Understanding Superfund In the disposal of ... and simplest toxic waste, 1,riay to get this method rid OF tree is still the problem. cheapest_. Center for Health, Environment & Justice Understanding Superfund Contributors: Ryan Holifield Stephen Lester July 1998 $7.00 plus postage Center for Health, Environment & Justice P.O. Box 6806 Falls Church, VA 22040 (703) 237-2249 [email protected] UNDERSTANDING SUPERFUND Table of Contents Welcome 'o the World of Superfund... 3 A B of Guide to Superfund-Speak 4 The Super and Process... and Its Superflaws 7 Rem val Actions 7 Rem dial Actions 9 • Som Exemptions 13 Publ c Participation, Right-to-Know, and Public Health 16 SA' A Title III 19 Heal h Assessments 19 Rem dial Action Superflaws 20 Liab lity, Enforcement, and Responsible Parties 25 So Now W at? Dealing With a Superflawed Program 28 Fixi g Superfund: The View From the Grassroots 30 The Ghost. of Superfund Past, Present, and Future 33 Superfund Resources 40 Appendix The Superfund Process 44 Appendix . The Remedial Process 45 Appendix : EPA Regional Contact Information 46 Appendix Principles for Superfund Reform 48 1 WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF SUPERFUND... "What 's Superfund, anyway? The hero from a comic book about banker ? A '70's action movie?" Supe d is the common name given to a law passed by the United States II ongress in 1980. Also known as CERCLA (the Comprehensive Enviro ental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act), Superfund gives th federal government authority and funding to clean up the nation's most dangerous abandoned hazardous waste sites. CERCLA was foll wed by SARA... "Sara? Doesn't she make coffee cakes? What does she have to do with Superfund?" No, that' Sara Lee. SARA stands for "Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act," passed i 1986. SARA reauthorized the Superfund program and added several significant amendm nts to CERCLA. There haven't been any major amendments since then, but the program as renewed again in 1990. Since 1994, Congress has been debating about how to reform t program--and keeping the program alive on a year-by-year basis. "Just ho many of these abandoned hazardous waste sites are there?" As of Feb ary 1998, there were 10,670 sites in the United States CERCLIS database, which lists all hazard us waste sites that have been reported to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). An additi nal 30,650 sites have been "archived"; that is, the EPA has decided they require no further co sideration for Superfund cleanups? But there are currently only about 1,200 sites on the Natio 1 Priority List, the list of sites that qualify for remedial actions, or full-scale permanen Super-fund cleanups. "Yikes. A d how many have they actually cleaned up?" Good ques ion. The EPA considers sites to be "cleaned up" when a phase of the cleanup called the remedi 1 construction is finished. As of the end of February 1998, the EPA reported that constructio at 509 sites was complete, and the construction at another 470 was underway. 2 But the vast m ority of these sites are still in the process of being cleaned. The EPA reported at the end of Apri 1998 that the number of sites deleted from the National Priority List--and therefore no longer c nsidered threatening to public health or the environment--is only 168? How many of these sit are truly clean and safe for communities? No one really knows--but given the inadequate tandards for most cleanulys, probably only a very small number no longer pose any threat to pu lic health or the environment. 3 The EPA has also conducted over 4,600 emergency removal actions, which take care of immediate threats but seldom clean sites permanently.' "I see. And who's paying for all this?" More and more often, the polluters--Responsible Parties (RPs)--themselves: they now pay for and conduct over 75% of the long-term cleanup actions. 5 As for the other 25%, the money comes from the Superfund trust fund and the annual Superfund budget, which are financed primarily by taxes on chemical and petroleum companies. (However, the EPA has not collected all the money that the polluters have committed to pay. Responsible Parties have committed over $12 billion, but as of 1993, the EPA had only collected about 14% of this money--and it still has a long way to go.) 6 "And just how long does one of these cleanups take?" Until recently, the average duration of a full-scale remedial action was 10 years; however, the EPA reports that it has reduced the average clean-up time to 8 years.' Removal actions are limited to a year. "OK--so there's CERCLA, there's SARA, there's the EPA. Are those the only abbreviations I need to remember?" I'm afraid