The Superfund Trust Fund
The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) of 1980 (commonly known as the Superfund law) established the Hazardous Substance Response Trust Fund. This trust fund is available as needed to finance cleanups where the person responsible for the contamination cannot be found or is unable to pay. The Superfund trust fund gives the federal government the resources necessary to identify and respond to potentially harmful releases of hazardous substances when other resources are not available.
The Superfund trust fund was originally financed through taxes collected on crude oil and 42 designated chemicals. The taxing authority of Superfund is not a permanent authority, and must be periodically reauthorized by Congress. In the first five years of the program, $1.6 billion was collected to support Superfund cleanups. In 1986, Congress reauthorized Superfund for five more years by enacting the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA). SARA increased the Superfund trust fund's funding authority to $8.5 billion. Financing sources for the Superfund trust fund under this reauthorization included: taxes on petroleum and chemicals (similar to taxes under the original Superfund), a new "environmental tax" on corporations, $1.25 billion from general appropriations, costs recovered from responsible parties, punitive damages and penalties under Superfund, and earned interest. In 1990, Congress passed a three-year extension of the taxing authority of Superfund, ensuring uninterrupted implementation of the program through 1994 and increasing the Superfund trust fund to $11.5 billion. After efforts to substantially reform Superfund stalled in 1995, Superfund was reauthorized for one more year (until the end of 1996) without any major changes.
As implementation of the Superfund program has progressed, EPA has increased the Agency's emphasis on cleanup actions led by responsible parties. A key financial aspect of SARA was that it strengthened the law's enforcement provisions to compel responsible parties to pay for cleanups. EPA uses its enforcement authorities first, and then combines the use of its enforcement programs with the Superfund trust fund in order to pay for cleanups.
Funding Limitations
Superfund provides for both short- and long-term remedial actions. For short-term actions such as emergency responses, the Superfund law sets $2 million and 12 month limits on trust fund-financed actions. Long-term actions also are eligible for funding through the Superfund trust fund, and there are no established time limits or a cost ceiling for these remedial actions.
Sharing the Wealth
EPA can transfer funds for site response to states, local governments, and Indian Tribes to support the development of their Superfund program goals and to maintain their ability to respond to hazardous waste threats. EPA has defined several ways to involve states, local governments, and Indian Tribes in the Superfund program, including the responsibility for taking the leads at each site. For example, a state-lead response can be financed in one of three ways: (1) the state is overseeing a cleanup funded and carried out by the responsible party; (2) the state is carrying out most aspects of the cleanup, but the response is funded through the Superfund trust fund; or (3) the state is given lead responsibility and is financing the response entirely with state funds.