1.

Describe the Toxic Substance Control Act including its regulatory guidelines?

Toxic substances control act (TSCA) directs that manufactures of chemicals to

develop safety and health data on chemicals and mixtures before they enter
market, and requires the USEPA to regulate chemical substances and mixtures that
present an unreasonable risk of injury to health and environment.

The USEPA is also directed to act when chemicals and mixtures pose
imminent hazards and is authorized to restrict the production and use of such
hazard materials.

Under TSCA there are number of reporting, record keeping activities and data
collection procedures of substances.

TSCA gives the USEPA the power to regulate, restrict and even prohibit the
manufacture, importation and use of certain toxic chemicals. Following are the
regulations:
1.

The phase-out, removal and disposal of PCBs.

2.

Asbestos and asbestos containing materials.

3.

Fully halogenated chlorofluorocarbons. (Responsible for ozone depletion)

4.
Dibenzodioxins and dibenzofurans. (Contaminants present at Times beach,
Missouri 2)
2.

Clean water act-

This act was passed to control water pollution which did not got national attention
even in 1960s and 1970s.The Federal Water Pollution Control Act in 1972 implied in
The United States for serious effort to reverse damaged and abused waterways. The
Federal Water Pollution Control Act, renamed the Clean Water Act in 1977and sets
national standards for the nations waterways and set limitations on allowed
pollutant discharges.
PurposeThe main purpose of the Act was to clean up the nation waterways, including a
return of navigable waters to a fishable and swimmable condition by July 1983
and a halt of pollutant discharges into waterways by 1985.

Federal Water Pollution Act, passed by congress over President Nixons veto in 1972,
remains today as modern Clean Water Act.


The goals of the clean water act are to eliminate the discharge of pollutants
into surface waters and to achieve quality which provides for the protection and
propagation of fish, shellfish and wildlife and for recreation in and on the water.

The act also incorporates the prohibition of the discharge of pollutants in

toxic amounts.

It only applies to surface waters and ground water.

The two main priorities of Clean Water Act (CWA) are:

1.
The discharge of mainly industrial pollutants into our nations water, referred
to as point sources. These controls are also known as technology-based effluent
limitations. The CWA ensures whether water receiving the discharge meeting the
quality standards and the discharger applying required technology based standards
to the facility through application of a comprehensive permitting scheme known as
National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES).
2.
Water quality-based controls. The CWA describes three categories of
pollutants including:
I.
Conventional pollutants. (biochemical oxygen demand, total suspended
solids, pH, fecal coliform, oil and grease)
II.

Toxic pollutants (65 pollutants identified by USEPA).

III.
Nonconventional pollutants. (All pollutants not categorized as either toxic or
conventional).

3.

Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA):

During 1976 federal government passed a law which banned open

dumping and introduced the concept and use of sanitary landfill, this law is known
as Recourse Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976.
There are three distinct programs under RCRA,
1.

Subtitle D: Management of solid waste

2.

Subtitle C: Management of hazardous waste.

3.
Subtitle I: Minimize the contamination of groundwater from underground
storage tanks.

The objective of the RCRA is to protect environment and human health from
potential hazards of waste disposal, converse energy and natural resources, reduce
the amount of waste generated, and to ensure that wastes are managed in effective
manner.