Due to inaction in Washington, the number of toxic waste sites slated for cleanup under the Superfund program continues to spiral downward. And communities near some of New Hampshire's 19 proposed and approved sites are feeling the pinch.
Congress has made small reforms, but the program still languishes in legislative and financial limbo. NHPR Washington Correspondent Ben Gilbert has the story.
Residential neighborhoods and the Nashua River sit right next to the old Mohawk Tannery site in Nashua. The area would be a good place for more homes or a park, but years of tanning operations have left it contaminated with around 50,000 cubic yards of toxic sludge. The site was supposed to be placed on the federal register for Superfund Sites, called the National Priority List?two years ago. Listing on this register would immediately give the site access to federal dollars for cleanup. Nashua 4th ward Alderman Mark Plamondon (PR: Plumandon) says town officials are getting anxious.
(Track 2 - 9:00 ? 9:33) ?My biggest worry is that this will be brushed under the carpet for a little longer?maybe with the mentality that Nashua has put up with this for twenty or thirty years, what?s another ten or twelve or longer??And that?s my biggest fear, I would like to see this project given a higher priority for a cleanup.?
The site contains unhealthy levels of chromium, lead, and arsenic that could seep into ground water. Even though these toxins threaten to contaminate Nashua?s drinking water?.no one seems to know when the Tannery will be listed as a superfund site?including the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services or E-P-A in Boston.
At E-P-A Headquarters in Washington, agency spokesman Joe Martyiak says everything is perfectly normal.
They usually do phasing on these projects, but as I understand it the money that they?ve already gotten hasn?t even been expended yet, so I?m not even sure I understand the question of their concerns that there isn?t additional money there, when the money they apparently need so far is already there. (Track 33, :01 - :18)
But many state and EPA officials say on and off the record that the situation is making them nervous?they fear the funds will not arrive to designate the Tannery as a Superfund Site.
New Hampshire?s situation is not unique: Superfund sites across the nation are experiencing the same backlog. In 2000 and 2001, E-P-A designated 68 superfund sites. In an unprecedented slow down of listings, not one has been added this year, and only two are proposed.
EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman attributes the situation to the addition of larger sites, called ?mega sites? ? to the NPL.
?What is really controlling the number of sites is the complex nature of the sites and the cost of them?it?s taking more money and costing more time to clean up the sites that we have left.? (Track 32, 4:04-4:16)
Superfund has received the same amount of money -- roughly 1.3 billion dollars annually for the last ten years. This is one part of the problem. But there?s another:
The fund contained almost 4 billion dollars in 1996 as a result of a 1 percent corporate tax on petroleum and chemical companies. But that tax expired in 1996, and the Bush Administration has not asked Congress to reauthorize it. As a result, the trust fund is slated to go bankrupt by the year 2004. In the meantime, taxpayer dollars are footing the bill.
US Public Interest Research Group attorney Grant Cope says the Bush Administration?s reluctance to push for reauthorization hurts the EPA?s ability to do its job.
(Track 2, 10:00-10:13) When you actually take a step back and look at the actual impacts of those policies you see that polluters are paying less, taxpayers are paying more, and fewer toxic waste sites are getting cleaned up.
But the New Hampshire Congressional Delegation stands behind the Bush Administration?s decision not to reauthorize the tax.
Senator Bob Smith says the program hurts small businesses and is not efficient.
It has dragged too many innocent people ? restaurant owners, people who dispose ballpoint pens in a superfund site, I mean, it?s just dragged too many innocent people into this morass. So it needs reform, and I wouldn?t fund it either until we get reform.? (20:06 - 20:24)
Smith says he supports legislation that protects companies from liabilities for pollution costs that weren?t their responsibility? basically agrees.
1st District Congressman John E. Sununu ALSO opposes reauthorizing the corporate tax until the program is reformed. He says he is co-sponsoring a bill that would protect people who disposed of small amounts of waste or unknowingly disposed of dangerous chemicals.
:58 it doesn?t make sense to make someone pay who is only responsible for 1 percent of the contamination or even a half a percent to be liable for 100 percent of the clean up costs. 1:36
Environmental advocates say the call for more reform will only water down the effectiveness of the Superfund laws and benefit big corporations?like Exxon and General Electric.
But another New Hampshire Site, the Beede Waste Oil Site in Plaistow, involves the clean up of an oil disposal dump that may cost some individual gas station and auto repair shop owners up to $75,000.
New England Service Station and Automotive Repair Association Executive Director Dick Poulin (Poo-Lin) says these small businessmen and women did everything ?by the book??for years they disposed their waste oil in a site that was licensed by the state.
?Our position is that the people did nothing wrong. They followed the laws that they were supposed to follow by disposing of their oil properly and our position is: why should they have to pay at all?? (Track 4, 5:27 to 5:40)
But New Hampshire Assistant Attorney General Maureen Smith says the government already exempts anyone who contributed less than 275 gallons of oil to the site?and will compromise with business owners if they can show the clean-up cost is steep enough to damage their livelihood.
?In general there has been fair treatment of small businesses, there may be some exceptions to that but in my experience I have not seen any case that has not been so outrageous that it would warrant changing the law as it is today.? (Track 2, 10:45 ? 11:05)
Poulin says some gas station owners sobbed after receiving what he says are devastating E-P-A cleanup bills?these calls leave him yearning for some kind of action.
6:18
I don?t know, a lot of people identify with the environmentalists and the other side seems to be more lenient toward certain oil issues but I guess we?re just looking for someone to look at this whole picture and do the right thing. 6:31
With no action planned for legislation to reform the program, and no sign that the bush administration will push for a reauthorization of the 1% corporate tax?the program?s ability to clean up sites remains unclear except for one certainty: Taxpayers will continue to pay to clean up abandoned sites in a federal program that made it a priority to make polluters pay.
For NHPR News, this is Ben Gilbert in Washington.
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