chapter 19 and 20

The Law of the Sea Treaty extended territorial waters of coastal nations to a

12-mile limit

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, how many acres of rural land in the United States are converted to other uses each year ?

2,000,000 acres

permafrost

A condition found in cold climates, wherein ground remains frozen year-round at some depth below the surface

Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)

A zone extending to 200 miles offshore from a nation's coast, within which the 1982 Law of the Sea Treaty recognizes that nation's exclusive right to resource exploitation

environmental impact statement

An analysis of the environmental impacts to be anticipated from a proposed action and its alternatives; mandated by the national environmental policy act and legislation patterned after it

Legislation to restrict public and/or private vegetation that affects solar access has been enacted in

California

Field Act

California law that created improved construction standards for school buildings

The federal agency that is directed to establish water-quality criteria for various types of water use and to monitor compliance with water-quality standards is the

Environmental Protection Agency.

The ownership of Antarctica has been divided among the twenty nations that have been designated "consultative parties" to the Antarctic treaty.

False. No nation owns any part of Antarctica. All territorial claims were set aside under the provisions of the Antarctic treaty.

The Department of Defense and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission were among the most frequent defendants in environmental impact statement lawsuits every year from 1975 to 1985

False. The Department of the Interior and the Department of Transportation were among the most frequent defendants in EIS lawsuits every year from 1975 to 1985.

The NEPA requires that every EIS be prepared by an impartial, outside party rather than by the government agency, individual, or corporation that plans to carry out the proposed action.

False. The NEPA does not require that every EIS be prepared by an outside, impartial party not directly involved with the proposed action. Questions of lack of impartiality arise when government agencies, individuals, or corporations prepare an EIS for an action they wish to see approved.

The United States was one of only four nations to vote for the Law of the Sea Treaty.

False. The United States was one of only four nations to vote against the Law of the Sea Treaty

Which of the following statements is false concerning the 1872 Mining Law?

Mining companies were required to pay royalties on the materials mined to the federal government to help pay for the enforcement of the legislation.

The federal law that first banned the dumping or discharge of wastes into any body of navigable water in the United States was the

Refuse Act of 1899

Which of the following laws was the first to include provisions for the handling of hazardous waste?

Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976

The principal approach to assigning surface-water rights in the eastern United States is based on the

Riparian Doctrine.

Kyoto Protocol of 1997

The Kyoto Protocol was adopted as the first addition to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), an international treaty that committed its signatories to develop national programs to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases.

Law of the Sea Treaty

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), also called the Law of the Sea Convention or the Law of the Sea treaty, is the international agreement that resulted from the third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS III), which took place between 1973 and 1982.

Doctrine of Prior Appropriation

The principle of surface-water law by which users of water from a given source have priority rights to it on the basis of relative time of first us

The federal government owns over 50% of the land in which of the following states?

Utah

Superfund

a United States federal government program designed to fund the cleanup of sites contaminated with hazardous substances and pollutants. Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA): Also known as the "superfund" this statute is aimed at cleaning up already polluted areas. This statute assigns liability to almost anyone associated with the improper disposal of hazardous waste, and is designed to provide funding for clean up.

Precautionary Principle

a concept in international law/diplomacy under which nations' activities may be restricted if there is reasonable likelihood that those activities might be harmful; significant damage (as to the environment) need not already have occurred.

An environmental impact statement should include

a description of the proposed action, its purpose, and why it is needed, a discussion of various alternatives, an indication of the anticipated environmental consequences of the action. = All of the above are correct.

President Ronald Reagan's Executive Order 12291 in 1981 decreed that

a pollution-control regulation may be put forth only if its potential benefits outweigh its potential costs.

The Tower Latino Americano in Mexico City is stabilized by pilings driven into

a strong sand layer

The Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA) make provisions for

allowing the EPA to impose stiff penalties for violations of CAAA, further reductions of vehicle emissions, reduction of SO2 emissions in power plants. = All of the above are correct.

The american rule, or "Rule of Reasonable Use," puts forth the idea that one person's water use should not be so great that it deprives neighboring property owners of water.

american rule

The Leaning Tower of Pisa leans because of

an underlying unstable clay layer

Which of the following geological properties cannot be represented on a map?

bedrock geology, soil types, topography = all of the above

States subscribing to the "California doctrine" try to combine both the Riparian Doctrine and the Doctrine of Prior Appropriation concerning issues of water rights.

california doctrine

computers play an important role in land-use planning because of their capacity to manipulate large volumes of quantitative information.

computers

In some states, landowners whose properties overlie the same body of ground water have correlative rights specifying that each landowner is entitled to a share of the water that is proportional to the individual landowner's share of the overlying land.

correlative

National Environmental Policy Act

created the Council on Environmental Quality in the Executive Office of the President

