pay for alternative water supplies in cases involving federally-owned facilities where groundwater contamination exists beyond the Federal boundary and such facility is not the only potentially responsible party. Extends the statute of limitations for filing claims against Superfund or responsible parties for damages to natural resources until the later of three years after discovery or the promulgation of damage assessment regulations. Sets an outside limit of six years after a response action. Permits the review of CERCLA regulations in any U.S. Court of Appeals. Provides a procedure to determine the forum when more than one appeal has been made. Declares that States are not preempted by Superfund from taxing the same hazardous substances as Superfund does. Limits the 50 percent (or greater) cost-sharing of cleanup obligations of a State or local government which owns a targeted facility to those situations where the State or local government both owns and operates such facility. Requires reimbursement out of Superfund to a State for expenditures in excess of ten percent of cleanup costs at a government-owned but not government-operated facility. Authorizes the President to enter into a consent order for the carrying out of a response action with and by responsible parties. Establishes daily fines for noncompliance. Directs the Administrator to enforce a mandatory schedule for remedial investigations and feasibility studies for all facilities on the NPL. Requires the Administrator to list at least 1,600 facilities on such list by the start of 1988. Requires the commencement of remedial investigations and feasibility studies for such newly listed facilities within two years of this Act's enactment. Requires the commencement of substantial and continuous onsite remedial action at NPL facilities at a rate of 150 per year by FY 1987. Directs the Administrator to complete preliminary assessments of all facilities on the Emergency and Remedial Response Information System (ERRIS) list by the start of 1987. Requires the Administrator to ensure completion of remedial actions on the NPL as of the date of enactment within five years, requiring a published explanation of any noncompletions. Grants high priority to the acquisition of properties in an emergency area because of the release of hazardous substances before May 22, 1980. Requires each Federal agency and department to notify the Administrator of EPA, within six months of this Act's enactment, of any hazardous substance treated, stored, or disposed of at Federal facilities under their control. Requires such agencies and departments to make annual reports to the Administrator on all facilities not on the initial notice. Requires such initial notice to describe the location, nature, toxicity, contamination, response actions, and cleanup techniques for the hazardous substances. Directs the Administrator to establish a Public Federal Agency Hazardous Waste Compliance Docket (Compliance Docket) to record each listed facility and subsequent actions taken. Requires preliminary assessment of each facility for possible evaluation under the NCP and inclusion on the NPL. Requires Federal agencies or departments responsible for facilities placed on the NPL to commence a remedial investigation and feasibility study for such facility and enter into an interagency agreement with the Administrator to conduct remedial action. Requires continuous, substantial onsite response within six months of the agreement. Requires that such agreements: (1) review alternative remedial actions with the Administrator selecting the construction design; (2) schedule completion of remedial actions; and (3) arrange for long-term operation and maintenance of the facility. Requires completion of remedial actions within two years of the agreement to the extent practicable, with explanations of noncompletion to be included on the Compliance Docket and in the agency's or department's annual report to the Congress on its progress on reaching and implementing interagency agreements. Requires such annual report to also include cost information and public comments. Makes Federal facility cleanup actions ineligible for Superfund monies. Provides that the Administrator shall retain enforcement and administrative authority. Requires the Administrator to bring enforcement actions through the Attorney General against any department or agency in noncompliance. Includes Federal facilities within CERCLA guidelines for preliminary assessments, NCP evaluations, and inclusion on the NPL. Directs the Administrator to revise the NCP and propose amendments to the hazard ranking system to reflect this Act's amendments within one year of the enactment of this Act. Permits citizen action lawsuits against any party, including the Federal Government, involved with any hazardous substance in such a way as may present an imminent and substantial endangerment to health or the environment or against the Administrator of EPA or ATSDR for failure to perform a required duty. Requires potential plaintiffs to give 120 days notice to the appropriate Federal and State officials as well as the alleged violator before commencing an action. Prohibits such an action if the Administrator or the State has commenced and is prosecuting court action already or a settlement has been reached. Permits intervention as a matter of right. Prohibits citizen actions for the siting or issuance of a permit to a hazardous waste disposal facility. Authorizes the Federal district court to award costs to any substantially prevailing party. Deems consistent with CERCLA, and directs the Administrator to consider using, Recommendation 84-4 of the Administrative Conference of the United States relating to facilitating negotiated private party cleanup of hazardous substances. Directs the Secretary of Transportation to establish a centralized computer-based system accessible to Government officials through remote communications equipment to provide information on the identity and nature of response means and other suitable information regarding any shipment regulated by the Hazardous Materials Transportation Act. Reauthorizes Superfund for an additional five years, through FY 1990.
United States · United States Congress · 21 February 1985
Amends the Sikes Act to extend for three years, through FY 1988, the authorization of appropriations for carrying out wildlife, fish, game, and migratory game bird conservation programs on military reservations.
United States · United States Congress · 21 February 1985
Emergency Wetlands Resources Act of 1985 - Title I: Revenues for Migratory Bird Conservation Fund - Directs the Secretary of the Interior to charge fees for admission permits to designated units of the National Wildlife Refuge System. Requires deposit of such fees into the migratory bird conservation fund. Authorizes the Secretary to sell, at designated units, Golden Eagle Passports. Directs the Secretary to treat the revenues accruing from such sales in the same manner as fees collected for admission permits. Describes the kinds of admission permits which may be purchased, including individual, group, and special free permits for the blind or disabled and those over age 62. Prohibits the Secretary from requiring an admission permit, or charging a fee, with respect to entry to any designated unit by any individual: (1) with a valid Golden Eagle Passport, Golden Age Passport, or any other lifetime admission permit issued under the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act of 1965; (2) who has a valid duck stamp; (3) who is related to an individual described in clause (1) or (2); or (4) who has been issued a special free permit as described in the preceding sentence. Directs the Secretary to issue regulations necessary to carry out this paragraph. Requires the Secretary to submit annual reports to specified congressional committees. Increases the price of the migratory bird hunting and conservation stamp. Title II: Federal and State Wetlands Conservation - Directs the Secretary to establish, and periodically review and revise, a national wetlands priority conservation plan specifying, on a region-by-region or other appropriate basis, the types of wetlands to which priority should be given for wetlands acquisition and the implementation of preservation and enhancement projects. Prescribes formulae for the allocation and apportionment of appropriations among the States and the Secretary for wetlands acquisitions. Sets forth eligibility requirements and conditions relating to such apportionment. Declares that no property acquired or developed with assistance under this title shall, without the approval of the Secretary, be converted to other than wetland conservation uses. Directs the Secretary to approve such conversion only if he or she finds it to be in accord with the existing comprehensive wetlands conservation plan and only upon such conditions as he or she deems necessary to assure the substitution of other property of at least equal fair market value or a reasonably equivalent usefulness and location. States that no enhancement project or preservation project shall be approved unless the State holds an interest in perpetuity on the wetlands being conserved. Sets forth the treatment of unobligated funds. Directs the Secretary to issue regulations to carry out this title. Establishes the Wetlands Conservation Fund, consisting of amounts to be transferred annually from the Land and Water Conservation Fund for expenditures to carry out this title. Amends the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act of 1965 to conform with this Act. Authorizes appropriations for FY 1985 through 1995. Title III: Wetlands Inventory and Trend Analysis and Miscellaneous Provisions - Directs the Secretary, acting through the Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, to continue the National Wetlands Inventory Project and to: (1) produce final National Wetlands Inventory maps for the entire United States (specifies dates at which different maps are to be completed); and (2) produce, by March 31, 1987, and at ten year intervals thereafter, reports to update and improve the information contained in the report dated September 1982 and entitled "Status and Trends of Wetlands and Deepwater Habitat in the Coterminous United States, 1950's to 1970's." Authorizes appropriations for the above maps and reports. Directs the Secretary, by March 31, 1987, to prepare and submit to specified committees a report regarding wetlands losses in the United States. Authorizes appropriations for such report. Amends the Wetlands Loan Act to repeal the requirement that after expiration of an advance of appropriations to the migratory bird conservation fund, repayment must be made each year in the amount of three-quarters of the annual Duck Stamp receipts until the debt is paid off. Amends the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act of 1965 to allow the use of Fund monies to acquire migratory waterfowl areas even if acquisition of such areas is also authorized by the Migratory Bird Conservation Act of 1929.
