The document provides an overview of the Superfund program, which was established by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) in 1980 in response to abandoned hazardous waste sites. It describes the key provisions of CERCLA and the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (NCP), which provides the process for responding to releases. The overview explains the various steps of the cleanup process under Superfund from site assessment and listing to short and long-term cleanup actions to eventual site closure and reuse.

1. Overview of Superfund
Comprehensive Environmental Response,
Compensation and Liability Act
Shahid Mahmud, Environmental Engineer
United States Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Superfund Remediation and Technology Innovation
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

2. Overview
 Origin of CERCLA (Superfund Law)
 Key provisions of CERCLA
 Key provisions of the National Oil and Hazardous
Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (NCP)
 Overview of the cleanup process under
Superfund
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3. The Origin of CERCLA
 Public awareness of
abandoned dump sites
 Two sites drew significant
media attention:
 Love Canal in Niagara
Falls, New York
 “Valley of the Drums” in
Brooks, Kentucky
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4. Key Provisions of CERCLA
 Approved as law in 1980
 Provides legal authority to respond to a
release of:
A hazardous substance
Any pollutant or contaminant that may present an
imminent and substantial endangerment
 Excludes oil releases
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5. Key Provisions of CERCLA
 Creates Hazardous Substance
Trust Fund
 Holds those Potentially
Responsible Parties (PRPs)
liable
Cleanup costs
Natural resource damages
 Inventories and prioritizes sites
Establishes a National Priorities
List (NPL)
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6. Key Provisions of CERCLA
 Authorizes three types of response actions:
Removal Action
Remedial Action
Enforcement Action
 Encourages participation of states and tribal
governments
 Provides opportunities for community
involvement
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7. Plan
National Oil and Hazardous Substances
Pollution Contingency Plan (NCP)
 Blueprint for responding to oil spills and hazardous
substances releases.
 All Superfund response actions must be consistent with
the NCP. The NCP is found at 40 Code of Federal
regulations (CFR) Part 300
 http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-
idx?c=ecfr&tpl=/ecfrbrowse/Title40/40cfr300_main_02.tpl
 NCP provides step-by-step process for conducting
Superfund response actions.
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8. Removal Actions under Superfund
 Three types of removal response actions:
1. Emergency Response (Action within hours)
2. Time-Critical (Action within 6 months)
3. Non-time Critical (Planning period more than 6
months)
 On-Scene Coordinator (OSC) investigates site to
determine extent of damage and the appropriate
actions to take during the response effort.
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9. Emergency Response
 Coordination and implementation of a
wide range of activities to ensure timely
response measures for hazardous
substance and oil releases.
 Includes large-scale national emergencies
such as homeland security incidents.
 Emergencies range from small-scale
spills to large events requiring prompt
action and/or evacuation of nearby
populations.
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10. Removal Responses
 Common at Superfund Sites when contamination
poses an imminent threat to human health and the
environment.
Removal actions can supplement long-term cleanup
actions at NPL sites
 Classified as either time-critical or non-time-critical
depending on the extent and type of contamination.
 Decision to conduct removal documented in an
Action Memorandum.
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11. Overview of Superfund Response Process
Short-Term
Cleanup
Removal
Site
Site Discovery Site Listing Long-Term
Assessment Clean/
Cleanup Closure
Remedial
Remedial Investigation/Feasibility Study (RI/FS)
Enforcement/Cost Recovery
Community
Relations
11 Site Reuse

12. Site Listing Process - Hazard Ranking
System (HRS)
 Used to identify sites for the National Priorities List (NPL)
 Numerically based scoring system that uses information from initial
investigations
 HRS assesses relative potential of sites to pose a threat to human health
and the environment
 Ranks sites based on their relative risk among sites evaluated
 Cut-off score of 28.5 was established for placing sites on the NPL
 An HRS evaluation is performed following procedures defined in the HRS
regulation (40 CFR Part 300 Appendix A, part of the NCP)
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13. Major Phases of Remedial Process
 NCP defines five major phases:
 Remedial Investigation/Feasibility Study
 Selection of Remedy
 Remedial Design
 Remedial Action (Site Cleanup)
 Operation and Maintenance
 Overall goal of remedy selection:
 Protective of human health and the environment
 Maintain protection over time
 Minimize untreated waste
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14. Overview of Remedial Investigation/
Feasibility Study (RI/FS) Process
 RI/FS supports remedy selection
 Remedial Investigation (RI) provides:
 Site characterization
 Baseline risk assessment
 FS develops and analyzes remedial action
alternatives
 Develop and screen alternatives
 Detailed analysis of alternatives
• Nine Evaluation criteria are basis of remedy selection
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15. Remedy Selection
 Proposed plan informs the public on the
preferred cleanup option
 Public reviews and provides comments on the
proposed plan
 All relevant documents are maintained in the
site information repository
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16. Record of Decision, Remedial Design and
Remedial Action
Record of Decision
 Official decision document on remedy selection
 Technical, legal and public document
Remedial Design
 Develop final plans and specifications for
selected remedy
Remedial Action
 Contract selection
 Remedy Construction
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17. Enforcement and Liability
 Enforcement principle: those responsible for
hazardous waste sites pay for or perform cleanup.
 CERCLA provides criteria under which a party is liable
for cleanup costs.
 EPA identifies those responsible for contamination at a
site and negotiates with them to do the cleanup.
 EPA can do the cleanup itself and recover its costs
from the responsible party.
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18. Post Construction Completion
 Ensure that Superfund cleanup
actions provide for the long-term
protection of human health and
the environment.
 Activities include: operations
and maintenance (O&M), Five-
year reviews, remedy
optimization, institutional
controls, and deleting sites from
the NPL.
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19. Operation & Maintenance (O&M)
 Ensure that equipment is installed and
that the remedy performs as intended.
 Site responsibility transfers to the
States for Fund lead sites.
 EPA is responsible for monitoring and
ensuring that the work is adequately
performed.
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20. Five-Year Reviews/Site Deletion
Five-Year Reviews
 Evaluate the implementation and performance of a
remedy to determine whether it remains protective
 Required by CERCLA / NCP when hazardous substances
remain on site above levels which permit unrestricted use
and unlimited exposure.
Site Deletion
 When cleanup levels are met and Operation and
Maintenance is complete – Site is deleted from NPL
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21. Superfund Site Reuse and Redevelopment
 Over 600 Superfund sites have been returned
to productive use under the Superfund
Redevelopment Initiative
 Some mine site examples include:
- Anaconda Smelter Company, Montana
- Midvale Slag, Utah
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22. Summary
 CERCLA provides legal authority to respond
to a release of hazardous substances
 NCP provides the blueprint for responding to
oil spills and hazardous substances releases
 Program designed to address both short and
long-term actions
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23. Thank You!!
Contact Information:
Shahid Mahmud
Team Leader, EPA Abandoned Mine Lands Team
Office of Site Remediation and Technology Innovation
703-603-8789
Mahmud.shahid@epa.gov
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