Knowra Superfund Superfund Superfund is the United States federal program for cleaning up uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous-waste sites and responding to hazardous-substance releases. Its legal framework is the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980.
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act : The 1980 United States law authorizing federal responses to hazardous-substance releases and establishing Superfund liability. This statute supplies Superfund’s authority, cleanup powers, and liability rules.
Love Canal : A neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York, built near a buried chemical-waste dump and evacuated after contamination became public. The crisis helped galvanize political support for a federal hazardous-waste cleanup program.
Polluter pays principle : The principle that those responsible for pollution should bear the costs of preventing or remedying it. Superfund’s liability system puts this principle into practice, though with distinctive legal rules.
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act : A United States law governing the ongoing management of solid and hazardous waste from generation through disposal. RCRA chiefly regulates waste management prospectively, while Superfund addresses releases and abandoned sites.
National Priorities List : The United States Environmental Protection Agency’s list of hazardous-waste sites prioritized for long-term Superfund cleanup. Sites generally enter Superfund’s long-term cleanup process after scoring and listing here.
Times Beach, Missouri : A Missouri town evacuated after dioxin-contaminated oil used for dust control polluted roads and properties. Its evacuation became a prominent example of Superfund’s response to widespread contamination.
Joint and several liability : A legal rule allowing any one of multiple responsible parties to be held liable for an entire indivisible harm. CERCLA’s application of this doctrine can expose a party to substantial cleanup costs.
Brownfields Program : EPA programs that support assessment and cleanup of contaminated properties intended for reuse or redevelopment. Brownfields assistance often targets redevelopment barriers rather than Superfund’s highest-priority long-term sites.
Hazard Ranking System : A scoring system used by the EPA to assess the relative danger posed by hazardous-waste sites. Its scores help determine whether a site qualifies for the National Priorities List.
Kepone contamination in Hopewell : Industrial contamination by the insecticide Kepone in and around Hopewell, Virginia, that triggered a major pollution response. The case illustrates the health and environmental stakes behind hazardous-site intervention.
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