United States · United States Congress · 20 February 1985
National Acid Deposition Control Act of 1984 - Title I: Acid Deposition Control and Assistance Program - Amends the Clean Air Act to direct the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), within four months after the enactment of this Act, to compute a State share for each of the 48 contiguous States of a 10,000,000 ton reduction in annual emissions of sulfur dioxide by 1993 below that of 1980. Sets forth a formula for determining State shares. Permits States to reallot shares among themselves if the required total reduction in annual emissions of sulfur dioxide is still achieved. Sets deadlines and procedures for submission and approval of State plans for such State shares. Directs the Administrator to promulgate a State plan in the absence of a State submitted Administrator-approved plan. Requires State plans to provide for emission limitations applicable to any existing stationary sources in the State for which the actual annual sulfur dioxide emission rates have been calculated by the Administrator for the calendar year 1980. Requires that the emission limitations for each stationary source subject to the State plan establish an allowable average annual sulfur dioxide rate at a level such that the total reduction would equal the State share. Permits State plans to provide for compliance with emission limitations through use of fuel having a lower sulfur content than the fuel used in 1980, precombustion removal of sulfur (such as coal washing), technological systems of continuous emission reduction, or any other means which the State deems appropriate. Authorizes the Administrator to commence a civil action for permanent or temporary injunction or to assess and recover a civil penalty of up to $25,000 per day of violation, or both, whenever any person violates any requirement in effect under this Act. Eliminates a percentage reduction requirement with respect to sulfur dioxide emissions from any fossil fuel fired stationary source which: (1) commences construction after the date of enactment of this Act; and (2) complies with a standard of performance which prohibits sulfur dioxide emissions in excess of 1.2 pounds per million Btu. Title II: Control of Nitrogen Oxide Emissions - Directs the Administrator to revise standards of performance for new stationary sources for emissions of nitrogen oxides from electric utility steam generating units which burn bituminous or subbituminous coal and which commence construction after the enactment of this Act. Prohibits the emission of nitrogen oxides from such units at a rate which exceeds: (1) 0.30 pounds per million Btu, in the case of subbituminous coal; and (2) 0.40 pounds per million Btu, in the case of bituminous coal. Establishes nitrogen oxides emissions standards for light-duty trucks after model year 1986.
United States · United States Congress · 7 February 1985
Amends the Endangered Species Act of 1973 to authorize appropriations for FY 1986 through 1988.
United States · United States Congress · 7 February 1985
National Acid Deposition Control Act of 1985 - Title I: Acid Deposition Control and Assistance Program - Amends the Clean Air Act to mandate emission reductions and retrofit technology for the 50 fossil fuel fired electric utility generating plants which the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency identifies and lists as having had the largest total emissions of sulfur dioxide during the calendar year 1980. Permits the owner or operator of such a plant to substitute a fossil fuel fired steam generating unit in the same State or plant for an identified electric utility, subject to the Administrator's approval. Requires substitute units to meet certain performance standards beyond their useful lives. Requires emission limitations compliance schedules to require the use of technological systems of continuous emission reduction for each steam generating unit in the generating plant (other than steam units serving as substitutes) and the reduction of sulfur dioxide emissions to 90 percent or 70 percent of 1980 emissions levels. Determines compliance on a plantwide basis and on the basis of average annual emissions. Subjects substitute unit compliance schedules to the same requirements but evaluates compliance for the unit rather than plantwide. Directs owners or operators of listed plants and substitute units to submit a compliance schedule to the Administrator for approval. Directs the Administrator to promulgate a schedule for listed plants without an approved schedule. Requires schedules to mandate contracts for technological systems by the start of 1993, system installation by 1995, and compliance with emission standards for 1995 and subsequent years. Directs the Administrator to make available 90 percent of a system's construction and installation costs from the Acid Deposition Control Fund, Conditions payments upon minimizing rate increases to the customers of the utility. Directs the Administrator to compute each State's share of the 12 million ton reduction in sulfur dioxide emissions required within ten years of enactment of this Act. Counts a State's excess tonnage from fossil fuel fired electric utility plants and steam generating units and industrial process emitters of sulfur dioxide. Sets forth the formula for determining a State's share of total reductions using such excess tonnage. Permits States to reallocate reductions among themselves so long as total reductions meet specified requirements. Directs each State to submit a plan for Administrator approval, detailing how such State is going to reduce its share of emissions to compliance levels in ten years. Subjects States without an approved plant to back-up emission limitations which represent between a 75 and 80 percent reduction for 1980 emission levels or the national average best available control technology emissions limit for industrial process emissions. Permits States discretion in means of compliance. Sets forth fund availability conditions, including an approved State plan and funding based upon a State's share of the total required emission reductions. Allows States to use such funds to effect the requirements of this Act in whatever way the State deems appropriate. Establishes in the Treasury the Acid Deposition Control Fund to provide funding for emissions reductions from specified appropriations. Sets forth conditions and administrative provisions for such Fund. Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to report annually to the Congress on the current and five-year projected financial condition of the Fund. Imposes a fee on each kilowatt hour of electric energy generated by an electric utility in the contiguous States. Exempts electricity generated by nuclear or hydroelectric power. Directs the Administrator to make payments to utilities who provide electricity to low-income individuals in order to reduce rates for such customers. Establishes civil and criminal penalties and empowers the Administrator to bring civil actions against an electric utility in violation of the fee requirement. Terminates the fee after ten years. Directs the Administrator to carry out a demonstration project of the limestone injected multistaged burner (LIMB) technology, using limited funds. Directs the Administrator to make grants and contracts to accelerate research for developing other advanced industrial processes to reduce levels of sulfur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen. Authorizes appropriations for FY 1986 through 1991. Title II: Control of Nitrogen Oxide Emissions - Directs the Administrator to revise nitrogen oxides emissions standards for electric utility steam generating units which burn bituminous or subbituminous coal. Sets maximum subbituminous emissions at 0.30 pounds per million Btu's and maximum bituminous coal emissions at 0.40 pounds per million Btu's, based on a 30-day rolling average. Requires the Administrator to promulgate emissions standards for new, large fossil-fuel-fired steam generating units. Establishes oxides of nitrogen emissions standards for light duty trucks after model year 1987. Title III: Acid Deposition Damage Mitigation Program - Establishes a grants program for States with Administrator-approved plans for mitigating water quality damage caused by a acid deposition. Limits such grants to 80 percent of State-expended funds for mitigation. Apportions funds among the States upon the basis of need.
