The groundswell of concern over environmental matters in a variety of business transactions and legal actions can largely trace its origins to the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA - better known as Superfund)l The Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986 (SARA) made major changes to the original law giving it a greater degree of clarity and a distinctly sharper bite 2 Unlike most federal environmental laws, Superfund does not focus on compliance with a regulatory system that governs current activities but rather addresses site contamination created by past activities 3 It creates the possibility of disproportionate liability for activities that may have been legally and technically correct at the time. In recent months, EPA has implemented an enforcement first strategy which is a more aggressive approach to the cleanup of hazardous waste siles 4 This increasingly aggressive approach to imposillg CERCLA liability on those responsible for the disposal of hazardous wastes may be expected to continue for the near future. The discussions below are intended to provide a survey of the framework of CERCLA and the circumstances in which the attorney with a general civil practice should be aware of the existence of potential superfund liability. THE SCOPE AND ATURE OF CERCLA LIABILITY CERCLA imposes liability on a distinct group of resr..onsible parties associated with a facility for the release or threatened release of hazardous substances. ~ Those categories of potentially responsible parties (PRPs) are:
BY GREG YEATMAN, ATTORNEY AT LAW Chisenhall, Nestrud & Julian, P. A.