Content area
Full Text
Literary Resources BOOKS The Superfund Manual: A Practitioners Guide to CERCLA Litigation Peter L. Gray ABA Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources, 2016 (see book ad on page 63)
Reviewed by JoAnne L. Dunec
The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA or Superfund) filled a gap in the federal regulatory scheme by providing a means to clean up abandoned contaminated sites. At the time, "Congress knew it was creating a litigation behemoth," author Peter Gray observes. "[T]here has been, and continues to be, an endless appetite to litigate the contours of CERCLA liability," he notes.
CERCLA authorizes the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to use congressionally appropriated funds known as the Hazardous Substances Superfund (Superfund or the Fund) to clean up contaminated sites the EPA includes in the National Priorities List (NPL). According to Gray, "[a]n underlying principle of Superfund, however, is to shift the...