The Superfund program, better known simply as Superfund, is also known as the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability act (CERLA) of 1980 was developed by the federal government as a way to preserve and protect the ecosystem and clean up toxic, uncontrolled and abandoned hazardous waste sites. (Boorse & Wright, 2011, p.577). The Superfund program cleans up all hazardous waste, whether abandoned, accidentally spilled, or illegally dumped; any of which may pose a threat to future or current health or the environment. The Environmental Protection Agency works with the community, responsible parties, or potentially responsible parties in identifying these hazardous waste sites and formulating plans to clean up these sites. Superfund provides laws and standards for the disposal and storage of such waste. Additionally, the Superfund program provides emergency financial support to existing environmental agencies to monitor toxin removal and provide emergency cleanup services, provide monetary compensation to individuals who have faced health or financial hardships and concerns due to toxic waste, and , if necessary, to help implement emergency evacuation procedures. Superfund also holds accountable those responsible for releasing hazardous wastes at these sites and can institute a tax on the chemical and petroleum industries to make them available for cleanup when no responsible party can be found. The National Priorities List, or NPL, is a list of the worst hazardous waste sites identified by Superfund. (Boorse and Wright, 2011, p. 578). Any site on the NPL can be cleaned up using Superfund Trust money. One particular site on the NPL is Smokey Mountain Smelters Superfund Sit... center of map... structure to encapsulate the property. The federal government would pay 90 percent of the cost, with the state picking up the other 10. Given the hazardous nature of the waste and the threats to human health and the environment, this process should begin immediately. Works Cited Boorse, DF and Wright , RT (2011) Environmental Science Towards a Sustainable Future (11th ed.) San Francisco, CA, Pearson Benjamin Cummings. List of national priorities. (2011). Narration of the NPL site for Smokey Mountain Smelters. Retrieved March 29, 2011, from http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/npl/nar1817.htmRegion 4 Superfund. (2011). Smokey Mountain Foundries. Retrieved March 30, 2011, from http://www.epa.gov/region4/waste/npl/npltn/smokeymtnsmeltn.htmlSuperfund. (2011). Basic information. Retrieved March 30, 2011, Retrieved from: http://www.epa.gov/superfund/