Environmental Laws and Policies

The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), which was originally enacted into law in 1974, focuses on ensuring that public drinking water meets appropriate safety standards; in contrast, the Clean Water Act regulates pollution in our nation's lakes, rivers, and other bodies of water. In 1984 each national interim primary drinking water regulation promulgated before such date shall be deemed to be a national primary drinking water regulation. Provides that no such regulation shall be required to comply with specified standards under this Act unless such regulation is amended to establish a different maximum contaminant level after the date of enactment of such amendments. In 1996 the amendment targeted resources to address the greatest health risks, added some regulatory flexibility, provided funding for federal drinking water mandates, and aimed to improve water system compliance capacity.

Prohibits the manufacture of chemicals that are not on their pre-approved list of products, it was created because before the las, all the chemicals were unregulated. It officially became a law on October 1st 1976.Its three main objectives are to assess and regulate new commercial chemicals before they enter the market, to regulate chemicals already existing in 1976 that posed an "unreasonable risk to health or to the environment", as for example PCB's, lead, mercury and radon, and to regulate these chemicals' distribution and use.

The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) gives EPA the authority to control hazardous waste from the "cradle-to-grave." This includes the generation, transportation, treatment, storage, and disposal of hazardous waste. RCRA also set forth a framework for the management of non-hazardous solid wastes. It addressed the increasing problems the nation faced from our growing volume of municipal and industrial waste

Surface mining control and reclamation act of 1977;
An Act to provide for the cooperation between the Secretary of the Interior and the States with respect to the regulation of surface coal mining operations, and the acquisition and reclamation of abandoned mines, and for other purposes."

The CERCLA ( comprehensive, Environmental Response, and Compensation liability act) Is a law created a tax on the chemical and petroleum industries and provided broad Federal authority to respond directly to releases or threatened releases of hazardous substances that may endanger public health or the environment. In 1980 stressed the importance of permanent remedies and innovative treatment technologies in cleaning up hazardous waste sites;required Superfund actions to consider the standards and requirements found in other State and Federal environmental laws and regulations;provided new enforcement authorities and settlement tools; increased State involvement in every phase of the Superfund program;increased the focus on human health problems posed by hazardous waste sites;encouraged greater citizen participation in making decisions on how sites should be cleaned up; and increased the size of the trust fund to $8.5 billion. The purpose of this 1990 model order is to improve the quality of remedial actions performed by private parties.

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), also called the Law of the Sea Convention or the Law of the Sea treaty, is the international agreement that resulted from the third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS III), which took place between 1973 and 1982. The Law of the Sea Convention defines the rights and responsibilities of nations with respect to their use of the world's oceans, establishing guidelines for businesses, the environment, and the management of marine natural resources. The Convention, concluded in 1982, replaced four 1958 treaties.

An Act to provide for the development of repositories for the disposal of high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel, to establish a program of research, development, and demonstration regarding the disposal of high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel, and for other purposes

A free-standing law, the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act of 1986 (EPCRA) was commonly known as SARA Title III. Its purpose is to encourage and support emergency planning efforts at the state and local levels and to provide the public and local governments with information concerning potential chemical hazards present in their communities.

The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer is an international treaty adopted in 1987 and enforced in 1989. It was designed to protect the ozone layer by phasing out the production of substances that are responsible for ozone depletion. This was the result of several scientific theories that stated that the depletion of the ozone layer would lead to an increase in radiation on the surface, resulting in an increase in skin cancer and damage to crops.

The Oil Pollution Act (OPA) of 1990 streamlined and strengthened EPA's ability to prevent and respond to catastrophic oil spills. A trust fund financed by a tax on oil is available to clean up spills when the responsible party is incapable or unwilling to do so. The OPA requires oil storage facilities and vessels to submit to the Federal government plans detailing how they will respond to large discharges.

The Energy Policy Act of 1992 (EPACT) created a framework for a
competitive wholesale electricity generation market and established a
new category of electricity producer, the exempt wholesale generator
(EWG). These EWGs were not subject to the constraints on nonutility
electricity generation specified in the Public Utility Holding Company
Act, which made it easier for them to enter the wholesale electricity
market. To revise energy reduction goals and performance
requirements for federal buildings, including a timetable for
reduced energy consumption.

This bill requires the President to develop and implement a Global Food Security Strategy to promote global food security, resilience, and nutrition. regarding program ineligibility, wetland delineation, consultation and cooperation requirements. Moreover, it clarifies the definition of agricultural lands in the Memorandum of Agreement signed with the Department of the Army, the Department of Interior, and the Environmental Protection Agency, on January 6, 1994

The Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA) was passed on August 3, 1996. The FQPA amended the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and the Federal Food Drug and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA)

The Kyoto Protocol is an international treaty adopted in 1997 and enacted in 2005. It extended the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that commits State Parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, based on the premise that global warming exists and human-made CO2 emissions have caused it.

It was drafted as a result of a resolution adopted in 1963 at a meeting of members of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The act covers 35,000 different species. The law is not required by each country, rather each country can choose to follow the laws to receive financial compensation. All member states of the United Nations are party to the treaty, with the exception of Andorra, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Federated States of Micronesia, Haiti, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, South Sudan, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Turkmenistan, and Tuvalu. UN observer the Holy See is also not a member. The Faroe Islands, an autonomous country in the Kingdom of Denmark, is also treated as a non-Party to CITES (both the Danish mainland and Greenland are part of CITES).