Superfund is a fund that was established by congress to pay for containment, cleanup or remediation of abandoned toxic waste sites. Fees paid by the toxic waste generators and by cost-recovery from clean-up projects finance the fund. There are five important parts to Superfund: CERCLA, SARA, NCP, NPL, and HRS, together these make-up the Superfund program. .
The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) was approved December 11, 1980. This was a trust fund of over $1.6 billion dollars to be used for the next five years to promote clean up. This law created a tax on the chemical and petroleum industries and provided broad Federal authority to respond directly to releases or threatened releases of hazardous substances that may endanger public health or the environment (EPA). In 1982, the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (NCP) were included in Superfund. This was the federal government's blueprint for responding to both oil spills and hazardous substance releases (EPA). The Hazard Ranking System was added to the NCP on July 16, 1982. It is the principal mechanism EPA uses to place uncontrolled waste sites on the NPL. It is a numerically based screening system that uses information from initial, limited investigations (EPA). The Superfund Amendment and Reauthorization Act (SARA) amended these three on October 17, 1986. There were several very important changes that it made to these previous acts. It stressed the importance of permanent remedies and innovative treatment technologies in cleaning up hazardous waste site. Fist, it required Superfund actions to consider the standards and requirements found in other State and Federal environmental laws and regulations. Second, it provided new enforcement authorities and settlement tools. Third, it increased State involvement in every phase of the Superfund program.