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The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA)

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Presentation on theme: "The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA)"— Presentation transcript:

1 The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA)

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3 PRPs Potentially Responsible Parties (PRPs) include:
Current owners and operators Former owners and operators involved during the time hazardous substance was disposed at a facility Persons who arranged for disposal or treatment of hazardous substances Persons who accepted hazardous substances for transport to facilities they helped select

4 CERCLA. . . What are the major provisions?
Contaminated Site Cleanup: CERLCA authorizes the EPA to force parties that were responsible for the release of hazardous substances to finance cleanups on the contaminated site. Superfund: Where the responsible party cannot be identified or has gone bankrupt, CERCLA established a $1.6 billion Trust Fund, known as Superfund. The Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986 (SARA) appropriated another $8.5 billion. National Priorities List: The EPA can only conduct long term remediation actions at sites that are on the National Priorities List, which ranks the sites eligible for Superfund clean up. For more details on the CERCLA, see Section II of the reference text.

5 SARA CERCLA was amended by the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA) in 1986. Several site-specific amendments, definitions clarifications, and technical requirements were added to the legislation, including additional enforcement authorities. Also authorized the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA)

6 CERCLIS Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Information System (CERCLIS) is the EPA computerized database of contaminated sites.

7 Response Actions Removal action: short-term response to contamination that must be cleaned up immediately. Remedial action: long-term cleanups intended to permanently address the threat posed by contamination at a site.

8 CERCLA This law created a tax on the chemical and petroleum industries
Provided broad Federal authority to respond directly to releases or threatened releases of hazardous substances that may endanger public health or the environment. Over five years, $1.6 billion was collected and the tax went to a trust fund for cleaning up abandoned or uncontrolled hazardous waste sites.

9 CERCLA Established prohibitions and requirements concerning closed and abandoned hazardous waste sites Provided for liability of persons responsible for releases of hazardous waste at these sites Established a trust fund to provide for cleanup when no responsible party could be identified.

10 CERCLA The law authorizes two kinds of response actions:
Short-term removals, where actions may be taken to address releases or threatened releases requiring prompt response. Long-term remedial response actions, that permanently and significantly reduce the dangers associated with releases or threats of releases of hazardous substances that are serious, but not immediately life threatening. These actions can be conducted only at sites listed on EPA's National Priorities List (NPL).

11 CERCLA also enabled the revision of the National Contingency Plan (NCP).
The NCP provided the guidelines and procedures needed to respond to releases and threatened releases of hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants. The NCP also established the NPL.

12 NPL Mandated under CERCLA
List of sites where uncontrolled releases of hazardous substances have occurred. Updated twice each year

13 NPL A site is listed on the NPL if:
Score exceeds 28.5 using Hazard Ranking System, or Host state designates the release as highest priority, or

14 NPL Listing New EPA policies issued in 1995 and 1997, included new definitions: Deletion Deferral

15 NPL Listing A site is listed on the NPL if: (continued)
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) issues a health advisory, EPA determines the release poses a significant threat, and EPA determines it is more cost effective to use remedial actions to respond to the release

16 NPL Deletion/Deferral
NPL removal because cleanup is complete OR Because another cleanup authority can be used to remediate the site or parcel

17 NPL Deletion/Deferral
Decision not to list OR Decision not to continue listing a site on the NPL To allow other statutory authority to replace CERCLA response authority for handling remediation at the site.

18 NPL Deletion/Deferral
Policies also provided for partial deletion of Federal facilities from the NPL if: A parcel has been cleaned up OR Never contaminated

19 CERCLA was amended by the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA) on October 17, 1986.

20 The Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA) of 1986 revised various sections of CERCLA, extended the taxing authority for Superfund, and created a free-standing law, SARA Title III, also known as the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA). Although part of the Superfund Amendments, EPCRA is a separately codified law; it is not considered part of the reauthorized CERCLA  

21 The term "Superfund" is based on the large fund of money that is collected by EPA to investigate sites and to pay for cleanups in cases where no responsible parties can be determined. (Otherwise, if responsible parties can be found, they will be held liable for cleanup costs).  The chemical industry pays about $300 million a year in Superfund chemical feedstock taxes.

