CERCLA (Superfund)
What does "CERCLA (Superfund)" mean in law?
The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (42 U.S.C. 9601 et seq.), commonly known as Superfund, establishes a federal program for cleaning up sites contaminated with hazardous substances and imposes strict, joint and several, and retroactive liability on potentially responsible parties (PRPs). PRPs include current owners and operators of contaminated facilities, past owners and operators at the time of disposal, generators who arranged for disposal of hazardous substances, and transporters who selected the disposal site. CERCLA liability is notoriously expansive: a PRP can be held liable for the entire cost of cleanup even if it contributed only a small fraction of the contamination, though it may seek contribution from other PRPs under Section 113(f). The Superfund trust, originally financed by taxes on petroleum and chemical industries, provides EPA with funds to clean up orphan sites where no viable PRP exists.
Definition
The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (42 U.S.C. 9601 et seq.), commonly known as Superfund, establishes a federal program for cleaning up sites contaminated with hazardous substances and imposes strict, joint and several, and retroactive liability on potentially responsible parties (PRPs). PRPs include current owners and operators of contaminated facilities, past owners and operators at the time of disposal, generators who arranged for disposal of hazardous substances, and transporters who selected the disposal site. CERCLA liability is notoriously expansive: a PRP can be held liable for the entire cost of cleanup even if it contributed only a small fraction of the contamination, though it may seek contribution from other PRPs under Section 113(f). The Superfund trust, originally financed by taxes on petroleum and chemical industries, provides EPA with funds to clean up orphan sites where no viable PRP exists.
Example
A real estate developer who purchases an abandoned industrial site discovers soil contamination from decades of chemical manufacturing and faces CERCLA liability for cleanup costs potentially reaching millions of dollars, even though it did not cause the contamination.