ABSTRACT
In the early 1960s, public interest in environmental matters provoked the rapid proliferation of environmental laws and regulations in the United States, as illustrated in Figure 1.1; however, the effects of hazardous waste on public health and the environment did not attract the attention of the government until the 1970s. Since 1970, the government has been taking an active role in protecting the people of the United States from various forms of hazardous waste, and, as a result, a regulatory-driven industry known as
environmental remediation
was generated
(LaGrega et al., 1994). Ten major pieces of legislation were passed to provide this protection:
• National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) • Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) • Clean Water Act (CWA) • Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) • Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) • Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) • Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Lia-
bility Act (CERCLA) • Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments (HSWA) • Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA) • Clean Air Act (CAA)
Each law attempts to achieve specific goals by setting environmental standards for different classes of hazardous waste. Treatment technologies are researched by universities and companies and implemented by the environmental remediation industry.
