The Clean Air Act (CAA) of 1970, and its subsequent amendments, is a complex, comprehensive law that recognizes the existence of serious air pollution, establishes standards to protect public health and the environment, and authorizes the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to set binding national standards for common and widespread outdoor air pollutants (also called criteria pollutants).

The goal of the Act was to set and achieve National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) in every state by 1975. The setting of maximum pollutant standards was coupled with directing the states to develop state implementation plans (SIP's) applicable to appropriate industrial sources in the state.

The Act was amended in 1977 primarily to set new goals (dates) for achieving attainment of NAAQS since many areas of the country had failed to meet the deadlines. The 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act in large part were intended to meet unaddressed or insufficiently addressed problems, such as air toxics, acid rain, ground-level ozone, and stratospheric ozone depletion.

The 1990 amendments tightened pollution control requirements in cities that had not reached attainment, mandated a schedule for control technology for all major toxic air emitters, and listed 189 substances (hazardous air pollutants [HAP's] -- also called air toxics) subject to special controls. The EPA can add other pollutants that may present a threat of adverse health effects or environmental effects, but they cannot be listed as hazardous unless they meet certain conditions.

The 1990 amendments also required reductions in acid rain emissions, tighter auto emissions standards, mandated cleaner gasoline and clean-fueled vehicles in the nation's most polluted cities, and phased out production of chemicals that contribute to depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer.

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As defined by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Environmental Justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. Fair treatment means that no group of people, including a racial, ethnic, or socioeconomic group, should bear a disproportionate share of the negative environmental consequences resulting from industrial, municipal, and commercial operations or the execution of federal, state, local, and tribal programs and policies.

EPA has developed an environmental justice strategy that focuses on the Agency's efforts in addressing these concerns.

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The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA, pronounced 'rick-rah') set forth a framework for the management of non-hazardous wastes, as well as giving the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the authority to control hazardous waste from the 'cradle-to-grave, including the generation, transportation, treatment, storage, and disposal of hazardous waste

Solid waste is defined by RCRA as garbage, refuse, sludge, and other discarded materials (including solids, liquids and contained gases) resulting from industrial, commercial, mining, and agricultural operations, and from community operations. [Sewage, industrial wastewater discharges and certain radioactive materials are regulated under other statutes].

RCRA required states to have solid waste management plans (SWMP), prohibited open dumping, and required EPA to establish criteria for solid waste landfills.

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The Toxics Substances Control Act (TSCA), enacted by Congress in 1976, required the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to review the health and environmental effects of new chemicals and chemicals already in commerce. It gave EPA the ability to track the 75,000 industrial chemicals currently produced by, or imported into, the United States. EPA screens those chemicals, and can require reporting or testing of those that may pose an environmental or human-health hazard (TSCA does not cover pesticides, drugs or nuclear materials). EPA can also ban the manufacture and import of those chemicals that pose an unreasonable risk.

EPA has mechanisms in place to track the thousands of new chemicals that industry develops each year with either unknown or dangerous characteristics, and can then control these chemicals, as necessary, to protect human health and the environment. TSCA supplements other Federal statutes, including the Clean Air Act and the Toxic Release Inventory.

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The Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) of 1972, commonly known as the Clean Water Act (CWA), is the major federal statute aimed at controlling water pollution, and set the basic structure for regulating discharges of pollutants to waters of the United States.

The 1977 amendments to the CWA law gave the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the authority to set effluent (wastewater) standards on an industry basis (technology-based) and continued the requirements to set water quality standards for all contaminants in surface waters. The CWA makes it unlawful for any person to discharge any pollutant from a point source (sources of water pollution that discharge contaminants through a pipe or other discrete point) into navigable waters unless a NPDES (national pollutant elimination system) permit is obtained under the Act.

The 1977 amendments focused on toxic pollutants. The CWA was reauthorized in 1987, and continued the focus on toxic pollutants, authorized citizen suit provisions, and funded sewage treatment plants (POTW's -- publicly owned treatment works) under the Construction Grants Program, gradually shifting the responsibility for financing the construction of sewage treatment systems to state and local governments

The CWA provides for the delegation by EPA of many permitting, administrative, and enforcement aspects of the law to state governments. In states with the authority to implement the CWA programs, EPA retains oversight responsibilities.

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Abandoned, idled, or under-used industrial and commercial facilities where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived environmental contamination.

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In November 2001, the U.S. House and Senate passed legislation banning new Great Lakes oil and gas drilling for two years. The federal rule also requires a study of the environmental impact of drilling by the Army Corps of Engineers during the two-year moratorium. Just last year, Wisconsin placed a permanent ban on drilling beneath the Great Lakes, and Michigan has introduced legislation to do the same.