10.2190/Q0TL-596A-A5Y6-HUCH Q0TL596AA5Y6HUCH 3 The Potential Impact of a Federal Subsidy Program on the Pace of Cleaning up Superfund Sites 263 273 20020509 20020509 20020509 20020509 Q0TL596AA5Y6HUCH.pdf http://baywood.metapress.com/link.asp?target=contribution&id=Q0TL596AA5Y6HUCH 3 Edward Mensah Michael Cailas Eric Zimmerman University of Illinois at Chicago Argonne National Laboratory, Illinois The Superfund program was established by Congress in 1980 to clean up the worst inactive hazardous waste sites in the nation. The doctrine of strict, joint and several, and retroactive liability is the legal basis for enforcing the Superfund regulations. The liability allocation system has become very contentious, generating considerable transaction costs and leading to cleanup delays. In spite of several regulatory reforms aimed at improving the pace of cleanup and reducing the transaction costs, cleanup durations have not improved. The major objective of this study is to explore the effectiveness of creating Federal subsidies to pay for a fraction of cleanup costs contingent upon the expeditious settlement of Superfund liability disputes. The distribution of total cleanup costs from USEPA Region V (Midwest) suggests that the introduction of a fixed subsidy aimed at settling liability disputes at smaller sites may be effective in speeding up the pace of cleanup. The value of analysis presented in the study is in the identification of a defined target market for subsidies and the exploration of conditions under which such a market might be successful in improving the effectiveness of the Superfund program. Congressional Budget Office, <i>The Total Costs of Cleaning Up Non-Federal Superfund Sites 94-015039</i>, p. 17, January 1994. N. Probst, D. Fullerton, R. E. Litau, and P. R. Portney, <i>Footing the Bill for Superfund Cleanups: Who Pays and How</i>?, The Brookings Institute and Resources for the Future, p. 37, 1995. General Accounting Office Report to Congressional Requesters, <i>Superfund: Status, Cost, and Timeliness of Hazardous Waste Site Cleanups</i>, GAO/RCED 94-256, p. 2, September 1994. L. S. Dixon, <i>Fixing Superfund: Effects of the Proposed Superfund Reform Act of 1994 on Transaction Costs</i>, RAND, pp. 9-10, 1994. Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response, <i>Mixed Funding Evaluation Report: The Potential Cost of Orphan Shares (USEPA)</i>, p. 5, September 1993. J. P. Acton, <i>Oversight of the Superfund Program</i>, Hearing before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Transportation and Hazardous Materials, 103rd Congress, 1993. E. R. Milton, W. E. Colglazier, and R. M. English, <i>Hazardous Waste Remediation: The Task Ahead</i>, University of Tennessee, Waste Management Research and Education Institute, pp. 6-11, December 1991. Office of Technology Assessment, <i>Coming Clean: Superfund Problems Can be Solved, OTA-ITE-433</i>, Washington, D. C., p. 29, 1989.