Deck 19: Environmental Law and Policy

Question 1

The rule which gives the land owner the right to obtain all the groundwater beneath the land that they own is called as the

A) Rule of Ownership.
B) Rule of Capture.
C) Rule of Tenentship.
D) None of the choices are correct.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

One principle in the Kyoto Protocol of the international environmental laws is the

A) Uncommon but differentiated responsibility of the states.
B) Common but undifferentiated responsibility of the states.
C) Common but differentiated responsibility of the states.
D) None of the choices are correct.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

The "precautionary principle" in international law

A) Allows for restriction of countries' activities before irrevocable harm has been documented.
B) Requires all nations to cease producing and releasing pollutants.
C) Gives the United Nations the authority to impose sanctions against nations whose actions may be harmful.
D) All of the choices are correct.

Answer 3

A

Question 4

The U.S.Environmental Protection Agency has responsibilities in all of the following areas except

A) Air pollution.
B) Water pollution.
C) Resource conservation.
D) Waste disposal.

Question 5

The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969

A) Created the Environmental Protection Agency.
B) Established the environmental impact statement process.
C) Included extensive antipollution regulations.
D) All of the choices are correct.

Question 6

Laws restricting construction in areas of geologic hazard

A) Typically apply only to new construction in an area, not to existing buildings.
B) Have not yet been enacted because of vocal citizen opposition.
C) Are unnecessary because, now that hazards are well recognized, people naturally avoid the dangerous areas.
D) Are an important concern of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Question 7

The Doctrine of Prior Appropriation

A) Is most commonly applied where there is abundant surface water to appropriate.
B) Establishes a hierarchy of water rights among users based on the date of first water use by each.
C) Includes a provision that, in times of water shortage, all users are equally entitled to use water as needed.
D) All of the choices are correct.

Question 8

The present international treaty regarding Antarctica

A) Divides the land among the twelve nations claiming rights to it.
B) Allocates petroleum and mineral rights among the twelve original treaty signers and eleven other nations.
C) Prohibits radioactive-waste disposal, weapons testing, and military related activities on the continent.
D) All of the choices are correct.

Question 9

The principle of surface-water law that gives all property owners bordering a body of water equal rights to that water is the

A) Riparian Doctrine.
B) Doctrine of Prior Appropriation.
C) California Doctrine.
D) Balancing Doctrine.

Question 10

The Surface and Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 pertains

A) Exclusively to coal and salt.
B) Exclusively to any minerals.
C) Excusively to salt.
D) Exclusively to coal.

Question 11

The Federal Flood Disaster Protection Act

A) Bans all further development in flood-hazard areas.
B) Provides for federally subsidized flood insurance for property owners in flood-hazard areas.
C) Establishes a special federal disaster-relief fund for flood victims.
D) All of the choices are correct.

Question 12

Groundwater rights

A) Are left undefined in the United States.
B) Are assigned under the same doctrines as are surface-water rights.
C) Need not be separately assigned because ground and surface waters are linked through the hydrologic cycle.
D) Can be difficult to assign because the extent of groundwater masses is often imperfectly known.

Question 13

Which of the following is not part of the U.N.Framework Convention on Climate Change?

A) All parties to the convention are to report their releases of greenhouse gases.
B) Nations should strive both to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and to conserve "sinks" such as tropical rainforests.
C) More-developed nations are expected to assist less-developed nations in efforts to control greenhouse-gas releases.
D) The U.N. can fine nations whose greenhouse-gas emissions exceed stipulated levels.

Question 14

The Exclusive Economic Zone of the United States comprises some of each of the following resources except

A) Oil and natural gas.
B) Aluminum ore.
C) Metal-rich sulfides.
D) Cobalt and manganese crust on volcanic rocks.

Question 15

Achieving "zero pollutant discharge" in water,as stipulated by some laws is in practice difficult because

A) Many analytical instruments are incapable of detecting substances present at very low, but nonzero, concentrations.
B) No water-treatment process is completely efficient at removing pollutants.
C) Treatment costs escalate exponentially as pure water is approached.
D) All of the choices are correct.

Question 16

The Kyoto Protocol was a commitment by industrial nations

A) To reduce greenhouse-gas emissions such as carbon dioxide and methane to about 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.
B) To increase CO₂ sinks instead of reducing CO₂ emissions.
C) To reduce their CO₂ emissions while helping undeveloped countries increase their CO₂ emissions.
D) To boycott the United States because of their high CO₂ emissions, which currently are more than 20 percent of the global total.

Question 17

Common limitations of restrictive zoning laws designed to minimize risks from geologic hazards include

A) Failure to specify who is to assess the hazards.
B) Failure to impose penalties for noncompliance.
C) The fact that such laws typically apply only to new construction, not to existing structures.
D) All of the choices are correct.

