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| CERCLA: Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation & Liability Act |
After six years, this act was amended by the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA).
In 2002, the Bush administration decided to shift this tax burden from industry to the taxpayers. As a result, the fund, which once had a balance of six billion US dollars, was depleted by 2004, slowing the cleanup at the remaining Superfund sites, and leaving taxpayers to foot the bill for subsequent cleanups.
 This safety wall poster from Safety Emporium uses humor to reinforce the importance of proper waste handling. |
On December 30, 2009, the US EPA issued an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking concerning Superfund financial responsibility which would require that classes of facilities maintain financial responsibility consistent with the degree and duration of risk associated with the production, transportation, treatment, storage or disposal of hazardous substances. While not restoring the old funding mechanism, this proposed rule would reduce the likelihood of a major hazardous materials operator going bankrupt and leaving taxpayers to pay for the cleanup. We'll post further updates on the rulemaking process as it evolves. Under CERCLA, two responses to closed, abandoned or illegal hazardous waste sites are:
CERCLA also requires the ATSDR and the EPA to prepare a list, in order of priority, of substances that are most commonly found at facilities on the National Priorities List (NPL) and which are determined to pose the most significant potential threat to human health due to their known or suspected toxicity and potential for human exposure at these NPL sites. This CERCLA priority list is revised and published on a 2-year basis, with a yearly informal review and revision. Each substance on the CERCLA Priority List of Hazardous Substances is a candidate to become the subject of a toxicological profile prepared by ATSDR. The CERCLA priority list is not a list of "most toxic" substances, but rather a prioritization of substances based on a combination of their frequency, toxicity, and potential for human exposure at NPL sites.
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 Get Title 40 of the US Federal Code, Environmental Protection, in searchable hypertext PDF format on CD-ROM from Safety Emporium. |
RQs are adjusted to one of five levels: 1, 10, 100, 1,000, or 5,000 pounds. EPA bases adjustments to the RQs on the intrinsic characteristics of each hazardous substance, such as the aquatic toxicity, acute and chronic toxicity, ignitability, reactivity, and potential carcinogenicity. An RQ value is established for each of these characteristics of a hazardous substance, with the most stringent RQ value (i.e., the lowest quantity) becoming the final RQ or reporting trigger for that hazardous substance.
|  Comply with state and federal regulations with hazardous waste labels fromSafety Emporium. |
Additional definitions from Google and OneLook.
Disclaimer: The information contained herein is believed to be true and accurate, however ILPI makes no guarantees concerning the veracity of any statement. Use of any information on this page is at the reader's own risk. ILPI strongly encourages the reader to consult the appropriate local, state and federal agencies concerning the matters discussed herein.