The shattering disruption of the health and lives of residents near an abandoned burial site for toxic industrial chemicals at Love Canal in Niagara Falls and the poisoned stream flowing out of the "Valley of the Drums" near Louisville, Kentucky are only two manifestations of a chronic environmental problem that has finally become a full-blown crisis. These and similar stories have fostered a growing public realization of the staggering task the nation faces in protecting its citizens and its environment from the torrent of hazardous waste produced by its technological society.

Three years ago, Congress passed the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)¹ to deal with the problem of waste, and Subtitle C² of the statute outlines an elaborate scheme for federal and state regulation of hazardous waste. After much delay, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has now proposed regulations to implement the Subtitle C program,³ which must be promulgated in final form by the end of 1979 as the result of a court order,⁴ but the proposals have generated intense controversy among industry and environmental interests. Moreover, the Act as it presently stands does not even address the very serious difficulties presented by inactive and abandoned dump sites. Congress is therefore expected to deal with this and other hazardous waste issues later this year. Meanwhile, the Department of Justice has begun filing lawsuits to remedy some of the most serious instances of improper hazardous waste disposal.