Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA)

In 1980, in response to growing public concern about the health and environmentalrisks posed by hazardous waste sites, Congress passed the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), commonly known as Superfund, to address these sites. The Superfund Program, which is administered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in cooperation with the states and tribal governments, locates, investigates and cleans up hazardous waste sites throughout the country.The Superfund law created a Trust Fund, financed mainly by a tax on the chemical and petroleum industries, to pay for the cleanup of abandoned and uncontrolled hazardous waste sites. The Trust Fund is used primarily when the companies or people responsible for the contamination at Superfund sites cannot be found or cannot perform or pay for the cleanup work.

The law, which gave the federal government broad authority to respond directly to releases or threatened releases of hazardous substances that may endanger public health or the environment, established 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.