22 Site Clean-Ups Under CERCLA, site clean-ups are conducted under the procedures contained in the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (40 CFR 300), typically referred to as the National Contingency Plan (NCP). The NCP includes provisions for permanent cleanups, known as remedial actions, and other cleanups referred to as "removals."

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24 Brownfields Programs The term brownfields is used to describe contaminated property, typically in developed urban areas, that does not qualify for Superfund remediation. Such property is typically stigmatized and unlikely to be put to productive use. Brownfields incentives programs serve two goals: Alleviating the need to develop greenlands, land never previously developed At the same time, increasing the likelihood that brownfields will be cleaned up and redeveloped.

25 Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act EPCRA
Establishes procedures and requirements for community emergency planning for releases of extremely hazardous substances (EHS), reporting of spills and leaks of EHS, reporting of hazardous substances in the workplace, and annual reporting of toxic chemical releases. EPCRA was a part of CERCLA amendment III, but it is now a free standing and separate act and not codified as a part of CERCLA.

26 EPCRA Subtitles Emergency Planning and Notification
establishes mechanisms to enable states and communities to prepare to respond to unplanned releases of hazardous materials Reporting Requirements requires submission on inventory related data at the site, and annual reporting to the EPA and the State on environmental releases of toxic chemicals manufactured, processed, or otherwise used at the facility General Provisions contains a variety of general provisions, including penalties for violations

27 EPCRA Facilities must comply with Federal and/or State EPCRA programs.
This requires facilities to Define the boundaries of the facility in support of EPCRA requirements. Support agreements must be updated to reflect the data collection requirements of the tenants to the host. Determine whether threshold requirements are met or exceeded for any extremely hazardous substance (EHS) and hazardous substances used at the facility.

28 The following rules apply:
Each facility that exceeds a threshold is subject to the reporting requirements of EPCRA for emergency planning, providing of information, and emergency notification. Each facility that meets or exceeds a threshold planning quantity for an EHS must notify the State Emergency Response Commission SERC and the Local Emergency Planning Committees LEPC and provide a facility point of contact, telephone number, and an alternate point of contact. Each covered facility must request to participate in local emergency planning functions and must appoint a facility representative to actively serve on the LEPC. Each facility that releases an EHS or HS in excess of the reportable quantity (RQ) for that substance (into any environmental media) must immediately provide verbal notification to all area(s) likely to be affected.

29 Hazard Analysis Owners or operators of facilities that use regulated substances should determine and document the priority order for conducting a hazard analysis, based on a rational plan that includes such considerations as extent of the process hazards, number of potentially affected employees, age of the process, and the operating history of the process. A hazard analysis must be appropriate to the complexity of the process being analyzed and must identify, evaluate, and control the hazards involved.

30 Hazard Analysis Review Parameters
To adequately review the consequences of control failures, a hazard analysis should address The hazards of the process The identification of any potentially catastrophic incident Engineering controls Administrative controls

31 To complete a hazard analysis, the owner or operator should use one or more of the following methodologies to determine and evaluate the hazards of the process being analyzed: What-if Checklist Combination What-If/Checklist Hazard and Operability Study Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (HAZOP) Fault Tree Analysis Approved equivalent methodology Continue…

32 Detection methods, monitoring, and control instrumentation
Detection hardware Consequences of engineering failures Consequences of administrative controls failing Source site factors Human factors Evaluation of possible safety and health effects

33 EMERGENCY RESPONSE INFORMATION
The emergency response telephone number must be monitored at all times while the shipment is in transit. Emergency response information that must appear on the shipping paper or in a separate document maintained with the shipping paper: Description of the HM Immediate hazards to health Immediate methods for handling small or large fires and spills or leaks Preliminary first aid measures

34 This document is 100% funded by a $2. 2 million grant from the U. S
This document is 100% funded by a $2.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (TAACCCT). The product was created by the grantee and does not necessarily reflect the official position of the U.S. Department of Labor. The Department of Labor makes no guarantees, warranties or assurances of any kind, express or implied, with respect to such information, including any information on linked sites and including, but not limited to, accuracy of the information or its completeness, timeliness, usefulness, adequacy, continued availability, or ownership. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.


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