Public Protections
Environmental Laws & Acts
“The purposes of this Act are: To declare a national policy which will encourage productive and enjoyable harmony between man and his environment; to promote efforts which will prevent or eliminate damage to the environment and biosphere...”
— National Environmental Policy Act
The following is meant to outline the importance of protections. The above quote is meant to highlight the purpose of the National Environmental Policy Act with the intention of reinvigorating attention to purpose. Clearly, it’s time to rethink.
U.S. environmental Laws and Acts were created to protect land, water, habitat, and people. Each was enacted in order to preserve important and finite habitat or ecosystems, or due to public outcry on serious, ongoing safety issues. Laws and Acts are complex and amended many times throughout decades or eras. It can take years or decades for the system to catch up with public need. Some issues go unresolved, or remain in ongoing power cycles between communities and corporations. Still, the collective voice of every generation can be heard in the effort to protect land, water, and the environment from those who profit from it.
Reading books by Rebecca Solnit motivated me to look more closely into the policies that drive how we protect or harm land, water, and humans. Articles by George Lakoff have inspired me to adopt some of the recommended language he promotes for democratic activism. These, and many other texts, have informed how I approach my creative endeavors.
While this list is not comprehensive, this in-progress guide highlights key public and environmental protections with excerpts from each Law or Act that summarize initial or continuing primary purpose.
Significant Laws and Acts are listed at earliest enactment, along with basis Laws and Acts. When the name of the Law or Act changes, it is denoted below as earliest enactment date; the basis Law or Act may reflect a much earlier date. Each links to the respective official governing website for more information.
Note: Many historical PDF documents of Acts and Laws formerly available for public view have been removed and archived from the EPA website by the current administration. Some can be found via Internet search. Since 2017, Data Refuge and EPA.archive.work have been working to preserve these documents, as they are important to maintaining contextual and historical reference for our current public safety standards and for future generations.
Protection Acts
A select list of significant Acts and excerpts relevant to the basis for which they were created.
1990s
National Geologic Mapping Act Reauthorization Act
(NGMARA)
1992
43 U.S.C. 31.
Report 115 515; Accompanies H.R.4033
The NGMARA is amended from the National Geologic Mapping Act Reauthorization Act of 1992, which established the National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program (NCGMP)
Purpose:
This program was designed to foster cooperation and coordination between the United States Geological Survey and the State Geologic Surveys in generating modern, detailed, digitized, geologic maps in a cost effective and efficient manner. These maps are intended to foster resource development, environmental protection, and identification and mitigation of natural hazards. Geologic maps are records of the nature and distribution of rocks and soils, water, energy and mineral resources both on the surface and subsurface. There are three subcomponents to the NCGMP: FEDMAP--A federal mapping effort by the U.S. Geological Survey; STATEMAP--A state mapping effort by State Geologic Surveys; and EDMAP--University programs that support geologic mapping projects for undergraduate and graduate students.
Why Its Important:
This Act cites obtaining geologic map data: mineral, energy and water resource exploration; toxic and nuclear waste disposal; environmental land use planning; decreasing the impact of a multitude of natural hazards; constructing and maintaining infrastructure; and geoscience research.
National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program
1970s
Clean Air Act
(CAA)
1970
42 U.S.C. §7401 et seq.
The CAA is based on a previous version of the Clean Air Act (CAA) of 1963 ••
From the 2015 amended 1970 Clean Air Act
The Congress finds:
(1) that the predominant part of the Nation’s population is located in its rapidly expanding metropolitan and other urban areas, which generally cross the boundary lines of local jurisdictions and often extend into two or more States
(2) that the growth in the amount and complexity of air pollution brought about by urbanization, industrial development, and the increasing use of motor vehicles, has resulted in mounting dangers to the public health and welfare, including injury to agricultural crops and livestock, damage to and the deterioration of property, and hazards to air and ground transportation;
(3) that air pollution prevention (that is, the reduction or elimination, through any measures, of the amount of pollutants produced or created at the source) and air pollution control at its source is the primary responsibility of States and local governments; and
(4) that Federal financial assistance and leadership is essential for the development of cooperative Federal, State, regional, and local programs to prevent and control air pollution.
“Follow through with oversight and enforcement. One of the reasons the 1967 Air Quality Act failed and thus spurred Congress to enact a tough national air quality program in 1970 was the almost complete lack of enforcement of the earlier statute. A similar fate befell the 1970 amendments and has continued to plague implementation of the Clean Air Act ever since (although the enforcement activity has increased somewhat in recent years).”
— Paul Rogers served as Chair of the House Subcommittee on Health and the Environment during the 1970 Clean Air Act deliberations.
1970s
Clean Water Act
(CWA)
1972
33 U.S.C. §1251 et seq.
The CWA is based on the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) of 1948
Environmental Protection Agency
From the amended 1972 Act
Declaration of Goals and Policy:
The objective of this Act is to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the Nation’s waters. In order to achieve this objective it is hereby declared that, consistent with the provisions of this Act—
(1) it is the national goal that the discharge of pollutants into the navigable waters be eliminated by 1985;
(2) it is the national goal that wherever attainable, an interim goal of water quality which provides for the protection and propagation of fish, shellfish, and wildlife and provides for recreation in and on the water be achieved by July 1, 1983;
(3) it is the national policy that the discharge of toxic pollutants in toxic amounts be prohibited;
(4) it is the national policy that Federal financial assistance be provided to construct publicly owned waste treatment works;
(5) it is the national policy that areawide treatment management planning processes be developed and implemented to assure adequate control of sources of pollutants in each State;
(6) it is the national policy that a major research and demonstration effort be made to develop technology necessary to eliminate the discharge of pollutants into the navigable waters, waters of the contiguous zone and the oceans; and
(7) it is the national policy that programs for the control of nonpoint sources of pollution be developed and implemented in an expeditious manner so as to enable the goals of this Act to be met through the control of both point and nonpoint sources of pollution.
1960s
National Environmental Policy Act
(NEPA)
1969
42 U.S.C. §4321 et seq.
Purpose:
To declare a national policy which will encourage productive and enjoyable harmony between man and his environment; to promote efforts which will prevent or eliminate damage to the environment and biosphere and stimulate the health and welfare of man; to enrich the understanding of the ecological systems and natural resources important to the Nation; and to establish a Council on Environmental Quality.
— From the amended 1969 Act
Congressional Declaration of National Environmental Policy
It is the continuing responsibility of the Federal Government to use all practicable means, consist with other essential considerations of national policy, to improve and coordinate Federal plans, functions, programs, and resources to the end that the Nation may --
1. fulfill the responsibilities of each generation as trustee of the environment for succeeding generations;
2. assure for all Americans safe, healthful, productive, and aesthetically and culturally pleasing surroundings;
3. attain the widest range of beneficial uses of the environment without degradation, risk to health or safety, or other undesirable and unintended consequences;
4. preserve important historic, cultural, and natural aspects of our national heritage, and maintain, wherever possible, an environment which supports diversity, and variety of individual choice;
5. achieve a balance between population and resource use which will permit high standards of living and a wide sharing of life's amenities; and
6. enhance the quality of renewable resources and approach the maximum attainable recycling of depletable resources.
