Environmental Laws

Federal and state laws that protect the environment affect businesses of all kinds, not just developers. Consequently, numerous firms have sprung up that help companies navigate this area. To succeed, such firms must be knowledgeable about many areas of the law beyond their expertise in environmental law. This paper will examine the breadth of knowledge required for a successful environmental consulting firm.

This hypothetical firm provides services for environmental site assessments, environmental compliance audits, discharge permit acquisitions, and environmental liability assessments associated with real property transfers. In addition to environmental law, the firm would need to be familiar with administrative law, contract law, labor law, and real property law (land use control).

Providing services such as discharge permit acquisitions and site assessments will necessarily involve Section 404 of the Clean Water Act, which Congress enacted in 1972. Though this section was not intended as a comprehensive tool to protect wetlands, court decisions and agency interpretations have greatly expanded the jurisdiction of Section 404. Consequently, decisions made under Section 404 do not necessarily reflect a broad policy consensus but rather a bureaucratic process influenced by many factors.

In the 19th century, wetlands were viewed as a nuisance, a piece of land to be reclaimed. Indeed, the U.S. government made reclamation of wetlands a national

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up programs designed to reduce the amount of waste, in part by recycling. RCRA regulates how hazardous wastes are to be handled. When a company violates RCRA, then CERCLA may apply. However, RCRA mostly addresses ongoing situations involving hazardous waste. Thus, under RCRA, the EPA can sue for injunctive relief to force a company to stop the improper disposal of hazardous waste at a particular site. Private parties may also sue under RCRA, and unlike CERCLA, they can recover attorneys' fees. Consequently, a landowner can sue an adjacent landowner for contaminating the land. Congress also authorized the EPA to track hazardous wastes as their source with the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), enacted in 1976. The EPA tracks the 75,000 types of chemicals produced in the United States, regularly testing them to ensure all potential hazards are known. This vigilance is required because many chemicals once thought to be safe actually pose a threat to human health and the environment. Some substances can be disposed of safely, while others pose such a risk that their manufacture must be banned completely. Similarly, the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) authorizes the EPA to regulate the ma

Category: Government - E