Ireland · Dáil Éireann · 6 February 1985
That a sum not exceeding £731,140,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of December, 1985, for the salaries and expenses of the Office of the Minister for the Environment, including grants in lieu of rates on agricultural land and other grants to Local Authorities, grants and other expenses in connection with housing, and miscellaneous schemes, subsidies and grants including certain grants-in-aid.
United States · United States Congress · 6 February 1985
Hazardous Air Pollutants Amendments Act of 1985 - Title I - Amends the Clean Air Act to direct the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to classify 36 substances into two categories for purposes of determining whether such substances are hazardous air pollutants as defined under provisions for national emission standards for hazardous air pollutants (NESHAPs). Requires that 26 substances, including methyl isocyanate and each of the 22 substances listed in specified testimony of the Administrator before the Congress, be classified in the first category. Requires that ten additional substances, from among the 37 substances identified to Congress on a specified date by the EPA as being in the assessment phase of the review process, be classified in the second category. Authorizes the Administrator to substitute for a category two substance another substance if the Administrator determines that there is a higher priority for determining whether the substitute is a hazardous air pollutant. Directs the Administrator to commence hazardous air pollutant determination proceedings concerning first category substances within 90 days and second category substances within one year after enactment of this Act. Provides for public and scientific community participation. Directs the Administrator to make a hazardous air pollutant determination for first category substances by January 1, 1986, and for second category substances by January 1, 1987, and to publish a list of such pollutants and all categories of stationary sources which emit such pollutants. Directs the Administrator to promulgate national emission standards for category one stationary sources by January 1, 1988. Requires promulgation of category two stationary sources emission standards by January 1, 1989. States that actions required of the Administrator under this Act are nondiscretionary and enforceable by any person bringing a civil action. Treats a listed substance as a hazardous air pollutant until the Administrator makes a determination if the required determination has not been made by the specified deadline. Directs a court to issue an order requiring a substance classified in the first or second category to be treated as a listed hazardous air pollutant until the Administrator completes further proceedings if the court reviewing a determination of no hazard remands such determination to the Administrator for further proceedings. Directs the Administrator, by January 31, 1987, to commence hazardous air pollutant determination proceedings for each substance which: (1) has been classified, prior to January 31, 1987, by the national toxicology program as a known carcinogen; (2) is an air pollutant; and (3) is not determined among the 36 substances classified in two categories. Requires that such proceedings be completed within one year. Requires annual hazardous air pollutant determination proceedings for each air pollutant which has been classified during the preceding year by the national toxicology program as a carcinogen. Directs the Administrator to publish and periodically revise a list of air pollutants determined to be hazardous, the categories of stationary sources emitting such pollutants, and national emission standards for each category. Permits the most stringent interim emission standards achievable for up to six years where the application of all potential emission reduction measures would not meet the national emissions standard. Requires as a minimum for such standards that level of control which is empirically available or required in a permit. Directs the Administrator to review all emissions standards in effect on December 1, 1984, within four years of this Act's enactment. Authorizes the Administrator to waive through a permit the prohibition against constructing or modifying a stationary source of a listed hazardous pollutant and subject such source to an interim standard. Requires existing stationary sources emitting hazardous air pollutants to obtain from the Administrator a permit requiring compliance with the applicable national standard or an interim standard if achievement of the national standard is not possible using all potential emission reduction measures. Applies the same conditions to interim standards for existing stationary sources as apply to new or modified sources. Sets forth emergency extension of waivers procedures, requiring the source owner or operator to petition the State's Governor who in turn may petition the President after public notice for such extension. Requires notice to the Governor and residents of any other State affected by such waiver. Requires the President to notify the Congress of all extensions granted. Sets forth general permit requirements for sources emitting hazardous air pollutants with respect to: (1) monitoring; (2) hearings; (3) revocation; (4) terms; and (5) fees. Title II: Hazardous Air Pollutants from Motor Vehicles - Establishes a program for controlling motor vehicle hazardous air pollutants. Directs the Administrator to publish and periodically revise a list of such pollutants, including lead, ethylene dibromide, diesel particulates, benzene, and any pollutants already listed under this Act if the Administrator determines they are emitted from motor vehicles or their parts. States that actions required of the Administrator under this title are nondiscretionary and enforceable by any person bringing a civil action within approximately 18 months. Directs the Administrator to prescribe emissions standards for all identified motor vehicle hazardous air pollutants except lead. Permits the promulgation of interim standards, subject to the same conditions applicable to interim standards for stationary sources. Makes emission standards effective with the second model year after the model year during which the standard is prescribed. Establishes minimum emissions standards for diesel particulates broken down by vehicle weight. Directs the Administrator to control or prohibit the manufacture and sale of fuel or fuel additives determined to be hazardous air pollutants. Directs the Administrator to prohibit the use of lead or lead additives in gasoline after December 31, 1986.
