Environmental Law Governing Hazardous Waste Contamination and Cleanup   Tags: advanced_legal_research  

Hazardous waste sites pose a very serious threat to public health and safety.  Unfortunately, the American public had to learn this lesson the hard way.  In the late 1970s, the nation's attention was diverted to the disturbingly high rate of miscarriage, genetic abnormalities, and mental retardation in a small community of Niagara Falls New York called Love Canal.  As it turned out, the area was built atop an abandoned toxic waste dump, and the various substances that often seeped into the back yards and basements of those residents was the key to their myriad of devastating health epidemics.  

It is difficult to understand in our own era of environmental awareness, but the site of this community was not the result of community planning undertaken by some innocent and hoodwinked urban planner.  Quite the opposite, the original purchasers of the site were tenacious in their efforts to attain the former dump site from the Hooker Chemical Company, which repeatedly refused to sell while also vocalizing a concern over the site's safety.  The Chemical company finally sold the site for $1 when it was faced with the prospect of foreclosure.  

The Love Canal Disaster was the product of a society with little to no knowledge of the persistent ability of hazardous waste to devastate human health.  Today, we wince in bafflement at the actions of a School District that would insist on buying such a dangerously contaminated piece of property with the full knowledge of its hazardous nature.  Still, we owe our own high awareness of public health threats to disasters such as these, and more importantly to the government's ensuing legislative response.  

While much environmental law is aimed at the prevention of environmental spoilage, this guide addresses legislation dealing with the fallout from massive environmental contamination which was able to proceed unchecked.  Over the last three decade, Congress has been forced to find a remedy for such contamination, which often results in direct physical harm to individuals in surrounding communities.  The resulting legislation has dealt with contamination by first attempting to impose a duty of remedy on the potentially responsible parties, and then seeking alternate ways of dealing with such hazards when they simply cannot be ignored.  Where it is too late to take such preventative measures, the legislation also authorizes remedial measures.

While much regulation focuses on the regulation of hazardous materials, this guide will focus primarily on research relating to hazardous contamination.  As such, The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 will be the heaviest area of focus.