mara 470 final
What is an "effluent limitation" under the Clean Water Act?
"Effluent Limitations" are limits on the quantity or concentration of pollutants that some point source may discharge.
What is an injunction?
A judicial order that stops activities.
An "estuary" is:
A place where fresh water and ocean water mix, and an essential breeding ground for many wild animals and fish.
Judy is a new project manager at the EPA in its Air Pollution division. Her supervisor assigns her the task of determining the best "health-based standard" for carbon dioxide, which the EPA has never before regulated. Judy feels confused by the assignment. What does the supervisor mean by a "health-based" regulation under the Clean Air Act?
A regulation that defines maximum "healthy" levels of pollutants in the ambient air and mandates that all stationary sources of those pollutants find ways to keep ambient air within those levels.
What is the primary cause of nonpoint source water pollution in rivers and streams?
Agriculture
A species is considered a threatened species when the species is likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future throughout:
All or a significant portion of its range
What type of party does not comply with environmental laws if they are not within their economic best interest?
Amoral Calculators.
Intrepid attorney Perry Mason discovers that the murder victim in his case, who was the owner of a factory near the local river, obtained a "point source" NPDES permit for his site immediately before his untimely death. Perry Mason has not yet visited the factory site, but using his powers of deduction and the existence of a "point source" permit, he knows that somewhere on the property he will find something in particular. What does Perry Mason expect to find there?
An open pipe or drainage ditch that flows from the facility into navigable waters.
Which of the following is charged with protecting the navigability of the nation's waterways and protection of wetlands?
Army Corps of Engineers
Superfund refers to which of the following?
CERCLA
CERCLA and RCRA both regulate certain hazardous materials, but differ significantly in their applicability at different points in time. What best describes this difference?
CERCLA is mostly retrospective and RCRA is mostly prospective.
The federal government's basis of regulating wetlands is through the _____________ ______________.
Commerce Clause
A corporation will be liable for the criminal acts of its employees and agents done within the scope of their employment with the intent to benefit the corporation. This is known as:
Corporate Criminal Liability
It is estimated that about 20% of carbon emissions come from:
Deforestation
The Multilateral Fund is used to help _________________ countries decrease their use of CFCs by helping fund CFC alternative technologies.
Developing
Assume that in response to political pressure and litigation by various special interest groups, the EPA agrees to list carbon dioxide as a "criteria pollutant" to address global warming concerns. The EPA then promulgates regulations about the appropriate maximum levels for this criteria pollutant. What is the primary mechanism for implementing and enforcing these new standards?
Each state's SIP will have to include a detailed plan for attaining the required levels of carbon dioxide in the ambient air.
The Endangered Species Act protects only species that are listed as:
Endangered and Threatened.
The framework that focuses on distributing harm equally:
Environmental justice.
Which of the following addresses the toxic substances in pesticides and other agricultural chemicals?
FIFRA
For what violations are criminal sanctions most typical?
Falsifying documents. Tampering with monitoring equipment. Repeated violations.
Regarding the 5 P's, which of the following deals with subsidizing or giving tax credits for environmentally friendly activities?
Financial Payments.
In the case of Massachusetts v. EPA, the major findings of the court include:
Greenhouse gases are air pollutants under the Clean Air Act. In "climate" context, states have a lower threshold for standing than private parties.
Which of the following is NOT one of the categories of those personally liable under CERCLA?
Household consumers.
What are the traditional elements to determine if a plaintiff has standing to bring an action in court?
Injury in fact, causation, redressability of harm
The Constitution allows for the taking of privately owned property for public use when:
Just compensation is paid. The taking is indeed good for the public use or good.
What is the National Priorities List?
NPL is the list of the most serious uncontrolled and polluted waste sites identified for long-term remedial action under Superfund.
What does NPDES stand for?
National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
Where is Love Canal located?
Niagara Falls, New York
Cody runs several businesses, including an older facility that puts lots of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere. He obtains the standard "allowance" for emitting one ton of sulfur dioxide per year into the air. Cody decides that the facility is not very profitable, and that he could make more money if he scales back operations and sells his allowance to a competitor who has a more successful plant. What would the legal consequences be if this sale was discovered?
Nothing, because the EPA intends sulfur dioxide allowances to be transferable/tradable.
Peggy likes grilling meat for her family on a charcoal grill, but she is wasteful with the lighter fluid, which contains listed hazardous wastes. In fact, she regularly discards bottles that are half-full of lighter fluid, throwing them into the trash, which the garbage men take away a few days later. If her ex-husband Hank reports her to the EPA for violations of the RCRA, what is the likely result?
Nothing, because there is a categorical exemption under the RCRA for household or municipal wastes like this.
While most environmental statues (CAA, CWA, RCRA, etc.) regulate the actions of individual polluters (and substances they introduce into the environment), CERCLA instead regulates:
Places - contaminated sites.
Dumpitt Inc., has received a phone message from their legal counsel stating that the EPA has listed the firm as a "PRP" in a CERCLA matter. Dumpitt's management is concerned because they are not sure what this means, and their lawyer rarely returns their phone calls. What is a "PRP" for purposes of CERCLA?
Potentially Responsible Party
What term does the Clean Water Act use for municipal sewage treatment systems, and what regulations apply?
Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTWs) and sources discharging into them are subject to the "pretreatment program."
Which of the following addresses the regulation of the disposal of solid wastes?
RCRA
CFCs were originally used in:
Refrigerants Fire Extinguishers Aerosols
Which of the following doctrines has been used to convict high level employees?
Responsible Corporate Officer Doctrine.
What model of administrative agency would be comprised of personnel who are experts in what they do and will rely on professional judgment to carry out the will of Congress?
Scientific Expertise.