United States · United States Congress · 6 February 1985
Chemical Manufacturing Safety Act of 1985 - Amends the Solid Waste Disposal Act to include releases into the air from an underground storage tank. Reduces from 36 to 18 months after the enactment of the Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments of 1984 (November 8, 1984) the time within which new underground tank performance standards become effective. Reduces from 48 to 24 months after such date the effective date of certain regulations covering underground storage tanks containing regulated substances. Amends the Toxic Substances Control Act to include pesticides within chemical substances under such Act only when the manufacturing and processing is completed and the pesticide is distributed. Amends the Toxic Substances Control Act by adding a new title II concerning the communities' right-to-know, emergency planning, and liability. Requires each covered manufacturer, distributor, user, and importer of a covered hazardous substance (potential releasors) to prepare and update a fact sheet for such substance for distribution to local police, fire, and health officials. Requires the fact sheet to include the name, physical properties of, and hazards posed by the substance, including potential routes of human exposure to such substance, symptoms of such exposure, and appropriate emergency and first aid procedures. Requires status sheets on the same basis as fact sheets, with each status sheet to include the maximum inventory and method of storage of the substance, the quantity of its emission into the environment, and the quantity and method for disposal. Requires the releasor of a covered hazardous substance in an emergency situation to provide an emergency bulletin to the State and local police and other local officials. Requires the bulletin to identify the name and amount of the substance released and the response actions taken. Requires fact and status sheets and emergency bulletins to be made available for public inspection with public notice of such availability at the facility of the potential releasor. Requires the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to publish a uniform format for fact and status sheets. Authorizes a State's Governor to identify local officials to receive covered hazardous substance release information, with the Administrator doing so in the absence of the Governor's identification. Requires the potential releasors to maintain records of information required by this Act. Requires manufacturers or importers to transmit fact sheets to covered distributors or users upon shipping of a covered hazardous substance. Excludes certain small businesses and research, medical, and household uses from coverage under this Act. Provides protection for trade secrets while continuing to make necessary information available to the appropriate persons. Excludes listed or possible carcinogens from such protection. Sets forth application and substantiation procedures for trade secret claims. Permits affected citizens or government officials to compel disclosure of nonsubstantiated trade secrets through the Federal courts. Authorizes the Administrator to grant exemptions from the basic notification requirements of this Act through specified procedures open to the public, based upon a cost-benefits analysis where there is no reasonable likelihood of harm. Directs each covered major manufacturer to develop within two years of the enactment of this Act a comprehensive evacuation and emergency response plan which addresses the health and safety issues applicable to such manufacturer's particular situation. Requires the plan to include designations of the appropriate government officials to be notified, mitigation measures, evacuation routes, notification plans, and evaluation of community support services. Authorizes each Governor to designate emergency response districts within 18 months of the enactment of this Act or the Administrator will do so. Permits each Governor to appoint an Emergency Response Committee per district or the Administrator will be treated as such Committee. Requires such Committees to review the manufacturers' plans, revising them where necessary. Directs the Administrator within 18 months of the enactment of this Act to develop uniform national mandatory labeling requirements for pipes, storage tanks, or containers not otherwise required to be labeled which could reasonably be presumed to release a covered hazardous substance. Requires the label to indicate the appropriate response to a release. Directs the Administrator to designate covered major manufacturers for emergency response purposes within one year of the enactment of this Act. Limits the designation to those whose substances would pose an imminent and substantial danger to health and the environment if released in significant quantities. Includes all persons covered under this Act in lieu of such designations. Includes Federal departments as potential covered major manufacturers. Exempts those whose emergency activities are sufficiently covered under other Federal or State law. Renders the manufacturer or processor strictly liable for damages caused by accidental or abnormal releases, excluding act of God or war. Covers medical, burial, and economic losses as well as pain and suffering (to a limited extent). Includes specified analysis and scientific evidence and studies among the evidence which may be introduced to establish causation. Establishes a three-year statute of limitations from the date of the enactment or the date of realization of injury for causes of action for injury from the release of a covered hazardous substance, whichever is later. Provides that this Act does not preempt State or other law in the area of liability for damages. Requires entitled individuals to receive compensation for injuries sustained from a hazardous substance release from workers' compensation rather than under this Act. Sets forth categories of substances to be considered covered hazardous substances and procedures for adding additional substances. Directs the Administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry to compile and update a digest of all such substances. Exempts certain substances for this Act's purposes, based upon the form, amount, and other regulation of such substances. Establishes civil and criminal penalties, limiting criminal penalties to the knowing violation of emergency requirements. Authorizes citizens' suits to enforce this Act. Permits States to adopt more stringent right-to-know standards in the workplace context and emergency response requirements. Permits State and local governments to impose fees upon potential releasors to cover administrative costs.
United States · United States Congress · 4 February 1985
Land Disposal Amendments of 1985 - Amends the Solid Waste Disposal Act to repeal the provisions of the Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments of 1984 relating to the land disposal of liquid hazardous wastes. Prohibits the land disposal of such wastes after the date of enactment of this Act. Authorizes the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to make grants out of Superfund to the owners and operators of hazardous waste treatment facilities to reimburse them for the difference in costs between treatment facility waste disposal and landfill waste disposal.
United States · United States Congress · 31 January 1985
Directs the Secretary of the Army, acting through the Corps of Engineers, to design and construct a specified erosion control project on an emergency basis on Tangier Island, Virginia. Preempts all otherwise applicable laws, but requires local interests to provide all necessary land interests, operation, and maintenance and to indemnify the United States against construction related damages.
United States · United States Congress · 30 January 1985
Amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (the Clean Water Act) to direct the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to study water quality problems in Lake Houston, Houston, Texas, and undertake necessary control measures. Requires the Administrator to report to the appropriate congressional committees within one year after enactment of this Act. Authorizes appropriations.
United States · United States Congress · 29 January 1985
State and Local River Conservation Act of 1985 - Authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to make grants to States for the establishment and operation of State and local programs to conserve the natural and environmental values of designated rivers or river segments, including river management plans, land conservation strategies, regulations, and demonstration projects. Allocates and restricts the use of such funds. Authorizes appropriations. Requires States and local governments to submit programs and river assessments to the Secretary to be eligible for grants. Permits the Secretary to make grants to carry out State river assessments. Authorizes appropriations for such grants. Authorizes landowners to transfer approved lands or land interests to tax-exempt organizations to conserve or enhance the value of rivers. Authorizes the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture and other Federal agency heads to encourage and assist the use of volunteers and volunteer organizations to conserve and manage rivers throughout the United States.
United States · United States Congress · 29 January 1985
Authorizes the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, from March 1, 1985, through February 28, 1986, to: (1) make expenditures from the contingent fund; (2) employ personnel; (3) utilize, on a reimbursable basis, the services of department or agency personnel; (4) procure consultant services; and (5) provide for the training of its professional staff.
United States · United States Congress · 24 January 1985
Acid Deposition Control Act - Amends the Clean Air Act to establish an interstate transport and acid precursor reduction program. Designates an acid deposition impact region comprising a long-range transport corridor of 31 States east of the Mississippi and the District of Columbia. Directs the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to report to the Congress within two years on a study of long-range transport of pollutants problems in the remaining States. Prohibits the increase of emissions of sulfur dioxide and of oxides of nitrogen from stationary sources in the acid deposition impact region over total actual emissions there as of January 1, 1981. Sets forth sulfur dioxide emmission reduction standards for the acid deposition impact region of ten million tons below 1980 levels by the beginning of 1994. Requires each impact region State to reduce its emissions proportionately to its share of the region's total excess emissions, permitting States to reallot reductions among themselves so long as the total reductions of the States invovled meet the required standards. Requires each State to adopt enforceable emission reduction measures for sulfur dioxide, including compliance schedules, within two years. Requires the Administrator's approval and the other Governors' perusal of such measures. Requires each major stationary source subject to an emission limitation to notify the Governor of the State, and in turn, the Administrator, within four years of its intended method of compliance. Requires sources choosing fuel substitution to be in compliance with applicable emission limitations within six years. Requires those sources complying through the installation of a technological system of continuous emission reduction or the replacement of facilities to have entered into binding contracts for such system or replacement facilities within six years. Requires owners of major stationary sources of sulfur dioxide emissions to submit to the Administrator a compliance plan and schedule if their State has not done so. Provides that failure to do so constitutes a violation of emission limitations under the Clean Air Act. Permits the use of the following measures to reduce emissions in addition to enforceable continuous emission reduction measures if such measures are enforceable by entities and persons other than the State in which the emissions occur: (1) least emissions dispatch to meet electric generating demand at existing generating capacity; (2) retirement of major stationary sources at an earlier than provided for date; (3) investments in energy conservation where emission reductions can be identified with such investments; (4) trading of emission reduction requirements and actual reductions through emission reduction banks or brokerage institutions; and (5) precombustion cleaning of fuels. Permits a State or the owner or operator of a source required to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions to substitute oxides of nitrogen reductions at a rate of two for one out measure by weight. Makes it a violation of the Clear Air Act to emit an air pollutant which adversely affects the public health or welfare of another State or foreign country.
