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[Congressional Bills 104th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2845 Introduced in House (IH)]

104th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 2845

    To amend the Solid Waste Disposal Act to allow petitions to be 
submitted to prevent certain waste facilities from being constructed in 
               environmentally disadvantaged communities.

_______________________________________________________________________

                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 4, 1996

   Mrs. Collins of Illinois introduced the following bill; which was 
                 referred to the Committee on Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL

 
    To amend the Solid Waste Disposal Act to allow petitions to be 
submitted to prevent certain waste facilities from being constructed in 
               environmentally disadvantaged communities.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Environmental Equal Rights Act of 
1995''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds the following:
            (1) A 1987 study by the United Church of Christ found that 
        the proportion of minorities in communities with large 
        commercial landfills or a high number of commercial waste 
        facilities was three times greater than in communities without 
        such facilities.
            (2) The same United Church of Christ study found that 
        approximately 60 percent of African- and Hispanic-Americans 
        live in a community that has an uncontrolled hazardous waste 
        site.
            (3) An Environmental Protection Agency report released in 
        1992 found that racial minority and low-income populations 
        experience higher than average exposures to selected air 
        pollutants and hazardous waste facilities.
            (4) A 1983 analysis by the General Accounting Office found 
        that, in the southeastern United States, three of the four 
        commercial hazardous waste landfills were located in 
        communities with more blacks than whites, and the percentage of 
        residents near the sites with incomes below the poverty line 
        ranged from 26 percent to 42 percent.
            (5) A University of Michigan study released in 1990 found 
        that minorities were four times more likely than whites to live 
        within one mile of a commercial hazardous waste facility in the 
        three-county Detroit metropolitan area.
            (6) A National Law Journal study found that penalties 
        imposed for pollution law violations in areas predominantly 
        populated by minorities were dramatically lower than those 
        imposed for violations in largely white areas.

SEC. 3. PETITION RELATING TO ENVIRONMENTALLY DISADVANTAGED COMMUNITIES.

    (a) Amendment to Subtitle G.--Subtitle G of the Solid Waste 
Disposal Act (42 U.S.C. 6971 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end 
the following new section:

``SEC. 7011. PETITION RELATING TO ENVIRONMENTALLY DISADVANTAGED 
              COMMUNITIES.

