What is the purpose of CERCLA?

The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), commonly known as Superfund, was enacted to address the urgent need for a program to manage and clean up hazardous waste sites throughout the United States. The primary purpose of CERCLA is to identify and remediate the most severely polluted places, which include abandoned or inactive hazardous waste sites that pose significant risks to human health and the environment.

Under CERCLA, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is tasked with investigating contaminated sites, overseeing cleanup operations, and managing the funding necessary for these efforts. The overarching goal is to protect public health and restore the affected environments to a safe and usable condition.

The other choices pertain to different aspects of environmental management and regulation. For instance, promoting waste recycling is a separate initiative aimed at reducing waste and conserving resources, while regulating transportation deals with the safe movement of hazardous materials. Enforcing penalties for illegal dumping is also not the main focus of CERCLA, which specifically targets cleanup of contaminated sites rather than punitive measures for dumping practices.