Strict 1970s waste-disposal laws perversely multiplied abandoned hazardous-waste sites

Evidence

But the hazardous waste sites targeted by CERCLA were also partly the natural result of the tough regulatory statutes that Congress and the states had enacted in the 1970s. Because of the expense of complying with those statutes, many hazardous waste disposal businesses shut down. The unintended consequence of tough prospective laws was, consequently, even more abandoned dump sites across the nation with hundreds and sometimes thousands of barrels and tanks eroding and leaking onto the land and into nearby surface waters and groundwaters. — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 484

Categorization

• XREF: A clear law-and-unintended-consequences case: regulatory stringency creates compliance costs that drive the regulated activity underground or to abandonment — echoes the earlier claim about well-intentioned ecological interventions backfiring. — connects to: CERCLA’s retroactive strict liability rewired how real estate deals treat land — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 487; Regulatory reclassification of radioactive waste allowed unregulated disposal that contaminated groundwater — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 2690; Strict joint-and-several liability made most Superfund sites effectively indivisible — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 486 (+1 more)
• SEED: Angle for an article on how well-meaning regulation manufactures the very harms it targets when it prices out marginal legal operators — applies beyond toxics to carbon markets, housing, fishing quotas.

Broader Connections

• Strict joint-and-several liability made most Superfund sites effectively indivisible #expands (0.78) — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 486
• Regulatory reclassification of radioactive waste allowed unregulated disposal that contaminated groundwater #complicates (0.72) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2690
• Redefining radioactive waste as benign enabled unregulated disposal and groundwater poisoning #qualifies (0.72)