A New Dynamic

摘要

The world of environmental cleanup has changed dramatically since activist Lois Gibbs took EPA staff hostage at Love Canal to draw public attention to the plight of her community. The outrage over the chemicals buried in a residential neighborhood led to passage of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 - the Superfund law. In the nearly three decades since, the Environmental Protection Agency has cleaned up roughly 900 sites and returned 170 in 40 states to productive use.rnDuring that time, the agency has produced a number of effective tools in the battle to clean up pollution - the National Priorities List of polluted sites, the National Contingency Plan for responding to oil spills and hazardous releases, the Hazard Ranking System to prioritize cleanup efforts, andrnthe CERCLIS information database, to name just a few. But these and related regulations, strategies, and guidance formed in the era of bell-bottom pants still guide the remediation of contaminated properties. Meanwhile, our understanding of Su-perfund's mission has matured.