Superfund funding shortfall

[Bob Hersh <bhersh@cpeo.org>]

>From the New York Times
August 16, 2004

Polluted Sites Could Face Shortage of Cleanup Money
By FELICITY BARRINGER
 
WASHINGTON, Aug. 15 - With about six weeks left in the federal
government's fiscal year, dozens of Superfund sites that are eligible
for cleanup money are likely to be granted nothing or a fraction of what
their managers say is needed because of a budget shortfall that could
exceed $250 million, according to a survey by the Democratic staff of
the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

The list of sites was compiled from information provided privately by
officials at the Environmental Protection Agency, according to a letter
sent on Friday to Michael O. Leavitt, the agency's administrator, from
Representative John D. Dingell of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the
committee. 

The letter and an attached list indicate that at sites like Atlas Tack,
a company that made tacks and nails in Fairhaven, Mass., Omaha Lead in
Omaha and Woolfolk Chemical Works, in Fort Valley, Ga., cleanup managers
are likely to fall behind in clearing toxic residue like lead particles,
cyanide and arsenic in soil or groundwater.

The original cleanup fund, built on industry taxes, has dwindled to
negligible levels in the nine years since Congress abolished those
taxes, so the money is now almost entirely drawn from general tax
revenue.

A subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee recently
recommended rejecting the E.P.A.'s request for an additional $150
million for the next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. Money for cleanup
can be allocated at any time in the fiscal year. 

In the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2003, according to an inspector
general's report, the shortfall amounted to about $175 million.

"The trend is clear and is being ignored at the expense of public health
and the environment," Mr. Dingell said in his letter to Mr. Leavitt.

To read the entire article, see
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/16/politics/16super.html

Bob Hersh
CPEO