Compliance Additional Laws and Glossary

The Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act makes it illegal to possess or sell an eagle or any part of an eagle (i.e., feathers, talons, eggs or nests). In 1940, Congress enacted the statue in response to declining numbers of bald eagles due to hunting and habitat encroachment. Faced with the prospect of the extinction of the national symbol, Congress specifically sought to protect this national treasure. Any form of taking or killing an eagle would subject an individual to criminal prosecution and civil penalties. Though the eagles’ populations have recovered, and the eagle is no longer listed as endangered, the act is still fully enforced.

The Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA) is administered by NOAA and provides for the management of the nation’s coastal resources, including the Great Lakes. The goal is to “preserve, protect, develop, and where possible, to restore or enhance the resources of the nation’s coastal zone.”

The CZMA outlines three national programs, the National Coastal Zone Management Program, the National Estuarine Research Reserve System, and the Coastal and Estuarine Land Conservation Program (CELCP). The National Coastal Zone Management Program aims to balance competing land and water issues through state and territorial coastal management programs, the reserves serve as field laboratories that provide a greater understanding of estuaries and how humans impact them, and CELCP provides matching funds to state and local governments to purchase threatened coastal and estuarine lands or obtain conservation easements.

The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), commonly known as Superfund, was enacted by Congress on Dec. 11, 1980. This law created a tax on the chemical and petroleum industries and provided broad Federal authority to respond directly to releases or threatened releases of hazardous substances that may endanger public health or the environment. Over five years, $1.6 billion was collected and the tax went to a trust fund for cleaning up abandoned or uncontrolled hazardous waste sites.

The law authorizes two kinds of response actions:

• Short-term removals, where actions may be taken to address releases or threatened releases requiring prompt response.
• Long-term remedial response actions, that permanently and significantly reduce the dangers associated with releases or threats of releases of hazardous substances that are serious, but not immediately life threatening.

Read more about CERCLA at EPA.

The purpose of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) is to protect and recover imperiled species and the ecosystems upon which they depend. It is administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Commerce Department's National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). The Service has primary responsibility for terrestrial and freshwater organisms, while the responsibilities of NMFS are mainly marine wildlife such as whales and fish such as salmon.

Under the ESA, species may be listed as either endangered or threatened. "Endangered" means a species is in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range. "Threatened" means a species is likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future. All species of plants and animals, except pest insects, are eligible for listing as endangered or threatened. For the purposes of the ESA, Congress defined species to include subspecies, varieties, and, for vertebrates, distinct population segments.

Section 102 in Title I of NEPA requires federal agencies to incorporate environmental considerations in their planning and decision-making through a systematic interdisciplinary approach. Specifically, all federal agencies are to prepare detailed statements assessing the environmental impact of and alternatives to major federal actions significantly affecting the environment.

Although Executive Order 13693 does not specifically mention environmentally beneficial landscaping, it does stress the reduction of water consumption which is a result of environmentally beneficial landscaping. Federal agencies are tasked to reduce agency industrial, landscaping, and agricultural (ILA) water consumption measured in gallons by 2 percent annually through fiscal year 2025 relative to a baseline of the agency's ILA water consumption in fiscal year 2010.

There are states that are forcing the issue of beneficial landscaping in order to conserve water resources. These are primarily western states. The state, county, or municipality will limit the water that can be used for landscape irrigation resulting in plants that are not desert-adaptable dying. Xeriscaping, the use of native plants, not only decreases the amount of water used for irrigation, but native plants have adapted to the climate and insects of the area.

The Facility Response Plan (FRP) rule requires certain facilities that store and use oil are required to prepare and submit an FRP. An FRP demonstrates a facility's preparedness to respond to a worst-case oil discharge. Any farm/facility storing more than 1,000,000 gallons of oil in above ground storage or 42,000 gallons where transfers occur over water will have to prepare an FRP and submit to EPA.

The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) is the federal regulations for pesticide distribution, sale, and use. All pesticides distributed or sold in the United States must be registered (licensed) by the EPA. Before the EPA may register a pesticide under FIFRA, the applicant must show, among other things, that using the pesticide according to specifications "will not generally cause unreasonable adverse effects on the environment'' and is defined as:

1. Any unreasonable risk to man or the environment, taking into account the economic, social, and environmental costs and benefits of the use of any pesticide, or
2. A human dietary risk from residues that result from a use of a pesticide in or on any food inconsistent with the standard under section 408 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.''

Under FIFRA, you must ensure that applicators are properly trained and, wherever necessary, certified to use restricted use pesticides and are using appropriate personal protective equipment. It also requires proper storage, disposal, and cleanup of pesticides when necessary. Most importantly, pesticides must be applied according to label instructions. Off-label use is prohibited by federal law.

