Chapter 12 - Managing environmental compliance

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of environmental compliance requirements for environmental management. An environmental manager must maneuver through 12 major arenas of environmental compliance. The chapter covers specific subjects of compliance related to transportation, storage tanks, pesticides, water quality, discharges to sewers, and air pollution. The transportation of hazardous materials and hazardous wastes is regulated under both federal and state laws. The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) administers the Hazardous Materials Transportation Act (HMTA), under which it defines “hazardous materials” and issues inspection, training, and transport requirements. Federal law requires comprehensive regulation of the manufacture, handling, and use of pesticides. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in cooperation with state and local agencies, implements the basic federal regulatory framework governing pesticides known as the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). To protect the nation's groundwater resources, the federal government and most state governments regulate the installation and use of underground storage tanks (USTs). This regulation is implemented on the national level by EPA, and has three main components: registration, technical standards for construction and operation, and financial responsibility (to ensure funding for cleanup). The federal Clean Water Act (CWA) provides the basic national framework for regulating discharges of pollutants into the nation's navigable waters.