Comprehensive environmental response compensation and liability Act

Case Assignment

View the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) video and address the assignment questions:

  1. What criteria define “releases” covered under CERCLA?
  2. What are the responses that may be triggered by CERCLA? Which two do you find least effective? Describe why.
  3. What impacts do brownfields have on a community, and should government help disadvantaged communities in dealing with these sites? Why? Support your answer with an example from the literature.

Length: Submit a 3- to 4-page paper.

Recommended Reading

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2016). CERCLA overview. Retrieved from http://www.epa.gov/superfund/policy/cercla.htm

Required Reading

Carruth, R. S., & Goldstein, B. D. (2013). Chapter 6: Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA or “Superfund Act”). In Environmental health law: An introduction (pp. 131–156). Somerset, NJ, USA: Jossey-Bass, Wiley.

Beames, A., Broekx, S., Heijungs, R., Lookman, R., Boonen, K., Van Geert, Y., . . . Seuntjens, P. (2015). Accounting for land-use efficiency and temporal variations between brownfield remediation alternatives in life-cycle assessment. Journal of Cleaner Production, 101 77(6), 109-117.

Gardner, R. W., & Pusha, R., III. (2014). The West Virginia chemical spill and environmental liabilities in a post-apex world. American Bankruptcy Institute Journal, 33(4), 38–83.

National priorities list. (2016). Lanham: Federal Information & News Dispatch, Inc.

Rasher, B. (2015). Commentary: Report card on the market-based approach to Brownfield redevelopment. Public Administration Review, 75(2), 262-263. doi:10.1111/puar.12345

Revision of certain federal water quality criteria applicable to Washington. (2015). (). Lanham: Federal Information & News Dispatch, Inc.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2016). Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) Program. Retrieved from http://www2.epa.gov/toxics-release-inventory-tri-program

Washington, tribes urge 9th circuit to uphold CERCLA air emissions ruling. (2015). Inside EPA’s Clean Air Report, 26(22).

Yohannan, S. (2016). Judges press governments on CERCLA air emissions ‘disposal’ claim. Inside EPA Weekly Report, 37(15).