A new report from an environmental advocacy group criticizes the slow pace of environmental cleanups under the chronically underfunded Superfund program, which turned 35 on Dec. 11. The report, released by the Center for Health, Environment and Justice, calls for reinstatement of “polluter pays fees,” in which chemical and oil companies pay an excise tax into a trust fund for cleanups at sites where alleged polluters either can’t be identified or are out of business. “The Superfund program isn’t so super anymore,” says Lois Gibbs, an early cleanup activist who leads the group.
The report claims Superfund has been “mismanaged” by the Environmental Protection Agency. During the Obama administration, cleanups dropped from 20 in 2004 to eight in 2009. In November, a bicameral group of Missouri lawmakers introduced legislation to transfer to the Army Corps of Engineers oversight of the West Lake landfill site near St. Louis, where an ongoing fire is burning closer to radioactive waste.