Superfund Cleanup Woes

Leslie Harrison

Washington, D.C. – The U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) released a new report that blames the Bush administration for cuts made to the Superfund budget, and faulted Congress for shifting the cleanup burden from polluters to the American taxpayer. According to the report, the amount of Superfund sites that have been remediated have been from 86 sites in the late 1990s, to 40 sites this year.

A spokesman for the EPA stated that the report was ludicrous and does not accurately reflect the program’s budget process. Based on information from a Resources for the Future 2001 study, the PIRG report determined that the Bush administration has under funded the Superfund program by $1.2 billion to $1.8 billion from 2001 through 2004. While the program may not receive the funding boost environmentalists would prefer, the Bush administration has asked for $1.39 billion for the program for fiscal year 2004, a slight increase from the appropriated $1.27.