Table 1.

Examples of international and national legislation relating to the management of hazardous substances on natural resources

Jurisdiction	Convention/legislation name (abbreviation)	Description	Application	Method of assessment	Reference
International	International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships	International conventions designed to minimize pollution of the seas, including dumping, oil, and exhaust pollution	Managing marine pollution from ships	Specified lists of chemicals with effects thresholds	1
International	United Nations Environment Programme Liability Guidelines	Minimum guidelines on which national legislation or policies could be based and which would require tailoring to specific national circumstances	Response action and compensation for damage caused by activities dangerous to the environment, taking into account the “polluter pays” principle	Voluntary, meant to serve as a starting point from which national policies could be drafted	55
United States	Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), as amended, and Oil Pollution Act (OPA)	Statutory basis for cleaning up hazardous waste sites and oil spills and conducting natural resource–damage assessments	Anywhere hazardous waste or oil is illegally released; establishes liability for injury to, destruction of, loss of, or loss of use of natural resources	Blends science-based assessment with legal and economics-based claims for response, remediation, and restoration/rehabilitation	2, 56
United States	National Oil and Hazardous Substances Contingency Plan, OPA	Legislation covering contaminated “Superfund” sites and natural resource–damage assessment restoration activities	Guides all response and remedial activities	Umbrella authority document for actions under CERCLA and OPA	3, 56
European Union	Directive on Liability to Prevent and Remedy Environmental Damage (European Liability Directive [ELD])	The main objective of ELD is to prevent and remedy “environmental damage”; this is defined as damage to protected species and natural habitats (nature), damage to water, and damage to land (soil)	Parties who carry out certain dangerous activities are strictly liable (without fault) for environmental damage	Requires economic valuation of environmental damage and the different types of remediation and damage to protected species and natural habitats	6
Australia	Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act	Overarching Commonwealth Government Act; state governments also have legislation, e.g., New South Wales Protection of the Environment Administration Act	Derivation of guidelines for water-quality management; climate change factored into some natural resource management	Numeric guidelines for water and sediment quality, biological monitoring guidance	57
New Zealand	Hazardous substances and New Organisms Act	Designation of specific hazardous substances and risk assessment related to their use	Setting of environmental limits on selected substances;	Product registration and environmental assessment processes	58
Canada	Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA)	CEPA's purpose is to regulate the behavior of entities in order to promote public safety, protect the environment, and contribute to sustainable development through pollution protection	CEPA also allows the federal and/or provincial governments to sue polluters for the cost of cleanups	Civil liability sections, which are rarely successful; Canada does tend to look to legal precedent rather than legislation	59