EPA to Cut Superfund Cleanup Program

Posted: 01-Jul-2002; Updated: 08-Jul-2002

Work is likely to cease on some of the most polluted sites in the country, according to a new report to Congress by the Inspector General of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Thirty-three toxic waste sites in 18 states have been selected by the Bush administration for cuts in financing under the Superfund cleanup program. The program is hundreds of millions of dollars short of the amount needed to stay on schedule. 

The fund was created by Congress in 1980 and is based on the principle that it is the responsibility of those who pollute to pay for cleanup. The Superfund Trust pays for cleaning up "orphan sites," those where the original polluter has gone out of business or is otherwise unable to pay. At the height of the program the fund reached approximately $3.8 billion. But several years ago the Republican-led Congress refused to extend the taxes that industry paid to sustain the program, and it has been running out of funds ever since. 

Since its inception, 1,551 contaminated sites have been put on the National Superfund Priority List; 257 sites have been cleaned up and 552 have been partially or mostly decontaminated. In each of the previous four years, more than 80 sites were cleaned up. Last year, under President Bush's administration, only 47 were cleaned up.

The administration wants to shift the cost of cleanup from the oil and chemical industry (which has been footing the bill) to general tax revenues, and reduce the cost by covering fewer sites. Congressional critics have said this amounts to abandoning the precept that "the polluter pays," on which the Superfund program was founded, by making taxpayers bear the cost.

Regional EPA offices had also requested $46.7 million to go towards 54 long-term remediation projects around the country, but the administration is only giving them $33.2 million.

List of Sites and Funding That Will Be Cut:

Atlas Tack, Fairhaven, Massachusetts, $13.1 million

New Hampshire Plating, Merrimack, New Hampshire, $8.6 million

Elizabeth Mine, Strafford, Vermont, $15 million

Burnt Fly Bog, Marlboro Township, New Jersey, $22 million

Chemical Insecticide, Edison Township, New Jersey, $28.5 million

Combe Fill South Landfill, Chester Township, New Jersey, $1.4 million

Montgomery Township Housing Development, Montgomery Township, New Jersey, $2 million

Rocky Hill Municipal Well, Rocky Hill Borough, New Jersey, $2 million

GCL Tie and Treating, Inc., Village of Sidney, New York, $4 million

Tutu Wellfield, Tutu, Virgin Islands, $8 million

North Penn ? Area 6, Lansdale, Pennsylvania, $1 million

Rhinehart Tire Fire Dump, Frederick County, Virginia, $16,000

American Creosote Works, Pensacola, Florida, $8 million

Solitron Microwave, Port Salerno, Florida, $2.4 million

Southern Solvents, Tampa, Florida, $5 million

Tower Chemical, Clermont, Florida, $250,000

Trans Circuits, Lake Park, Florida, $200,000

Ross Metals, Inc., Rossville, Tennessee, $3 million

Jennison-Wright Corp., Granite City, Illinois, $12.5 million

Continental Steel, Kokomo, Indiana, $10 million

Aircraft Components, Benton Harbor, Michigan, $1.5 million

Central Wood Preserving, Slaughter,Louisiana, $9 million

Delatte Metals, Ponchatoula, Louisiana, $14 million

Hudson Refinery, Cushing, Oklahoma, $8.5 million

Tar Creek, Ottawa County, Oklahoma, $5 million

Hart Creosoting Co., Jasper, Texas, $10 million

Jasper Creosoting Co., Jasper, Texas, $6.5 million

Sprague Road Groundwater Plume, Odessa, Texas, $8 million

10^th Street Site, Columbus, Nebraska, $2.06 million

Hastings Groundwater Contamination, Hastings, Nebraska, $2 million

Vasques Blvd. And I-70, Denver, Colorado, $7 million

Basin Mining Area, Basin, Montana, $3.9 million

Upper 10 Mile Creek Mining Area, Helena, Montana, $3.5 million

TOTAL: $227.9 million

Links

Environmental Justice online for every community

http://www.environmentaldefense.org/article.cfm?contentid=117

Find Superfund sites in your state:

http://www.scorecard.org/env-releases/land/