# Superfund: What It Is, How It Works

> Briefs, arguments, decisions, and more.

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/documents/crs%3AIP94

## Record

- **Collection:** Congressional research report
- **Document type:** CRS Report
- **Published:** July 1, 1982
- **Citation:** IP94

## Text

IP94
EPA Superfund Oifices
Region 1
Region 4
John F. Kennedy Bldg. 345 Courtland St. N.E.
Boston, MA 02203
Atlanta, GA 30365
(617) 223-5775
(404)881-3931
Region 2
26 Federal Plaza
New York, NY 10007
(212) 264-3082

Reaion
..-w - - - . II
-

1860 Lincoln St.
Denver, CO 80295
(303) 837-6238

Region 5
Region 9
230 South Dearborn St. 215 Fremont St.
Chicago, IL 60604
San Francisco,
(312) 886-7570
CA 94015
(415) 974-7466

Region 3
Reaion
~-- - - - - 6
6th and Walnut Sts.
1201 Elm Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106 Dallas, TX 75270
(215) 597-9023
(214) 767-2750
~

Region 7
324 East 1l t h Street
Kansas City, MO 64108
1816) 374-6531

Region 10
1200 6th Avenue
Seattle. WA 98101
(206) 442-1986

SuperfundlRCRA Hotline
(800)424-9346
for information on programs
National Response Center
(800) 424-8802
to report oil and hazardous substance releases

United States
Environmental Protection
Agency

Second Printing
July 1982
HW-1

GEPA Superfund:
What It Is,
How It Works
Reprinted by t h e Library o f Congress,
Congressional Research S e r v i c e .

0

n April 21, 1980, a fire of unknown
origin broke out at an inactive waste
treatment facility i n Elizabeth, New Jersey.
The site was littered w i t h some-20,000
leaking and corroded drums containing
pesticides, explosives, radioactive wastes,
acids, and other hazardous substances. A
cloud of toxic gases skirted heavilypopulated areas one-quarter mile from the
site. Significant quantities of contaminated
water from firefighting ran off into the
Elizabeth River.
O n February 26, 1979,
a freight train derailed near Youngstown,
Florida, puncturing a tank car containing
90,000 pounds of chlorine gas, and
releasing a chlorine cloud. Eight motorists
on a nearby highway were killed, 183
other people were injured, and 3,500
residents within a 7.5 mile radius were
evacuated. Other derailed tank cars
contained a variety of toxic and flammable
substances.
For t w o and one half decades,
hundreds of tons of toxic wastes were
dumped into an unfinished canal built by
William T. Love i n Niagara Falls, New York.
The canal was covered when full; houses
and a school were later built near and
above the canal. In the later 1970s,
alarmed by unusual health symptoms,
residents of the Love Canal area called the
anention of government officials to
hazardous substances rising to the
surface, seeping into basements, and
migrating from the site.
These examples and others demonstrate
that the careless disposal of hazardous
wastes i n the past, and the continuing
threat of releases of hazardous substances
to the environment are potential problems
throughout the nation.
The Superfund program was created by
Congress as a key part of the nation's
overall response t o these hazardous
substance problems.

Why
Superfund
Is Needed

Superfund is established by the
Comprehensive Environmental Response,
Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA),
Public Law 96-510, enacted i n December
1980. The United States Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) is responsible for
managing the Superfund program.

Until this law was passed, the Federal
Government lacked the general authority
to clean up hazardous waste sites or to
respond to spills of hazardous substances
onto land or into the air or non-navigable
waters. Congress had addressed
hazardous waste problems before, but
Federal responsibilities were mostly
regulatory.
The Resource Conservation and
Recovery Act (RCRA), passed in 1976,
establishes a regulatory system to track
hazardous substances from the time of
generation to disposal. It also requires safe
and secure procedures to be used in
treating, storing, and disposing of
hazardous substances. RCRA is designed
to prevent the creation of new Love
Canals, but it does not permit the
government to respond directly to the
problems caused by improper hazardous
waste disposal sites already in existence.
The Clean Water Act and its
predecessors enable the Federal
Government to take action when oil or
designated hazardous substances are
discharged into navigable waterways. But
they do not permit the government to act
when hazardous substances are released
elsewhere in the environment, threatening
to contaminate groundwater or to emit
dangerous fumes.
These and other environmental laws,
such as the Clean Air Act, authorize the
Federal Government to take legal action to
compel individuals or companiesgenerators, transporters, or disposers of
hazardous substances-to clean up
problems for which they are responsible.
When a dumpsite is old and abandoned,
however, it may be impossible to find
anyone responsible for the p r o b l e m - o r
anyone able to afford the cost of a cleanup.
Moreover, many releases of hazardous
substances demand prompt attention to
avert serious damage. There may not be
enough time for legal proceedings before
action must be taken.
Some States had established their own
programs for spill response or the cleanup
of uncontrolled waste disposal sites.
However, like the Federal Government,
State governments often lacked the funds
and the legal authority needed to deal fully
w i t h the problem.

Congress therefore enacted new
legislation to establish a five-year program
to spearhead both Federal and State
.
efforts to respond to releases of hazardous
substances into the environment.