    ``(a) Right to Petition.--(1) Any individual residing in an 
environmentally disadvantaged community in which a new facility for the 
management of solid waste (including a new facility for the management 
of hazardous waste) is proposed to be constructed may submit a petition 
to the appropriate entity (described in paragraph (2)) to prevent the 
proposed facility from being issued a permit to be constructed or to 
operate in that community.
    ``(2) A petition under paragraph (1) shall be submitted in 
accordance with the following subparagraphs:
            ``(A) In the case of a facility for the management of 
        hazardous waste, the petition shall be submitted to the 
        Administrator or, in the case of a State with an authorized 
        program under section 3006, to the State.
            ``(B) In the case of a facility for the management of 
        municipal solid waste, the petition shall be submitted to the 
        Administrator or, in appropriate cases, as determined under 
        regulations implementing this section, to the State.
    ``(b) Agency Hearing.--(1) Within a reasonable period of time after 
receipt of a petition under subsection (a), the Administrator or the 
State shall hold a public hearing on the petition. An administrative 
law judge of the Environmental Protection Agency or an equivalent 
employee of the State, in the case of a petition submitted to the 
State, shall preside at the hearing.
    ``(2) Subject to paragraph (3), the administrative law judge or 
State employee shall approve the petition if, at the hearing, the 
petitioner establishes that--
            ``(A) the proposed facility will be located in an 
        environmentally disadvantaged community; and
            ``(B) the proposed facility may adversely affect--
                    ``(i) the human health of such community or a 
                portion of such community;
                    ``(ii) the air, soil, water, or other elements of 
                the environment of such community or a portion of such 
                community; or
                    ``(iii) the social and economic characteristics of 
                such community or a portion of such community.
    ``(3) After the petitioner has satisfied the requirement of 
paragraph (2), the administrative law judge or State employee shall 
deny the petition only if, at the hearing, the proponent of the 
proposed facility establishes that--
            ``(A) there is no alternative location within the State for 
        the proposed facility that poses fewer risks to human health 
        and the environment than the proposed facility (according to 
        standards for comparing the degree of risk to human health and 
        the environment promulgated in regulations by the Administrator 
        for purposes of this section); and
            ``(B) the proposed facility--
                    ``(i) will not release contaminants; or
                    ``(ii) will not engage in any activity that is 
                likely to increase the cumulative impact of 
                contaminants on any residents of the environmentally 
                disadvantaged community.
    ``(c) Administrative Provisions.--(1) The submission of a petition 
under subsection (a) stays the issuance of a permit for the facility 
concerned until a decision on the petition has been rendered under 
subsection (b).
    ``(2) If more than one petition relating to the same facility is 
submitted, the petitions may be consolidated by the appropriate 
official to promote the efficient resolution and disposition of the 
petitions.
    ``(d) Notice to Public.--Within 30 days after receipt of a proposal 
for the construction of a new facility for the management of solid 
waste (including a new facility for the management of hazardous waste) 
in an environmentally disadvantaged community, and before issuance of a 
permit for such facility, the Administrator or the State in which the 
environmentally disadvantaged community is located shall notify persons 
residing in the environmentally disadvantaged community of their right 
to submit a petition under subsection (a). Such notice shall appear for 
a period of not less than five consecutive days in a newspaper of 
general circulation that serves the environmental disadvantaged 
community. The Administrator or the State shall provide such notice in 
writing by first class mail to any person who requests such 
information.
    ``(e) Definitions.--As used in this section:
            ``(1) The term `environmentally disadvantaged community' 
        means an area within 2 miles of the borders of a site on which 
        a facility for the management of solid waste (including a 
        facility for the management of hazardous waste) is proposed to 
        be constructed, within the same State as the proposed facility, 
        and in which both of the following conditions are met, 
        determined using the most recent data from the Bureau of the 
        Census:
                    ``(A)(i) The percentage of the population 
                consisting of all individuals who are of African, 
                Hispanic, Asian, Native American Indian, Pacific 
                Island, or Native Alaskan ancestry is greater than 
                either--
                            ``(I) the percentage of the population in 
                        the State of all such individuals, or
                            ``(II) the percentage of the population in 
                        the United States of all such individuals; or
                    ``(ii)(I) twenty percent or more of the population 
                consists of individuals who are living at or below the 
                poverty line, or
                    ``(II) the area has a per capita income of 80 
                percent or less of the national average,
                for the most recent 12-month period for which 
                statistics are available.
                    ``(B) The area contains one or more of the 
                following:
                            ``(i) A facility for the management of 
                        hazardous waste that is in operation.
                            ``(ii) A facility for the management of 
                        hazardous waste that is no longer in operation 
                        but that formerly accepted hazardous waste.
                            ``(iii) A site at which a release or 
                        threatened release of hazardous substances 
                        (within the meaning of the Comprehensive 
                        Environmental Response, Compensation, and 
                        Liability Act of 1980) has occurred.
                            ``(iv) A facility for the management of 
                        municipal solid waste.
                            ``(v) A facility whose owner or operator is 
                        required to submit a toxic chemical release 
                        form under section 313 of the Emergency 
                        Planning and Community Right-To-Know Act of 
                        1986 (42 U.S.C. 11023), if the releases 
                        reported on such form are likely to adversely 
                        affect the human health of the community or 
                        portion of the community, as determined by the 
                        entity that would be appropriate under 
                        subsection (a)(2) if a petition were filed with 
                        respect to the facility.
            ``(2) The term `management', when used in connection with 
        solid waste (including hazardous waste), means treatment, 
        storage, disposal, combustion, recycling, or other handling of 
        solid waste, but does not include any activities that take 
        place in a materials recovery facility or any other facility 
        that prepares, transfers, or utilizes nonhazardous recyclable 
        materials for purposes other than energy recovery.
            ``(3) The terms `release' and `contaminant' have the 
        meanings prescribed by the Administrator for purposes of this 
        section.''.
    (b) Table of Contents Amendment.--The table of contents for 
subtitle G of such Act is further amended by adding at the end the 
following new item:

``Sec. 7011. Petition relating to environmentally disadvantaged 
                            communities.''
                                 <all>
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