§2648 Emergency authority

Summary

When airborne asbestos or friable asbestos-containing material in a school run by a local educational agency poses an imminent and substantial endangerment to human health or the environment, and the local agency is not taking enough action (as the Administrator or the Governor decides), the Administrator or the Governor may take emergency action to deal with it. A Governor must tell the Administrator a reasonable time before planning to act. If the Administrator then acts on the same hazard, the Governor must not start or continue their emergency action. Before acting, the Governor must notify the local educational agency. If the Administrator acts, the Administrator must notify both the local educational agency and the Governor. The Administrator or the Governor can try to recover all costs of an emergency action in federal court, either in the District of Columbia or in the district where the action happened. If they sue a local educational agency for costs, the case must be filed in the federal district where that agency is located. If there is evidence of such an imminent danger, the Administrator may ask the Attorney General to bring a lawsuit, or the Governor may bring the lawsuit themselves.