Editors' Summary: Drainage from farmland is a major source of water pollution in the United States, but is largely unregulated under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act. In this article, Professor Davidson analyzes why this is an improper reading by the Environmental Protection Agency of the 1977 amendments to the FWPCA, and why new provisions in the 1987 legislation codifying the exclusion are bad policy and destined to create confusion.

Editors' Summary: The 1986 Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA) incorporated many significant changes into the existing Superfund law. In particular, the new law will have considerable impact on settlements between the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and responsible parties. EPA has had an international settlement policy in place for several years, but SARA codified many of the existing policies and gave EPA additional duties.

Editors' Summary: Environmental compliance by federal facilities remains one of environmental law's thorniest issues. The applicable law is intricate, and the practical need to deal effectively with large federal agencies requires different skills and approaches than those traditionally applied to the private sector. In this Article, the author analyzes current legal issues applicable to federal facilities and offers practical advice for achieving environmental compliance.

Editors' Summary: The 1986 Superfund amendments have had dramatic impact on environmental law in general, and their specific application to federal facilities is no exception. In this Article, the author outlines the amendments' effects on the Department of Defense's hazardous waste cleanup program, and also analyzes the provisions common to all federal facilities.

Since President Reagan issued Executive Order 12291¹ establishing his system to review rulemaking actions by executive agencies, environmental and other public interest groups have sought to preclude the President and his delegatee, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), from reviewing or influencing agency decision-making.

The Water Resources Development Act of 1986¹ is the most comprehensive water resources development legislation enacted by the Congress in half a century and is the most environmentally sensitive water resources bill ever developed. The law combines all types of water resources projects and establishes a new equitable federal/nonfederal partnership in the development of projects, including local financial contributions where appropriate.

Editors' Summary: The Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986 (SARA) resolved some of the questions raised under the 1980 Act, including the controversy surrounding the availability of preenforcement review. SARA, however, also raises a host of new questions concerning the timing, scope, and standard of judicial review. The author, an experienced Superfund defense counsel, uses a series of hypotheticals to illustrate the difficulties potentially responsible parties may face under SARA if EPA adheres to its current prosecutorial strategy.

Editors' Summary: Contamination of groundwater and other public water supplies caused by the migration of hazardous wastes from chemical burial sites has long been recognized as posing a significant health hazard. The recent decision by a federal district court in Sterling v. Velsicol demonstrates the importance of state tort law in fixing liability for the harm caused by such dumpsites, as the $12.7 million award to the plaintiffs would indicate. In this article, Mr. Siegel and Mr.

Editors' Summary: Twenty-five years ago this month, the New Yorker magazine published excerpts from a landmark book that would be published later that year—Silent Spring. Rachel Carson's eloquent yet chilling chronicle of the hazards of synthetic pesticides quickly became the starting point for any analysis of the subject and was one of the major forces behind the development of the environmental movement. Justice William O.

Editors' Summary: The Price-Anderson Act, established in 1957 to encourage the then-fledgling commercial nuclear power industry by providing it with relative immunity from liability for an accident, expires August 1, 1987. Disagreements over whether and how the law should be renewed and modified have side-tracked legislation over the past few years, but with the August deadline nearing, congressional efforts have been stepped up. In this Article, Professor Reitze and Ms.