DJ FLJ THE UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCYMD Suppl. I. Legal Compilation Statutes and Legislative History Executive Orders Regulations Guidelines and Reports Stanford Law Library 3 6105 06 137 543 7 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402. Price $2.20. Stock Number 5500-00125 FOREWORD America's journey to environmental awareness has been a relatively recent one. Not so many years ago Americans were still living under the illusion that a land as vast as ours was blessed with indestructible natural resources and beauty. We continued the exploitation of those resources and scattered unplanned communities across huge areas of open space. Large amounts of fuel were needed for the autos that took us to work from distant suburbs, and the air became laden with their dense emissions. Pesticides were used indiscriminantly by persons unaware of their effects on the food chain of plants and animals. Our rivers became contaminated with waste from homes and industries. Our landscape was marred by litter. As the environmentalist movement gained impetus, attention was focused on these matters. Rachael Carson's book, Silent Spring, in 1962 awakened Americans to the hazards of pesticides. The oil spills of the Torrey Canyon in 1967 and at Santa Barbara, California in 1969 dramatized another environmental hazard. The first Earth Day on April 20, 1970, a coordinated program of teach-ins across the nation, helped to focus Congressional attention on the strength of the environmental movement. Congress responded by approving the President's Reorganization Plan No. 3 which expanded the federal commitment to environmental concerns and consolidated 15 Federal organizations under the Environmental Protection Agency. At the same time, Congress began enacting far-reaching legislation to provide EPA with specific authority for controlling pollution. These measures included the Clean Air Amendments in 1970, and the Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments, Federal Environmental Pesticide Control Act, the Noise Control Act, and the Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act, all in 1972. Congress also passed the Resource Recovery Act in 1970 and extended the Solid Waste Disposal Act in 1973. As the Agency began taking action under these laws, Americans gradually realized that very real changes were required in our accustomed ways of doing business. We realized that our effort frequently conflicted with powerful and legitimate interests in both the public and private sectors. Our administrative, judicial and political processes now have the task of resolving these conflicts. iii iv They must do so by weighing all the interests which are affected in a sensitive and informed manner. Quick access to the legal dimensions of these problems is essential if conflicts are to be efficiently and fairly resolved. The work of the present day environmentalist is less glamorous than that of four or five years ago, but it is essential if we are to face the continuing challenge of protecting our fragile and perishable natural resources-and ultimately ourselves-from destruction. I hope you will find this manual helpful as we strive to create a society where we can live and work in harmony with the natural world surrounding us. Russell E. Train U.S. Environmental Protection Agency |