Editors' Summary: The Federal Water Pollution Control Act, sometimes known as the Clean Water Act, prohibits the discharge of pollutants into waters of the United States without a permit. One of the keys to the Act is thus the permit system, the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES). The Environmental Protection Agency's NPDES program has had a checkered career in moving toward the goal of "fishable and swimmable" water throughout the United States.

Some months ago the editors of ELR asked me to write an essay on the status of environmental law in the law schools. I considered simply describing the progress of my own life and not-so-hard times as a teacher since 1966, when I first put together a course called "Conservation and the Law" at the University of Michigan. I soon decided that a report from the front lines would be more suitable.

One of the most crucial public policy problems facing America today is the lack of progress in dealing with hazardous waste. At the root of this inaction is an overriding issue: How do we pay the immense cost of correcting the damage done by past waste handling practices?

Editors' Summary: One of the traditional principles of tort law states that a cause of action is allowed only if a present injury exists. This principle has been gradually eroded as an increasing number of courts in toxic tort cases have allowed plaintiffs to recover for the increased risk of developing a disease in the future as a result of exposure to a toxic substance.

Although the law governing the siting of municipal waste landfills varies from state to state, there are similarities in procedures and problems. This Dialogue provides some suggestions on how a landfill applicant can efficiently proceed through the siting process and uses the recent successful siting application filed by Gallatin National Company before the village of Fairview, Illinois, as an example.

Editors' Summary: The doctrine surrounding the rights of individuals to pursue legal remedies in the courts has a long and complex history, and has resulted in a patchwork of rules that are not always easy to follow. Standing to sue limitations have their origins in Article III of the United States Constitution, which limits federal jurisdiction to "cases and controversies." In the early 1970s, the Supreme Court paved the way for environmental groups to participate directly in the evaluation of environmental law by liberalizing the rules pertaining to standing.

Editors' Summary: Toxic tort cases often involve thousands of documents, procedural complexities, and difficult scientific and legal issues. The ability of our legal system to rationally resolve these cases depends on the competence of the factfinder to evaluate the volumes of technical evidence generated in these cases. The author argues that the complexities of these cases are beyond the abilities of lay juries and judges. He proposes that special juries of persons with scientific and medical training be used in complex toxic tort cases.

Under the Constitution of the United States of America, states are provided substantial rights. Indeed, the Tenth Amendment provides that "[p]owers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."¹

In the beginning, God created man and woman.

Soon thereafter, oil spill compensation and liability legislation sprang from the primordial slime. This development sent man and woman scurrying off to law school (and a few straight to Congress)—destined to argue the finer points of the bill throughout eternity.

Editors' Summary: The Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound, Alaska, did more than ravage a pristine environment. It also exposed the deficiencies in the jumble of federal and state laws that establish liability for environmental and economic damages caused by oil spills. The author, using the Exxon Valdez spill as a example, analyzes whether full compensation for all parties damaged by tanker oil spills is available under the existing statutory scheme.