The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) is the principal federal statute governing the management of solid waste. Designed as a comprehensive system regulating hazardous and other solid wastes “from cradle to grave,” RCRA establishes a permitting system for hazardous waste treatment, storage and disposal facilities and imposes other regulatory standards and requirements that govern waste management activities nationwide.

Like most other modern federal environmental statutes, RCRA supplements the enforcement powers of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with a citizen suit provision authorizing private citizens to bring RCRA enforcement actions for violation of any permit, regulation or standard. Significantly, in the 1984 amendments to RCRA, Congress also authorized citizen suits against any person “who has contributed or is contributing to the past or present handling, storage, treatment, transportation, or disposal of any solid or hazardous waste which may present an imminent and substantial endangerment to health or the environment.” Despite decades of administrative and judicial interpretations of RCRA, elements of an RCRA citizen suit, including “solid waste,” “disposal” and an “imminent and substantial endangerment to health or the environment,” remain poorly defined. Two recent decisions involving particulate matter disbursed through the air illustrate the uncertainty regarding RCRA’s breadth.

This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.

To view this content, please continue to their sites.

Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Why am I seeing this?

LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.

For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]