KU Conservation Biology

 The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA):

• established prohibitions and requirements concerning closed and abandoned hazardous waste sites;

• provided for liability of persons responsible for releases of hazardous waste at these sites; and

• established a trust fund to provide for cleanup when no responsible party could be identified.

The law authorizes two kinds of response actions:

• Short-term removals, where actions may be taken to address releases or threatened releases requiring prompt response.

• Long-term remedial response actions, that permanently and significantly reduce the dangers associated with releases or threats of releases of hazardous substances that are serious, but not immediately life threatening. These actions can be conducted only at sites listed on EPA's National Priorities List .

Source

The map allows you to search Envirofacts by program and see where all the Brownfields sites are that are currently receiving funding from EPA

history of redlining 

Note: During the New Deal of the 1930's there was a federal program to help with the mortgage crisis stemming from the Great Depression, and these maps were created as part of this program. The eventual repayment rate of the federal loans given out during the New Deal turned out to be the opposite of the assumptions made when these maps were created -- the homeowners in the "hazardous" neighborhoods had the highest rate of repayment. Lasting damage was done, however, when redlining was used to deny loans in "hazardous" neighborhoods. The racist investment policies persisted up until the Fair Housing Act of 1968.  The damage done by disinvestment in redlined neighborhoods persist to today and correlates with the location of many contaminated sites.