SUPERFUND: AN ANALYSIS OF IMPLEMENTATION FAILURE (CERCLA, HEALTH LAW POLICY)

In December, 1980, following increasing congressional and constituent-interest in problems associated with hazardous waste, the Comprehensive Environmental Recovery, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) was passed. During its development, the legislative initiative was seriously compromised which resulted in a less exhaustive approach than was formerly sought. Still, CERCLA (Superfund) which established, among other things, authority to clean up abandoned waste dumps and to respond to emergencies caused by releases of hazardous substances was welcomed by many as an important initial law critical to the cleanup of the nation's hazardous waste. Expectations raised by passage of this bill were tragically unmet. By the end of four years, only six sites had been declared by the EPA as cleaned. Seemingly, even those determinations were liberal; of the six sites, two were identified subsequently as requiring further cleanup.^ This analysis is focused upon the implementation failure of the Superfund. In light of that focus, discussion encompasses development of linkages between flaws in the legislative language and foreclosure of chances for implementation success. Specification of such linkages is achieved through examination of the legislative initiative, identification of its flaws and characterization of attendant deficits in implementation ability. Subsequent analysis is addressed to how such legislative frailities might have been avoided and to attendant regulatory weaknesses which have contributed to implementation failure. Each of these analyses are accomplished through application of an expanded approach to the backward mapping analytic technique as presented by Elmore. Results and recommendations follow.^ Consideration is devoted to a variety of regulatory issues as well as to those pertinent to legislative and implementation analysis. Problems in assessing legal liability associated with hazardous waste management are presented, as is a detailed review of the legislative development of Superfund, and its initial implementation by Gorsuch's EPA. ^

HEALTH NEEDS ASSESSMENT METHODOLOGY APPLIED TO ALBAQA REFUGEE CAMP, JORDAN

Health needs assessment is an essential step before planning for a new program or evaluating an existing program. The methodology applied follows principles that might differ from one country to another. The purpose of this study was to determine if the methodology applied to assess health needs in the developing nations, particularly Albaqa Refugee Camp in Jordan, differed from the methodology used to assess health needs in developed nations.^ In this study, a method for health needs assessment was developed using the developed countries published literature and was applied to a developing country, Jordan. However, the method did not apply exactly as expected for several reasons. Some of the problems were the incompleteness and unavailability of the health data, and its poor quality in terms of validity and reliability. Thus, some adaptations were needed and a new health needs assessment methodology specific for a particular developing country is proposed. This method depends on utilizing the primary, secondary, and tertiary data, as well as conducting surveys to collect all the data that could not be found in those data sources.^ In general, it was concluded from this study that there is a difference between methodology of a developed country's health needs assessment and a developing country's, specifically Jordan's, health needs assessment. ^