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FOREWORD

No nation in the history of the world has ever developed as fast as the United States. Starting virtually from scratch, we created in one century the world's first industrial society on a continental scale. Since we derived such great benefits from the exploitation of natural resources, it is not surprising that we equated all forms of growth with progress.

Today, however, there is a new mood in this country. We are disposed to look more carefully at our past assumptions, including those which brought us wealth, comfort, and convenience. We have learned a great deal, especially in the last decade. We have acquired a more comprehensive perception of the problems of modern society and how persistent and intractable they can be. But these problems are not beyond solution. They give way before ingenuity, perseverance, and mutual cooperation.

I think this nation is well on its way to a new era of environmental stewardship. We are beginning to realize that the earth itself, the whole biosphere, is an environment from which we cannot insulate ourselves. We are learning that while we may alter that environment, we must also be prepared to protect it and to foresee the full effects of our actions on tomorrow's world.

When future historians look back on this period, they should say it was an age of enlightenment when man first understood that his limitless capacity to innovate always takes place within nature, not outside it, and that preserving the life systems of the earth is his most sacred task.

It will take decades of heavy investment, generations of strenuous effort, and many hard years of learning to live with new habits and imperatives. But in the end we shall restore the earth-not perhaps to what it was in the past, for the past is unrecoverable- but to a new condition of wholeness, where man may live in peace.

Such a world is ours for the making.

WILLIAM D. RUCKELSHAUS
Administrator

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

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PREFACE

Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1970 transferred 15 governmental units with their functions and legal authority to create the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Since only the major laws were cited in the Plan, the Administrator, William D. Ruckelshaus, requested that a compilation of EPA legal authority be researched and published.

The publication has the primary function of providing a working document for the Agency itself. Secondarily, it will serve as a research tool for the public.

This particular volume, which constitutes the first supplement, is a product of a permanent office in the Office of Legislation, established to perform the updating function.

It is the hope of EPA that this set will assist in the awesome task of developing a better environment.

MARY LANE REED WARD GENTRY, J.D.
Assistant Director, Office of Field Operations
Office of Legislation

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

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INSTRUCTIONS

This new publication is intended to do two things. It is designed first to update the EPA Legal Compilation, which first appeared in 1973. But it is also intended to stand alone as a collection and presentation in one document of the text and legislative history of the major environmental legislation enacted during the Second Session of the 92d Congress.

In the first instance, for those using this publication in conjunction with the Compilation, the point system employed there will be continued here. Although in that work at each solely numerical point (1.1, 1.2, etc.) the complete then current text of the pertinent statutes was provided, in this publication ONLY the public law text of the latest amendment will be used because the new legislation has not yet been codified. The public law texts appear at the appropriate numerical-alphabetical point (1.32a, 1.2r, etc.) of the legislative history.

For those using this publication as an independent document, the Table of Contents has a listing of the materials included by specific environmental area.

Finally, this work is intended for general legal reference and information, not as one which may be formally cited in the legal sense, and the author disclaims responsibility for liability arising from its use. In this connection, it should be noted that the many quotations from the Congressional Record for the 92nd Congress were taken from the "unofficial" daily version which is subject to subsequent modification by the Members prior to the publication of the final official record, not available at this time.

From the outset, our concern was to make this important material available to the public as quickly as possible and we recognized that in order to accomplish this, we would have to diminish its official character to some extent. We think that it was a fair trade-off.

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