11.0 CERCLA Overview - Superfund Process

11.0 CERCLA Overview

The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), commonly known as Superfund, came into being on December 11, 1980 (EPA, 2011).  CERCLA endowed a federal tax unto chemical and petroleum industries, which monitored their direct and/or threat of direct releases of hazardous substances into the environment.  Over a duration period spanning five years, $1.6 billion dollars was allocated from these induced taxes.  This money was set aside to be used for the clean up of abandoned or uncontrolled hazardous waste sites (EPA, 2011).

Through CERCLA, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was given the power to seek out the responsible parties of these contaminated sites and assure their cooperation under their remediation guidelines.  In cases where a responsible party cannot be identified or located, or if they fail to remediate the site to standard, the EPA will then obtain a private party cleanup through orders, consent decrees, and other party settlements (EPA, 2011). 

CERCLA authorizes two kinds of response actions, short-term removals as well as long-term removals.  In short-term removals action needs to be taken promptly in order to address releases or the threat of releases to humans and the environment.  Long-term remedial response actions are put into place to permanently and significantly reduce the dangers associated with releases or threats of releases that are serious, but not immediately life threatening (EPA, 2011).  Actions of the long-term remedial response can only be conducted at sites listed on the EPA's National Priorities List (NPL).  Sites are proposed to the NPL in the Federal Register, and are listed on the NPL after completion of the Hazard Ranking System (HRS). 

The HRS is the principal mechanism used by EPA to place waste sites on the National Priorities List.  HRS scores are based on four pathways, groundwater migration, surface water migration, soil exposure, and air migration.  These scores are numerical and given after a preliminary assessment and site inspection is done at the site.

The preliminary assessment (PA) is the first step for determining whether a hazardous site poses a potential risk to human health and the environment.  The EPA publication Guidance for Performing Preliminary Assessments Under CERCLA, September 1991, gives a more detailed account on the format of the Preliminary Assessment.  If the PA investigation warrants further investigations, a Site Inspection (SI) is performed.  It is during the SI that the site enters the NPL Site Listing Process, and data granted from the Site Investigations is used to gain a HRS score.  The EPA publication Guidance for Performing Site Inspections Under CERCLA; Interim Final, September 1992, gives a more detailed account on the format of the Site Investigation process.  Sites with a Hazardous Ranking Scores of 28.50 or greater are eligible for listing on the National Priorities List.