The Oil Leak and the EPA -- Elementary CERCLA

[JDPriestly]

There has been a lot of discussion on this board about how Obama should just go in and take over and stop the leak in the Gulf. We actually already have a law that provides a process for handling oil leaks. It's called CERCLA. The EPA is responsible for administering this law. Here is a very brief overview of the its provisions with links for those who want to learn more.

CERCLA Overview
The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), commonly known as Superfund, was enacted by Congress on December 11, 1980. This law created a tax on the chemical and petroleum industries and 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. 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; and
established a trust fund to provide for cleanup when no responsible party could be identified.
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).
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.

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

U.S. House of Representatives U.S. Code - Title 42

http://www.epa.gov/superfund/policy/cercla.htm

CERCLA follows proscribed procedures that require time for evaluation and planning:

Upon notification of a potentially hazardous waste site, the EPA conducts a Preliminary Assessment/Site Inspection (PA/SI) which involve records reviews, interviews, visual inspections, and limited field sampling.<12> Information from the PA/SI is used by EPA to develop a Hazard Ranking System (HRS) score to determine the CERCLA status of the site.<13> Sites that score high enough to qualify for the full program then proceed to a Remedial Investigation/Feasibility Study (RI/FS). The RI includes an extensive sampling program and risk assessment in order to define the extent of the site contamination and risks. The FS is used to develop and evaluate various remediation alternatives. The preferred alternative is presented in a Proposed Plan for public review and comment. The selected alternative is approved in a Record of Decision (ROD). The site then enters into a Remedial Design phase and then the Remedial Action phase. Many sites include Long-Term Monitoring and 5-year reviews once the Remedial Action has been completed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superfund

Here is the actual Code that governs CERCLA.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/42/usc_sup_01_42_10_103.html

Here is a non-governmental site's explanation about CERCLA

Approximately $1.6 billion was collected from this tax in five years. The money has been put aside and used for hazardous waste sites that are not controlled or have been abandoned. CERCLA has set up rules that place responsibility on those people who are accountable for releasing or causing the release of hazardous waste at a designated site. If no person can be found liable, then the Superfund money is to be used for the clean up activities. CERCLA has two types of actions possible for clean up procedures. If a site requires immediate handling of a hazardous release, then CERCLA performs a short-term action for the removal of the substance. If a site is more intensely contaminated, then CERCLA calls for a long term response to remediate the site to eliminate the dangers that are potentially harmful, but not immediately so. A long term remediation project can only be performed on sites that have been listed on the EPA’s National Priorities List, which places the most dangerous sites in order of priority for clean up.


The Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA) amended CERCLA on October 17, 1986. Some of the changes to CERCLA were increase the fund to $8.5 billion, bring attention to the actual dangers to human health from hazardous waste sites, encourage the public to become more involved in the decision making process about clean up methods, obtain more involvement from individual States for Superfund sites within their boundaries, and to work more toward permanent solutions and the use of new technology for clean up methods. SARA also called for the EPA to make changes to the Hazard Ranking System, so that this system would more accurately note the level of danger to humans and the environment that sites to be placed on the National Priorities List possess. The National Priorities list must be revised and re-published every two years and informally reviewed every year. Some of the substances on the priority list include; arsenic, lead, mercury, benzene, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), cyanide, methane, zinc, nickel, carbon tetrachloride, chromium, radon, barium, tritium, etc. There are hundreds of chemicals and substances on the list and each one is ranked based upon its frequency of occurrence at National Priorities List sites, its toxicity and how likely it is to affect human health.

http://www.essortment.com/all/comprehensiveen_rglu.htm

Don't know any more about that site than that it is on the internet.

The following U.S. Army Engineers Corp website gives some helpful information and contact information.

http://www.lrb.usace.army.mil/fusrap/docs/fusrap-fs-cercla.pdf

What do I personally know about CERCLA? It is way underfunded. Also, it is organized with (in my opinion) the intention of balancing the need to encourage investment in private enterprises in the oil industry with the need for public safety.

The CERCLA process is, from what I know, very slow, complicated and expensive. I doubt that CERCLA is well enough funded to take care of all the hazardous waste sites for which it is responsible. You can probably name several such sites just in your own area if you read your local newspapers regularly.

We cannot afford to clean up the mess in the Gulf. We cannot afford to continue to use oil.

If Palin wants to Drill Baby Drill, then let her clean up this mess out of the fees she earns from talking about it. I'm quite serious about that. I would like someone in the news media to ask Sarah Palin how she thinks that the clean-up for the BP leak in the Gulf should be paid for.