EPA chief Christie Whitman Defends Toxic Dump Decision

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http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/politics/2845812.htm

Tue, Mar. 12, 2002

Whitman Defends Toxic Dump Decision

JOHN HEILPRIN

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - EPA chief Christie Whitman on Tuesday defended cutting in half

the number of toxic waste sites being cleaned up around the nation that are

not paid for by polluters.

The administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency said the fewer

sites arise from having to spread the same amount of money each year for

more costly, more complex and larger sites. At the same time, Congress and

the Bush administration have been reluctant to reimpose a Superfund tax on

polluters and other businesses.

" One of the concerns that I know the president has had about the way the

Superfund tax is imposed is that it's not all on polluters, " Whitman told a

House Appropriations subcommittee. " It is on everyone in an industry, so

that even those that have the best of environmental records are also

paying. "

The special tax on the oil and chemical industries and other businesses that

process or use toxic substances expired in 1995. Since then, the Superfund

trust fund financed by the tax has dwindled from a high of $3.6 billion in

1996 to a projected $28 million at the end of next year.

President Bush proposed in the budget he submitted last month that the

shrinking trust fund pay $593 million of this year's projected $1.3 billion

in cleanup costs for sites where responsible parties either cannot be found

or are bankrupt, with the remaining $700 million to come from the Treasury.

About 40 Superfund cleanups a year are expected to be completed during the

Bush administration; 47 were done last year. More than 80 sites were cleaned

up during each of the last four years of the Clinton administration.

Whitman said EPA expects to complete within several weeks a review of which

sites should be given the highest priority.

She said corporations responsible for the contamination have been paying a

total of $1.7 billion to clean up 70 percent of the number of sites on the

EPA's national priority list, of which there were 1,222 as of Feb. 26.

Because the government can charge up to triple the actual cleanup costs plus

penalties, many companies opt to pay for their own cleanups. The trust fund

goes toward the $1.3 billion that would be appropriated by Congress and

spent in cleaning up the other 30 percent, she said.

The special tax poured about $1.3 billion a year into the fund before 1996.

But last year, for the first time, more money was spent on Superfund from

general tax revenues than from the fund.

Whitman declined to answer whether Bush would ever support renewing the tax

and referred questions about that to the White House's Office of Management

and Budget.

" You'd have to ask OMB. Well, the White House, " she said.

Congress asked Resources for the Future, a Washington-based independent

research group, for a study last year to help lawmakers determine whether

the Superfund tax should be resumed.

The group's report found that government costs for cleaning up sites are not

expected to decrease for another eight years and will far outstrip money

available.

It estimated the government will spend $14 billion to $16.4 billion on

Superfund cleanup programs between 2000 and 2009, with annual costs of

between $1.3 billion and $1.7 billion.

Both Republicans and Democrats on the panel with jurisdiction over EPA's

budget expressed worry that heavily contaminated sites are not getting the

attention they should, and that taxpayers will have to pick up more and more

of the tab.

" The concern many of us have is we want to get things cleaned up, " Rep.

Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-N.J., told Whitman, a former GOP governor from that

state.

Rep. Alan Mollohan, D-W.Va., said Bush should ask Congress to reinstate the

Superfund tax if he really believes in the principle behind the program that

polluters should pay.

" The president is wonderful at providing leadership when he wants to provide

leadership, " Mollohan said.

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On the Net:

EPA Superfund: http://www.epa.gov/superfund