Superfund: Finding Those Responsible

Superfund Enforcement Topics How Sites are Discovered Finding Those Responsible       Liability Getting the Clean-Up Done Recovering EPA's Costs Getting Involved (OERR/Regions) Superfund Cleanup Policy & Guidance

EPA conducts a PRP search at each Superfund site to find the potentially responsible parties. EPA's primary goal in conducting the PRP search is to identify all of the PRPs at a particular Superfund site.

EPA uses the following resources and communication techniques to identify, collect information and communicate with those companies and/or people identified, or considered as PRPs:

• PRP Searches
• Information Request Letters
• Superfund Enforcement Directory

PRP Searches

The search for PRPs is an investigation into those companies and/or people that are associated with a Superfund site. A search for PRPs consists of many activities, and can include doing a title search of the property, studying aerial photos of the site, and doing a search of the site itself to look for clues. EPA performs the PRP searches to gather and assess the following information:

1. The nature of the party's involvement at the site (such as owner, operator, generator, or transporter).
2. A party's potential defenses (e.g., third party defense) or exemptions (e.g. municipal solid waste) from liability.
3. Potentially Responsible Parties that may have a limited ability to pay ("ATP") or who are insolvent or defunct (also described as "orphan shares").
4. Identification of potentially responsible parties that may have contributed only relatively small quantities of hazardous substances (e.g. de minimis and de micromis parties).

Return to Top

Information Request Letters

EPA sometimes asks for help in identifying PRPs from customers of a facility, current and former employees, and the local community. One way that EPA does this is by sending out Information Request letters. These letters ask people who may be familiar with the activities at a site to tell EPA what they know. For example, EPA might send an information request letter to someone who lives next to a Superfund site to find out if that person ever saw any suspicious activity.

Once EPA has identified the PRPs associated with a site, EPA typically sends a General Notice Letter to them. The General Notice Letter lets the recipients know that EPA thinks they are potentially liable or responsible for cleaning up the site. The General Notice Letter also informs PRPs that they may have to pay for past and future response costs and tells them about the negotiations process.

When EPA is ready to negotiate with the PRPs to get them to clean up a site, it sends out a Special Notice Letter. The Special Notice Letter gives the PRPs information on why EPA thinks they are liable and on EPA's plans for upcoming response actions (that is, cleanup work) at the site. The letter also invites the PRPs to participate in negotiations with EPA to conduct future cleanup work and to pay EPA for any site-related costs that EPA has incurred. The Special Notice Letter also triggers the start of a "negotiation moratorium," which means that EPA agrees, for a certain period of time, not to unilaterally order the PRP to conduct the cleanup. This moratorium period is intended to encourage the PRPs to negotiate a settlement agreement promptly, within a limited period of time.

Superfund Enforcement Directory

EPA developed the Superfund Enforcement Directory, a directory of people in the program who perform the activities for finding those responsible. This is a national directory which provides information on individuals, work groups and others who have expertise in the PRP search process. The purpose of the Superfund Enforcement Directory (Enforcement Network) is to provide a single resource that identifies EPA personnel who are involved in the site remediation enforcement process and their particular areas of expertise.

Return to Top