Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act

Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980

Long title	An act to provide for liability, compensation, cleanup, and emergency response for hazardous substances released into the environment and the cleanup of inactive hazardous waste disposal sites.
Acronyms (colloquial)	CERCLA
Nicknames	Superfund
Enacted by	the 96th United States Congress
Citations
Public law	P.L. 96-510
Statutes at Large	94 Stat. 2767
Codification
Titles amended	42 (Public Health)
U.S.C. sections created	42 U.S.C. § 9601 et seq.
Legislative history
Introduced in the House as "Hazardous Waste Containment Act of 1980" (H.R. 7020) by James Florio (D-NJ) on April 2, 1980 Committee consideration by House Interstate and Foreign Commerce, House Ways and Means, Senate Environment, Senate Finance Passed the House on September 23, 1980 (351–23) Passed the Senate on November 24, 1980  with amendment House agreed to Senate amendment on December 3, 1980 (274–94) Signed into law by President Jimmy Carter on December 11, 1980
Major amendments
Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986; Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act of 1986

Superfund is a United States federal government program designed to fund the cleanup of sites contaminated with hazardous substances and pollutants. It was established as the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA). It authorizes federal natural resource agencies, primarily the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), states and Native American tribes to recover natural resource damages caused by hazardous substances, though most states have and most often use their own versions of CERCLA. CERCLA created the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). The EPA may identify parties responsible for hazardous substances releases to the environment (polluters) and either compel them to clean up the sites, or it may undertake the cleanup on its own using the Superfund (a trust fund) and costs recovered from polluters by referring to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Approximately 70 percent of Superfund cleanup activities historically have been paid for by parties responsible (PRPs) for the cleanup of contamination. The exceptions occur when the responsible party either cannot be found or is unable to pay for the cleanup. Until the mid-1990s, most of the funding came from a tax on the petroleum and chemical industries, reflecting the polluter pays principle, but since 2001, most of the funding for cleanups of hazardous waste sites has come from taxpayers. Despite the name, the program has suffered from under-funding, and Superfund cleanups have decreased to a mere 8 in 2014. As a result, the EPA typically negotiates consent orders with PRPs to study sites and develop cleanup alternatives, subject to EPA oversight and approval of all such activities.

The EPA and state agencies use the Hazard Ranking System (HRS) to calculate a site score (ranging from 0 to 100) based on the actual or potential release of hazardous substances from a site. A score of 28.5 places the site on the National Priorities List, making the site eligible for long-term remedial action (i.e., cleanup) under the Superfund program. As of 9 August 2016^[update], there are 1,328 sites listed; an additional 391 have been delisted, and 55 new sites have been proposed.

CERCLA was enacted by Congress in 1980 in response to the threat of hazardous waste sites, typified by the Love Canal disaster in New York, and the Valley of the Drums in Kentucky. The initial trust fund to clean up a site where a polluter could not be identified, could not or would not pay (bankruptcy or refusal) consisted of about $1.6 billion.

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