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Glite Dictionary
Superfund

Superfund

1 6.8
A United States government program that finds and cleans places with dangerous waste
  • noun
  • /ˈsuːpərfʌnd/
  • Formal
translation icon : Superfund
  • Superfund liability is, along with bankruptcy, the most important source of new business for major law firms.
  • Superfund site
  • clean up Superfund sites
  • Superfund waste

Examples

  • Efforts are underway to rehabilitate the Superfund site and restore the environment.

  • The Hudson River as a result is the largest Superfund site in the country.

  • Three worst Superfund EPA Superfund clean up sites in the US are all former rayon plants.

  • More and more sites are becoming subject to federal and state jurisdiction as a result of the new corrective action regulations under the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and because of the expansion of state superfund programs.

    Academic text (1991)

  • Superfund expenditures increased from under $400 million in 1985 to over $1.4 billion in 1995 and continue to be above the $1 billion mark even after recent budgetary cutbacks.

    Academic text (1996)

  • The area was declared a Superfund site due to the hazardous waste contamination.

  • Residents are hopeful that the Superfund program will finally address the pollution in their community.

Synonyms

Superfund program
vsSuperfund
  • Formal
1 5.5

A United States government effort that finds and cleans the worst sites with dangerous chemical waste

is the same agency run cleanup program described more succinctly

Compounds

Superfund site
  • Formal
3 8.1

A place in the United States where people dumped dangerous waste and the government must clean it up

Superfund program
  • Formal
1 5.5

A United States government effort that finds and cleans the worst sites with dangerous chemical waste

Surface Forms

Superfund singular
Superfunds plural

Morphology

Superfund = super + fund (semi-transparent) = super + fund

The components 'super' and 'fund' are recognizable, but the term 'Superfund' refers to a specific U.S. government hazardous-waste cleanup program, so the precise meaning is not directly inferable from the parts.

Etymology

Superfund comes from the parts super ('above' or 'special') and fund ('money set aside'). So, Superfund is the idea of a special pool of government money used to find and pay for cleaning dangerous waste sites in the United States.