Deck 26: Environmental Law

Question 1

Tariq Ahmad decided to dispose of some of his laboratory's hazardous chemicals by shipping them to his home in Pakistan. He sent the chemicals to Castelazo (a company in the United States) to prepare the materials for shipment. Ahmad did not tell the driver who picked up the chemicals that they were hazardous, nor did he give the driver any written documentation. Has Ahmad violated U.S. law? What penalties might he face?

Answer 1

Facts of the case:
This is a case that discusses whether a driver of a vehicle to be informed with the kind of material that is being transported. TM has disposed his laboratory chemical wastage to get packed and shipped to his home town. He did not inform the driver of the vehicle that the materials in the shipment are hazardous.
Import protocols of the country SU is as below:
Any hazardous material to be imported to SU must comply with legal requirements. The material that enters SU must have Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) permit that is to be showed by the transporter.
In the present case, the driver does not possess any supporting document to import the material to SU. The driver was not either initiated that the container is filled with hazardous material or he is given with permission documents to import the material. Hence, it is evident to say that TM has violated the law.
According to RCRA, it can be agreed to penalize TM for his illegal activity to transport hazardous material to SU without supporting documents.

Question 2

Look on the Internet to find the current status of negotiations on an international treaty to prevent global warming. Delegates from 100 nations were supposed to meet in Copenhagen to draft a new treaty. Was an agreement reached? If so, did the U.S. Congress ratify it?

Answer 2

An agreement was reached for the so-called Copenhagen Accord. The Accord is not legally binding, but it does the following:
• Endorses the Kyoto Protocol.
• Recognizes the seriousness of climate change and recognition of scientific claims that large cuts in emissions are necessary.
• Requests that developing countries set up mitigating actions to reduce their carbon emissions and states that they should be aided financially to achieve these goals.
• Recognizes the need to curb deforestation and for developed countries to play an active financial role.
• States those low-emission developing countries should be given financial incentives to continue their low emission.
• Sets up the Copenhagen Green Climate Fund to help raise $100 billion per year by 2020 to help developing countries cut emissions.
• Calls for an assessment of the Copenhagen Accord's progress by 2015.
The United States Congress did not ratify the Copenhagen Accord.

Question 3

Suppose that you are the manager of the General Motors Hummer plant in Mishawaka, Indiana. Hummers are the successor to the U.S. Army jeep and have become popular recreational vehicles among the rich and famous. Arnold Schwarzenegger bought several. The Hummer requires special protective paint that, as it turns out, reacts with other chemicals during the application process to create ozone, a pollutant. You want to increase production of Hummers. Are there any legal requirements you must observe?

Answer 3

One must first observe the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) which regulates the use of chemicals other than pesticides, food, drugs, and cosmetics. The paint must first be registered with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) before it can be used and sold. The EPA must first assess the potential risks of using the substance used in the Hummer paint and determine whether or not it poses enough of a health risk to discontinue manufacturing, sale, and/or use of the substance.

Question 4

Alcan Aluminum Corp. manufactures aluminum sheet in Oswego, New York. It hired the Mahler Cos. to dispose of an emulsion used during the manufacturing process. This emulsion contained a variety of hazardous substances. Without Alcan's knowledge, Mahler dumped the emulsion into a borehole that connected to deep underground mines along the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania. You can guess what happened next. Approximately 100,000 gallons of water contaminated with hazardous substances spilled from the borehole into the river. The EPA paid to clean up the river and then sued Alcan along with others who had hired Mahler for hazardous waste disposal. All other defendants settled. The court entered judgment against Alcan in the amount of $473,790.18, which was the difference between the full response costs the government had incurred in cleaning the river and the amount the government had recovered from the settling defendants. Is Alcan required to pay this amount?

Question 5

In 1991, Illinois passed a statute requiring its four largest generating plants to install scrubbers so that they could continue using high-sulfur Illinois coal. What federal law was this Illinois statute designed to overcome? Extra credit question : On what grounds did a federal appeals court strike down the Illinois statute?

Question 6

The marbled murrelet is a seabird on the list of endangered species. Pacific Lumber Co. received permission to harvest trees from land on which the murrelet nested, on the condition that it would cooperate with regulators to protect the murrelet. But the company went in one weekend and cut down trees before it met the condition. Caught in the act, it promised no more logging until it had a plan to protect the birds. It waited until the long weekend over Thanksgiving to take down some more trees. A federal court then ordered a permanent halt to any further logging. There was no evidence that the company had harmed the murrelet. Had it violated the law?

Question 7

ETHICS Geronimo Villegas owned a blood-testing lab in Brooklyn, New York. He threw vials of human blood from the lab into the Hudson River. A group of eighth graders on a field trip to Staten Island discovered 70 of these glass vials along the shore. Ten vials contained blood infected with the highly contagious hepatitis-B virus. Did Villegas violate the Clean Water Act? Why had Villegas disposed of the vials in this way? Whether or not he was in violation of the statute, was his behavior ethical? Did he violate any of the ethical tests from Chapter 2?

Question 8

YOU BE THE JUDGE WRITING PROBLEM The Lordship Point Gun Club operated a trap and skeet shooting club in Stratford, Connecticut, for 70 years. During this time, customers deposited close to 5 million tons of lead shot and 11 million pounds of clay target fragments on land around the club and in Long Island Sound. Forty-five percent of sediment samples taken from the Sound exceeded the established limits for lead. Was the Gun Club in violation of the RCRA? Argument for the Gun Club : The Gun Club does not dispose of hazardous wastes, within the meaning of the RCRA. Congress meant the statute to apply only to companies in the business of manufacturing articles that produce hazardous waste. If the Gun Club happens to produce wastes, that is only incidental to the normal use of a product. Argument for the plaintiff : Under the RCRA, lead shot is hazardous waste. The law applies to anyone who produces hazardous waste, no matter how.

Question 9

ROLE REVERSAL Write a short-answer question that poses an ethics or economics question under the environmental laws