As the new home of Illinois PIRG's environmental work,
Environment Illinois can be contacted with any questions regarding this news release.
Out
of the 39 Superfund sites in Illinois, 17 could be affected by a
slowdown in the pace of cleanups and less EPA oversight of clean up
activities conducted by polluters.
A well-funded Superfund program protects public health at Superfund
sites, helps other federal and state toxic waste clean up programs
protect public health, and provides a vital federal safety net when
other clean up programs fail to adequately protect public health.
The success of state programs heavily depends on the federal Superfund
program providing a credible deterrent against polluters who refuse to
clean up sites under state programs.
With
an effective Superfund program, state officials can threaten to request
that EPA clean up a site using Superfund. This threat is only credible
if the Superfund program has money to conduct cleanups because EPA must
spend money on a cleanup before it can sue a polluter. EPA can use its
Superfund authority to order a polluter to clean up its contamination.
If the polluter refuses to comply with the order, EPA can spend
money—if it has funds—to clean up the contamination. Thereafter, EPA
can sue the polluter for up to three times the cleanup costs plus
penalties.
Superfund embodies a national commitment to make polluters—not innocent
taxpayers—pay to clean up toxic waste sites. Congress created a trust
fund and polluter taxes fill the fund. These taxes helped to build a
surplus of $3.6 billion in 1995 that enabled EPA to clean up toxic
waste when the government could not find the polluters or when
polluters refused to undertake clean up actions. Since the Superfund's
polluter taxes expired in 1995, polluters have enjoyed a $4 million a
day tax holiday, totaling more than $10 billion. The burden of cleanup
costs borne by innocent taxpayers is expected to increase to an
estimated $700 million in 2003, at which point Superfund's reserves
will have dwindled to an expected $28 million.
Not
only does the Bush administration oppose the reauthorization of the
polluter taxes; the Bush administration has slowed down the pace of
cleanups by more than 50 percent. The administration should increase
the pace of cleanups in Illinois and across the nation to protect
public health from dangerous toxic waste sites. The Bush administration
should make polluters, not taxpayers, pay to clean up toxic waste.
