Environmental regulation - Essay Example

Environmental Regulations The U.S. Environment Protection Agency (EPA) has been assigned the responsibility of formulating regulations for environment protection. Without writing regulations, laws on environment protection can not be enforced against those individuals, businesses, local and state governments, non-profit organizations and others, not adhering to the currently in-force regulations (EPA, “Regulations,” par. 1). The process of writing a regulation starts with the need of the regulation.

Different regulations have somewhat similar reasons for their formulation but the normal process of creating a regulation is a three-step process (EPA, “Laws and Regulations,” par. 1). In step 1 EPA proposes a Regulation, which is also called the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM). The proposal is presented for mass consideration through the Federal Register (FR). The official website of EPA, Regulations.gov, also can be visited to know and consider the proposed rule and related papers.

In step 2 EPA analyses the public remarks and after revising the draft publishes a final rule in the FR and the official website. In step 3, the regulation is codified in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), the government record keeper of 50 volumes, named titles. All environment regulations are listed in Title 40, which is updated every year on July 1 (EPA, “Laws and Regulations,” par. 2-4). Enforcement of EPA regulations against people and companies comes under civil or criminal violations of the country’s environmental laws and regulations.

Different EPA head-offices, regional and state agencies carry out the enforcement program under Civil Administrative Actions, Civil Judicial Actions, and Criminal Actions as per the nature and seriousness of the violation (EPA, “Enforcement,” par. 1-4). The EPA sanctions authority to state governments to enforce environmental laws formulated by the federal government such as in Alabama state regulations have been created by the Alabama Department of Environment Management (ADEM) having legislative sanction for implementing the federal laws at state level.

ADEM has the authority to write regulations on a number of environment related issues under Title 22 of the Code of Alabama 1975 (ADEM, “Regulations,” par. 16). In Alabama State there are 16 divisions on environment regulations covering General Administration, Environmental Management Commission, Air Pollution Control Program, Scrap Tire Program, Uniform Environmental Covenants Program, Water Quality Program, Water Supply Program, Coastal Program, Well Driller Licensing Program, Water Division Operator Certification Program, State Revolving Fund Programs, Solid Waste Program, Hazardous Waste Program, Brownfield Redevelopment and Voluntary Cleanup Program, and Dry-cleaning Trust Fund Program, becoming effective for enforcement in different years (ADEM, “Regulations,” par. 1-15). ADEM issues enforcement notices to defaulting parties, as in the month of April 2011, it issued notices including the notice of Significant Noncompliance on 19 April 2011 and to other parties in various Counties on water and waste/remediation (ADEM, “Enforcement Notices,”).

Works Cited ADEM. Alabama Environmental Regulations and Laws. 18 January 2011. Alabama Department of Environment Management. 28 April 2011 . EPA. Enforcement. 19 March 2010. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 28 April 2011 . EPA. Laws and Regulations: The Basics of the Regulatory Process. 8 April 2011. 28 April 2011. . EPA. Regulations. 14 April 2011. 28 April 2011 < http://www.epa.gov/lawsregs/regulations/>.