Goals for State-Federal Action
NCSL Resolution Adopted by the Environment Committee from the Fall Forum of the NCSL Standing Committees, December 2004, Savannah, Georgia
Over the past two decades, the adage "out of sight, out of mind" has given way to a national program that seeks to encourage source reduction, high-technology treatment, and secure disposal of hazardous wastes. Congress enacted the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 (RCRA), the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA), and subsequent amendments and reauthorizations of this initial legislation to implement its national program. Such legislation requires the treatment, storage and disposal of hazardous wastes and cleanup at contaminated sites so as to minimize the present and future threat to human health and the environment. Despite this national program, hazardous waste continues to be a significant environmental problem.
The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) believes that the following principles must be accommodated in crafting a national solution to hazardous waste management:
- The federal government has an appropriate role to play in crafting coherent solutions to abandoned and inactive hazardous waste sites. Congress should continue to finance hazardous waste site cleanup efforts through national, broad based financing mechanisms that uniformly spread the costs of such cleanup efforts over a national revenue base. Congress must recognize that states acting alone do not possess the ability of the federal government to impose such costs nationally.
- Because publicly owned natural resources are victims of improper hazardous waste disposal, these valuable assets must be safeguarded and in many cases restored.
- Because the current system discourages recycling by regulating many byproducts as hazardous waste, a system for regulating hazardous materials destined for recycling should be established.
- Other methods for dealing with hazardous waste such as source reduction, pollution prevention, reuse and recycling should be encouraged and developed.
The federal government must promote measures that will expedite actual site cleanups and site construction activities. Consequently, NCSL believes that any solution to our hazardous waste problems must include the following:
- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) should be required to adopt policies that encourage both the hazardous waste content of products and industrial hazardous waste by-products be kept to a minimum, and that hazardous waste materials be reused, recycled or made non-hazardous whenever possible.
- The U. S. EPA should continue to fund, develop and improve hazardous waste risk assessments, toxicological profiles of priority pollutants found at Superfund sites and consequent long term health and environmental impacts data. The work of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) should be supported and expanded. Such studies and work should be funded through disbursements from the Superfund Trust Fund or through appropriations from the general revenue fund. Any information gathered from either federal or private sources should be subject to peer review and made available as needed.
- The federal government should be required to adopt hazardous waste reduction policies applicable to federal activities and facilities to reduce waste and develop new and improved waste elimination technologies. Such policies should include federal procurement guidelines that permit suppliers to modify their manufacturing processes to accommodate pollution prevention practices.
- Congress should adopt policies that promote the availability of affordable environmental liability insurance, including economic incentives for industry to establish its own voluntary insurance pool or insurance fund.
- States should be allowed flexibility in devising their hazardous waste management plans and regulations, including the setting of priorities.
- The federal government must collect and disseminate to the public information on chemical storage, use and disposal practices by government and industry.
- Federal hazardous waste management laws should be vigorously enforced
- The importation of hazardous waste from foreign countries should be controlled through treaties and other agreements.
- Federal policies and agreements that decrease the dumping of hazardous waste in developing countries should be established.
- Health effects studies conducted by the federal government should be comprehensive and based on established exposure standards and measurements and monitoring methodology to be admissible as evidence in victims' compensation court cases.
The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) believes that local units of state government (municipal corporations, municipal utility authorities, etc.) should be provided maximum flexibility in addressing local needs to finance operations and infrastructure improvements to publicly owned treatment works (POTWs), waste water and drinking water treatment facilities.
Various federal laws present structural barriers that may limit local government options and discourage financial restructuring of POTW's. The practical result is that local units of government may be discouraged from pursuing innovative public-private partnerships. Accordingly, NCSL believes that Congress should eliminate barriers to local government's ability to restructure assets or raise the capital necessary for costly improvements to POTW's.
While NCSL takes no position with respect to whether any particular POTW should pursue a public-private partnership. the decision to enter such a partnership should be made by the local unit of government pursuant to state law and local ordinance. Federal laws should not discourage local governments from pursuing innovative financing options.
NCSL urges the Environmental Protection Agency to continue to provide appropriate contextual materials to affected communities to accompany Toxics Release Inventory reports to assure particularly that emergency response agencies will understand and be able to respond safely to chemical releases to protect the people who live in the vicinity of facilities required to file TRI reports.
The EPA and the reporting industries should continue working to ensure that the reported TRI data are communicated to the public in an understandable manner that includes a description of the risk of release specific chemicals posed to the public and emergency response teams, how these materials are managed to control release, and an assessment of the risk to public health and welfare in the event of regulated or accidental releases.
Existing federal law authorizes the sharing of revenue from mineral extraction with the state in which it occurs. As required under the Federal Oil and Gas Royalty Management Act of 1982 (30 U.S.C. 1701 et. seq.), 50 percent of the revenues from federal on-shore drilling is paid to the state in which the lease is located. The Act ensures that state legislatures shall direct the use of these funds.
- NCSL supports the state legislatures' role in the appropriation of these funds.
Off-Shore Drilling
Revenue shared from Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) oil and gas development leases (off-shore drilling) are shared with states at rates less than those percentage distributions from land-based mineral extractions (on-shore drilling).
While NCSL does not support or oppose additional exploration or production on the OCS, to the extent mineral extraction occurs Congress is urged to:
- authorize and appropriate 50 percent of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) revenues to the states;
- ensure the state legislatures' participation in the appropriation of these funds.
- provide state lawmakers the flexibility to target these funds to their respective state's natural resource priorities.
OCS revenue sharing with the states should be in addition to and not replace other Federal funding programs.
In addition, NCSL urges Congress to include the following provision with regards to drilling and mining activities on the OCS:
- Protect state-imposed moratoriums on mineral exploration, development and production activities on the OCS.
- Lift federal fees charged to states for use of sand, gravel and shell resources taken from the OCS for use in beach nourishment and other coastal erosion mitigation activities.
- Give states full review of development and production of mineral resources on the OCS.
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