E.O. 13016 SUPERFUND IMPLEMENTATION

JurisdictionUnited States
RCRA and CERCLA
(Apr 1997)

CHAPTER 13C
E.O. 13016 SUPERFUND IMPLEMENTATION

Joseph E. Tieger
Environmental Protection Agency
Washington, D.C.

E.O. 13016

AMENDMENT TO E.O. 12580 — SUPERFUND IMPLEMENTATION

CERCLA Executive Orders:

• E.O. 12580 "Superfund Implementation" was signed January 23, 1987. This E.O. delegated significant CERCLA authority, including Section 104, to Federal land managing agencies for releases on, or from, facilities under their control.

• E.O. 13016, amending E.O. 12580, was signed August 28, 1996, (copy attached).

• E.O. 13016 provides that the Secretaries of Interior, Commerce, Agriculture, Defense and Energy, (hereafter, Federal Natural Resource Managers or NRMs) may, with the concurrence of EPA or the USCG, issue orders under §106 and enter into settlements under §122 (except for §122(b)(1) Mixed Funding) for actual or threatened releases affecting either (a) natural resources under their trusteeship or, (b) vessels or facilities subject to their jurisdiction, custody, or control.

Status:

• The Council on Environmental Quality has coordinated a series of interagency meetings to develop a Memorandum of Understanding to implement the E.O.

WHY DID THE PRESIDENT GIVE THIS AUTHORITY TO THE NRM'S?

• The NRMs have statutory responsibilities for resources, including lands, in the public domain that require them to protect these resources and provide for recreation, fish, wildlife, endangered species, grazing, and mining, and silviculture.

• The NRMs are criticized by, and in some cases being threatened with compliance orders from, State agencies and EPA requiring them to address water quality issues for water leaving their land management areas.

• EPA does not have, and never expects to have, the resources to address all of these releases of hazardous substances. That many of these sites would not score high enough to be placed on the NPL is immaterial. The releases are significant on the local or watershed basis and the public

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is well served by having these releases of hazardous substances addressed.

E.O. 13016 — NRM §106 Order Authority:

• The E.O. does not authorize the use of the Fund to implement or enforce orders issued by the NRMs.

• The NRMs may not issue orders "..at any vessel or facility at which the EPA, or the U.S. Coast Guard, is the lead Federal agency for the conduct or oversight of a response action."

• NRMs may only issue orders for response activities as defined in §101(25) and these orders must meet the statutory criteria of :

§106(a) "imminent and substantial endangerment to the public health or...

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