EPA FINAL Exam Questions Fully Solved.

Several of the federal environmental laws specifically authorize EPA to conduct ________________of regulated facilities. - correct answer warrantless searches The courts have found that the due process requirements of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the US Constitution impose certain restraints on a state government's inherent ________________. The ________________ of the state has been generally construed as the power to pass laws for the health, welfare, morals, and property of the people within its jurisdiction. - correct answer police power EPA has developed _____________________ to provide guidance to EPA personnel in determining an appropriate penalty to assess against an alleged violator. These ______________ were developed to clarify or make more concrete the statutory language and to provide guidance to agency officials in the application of permissible statutory discretion in enforcement. - correct answer penalty policies A(n) ___________________ may serve both a screening function (i.e., evaluating evidence supporting possible charges to determine whether an indictment should be returned based on probable cause) and an investigative function (i.e., developing information that is of value to determining whether grounds for a charge exist). - correct answer grand jury While state and local governments have broad police powers to do what is necessary to protect the health and safety of their citizens, their authorities may be displaced where a scheme of federal regulation, pursuant to enumerated authority, ____________ the field of regulation and precludes the further exercise of state and local authority. - correct answer preempts Some states may have their own regulations that are more stringent than the federal regulations, in which case, the state's regulations will control. - correct answer True Before an agency's regulations go into effect, the agency need not notify the public that a new rule is pending. - correct answer False At the federal level, the agency will publish a "Notice of ___________________". These notices will inform the public about the new rule pending, the reasons that the new rule, or amendment to an existing rule, has been proposed, and how the public may submit comments. - correct answer Proposed Rulemaking The strategy for successful compliance with NEPA's provisions is achieved by integrating environmental awareness and environmental factors early in the planning and decision making process. Recognizing that NEPA is largely a __________________ statute, compliance with its provisions call for planning and analysis that fully consider and document on a timely basis the environmental considerations and ______________ to the proposed action. - correct answer procedural, alternatives Ninety to 95 percent of most federal agency actions are classified as _______________not requiring an EA or EIS. - correct answer categorical exclusions The least amount of documentation is required for actions that fit into a ________________________. - correct answer categorical exclusion What is the term for an agency identified category of actions which "do not individually or cumulatively have a significant effect on the human environment and which have been found to have had no such effect in past instances." - correct answer categorical exclusion A ______________________ is used as a screening document to determine whether an agency must prepare an environmental impact statement or make a finding of no significant impact. - correct answer environmental assessment Environmental assessments need to be of sufficient length to ensure that the underlying decision about whether to prepare an environmental impact statement is sound, but should not attempt to be substitute for an environmental impact statement. - correct answer True If it is determined that a proposed federal action, or nonfederal action having sufficient federal involvement, does not fall within a designated categorical exclusion or does not qualify for a FONSI, then the responsible agency or agencies must prepare an environmental assessment. - correct answer False The scoping process is the first opportunity for the agency to involve the _____________ by describing the agency's planning efforts to address the needs identified and to solicit comments on the scope of actions, alternatives, and impacts that need to be considered. - correct answer public The NEPA statute makes ________________ in the process an essential element in ensuring informed decision-making at the federal level. Section 102(2)(C) requires that "[c]opies of the [EIS] and the comments and views of the appropriate Federal, state and local agencies, which are authorized to develop and enforce environmental standards, shall be made available to the President, the Council on Environmental Quality and the public as provided by [the Freedom of Information Act]." - correct answer public involvement While EPA can respond to and clean up a site polluted by either a hazardous substance or a pollutant or contaminant, the statute does not authorize EPA to recover its cleanup costs from private parties or to issue an order directing the parties to perform a cleanup when the substance involved is only a pollutant or contaminant. - correct answer True In order for EPA to undertake a response action under CERCLA and for liability to attach, there must be a release or ____________________ of a release of a hazardous substance into the environment. - correct answer substantial threat The ________________________ is the list of sites of national priority among the known releases or threatened releases of hazardous substances, pollutan