How Superfund Sowed the Seeds of Its Own Instability

Abstract

Signed into law during a lame-duck session of the 96th Congress, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) established a tax on the chemical and petroleum industries that was dedicated to a trust fund for cleaning up abandoned or uncontrolled hazardous waste sites. Known colloquially as Superfund, CERCLA received strong bipartisan support in the Senate and in the House, partly due to a series of high-profile incidents at places like Love Canal in New York and Valley of the Drums in Kentucky. Since its adoption in 1980, however, Superfund has been the subject of considerable controversy, so much so that its dedicated taxes have lapsed twice and its operations came to a “virtual standstill for more than a year” (Patashnik 2000, 162). In addition to being politically unstable, Superfund has been characterized as ineffective, with one observer describing it as “notorious for fostering too much litigation and too little actual cleanup” (Babich 1995, 1520).