Superfund Unilateral Orders

A unilateral administrative order (UAO) is an enforcement instrument that EPA can use to require parties to take a response action. For example, EPA can require a party to:

• Investigate the threat of a release of hazardous substances,
• Investigate the type or extent of the contamination from the actual release of a hazardous substance,
• Identify and assess the possible ways to clean up the contamination,
• Perform the cleanup work (short term work (commonly referred to as “removal” work) and/or long-term work (referred to as “remedial action”), and
• Reach out and engage the impacted community and help them understand the conditions at the site and the plans for, and implementation of, cleanup work.

EPA, as well as the Coast Guard and other authorized federal agencies, can issue a UAO when they find there may be an imminent and substantial endangerment to public health or welfare or the environment because of the threat or actual release of hazardous substances. These enforcement orders are frequently used when

• There is a desire to quickly get action started at a site.
• EPA’s efforts to negotiate a Superfund settlement agreement with a party is unsuccessful.

If a party does not comply with the order they received, then a federal district court may:

• Assess daily penalties,
• Require the party to pay up to three times what it cost EPA to do the cleanup work (also known as “treble damages”), and/or
• Issue a judicial order requiring the party to do the cleanup work.

More information on EPA policy and guidance related to UAOs is available from the Agency’s Superfund Cleanup Enforcement Policy and Guidance database.

Information on the Superfund enforcement program’s UAO enforcement instruments is available from the Cleanup Enforcement Model Language and Sample Documents database

Learn More: Superfund Cost Recovery

Related Information: Complying with Superfund Cleanup Agreements and Orders