Homeowners, small business owners, and municipal officials all have at least some reason to breathe easier. Not a lot easier, but at least a little easier.

The Superfund nightmare has just become slightly less painful, thanks to a new law just passed in Washington.

The Superfund law is the federal program designed to clean larger contaminated properties throughout the United States. The goal is just, but the way it is advanced is awful. You see the law allows for 'joint and several liability,' meaning if you are .005% responsible for a $30 billion cleanup, the government can try to collect all of the money from you.

Really what has happened is the government shakes down little property owners, home owners, small governments, bakeries, and everyone and insists that people pay outrageous sums to avoid un-ending lawyers fees. And our federal courts have frequently gone along with this insanity. It has been a horrible, most unfair mess.

The new law, called the Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act, saves many of the smaller parties from at least some of this torture. And that is a small but real step in the right direction.

Now it will be much harder to drag in small companies that deposited very small amounts of materials to Superfund sites. At least, these small players will be able to avoid the Superfund shakedown.

And in the case of landfill cleanups, a frequent Superfund problem, many contributors of run of the mill 'household waste,' including some small businesses, and charities, will now have less liability. For years, municipalities have been shaken down because of regular household trash that was taken to a site that included other, really bad things. And that means that our taxes have all gone up because of this madness. Many municipalities have had to spend small fortunes in legal fees to fund this silliness. Now, there will be some measure of relief.

The new law also has some very important brownfields provisions. Remember, "brownfields" are contaminated properties that can be redeveloped for new, productive uses.

Until now, much of the funding for these programs has come from the states. Now, the federal government will be making loans and grants available for cleanups around the country. Grants are available, usually up to $200,000 for each eligible, dirty site. The government will now come up with a mechanism for assessing which sites should receive funding priority.

For all Superfund victims, the sun finally did come up. Annie was right. For many, whose lives have literally already been ruined by the nightmare of a program, the relief is too late. However, this is a noble start.