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The Birth of Superfund (continued)
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Environmental Responses to Toxic Waste Threats
EPA may respond to an actual or potential release of any quantity of a "hazardous substance" or "pollutant or contaminant" in two general ways:
- Removals; or
- Remedial actions.
Removals deal primarily with environmental emergencies -- and are generally short-term actions to diminish the threat of a release. Examples include cleaning up waste spilled from a container, building a fence around a site, or providing fresh water to residents whose regular water supply has been contaminated.
Remedial actions are long-term, permanent cleanups. Examples include excavating waste and transporting it to a facility that can safely handle it, treating the waste to remove contaminants, or placing clay covers over or barriers around the waste to prevent migration. Remedial actions may take many years and cost millions of dollars, in order to make the site safe for human health and the environment.
Compensating for Response Actions
Most of the 1980 press coverage about the passage of CERCLA concentrated on the Superfund Trust Fund, which gave the statute its nickname. The Trust Fund is financed from various taxes and court awards from the parties found responsible for hazardous substances releases. The 1980 law authorized a Trust Fund of $1.6 billion. The 1986 amendments to CERCLA increased this amount to $8.5 billion.
The Trust Fund can be used to address both emergencies and longer-term cleanups. It can pay for both actual cleanup costs and for EPA's enforcement actions. It also is available to pay for certain natural resource damages, reimbursement of local governments, and claims by private parties.
Many times, the Trust Fund provides financing so EPA can address a hazardous substance release first, rather than have to wait for a court to determine who was responsible for causing the release. Later, when the court determines who is liable, EPA recovers its response costs and the Trust Fund is reimbursed. This is one of the major innovations of CERCLA since, prior to the statute's enactment, the common law required that liability be determined first before any action could be taken.
