Hazardous waste liability

ISBN 0-87179-720-8,800 pages, 118 This book covers the basic federal statutes regulating hazardous waste, and includes information on enforcement private actions In protecting public interest environmental torts. International aspects of hazardous waste liability, and other topics. The book provides hundreds of cases to Illustrate information regarding legal issues. 

The EPA Contract Laboratory Program (CLP) has responsibility for managing the analysis programs required under the U.S. Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). The approved analytical methods are designed to analyze water, soil, and sediment from potentially hazardous waste sites to determine the presence or absence of certain environmentally harmful organic compounds. The methods described here all require the use of GC/MS. 

Who has liability for process waste disposal (That is, who generates the hazardous waste manifest and under what owner/shipper name )... 

This section provides an overview of the engineering technologies and applications that are currently applicable to the study and remediation of releases of hazardous wastes and constituents from RCRA (Resource Conservation and Recovery Act) facilities and those sites which parallel Superfund sites. Activities which would be termed removal actions or expedited response actions under CERCLA (Comprehensive Environmental Recovery-Cleanup and Liability Act) are also covered in this section. Information presented in this section represent excerpts from document EPA/625/4-89/020 (September 1989). 

Tlie Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) of 1980 was tire first major response to tire problem of abandoned hazardous waste sites throughout the nation. CERCLA was the begiiming of tlie remediation of hazardous waste sites. This program was designed to ... 

Decreased financial liability by generating a smaller quantity of hazardous wastes... 

All metal finishing facilities have one thing in common—the generation of metal-containing hazardous waste from the production processes. Reducing the volume of waste generated can save money and at the same time decreases future liabilities. Typical wastes generated are as follows ... 

Although RCRA creates the framework for the proper management of hazardous and nonhaz-ardous solid waste, it does not address the problems of hazardous waste found at inactive or abandoned sites or those resulting from spills that require emergency response. These problems are addressed by a different act, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), commonly called Superfund, which was enacted in 1980. 

In 1980, Congress passed the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). Commonly known as Superfund, the program under this law is focused on the remediation of abandoned or uncontrolled hazardous waste sites. Since 1980, Superfund has assessed nearly 44,400 sites. To date, 33,100 sites have been removed from the Superfund inventory to aid their economic redevelopment, and 11,300 sites remain active with the site assessment program or are included in the National Priorities List (NPL) for the implementation of remedial actions. By September 2000, 1509 sites were included in the NPL with ongoing or completed cleanup activities. 

In 1980, the U.S. Congress enacted the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), the first comprehensive federal law addressing the protection of the environment from the threat of hazardous substances. The primary goal of CERCLA is to establish an organized cost-effective mechanism for response to abandoned or uncontrolled hazardous waste sites that pose a serious threat to human health and the environment.8 9 To accomplish this goal, two types of response capabilities are mandated by CERCLA13 ... 

CERCLA Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act. Known as CERCLA, or the SUPERFUND amendment, this federal law deals with hazardous substances releases to the environment and the cleanup of hazardous waste sites. 

CERCLA, or Superfund, was enacted in 1980, and amended in 1986, for the basic purpose of providing funding and enforcement authority to clean up any site where there is a past unremedied release of a hazardous substance or hazardous substance spill. Such sites are typically characterized as areas where hazardous waste or materials have been disposed of improperly, with litde if any responsible action being taken to mitigate the situation. Standards for financial responsibility were promulgated by the SARA of 1986 which further amended Section 9003 of RCRA and mandated that the EPA establish financial responsibility requirements for UST owners and operators to guarantee cost recovery for corrective action and third-party liability caused by accidental releases of USTs containing petroleum products. 

Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA) and the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986 (SARA) provide the basic legal framework for the federal "Superfund" program to clean up abandoned hazardous waste sites. 

The RCRA controls the disposal of solid waste and requires that all wastes destined for land disposal be evaluated for their potential hazard to the environment. Solid waste includes liquids, solids, and containerized gases and is divided into nonhazardous waste and hazardous waste. The various amendments are aimed at preventing the disposal problems that lead to a need for the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), or Superfund, as it is known. 

The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), commonly known as Superfund, 1980, 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. The act was amended by the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA) in 1986 and stressed the importance of permanent remedies and innovative treatment technologies in cleaning up hazardous waste sites. 

