Environmental Cleanup

Some environmental statutes promote the cleanup of past abuses of the environment. At the federal level, the most prominent such law is the Superfund ("CERCLA") program, which establishes a system for designating the most contaminated sites and financing the cleanup of those sites.

Superfund provides a system for:

• administrative designation of responsibility for cleanup costs
• identifying who may be required to fund the Superfund cleanups, by legal action against them in court if necessary

In connection with the Superfund program, the federal Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA"), as the responsible administrative agency:

• Prepares lists of sites to be targeted for remediation.
• Establishes cleanup priorities and standards.
• Identifies potentially responsible parties and seeks to have them pay their respective share of cleanup costs.

In addition to payments by responsible parties, Superfund is supported by taxes assessed on particular industries.

States generally have their own systems for environmental cleanup programs. While many state programs follow the pattern of the federal Superfund system, other effective state remedies have developed. The most effective programs are those tying the requirements for cleanup to transactions involving the contaminated properties. For example, if a company seeks to transfer a property that is contaminated, the transaction may be delayed until cleanup measures have been put into place. Because of the financial pressures associated with these business transactions, buyers and sellers are more willing to address pollution problems in order to close the deal.

Environmental Message Board for more help