Since 1980, EPA's Superfund program has helped protect human health and the environment by managing the cleanup of the nation's worst hazardous waste sites and responding to local and nationally significant environmental emergencies. Below you will find a timeline highlighting some of the most notable milestones in the history of the Superfund and other cleanup programs. Click on the links for more information about a particular topic or event.
Since 1980, EPA's Superfund program has helped protect human health and the environment by managing the cleanup of the nation's worst hazardous waste sites and responding to local and nationally significant environmental emergencies, which EPA’s Superfund program is responsible for cleaning up some of the nation’s most contaminated land and responding to environmental emergencies, oil spills and natural disasters. To protect public health and the environment, the Superfund program focuses on making a visible and lasting difference in communities, ensuring that people can live and work in healthy, vibrant places.
Superfund is the common name given to the law called the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, or CERCLA. The trust fund set up by Congress to handle emergency and hazardous waste sites needing long-term cleanup. In this sense, “trust fund” is money government sets aside for a specific purpose. That means that the government can’t spend Superfund money on anything except cleaning up hazardous-waste sites. Superfund is administered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).