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U.S. Code as of:
01/19/04
Section 6981. Research, demonstration, training, and other activities
(a) General authority
The Administrator, alone or after consultation with the Secretary
of Energy, shall conduct, and encourage, cooperate with, and render
financial and other assistance to appropriate public (whether
Federal, State, interstate, or local) authorities, agencies, and
institutions, private agencies and institutions, and individuals in
the conduct of, and promote the coordination of, research,
investigations, experiments, training, demonstrations, surveys,
public education programs, and studies relating to -
(1) any adverse health and welfare effects of the release into
the environment of material present in solid waste, and methods
to eliminate such effects;
(2) the operation and financing of solid waste management
programs;
(3) the planning, implementation, and operation of resource
recovery and resource conservation systems and hazardous waste
management systems, including the marketing of recovered
resources;
(4) the production of usable forms of recovered resources,
including fuel, from solid waste;
(5) the reduction of the amount of such waste and unsalvageable
waste materials;
(6) the development and application of new and improved methods
of collecting and disposing of solid waste and processing and
recovering materials and energy from solid wastes;
(7) the identification of solid waste components and potential
materials and energy recoverable from such waste components;
(8) small scale and low technology solid waste management
systems, including but not limited to, resource recovery source
separation systems;
(9) methods to improve the performance characteristics of
resources recovered from solid waste and the relationship of such
performance characteristics to available and potentially
available markets for such resources;
(10) improvements in land disposal practices for solid waste
(including sludge) which may reduce the adverse environmental
effects of such disposal and other aspects of solid waste
disposal on land, including means for reducing the harmful
environmental effects of earlier and existing landfills, means
for restoring areas damaged by such earlier or existing
landfills, means for rendering landfills safe for purposes of
construction and other uses, and techniques of recovering
materials and energy from landfills;
(11) methods for the sound disposal of, or recovery of
resources, including energy, from, sludge (including sludge from
pollution control and treatment facilities, coal slurry
pipelines, and other sources);
(12) methods of hazardous waste management, including methods
of rendering such waste environmentally safe; and
(13) any adverse effects on air quality (particularly with
regard to the emission of heavy metals) which result from solid
waste which is burned (either alone or in conjunction with other
substances) for purposes of treatment, disposal or energy
recovery.
(b) Management program
(1)(A) In carrying out his functions pursuant to this chapter,
and any other Federal legislation respecting solid waste or
discarded material research, development, and demonstrations, the
Administrator shall establish a management program or system to
insure the coordination of all such activities and to facilitate
and accelerate the process of development of sound new technology
(or other discoveries) from the research phase, through
development, and into the demonstration phase.
(B) The Administrator shall (i) assist, on the basis of any
research projects which are developed with assistance under this
chapter or without Federal assistance, the construction of pilot
plant facilities for the purpose of investigating or testing the
technological feasibility of any promising new fuel, energy, or
resource recovery or resource conservation method or technology;
and (ii) demonstrate each such method and technology that appears
justified by an evaluation at such pilot plant stage or at a pilot
plant stage developed without Federal assistance. Each such
demonstration shall incorporate new or innovative technical
advances or shall apply such advances to different circumstances
and conditions, for the purpose of evaluating design concepts or to
test the performance, efficiency, and economic feasibility of a
particular method or technology under actual operating conditions.
Each such demonstration shall be so planned and designed that, if
successful, it can be expanded or utilized directly as a full-scale
operational fuel, energy, or resource recovery or resource
conservation facility.
(2) Any energy-related research, development, or demonstration
project for the conversion including bioconversion, of solid waste
carried out by the Environmental Protection Agency or by the
Secretary of Energy pursuant to this chapter or any other Act shall
be administered in accordance with the May 7, 1976, Interagency
Agreement between the Environmental Protection Agency and the
Energy Research and Development Administration on the Development
of Energy from Solid Wastes and specifically, that in accordance
with this agreement, (A) for those energy-related projects of
mutual interest, planning will be conducted jointly by the
Environmental Protection Agency and the Secretary of Energy,
following which project responsibility will be assigned to one
agency; (B) energy-related portions of projects for recovery of
synthetic fuels or other forms of energy from solid waste shall be
the responsibility of the Secretary of Energy; (C) the
Environmental Protection Agency shall retain responsibility for the
environmental, economic, and institutional aspects of solid waste
projects and for assurance that such projects are consistent with
any applicable suggested guidelines published pursuant to section
6907 of this title, and any applicable State or regional solid
waste management plan; and (D) any activities undertaken under
provisions of sections 6982 and 6983 of this title as related to
energy; as related to energy or synthetic fuels recovery from
waste; or as related to energy conservation shall be accomplished
through coordination and consultation with the Secretary of Energy.
(c) Authorities
(1) In carrying out subsection (a) of this section respecting
solid waste research, studies, development, and demonstration,
except as otherwise specifically provided in section 6984(d) of
this title, the Administrator may make grants to or enter into
contracts (including contracts for construction) with, public
agencies and authorities or private persons.
(2) Contracts for research, development, or demonstrations or for
both (including contracts for construction) shall be made in
accordance with and subject to the limitations provided with
respect to research contracts of the military departments in
section 2353 of title 10, except that the determination, approval,
and certification required thereby shall be made by the
Administrator.
(3) Any invention made or conceived in the course of, or under,
any contract under this chapter shall be subject to section 9 of
the Federal Nonnuclear Energy Research and Development Act of 1974
[42 U.S.C. 5908] to the same extent and in the same manner as
inventions made or conceived in the course of contracts under such
Act [42 U.S.C. 5901 et seq.], except that in applying such section,
the Environmental Protection Agency shall be substituted for the
Secretary of Energy and the words "solid waste" shall be
substituted for the word "energy" where appropriate.
(4) For carrying out the purpose of this chapter the
Administrator may detail personnel of the Environmental Protection
Agency to agencies eligible for assistance under this section.
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