Much of the work that goes on in Environmental consulting is the result of a regulation under RCRA or CERCLA so we will spend a lot of time getting to understand these laws.

http://www.epa.gov/epahome/lawregs.htm
This has overviews of the various laws as well as a link to full text. We need to read parts of the actual law and the regulations.

Read the Introduction to Laws and How EPA writes regulations on the above page
How are laws made?
What is the difference between the Code and the CFR?
Who implements the laws, how is that designated?
There is a list of "environmental" laws on the page. How many have you heard of?

What are some of the considerations that EPA uses when writing laws?
What is the NAS, National Research Council?
What is an Executive Order? Which are applicable to the environment?
What does it mean for a state to have primacy with regard to a law?

Who is the EPA administrator? What's his background?
How many EPA regions are there? Which are we in?
How many offices do they have?
How many research labs do they maintain?

RCRA
http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/general/orientat/
This is a manual, a plain English guide. It is very long, skim it, don't print it or you'll use up all your printing allocation

What is RCRA, SWDA, HSWA?
How many subtitles (equates to sections) does RCRA have?
In brief, what is RCRA all about?

What is solid waste?
What products does municipal waste get categorized into?
One of the main goals of RCRA is source reduction. What does this mean?
What is an integrated solid waste management plan?

What is recycling? Why aren't more places doing it?
Several programs are in place to help this such as Wastewise, Jobs through Recycling, Unit Pricing, PAYT. What are these programs?

http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/non-hw/muncpl/index.htm (pretty much everything, Basics and beyond)
http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/non-hw/muncpl/fact-fig.htm (some general info on recycling, landfills etc)
Landfills
http://www.howstuffworks.com/landfill.htm/printable

What is a landfill?
How is it sited?
What are the federal and state regulations?
How must a MSW landfill be designed?
What is leachate?

http://www.tceq.state.tx.us/assets/public/comm_exec/pubs/sfr/042_01.pdf
Texas Solid waste management strategic plan
http://www.tceq.state.tx.us/assets/public/comm_exec/pubs/as/187_06.pdf
2005 report

How many landfills does Texas have?
What is the Texas per capita average?
http://www.tceq.state.tx.us/permitting/waste_permits/msw_permits/msw.html#rules
What types of landfills exist in Texas?

What is a hazardous waste?
Can hazardous waste ever be solid waste?
What are universal wastes?
Who is a hazardous waste generator?
What are the requirements for a generator?
What are CESQGs and what do they have to do?
Who is a transporter? What do they have to do?
The full burden of the law is on TSD facilities which are?
Who is exempted?
What do TSDS have to do?
How does a TSD landfill have to be designed?

What is a UST? A LUST?
What is excluded?
What are the requirements for owners of USTs.
How were grandfathered operations dealt with?
What are the seven permissible leak detection methods?

What methods are available for UST site characterization?
http://www.epa.gov/swerust1/cat/sitechar.htm
We will be looking at some of that material later. Clean-up technologies for USTs are covered in Advanced GW.

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Monitoring and Remedial work
What are the monitoring requirements for municipal landfills? In Texas
http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/non-hw/muncpl/landfill/financial/gdwmswl.htm#1
http://www.tceq.state.tx.us/permitting/waste_permits/msw_permits/msw_gwmon_coract.html
http://www.epa.gov/correctiveaction/resource/guidance/gw/gwhandbk/gwhndbk.htm

What are the three types of monitoring? When do they occur?

Take a look at the Technical Manual. Pages 212-213 describe the types of information needed.
Note qualifications of individual

We will be referring to these documents throughout the course and they will be a help for your project work.

Texas State Laws RCRA
Texas Administrative Code. TITLE 30, PART 1, CHAPTER 330 Subchapter J
MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE
Applicability
Groundwater Monitoring Requirements
What is required, samples, analysis

TITLE 30, ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
PART 1, TEXAS COMMISSION ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
CHAPTER 335, INDUSTRIAL SOLID WASTE AND MUNICIPAL HAZARDOUS WASTE

Site Selection To Protect Groundwater or Surface Water
RULE §335.204Unsuitable Site Characteristics
RULE §335.348 General Requirements for Remedial Investigations
RULE §335.349 General Requirements for Remedial Activities
So what do you need to permit a site and what makes a site unsuitable?
What is required (types of investigations) for remedial work?

UST TEXAS
Guidelines for groundwater monitoring leaking petroleum storage tank (LPST) sites. Also risk assessment plans
http://www.tceq.state.tx.us/remediation/pst_rp/downloads.html