The
Superfund
Law

HOWThe
Superfund
Program
Works

The Superfund law of December 1980CERCLA-authorizes the Federal
Government to respond directly to releases
(or threatened releases) of hazardous
substances and pollutants or contaminants
that may endanger public health or
welfare. Costs are to be covered by a $1.6
billion fund, 86 percent of which is
financed by taxes on the manufacture or
import of certain chemicals and petroleum,
the remainder coming from general
revenues. This fund is reimbursable: the
government generally can take legal action
to recover its cleanup costs from those
subsequently identified as responsible for
the release. Anyone liable for a release
who fails to take ordered actions is (under
specified conditions) liable for punitive
damages equal to three times the
government's response costs.
The guidelines and procedures that the
Federal Government w i l l follow i n
implementing the Superfund law are
spelled out i n a flexible regulatory
docum nt called "The National
Conti ency Plan."
The uperfund program is built on the
recognition that responses and cleanups
must be tailored to the specific needs of
each site or each release of hazardous
substances. EPA's strong enforcement
effort seeks to ensure that private
responsible parties finance cleanup
actions when possible. Direct government
action, when called for, can take the
following forms:

4

Immediate removals, when a prompt
response is needed to prevent harm to
public health or welfare or the
environment. For example, immediate
removals may be ordered to avert fires or
explosions, to prevent exposure to acutely
toxic substances, or to protect a drinking
water supply from contamination. Actions
may include the installation of security
fencing, the construction of physical

barriers to control a discharge, or the
removal of hazardous substances off the
site. Ordinarily, immediate removals are
limited by law to six months and a total
cost of $ 1 million.
Planned removals, when an expedited,
but not necessarily immediate, response is
needed. These actions are intended to
minimize increases i n danger or exposure
that would otherwise occur if response
were delayed. Planned removals are
subject to the same time and cost limits as
immediate removals.
Remedial actions, which are longerterm and usually more expensive, aimed at
permanent remedies. 'They may be taken
only at sites identified as national
priorities. EPA published an interim list of
1 15 national prioriiy sites i n October 1981;
the list will eventually be expanded to
include some 400 sites. Specific actions
may include the removal of drums
containing wastes from the site, the
installation of a clay ''cap" over the site.
the construction of ditches and dikes to
control surface water or drains, liners, and
grout "curtains" to control groundwater,
the provision of an alternate water supply,
or the temporary or permanent relocation
of residents.
The primary responsibility for carrying
out the Superfund program has been
assigned by Executive Order to EPA. The
Coast Guard, however, w i l l respond to
spills that occur i n coastal areas. Other
Federal agencies w i l l provide assistance as
necessary during a response. States are
encouraged to take responsibility for an
increasing number of Superfund-financed
remedial actions. Under the law, State
governments may plan and manage
responses under agreement w i t h the
Federal Government. In remedial actions
for which the Federal Government has
lead responsibility, the Army Corps of
Engineers will manage the design and
construction stages for EPA. Private
contractors will perform the work at a site
under Federal or State government
supervision.
A n important part of the Superfund
program is to encourage voluntary cleanup
by private industries and individuals when
they are responsible for releases. I n fact,
since the full extent of the problem hac

become understood, millions of dollars
have been spent by industry for cleanup,
as well as for the retrofitting of existing
facilities. Additionally, industrial research
and development has resulted in
significant advances in hazardous waste
control technologies.
Working w i t h the local community is a
key aspect of every Superfund response.
At each site, officials responsible for
technical work will ensure that local
citizens' and officials' concerns are taken
into account in the development of
solutions and that information about the
site is widely distributed.
The $1.6 billion Superfund is large.
The Limits
of Superfund However, the cost of responding t o a

hazardous substance release can be large
too, and there are many sites and spills in
need of attention.
Consequently, while CERCLA authorizes
the government to respond t o releases of
hazardous substances, it does not require
the government t o respond to every
release. At present, private parties handle
about 90 percent of all releases that would
otherwise require a removal action.
In addition, CERCLA specifies that
Superfund money can be spent only under
carefully prescribed conditions.

A Superfund-financed response may not
be taken if EPA determines that the owner,
operator, or other responsible party is
undertaking an appropriate cleanup.
Immediate removals are taken only to
bring a release of hazardous substances
under control; they are not intended to
eliminate completely every long-term
problem. As noted, both immediate and
planned removals usually must be limited
i n cost and duration.
Before a remedial action or planned
removal can be taken, States must agree
to pay 10 percent of project costs (at least
50 percent i f the site was owned by the
State or a local government). State
governments m;st also agree to maintain
the site after response work is completed
and provide for off-site disposal if
necessary.

Response under Superfund is not
authorized i n specified situations that may
be covered by other laws (e.g., for certain
releases of source, byproduct. or special
nuclear material from a nuclear incident).
Because remedial actions may confront
technically complex problems that are
expensive to resolve, they are subject t o
further conditions. Technical measures
can be selected only after evaluation of all
feasible alternatives on the basis of
economic, engineering, and environmental
factors. The National Contingency Plan
explains how to determine the extent of
cleanup that is appropriate and most costeffective for a particular site. In addition:
The law requires that wherever possible,
the remedy selected should avoid the
costly step of excavating hazardous wastes
and transporting them off the site for
disposal elsewhere.

-

The benefits t o be derived from
continued work at a remedial action site
must be weighed against the benefits of
working at other sites i n the nation. A
project could be delayed or terminated to
allow funds to be shifted where they are
most needed.
The intent of these conditions is to
derive the maximum benefit from
Superfund for the nation as a whole.
The Superfund program, in sum, is a
coordinated effort of the Federal
Government, State and local governments,
private industry, and citizens. The
problems are widespread and often will
require time to resolve. But the Superfund
program is a significant part of our
national response to one of t h e major
environmental challenges of the decade.
This leaflet provides an overview of Superfund. For further
information, please contact an EPA Regional Office or call
the national information number listed on back. The toll-free
number of the National Response Center is also provided for
citizens t o report releases of oil and hazardous substances
into the environment.

---

Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/documents/crs%3AIP94. Public record. Not legal advice.