France · Senate · 23 January 1985
United States · United States Congress · 22 January 1985
Natural Wetlands Inventory and Evaluation Act - Directs the Secretary of the Interior to formulate and carry out a continuous program which: (1) classifies and inventories the Nation's wetlands; (2) measures the degradation and loss of wetlands; and (3) evaluates the contribution of wetlands to fish and wildlife conservation, land and water conservation, and the quality of the human environment. Directs all departments and agencies of the Government to furnish information concerning the extent of destruction, alteration, and uses of wetlands under their respective programs. Authorizes the Secretary to contract with educational institutions, State fish and wildlife agencies, and private organizations to collect and analyze data for the purposes of this Act. Authorizes appropriations.
Germany · German Bundestag · 11 January 1985
United States · United States Congress · 3 January 1985
Superfund Improvement Act of 1985 - Amends the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA) (Superfund) to specify how such program operates within Indian lands. Exempts remedial actions on Indian lands from the cost-sharing and future maintenance requirements imposed on States and requires the President to assure the availability of off-site disposal capability. Authorizes Indian tribes to recover damages for injury to or loss of natural resources resulting from releases of hazardous substances. Treats Indian tribes substantially like States for certain information, notification, and planning provisions. Includes household water supplies within the scope of alternative water supplies for replacement purposes. Permits a State to apply a credit for certain cleanup expenditures to a site other than the one at which the credit was earned, including credits earned at a National Priority List (NPL) site before the commitment of Federal funds. Requires the State to enter into a cooperative agreement or contract for this purpose. Limits the 50 percent (or greater) cost-sharing of cleanup obligations of a State or local government which owns a targeted facility to those situations where the State or local government both owns and operates such facility. Requires the President to consider long-term as well as short-term costs and to stress permanent solutions to waste contamination when selecting cost-effective remedial responses. Establishes a general cleanup standard for remedial actions which at least provides for the protection of human health and the environment. Requires site specific solutions where needed. States that on-site cleanup must comply with this standard but permits are not required under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 (RCRA) (Solid Waste Disposal Act). Makes the cleanup of contaminated ground and surface water at NPL sites remedial action requiring State and Federal participation. Limits such designation and Federal involvement to five years or until the general protection standard is met. Requires as a condition of receiving Superfund money for remedial actions that a State provide assurances that there will be adequate capacity and access to hazardous waste management facilities in compliance with RCRA for a State's hazardous waste for the next 20 years. Permits the President to enter into cooperative agreements with States for hazardous waste cleanup on a multi-site basis with reimbursement of costs associated with securing site responses from responsible parties. Revises the health-related authorities of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) to require ATSDR to: (1) provide State and local governments with consultations on toxic or hazardous substances health-related issues; (2) perform health assessments at all NPL sites and certain RCRA hazardous waste disposal facilities; (3) provide health assessments for certain individuals upon request; (4) establish a priority system for assessing CERCLA and RCRA sites based upon the degree of risk to human health; (5) receive and if necessary act upon State and local health assessments as well as its own; (6) report results and recommendations on assessments to the applicable State and the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); (7) recover assessment costs from the site owner or operator; (8) conduct pilot epidemiological studies; (9) establish a registry of exposed persons if necessary; and (10) study and report to the Congress on the cost-effectiveness of medical surveillance programs. Directs the President to reduce exposures which an assessment or study finds present significant risks to human health and to mitigate such risks by providing alternative water supplies and individual relocations among other steps. Prohibits health-related activities from impeding cleanup activities. Directs the Administrator of ATSDR to prepare and update a list of hazardous substances which present the most significant potential threat to human health because of their pervasiveness or toxicity. Requires the Administrator to initiate research programs for substances about which not much is known and to coordinate them with toxicological testing techniques. Requires such research to be coordinated with other research efforts of EPA. Expresses the sense of the Congress that the costs of such research should be borne by the manufacturers of the substance in question or, where this is not practical, by the parties responsible for the release of such substance. Directs the Administrator to prepare and update toxicological profiles on each listed substance. Subjects all such research findings to peer review before dissemination. Authorizes the Administrator to establish and report to the Congress on a toxic substance diagnostic education program for health professionals. Earmarks funding from Superfund for the expenses of ATSDR. Amends the Solid Waste Disposal Act to require owners and operators of landfills and surface impoundments to submit to EPA or a State with an authorized program an assessment of the potential for public exposure to hazardous substances released from their units. Makes such information available to ATSDR, which may then conduct its own assessment of a particular site if necessary. Amends CERCLA to require an opportunity for public comment before a particular remedial action is chosen for any site or any settlement agreement is made. Directs the Administrator of EPA to place a high priority on purchasing the remaining properties in the Love Canal emergency declaration area, Niagara Falls, New York. Directs the President to revise the National Hazardous Substance Plan part of the National Contingency Plan to provide procedures and standards for remedial actions pursuant to this Act. Requires the President to amend the hazard ranking system to accurately reflect the relative degree of risk to human health and the environment posed by sites and facilities subject to review. Requires such system to be applied to sites and facilities newly listed on the NPL. Renders State or local governments not liable for damages from non-negligent actions taken in response to emergencies created by the release of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant from a site or facility owned by another person. Authorizes the Administrator to indemnify contractors engaged to respond to the release of hazardous substances. Permits direct claims against the financial guarantor of certain vessels carrying hazardous substances only if the owner or operator is in bankruptcy, insolvency, or out of the jurisdiction of the Federal courts. Entitles the guarantor to use all defenses that such guarantor would have available if an action has been brought by the owner or operator against such guarantor. Limits the liability of guarantors acting in good faith. Authorizes the President to specify conditions for establishing evidence of financial responsibility. Permits the use of Superfund to pay for alternative water supplies in cases involving federally owned facilities where groundwater contamination exists beyond the Federal boundary and such facility is not the only potentially responsible party. Extends the statute of limitations for filing claims against Superfund or responsible parties for damages to natural resources until the later of three years after discovery or the promulgation of damage assessment regulations. Permits the review of CERCLA regulations in any U.S. Court of Appeals. Provides a procedure to determine the forum when more than one appeal has been made. Declares that States are not preempted by Superfund from taxing the same hazardous substances as Superfund does. Requires the Administrator and States that have entered into cooperative agreements to concur in the selection of cleanup actions at Federal facilities. Deems consistent with CERCLA, and directs the Administrator to consider using, recommendation 84-4 of the Administrative Conference of the United States relating to facilitating negotiated private party cleanup of hazardous substances. Reauthorizes Superfund through FY 1990. Sets forth funding transfers and limitations.
