We read with great interest the comment on "Arranging for Disposal Under CERCLA."¹ The comment was generally well done, but may have missed some points of interest.

Editors' Summary: Biotechnology has moved out of the labs and scientific journals and into the chemical plants of large chemical companies and small innovators and the popular press. Those in the federal government responsible for protecting the public from threats to its health and environment are struggling to find a coherent framework for regulating biotechnology. But like some other environmental problems of recent discovery—groundwater pollution, for example—no single statute clearly controls.

Editors' Summary: Federal agencies involved in complex, multi-level planning may have to prepare multiple environmental impact statements and environmental assessments to satisfy the requirements of NEPA. A recent Ninth Circuit case, Thomas v. Peterson, has shed new light on NEPA's requirements for analysis of individual actions that are connected to other activities. The case is the first appellate ruling construing the Council on Environmental Quality's connected-action and cumulative-effect regulations.

Editors' Summary: Toxic tort cases pose formidable problems of law and proof for plaintiffs. These problems are compounded in environmental suits, where defendants may be difficult to identify and causation may be especially clouded.The author outlines the obstacles to recovery in toxic tort cases arising from hazardous waste disposal, reviews developments in tort law that have reduced certain of the barriers, and then examines two pending New Jersey cases that may break further ground for plaintiffs.

Editors' Summary: Uncle Sam is both environmental policeman and environmental polluter. In 1970, Congress began to create a tough series of pollution control laws that govern the activities of private organizations and individuals. One of the great ironies of the early years of environmental law was that, while these deliberations were taking place, the air outside in the Capitol was often fouled by emissions from the federal government powerplant providing the electricity to light the congressional offices.

Editors' Summary: Fee shifting provisions continue to be a vital concern both for those who seek the awards and those who may have to pay them. The law of fee shifting has swung through a series of changes in the past ten years, with Congress and a few courts promoting awards while the Supreme Court has generally discouraged them. Two developments in recent months well illustrate this pattern: Congress has revived and amended the Equal Access to Justice Act, expanding opportunites to claim fees from the federal government, and the D.C. Circuit in Sierra Club v.

Editors' Summary: Despite its importance, historic preservation is an unfamiliar area to many environmental lawyers. The 1966 National Historic Preservation Act requires federal agencies to consider and, where possible, minimize the impacts of their actions on historic properties and sites. Harm to historic properties is among the environmental impacts to be considered in NEPA procedures as well.

Editors' Summary: CERCLA is one of the most important environmental statutes, and one of the most difficult to follow. The shape of the legal scheme is being wrought, not in agency rulemakings, but in the courts, and each week brings another significant decision. To help our readers stay abreast of these developments, ELR tries to provide both in-depth analyses of specific issues such as bankruptcy and generator liability, and surveys of the broad trends in the law.

Editors' Summary: Congress gave private citizens an important, though secondary, role in enforcing the new pollution control statutes of the 1970s. EPA and the states were given the principal responsibility to act when polluters violated standards, but the public was not expected necessarily to sit back and wait for the governments to solve the problems. Citizens could take enforcement matters into their own hands if the governments failed to act.

Editors' Summary: The principal federal program for protecting wetlands is found in §404 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act. Section 404 prohibits the discharge of dredged or fill material in the waters of the United States without a Corps of Engineers permit and also empowers EPA to set standards to guide the Corps' issuance of permits.