Editors' Summary: The Superfund hazardous waste cleanup program has had centerstage prominence in environmental law throughout the 1980s, and its history has been one of virtually continuous controversy and criticism. Some of the debate centers around the Environmental Protection Agency's management and expertise in administering the program, while other debate focuses on policy choices implicit in choosing the program's goals and direction. EPA's principal rulemaking in the Superfund program—and its clearest opportunity to set the course, pace, and tone for Superfund cleanups — is the National Contingency Plan. When Congress overhauled the Superfund program in 1986, it called for EPA to make key changes in the NCP. Recently, EPA proposed its changes, and, true to the program's history, they are already proving controversial. In this Article, the author, an EPA attorney who played a major role in drafting the NCP revisions, systematically describes EPA's proposed new NCP and the reasoning behind it. He notes where Congress has already decided particular key issues, and identifies other issues where EPA itself exercised substantial discretion in aiming the Superfund program as it enters the 1990s.