RCRA and Waste Management Generally
CERCLA ("Superfund")
Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act ("SARA")

RCRA and Waste Management Generally

The Office of Solid and Hazardous Waste Management of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management is responsible for insuring that Indiana's solid and hazardous wastes are handled and disposed in a manner that is legally and environmentally protective. IDEM seeks to protect "public health and the environment by assuring planning for, and the proper handling and disposal of, wastes in Indiana."³⁷ OSHWM telephone listings for its various management programs, including the Northwest Indiana office, are maintained online.

IDEM pursues these goals through:

• State administration of the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) regulations for solid and hazardous waste management
  
  
• Development and enforcement of rules for solid and hazardous waste management
  
  
• Evaluation and issuance of permits for the construction and operation of solid and hazardous waste processing and disposal facilities
  
  
• Inspection of solid and hazardous waste facilities
  
  
• Improving compliance through innovative and resourceful program improvements
  
  
• Investigation of "open dump" complaints and work to clean up these sites
  
  
• work with solid waste management districts to meet state goals for waste reduction of 35% by 1996 and 50% by 2001.
  
  

CERCLA ("Superfund")

The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) or "Superfund"³⁸ provides federal assistance to help clean up uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous waste sites as well as accidents, spills, and other emergency releases of pollutants and contaminants into the environment. The Environmental Protection Agency and delegated states became authorized to identify those parties responsible for any release and to seek their participation in the cleanup. EPA and states clean up orphan sites when potentially responsible parties (PRPs) cannot be identified or located, or when they fail to act. Through various enforcement tools, EPA and IDEM obtain private party cleanup through orders, consent decrees, and other small party settlements. EPA and IDEM also recover costs from financially viable individuals and companies once a response action has been completed.

Superfund site identification, monitoring, and response activities in Indiana are coordinated through IDEM's Office of Environmental Response.


Superfund Amendments and
Reauthorization Act ("SARA")

The Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986³⁹ reauthorized CERCLA to continue cleanup activities throughout the United States. Several site-specific amendments, definitions, clarifications, and technical requirements were added to the legislation, including additional enforcement authorities. Title III of SARA authorized the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA). This law is administered in Indiana by the IDEM Office of Environmental Response.