Laws, environmental restoration

The toxicological profiles are developed in response to the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA) of 1986 (Public Law 99-499) which amended the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA or Superfund). Section 211 of SARA also amended Title 10 of the U. S. Code, creating the Defense Environmental Restoration Program. Section 2704(a) of Title 10 of the U. S. Code directs the Secretary of Defense to notify the Secretary of Health and Human Services of not less than 25 of the most commonly found unregulated hazardous substances at defense facilities. Section 2704(b) of Title 10 of the U. S. Code directs the Administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) to prepare a toxicological profile for each substance on the list provided by the Secretary of Defense under subsection (b). 

The problem of environmental restoration, specifically the cleanup of contaminated soils and groundwaters, is one of the most important technical and societal problems we face today. To provide a background to this problem, the extent and cost, laws and regulations, important contaminants, and key issues in environmental restoration are discussed. A brief introduction to the role of separation science, in relation to environmental restoration, is also given. 

Coal is our most plentiful fossil fuel. The most inexpensive way to obtain coal that is not deeply buried is by strip-mining, in which large areas of land are stripped bare of all vegetation. This causes environmental problems when the exposed soil washes away after the coal is removed. Laws in the United States now require that most stripped areas be restored. 

It is soiously questionable and debated that civil liability is suited as an instrument to remedy environmental damage. Remedial action should remain primarily within the domain of public law and it is up to the States to decide what public instruments they are going to use to restore damage to the environment. Civil liability is only seen to have a role in compensating damage suffered by a party to his person, property or proprietary rights. The extension of civil liability law mechanisms to compensation of pure... 

Marginal 3 Could result in injury or occupational illness resulting in one or more lost work day(s), loss exceeding 10K but less than 200K, or mitigatible environmental damage without violation of law or regulation where restoration activities can be accomplished. 

---