I
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 environ-
mentally 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 com-
munities.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives 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 fa-
cilities.
(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 land-
fills 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 com-
mercial 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 DIS-
ADVANTAGED 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 resid-
ing 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 submit-
ted in accordance with the following subparagraphs:
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 oper-
ation 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 opera-
tor 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, combus-
tion, 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 recycla-
ble materials for purposes other than energy recov-
ery.
‘‘(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.’’
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