ABSTRACT
The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), better known today as Superfund, was created out of the need to address past disposal problems. Prior to Superfund there was no national legislation to address past disposal transgressions. Awareness of the problem was peaking in the late 1970s with the disastrous events at the Love Canal in Niagara Falls, N.Y. The Hooker Chemical and Plastic Corporation had used an old canal bed in this area as a chemical dump from the 1930s to 1952. The filled land was then given to the state and subsequently homes and a school were built on it. Years later, toxic liquids including carcinogens leaked out of the dump. Extremely high birth defect and miscarriage rates developed along with liver cancer and nervous disorder diseases. The state paid $10 million to buy the homes and another $10 million in an attempt to clean up the site. In order to prevent further Love Canal incidents, CERCLA was passed into law by Jimmy Carter on December 11, 1980.
