340
Stevens, J., dissenting
Justice Stevens, with whom Justice O'Connor joins, dissenting.
The statutory provision in question is a 1984 amendment entitled "Clarification of Household Waste Exclusion." 1 To
understand that clarification, we must first examine the "waste exclusion" that the amendment clarified and, more particularly, the ambiguity that needed clarification. I therefore begin with a discussion of the relevant pre-1984 law. I then examine the text of the statute as amended and explain why the apparent tension between the broad definition of the term "hazardous waste generation" in the 1976 Act and the more specific exclusion for the activity of incinerating household wastes (and mixtures of household and other nonhazardous wastes) in the 1984 amendment should be resolved by giving effect to the later enactment.
I
When Congress enacted the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 (RCRA), it delegated to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) vast regulatory authority over the mountains of garbage that our society generates. The statute directed the EPA to classify waste as hazardous or nonhazardous and to establish regulatory controls over the disposition of the two categories of waste pursuant to Subtitles C and D of RCRA. 42 U. S. C. § 6921(a); see ante, at 331-332. To that end, the EPA in 1980 promulgated detailed regulations establishing a federal hazardous waste management system pursuant to Subtitle C.
Generally, though not always, the EPA regulations assume that waste is properly characterized as hazardous or nonhazardous when it first becomes waste. Based on that charac-1 Section 223 of the Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments of 1984 amended § 3001 of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976. See 98 Stat. 3252; 42 U. S. C. § 6921(i). The text of the provision is quoted ante, at 334.
Page: Index Previous 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007