Superfund

Love Canal is a district of Niagara Falls in Upper New York State. There was a chemical plant adjacent to it, and for a long time it was used as a dump for all sorts of toxic chemicals. In 1952 it was covered over. In 1953 a school and houses were built over the area. Over the following years, residents gradually became aware of a pattern of illnesses and of children being injured through playing with or near the chemicals. The area was finally evacuated around 1978, but some former residents remained ill and deaths from cancer were high. People gradually became aware that there might be a large number of such sites around the country.

As a result, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) (the Superfund Program) was established by Congress in 1980 to locate, investigate, and clean up the worst sites nationwide. It is administered by the EPA. A tax on petroleum and chemical industries raised $1.6 billion over 5 years for a trust fund for cleaning up uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous-waste sites where those responsible are unknown or do not act. The EPA chases up polluters. The EPA also deals with accidents, spills, and other emergency releases of pollutants and contaminants into the environment.

CERCLA was amended by the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA) in 1986 which authorized a trust fund of $8.5 billion over 5 years. Later it was extended to September 30, 1994 with an additional $5.1 billion. The trust fund was for where the people responsible could not be identified.

Under CERCLA there are rules for dealing with closed sites and determining who is responsible. The National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (NCP), which provides the guidelines and procedures needed to respond to releases and threatened releases of hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants, was revised under CERCLA. Under the NCP a National Priorities List (NPL) was established. To look for sites near you on the NPL, click here. There were 1239 Sites on the NPL as of October 05, 2005. Sites continue to be cleared, but others are discovered and added.

This article relates to a news wire in the October 05 Environmental Roundup.

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