In a note published in the August ELR (On the Road Again: Certification Acceptance Forces NEPA to Adapt, 4 ELR 50023), Jeff Morgenthaler of ELR was sharply critical of the Federal Highway Administration for its recently promulgated "certification acceptance" procedures. In the following Article, David E. Wells, Chief Counsel of the FHWA, and Stanley Abramson, Attorney Advisor in the Office of the Chief Counsel, analyze the purposes and potential of certification acceptance in a strongly positive light. This Article should not be construed as a rebuttal to Mr.

Growth as an American ideal is a fundamental component of the expansive pioneer spirit. It is vital to the maintenance of class mobility. But it is a truism whose hold upon the American approach to land use planning, or lack thereof, is being challenged for the first time in courts throughout the nation.

Garrison Diversion Project, or more simply Garrison Diversion, is the common name of an undertaking of the Bureau of Reclamation with the official title of, "Initial Stage, Garrison Diversion Unit, Pick-Sloan Missouri River Basin Program."¹ The basic scheme of the Garrison Diversion is the withdrawal of water from the Missouri River for irrigation of 250,000 acres of farmland in semi-arid areas of central and north-central North Dakota.² What gives the project international significance is that about 75 percent of the area to be irrigated

If the downfall of Richard Nixon had not monopolized the news media in 1974, the year just past might well be remembered for its dramatic revelations about the various dangers to public health. For the first time, Americans learned that ordinary tap water in many areas contained potent carcinogens and that chlorination of water may cause cancer.

On February 11, 1975, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that it will conduct a public proceeding and hold public hearings on whether it should require corporations to disclose information about "socially significant matters," and, in particular, about the environmental effects of corporate activities and about corporate fair employment practices.¹ The SEC has never before scheduled a formal public hearing to consider disclosures related to the interests of "ethical investors."² Nor has the SEC ever announced publicly t

The large number of federal facilities throughout the nation—military bases, nuclear fuel plants, the TVA, the Bonneville Power Administration—contribute significantly to ambient environmental pollution. Various efforts have been made at the federal level to bring federal facilities into conformity with federal and state pollution standards, but the problem still persists.

As urban populations in ever increasing numbers flee the smog and heat of city summers, they bring with them to formerly rural and wild areas the urban problems of crowding and environmental degradation. A case in point is the once remote Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge bordering the Atlantic Ocean in extreme southeastern Virginia, which today is sandwiched between burgeoning "second home" beach developments.

Editors' Summary: More than most areas of law, Congress looms large over environmental law. Federal environmental statutes, and the appropriations that fund them, serve as the central vein from which most areas of environmental law branch out. The 101st Congress in 1989 and 1990 was one of the most environmentally active congresses in two decades. From the Clean Air Act to the Oil Pollution Act to more criminal investigators at EPA, Congress strengthened environmental laws in a host of areas.

The passage of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990¹ and its attendant Statement of the Senate Managers once again raises the issue of the proper role and treatment of environmental self-audit programs in the field of environmental enforcement.

Are lenders' fears of Superfund liability justified? The conventional wisdom holds that they are. However, this hasty judgment may not be able to withstand legal scrutiny.