Why is is so difficult to regulate toxic substances?
Scientific uncertainty: substances are not known to be hazardous until much later.
The principal protection of wetlands is provided by:
Section 404 of the Clean Water Act.
In response to growing public concerns about "global warming," a group of student activists demands that the EPA designate carbon dioxide as a "criteria pollutant," so that limitations on emissions could come into effect for major urban areas. What other pollutants already have this designation?
Six. Ozone, particulate matter, sulfur oxides, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and lead.
Which of the following is the appropriate meaning of SEPs?
Supplemental environmental projects.
The framework that focuses on both environmental protection and developmental interests:
Sustainable development.
If the EPA brings a cleanup and recovery action against a certain company as the sole defendant (despite the fact that their contribution to the contamination was far less than others), what percentage of the cleanup costs will the company bear?
The CERCLA defendant has joint and several liability, and is therefore liable for 100% of the costs.
What clause makes federal environmental laws applicable to the states?
The Commerce Clause.
Car Wash Inc., pumps water from a well to use at its "touchless" car wash. The well water, however, contains alarming amounts of kryptonite hydroxide, a hazardous waste. The EPA insists the well itself is now hazardous waste. The rule for this categorization is usually called:
The Contained-In Rule.
Who acts as the attorney for the Environmental Protection Agency?
The Department of Justice.
Who has the primary authority for most environmental statutes?
The EPA (Enviromental protection agency) has primary authority for most environmental statues.
Under the Clean Air Act, the EPA has authority (or even a duty) to identify and regulate certain air pollutants as "criteria pollutants." What is the significance of the EPA designating an airborne substance as a "criteria pollutant."
The EPA must promulgate and enforce National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for each of these criteria pollutants.
Perry Mason suspects the victim's killer is a gardener at Southview Estate who was being blackmailed by the victim, a local factory owner. Attorney Mason finds during his investigation that the state environmental agency has long considered Southview Estate a "nonpoint source." Using his ferocious wit and powers of deduction, what can Perry Mason infer about Southview Estate?
The Estate includes open fields for grazing or crops, which generate significant amounts of rainwater runoff, contaminated with fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides, and animal manure.
The two main agencies responsible for administering the Endangered Species Act are:
The Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service.
Which of the following Protocols involved the Climate Change Convention that established reduction targets for the US and developed countries?
The Kyoto Protocol
The vast areas of west Texas remain largely unpopulated and have relatively low levels of criteria pollutants in the ambient air. Assume the air is actually cleaner than what is required by the NAAQS. To preserve this happy situation, what special programs or regulations is the EPA likely to impose there?
The Prevention of Significant Deterioration "PSD" for new stationary sources.
What important project helped John Muir and Gifford Pinchot articulate their ethical positions on preservation or conservation for the general public?
The flooding of the Hetch Hetchy Valley.
What is an example of leaching?
The percolation of water through a landfill.
The biggest consequence(s) from the Scenic Hudson Preservation Conference v. Federal Power Commission case is/are:
The project was ultimately abandoned. Inspired the passage of 1969's national Environmental Policy Act. By granting standing, the court opened the doors for environmental groups to challenge agency decisions.
Assume that the EPA lists carbon dioxide as a criteria pollutant, promulgates the necessary regulations, and devises an appropriate implementation mechanism. Even so, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston and New York City all fail miserably at meeting the standards. What will be the legal consequence of the failure?
These cities will receive the designation "non-attainment zone" and will face special burdensome restrictions about new construction of pollution sources and reductions by existing sources.
__________________ covers any chemicals not covered by other specific statutes.
Toxic Substances Control Act
In the 1970's, the leading cause of lead in the air was from:
Vehicle emissions
George Washington hears that loggers are chopping down thousands of wild cherry trees in other states. He is terribly upset by the news, even though he has never visited those states, and immediately brings an action in federal court to enjoin this destruction of the environment. What is the first legal obstacle his case will encounter?
Washington lacks standing to bring the action.
Section 404 of the Clean Water Act provides the principal protection of:
Wetlands
The first case regarding the Endangered Species Act that was brought before the Supreme Court was Tennessee Valley Authority v. Hiram Hill, which was about:
Whether courts could enjoin the construction of a dam in Tennessee that cost $80 million and was virtually complete, due to the discovery of the critical habitat of a previously unknown species of fish, the snail darter.
What is the first question the court needs to ask before allowing a case to proceed?
Whether the plaintiff has standing to sue.
Most environmental laws provide for delegation of enforcement authority to the states and this delegation is premised on the states' adoption of laws and regulations that are equal to or less stringent than federal environmental laws.
false
Under MARPOL, the dumping of plastics into the ocean is sometimes permitted.
false
The biggest exemption under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act deals with what activities:
farming
Which of the following would be classified as a non-point source run off?
farms
What is the most common civil penalty?
fines
Superfund was established in 1980 in response to a major incident of chemical contamination. This incident was known as:
love canal
The Montreal Protocol is related to:
ozone layer depletion
A source that dumps pollution directly into waterways through some type of pipe or channel is known as:
point source
The primary source of information on environmental noncompliance comes from:
self reporting
If a convicted facility is placed on the EPA's list of violating facilities, the facility cannot receive federal contracts, subcontracts, grants or loans.
true
Liquid sludge can be solid waste under the RCRA.
true
Mitigation banking is when private or public organizations restore, enhance, or create wetlands on a coordinated basis and use the mitigation credits to satisfy the 404 mitigation requirements for development projects.
true
Paperwork violations are treated no differently than physical violations.
true
The federal government's basis of regulating wetlands is the Commerce Clause.
true
Under the CWA, "the discharge of any pollutant by any person" is unlawful without an NPDES permit.
true
