Selling out to polluters

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http://www.sptimes.com/2002/07/06/Opinion/Selling_out_to_pollut.shtml

A Times Editorial

Selling out to polluters

© St. sburg Times

published July 6, 2002

There is a simple justice to the concept of making polluters pay for

cleaning up their messes. Since its inception in 1980, the Superfund program

has worked that way. Chemical plants, refineries and other industries that

created toxic wastes were held accountable. And when they couldn't be, the

cleanup was funded by a tax on the chemicals and petroleum products that

cause much of the pollution.

Not anymore. President Bush has sent the Superfund into full retreat. The

tax was dropped in 1995, and the Bush administration has indicated it does

not favor reauthorizing it. Without the polluting industries' money, the

fund has dwindled from $3.8-billion in 1996 to an estimated $28-million next

year. Meanwhile, the president cut the financing for 33 toxic waste sites in

18 states, the New York Times reported. And guess who will be picking up

more of the cost for cleanups that are completed. Taxpayers.

No one should be surprised that Bush is quietly undermining the program. He

turned over national energy policy to the oil and electric utility

industries. He has eviscerated the portion of the Clear Air Act requiring

the dirtiest power plants to clean up their emissions. And now he is

dismantling the Superfund.

The program's critics (essentially the polluters) claim it is too expensive

and inefficient. That may be true. Few would complain if the president

addressed management problems, but the program has also protected Americans.

Until recently, Superfund cleaned up about 86 sites a year. Under Bush, that

number is expected to be reduced to 40 sites. And he has shifted the

responsibility. Next year, taxpayers will pick up more than half of the

Superfund budget, a cost of $700-million.

" The person who made the mess should clean it up -- that's something you

learn in kindergarten, " said Aurilio, legislative director for Florida

Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), a Superfund watchdog group. " If the

Bush administration continues on this path of shifting responsibility or not

accomplishing cleanups at all, it's going to gut the program. "

Of the 33 Superfund projects being dropped, five are in Florida, including

Southern Solvents in Tampa. Most toxic waste sites in the program threaten

to contaminate ground water, which could end up as a source of drinking

water. When a cleanup is delayed, it only spreads the risk and future costs.

One in four Americans lives within four miles of a Superfund site, according

to PIRG. It is irresponsible of the Bush administration to put the health of

so many people at risk by withholding support for the Superfund program. It

is a sellout to let the polluters off the hook for the harm they have done.