The Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA) amended the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA) on Oct. 17, 1986. SARA reflected the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's experience in administering the complex Superfund program during its first six years and made several important changes and additions to the program.

SARA:

• stressed the importance of permanent remedies and innovative treatment technologies in cleaning up hazardous waste sites;
• required Superfund actions to consider the standards and requirements found in other State and Federal environmental laws and regulations;
• provided new enforcement authorities and settlement tools;
• increased State involvement in every phase of the Superfund program;
• increased the focus on human health problems posed by hazardous waste sites;
• encouraged greater citizen participation in making decisions on how sites should be cleaned up; and
• increased the size of the trust fund to $8.5 billion.

Authorized by SARA Title III, the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) was enacted by Congress in 1986 as the national legislation on community safety. This law is designed to help local communities protect public health, safety and the environment from chemical hazards. This statute was enacted largely in response to the fatal incident in Bhopal, India where deadly methyl isocyanate gas escaped from a Union Carbide chemical plant. The Bhopal community was unaware of chemicals in their neighborhood and suffered 2,500 deaths.

EPCRA requires the states to:

• promote outreach for developing local emergency preparedness programs to respond to chemical releases,
• receive reports from the regulated community; and
• organize, analyze and disseminate the resulting information on hazardous chemicals to local governments and the public.

The purpose behind SARA Title III/EPCRA has been to create a cooperative relationship among government, business and the public to prevent, plan, prepare for and manage chemical emergencies.

The law sets the requirements for facilities that manufactured, processed, or stored certain hazardous or toxic chemicals of certain threshold on-site to report annually to the state and local governments and report any accidental releases on a timely basis.

Information submitted by facilities provides transparency and important details for local emergency planning and preparedness activities.