Final-Professor's Review Flashcards
1
Q
- Under the Clean Water Act, many facilities must obtain a permit as a “point source.” What type of permit applies to point sources?
A. TSDF permit
B. NAAQS permit
C. NSPS permit
D. NPDES permit
A
D. NPDES permit
2
Q
- What is the primary legal mechanism by which states participate in fulfilling the goals of the Clean Air Act?
A. The Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)
B. The State Implementation Plan (SIP)
C. The Federal Implementation Plan (FIP)
D. The National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES)
A
B. The State Implementation Plan (SIP)
3
Q
- In order to qualify for the “innocent landowner” exemption under CERCLA rules, the defendant …
A… needs to have taken reasonable measures to discover contamination before purchasing the land, needs to mitigate as much as possible, and needs to comply subserviently to the EPA’s demands and intrusions
B… needs to have been oblivious to the fact that the land was polluted, and oblivious to the potential for liability
C… needs to prove she was unaware of environmental regulations affecting the property, and still cannot understand anything about the law
D… needs to take full responsibility for the cleanup costs
A
A… needs to have taken reasonable measures to discover contamination before purchasing the land, needs to mitigate as much as possible, and needs to comply subserviently to the EPA’s demands and intrusions
4
Q
- To which type of pollutants do the National Ambient Air Quality Standards pertain?
A. Criteria Pollutants
B. Characteristic Pollutants
C. Listed Pollutants
D. Non-point Source Pollutants
A
A. Criteria Pollutants
5
Q
- Which of the following is NOT one of the categories of those personally liable under CERCLA?
A. Owners-operators
B. Transporters
C. Arrangers
D. Consumers
A
D. Consumers
6
Q
- What legal document must federal agencies generally publish in the Federal Register in order to avoid completing an EIS for a proposed project under NEPA?
A. An Environmental Assessment (EA)
B. A Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI)
C. An Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)
D. A categorical exclusion
A
B. A Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI)
7
Q
- The Department of Transportation decides to extend Interstate 95 from Florida to Puerto Rico by a series of bridges. Under NEPA, what must the Department do before it commences the project? EPA does not approve or disapprove the project; the purpose is to assess the environmental impact.
A. The Department must prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), analyzing the effects the proposed project will have on the environment
B. The Department must prepare a cost-benefit analysis of the project and submit it to Congress
C. The Department must submit an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to the EPA to obtain approval for the project
D. The Department must prepare an Environmental Assessment (EA), analyzing the effects the proposed project will have on the environment
A
A. The Department must prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), analyzing the effects the proposed project will have on the environment
8
Q
- Which method of regulation is most predominant under the Clean Air Act?
A. “Technology-based” regulation
B. “Incentives-based” regulation
C. “Health-based” regulation
D. “Technology-forcing” regulation
A
C. “Health-based” regulation
9
Q
- CERCLA regulates substances that overlap with which of the following environmental statutes?
A. Clean Air Act
B. Clean Water Act
C. RCRA
D. All of the above
A
D. All of the above
10
Q
- Suppose that twenty different businesses dumped toxic wastes in a private landfill over a period of years and that the land itself had ten different owners during this period. The EPA finds one Potentially Responsible Party (PRP) and brings a recovery action. Other polluters are still solvent and were responsible for more of the contamination. How much of the cleanup will this PRP be liable for?
A. None of the costs
B. One-thirtieth of the costs
C. One-twentieth of the costs
D. All of the costs. It is joint and several liability; every party is a 100% liable; they can recover their percentage from the other party; but for the EPA you can grab one and hold them responsible
A
D. All of the costs. It is joint and several liability; every party is a 100% liable; they can recover their percentage from the other party; but for the EPA you can grab one and hold them responsible
11
Q
- Oscorp, Inc. wants to avoid the expense of sending their hazardous wastes from an experimental reactor to an authorized disposal facility, so they stir the waste into tons of inert sand, and they sell the irradiated sand to construction companies for use in mixing concrete. Which type of rule is mostly likely to apply to this practice?
A. The contained-in rule
B. The derived-from rule
C. The mix-in rule
D. The “characteristic waste” rule
A
C. The mix-in rule
12
Q
- If Flint Marko, while fleeing the police, ends up at a nuclear testing site on a beach near Savannah, Georgia where he comes into contact with the irradiated sand from Question 11 and his body and the radioactive sand bond, changing Marko’s molecular structure into sand, what are the traditional elements to determine if Marko has “standing” to bring an action in court?
A. Likelihood of prevailing on the merits, irreparable harm if the court does not intervene immediately, and “clean hands,” i.e., the plaintiff did not contribute to the harm
B. Legitimate government interest in addressing the harm involved, and a remedy narrowly tailored to achieve this public purpose
C. Statutory authorization to bring this type of action instead of the relevant enforcement agency
D. Injury in fact, causation, and redressability of harm
A
D. Injury in fact, causation, and redressability of harm
13
Q
- Which of the following is NOT one of the ways that Congress controls the EPA?
A. Congress votes on the EPA’s budget each year
B. Congress can remove the Administrator of the EPA at will
C. Congress enacts and can amend the agency’s enabling statute
D. Congress can negate specific regulations through subsequent regulation. They control the scope of authority for the EPA.
A
B. Congress can remove the Administrator of the EPA at will
14
Q
- Congress passes a new statute called the Dirty Dirt Act, authorizing the EPA to “take whatever actions are necessary to preserve and maintain the health and cleanliness of our precious loam.” The EPA, however, is much more concerned about the threat of bioterrorism and homemade bombs, so it exercises its authority under the Act to restrict sales of fertilizers, like those used by Victor von Doom in his attempt to take down the Fantastic Four. The EPA attaches some regulatory rhetoric about this being necessary to protect the soils from fertilizers. When the fertilizer industry challenges the regulations in court, what would be their strongest legal argument, based on these facts?
A. The agency exceeded its statutory authority.
B. The agency violated the General Welfare Clause of the U.S. Constitution
C. The agency failed to follow the procedural requirements of the APA
D. The agency misinterpreted the statute
A
A. The agency exceeded its statutory authority.
15
Q
- Which of the following is a “hazardous waste” under EPA’s regulations implementing RCRA?
A. characteristically hazardous ash from a municipal waste incinerator that burns only household hazardous wastes;
B. a mixture of characteristically hazardous wastewater and non-hazardous effluent when the resulting mixture no longer displays the characteristic;
C. a mixture of a small amount of listed solvent wastes into a large impoundment filled with non-hazardous wash water;
D. all of the above
A
D. all of the above
