An official website of the United States government.

This is not the current EPA website. To navigate to the current EPA website, please go to www.epa.gov. This website is historical material reflecting the EPA website as it existed on January 19, 2021. This website is no longer updated and links to external websites and some internal pages may not work. More information »

Enforcement

Guidance: Enforcement First for Remedial Action at Superfund Sites

Memorandum requests Regional Administrators to re-double their attention to ensure the continued implementation of the "enforcement first" policy at Superfund sites in their Regions. The "Enforcement First" policy promotes the "polluter pays" principle and helps to conserve the resources of the Hazardous Substance Trust Fund (Fund) for the cleanup of those sites where viable responsible parties do not exist. Issued 9/20/2002.

You may need a PDF reader to view some of the files on this page. See EPA’s About PDF page to learn more.