When was the superfund act passed

JavaScript appears to be disabled on this computer. Please click here to see any active alerts. 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.

Superfund Cleanup Process Outlines the cleanup process and the forms involved. Superfund Community Involvement Provides tools and resources for members of the public. Superfund Glossary Defines important terms for the Superfund Program.

Superfund Homepage Main page on the Superfund program. Superfund Policy and Guidance Provides information by media, contaminant, and cleanup phase. Superfund Task Force Main page for the task force created in Director of the Law Library. Landfills, dumps and abandoned chemical plants are examples of remedial sites.

Removal site s are sudden environmental emergencies that are not on the NPL. Mercury spills, oil tanker spills and factory fires are examples of removal sites. After a Superfund site is identified, an initial cleanup is made. Studies are performed to determine what kind of hazardous waste is on the site and what risk it poses to the environment.

Then the EPA decides how to clean up the site. The method of cleanup usually involves human labor, chemical treatment, and some construction. After construction is completed, the site is monitor ed to make sure no waste is leaking into the air, soil, surface water , or groundwater. The site or parts of the site are delete d from the National Priorities List once the state and the EPA determine that the site poses no significant environmental or health risk.

As of May , sites have been deleted from the NPL. Superfund is a unique program because it makes polluters responsible for paying part of the cleanup cost. PRPs fall into four categories: the current owner or operator of the site, anyone who owned or operated the site before, anyone who arranged for hazardous wastes to be dumped on or treated at the site, and anyone who transported hazardous wastes to the site.

Usually there are dozens of PRPs involved. If only a few of the PRPs can be located, they are responsible for paying for the entire cleanup. Superfund also holds polluters responsible after the site is cleaned up. If the government or an individual citizen spends money to clean up a hazardous-waste site, they can sue the person or company that was responsible for polluting the site. The money won in a lawsuit would be used to recover the cost of cleanup.

Hooker Chemical is now owned by Occidental Petroleum. In the past, businesses that made and sold chemical products were taxed to clean up orphan sites. Superfund was bankrupt by , meaning all future cleanups had to be done with taxpayer money. In , the U. Supreme Court ruled in the case Burlington Northern v.

United States that the polluters involved only had to pay a share of the cleanup costs and not the entire amount. Since strict, joint and several liability has been used to clean up hazardous-waste sites for decades, this new ruling makes cost recovery by the government and private individuals uncertain. Sites have been turned into wetland s, office spaces, new businesses, manufacturing facilities, and more. Houses and apartments have been built on some Superfund sites.

Love Canal is such a place. Lois Gibbs, the former community organizer at Love Canal and the current executive director of the Center for Health, Environment, and Justice www. What may be considered a safe level now may be found to be too toxic in the future. The CHEJ points to a recently released study showing a greater rate of autism in students attending schools built 10 to 20 miles from Superfund sites.

There are a number of Superfund sites in urban areas that would benefit from turning eyesores into green space s. In York County, Va. Fly ash is a byproduct of burning coal. In Pickaway County, Ohio, Bowers Landfill was transformed into a wetlands home for plants and migratory birds. In Pensacola, Fla. Many more Superfund sites have been turned into green spaces for agricultural, ecological and recreational use.

In , Congress created a university-based program funded under the Superfund Amendments Reauthorization Act. Our Research Translation and Community Engagement Cores partner with local, state and federal agencies and work with communities impacted by hazardous substances. Although sites on the NPL and other polluting facilities are distributed throughout Washington State, the Washington State Department of Ecology's Environmental Equity Study assessed statewide environmental equity issues and determined the location of various facility types and toxic chemical releases.

Low-income communities in Washington State have a disproportionately higher percentage of polluting facilities and people of lower socioeconomic status are more likely to live in the most polluted environments and to work in the most hazardous occupations.

University of Washington.