{
  "id": "97-312",
  "type": "CRS Report",
  "typeId": "REPORTS",
  "number": "97-312",
  "active": false,
  "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
  "versions": [
    {
      "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
      "id": 100646,
      "date": "1999-01-27",
      "retrieved": "2016-05-24T20:47:14.961941",
      "title": "Superfund Fact Book",
      "summary": "The Superfund program is the principal federal effort for cleaning up hazardous waste sites and\nprotecting public health and the environment from releases of hazardous substances. The\nComprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA)\nestablished the program, and the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986 (SARA)\namended it. This report is a compendium of data and other pertinent information about CERCLA\nand the Superfund program, followed by a glossary.\n  The law's strict, joint and several, and retroactive liability regime requires responsible parties\nto pay for cleaning up a site. However, CERCLA established the Hazardous Substance Superfund\nTrust Fund to pay for cleanups where a financially viable party cannot be found. The trust fund has\nraised about $1.5 billion per year for cleanup activities, primarily from excise taxes on petroleum\nand specified chemical feedstocks, and from a corporate environmental income tax, all of which\nexpired on December 31, 1995. The trust fund also pays for the Environmental Protection Agency's\n(EPA) enforcement, management activities, and research and development. For FY1999, Congress\nenacted appropriations of $1.5 billion for the Superfund program ( P.L. 105-276 ).\n  The National Priorities List (NPL) tracks the sites that most seriously threaten public health and\nthe environment. As of September 29, 1998, the NPL contained a total of 1,260 final and proposed\nsites, of which 162 were federal facilities and 1,098 were non-federal sites. The Construction\nCompletion List (CCL) catalogs NPL sites where physical construction is complete for all necessary\ncleanup and removal actions. As of September 29, 1998, there were 535 sites on the CCL. EPA has\ndeleted a total of 176 sites from the NPL because response actions are complete.\n  In addition to being responsible for cleanup costs, polluters also must pay to restore natural\nresource damages at Superfund sites. As of July 1996, federal agencies had completed settlements\nfor natural resource damage claims with responsible parties at 67 sites for a total of $117.6 million. \nIn March 1996, the federal government filed the largest natural resource damage claim to date for\na total of $970 million against several mining companies for contamination in the Coeur d'Alene\nRiver Basin in Idaho. Negotiations over the claim are continuing.\n  The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry assesses the impact of hazardous\nsubstance releases on public health. As of February 1997, the agency had completed 1,776 public\nhealth assessments at Superfund sites.\n  The number of state programs that clean up hazardous waste sites has increased in recent years,\nand each state has enacted its own enforcement authority. At the end of 1997, the states reported\nnearly 24,000 potentially hazardous sites warranting attention. All states, except for Nebraska and\nthe District of Columbia, have established their own funds to pay for cleanup activities. The total \nbalance of all state funds at the end of FY1997 was roughly $1.4 billion, of which states spent about\n$565 million for cleanup activities in FY1997.",
      "type": "CRS Report",
      "typeId": "REPORTS",
      "active": false,
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          "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/97-312",
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          "images": null
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      ],
      "topics": []
    }
  ],
  "topics": [
    "Appropriations",
    "Energy Policy",
    "Environmental Policy"
  ]
}