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Glossary
CERCLA (Superfund):
The Comprehensive
Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act or "Superfund"
provides a process for identifying, investigating, and cleaning up hazardous
substances that have been released into the environment that may pose
a risk to human health and the environment.
The law gives the federal government broad authority to respond directly
to these risks through two kinds of responses:
· Short-term "removal" actions for emergencies or when
EPA determines that a site may become a threat in the near future.
· Long-term "remedial" actions to permanently and significantly
reduce the dangers from seriously contaminated hazardous waste sites that
require extensive cleanups, but do not pose immediate threats.
Consent Order:
A legal agreement signed by EPA and an individual, business, or other entity through which the violator agrees to pay for correction of violations, take the required corrective or cleanup actions, or refrain from an activity. It describes the actions to be taken, may be subject to a comment period, applies to civil actions, and can be enforced in court. A RCRA corrective action order can be a Consent Order, when the facility owner (in this case, the U.S.Navy) and EPA come to an agreement about the need for and details of a corrective action or a Unilateral Order, when an agreement cannot be reached. Click here to see the Order on Consent signed by the Navy regarding Vieques.
Corrective Action:
The sequence of actions, from initial facility assessment to the completion of remedial action that are taken to address releases of hazardous wastes at a RCRA-permitted facility.
RCRA:
RCRA is the Resource
Conservation and Recovery Act, which was enacted by Congress in 1976.
RCRA's primary goals are to protect human health and the environment from
the potential hazards of waste disposal, to conserve energy and natural
resources, to reduce the amount of waste generated, and to ensure that
wastes are managed in an environmentally sound manner. RCRA regulates
the management of solid waste (e.g., garbage), hazardous waste, and underground
storage tanks holding petroleum products or certain chemicals.
