The National Environmental Committee: A Proposal to Relieve Regulatory Gridlock at Federal Facility Superfund Sites
Abstract
Federal agencies are engaged in a fierce battle with an unusual opponent--the hazardous wastes that they have generated and improperly disposed for decades at their own facilities across the nation. Since the mid-1900s, these agencies have jeopardized human health and safety and endangered the environment by discarding toxic wastes and materials at thousands of federal facility sites in every state. Consequently, many of these facilities? are "laced with almost every imaginable contaminant--toxic and hazardous wastes, fuels, solvents, and unexploded ordnances. Accordingly, these agencies have had to adopt new strategies and fundamentally change long-standing practices to promote and protect the environment. They collectively have spent tens of billions of dollars to date in an attempt to clean up their environmental messes. Estimates predict that the final clean-up costs could run into the trillions These diligent efforts have allowed the agencies to gain significant ground, yet much work remains. 12 Federal agencies have been battling to rid their facilities of this toxic menace since the mid to late 1970s. It was only then that the dangers posed by hazardous wastes at both private and federal facilities across the nation first vaulted to the forefront of national attention.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 1996
- Accession Number
- ADA444424
Entities
People
- Stuart W. Risch
Organizations
- The Judge Advocate General's Legal Center and School