Senate Votes Against Superfund's Polluter Pays

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Senate Votes Against Superfund's Polluter Pays

 

WASHINGTON, DC, March 26, 2003 (ENS) - The U.S. Senate voted down a measure to

reinstate Superfund polluter pays fees, which force polluters to pay the bill

for toxic cleanups at Superfund sites.

 

The measure was presented as an amendment to the Budget Resolution by Senator

Frank Lautenberg, a New Jersey Democrat and would have reinstated all of the

original Superfund taxes and fees on polluters and increased funding for the

program.

Six Democrats joined the 50 Republican Senators to defeat the measure 56 to 43

on Tuesday. These Democratic Senators were Evan Bayh of Indiana, John Breaux and

Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, Blanche Lincoln of

Arkansas, and Ben Nelson of Nebraska.

The decision adds to the concern many environmentalists have about the Superfund

program. The Bush administration has cut funding and the U.S. Environmental

Protection Agency's clean up at the nation's toxic waste sites has slowed by

some 50 percent in the last two years.

" Reinstating Superfund's polluter pays fees would provide more money for toxic

waste cleanups and shift the burden of paying to run the Superfund program from

taxpayers to polluting industries, " said Julie Wolk, environmental health

advocate with the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.

" Every April 15, average Americans pay their taxes, but the Bush administration

is letting polluters off the hook tax free. "

Superfund's original mechanism that forced polluters to pay for cleanup expired

in 1995, but its trust fund was at a historic high of $3.6 billion at that time.

The fund is likely to be completely depleted by 2004, forcing the government to

pay entirely for future Superfund cleanup, Wolk explained.

She said that regular taxpayers, who paid only 18 percent of program costs in

1996, would pay 79 percent or more of program costs in 2004 under the

President's budget request.

The Superfund program has experienced a major lack of funding in recent years,

with site cleanups slowing down nearly 50% in the last two years.

Seventy million people live within four miles of a Superfund site and 10 million

are children. Children are most vulnerable to the arsenic, DDT and

brain-damaging toxins like lead and mercury that are found in the water and soil

at these locations.

" When the corporate polluters care more about the bottom line than they do about

the health risks the pose to our families, we have an obligation to do something

about it, " Lautenberg said after the vote.

" This is just the first attempt. I will continue to bring up legislation that

deals with this issue whenever possible. "

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