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Below are overviews of the major
federal and state environmental laws that govern the
environmental cleanup
of federal facilities in California:
The Comprehensive Environmental
Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA),
commonly known as Superfund, was enacted by Congress
on December 11, 1980, providing broad Federal authority
to identify and implement the appropriate response
to hazardous wastes that have been released or that
may be released into the ground, water, and air. The
cleanup should protect
human health and the environment. CERCLA established
prohibitions and requirements for closed and abandoned
hazardous waste sites and provided for liability of
the those responsible for the release of hazardous
waste into the environment at these sites. CERCLA
also established a trust fund to provide for cleanup
when no responsible party could be found; this trust
fund was the result of a tax on the chemical and petroleum
industries. CERCLA authorized both short-term removal
actions to address releases or threatened releases
that require an immediate response as well as long-term
removal actions to permanently significantly reduce
the risks to humans and the environment from releases
or threatened releases.
Originally, CERCLA did not cover
property owned by the U.S. government. This was changed
on October 17, 1986, when Congress passed the Superfund
Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA), which amended
CERCLA. As a result of SARA, the federal government
must follow CERCLA regulations when cleaning up contaminated
property owned by the U.S. government.
Learn more about the major
steps in the CERCLA cleanup process.
For more information on CERCLA, see the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency's web site at http://www.epa.gov/superfund/action/law/cercla.htm
To read the text of the Comprehensive Environmental
Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, see http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/42/ch103.html
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The Federal Water Pollution Control
Act Amendments of 1972 was enacted as a result of
increasing public and governmental awareness, understanding,
and concern about pollution in our surface waters.
This law as amended in 1977 is commonly referred to
as the Clean Water Act (CWA). The CWA established
the basic structure for regulating discharge of pollutants
into the surface waters of the U.S. and is the cornerstone
of surface water quality protection in the United
States. The statute employs a variety of regulatory
and non-regulatory tools intended to reduce direct
pollutant discharges into waterways, finance municipal
wastewater treatment facilities, and manage polluted
runoff. These tools are employed to achieve the broader
goal of restoring and maintaining the chemical, physical,
and biological integrity of the nation's waters so
that they can support "the protection and propagation
of fish, shellfish, and wildlife and recreation in
and on the water." Over time, the CWA has been
amended and modified, and programs have shifted to
a more holistic watershed-based approach that places
equal emphasis on protecting healthy waters and restoring
impaired ones.
For more information on the Clean
Water Act, see the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s
web site at http://www.epa.gov/region5/water/cwa.htm
To read the text of the Clean Water
Act, see http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/33/ch26.html
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The Endangered Species Act (ESA)
provides a program for the conservation of threatened
and endangered plants and animals and the habitats
in which they are found. Species include birds, insects,
fish, reptiles, mammals, crustaceans, flowers, grasses,
and trees. The law prohibits any action, administrative
or real, that results in a "taking" of a
listed species, or adversely affects habitat for a
listed species. Anyone can petition the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service to include a species on this
list.
For more information on the Endangered
Species Act, see the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
web site at http://endangered.fws.gov/whatwedo.html
or the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency web site
at http://www.epa.gov/region5/defs/html/esa.htm
To read the text of the Endangered
Species Act, see http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/16/ch35.html
or http://endangered.fws.gov/esa.html
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The National Environmental Policy
Act (NEPA) requires federal agencies to integrate
environmental values into their decision-making processes
by considering the environmental impacts of their
proposed actions and reasonable alternatives to those
actions. NEPA's basic policy is designed to ensure
that all branches of government give proper consideration
to the environment prior to undertaking any major
federal action that significantly affects the environment.
NEPA requirements are invoked when airports, buildings,
military complexes, highways, parkland purchases,
and other federal activities are proposed. Environmental
Assessments (EAs) and Environmental Impact Statements
(EISs), which are assessments of the likelihood of
impacts from alternative courses of action, are required
from all Federal agencies and are the most visible
NEPA requirements. The Council on Environmental (CEQ)
Quality (http://www.whitehouse.gov/ceq/)
has the task of ensuring that federal agencies meet
their obligations under NEPA.
For more information on the National
Environmental Policy Act, see the CEQ NEPA Task Force
web site at http://ceq.eh.doe.gov/nepa/nepanet.htm
To read the text of the National
Environmental Policy Act, see http://ceq.eh.doe.gov/nepa/regs/nepa/nepaeqia.htm
or http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/42/ch55.html
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The basic goal of the California
Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) is to develop and
maintain a high-quality environment now and in the
future. Through CEQA, California's public agencies
are supposed to identify the significant environmental
effects of their actions; and either avoid those significant
environmental effects, where feasible; or mitigate
those significant environmental effects, where feasible.
CEQA applies to "projects" proposed to be
undertaken by or requiring approval by State and local
government agencies. "Projects" are activities
that have the potential to have a physical impact
on the environment.
A lead government agency must complete
the environmental review process required by CEQA.
For all projects governed by CEQA, the lead agency
must prepare a Negative Declaration if it finds no
"significant" impacts from the project;
a Mitigated Negative Declaration if it finds "significant"
impacts but revises the project to avoid or mitigate
those significant impacts; or an Environmental Impact
Report (EIR) if it finds "significant" impacts.
An EIR should provide State and local agencies and
the general public with detailed information on the
potentially significant environmental effects that
a proposed project is likely to have; list ways which
the significant environmental effects may be minimized;
and indicate alternatives to the project.
For more information on the California
Environmental Quality Act, see http://ceres.ca.gov/topic/env_law/ceqa/summary.html
and http://ceres.ca.gov/topic/env_law/ceqa/
To read the text of the California
Environmental Quality Act, see http://ceres.ca.gov/topic/env_law/ceqa/stat/
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Sovereign immunity refers to a doctrine
that states that the Federal government (the "sovereign")
is exempt (immune) from lawsuit and cannot be sued
without its consent. The origin of this concept is
believed to date back to England, where it was believed
that the King could do no wrong. Although the United
States has limited its immunity in several major steps
and has waived its immunity in many of the major environmental
laws, sovereign immunity remains an ever-present issue
in litigation against the federal government.
Relative to the cleanup of Federal
facilities, the Federal government has waived immunity
under the Comprehensive Environmental Compensation
and Liability Act (CERCLA), which governs the cleanup
of closed military facilities. In CERCLA, the United
States government is included in the definition of
the term "person" thereby indicating that
the United States government must comply with CERCLA
just like any other person. Section 120(a) of CERCLA
states that the Federal government must comply with
the provisions of CERCLA in the same manner as any
non-governmental entity and that CERCLA applies to
all facilities that are owned or operated by the Federal
government just as it does to non-governmental facilities
(42 U.S.C. section 9620(a)(1) and (2)). Section 159(a)
of CERCLA also waives the federal government's sovereign
immunity by making the government subject to suit
for a violation of the provisions of CERCLA (42 U.S.C.
section 9659(a)(1) and (2)).
The case of former military bases
that are no longer owned by the federal government
raises a slightly different issue. Such former bases
are referred to as "formerly used defense sites"
(FUDS) and are subject to the provisions of the Defense
Environmental Restoration Program (DERP). The DERP
statute requires the Secretary of Defense to carry
out environmental restoration at FUDS in accordance
with the provisions of CERCLA (10 U.S.C. section 2701(c)(1)(B)).
Thus, CERCLA's waiver of sovereign immunity also applies
at FUDS.
Other major environmental laws under
which the Federal government has waived sovereign
immunity include the Solid Waste Management Act and
the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA).
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