ABSTRACT
The following sections brie¥y introduce some of these more common and related environmental assessment documents.
11.2 Phase I environmental site assessment The 1980 Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA)1, better known as “Superfund,” is considered by many to be one of the most important pieces of environmental legislation enacted in the United States. NEPA is widely known only among government workers, environmental contractors, lawyers, and environmental activists; “Superfund,” by contrast, is almost become a household word. CERCLA is a product of the same environmental movement in the 1960s and 1970s that engendered NEPA, and probably would never have developed in its present form had it not been for NEPA, but it is perhaps a more widely recognized statute than NEPA. Interestingly, it has been stated that NEPA provided the model on which much of the CERCLA was based upon.
