.
Finally.. Superfund ous suhstance exists at a facility, the facility is subject to Superfund's emergency planning requirements. Finally. Title 4 establishes a radon gas and indoor air quality research program.
fi;'b
Richard M. Dowd
After nearly two years of conflict and debate, Congress has passed and President Ronald Reagan has signed the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986. The statute contains four titles. Titles I and 2 rewrite the original Superfund law. the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980. The financing portions of the bill will, over its five-year lifetime. raise $8.5 billion from a general manufacturing tax, specific levies on chemical and petroleum products, and a tap on general treasury funds. These monies will he used to pay for cleaning up ahandoned hazardous waste sites for which the responsible parties cannot he found and assessed for the costs. In addition, the bill finances a new Leaking Underground Storage Tank Trust Fund by levying a new tax of O.IC/gal on all types of motor fuels. The new Title 3 contains emergency planning and community right-to-know provisions that require communities to gather and puhlish information o n hazardous substances that can affect them either through accidental releases or through routine emissions of hazardous materials. EPA must puhlish an acutehazards list naming 400 of these substances within 30 days. The agency must also begin drawing up rules establishing a threshold planning quantity (TPQ) for each substance on the acute-hazards list. If EPA does not establish TPQs. the new law will automatically set the quantity at 2 Ih for each substance. If a TPQ for a hazard0013936XJ861W201207$015010
Other highlighh Superfund requires a total reevaluation of the existing Hazardous Ranking System (HRS) that determines whether a site is to he placed on the National Priority List (NPL) of facilities that require cleanup. Tight timetables are set for EPA to begin remedial investigation feasibility studies for some 650 sites within five years. and EPA is directed to clean sites at a pace much more rapid than the previous rate of fewer than a dozen over the past five years. The hill also authorizes EPA to provide technical assistance grants of up to $50.OOO per site to assist participation by the general public in decisions involving cleanups. The new law authorizes potentially responsible parties (PRPs)-entities that are liable, as contributors of wastes to specific abandoned sites-to carry out their own remedial investigation and feasibility studies and to take action to clean up sites. In these cases. the government would supervise qualified contractors paid by the PRPs. Superfund explicitly authorizes EPA to negotiate settlements with those responsible for a hazardous-waste site, and the hill establishes procedures to encourage settlements instead of lengthy. costly law suits. The new law gives special relief from non-negligent liability to contractors who carry out cleanup activities. The inability of many firms to obtain liahility insurance in the market has hindered recent cleanup projects. Addressing the "how clean is clean?" issue, the law specifies criteria for EPA to use in determining appropriate cleanup levels. These standards are to take effect 30 days after enactment and require, as a minimum. that cleanups meet any legally applicable federal.
1 1986 American
Chemical Society
state, or local standard, criterion or limitation. In many cases. the most stringent standards would be the Safe Drinking Water Act's maximuni contaminant level goals. which are set at zero for carcinogens. All cleanups are required to he done as cost-effectively as possible. An initial $50 million is provided for the agency to fund the Toxic Substance and Disease Registry (ATSDR)-an independent arm of the Department of Health and Human Services, which will conduct health research at sites as deemed necessary hy the ATSDR administrator. By mid-April 1987, ATSDR and EPA are to prepare a list of the 100 subsrances most commonly found at Supcrfund sites: an additional 100 substances are to be added within 24 months. Each listing must be accompanied hy a summary of the substance's characteristics. toxicity. and known health effects. Superfund explicitly establishes programs for research. development, dcmonstration, and training to encourage alternative and innovative treatment technologies and to improve detection and assessment of effects and risks regarding human health. The law requires that each state certify, within three years, that it has sufficient disposal capacity to handle all hazardous wastes generated within its horders for the next 20 years. Without that assurance, Superfund monies will be withheld from any noncomplying state except in certain emergency cases. Superfund will drive EPKs work agenda for some time to come. These highlights are only a sample ofthe hill's ma.jor provisions: others will be discussed in future columns.
Enwan Sci Techno1 , Vol 20 No 12, 1986 1207