not. Read on. A Brief Guide To Superfund-Speak (more details to follow) If you overhear someone talking about how the NCP requires the EPA to use the HRS to see if CERCLIS sites make the NPL (and to go after PRPs and make them pay for the RA), you have arrived in the world of Superfund. Now that you're here, it's a good idea to learn the language-- at least enough to get by. Here's a list of some of the most important terms (as you can see, they love abbreviations and acronyms in the world of Superfund!): EPA: The Environmental Protection Agency. For the most part (and for better or for worse), the folks at this beleaguered federal agency run the Superfund show. NCP: The National Oil and Hazardous Substances Contingency Plan. (Don't ask me why there's no 0, H, or S in the abbreviation.) This is the official document that tells the EPA how to put the law into practice. CERCLA: CERCLA is the official name for Superfund. The Comprehensive Environmental, Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980. The law that started it all. 4 SARA: he sequel to CERCLA. Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986. It reauthorir ed Superfund, made changes in the law that made it stronger, and gave the program more mo ey. Remova action: The more common kind of Superfund action. Usually an immediate response to an em rgency, like a chemical spill, a potential explosion, or a threat of groundwater contamin tion. Remedia action: The less common kind of Superfund action. Remedial actions are the big ones, me t to clean up the most dangerous sites for good. Remedial action can also refer to the phase of cleanup in which the actual cleaning takes place. Some imp rtant remedial action terms: P • SI: Preliminary assessment and site inspection. These are the first two phases, in wh ch the EPA checks out a site to see if it's dangerous enough to include on the Na ional Priority List (see below). S: Remedial investigation and feasibility study. If the EPA decides to clean up the site it figures out how to do it in these phases. RO I : Record of Decision. This is the official document that announces to the public ho the site will be cleaned up. It follows the feasibility study. RD : Remedial design and remedial action. This is the cleanup itself, from the desi n to the construction to the actual cleaning. CERCLIS: Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Informatio System. A list of all the abandoned hazardous waste sites that the EPA considers for cleanup. NPL: The tional Priority List. EPA's "Most Wanted." These are the sites determined to be the most d erous in America--and the only ones that qualify for remedial actions. HRS: Haza F Ranking System. A scoring system that determines whether a CERCLIS site makes it on t. the NPL. ATSDR: Ag ncy for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. This is the agency in charge of health issues :t Superfund sites. It's not a part of EPA, but a division of the Centers for Disease Control. RPM: The R medial Project Manager is the EPA official who oversees a remedial action. 5 RP: Responsible Party. Anyone who can be held liable for the pollution at a site. Usually chemical or petroleum companies. (In EPA literature, you can expect to encounter the term that attorneys for industry prefer: PRP, or "Potentially Responsible Party.") CRP: Not to be confused with PRP! CRPs are Community Relations Plans. The EPA has to develop one at every remedial action site. TAG: Technical Assistance Grant. A community group at a remedial action site can apply for a TAG to hire an expert who can help interpret the technical aspects of the cleanup. TOSC: Technical Outreach Services for Communities. A new EPA program to supplement the TAG program: it offers access to a network of academic experts across the country. RCRA: The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976. It tracks and regulates America's hazardous waste from generation to disposal, and it's supposed to make Superfund obsolete one of these days. Let's hope it works. 6 THE SUPERFUND PROCESS... AND ITS SUPERFLAWS The Powers That Be The EPA is in charge of administering and implementing Superfund, but other agencies also serve important functions in the program. The United States Coast Guard handles cleanups in coastal waters. Other agencies and departments, such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Defense, are involved in cleanups involving federal facilities. The EPA also encourages states and tribal governments to participate in federal cleanup actions whenever possible. The EPA's program for administering Superfund is divided into ten regions (for contact information, see Appendix C.) Big c.eanup jobs involve a lot of people.