For Immediate Release: April 15, 2002
For More Information Contact: David Ponder, 949-0664, cell
                                               

(Helena) Residents of affected communities joined the Montana Public Interest Research Group, MontPIRG, to release a report analyzing the clean up of Montana’s worst toxic waste sites under the Bush Administration.  They warned that clean up could be slowed down or delayed at 9 of Montana’s 13 National Priority List (NPL), or Superfund, sites as a result of the administration’s policies.

“The Bush administration is making taxpayers pay more and asking polluters to pay less, while cleaning up fewer of the nation’s toxic waste sites,” said David Ponder, Executive Director of MontPIRG.  “This means that Montanans may have to wait years longer for their communities to be cleaned up, or trust that polluters will do a good job of cleaning up their mess without adequate EPA supervision.”

NPL is a published list of hazardous waste sites in the U.S. eligible for comprehensive, long-term cleanup under the Superfund program.  Listing on the NPL makes a site eligible to receive Superfund monies for cleanup.  However, listing does not automatically qualify sites for funding.  According to the report, those resources may not be available under the Bush administration. 

Slow Down in the Pace of Cleanups:  Under the Bush Administration, the pace of cleanups slowed down by more than 50 percent.  From 1996 to 2000, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cleaned up an average of 86 sites a year.  In 2001, the pace of cleanups plummeted to 47.  The administration now expects to clean up only 40 sites in 2002, and again only 40 sites in 2003. The administration refuses to reveal which sites could be affected by the administrative slow down.

Under-funded Superfund:  The administration requested $1 to $1.4 billion less from Congress than is projected to adequately fund the cleanup of the nation’s worst toxic waste sites.  In 2000, Congress commissioned a study that provides a blueprint for budgetary requests to meet the future needs of the Superfund program, yet the administration has failed to follow this blueprint.  According to the EPA’s estimates, even the Congressional blueprint may not adequately assess the program’s needs.

Opposition to Reauthorization of Polluter Pays Tax: Additionally, the Bush administration opposes the reauthorization of the Superfund’s polluter pays taxes while increasing the taxpayer burden of clean up costs.  By 2003, the average taxpayers will pay an estimated $700 million, or 54 percent of Superfund’s budget to cleanup the nation’s worst toxic waste sites.  By comparison in 1995, the last year the polluter pays taxes were collected, polluters paid 82 percent of the clean up costs.

“One need only to look to Libby to understand the devastating effect of toxic pollution in Montana and the critical need for cleaning up this toxic legacy,” continued Ponder.  “The federal Superfund program makes available the necessary resources to protect watersheds and drinking water, remediate contamination, and safeguard public health.”

“To see the possibility of future Superfund sites are going to be borne by the taxpayer—it’s totally ridiculous.  The polluters should pay,” Gayla Benefield, president of the Lincoln Co. Asbestos Victims Relief Organization.  "If the Superfund tax isn’t reinstated now, the cost of cleanups will be borne by the taxpayers and the wage earners, instead of the actual polluters.”  

Hundreds of people in Libby, including Benefield’s parents, have died from asbestos poisoning from a vermiculite mine owned by W-R Grace and Company.  Thousands more area residents are diagnosed with asbestosis, among them Benefield and her husband.   The federal Environmental Protection Agency has estimated cleanup costs for the Libby area at more than $50 million.  While the Libby site was not considered in the report because it has not achieved final NPL designation concerns about the long term clean up costs trouble many. 
 
Benefield says the money won’t be there if the Superfund tax on hazardous waste manufacturers is not reauthorized.  “The biggest issue we have right now goes back to funding, goes back to dollars.”

The participants called on the Bush administration to stand by protections for public health and against corporate polluters by reauthorizing the polluters pay taxes, increasing the pace of cleanups, and telling the public which sites have been affected by the administrative slowdown in the pace of cleanups.

###

MontPIRG is a statewide nonprofit, nonpartisan public interest advocacy group with more than 5,00 members statewide

What the EPA says about some of Montana’s Superfund sites

Barker-Hughesville and Carpenter Snow Creek Superfund Site
“Cleanup activities at these two sites may be lower priority than other sites with higher risks.  Once funding is obtained, EPA can then proceed with cleanup activities even if there are no responsible parties who can pay for the cleanup.”

Upper Ten Mile Creek site
“(NPL) listing allows access to the resources necessary to fully address the magnitude of mine wastes found in the watershed.” 

Basin Mining Area
“(NPL) listing makes the site eligible for federal cleanup funds while EPA seeks to recover costs from the parties responsible for the contamination, or to complete the work if no parties are found.”