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TSCA and RCRA
Q: How would you characterize the Agency's implementation of TSCA and RCRA (Resource Conservation and Recovery Act)?
MR. COSTLE: Both were new laws, and I moved very shortly after I arrived to start implementing them. Tom Jorling was caught up with the '77 Congressional debates, as was Hawkins. Both the air and water bills jammed up, and our first big political crisis was breaking them free. But change, even with a willing bureaucracy, doesn't happen overnight. It is incremental; it takes time to imprint your styles and ideas.
About that time, Tom was headed back to Williams College, and Chris Beck, who had been Regional Administrator in Region II, became AA for Water. It was Chris who alerted me about Love Canal. He had dedicated a new research ship on the Great Lakes, and on his way back he stopped to take a look at what he termed "a little place called Love Canal." He called me that night and said, "Do we pull the plug and let this hang out, or do we try to control it?" I said, "Pull the plug. The sooner everybody knows about this, the better." And it just blew up.