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Show Page 50-T- HE HERALD, Provo. Utah, Thursday, October 12, 1978 Second in Series of 3 Articles Environmental Law Changes, Potential Revolt Cited By EDWARD K. Public outWASHINGTON (UPI) cry sparked the great environmental reformation that swept the United States eight years ago, but the federal government is the enforcer that has transformed demands into results. Early governmental efforts often bore the stamp of a crisis response. They sometimes were marred by a lack of technical and scientific information, by bureaucratic lethargy and infighting and by arbitrary decisions. The most ardent protectors of the environment until last year were outside the government. That is changing now, - G and not without traces of irony (related stories on pages 51 and 53.) Activists who once prodded the government for reform now guide federal programs from within. Since President Carter put environmentalists in top federal policy jobs, business leaders say the environmental establishment has become perhaps the single biggest force shaping the way Americans will live and work. But environmental groups, who pinned high hopes on Carter, have been dismayed by a new look in policy that includes relaxation of old cleanup standards. They have accused the administration of deserting them in such areas as water policy, nuclear energy and solar power. The Seabrook, N.H., atomic power plant controversy offers a prime example. Douglas Costle, chief of the Environmental Protection Agency and one of the activists brought into the government by Carter, ruled the Seabrook ocean cooling system was acceptable. He said he was not happy with his ruling but had no other choice under the law. Costle's ruling so outraged environmentalists, who fear the plant's cooling system will harm ocean life, that one thrust a dripping, dead fish in his face. k The incident illustrates the problems faced by former activists who find Main Federal Environmental Laws Outlined - WASHINGTON (UPI) Major vironmental laws at a glance: en- Clean Air Act: Passed in 1963. Strengthened in 1970 and 1977. Gives EPA power to say how clean the air should be. States draft own plans for meeting federal standards. EPA sets pollution levels for new power plants or factories and new cars. More drastic measures to discourage use of cars are possible. Clean Water Act: Passed in 1972. Lets EPA determine how to meet 1985 congressional deadline for halting pollution discharges into navigable waters. Sets July 1, 1983, as date for making water clean enough to protect fish, wildlife and humans who wade or swim. Toxic Substances Control Act: Passed in 1976. Gives EPA power to control introduction of new chemicals into environment. About 30,000 chemicals now are produced commercially and list grows by 700 to 1,000 a year. EPA can require testing of new chemicals and EPA may regulate use, manu- facture and disposal of harmful chemicals. Noise Control Act: Passed in 1972. Allows EPA to set noise limits for trucks, motorcycles, home appliances and other noise sources. Directs EPA to recommend noise limits for aircraft, although those are set by Federal Aviation Administration. Makes it U.S. policy "to promote an environment for all Americans free from noise that jeopardizes their health and welfare." The Clean Air Act was passed m lt63. themselves forced, as federal regulators, to balance environmental changed in 1970 and 1977 It limits emisideals against legal requirements and sions from cars, factories, power plants and other sources practical economics. In California, which led the nation in States must comply with FPA air environmental protection, the loss of a purity standard by 1982 in most cases big chemical plant last year due to air and by 1987 in the worst spots. New facquality rules prompted the legislature tories can be built in badly polluted to weaken environmental requirements areas only if they meet 'the lowest for a liquefied natural gas terminal. achievable" pollution levels and if exHoward Jarvis, author of California's isting industries clean up enough to ofProposition 13, says economic concerns fset any new emissions that are "unquestionably" have sparked an en- produced. vironmental backlash. But others, inLimits on auto use may be imposed in cluding officials of the utility industry's areas that fail to meet the standard. Electric Power Research Institute at The 1982 and 1987 clean up deadlines Palo Alto, Calif., say it is too early to represent a case of "more realistic" tell whether a true revolt is developing. regulation, Costle says Before The federal government's new Congress changed the law last year, the course includes shifting more deadline was 1977 and industrial growth regulatory burden to state and local of- would have been barred in some areas. Some states are making good ficials, elaying some cleanup deadlines to make them more realistic and progress in cleaning up their skies tightening others to take advantage of the CEQ estimates that only southern new technology. California. Houston and Philadelphia Costle defends the policy changes as will exceed the ozone standard by 1990. "a correction" rather than for instance but others such as Ohio a fundamental shift or weakening of re- face a potential economic pinch because they have not developed cleanquirements. The EPA, which Costle helped to plan up plans. under the Nixon administration, is one "The states that are enjoying the of two key federal environmental least amount of environmental-economi- c bodies. The other is the Council on Enconflict are the states that vironmental Quality, which monitors early on took a tough line about cleanenvironmental progress, advises the ing up," Costle says. "Now they've got president on policy and reviews all en- a margin of (industrial growth to work vironmental impact