United States · United States Congress · 3 January 1985
Clean Water Act Amendments of 1985 - Title I: Regulatory Amendments - Amends the Clean Water Act (Federal Water Pollution Control Act) to extend the authorization of appropriations through FY 1989. Directs the Administrator of the Environmental Protection agency (EPA) to continue the Chesapeake Bay Program and establish an Office for same within EPA to: (1) collect and disseminate research and other information on the environmental quality of the Bay; (2) coordinate Federal research efforts; (3) conduct research on sediment deposition in the Bay; and (4) conduct research on how environmental changes effect the living resources of the Bay, with particular emphasis on the impact of pollutant loadings. Directs the Administrator to make a grant to a State affected by the interstate management plan developed under the Bay Program to implement management mechanisms in the plan if the State has approved and committed to implement all or substantially all aspects of the plan. Requires a State or combination of the States, in order to qualify for such grants, to submit a plan for proposed abatement actions to reduce Bay pollution and meet applicable water quality standards and estimated costs for the approval of the Administrator. Limits such grants to 55 percent of the plan implementation costs. Limits administrative costs. Requires States to submit progress reports biennially to the Administrator for transmittal to the Congress. Directs the Administrator to make a grant to an affected State to assess the principal factors having an adverse effect on the environmental quality of the Narragansett Bay in conjunction with developing and implementing a management program to improve such Bay's water quality. Limits such grants to 55 percent of the program implementation costs. Requires a State to submit a description of the proposed program for Administrator approval, demonstrating that it will: (1) establish a committee to provide advice on design and implementation of a management program and to coordinate communication on issues affecting such Bay's water quality; (2) review and coordinate water pollution abatement programs and research; (3) establish methods for improving sampling data collection and a system for collecting, analyzing, storing, and disseminating such data; and (4) develop and implement water quality management practices and measures to reduce pollutant loadings in such Bay. Requires States to submit annual progress reports to the Administrator. Authorizes appropriations for FY 1986 through 1988 for such Chesapeake and Narragansett Bays programs. Directs the Administrator to award an annual grant to support a National Clearinghouse on small flows and innovative or alternative technologies information. Extends for three years, through July 1, 1987, the outside compliance dates for direct dischargers to: (1) achieve best available technology (BAT) effluent limitations for toxic pollutants and of nonconventional pollutants; (2) achieve best conventional technology (BCT) for specified conventional pollutants; and (3) meet effluent limitations through best practicable control (BPT) or according to permit requirements based on best judgment. Makes eligibility requirements more stringent for a municipal treatment facility to receive an ocean discharge waiver. Requires such works to be in compliance with applicable pretreatment requirements and, if serving a population of 5,000 or more, to be enforcing a toxic pollutant control program for industrial pollution comparable to Federal categorical pretreatment standards. Requires such a facility to be providing a minimum of primary treatment of its municipal effluent, including disinfection when appropriate, at the time of the waiver application. Requires the affected marine waters to exhibit the physical and tidal characteristics sufficient for effective flushing action. Requires the level of effluent concentration in saline estuarine waters to be nondeleterious to marine life and use. Permits a municipal facility, subject to specified conditions, to apply for an ocean waiver if under a contract made prior to December 31, 1982, if it discharged its sewage into another municipal facility which itself has applied for an ocean waiver. Requires States to identify bodies of water within or adjacent to them which will not meet State water quality standards because of toxic pollutants after the implementation of BAT. Requires the Administrator within two years of this Act's enactment to develop guidelines for such identification and for measuring water quality criteria for toxic pollutants on other than pollutant-by-pollutant criteria, using biomonitoring assessment techniques. Directs the States to establish numerical criteria based on EPA's national water quality criteria for toxic pollutants which could otherwise interfere with designated water uses. Permits such criteria to include the use of biological monitoring or assessments methods. Directs a State, within two years of identifying post-BAT toxic polluted waters, to establish effluent limitations for point sources discharging into such navigable waters, incorporating such limitations into discharge permits and taking substantial nonpoint source pollution into account. Requires compliance within three years of the limitations' establishment and the consideration of public health as a factor when establishing such limitations. Permits the Administrator, with State concurrence, to modify effluent limitations: (1) if a non-toxic polluter demonstrates that complete compliance does not satisfy a reasonable cost-benefit analysis; or (2) for five years if a toxic polluter demonstrates that a modified maximum limitation within the polluter's economic means will result in reasonable progress to post-BAT water quality standards. Directs the Administrator, within three years of this Act's enactment, to publish guidelines for effluent limitations for toxic pollutants for industrial categories currently without such guidelines. Revises national pollutant discharge elimitation systems (NPDES) permits to require a publicly-owned municipal treatment works to meet the requirements of its permits through its own efforts rather than through mandatory pretreatment of conventional pollutants by indirect dischargers. Increases the daily, judicially-imposed civil penalty for violations of the Clean Water Act. Authorizes the Administrator to assess additional civil penalties daily, up to a specified amount, subject to review procedures. Increases criminal penalties for knowing violations of the Clean Water Act to the felony level and establishes criminal penalties for introducing harmful substances into sewer systems or a publicly-owned treatment works. Revises the NPDES to permit the Administrator to delegate a portion of such system to a State with an approved plan for assuming administration of the entire program within five years or for administering one or more discharge categories. Provides for the return of such system to the Federal Government at a State's or the Administrator's behest. Increases from five to ten years the NPDES permit term for those permits without waivers or modifications. Requires the prompt modification of permits whenever more stringent requirements or new pollutant controls are established. Revises venue provisions to permit an applicant for judicial review of certain Administrator actions to bring suit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal district in which such applicant has its principal place of business or where such applicant transacts the business which is directly affected by the action in question. Increases the appeal period. Provides a random selection procedure to determine the forum when reviews of a particular EPA action have been filed in more than one court. Empowers the court to award attorney's fees to a prevailing or substantially prevailing party. Requires States to develop Administrator-approved nonpoint source pollution management programs identifying: (1) the waters prevented from meeting applicable standards by such pollution; (2) categories of such pollutants; (3) best management practices to institute; (4) an implementation schedule; (5) any additional State authorities necessary for the program, including an implementation schedule for acquiring such authorities; and (6) the effect of existing Federal programs on such program. Provides for resubmittal of rejected programs which are subsequently modified. Directs the Administrator to develop a program for any State which fails to do so and report on his or her actions to the Congress. Directs the Administrator to make grants to States of up to 75 percent of implementation costs if remaining funds are non-Federal. Sets forth a per State allotment schedule, reserving one-third of the available funds for particularly difficult problems, innovative technology, interstate pollution, and Indian tribes. Directs the Administrator to reallot unobligated funds. Sets forth conditions on fund usage. Authorizes appropriations for FY 1986 through 1988. Requires each State to report to the Administrator annually on its progress. Directs the Administrator to transmit to the Office of Management and Budget and the appropriate Federal departments and agencies a list of those assistance programs and development projects identified by States for which individual assistance applications and projects will be reviewed. Requires each Federal