| EPA's 2003 Particle Pollution Report |
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| The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to set air quality standards for certain types of pollutants, referred to as "criteria pollutants," one of which is particulate matter. The EPA considers particulate matter pollution to be its most serious air quality problem. More... |
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| The Coastal Barriers Resources Act |
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| The Coastal Barriers Resources Act (CBRA) was the result of the realization by Congress that coastal barrier land masses were a tremendously valuable natural resource and that because of their inherent vulnerability to erosion and storms, they were not well-suited to development. In order to both protect coastal barrier habitats and minimize the wasteful expenditure of federal funds, the CBRA was passed in 1982 to identify undeveloped coastal barrier land masses and restrict federal funding for such areas. More... |
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| EPA's Phaseout of Diazinon |
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| In December 2000, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that, pursuant to an agreement with manufacturers of diazinon, all residential uses of diazinon, one of the most widely used pesticides in the United States, would be phased out. Diazinon is an organophosphate insecticide that is relatively persistent, which means that it does not readily break down in to non-harmful byproducts. More... |
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| The Farmland Protection Policy Act |
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| In 1981, Congress passed the Farmland Protection Policy Act (FPPA), one of the purposes of which is to minimize the extent to which actions of the federal government result in the irreversible loss of farmland and to ensure that federal programs or federally-assisted programs were administered in such a way as to be compatible with state and local policies designed to protect farmland. The FPPA gives the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) the responsibility to develop criteria to identify the effects of federal activities on the conversion of farmland to nonagricultural uses. More... |
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| Visibility and the EPA's Regional Haze Program |
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| To address the problem of visibility and the related environmental and health effects of visibility impairing pollutants, which affect among others 280 million annual visitors to our national parks and wilderness areas, in 1999 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the Regional Haze Rule (RHR), which represents a concerted effort to improve the visibility in 156 national parks and wilderness areas. Recognizing that haze can be spread over wide areas, the EPA assigns each state, whether or not it contains national parks or wilderness areas, to one of five multi-state regional planning organizations. More... |
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