The major sources of noise include transportation vehicles and equipment, machinery, appliances, and other products in commerce. The Noise Control Act of 1972 established a national policy to promote an environment for all Americans free from noise that negatively affects their health and welfare. The Act also serves to:

• Establish a means for effective coordination of Federal research and activities in noise control.
• Authorize the establishment of Federal noise emission standards for commercial products.
• Provide information to the public respecting the noise emission and noise reduction characteristics of such products.

Primary responsibility for control of noise rests with State and local governments, with the federal government mainly dealing with major noise sources in commerce which requires national uniformity of treatment.

Nonpoint source refers to the mode of conveyance of pollution that results from land runoff, precipitation, and drainage. It comes from many diffuse sources. It is caused by water moving over and through the ground - as it moves, it picks up and carries away natural and human-made pollutants, including excess fertilizers and pesticides and deposits them into lakes, rivers, wetlands, coastal waters and ground water.

The North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA) provides funding and administrative direction for implementation of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan and the Tripartite Agreement on wetlands between Canada, U.S. and Mexico. The NAWCA also hosts a program that provides matching grants to wetlands conservation projects. Learn more.

National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) are stationary source standards for hazardous air pollutants. Hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) are those pollutants that are known or suspected to cause cancer or other serious health effects, such as reproductive effects or birth defects, or adverse environmental effects.

Pesticide production

The intent of these standards is to reduce emissions of hazardous air pollutants (HAP) from existing and new facilities that manufacture organic pesticide active ingredients (PAI) used in herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides. The major HAP emitted by these facilities include toluene, methanol, methyl chloride, and hydrogen chloride (HCl). All of these pollutants can cause reversible or irreversible toxic effects following exposure.

Boilers

On March 21, 2011, EPA issued final emission standards to reduce emissions of toxic air pollutants from industrial, commercial, and institutional boilers located at area source facilities. An area source facility emits or has the potential to emit less than 10 tons per year of any single air toxic or less than 25 tons per year of any combination of air toxics. The final rule covers boilers located at area source facilities that burn coal, oil, or biomass, but not boilers that burn only gaseous fuels or any solid waste. The rule establishes standards to address emissions of mercury, particulate matter (as a surrogate for non-mercury metals), and carbon monoxide (as a surrogate for organic air toxics).

The Clean Water Act prohibits anybody from discharging "pollutants" through a "point source" into a "water of the United States" unless they have an NPDES permit. The permit will contain limits on what you can discharge, monitoring and reporting requirements, and other provisions to ensure that the discharge does not hurt water quality or people's health. In essence, the permit translates general requirements of the Clean Water Act into specific provisions tailored to the operations of each person discharging pollutants.

Point source refers to the mode of conveyance a pollutant may take to enter a body of water. It’s defined as any discernible, confined and discrete conveyance, such as a pipe, ditch, channel, conduit, or tunnel. Point source pollution is regulated by the Clean Water Act.

The Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899 establishes a program to regulate activities affecting navigation in United States waters, including wetlands.

The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) is the federal law that protects public drinking water supplies throughout the nation. Under the SDWA, EPA sets standards for drinking water quality and with its partners implements various technical and financial programs to ensure drinking water safety.

Due to the danger oil spills cause to public health and the environment, every effort must be made to prevent oil spills and to clean them up promptly once they occur. The purpose of the Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure (SPCC) rule is to help facilities prevent a discharge of oil into navigable waters or adjoining shorelines. The SPCC rule requires facilities to develop, maintain, and implement an oil spill prevention plan, called an SPCC Plan. These Plans help facilities prevent oil spill, as well as control a spill should one occur. Learn more about if the rule applies to your facility.

The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) of 1976 provides EPA with authority to require reporting, record-keeping and testing requirements, and restrictions relating to chemical substances and/or mixtures. Certain substances are generally excluded from TSCA, including, among others, food, drugs, cosmetics and pesticides.

TSCA addresses the production, importation, use, and disposal of specific chemicals including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), asbestos, radon and lead-based paint.

Wetlands are defined as those areas that are inundated or saturated by surface or ground water at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted to life in saturated soil conditions. Many wetlands serve significant natural biological functions such as food chain production, general habitat and nesting, spawning, and rearing sites for aquatic and land species. Wetlands may also serve important water quality functions, serve as flood water storage areas, and protect areas from wave action, erosion, or storm damage.

Wetlands subject to Clean Water Act Section 404 are defined as “areas that are inundated or saturated by surface or ground water at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions. Wetlands generally include swamps, marshes, bogs, and similar areas.”

The term "Waters of the United States" (WOTUS) is also defined very broadly in the Clean Water Act and after 25 years of litigation. It means navigable waters, tributaries to navigable waters, interstate waters, the oceans out to 200 miles, and intrastate waters which are used: by interstate travelers for recreation or other purposes, as a source of fish or shellfish sold in interstate commerce, or for industrial purposes by industries engaged in interstate commerce.

Read the EPA's definition of WOTUS and learn more about GCSAA's advocacy efforts concerning WOTUS.