Question 18

Which of the following statements about the environmental impact statement process is not true?

A) The EIS must be prepared by independent professionals not affiliated with the federal agency proposing the action
B) The EIS must discuss various alternatives to the proposed action
C) Comments should be solicited from all organizations or individuals likely to be affected by the proposed action
D) The EIS must describe all anticipated environmental consequences of the proposed action

Question 19

The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977

A) Applies to all surface mines on federal lands.
B) Stipulates the mining methods to be used.
C) Requires restoration of mined land to its premising condition, insofar as possible.
D) All of the choices are correct.

Question 20

The Exclusive Economic Zones established by the 1982 Law of the Sea Treaty

A) Include up to 200 nautical miles of the continental shelf offshore of a country's border or further if that country's petition to the United Nations is approved.
B) Encompass, in different areas, such diverse resources as fish, placers and metal-rich muds.
C) Could be claimed by more than one nation, which will result in appeals to the United Nations for conflict resolution.
D) Include all of the choices.

Question 21

Federal laws to limit both air and water pollution have existed since the late nineteenth century.

Question 22

The National Environmental Policy Act concerns the actions of all agencies.

Question 23

An Environmental Impact Statement is required only if one wishes to build a major structure such as a dam or engage in a large project such as developing a mine or oil field on federal lands.

Question 24

In the early 1990s,the Clean Water Act was reauthorized and strengthened to include important new wetlands-protection measures.

Question 25

The U.S.Exclusive Economic Zone is enormous,covering an area of more than one and one-half times the land area of the United States and its territories.

Question 26

Use of the continental shelf as the extent of a nation's territorial waters provides each country bordering the sea with a uniform share of coastal waters.

Question 27

Sometimes,the maximum pollutant levels permitted in wastewater by U.S.Environmental Protection Agency standards have been lower than naturally occurring concentrations of the same elements in local waters.

Question 28

The Mineral Leasing Act for Acquired Lands of 1947 carried with it unlimited rights for exploitations of all materials for the interest of the development of resources.

Question 29

The provisions of the 1872 Mining Law may make it profitable for companies to develop mineral resources on federal lands rather than adjacent state lands,while the states must cope with the environmental impacts.

Question 30

What constitutes a beneficial use of water is defined differently in different regions.

Question 31

Emissions of CFCs worldwide have been sharply reduced and atmospheric concentrations have likewise dropped considerably from their peak levels.

Question 32

While real-estate developers may oppose restrictive construction and zoning laws in geologic-hazard areas,individual home owners generally welcome the protection that these laws provide.

Question 33

In 1987,the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (Clean Water Act)was amended to require the control of this

A) Storm water (non-point-source) pollution.
B) Point source pollution.
C) The amount of chlorine in drinking water.
D) All of the choices are correct.

Question 34

The Federal Flood Disaster Protection Act stipulates that,when a structure in a floodplain is damaged,by whatever cause,it cannot be rebuilt but must instead be relocated outside the floodplain.

Question 35

To avoid confusion,water-rights laws are uniform throughout the United States.

Question 36

The usefulness of many environmental impact statements is limited because

A) The tendency is toward very short statements that fail to provide much information to the public.
B) The law requires that cost-benefit analysis be excluded from an environmental impact statement.
C) The preparers, often affiliated with the agency proposing the action, may not be completely objective.
D) All of the choices are correct.

Question 37

Even where specific laws prohibiting groundwater pollution do not exist,a polluter might be prosecuted if contaminated ground water in turn pollutes surface water.

Question 38

Federal mineral-resource laws of the late nineteenth century were designed to preserve mineral resources by restricting exploitation.

Question 39

The 1989 Loma Prieta and 1995 Kobe earthquakes again demonstrated the problem that laws designed to regulate construction in seismic-hazard areas typically do not require "retrofitting" of older structures.

Question 40

A new convention regulating mineral-resource exploitation in Antarctica is awaiting ratification by the consultative parties to the Antarctic Treaty.

Question 41

The Kyoto Protocol includes penalties and/or provisions for enforcement when one falis to meet their obligations thereby achieving practical effectiveness.

Question 42

The U.S.Senate has not ratified the Kyoto Treaty because Presidents Clinton and
G.W. Bush declined to submit it to the Senate for formal ratification.

Question 43

An environmental impact statement must be filed each time a federal agency proposes a construction project,issues a permit for resource development on federal lands and so forth.

Question 44

Al Gore,acting on behalf of the United States as its vice-president,signed the Kyoto Treaty.

Question 45

The overwhelming majority of federal environmental impact statements are filed by just a few agencies,including the U.S.Army Corps of Engineers and the Department of Transportation.

Question 46

The U.S.has been a leader in negotiations to implement the provisions of the Kyoto accord to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and has made firm commitments to those reductions,because it is a major producer of greenhouse gases.