New rules are emerging to change the way the government makes decisions about cleanup of hazardous waste sites under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA or Superfund). These changes have altered Superfund decisionmaking fundamentally and irrevocably, requiring the government to reach for new levels of accountability, rationality, and consistency. Central to the government's ability to meet this challenge is the way in which it makes and explains decisions about acceptable risks and required levels of cleanup.

This Dialogue briefly reviews the major developments driving the government toward goals of greater clarity and consistency in applying risk assessment concepts to the cleanup of contaminated property. It then critiques the government's current practice of establishing cleanup levels and selecting from a broad range of acceptable risks by using a confusing mix of environmental standards, site-specific risk assessment, best professional judgment, and best available technology. This Dialogue argues that the government must establish a single, nationwide risk target to apply at every site in order to foster effective public participation in cleanup decisions and rational use of future land use considerations, and to achieve a consistent level of protection, regardless of the socioeconomic or ethnic composition of affected communities. This Dialogue further argues that the government should devote more of its resources to improving risk assessment in general, as well as its application to specific sites.