As the new home of WashPIRG's environmental work, Environment Washington can be contacted regarding this news release.
Seattle, Wash.—The
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is misleading the public about the Bush
administration’s failure to clean up toxic waste sites and protect public
health, according to a new analysis released by the Washington Public Interest
Research Group (WashPIRG) and the Sierra Club. Superfund cleanups have slowed
by 50 percent since 2001, with costs for those cleanups shifting from polluters
to average taxpayers, according to the report.
“Fewer sites are being
cleaned up, communities are at risk, and polluters are off the hook,” said
WashPIRG Staff Attorney Mo McBroom. “Instead of protecting public health
by reinstating Superfund’s polluter pays fees, adequately funding the program,
and speeding up cleanups, the Bush administration is misleading the public and
our elected officials.”
As cleanups slow from an
average of 87 completed per year in the late 1990s to an average of 40 completed
per year during the Bush administration, communities across the country are
living near toxic waste sites for increasingly longer periods. One in four people
in America, including 10 million children, still live within four miles of a
Superfund site. Toxic chemicals at these sites are linked to birth defects,
neurological defects, and cancer.
The report, The
Truth About Toxic Waste Cleanups: How EPA is Misleading the Public About the
Superfund Program, analyzes actual EPA statements and shows that
the Bush administration has provided confusing, misleading, and even false information
to reporters and the public. Examples include:
EPA claims: EPA continues
to aggressively clean up sites and list new sites to the National Priority List
The facts: The rate
of completed cleanups has fallen by 50 percent during the Bush administration
compared to 1997-2000, and site listings have slowed down as well. The Bush
administration has added an average of 23 sites a year to the Superfund list
compared with an average of 30 sites from 1993 to 2000, a drop of 23 percent.
EPA claims: Funding
for the Superfund program has not decreased in the past few years
The facts: Superfund
funding has decreased by 25 percent from 2001-2004 compared to 1992 -2000.
EPA claims: EPA remains
committed to the polluter pays principle
The facts: The Bush
administration points out that polluters pay for clean ups at 70 percent of
Superfund sites. While this is—and has always been—true, EPA fails
to report that the 30 percent of cleanups where no responsible party can be
found are now paid for entirely by taxpayers. Before the polluter pays fees
expired and the trust fund was exhausted, regular taxpayers paid for only 18
percent of the cleanup of those orphan sites. The Bush administration opposes
reinstatement of the fees.
EPA claims: It doesn’t
matter who pays to clean up Superfund toxic waste sites.
The facts: Superfund
was founded on the principle that those most closely associated with the creation
of toxic waste sites should bear the financial burden of cleaning them up.
The U.S. General Accounting
Office reported that the polluter-funded Superfund trust fund ran out of money
last fall. Without the trust fund as a dedicated funding source, the Superfund
program competes with every other environmental program for scarce taxpayer
funds.
