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Article: CERCLA Section 113(h) & RCRA citizen suits: to bar or not to bar?(Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980; Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976)
- Article from:
- UCLA Journal of Environmental Law & Policy
- Article date:
- December 22, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 University of California at Los Angeles, School of Law. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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INTRODUCTION
In December 1980, Congress enacted the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act ("CERCLA" or the "Act")(1) to cope with the most heavily polluted hazardous waste sites in the country.(2) CERCLA's substantive provisions combat the environmental menace on two fundamental fronts. First, the Act codifies a long-standing common law tort doctrine by holding potentially responsible parties ("PRPs")(3) strictly liable for conduct involving hazardous, or, as referred to in tort law, abnormally dangerous, substances.(4) Second, the Act establishes a trust fund--known as the Superfund--which the United States ...