ENVIRO RULES : Student Civic Participation:
Influencing Environmental Policy

Are you tired of hearing about all the environmental problems of the country? Do you want to start seeing some solutions? Well, here's how solutions happen...YOU HAVE TO GET INVOLVED! Want to know how to get involved? Ever heard of civic participation? How about a few basics in civics to show how that can be accomplished?

The following is adapted from CIVITAS: A Framework for Civic Education by the Center for Civic Education (www.civiced.org) and the National Standards for Civics and Government produced by the Council for the Advancement of Citizenship and the National Council for the Social Studies. CIVITAS quotes R. Freeman Butts in describing the "civic mission" of schools:

"Civic education in a democracy is education in self-government. Self- government means active participation in self-governance, not passive acquiescence in the actions of others....The ideals of democracy are most completely fulfilled when every member of the political community actively shares in government....The first and primary reason for civic education in a constitutional democracy is that the health of the body politic requires the widest possible civic participation of its citizens consistent with the common good and the protection of individual rights. The aim of civic education is therefore not just any kind of participation by any kind of citizen; it is the participation of informed and responsible citizens, skilled in the arts of effective action and deliberation."

The National Standards for Civics and Government are intended to

"help schools develop competent and responsible citizens who possess a reasoned commitment to the fundamental values and principles that are essential to the preservation and improvement of American constitutional democracy. Achievement of these standards should be fostered not only by explicit attention to civic education in the curriculum, but also in related subjects such as history, literature, geography, economics, and the sciences and by the informal curriculum of the school, the pattern of relations maintained in the school and its governance. To achieve the standards students must be provided with the kinds of learning opportunities in the classroom, school, and community that foster the skills necessary for civic participation."

Environmental laws and regulations protect human health, animals, plants, and natural resources. There are many environmental, health, and community safety laws, policies and regulations protecting people, land, water, plants and animals. These laws, and others enacted by federal, state, and local governments, have various requirements and are enforced by various agencies. The following are examples of some of these agencies and the laws they implement. Some agencies share responsibilities for a particular law, but they have been listed here under the dominant agency. State and local governments also have some responsibility in regulating and/or complying with the following.

Major Environmental Laws and Regulations
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Clean Air Act
The Clean Air Act is the comprehensive federal law that regulates air emissions from area, stationary, and mobile sources. This law authorizes the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to establish National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) to protect public health and the environment.

The goal of the Act was to set and achieve NAAQS in every state by 1975. The setting of maximum pollutant standards was coupled with directing the states to develop state implementation plans (SIP's) applicable to appropriate industrial sources in the state.

The Act was amended in 1977 primarily to set new goals (dates) for achieving attainment of NAAQS since many areas of the country had failed to meet the deadlines. The 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act were, in large part, intended to meet unaddressed or insufficiently addressed problems such as acid rain, ground-level ozone, stratospheric ozone depletion, and air toxics.

National Marine Fisheries Service
Marine Mammal Protection Act (Sec. 1361.)
States that

1. certain species and population stocks of marine mammals are, or may be, in danger of extinction or depletion as a result of man's activities;
   
2. such species and population stocks should not be permitted to diminish beyond the point at which they cease to be a significant functioning element in the ecosystem of which they are a part, and, consistent with this major objective, they should not be permitted to diminish below their optimum sustainable population. Further measures should be immediately taken to replenish any species or population stock which has already diminished below that population. In particular, efforts should be made to protect essential habitats, including the rookeries, mating grounds, and areas of similar significance for each species of marine mammal, from the adverse effect of man's actions;
   
3. there is inadequate knowledge of the ecology and population dynamics of such marine mammals and of the factors which bear upon their ability to reproduce themselves successfully;
   
4. negotiations should be undertaken immediately to encourage the development of international arrangements for research on, and conservation of, all marine mammals;
   
5. marine mammals and marine mammal products either:
   (A) move in interstate commerce, or
   (B) affect the balance of marine ecosystems in a manner which is important to other animals and animal products which move in interstate commerce, and that the protection and conservation of marine mammals and their habitats is therefore necessary to insure the continuing availability of those products which move in interstate commerce; and
   
6. marine mammals have proven themselves to be resources of great international significance, esthetic and recreational as well as economic, and it is the sense of the Congress that they should be protected and encouraged to develop to the greatest extent feasible commensurate with sound policies of resource management and that the primary objective of their management should be to maintain the health and stability of the marine ecosystem. Whenever consistent with this primary objective, it should be the goal to obtain an optimum sustainable population, keeping in mind the carrying capacity of the habitat.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Endangered Species Act
The Endangered Species Act provides a program for the conservation of threatened and endangered plants and animals and the habitats in which they are found. The (FWS) maintains the list of 632 endangered species (326 are plants) and 190 threatened species (78 are plants).

Species include birds, insects, fish, reptiles, mammals, crustaceans, flowers, grasses, and trees. Anyone can petition FWS to include a species on this list. The law prohibits any action, administrative or real, that results in a "taking" of a listed species, or adversely affects their habitat. Likewise, import, export, interstate, and foreign commerce of listed species are all prohibited.

U.S. Coast Guard
Marine Pollution Control Act (MARPOL )
Under Annex V of MARPOL, the international marine pollution treaty signed by 79 countries including the U.S., dumping of plastic in any waters is prohibited.
Garbage Dumping Restrictions in U.S. Waters
Under federal law, it is illegal for any vessel to discharge plastics or garbage containing plastics into any waters. Regional, state or local laws may place further restrictions on the disposal of garbage. ALL discharge of garbage is prohibited in the Great Lakes or their connecting or tributary waters. Each knowing violation of these requirements may result in a fine of up to $500,000 and 6 years imprisonment.