Many of the readers of this blog know that EPA is co-chair of the National Response Team of the NCP together with the US Coast Guard.
Many EPA legal authorities are vested directly in the Presdient who then delegates them to cabinet department agencies and independent Executive Branch agencies like EPA. Still in light of the current BP catastrophe it is appropriate to produce a summary of EPA legal authorities.
So here goes:
1. Clean Air Act (CAA)--42 USC Sections 7401-7671;
2. Clean Water Act (CWA)--33 USC Sections 1251-1387;
3. Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA)--42 USC Sections 9601-9675;
4. Emergency Planning and Community Right-To-Know Act of 1986 (EPCRA)--42 USC Sections 11001-11050;
5. Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA)--7 USC Sections 136;
6. Pollution Prevention Act (PPA)--42 USC Sections 13101-13109;
7. National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)--42 USC Sections 4321-4307;
8. Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)--42 USC Sections 6901-6992;
9. Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA)--42 USC sections 300;
10. Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)--15 USC Sections 2601-2692.
I am not sure but believe none of these statutes have been condified into positive law meaning that the US Code Commission has never validated the version appearing in the USC annotated in an official version. Still they are law. Just that the current codification might well contain substantial errors since large compiled from GPO slip law prints.
