The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) was established in 1980 by Congress. CERCLA's objective was to provide a regulatory mechanism in response to threats to human health or the environment from abandoned hazardous waste sites. Passage of CERCLA was heavily influenced by events at Love Canal, New York, where toxic chemicals oozing from an abandoned hazardous waste dump forced the abandonment of homes and a public school. Under CERCLA, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was given funds and the authority to clean up such sites when a responsible party could not be identified. The funds were derived from taxes on industry, particularly the oil and chemical industries, and became known as Superfund.

CERCLA's major provisions establish (1) liability for hazardous waste cleanup by the generator of the waste; (2) a system for EPA to...