Gary Condit on Environment Former Democratic Representative (CA-18)

Establish a grassland reserve program to conserve grassland.

Establishes a grassland reserve program for land that is or has historically been natural grass or shrubland and has significant potential for animal or plant restoration. Sets forth provisions respecting landowner easement payments and permitted and prohibited practices.

Congress finds the following:
1. Vast grassland once provided critical habitat for complex plant and animal communities throughout much of North America.
2. Today, grassland areas have been largely converted to other uses, threatening and eliminating plant and animal communities unique to North America.
3. A significant portion of the remaining grassland is on working ranches.
4. Ranchers have an economic interest in preserving the remaining grassland as forage for their livestock.
5. Many ranchers are also concerned about losing the open spaces and 'big sky' central to the ranching way of life.
6. Apart from the loss of grassland, ranches themselves have steadily disappeared through the years and are likely to disappear at a faster rate in the immediate decade as a generation of ranchers reach retirement age.
7. Ranch land provides important open-space buffers for animal and plant habitat.
8. Ranching forms the economic backbone for much of the rural area of the western United States.
9. Currently, there are no Federal programs that conserve grassland, ranch land, or other land with comparable high resource value, other than wetland, on a national scale.
10. A grassland reserve program would provide important economic assistance to ranchers and other agricultural producers who may be struggling financially and who may voluntarily decide that participating in the program would be to their advantage.

Reduce liability for hazardous waste cleanup.

Title: To provide relief for small businesses from liability under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA). Summary:
• Amends CERCLA to provide that persons shall be liable for response [cleanup] costs as non-owners or operators only if the total of material containing a hazardous substance was greater than 110 gallons of liquid material or 200 pounds of solid material.

• Applies this exemption only to activities taking place before April 1, 2001.

• Exempts a person from liability for response costs for municipal solid waste (MSW) as a non-owner or operator if the person is an owner, operator, or lessee of residential property from which all of the person's MSW was generated, or a certain small business or small charitable tax-exempt organization that generated all its MSW.

• Makes nongovernmental entities that commence a contribution action liable to the defendant for all reasonable costs of defending the action if the defendant is not liable based on the above-described exemptions.

• Adds to the list of parties eligible for de minimis [inconsequential] final settlements certain persons and businesses that demonstrate an inability or limited ability to pay response costs.

Regulating 15 more contaminants under Clean Water Act.

Amends the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) to publish a proposed list of at least 15 contaminants that may occur in public water systems and that are not currently subject to EPA regulation. Provides for proposed lists of at least 12 additional contaminants every four years. (Current law requires EPA to regulate 25 contaminants every three years.) Bases the determination to regulate a contaminant on findings that:

1. the contaminant is known to occur in public water systems;
2. the contaminant occurs in concentrations which may have adverse health effects; and
3. regulation of the contaminant presents an opportunity to reduce health risks.