The reason for the St. Francis Dam disaster was

disintegration of the surrounding rocks after the reservoir was filled

Clean Air Act of 1963

empowered federal agencies to undertake air pollution control efforts

engineering geology is concerned with making structures safe and stable by taking a site's geology into account.

engineering

The english rule, or "Rule of Capture," gives property owners the right to all the ground water they can extract from beneath their own land.

english rule

An environmental impact statement is an analysis of the environmental impacts expected to occur as a result of a proposed action and its alternatives.

environmental impact statement

Environmental Protection Agency

establish enforcement of air and water quality standards

An exclusive economic zone is a zone extending up to 200 miles from the shoreline of a nation's coast within which that nation has exclusive rights to mineral-resource exploitation.

exclusive economic zone

Of the following geologic hazards, the one causing the greatest property damage in the United States is (figure 19.9, p. 476)

expansive soil

Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976

gave EPA the authority to regulate all chemical substances entering the environment

English Rule (Rule of Capture)

gives property owners the right to all ground water they can extract from under their own land, sometimes considered surface-water rights

The English Rule or "Rule of Capture"

gives property owners the right to sell all the ground water they can extract from under their own land.

Resources Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976

includes provisions for assisting state and local governments in developing solid-waste management plans

flood insurance

insurance for a condition in which stream stage is above channel bank height

Solid Waste Disposal Act of 1965

intended mainly to help state and local governments to dispose of municipal solid wastes

The use of physical models to understand the behavior of geological systems

is an important tool in the design of safe structures in high-risk areas

The failure of the French to complete the construction of the Panama Canal was caused in large part by

lack of attention to geological factors

A common problem associated with geologic-hazard mitigation laws is

lack of scientific information on which to base sensible regulations, wording that fails to specify fully what actions must be done and by whom, provisions that apply typically to new structures and not existing ones. = All of the above are correct

land-use planning attempts to make the best use of each parcel of land.

land-use

Which of these possible mineral resources is not associated with the Pacific continental shelf of the United States?

manganese nodules

The 1961 Antarctic treaty failed to address the question of

mineral resources

multiple use is a land-use strategy in which the same land is used for two or more purposes at the same time.

multiple use

The occurrence of seismic activity (Cape Ann earthquakes) in the eighteenth century has raised questions concerning the siting of nuclear power plants in

new england

Clean Water Act of 1977

nominally required all municipal sewage-treatment facilities to undertake secondary treatment by 1983

What fraction of land in the United States is controlled by the federal government?

one-third

The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 applies

only to the surface mining and deep mining of coal.

permafrost is a condition in which the ground remains frozen year-round.

permafrost

permafrost table is the top of the permafrost zone.

permafrost table

The method chosen to transport oil from Alaska's North Slope to refineries in the continental United States involved

pipelines across Alaska and subsequent tanker transport

A 1981 survey of dams in the United States by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers revealed that the single greatest cause of unsafe dams was

poorly designed spillways

Buried sections of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline were refrigerated to

prevent thawing of the permafrost

The Doctrine of prior appropriation is that principle of surface-water law by which whoever is first to use water from a given body of surface water has top-priority rights to that water.

prior appropriation

Maps are limited by

problems of scale

The Antarctic Protection Act of 1990

prohibits Antarctic mineral prospecting and development by United States citizens and companies.

Federal Flood Disaster Protection Act

provided for federally subsidized flood insurance for property owners in identified flood-hazard areas

Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977

required that the approximate surface topography be restored after the surface-mining of coal

Air Quality Act of 1965

required the establishment of air-quality standards to be based on the known harmful effects of various air pollutants

The precautionary principle is used to

restrain certain actions that might result in irreversible damage to the global environment.

The term riparian is derived from the Latin word for "bank," as in riverbank

riparian

The riparian doctrine is that principle of surface-water law that gives all landowners bordering a body of water equal rights to it.

riparian doctrine

sequential use is a land-use strategy in which the same land is used for two or more different purposes, one after another

sequential use

A state where the "California Doctrine" is applied to surface-water rights is

texas

multiple use

the land-use practice in which a given piece of land is used for two or more purposes simultaneously

sequential use

the land-use principle by which the same land is used for two or more different purposes, one after another

What was the main complicating factor in building the Rotterdam (Holland) subway?

the presence of shallow ground water

Riparian Doctrine

the principle of surface-water law by which all landowners bordering a body of water have equal rights to it

permafrost table

the top of the permanently frozen (permafrost) zone

torts are violations of individual personal or property rights that are punishable under civil law.

torts

An unfortunate side effect of the availability of subsidized flood insurance has been to encourage development in flood-prone areas

true

Most of the federally owned land in the United States is in the west.

true

The Environmental Protection Agency has been given the authority to require toxicity testing of all chemicals entering the environment and to regulate them as necessary

true

The prevailing principle of surface-water rights in the western United States is the Doctrine of Prior Appropriation.

true