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HAZARDOUS WASTEConditionsIn 1980, the U.S. Congress passed the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), commonly known as Superfund, to clean up highly contaminated hazardous waste sites. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) places sites that it determines may need long-term cleanup actions, called remedial actions, on its National Priorities List (NPL). For sites needing cleanup, EPA or private parties conduct studies to assess the risks, and select, design, and construct cleanup remedies. CERCLA authorizes EPA to compel the parties responsible for the contaminated sites to clean them up. Under CERCLA, any responsible party at a site can, under some circumstances, be held responsible for the entire cost of the cleanup. Responsible parties can sue other parties to recoup some of their own expenses. Through this process, parties can incur high legal costs. The law also allows EPA to pay for cleanups and seek reimbursement from the parties, and it established a trust fund, financed primarily by taxes on crude oil and chemicals, to help EPA pay for its cleanups and related activities. The Superfund program's authorization and the authority for the taxes financing the trust fund expired in 1995 and have not been renewed. However, the U.S. Congress continues to fund the program through annual appropriations from the Superfund trust fund and general revenues. Nearly 800 high-priority hazardous-waste sites were fully cleaned up between 1980 and 2000. More than 1,200 sites remain to be addressed, however, and another 3,000 sites still need to be assessed for possible action under Superfund. The U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) estimates that, after nearly 20 years and outlays of more than $14 billion, the Superfund program has yet to complete cleanups for 42% of the nation's most severely contaminated hazardous waste sites. Cleanups at 85% of the sites will be completed by the end of calendar year 2008. The remainder will not be completed until well after 2008. Meanwhile, the U.S. Congress has so far failed to pass legislation that would expand the "brownfields" restoration program created by EPA to help communities restore less seriously contaminated sites that have the potential for economic development. EPA defines brownfields as abandoned, idled, or under-used industrial and commercial facilities where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived environmental contamination. According to the U.S. Conference of Mayors, 180 cities have 19,236 brownfields sites. The brownfields program was established administratively by EPA in 1993 under the Superfund program. The program has expanded to include 307 brownfields assessment grants (most for $200,000 over two years) totaling more than $57 million; twenty-four $350,000 revolving loan fund grants to help finance the actual cleanups; and 16 Brownfields Showcase Communities, where technical and financial assistance from 15 participating federal agencies is being coordinated with state, local and non-governmental efforts. Between 1995 and 2000, the EPA provided $246.9 million in brownfields grants to capitalize state and local revolving loan funds. FY 1997 was the first year brownfields became a separate budgetary line item within the EPA budget. In the FY 2000 budget, the administration requested and was appropriated $91.7 million. Policy OptionsThere is, on average, a 12-year span between identifying and remediating sites under CERCLA. This long span is caused by overlapping federal and state requirements and responsibilities; mandated joint, strict and several liability for potentially responsible parties (PRP); and inconsistent cleanup requirements. Site cleanup requirements do not take into account site specific conditions and risks based on the reasonably anticipated future use of the site. Cleanup to "background" levels adds significantly to cleanup costs and schedules and discourages the redevelopment of brownfield sites crucial to local industrial economies. Specific recommendations supported by ASCE:
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