Center for Health, Environment & Justice has called for Congress to reinstitute its “polluter’s pay fees†to give the EPA Superfund the financial stability to cleanup toxic sites around the country.
One such site that could possibly benefit is the Rolling Hills landfill that has been closed by the Florida DEP if the county and state worked to get qualified it as a Superfund site.
The EPA Superfund program was created in December 1980 in response to serious threats across the country posed by toxic waste sites such as the infamous Love Canal landfill in Niagara Falls, NY. Since then, the EPA has completed the cleanup of nearly 1,200 of the nation’s worst toxic waste sites, including several in Escambia County.
In recognition of Superfund’s 35th Anniversary, the Center for Health, Environment & Justice issued a report that examines the decline in Superfund’s financial stability and urges the reinstatement of “polluter pays fees†to fund site cleanups.
Conclusion in a nutshell: “Superfund is struggling.â€
The main findings:
ï‚· Unreliable funding of the Superfund program has led to an unstable program. Without a stable and reliable source of income, such as provided by the polluter pays fees, the program is not sufficiently funded to meet long term project needs and the program requirements for permanent cleanups.
ï‚· The funding shortfall has resulted in fewer completed cleanups each year; fewer cleanups started each year; inadequate funding of ongoing projects; an increase in the time to complete remedial projects; inadequate funding for emergency removal projects; and a steady stream of unfunded projects each year.
ï‚· The expansion of the Superfund Alternatives program, in which the responsible parties agree to cleanup a site and avoid being listed on the National Priority List provides benefits to the polluter while hampering citizen participation that is provided for under the Superfund program. In particular, Technical Assistance Grants (when provided) are awarded by the responsible corporation rather than EPA, a neutral entity.
ï‚· The Superfund program has been so badly mismanaged by EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy that an unprecedented act of Congress has proposed transferring EPA oversight of a Superfund site to the Army Corps of Engineers.
 Congress must reinstate the polluter pays fees. Without collecting the corporate fees to replenish Superfund, there is simply not enough money to do the critical job of cleaning up hundreds of abandoned toxic waste sites. It is unfair to place 100% of the burden of the program’s annual cost on American taxpayers while corporations make deals and play political games to avoid payment. Corporate polluters must once again contribute to the costs of cleaning up these contaminated sites.