statements. with." Other agencies play important supAuto pollution deadlines under the (Continued on Page 53) porting roles. The Interior Department looks after public lands and is leading the controversial fight to turn of Alaska into parks or wilderness areas. Interior Secretary Cecil Andrus says he is determined to do whatever is necessary to protect unspoiled Alaska from "rape, ruin and run" exploitation. The Health, Education and Welfare Department and the Labor Department have joined the EPA in placing increasing emphasis on the health aspects of pollution. They have touched off bitter fights with industry over such as suspected workplace cancer-causer- s benzene, asbestos and lead. But the executive branch is not the only one involved in protecting the air, water and land. Congress has passed 13 major environmental laws in the past seven years, including the one that set up the EPA, and the courts have provided landmark decisions to put teeth in those laws. "The programs that made EPA (in 1970) up were brought from the bowels, really, of other departments around town where they had gotten scant support," Costle said in a recent inter- - Congress: Environmental Protection Agency EPA, created in 1970 by Richard Nixon, leads U.S. environmental efforts. It issues and enforces regulations protecting air, water and other components of environment. Agency head is Douglas Costle, 39, a lawyer and environmentalist who a decade ago led White House study which recommended EPA's creation. "It's taken seven years for the agency to get to the point where it's showing sings of maturity," Costle says. "We now have the laws on the books. I think we might be entering a period where enviromen-talisis now a permanent part of our political value system. What lies ahead is a sustained effort to get Die job done, and to keep it done." Council od Environmental Quality The CEQ, Nixon's first environmental agency, was created to report yearly on environmental quality, monitor in what federal performance and turned out to be a powerful sleeper require environmental impact statements on major federal projects. Charles Warren, head of the CEQ, is a lawyer with a strong environmental record in the California Assembly. He says there is "nothing to indicate a decline in the strength or commitment of those interested in protecting and preserving the environment." For the future he sees increased emphasis on v. Urn oPtf B 4 . .. 1 m (r m M -- 0 mid-cour- t Mr.., 'r..iy 1 ) STATE POLICE are shown as they arrested demonstrators at the Seabrook, N.H., atomic power plant construction site in 1976 after they defied a court environmentalists tear the injunction. cooling system will harm ocean life, and the controversy remains unresolved. (UPI File Photo) plant's one-fourt- h - k "The intellectual bank account of what you do about these problems how do you clean up the water, how do was pretty thin. you clean up the air And yet ... reorganization usually occurs on the heels of a demand for action, at the time that a crisis is perceived. (There was) the expectation of immediate solutions, immediate progress. "So the initial reaction of the agency was: 'Whatever we've got on the shelf, ready or not here we come to do that.' The demand for 'action now, action now' was so intense that they went with whatever they had on the shelf." Now, Costle says, the EPA is "showing some signs of postadoiescent maturity." He says Congress has gone through much the same process, moving from passing a host of new environmental laws to revising old ones like the Clean Air Act that "forced people to do some arbitrary things." "I think the legislative era in the environment reached its watershed mark with the passage of the Toxic Substances Control Act and with the first major rewrites of the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, all of which was accomplished last year and the year before," Costle said. Air and water laws are among the EPA's most powerful tools. nuclear technology vp THE SAVING PLACE neat 'n easy and the breeder reactor, conservation and solar programs, links between environment and health, land use and international issues. Interior Department Interior, which helped shape the earliest environmental programs, protects public lands. Alaska now is its main target. Department is headed by former Idaho Gov! Cecil Andrus, 47, who came to his job promising "the days of rape, ruin and run are over." "I think I've proven that point," Andrus says. "We moved immediately for a strip mining bill. It was passed. Then we moved to protect some critical areas ... (and) give balance to all of the various factions that are involved." Health, Education and Welfare Formed in 1953 under Dwight D. Eisenhower, HEW played a leading environmental policy role from the time the dangers of air pollution were recognized in the 1950s until the EPA was created in 1970. Along with the Labor Department, which oversees workplace conditions, HEW now tries to identify and end environmental causes of cancer, lung disease and heart disease through the such agencies as its National Cancer Institute and its National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health. Joseph Califano, 47. head of HEW, recently added new urgency to the campaign against hazardous chemk-i'by announcing a new study has found 20 percent of all human cancer, rather than the previously estimated 5 percent, is caused by workplace exposure, s ' X V i- & maternity tops Smart tops designed with flattery in mind! Woven prints, solid gauzes or printed knits. r k" view. Four Federal Agencies On Environment Profiled WASHINGTON (UPI) Here is a profile of the four federal agencies that shape America's environmental policy under powers given to them by HP I 5050 polyester cotton in pink, blue, green. 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