NYT: Polluted (Superfund) Sites Could Face Shortage of Cleanup Money

[DeepModem Mom]

Polluted Sites Could Face Shortage of Cleanup Money
By FELICITY BARRINGER

Published: August 16, 2004


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....


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/16/politics/16super.html

[no_hypocrisy]

1. "Could" face shortage of funds?! Try "will . . . . no matter what".

I broke my ass to get a decent grade in Environmental Law 13 years ago and nearly everything I learned is irrelevant since the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, Superfund, disposal of industrial chemicals, etc. have been suspended or co-opted by the present regime.

If I tried to answer an exam question by utilizing the so-called "Clear Skies" initiative, I would have been expelled from law school. The Superfund now is pure Orwell.

[leesa]

2. No shit, Jack. What do you think the goal has been? Now we'll have

to find more disarmed countries to bomb with our nuclear waste.