- Texas Solid Waste Disposal Act, enacted in 1969 and last amended in 1997. This act authorizes a full state regulatory
program for solid waste, including industrial and hazardous waste under the jurisdiction of what today is called the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ, formerly the TNRCC
(1993-2001), and formerly the Texas Water Commission). The act sets out various permitting and enforcement authorities and puts restrictions on the location, design, and operation of hazardous waste management facilities. It also defines hazardous wastes.
- Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) of 1976. As reauthorized in 1984 by the Hazardous and Solid Waste
Amendments, this federal law creates a step-by-step management approach restricting and controlling the treatment, storage, and disposal of hazardous waste onto the land; mandates a
permitting system to ensure the safe management of all hazardous waste; and implements a system to track hazardous waste as it moves "cradle-to-grave," from the point of generation to
disposal. The 1984 amendments also banned land disposal of most hazardous wastes without prior treatment. While the Environmental Protection Agency is ultimately responsible for the
regulation and enforcement of RCRA, though in Texas much of this responsibility has been delegated to the TCEQ.
- CERCLA, the Comprehensive Emergency Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980, amended in 1986 as the Superfund
Amendment and Reauthorization Act (SARA). This federal law created a $1.6 billion "Superfund" to address spills of hazardous waste and the clean up of old, abandoned hazardous waste sites.* The Superfund Amendment and Reauthorization Act and more recent congressional action has provided an additional $13.6 billion, paid mainly through fees imposed on major chemical facilities.* However, virtually all of this money has been spent, and since 1995, the "polluter-pay" fees on industry to pay for the program have not been reauthorized by Congress, as a "trust" fund has dwindled from some $3.6 billion in 1995 to less than $1 billion by 2002*. Title III of SARA, the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act of 1986, requires major industries to report releases,
transfers, and recycling of toxic chemicals to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as part of the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) Program.
- Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974, amended in 1986 and 1996. This act, along with the RCRA, protects groundwater sources of
potable water, mandates source prevention of pollution to surface waters, and regulates the underground injection of industrial and hazardous wastes.
Other federal laws which relate to hazardous waste include the 1976 Hazardous Material Transportation Act,
implemented by the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Federal Clean Air Act, which regulates the emissions of hazardous substances into the air,
the Clean Water Act – which regulates the discharge of pollutants into surface waters and sewers -- and the Toxics Substances and Control Act, which regulates the disposal of PCBs and several other toxic compounds. In addition, state and federal laws and regulations having to do with pesticides help regulate this particular type of hazardous waste.
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