ENVIRONMENTAL LAW, 1999 UC Davis, Winter Term  Professor Geoffrey Wandesforde-Smith

Fourth Problem Set/Exam

INSTRUCTIONS: The following questions are to be answered by each study group in the class.  Print a copy of this Web page.   Enter your two letter study group code and each of your names in the table, below.   Answer the first ten questions by highlighting with a colored, transparent marker the section of the answer table you think is correct.  Answer the last question in an essay, word-processed on a separate piece of white paper in 12 point font.   The essay should consist of three or four paragraphs and is not, under any circumstances, to be longer than one page, single-spaced.  It should refer in the text to supporting cases but need not have footnotes.  Each study group must turn in the exam and the essay, stapled together, at the beginning of the class period on Thursday, March 11th, 1999.  Correct answers to questions 1-10 are worth five points.  The essay is worth 10 points.  If your study group is also publishing its answers on the Web, (a) write in the last row of the table the URL of your study group's Web site and (b) to avoid cheating, DO NOT publish your answers to the Web before Thursday evening. 

1. The Sally Jones hypothetical discussed in class included the following facts: a government investigation reveals at least 13 chemical companies used the dump site where Sally used to play, and the site was itself operated by a series of owners over time. All the site owners and four of the 13 chemical companies have been out of business for years. The few surviving records of the waste transportation company and the few readable labels on buried drums show that at least nine of the 13 chemical companies contributed to the dump site chemicals of the kind that Sally thinks caused her disease. But no one knows how many barrels from each company or which barrels had ruptured when Sally was a child. To which of the three major legal problems facing Sally Jones, as she seeks compensation for damages, are these facts relevant?

2. The hypothetical further stipulated that many years ago Sally Jones could have been a heavy drinker. The defendants to any lawsuit she may bring may also seek information about whether, as a student, perhaps, she tried drugs, or was a heavy smoker, or had sloppy dietary habits. To what legal problem facing Sally Jones and her attorneys are these facts relevant?

3. Under the "imminent and substantial endangerment" provision of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, can an injunction issue when there is only a risk of harm rather than a showing of threatened immediate and irreparable harm on an emergency basis?

4. In the opinion of the Supreme Court in New York v. United States (1992), which of the three types of incentives created by the Low-Level Radioactive Wastes Policy Act Amendments of 1985 was unconstitutional?

5. Pesticides are regulated by more than one federal statute. Which of these is the central focus of the court's decision in Les v. Reilly (1992)?

6. Is it legally permissible under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act for the state of California to operate the RCRA permit program for TSD facilities under 42 U.S.C. 6924?

7. Following the decision in American Mining Congress (1990), extracted in the text, is it legal to operate without any RCRA compliance an industrial processing facility that uses water, stores the water temporarily after use in settling ponds, and then reclaims the resulting settled material for industrial re-use or for sale?

8. For how long may a generator of hazardous wastes store those wastes on site before having to comply with RCRA's requirements for proper disposal of the wastes?

9. In the case of United States v. T&S Brass (1988), a fine of $194,000 was levied. What sort of legal violation triggered this large fine?

10. In 1970, the Clean Air Act Amendments provided for the promulgation of National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS).  One of these is for lead.  Under the applicable case law, is it necessary, when EPA sets standards to consider the economic or technological feasibility of attaining the standards?

ESSAY QUESTION. On a separate piece of paper and in accordance with the instructions, above, indicate how you would answer the problem posed in the text on page 717. 

GW-S/February 1999