The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 created a program known as Superfund, designed to clean up hazardous waste sites as well as accidents, spills, and other releases of pollutants into the environment. 

Resolves liability of hazardous wastes no landfilling of final products is required. 

The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) requires the EPA to "clean up" chemical disposal sites. The cleanup funds are raised through a combination of tort suits against companies that have had some connection with either the disposal site or the chemicals (joint-and-several strict liability) and taxes on petroleum production, hazardous-waste facilities, and chemical products. When judgments go against landowners, trucking firms, container corporations, or other firms less directly connected with the site, the defendants ask their insurance companies to pay these judgments. Courts, then, must decide whether liability insurance contracts cover such claims. 

Under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA)/RCRA regulations in effect at the end of 1986 bromine is regulated as a hazardous waste or material. Therefore, it must be disposed of in an approved hazardous waste facility in compliance with EPA and/or other applicable local, state, and federal regulations and should be handled in a manner acceptable to good waste management practice. The... 

Assessment of a company s waste minimization needs includes examining the content of and volume of hazardous waste streams it generates, and the processes or operations that generate them. The object of this step is to prioritize the needs of the company, based on environmental risk, liability, and economic criteria. 

Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CER-CLA) or Superfund 1980, amended in 1986 Provides for clean up of existing hazardous waste sites imposes superfund tax on production of petroleum and other chemicals... 

The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA, or Superfund) was passed in 1980. It was the first law to focus on the necessary environmental response to uncontrolled hazardous waste sites or potential hazardous waste releases throughout the country. The Superfund law was significantly amended in 1986 by the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA), which is discussed in the next section, and was last reauthorized in 1990. It has been scheduled for reauthorization for the past several years, but agreement on changes to the act has not yet been reached. 

Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). This is an attempt to deal with the many waste sites that exist across the nation. It covers remedial action, including the establishment of a National Priorities List to identify those sites that should have a high priority for remediation. This act authorizes the cleanup of hazardous waste sites, including those containing pesticides, that threaten human health or the environment. If they can be identified, the US EPA is authorized to recover cleanup costs from those parties responsible for the contamination. CERCLA provides a fund to pay for the cleanup of contaminated sites when no other parties are able to conduct the cleanup. The Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA) (1986) is an amendment to CERCLA that enables the US EPA to identify and cleanup inactive hazardous waste sites and to recover reimbursement of cleanup costs. One section of CERCLA authorizes the EPA to act whenever there is a release or substantial threat of release of a hazardous substance or any pollutant or contaminant that may present an imminent or substantial danger to the public health or welfare into the environment. 

Hazardous Waste Resources Conservation and Recovery Act Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act... 

Under CERCLA and similar state hazardous waste laws, liability for contamination at a site is strict, joint and several, as well as retroactive. Anyone who was ever involved with the site—generators of hazardous substances, transporters of materials to or from the site, and any past or present owner—can all be held liable for the costs of cleanup. A fear of perpetual liability kept many private buyers, developers, lenders, and potential future owners of contaminated properties from investing in brownfields sites. 

Offsite Reclamation Reclamation is the recovery of a valuable material from a hazardous waste. Its techniques differ from use and reuse techniques in that the recovered material is sold to another entity rather than being used in the facility generating it. This option should follow exhaustion of onsite recovery options because of the increase in potential liability, both economic and environmental, with the transportation of waste to the offsite facility. 

Incineration is another form of energy recovery [ 1 ]. Some hazardous waste incinerators and many refuse incinerators are equipped with energy recovery equipment. While some major facilities operate either or both types of incinerators, most firms must resort to offsite treatment. These treatment facilities should be carefully evaluated from an economic, regulatory, and operations standpoint. While these facilities reduce volume and, generally, toxicity, air pollutant generation and the final incinerator ash disposal must still be considered and may impact a generator s liability. 

The shift of emphasis from end-of-pipe waste management and pollution control to waste minimization is not without its obstacles [16, 17, 20-23]. However, the barriers to waste minimization are similar to those of any other major change in business practices. The recognition of the hazards, liabilities, and costs associated with hazardous waste generation is relatively new to the industrial community and there are significant limitations on available financial resources, information, and technical capabilities. Waste minimization can be further limited by institutional barriers due to the persistent end-of-pipe outlook on hazardous wastes that is common to both government and industry. Some of the barriers to waste minimization include [16,20-23,28-30,36,37] ... 

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