[CPEO-BIF] "Superfund cleanups drop by half in last four years"

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Superfund cleanups drop by half in last four years 


BY ROBERT COHEN 
NEWARK STAR-LEDGER (NJ)
February 28, 2005

WASHINGTON -- Now in its 25th year, the Superfund hazardous waste
clean-up program no longer lives up to its name. 

During the past four years, the number of toxic sites cleaned up
annually has dropped by half, and work has slowed at many others. Last
year, the start of long-term clean-up work at 29 highly contaminated
sites, including two in New Jersey, was postponed for lack of money. 

The "Superfund" itself -- a trust fund to pay for cleaning abandoned
sites -- has dwindled to zero, starved of cash since a special tax on
oil and chemical companies expired a decade ago. 

Environmentalists, Democratic lawmakers and New Jersey officials warn
that the program created by Congress in 1980 is in serious jeopardy.
They contend public health is taking a back seat to corporate interests. 

"The Bush administration has devastated this program," New Jersey
Environmental Protection Commissioner Bradley Campbell said. Superfund
has bogged down, he said, because of "an abandonment of the
polluter-pays principle -- an unwillingness to compel responsible
parties to clean up at a pace communities deserve." 


...

For the entire article, see
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf?/base/news-20/1109571444252200.xml

-- 


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org
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