department and agency to modify existing regulations to allow States to conduct such review and accommodate the concerns of the State regarding the consistency of such applications or projects with the State program. Directs the Administrator to collect and make available information pertaining to management practices and implementation methods. Directs the Administrator, within three years of this Act's enactment, to report to the Congress on the State management programs and grants to States. Exempts from permit requirements any effluent limitation, certain stormwater runoff discharges from mining operations or oil or gas exploration, production, processing, or treatment operations. Requires exempted run-offs to be a product of precipitation flows or systems designed to collect or convey such water. Requires that such run-offs be uncontaminated (as determined by the Administrator). Sets forth anti-backsliding requirements relating to renewal or reissuance of NPDES permits. Revises the sewage sludge disposal timetable. Directs the Administrator to identify in two stages, one year apart, starting within six months of this Act's enactment, those toxic pollutants which may be present in sewage sludge in concentrations which may adversely affect public health or the environment. Directs the Administrator to publish regulations specifying acceptable management practices and establishing numerical limitations for each such pollutant and requiring compliance within six months after publication. Requires that such regulations be published within one year of the pollutant's identification. Authorizes the Administrator to promulgate a design, equipment, management practice, or operational standard for certain pollutants if a numerical limitation is not feasible and the same protection can be achieved. Directs the Administrator to finally resolve disputes between States as to whether a proposed or already permitted discharge or a discharge not subject to permit in one State would or does violate water quality standards or adversely affect public health in another State. States that nothing in the Clean Water Act preempts redress mechanisms available under State common law or other Federal statutes. Applies State law in cases of interstate pollution. Directs the Administrator, within two years after the enactment of this Act, to report to the Congress on hazardous wastes identified or listed under the Solid Waste Disposal Act which are excluded from regulation under hazardous waste management provisions of such Act (under regulations exempting mixtures of domestic sewage and other wastes that pass through a sewer system to a publicly owned treatment works for treatment). Requires that such report evaluate whether such exclusion should continue. Permits the town of Hampton, New Hampshire, to continue using its ad valorem tax user charge system for collecting the costs of operation and maintenance of its sewage treatment works in satisfaction of specified requirements for grants for treatment works. Requires the Administrator to review such system for compliance with other requirements. Imposes a cap on raw sewage discharges from the drainage areas of the North River plant, Manhattan, New York, and the Red Hook Plant, Brooklyn, New York, into navigable waters (the Hudson-Raritan Estuary) if New York City fails to meet the deadlines for achieving advanced preliminary treatment contained in the consent decree of December 30, 1982 (August 1, 1986, for the North River plant; August 1, 1987, for the Red Hook plant). Permits the Administrator to raise such cap for seasonal variation or so-called acts of God. States that violations of this Act shall be considered violations of the Clean Water Act, as well as of the consent decree. Expresses the sense of the Congress that the Administrator should not agree to any further modification of the advanced preliminary treatment schedule in the consent decree. Directs the Administrator to work with New York City, implement monitoring activities for both plants, and commence enforcement actions in the event of unexcused violations. Title II: Construction Grant Amendments - Authorizes appropriations for publicly-owned waste treatment works construction grants for FY 1986 through FY 1990. Allocates funds among the States.
United States · United States Congress · 3 January 1985
Acid Rain Control Act of 1985 - Amends the Clean Air Act to establish an interstate transport and acid precursor reduction program. Designates an acid deposition impact region comprising a long-range transport corridor of 31 States east of the Mississippi and the District of Columbia. Directs the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to report to the Congress within two years on a study of long-range transport of pollutants problems in the remaining States. Directs the Acid Precipitation Task Force to report to the appropriate congressional committees by the close of 1985 and 1987 on its research findings about acid precipitation, with recommendations for reducing its effects. Authorizes additional appropriations for FY 1985 through 1989 for the Task Force's comprehensive research plan for acid precipitation. Requires the Task Force to also conduct research on advanced flue-gas cleaning and precombustion fuel treatment technologies and inherently low-emission combustion processes. Directs the National Academy of Sciences to establish an Acid Precipitation Scientific Review Board to examine information concerning the causes and environmental effects of acid deposition, including the activities of the Task Force. Requires the Board to report to the appropriate congressional committees with recommendations for reducing acid deposition. Authorizes appropriations for FY 1985 through 1988. Directs the Administrator to report to the appropriate congressional committees on enforceable measures adopted by the States to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions. Directs the Office of Technology Assessment to report to the appropriate congressional committees on a cost-benefit analysis of such measures. Requires such committees to conduct hearings on acid deposition after receiving the aforementioned reports. Directs the Administrator to develop and report to the Congress on an inventory of sources of oxides of nitrogen in the acid deposition impact region. Directs the Administrator and the Secretary of the Treasury to report to the Congress on a joint study of a fee system on the generation of electricity in the acid deposition impact region to finance emissions reductions. Authorizes the Administrator to make grants to States or interstate agencies for developing methods to neutralize the effects of acid deposition in formerly fish-laden bodies of water. Sets forth sulfur dioxide emission reduction standards for the acid deposition impact region of ten million tons below 1980 levels by the beginning of 1994, permitting annual emissions of no more than 1.2 pounds of sulfur dioxide per million British thermal units of heat input. Includes emissions from major stationary sources with utility boilers, restricting increased emissions from sources or the start-up of new sources, except as specified. Restricts increases in emissions from major stationary sources of oxides of nitrogen, except as specified. Permits States to reallocate necessary reductions among themselves so long as the total reductions of the States involved meet the required standards. Requires each impact region State to adopt enforceable emission reduction measures for sulfur dioxide, including compliance schedules. Requires the Administrator's approval and the other Governors' perusal of such measures. Requires each major stationary source subject to an emission limitation to notify the Governor of the State, and in turn, the Administrator, within three years of its intended method of compliance. Requires sources choosing fuel substitution to be in compliance with their applicable emission limitations within five years. Requires those sources complying through the installation of a technological system of continuous emission reduction or the replacement of facilities to have entered into binding contracts for the same within five years. Subjects owners of sources in noncompliance with the applicable implementation plans to the established emission limitation schedule and a noncompliance penalty. Permits the use of the following measures to reduce emissions in addition to enforceable continuous emission reduction measures if such measures are enforceable by entities and persons other than the State in which the emissions occur: (1) least emissions dispatch to meet electric generating demand at existing generating capacity; (2) retirement of major stationary sources at an earlier than provided for date; (3) investments in energy conservation where emission reductions can be identified with such investments; (4) trading of emission reduction requirements and actual reductions through emission reduction banks or brokerage institutions; and (5) precombustion cleaning of fuels. Directs the Administrator to review emission limits for certain major sources to determine if such limits are inappropriately based upon modeling credit for stack height above good engineering practice. Requires the State and the owner of such source to adjust emission limitations accordingly. Makes it a violation of the Clean Air Act to emit an air pollutant which adversely affects the public health or welfare of another State.
