    superfund or comprehensive environmental response, compensation, and liability act of 1980 (cercla) is a united states federal law designed to clean up sites contaminated with hazardous substances as well as broadly define "pollutants or contaminants".p.l. 96-510, , december 11, 1980. superfund also gives authority to federal natural resource agencies, states and native american tribes to recover natural resource damages caused by releases of hazardous substances, and it created the agency for toxic substances and disease registry (atsdr). cercla's broad authority to clean up releases or threatened releases of hazardous substances that may endanger public health or welfare or the (natural) environment was given primarily to the environmental protection agency (epa) and to states (though most states now have and most often use their own versions of cercla). epa may identify parties responsible for hazardous substa
1980_in_law 1980_in_the_environment 96th_United_States_Congress Hazardous_waste United_States_Environmental_Protection_Agency United_States_federal_environmental_legislation