The financial implications of releasing small firms and small-volume contributors from Superfund liablility [i.e. liability] / Lloyd Dixon.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dixon, Lloyd S.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Hazardous waste site remediation--United States--Finance.

Hazardous waste site remediation.

Liability for hazardous substances pollution damages--United States.

Liability for hazardous substances pollution damages.

Superfund Trust Fund.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xxiii, 53 pages) : illustrations

Place of Publication:

Santa Monica, CA : RAND Corporation, 2000.

Summary:

Recent congressional proposals to reform the federal Superfund program release potentially responsible parties (PRPs) that are small in size or that only played a minor role at the site from liability for cleanup costs. These reforms transfer the cleanup costs of parties released to the Superfund Trust Fund. This report estimates the number of PRPs that would be released and the cleanup costs that would be transferred to the Fund by recent proposals. It also estimates the costs transferred to the Fund per firm released and the financial consequences for those PRPs that remain liable. Releasing from liability firms that contributed only a small proportion of the waste to a site appears to be more cost-effective than releasing small firms. In addition, although there is evidence that large firms will benefit from the transfer of small firms' costs to the Fund, the effect of such a transfer is ambiguous. Implementing reforms that would release small firms or small-volume firms and transferring their volume-based cleanup costs to the Fund may prove costly in terms of additional transaction costs.