Exercise 2. Complete the text with missing words

Hercules, Inc., tried to __________ of wastes it inherited at the site as well as its own __________ products.

In 1971 Hercules leased, then sold, the site to another herbicide maker, now known as Vertac Chemical

Corp., and has had __________ to do with the place since.

Yet in 1980, on ____________ of the State of Arkansas and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

(EPA), a Federal court ordered Vertac to ___________ costly environmental ____________-up in the area―

with Hercules to share the ____________.

The Hercules case is only one of dozens in which ___________ or ___________ of waste material are

finding themselves __________, for health and environmental risks, past, present and future.

What could Hercules and Vertac have done to protect themselves against _________ after-the-fact

remedies? Perhaps little more than they did or knew how to do then, judging from court documents. But a

present-day generator of ____________ waste has an out now. For one thing, he can ___________ his

waste over to a government-approved handler and be forever off the ___________, under regulations

promulgated by the EPA in compliance with a key law: The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act

(commonly known as RCRA, or Ricra).

With RCRA, passed in 1976 but only now about to be fully _______________, comes a bonanza for an

industry already growing, now seemingly on the _____________ of booming expansion. This is the industry

that can get the generators of ______________ waste off the hook, by taking over, transporting, treating,

storing or _____________ of their harmful ___-products.

According to a study done for EPA by Booz, Allen & Hamilton and Putnam, Hayes & Bartlett: "The

hazardous-waste management industry has experienced rapid growth since its ___________ in the 1960s."

What transformed an ordinary trash business into a thriving, modern industry, starting in the Sixties, was the

growth of public _____________ demanding more protection for public health and environment. Congress

responded by ____________ a number of environmental laws, most important the Solid Waste Act of 1965.

Further ____________ ensued until finally the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 ordered

strict controls of more unusual substances, classified as hazardous wastes.

RCRA directed the EPA to issue regulations identifying what substances are hazardous and ___________

those substances from their creation to their ____________.

Every generator, transporter, treater, storer or disposer of these wastes must notify EPA of the fact and get

an EPA identification number, which must be used in any hazardous waste transaction. All of them report to

EPA annually on how much waste they handled and how they handled it.

In RCRA's creation-disposal concept, a generator of hazardous waste that wants to be rid of the problem

prepares a waste ___________, attaches a manifest identifying the material and stating its ___________,

arranges with an approved receiving _____________ and turns the shipment ___________ to a transporter.

When the generator gets back his copy of the manifest proving that the shipment did arrive at the

_____________, he's in the clear. If he hears nothing from the receiving facility, he must first try to find out

what went wrong, then notify EPA if he can't track down the shipment. The Hazardous Waste Enforcement

Task Force in EPA stands ready to _________ fines and criminal penalties for ____________. A facility can

also lose its license if it violates EPA standards―and thus be ________ out of business.

Superfund permits he government to move quickly to clean up dangerous wastes (such as Love Canal)

immediately, no matter when the waste was dumped, without first hunting down the __________. After

Superfund money has dealt with the emergency, the parties responsible may be found and held __________

(sometimes for triple damages), thus further discouraging waste generators from trying to ________ their

wastes secretly, outside the creation-to-disposal system.

A potential problem is the industry's capacity. New sites will have to be found for disposal ___________, and

that's a problem the industry is not certain it can overcome. Environmental groups, the industry, and the

government admit it will take a tremendous sales _________ to overcome public opposition, to convince the

public that properly managed facilities offer no health ____________.