Tag: CERCLA

Superfund and Windfall Liens

In its FY 2018-2022 Strategic Plan, the EPA listed the cleanup of contaminated properties and their return to productive economic and community use as one of its top three priorities. Among its goals, the Agency stated that it wants to make 255 additional Superfund sites and 3,420 additional brownfield sites ready for anticipated use by […]

Group of men working at a chemical warehouse classifying barrels

EPA Says CERCLA Financial Assurance Not Required for Chemical Companies

The EPA is moving steadily along its apparent path of concluding that it is not necessary to require that facilities in certain industrial sectors comply with the financial responsibility requirements of Section 108(b) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA or Superfund). In its latest action, the Agency is proposing not to […]

Chemical research, PFAS

PFAS: What We Know, What’s Being Studied, and the Laws

Many stakeholders are following—or should be following—the federal government’s plans to address the impact of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) on human health and the environment. There is a lot to follow. PFAS are a family of chemicals first synthesized in the 1940s. It is a very large family. According to the EPA’s February 2019 […]

Hard-rock mining

Hard-Rock Mining Not Subject to Financial Responsibility Rule

If a federal agency proposes a regulation and then subsequently declines to promulgate that regulation, is the second action arbitrary and capricious because it is not a “logical outgrowth” of the proposal, that is, because the option not to regulate is not sufficiently discussed in the proposal?

Coal Plant

EPA Says Power Companies Don’t Need Financial Responsibility Rule

The EPA is proposing not to use its authority under Section 108(b) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA or Superfund) to impose financial responsibility requirements on facilities in the electric power generation, transmission, and distribution sector.

Drinking water

Bipartisan Support for Faster CERCLA Designation for PFAS

In its Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) Action Plan, released in February 2019, the EPA noted that in 2018, it initiated the regulatory development process for listing the two most problematic PFAS—perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS)—as hazardous substances under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA or Superfund).

Farm animal emissions reporting

EPA Proposes EPCRA Reporting Exemption for Farms

The EPA is proposing to extend an existing reporting exemption under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) to release notification rules under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA). The CERCLA extension applies to air emissions from animal waste at farms.