Under the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, Superfund and other laws, the EPA is responsible for finding those parties responsible for environmental contamination and holding them liable for the costs of remediating that contamination. The Agency has developed a number of tools for estimating environmental liability costs. EPA also encourages businesses and other regulated entities to prevent or reduce environmental liability assessment by, first, paying attention to the environmental aspects of their business decisions and operations, and, second, translating the liabilities into monetary terms so they can more easily be made a part of financial evaluations.

Recommended EPA Web pages

• Cleanup Enforcement: Superfund Liability
  This web page describes superfund liability.
• Brownfields Liability
  This page provides information about liability and cleanup issues related to brownfields.
• Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund
  Provides information about the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund.

Compliance Assistance

Compliance Incentives
Audit Policy

Compliance Monitoring
Audit, Inspection, Investigation

Criminal Enforcement

Delegation
Oversight

Environmental Liability

Multi-Media Compliance

Reporting

Settlement
Maximum Achievable Control Technology Emission Standards (MACTs), Mediation, National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAPs), Penalty, Recertification, Reportable Quantity, Supplemental Environmental Project

Violation

Voluntary Standards
Consensus Standards, Environmentally Preferable Purchasing, International Organization for Standardization (ISO), Voluntary Standards Network