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 This website is no longer updated and links to external websites and some internal pages may not work.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: Treatment of Tenants under CERCLA's Bona Fide Prospective Purchaser (BFPP) Provision and Model Documents

Transmittal memorandum, guidance, and three model documents addressing the potential applicability of the bona fide prospective purchaser (BFPP) provision under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA, commonly referred to as Superfund) to tenants.  The model comfort/status letters are for lessees at renewable energy projects. Issued 12/5/2012.

The model comfort/status letters for lessees at renewable energy projects are available in Word format from the Cleanup Enforcement Model Language and Sample Documents Database. The models are:

  1. Federal Superfund Interest and No Current Federal Superfund Interest Comfort/Status Letter – RE-Powering America’s Land Initiative
  2. No Previous Federal Interest Comfort/Status Letter – RE-Powering America’s Land Initiative
  3. State Action Comfort/Status Letter – RE-Powering America’s Land Initiative

In August 2019, the EPA issued the 2019 Policy on the Issuance of Superfund Comfort/Status Letters. The policy discusses the background of the EPA’s issuance of Superfund comfort/status letters and describes the purpose and intended use of these letters.

Transmittal Package PDF File

The guidance in the 2012 transmittal package supersedes the 1/14/2009 Enforcement Discretion Guidance Regarding the Applicability of the Bona Fide Prospective Purchaser Definition in CERCLA 101(40) to Tenants policy document.

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