Question: What started on 18 September 2015, when the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a notice of violation of the Clean Air Act to German automaker Volkswagen Group, that had an American attorney, specializing in mediation and alternative dispute resolution oversee their U.S. compensation of VW diesel owners affected?

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List of Superfund sites in West Virginia: This is a list of Superfund sites in West Virginia designated under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) environmental law.  The CERCLA federal law of 1980 authorized the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to create a list of polluted locations requiring a long-term response to clean up hazardous material contamination.  These locations are known as Superfund sites, and are placed on the National Priorities List (NPL).  The NPL guides the Environmental Protection Agency in "determining which sites warrant further investigation" for environmental remediation.  As of March 26, 2010, there were 9 Superfund sites on the National Priorities List in West Virginia.  No additional sites are currently proposed for entry on the list.  Two sites have been cleaned up and removed from the list.

American Arbitration Association: The American Arbitration Association (AAA) is a not-for-profit organization in the field of alternative dispute resolution, providing services to individuals and organizations who wish to resolve conflicts out of court, and one of several arbitration organizations that administers arbitration proceedings.  The AAA also administers mediation through Mediation.org and other forms of alternative dispute resolution.  It is headquartered in New York City, with regional offices in Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, East Providence, Rhode Island, Fresno, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York City, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Somerset, New Jersey and Washington, DC.

Oregon Department of Environmental Quality: The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is the chief regulatory agency of the government of the U.S. state of Oregon responsible for protecting and enhancing the state's natural resources and managing sanitary and toxic waste disposal.  The agency employs approximately 700 scientists, engineers, technicians, administrators, and environmental specialists.  It has headquarters in Portland, regional administrative offices in Bend, Eugene, and Portland; and field offices in Coos Bay, Grants Pass, Hermiston, Medford, Pendleton, Roseburg, Salem, and The Dalles.  The Laboratory and Environmental Assessment Division operates an environmental laboratory in Hillsboro.  The agency's director has the authority to impose fines for violations of the state's anti-pollution laws.  In addition to its state mandate, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has delegated authority to DEQ to administer federal environmental programs including the federal Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act within the state.

Volkswagen emissions scandal: The Volkswagen emissions scandal (also called "emissionsgate" or "dieselgate") started on 18 September 2015, when the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a notice of violation of the Clean Air Act to German automaker Volkswagen Group.  The agency had found that Volkswagen had intentionally programmed turbocharged direct injection (TDI) diesel engines to activate some emissions controls only during laboratory emissions testing.  The programming caused the vehicles' NO output to meet US standards during regulatory testing but emit up to 40 times more NO in real-world driving.  Volkswagen deployed this programming in about eleven million cars worldwide, and 500,000 in the United States, during model years 2009 through 2015.

Allan J. Stitt: Allan Jeffrey Stitt (born October 11, 1961) is a chartered Canadian arbitrator and mediator and the President and CEO of ADR Chambers, a Canadian arbitration and mediation organization.  Stitt, who is an expert in alternative dispute resolution (ADR), specializes in commercial, employment and insurance law.  He is well known for his recommendations, contributions publications on the subject of ADR, and his position about the online dispute resolution initiative.  Stitt is the recipient of the 2006 Ontario Bar Association Award of Excellence in Alternative Dispute Resolution.

New Source Performance Standard: New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) are pollution control standards issued by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).  The term is used in the Clean Air Act Extension of 1970 (CAA) to refer to air pollution emission standards, and in the Clean Water Act (CWA) referring to standards for water pollution discharges of industrial wastewater to surface waters.

Michigan v. EPA: Michigan v. Environmental Protection Agency, 576 U.S. ___ (2015) , was a landmark United States Supreme Court case in which the Court analyzed whether the Environmental Protection Agency must consider costs when deciding to regulate, rather than later in the process of issuing the regulation.  Writing for a 5–4 majority, Justice Antonin Scalia held that the EPA must consider costs and that it interpreted the Clean Air Act unreasonably when it determined that it did not need to consider costs when it issued a "finding" that it was "necessary and appropriate" to regulate.  Critics of the Environmental Protection Agency praised the Court's decision, while other commentators criticized Justice Scalia's decision to ignore health impacts in his opinion.  Some commentators suggested that the decision may derail President Barack Obama's climate change agenda entirely.

Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution: Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR) is a London-based mediation and alternative dispute resolution body.  It was founded as a non-profit organisation in 1990, with the support of The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) and a number of British businesses and law firms, to encourage the development and use of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) and mediation in commercial disputes.  Professor Karl Mackie, a barrister and psychologist, became the organisation's Chief Executive and Eileen Carroll QC (hon), a Trans-Atlantic partner with a law firm (who had been involved in the initiative to form CEDR) joined to become the Deputy Chief Executive in 1996.  On 12 June 2010 it was announced in the Queen's Birthday Honours that Karl Mackie was awarded the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) by the UK Government for ‘services to mediation', the first citing of this reason for the award.

Kenneth Feinberg: Kenneth Roy Feinberg (born October 23, 1945) is an American attorney, specializing in mediation and alternative dispute resolution.  Feinberg was appointed Special Master of the U.S. government's September 11th Victim Compensation Fund and served as the Special Master for TARP Executive Compensation.  Additionally, Feinberg served as the government-appointed administrator of the BP Deepwater Horizon Disaster Victim Compensation Fund.  Feinberg was appointed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to administer the One Fund—the victim assistance fund established in the wake of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings.  Feinberg was also retained by General Motors to assist in their recall response and by Volkswagen to oversee their U.S. compensation of VW diesel owners affected by the Volkswagen emissions scandal.  Kenneth Feinberg is also an adjunct professor at the Columbia University School of Law, University of Pennsylvania Law School, Georgetown University Law Center, New York University School of Law, the University of Virginia School of Law and at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.

Refrigerant reclamation: Refrigerant reclamation is the act of processing used refrigerant gas which has previously been used in some type of cooling loop such that it meets specifications for new refrigerant gas.  In the United States, the Clean Air Act of 1990 requires that used refrigerant be processed by a certified reclaimer, which must be licensed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the material must be recovered and delivered to the reclaimer by EPA-certified technicians.

Supporting paragraphs: Kenneth Feinberg Volkswagen emissions scandal
Answer: Volkswagen emissions scandal