The US government promulgates a “National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan” – more commonly referred to as the National Contingency Plan (NCP) – as the blueprint for responses to spills of oil and hazardous substances. The NCP is used for responses under the Clean Water Act (CWA) and the Superfund law (Comprehensive Emergency Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA)), and is overseen by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (although you should note that the first NCP was issued in 1968, not only before CWA and CERCLA were enacted, and even before EPA before was created).
Read More