The Two-Headed Dragon of Siting and Cleaning up Hazardous Waste Dumps: Can Economic Incentives or Mediation Slay the Monster

This Article will show that neither economic incentives nor mediation alone has been successful in addressing the issues of siting or remediation, despite good theoretical reasons for the success of both approaches. This Article advocates a two-pronged approach of using economic incentives and mediation together to attack the dilemmas of siting and remediation. A developer could offer to remediate an orphan or MSW landfill site, and thereby improve public safety, in exchange for the opportunity to build a new, less risky hazardous or solid waste disposal facility.15 In conjunction with mediation and negotiated compensation, this proposal may be able to quell public opposition to new facilities and accelerate the cleanup of orphan and MSW landfill sites. Section II of this Article reviews CERCLA\u27s history and structure and explores problem waste sites. The discussion of problem sites examines orphan sites and MSW landfill sites and considers the position of prospective purchasers of such sites. Section III analyzes three incentives for private cleanups: auctions of orphan sites, tax incentives, and impact fees. Section IV considers whether mediation and arbitration can overcome NIMBY opposition to siting new waste disposal facilities. Section V sets forth a proposal for the remediation and reuse of contaminated sites