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Superfund

Michael Forlini | Aug 2, 2008

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Over the past 25+ years, Superfund has located and analyzed tens of thousands of hazardous waste sites, protected people and the environment from contamination at the worst sites, and involved states, local communities, and other partners in cleanup. Superfund measures its cleanup accomplishments through various criteria including construction and post construction completions of hazardous waste sites.

The Superfund program focused on the protection of human health and the environment through fast efficient cleanup of priority waste sites and cleanups. One important principle of Superfund is that the worst sites are cleaned up first. EPA works to clean up Superfund polluted sites, restoring them to uses appropriate for the surrounding communities, and respond to and prevent waste-related or industrial accidents.

The Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) established Superfund and prohibitions and requirements concerning closed and abandoned hazardous waste sites in 1980. The law was enacted in the wake of the discovery of toxic waste dumps such as Love Canal, Chemical Control and Times Beach in the 1970s. This statute allowed the EPA to clean up such sites and to compel responsible parties to perform cleanups or reimburse the government for EPA-lead cleanups. This law created a tax on the chemical and petroleum industries and provided broad Federal authority to respond directly to releases or threatened releases of hazardous substances that may endanger public health or the environment. Over five years, $1.6 billion was collected and the tax went to a trust fund for cleaning up abandoned or uncontrolled hazardous waste sites.

Comprehensive Environmental Response. A Superfund cleanup may involve long tern remediation. The initial step is to perform a site assessment, as a way to determine whether an uncontrolled site or abandoned facility or place where hazardous waste is located, may possibly pose a risk to local ecosystems or people. A ranking system and score is utilized in the Superfund cleanup process. Each site is ranked based on the completion of Hazard Ranking System (HRS) screening, If a site is ranked 28.5 or higher it is then listed on the National Priorities List (NPL) through the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Consistency Plan (NCP). This ranking system also provides a mechanism that determines the worse sites.

The NCP is the major regulatory framework that guides the Superfund response effort. The NCP outlines a step-by-step process for implementing Superfund responses and defines the roles of EPA, Federal agencies, States, private parties and the community to situations in which hazardous substances are released in the environment.

For an archived and current list of Superfund sites, go to: http://cfpub.epa.gov/supercpad/cursites/srchsites.cfm

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