US EPA targets electrical industry for financial obligations in clean-up of environmental releases

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has taken a significant step in an effort to help reduce the need for federal taxpayers to fund the clean-up of environmental releases.

In December 2009, the EPA issued an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) that identified additional classes of facilities as for development of CERCLA financial responsibility requirements. The document was signed and submitted for publication in the Federal Register on 30 December.

Through this ANPRM, EPA identified classes of facilities within the chemical manufacturing industry, petroleum and coal products manufacturing and the electric power generation, transmission, and distribution industry as classes of facilities for which EPA will carefully examine specific activities, practices and processes involving hazardous substances, as well as federal and state authorities, policies and practices to determine the risks they pose and whether requirements under CERCLA Section 108(b) will effectively reduce these risks.

The publication of this ANPRM is another step by the agency in the process of determining whether to develop financial responsibility requirements that will help ensure responsible environmental practices within industries.

Financial assurance requirements help ensure that owners and operators of facilities are able to pay for clean-up of environmental releases and help reduce the number of sites that need to be cleaned up by federal taxpayers through the Superfund program.

The identification of these industry sectors is part of EPA’s effort under Section 108(b) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), commonly known as the Superfund law, to examine if financial assurance requirements will help promote better environmental outcomes.

The EPA selected these particular industries based on a variety of information sources. These include the types of sites listed on the Superfund National Priorities List, which is intended to guide the EPA in determining which sites warrant further investigation under the federal Superfund program, as well as data on hazardous waste generation from the National Biennial Report and data from the Toxics Release Inventory.