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From Bush Greenwatch
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March 1, 2004 | Back Issues
EPA Misleading Public on Superfund
The Bush Administration's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is misleading the public about its commitment to clean up toxic waste sites, according to a report released late last week by U.S. PIRG and the Sierra Club.
"The Bush administration is cleaning up fewer toxic waste sites, underfunding the Superfund program, and forcing taxpayers to pay for more orphan toxic cleanups. EPA, however, has manipulated [the] numbers to tell a different story -- one that is misleading and often false--that the Bush administration is committed to making polluters pay to clean up the nation's worst toxic waste sites," the report states.[1]
Congress passed the Superfund law in 1980, in response to the discovery that the New York town of Love Canal had been built upon a massive, abandoned toxic waste site. Under the law, EPA was empowered to order polluters to clean up contamination resulting from their business activities or other ventures.
The Superfund also created a trust, funded by industry fees, for EPA to clean up "orphan sites"--sites where polluters refused to clean up, where the company was no longer in existence, or where a polluter could not afford to pay for the clean-up. Together these mandates formed the "polluter pays principle."[2]
In their analysis, U.S. PIRG and Sierra Club cite several EPA statements and find that the Agency has provided misleading and even false information to the public. For example:
- While EPA claims it continues to aggressively clean up sites and put new sites on the National Priority List, the rate of completed clean-ups has fallen by over 50% under the Bush administration, from an average of 87 during 1997-2000, to an average of 40. Site listings have also slowed; the Bush administration has added an average of 23 sites per year compared with an average of 30 from 1993-2000, a decline of 23%.
- EPA has stated that funding for the Superfund program has not decreased. In reality, Superfund funding has dropped by 25% from 2001-2004 compared to 1992-2000. An EPA Inspector General's report last October said that 29 cleanup projects in 17 states were insufficiently funded last year.
- EPA has asserted that it remains committed to the polluter pays principle. It states that polluters continue to pay for clean-ups at 70% of sites for which responsible parties have been found (this was the case before 2000 as well). However, 30% of cleanups at orphan sites are now paid for entirely by taxpayers, rather than the Superfund trust fund. This is nearly double the 18% footed by taxpayers prior to the depletion of the fund. The Bush administration opposes reinstatement of the industry fees that would restore it.[3]
"The failures of the Superfund program are yet another example of the Bush administration's attempts to roll back our environmental laws," says Julie Wolk of U.S. PIRG, the report's author.
"Because the administration is opposed to reinstating Superfund's polluter pays fees, Congress must act to pass S. 173, Senator Boxer and Senator Chafee's renewal bill, to reinstate them." Wolk told BushGreenwatch that attempts to attach S. 173 to the federal budget bill could happen in the next month.[4]
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TAKE ACTION
Email your Senators through US PIRG's campaign to Clean Up Toxics.
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SOURCES:
[1] "The Truth About Toxic Waste Cleanups: How EPA is Misleading the Public About the Superfund Program," US PIRG & Sierra Club, Feb. 26, 2004.
[2] Ibid.
[3] US PIRG/Sierra Club press release, Feb. 26, 2004.
[4] Ibid.
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"If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe."
Carl Sagan
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Superfund Dodge, EPA lies?
