What does the CERCLA Act protect?
The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act — otherwise known as CERCLA or Superfund — provides a Federal “Superfund” to clean up uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous-waste sites as well as accidents, spills, and other emergency releases of pollutants and contaminants into the environment …
What is a CERCLA in real estate?
Historically, under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA, commonly known as Superfund), the owner or operator of a contaminated property could be held responsible for the property’s cleanup, based solely on their current ownership of the property.
What are the responses that may be triggered by CERCLA?
CERCLA response authorities are triggered by a release or a substantial threat of release of dangerous substances into the environment (e.g., a chemical spill from a tank truck accident or a leak from a damaged drum). The release must involve either: • a hazardous substance, or • a pollutant or contaminant.
When can CERCLA be used?
Under 42 U.S. Code § 9606, CERCLA allows for enforcement “when the President determines that there may be an imminent and substantial endangerment to the public health or welfare or the environment because of an actual or threatened release of a hazardous substance from a facility.”
What is CERCLA and why is it important?
CERCLA gives the federal government the power to tax chemical and petroleum companies found responsible for releasing hazardous waste into unregulated areas. The law enables federal authorities to directly respond to the dumping or spilling of dangerous substances that threaten the environment or human life.
What happens if you violate CERCLA?
Criminal fines may be imposed either under CERCLA § 103 or 18 U.S.C. § 3571, the Alternative Fines Act. Enforcement of criminal violations is authorized under CERCLA § 103 for knowing violations and the falsification or destruction of records.
Is CERCLA still in effect?
Over the past three decades, CERCLA has successfully cleaned and restored close to 400 contaminated sites once listed on its national priorities list (NPL), including the infamous Love Canal site. In 2017, then-EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt established the Superfund Task Force.
What are the penalties for violating CERCLA?
Penalties for Violating the CERCLA Under CERCLA, a violation of the notification requirement is punishable by fine or by imprisonment for a term of up to three years or five years imprisonment for a subsequent offense.
What is the biggest problem with CERCLA?
A lack of federal funding combined with the cost of cleanup remains a large factor in CERCLA’s less than rapid progress on cleaning its listed sites. The Superfund is notably underfunded: the program saw its budget nearly cut in half between 1999 and 2013.
What is the difference between CERCLA and Sara?
Definition. The U.S. Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act, SARA is an amendment and reauthorization of CERCLA, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation & Liability Act (CERCLA) of 1980, better known as the SuperFund Act.
What has been a major criticism of CERCLA?
criticized as a rigorously strict system that hinders economic growth and penalizes individual companies by requiring them to perform extensive and costly cleanups without regard to when the original disposal took place or the fact that a company may have exercised due care in handling hazardous materials.
What are possible enforcement actions that can be taken under cercla?
These include authorities to search a PRP’s property, order PRPs to clean up sites, negotiate settlements with PRPs to fund or perform site cleanup, and to take legal action if the PRPs do not perform or pay for cleanup.
What is Sara in CERCLA?
The Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA), passed on October 17, 1986, amends the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA, or Superfund), which the U.S. Congress passed in 1980 to help solve the problems of hazardous-waste sites.