United States · United States Congress · 3 January 1985
Raw Sewage Abatement Act of 1985 - Imposes a cap on raw sewage discharges from the drainage areas of the North River plant, Manhattan, New York, and the Red Hood Plant, Brooklyn, New York, into navigable waters (the Hudson-Raritan Estuary) if New York City fails to meet the deadlines for achieving advanced preliminary treatment contained in the consent decree of December 30, 1982 (August 1, 1986, for the North River plant; August 1, 1987, for the Red Hook plant). Permits the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to raise such cap for seasonal variation or so-called acts of God. States that violations of this Act shall be considered violations of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (the Clean Water Act) as well as of the consent decree. Expresses the sense of Congress that the Administrator should not agree to any further modification of the advanced preliminary treatment schedule in the consent decree. Directs the Administrator to work with New York City, implement monitoring activities for both plants, and commence enforcement actions in the event of unexcused violations.
United States · United States Congress · 3 January 1985
Florida Frontier Rivers Conservation District Act of 1985 - Establishes the Florida Frontier Rivers Conservation District in Florida. Requires the Secretary of the Interior to request the Governor of Florida to establish a Florida Frontier Rivers Conservation District Management Steering Committee, which shall develop a comprehensive management plan for the District. Requires that such plan contain: (1) a resource assessment of the District; (2) a map delineating the boundaries of the District and the areas of natural, historical, recreational, aesthetic, scenic, cultural, agricultural, and ecological significance; (3) a land use capability map and a statement of land and water use policies for the District; (4) a program for coordinating Federal, State, and local policies and programs with respect to the District; (5) a public use program; (6) financial information; (7) a program for public and local government participation in the management of the District; (8) a program for State and local government implementation of the plan; and (9) a program to implement the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act with respect to the surface and ground waters of the District. Provides that Florida shall adopt and submit the plan to the Secretary for approval. Sets forth approval procedures. Requires the Secretary to submit the approved plan to the Congress. Requires the Secretary to monitor the implementation of the plan. Requires the Secretary to provide technical and financial assistance to Florida for the purpose of developing and implementing the plan. Sets forth conditions for land acquisition by both the State and the Secretary. Requires Committee review of Federal assistance applications and proposals for direct Federal actions which involve housing, industrial park, highway, or sewage or waste treatment facility construction in the District and in Florida. Requires further review and approval or disapproval by the Secretary of such applications or proposals. Authorizes appropriations for assistance in development of the plan and for land acquisition.
United States · United States Congress · 3 January 1985
National Topsoil Preservation Act of 1985 - Establishes a National Land Resources Protection Commission which shall establish standards for stockpiling and replacing topsoil on lands where federally-assisted projects are carried out. Directs the Commission to establish minimum standards to assure that projects will not pollute existing streams, cause land slides or flooding, or substantially change the water volume carried by natural waterways adjoining the immediate construction area. Authorizes the Commission to require a plan and/or a compliance bond for a project prior to any earth moving. Authorizes appropriations.
United States · United States Congress · 3 January 1985
Amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (the Clean Water Act) to direct the Governor of each State to submit to the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency for approval a report: (1) identifying navigable waters not meeting applicable water quality standards because of pollution from nonpoint sources (e.g. rainfall runoff as opposed to identifiable pipes); (2) identifying categories of significantly polluting nonpoint sources; (3) identifying State and local programs for controlling such pollution and improving the water quality of the navigable waters; and (4) describing administrative measures to be taken. Directs the Administrator to identify the waters and the nonpoint sources of such pollution if the Governor does not submit such report within a specified time. Requires each Governor to also submit to the Administrator for approval a four-year plan for controlling nonpoint pollution and a report identifying State or Federal agency programs which might conflict with such plan, together with recommendations for modification of existing programs. Requires each four-year plan to target offending land areas for the best land management practices, including the scheduling of targeted areas and categories of nonpoint pollution for implementation of such practices. Requires additional information by way of technical and financial means to be used to improve water quality. Directs the Administrator to consolidate and convey to the appropriate Federal agencies recommended modifications of existing programs necessary to implement States' four-year plans, which such agencies will comply with to the degree possible, consistent with existing law. Provides opportunities for revision of faulty plans. Authorizes the Administrator to provide technical assistance to a local agency to develop a four-year plan if a State fails to submit a satisfactory plan and the local agency is of sufficient geographical size. Treats such local agency as a State agency for implementation assistance purposes after such plan has been approved. Directs the Administrator to convene a management conference of the affected States when any State is unable to meet its applicable water quality standards because of pollution from nonpoint sources in another State. Requires the offending State to submit a plan for approval or revise an approved plan to reduce the pollution in the affected portion of navigable waters. Directs the Administrator to provide grants to States to assist the implementation of the approved four-year plans. Limits the Federal share to a maximum of 50 percent of costs, increased to 60 percent for watersheds with significant private participation in implementing nonpoint source pollution control measures. Sets forth other terms and conditions for such grants, including reporting and administration requirements. Limits each grant per State to a maximum of 15 percent of total authorizations. Authorizes appropriations for FY 1986 through 1990. Authorizes the Administrator to give funding priority to States which have implemented effective regulatory mechanisms. Directs the Administrator to make grants to assist States with approved plans in carrying out groundwater quality protection activities which will help advance such plans. Limits the amount of such assistance. Authorizes appropriations for FY 1986 through 1990. Directs the Administrator to report annually to the appropriate congressional committees on the progress made in reducing nonpoint source pollution in navigable waters. Directs the Administrator to make a final report by January 1, 1989, analyzing the effectiveness of the plans and State participation.
United States · United States Congress · 3 January 1985
Beverage Container Reuse and Recycling Act - Prohibits the sale of carbonated beverages in beverage containers by retailers and distributors unless such containers carry a refund value of not less than five cents. Requires that retailers and distributors pay the refund on returned containers of brands sold by such retailers or distributors. Prohibits distributors and retailers from selling beverages in metal beverage containers with detachable openings. Preempts inconsistent State or local laws. Prohibits State and local governments from imposing any tax on the collection or return of refund values. Imposes penalties of up to $1,000 for violations.