Superfund: Case Studies Of Pollution

In this episode, we take a look at the impact of the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act, with a focus on Title III: The Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-know Act, or EPCRA.Revolutionary for its time, the act served to streamline the emergency planning and response process across state and federal agencies, working to better inform cities, towns, and citizens of the public health threats in their communities.With these major statutes in place, the EPA experienced a productive era of reform that began in the late 1980s and continued into the early 2000s. The efficiency of the Superfund program was honed. Cleanup efforts were accelerated. And for the first time, the program saw major successes across the United States.

On this episode, we cover the Ruckelshaus Restoration of the Environmental Protection Agency during the mid-1980s, which featured the reauthorization and strengthening of several major pieces of environmental law. Culminating in that effort was the passage of the Superfund Amendment and Reauthorization Act of 1986, which reauthorized funding for the Superfund program and greatly overhauled its system of cleanup standard and remediation procedures.The act, however, was not without its criticisms and failures, and some aspects of its implementation fell short of expectations. Included in its passage was the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-know Act, which worked to fill the gaps between the federal government and the local communities impacted by toxic waste pollution.

In this episode, we take a look at the first years of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980, and its implementation by the Reagan Administration.While several court cases in the early 1980s served to authorize and strengthen the statutes of CERCLA and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, both regulatory programs experienced major cuts and roll backs under EPA Administrator Anne Gorsuch.Those cuts were but a fraction of ongoing government deregulation and defunding under Reagan. However, following months of congressional hearings, mismanagement of the EPA under Gorsuch became clear, and she, along with several dozen fellow EPA officials resigned, ushering in new leadership who refocused the agency's directives and regulatory enforcement.

In Episode IX, we take a comprehensive look at the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980, or CERCLA.Going section by section, we break down the basic definitions, the statutes, and the language, and look at how the final bill was the result of more than three years of debate surrounding how best to form a Superfund law.With this firm understanding of CERCLA in place, we'll be able to look closely at how those statutes changed over time, how they were weakened and strengthened, and what their future might look like under an administration intent on dismantling environmental regulations.This presents a solid foundation of information which will help provide a deeper understanding of how pollution is addressed when we begin our survey of individual Superfund sites.

We finish our look at the legislative history of the Comprehensive Emergency Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980.In the midpoint of 1980, the Presidential election was in full stride, and the reelection of President Jimmy Carter looked increasingly doubtful. Feeling the pressure to enact a Superfund law before the end of the year, Congress scrambled to compromise between three legislative proposals moving through committee: Senate Bill 1480, House Resolution 7020 and House Resolution 85.With Carter's loss, and may Superfund proponents voted out of the Senate, those remaining succumbed to the realization that much of their ambition would have to be shed in order to pass legislation that at least began to address America's toxic waste crisis.