Exam 2 Need to Know

Toxic Substances Control Act

CEQ urged federal government to regulate toxic substances, law passed in 1976, regulates chemical substances and mixtures with threat to health and environment WHILE ALSO not inhibiting technological growth

Why was TSCA so weak?

• many things were exempt from TSCA because there were other laws in place regulating those things

• many chemicals were “grandfathered in”

• reactive rather than proactive

• not every chemical has to be reported because of confidentiality

• EPA required to consider costs and benefits

What is CBI?

Confidential Business Information (comes into play a lot when businesses didn’t share chemicals to be tested under TSCA)

PMNs

pre-manufacturing notices required to be filed by a manufacturer before producing the chemical

REACH

Registration, evaluation, authorization, and restriction of chemicals; used by the EU, proactive, manufacturers have to prove that what they’re using is safe

chemicals regulated under TSCA

PCBs, asbestos, metalworking fluids, hexavalent chromium, dioxin, radon, formaldehyde, mercury

PCBs

polychlorinated biphenyls, used industrially & commercially, phased out in ‘79

asbestos

mineral fiber in rock and soil, in everything, heat resistant, regulated in 1986

Radon

odorless, invisible, radioactive gas in rock and soil (can seep into floor/basement through cracks)

lead

small amounts in Earth’s crust, in paints, jewelry, toys, etc., children 6 years and younger extra susceptible, effects can be acute or chronic

formaldehyde

colorless, flammable, in furniture, glues, fabric softeners, etc.

mercury

naturally occuring in Earth’s crust, in lightbulbs, thermostats, amalgam in dental fillings, is airborne, in fish and birds

Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act

under Obama, risk-based chemical assessments, increased transparency, industries ok with it because it’s better to have slightly stricter TSCA for less state-by-state chaos

pesticides in agriculture

not covered by TSCA, includes insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, rodenticides, and antimicrobials

are pesticides acutely or chronically toxic?

Can be either, but typically insecticides and rodenticides are more acutely toxic (that’s literally their whole point) and herbicides, fungicides, etc. are more chronic due to little exposure over long periods of time

Common herbicides

RoundUp & Atrazine, Glyphosate

FIFRA

Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act - must register chemicals with EPA; EPA determines if chemical will do what they claim it will do, and if it poses an unreasonable risk (considers economy too)

paralysis by analysis

bogged down in details and lawsuits

1899 Rivers and Harbors Act (“Refuse Act”)

not about pollution, but navigation - ships were being hit by barrels, waste, etc. so they barred unpermitted refuse being released to fix this

who oversaw the Rivers & Harbors Act?

Army Corps of Engineers

Water Quality Act of 1948

funding for research, money goes to states

1965 Water Quality Act

standards set by states, required State Implementation Plans (SIPs)

Why were early laws dealing with water relatively weak?

states set standards (confusing between states, can set them low, leads to race-to-the-bottom), lack of resources, no agency overseeing it

race-to-the-bottom

industries move to states with fewer rules

Senator Edmund Muskie

a policy entrepreneur from Maine who was the primary author of the Clean Water Act

What was the CWA originally called?

Federal Water Pollution Control Act

What were the two main goals of the CWA?

1. 0 discharge by 1985

2. Water is both fishable and swimmable by 1983

Does the CWA regulate ALL waters?

This is hotly contested - at some points in history it has been interpreted this way, but others argue that Congress can only regulate navigable waters/interstate waters

3 main things CWA tried to regulate

point source, non-point source, water quality standards

point source regulations

can identify the direct source of the pollution

2 main ways of dealing with point source pollution

permits and TMDL

POTW

publicly owned treatment works (sewage) needed funding to a) separate solids, b) have microorganisms break waste down, c) have filters, UV, etc. kill bacteria

Section 402 of CWA

NPDES permits (National Pollution Discharge Elimination System): said you cannot discharge in navigable waters until you have a permit

technology-forcing statute

in Section 402, says they must use best-available technology for cleanup (BAT)

Section 303(d)

TMDL - total maximum daily load (came after BAT standards)

Pittsburgh

1840s: easy coal access along Monongahela R. so many industries; 1860: 50k people living in “dirtiest city”

when was the first air pollution ordinance? was it successful?

1868, no

Donora, PA

coal-fired power plants led to “death fog,” a cloud of industrial gas and smog that killed 20 and left 7,000 hospitalized (pollution from zinc smelter produced SO2, CO, metal dust)

Clean Air Act 1970

first uniform national standards, effective, requirements for stationary and mobile sources, established NAAQs, criticized because costs and health impacts vary by location

NAAQs

National Ambient Air Quality standards w/ six criteria pollutants, primary standards (public health) and secondary standards (ecology)

What are the six criteria pollutants

ozone, particulates, lead, SO2, NOx, CO

Ozone

ground level/”bad” ozone (O3) created by chemical reactions between oxides and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in sunlight

nitrogen dioxide

from burning of fuel

sulfur dioxide

from burning fossil fuels and other industrial facilities, can lead to acid rain because SOx and NOx react with water and oxygen in air to make sulfuric acid

particulate matter

mixture of solid particles and liquid air droplets; two types: PM10 and PM2.5 (has to do with micrometers of diameter)

lead

metal and ore processing, piston-engine aircraft, waste incinerators, etc. (amount in air has dropped 98% since CAA)

carbon monoxide

colorless, odorless, harmful when inhaled; from gas stoves, furnaces, space heaters, etc.

1990 amendments to CAA

cap-and-trade for SO2 after acid rain concern, cut allowable SO2 emissions, required phase-out of ozone-depleting chemicals (revised Montreal Protocol)

percent of carbon emissions coming from energy

16% coal, 37% natural gas, 47% petroleum

energy policy approaches

oil price controls, market-oriented, short and long-term

when was OPEC created? what does it stand for? What happened shortly after?

1970s; organization of petroleum exporting countries; middle east stopped supply & price of oil skyrocketed, federal government used price controls of keep domestic production below market price

Energy Policy & Conservation Act of 1975

EPCA, response to oil crisis, established CAFE and the SPR

CAFE

Corporate Average Fuel Economy regulations - fleet-wide, slowly increased over time, NHTSA (part of DoT), truck standards introduced later but always lower than cars

when were truck standards introduced to CAFE?

1982

Carter era w/ energy

lowered speed limits, encouraged people to decrease house temperatures

Reagan era w/ energy

deregulation, limit price controls

SPR

strategic petroleum reserve, can be pulled from in times of crisis and restocked when oil is cheap again

natural gas

cheaper with fracking, produces methane

fracking

shale rock to make cracks, fluid containing toxic chemicals is injected at high pressure to release natural gas

methane policies

CAA: New Source Performance Standards and Emissions Guidelines (section 111); IRA: Methane Waste emissions charge (OBBBA postponed these)

Surface Mining Control & Reclamation Act

to address blowing up the tops of mountains for coal

who is world’s largest producer of nuclear power

U.S.

1957 Price Anderson Act

capped liability costs for utilities that have nuclear power plants after they made it legal for private companies to own reactors but none wanted to for fear of liabilities

3 major nuclear disasters

Three Mile Island (1979), Chernobyl, Ukraine (1986), Fukushima, Japan (2011)

1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act & amendments in 1987

timeline and procedure for permanent nuclear repository; DOE to build inside Yucca (but not formally recommended until 2002, and roadblocks/criticism making this not going to happen)