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March 5, 2004
CONTACT: Michael Fiorentino
(215) 567-4004 ext. 238
COMMUNITY LEADERS
DEMAND FUNDS NEEDED TO CLEAN UP BUCKS TOXIC WASTE SITE
Clean Up at Superfund
Sites Nationwide Is Threatened if Upcoming Senate Budget
Votes Fails
QUAKERTOWN, PA - Homeowners, environmental
advocates and elected officials today called on the U.S.
Senate to fully fund the federal program designed to clean
up the nation's most dangerous toxic waste sites, including
the Watson Johnson Landfill Superfund site in Richland Township.
The Senate is expected to vote next week on a budget resolution
that would fully fund the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency's (EPA) Superfund program.
"The people of Richland Township
and surrounding communities deserve to have the Watson Johnson
site cleaned up once and for all," said Richland Township
Supervisor Mike Zowniriw. "We've suffered enough from
the toxic waste dumped on our community. The Senate needs
to fund the Superfund program so that cleanup costs aren't
dumped on us as well."
The Superfund law is designed so that
the "polluter pays" to clean up their toxic waste.
When responsible parties can be identified, they pay for
all or a portion of cleanup costs at a site. A tax levied
on traditionally-polluting chemical and oil industries covers
cleanup when no responsible party can be identified, or
the responsible party is unable to pay. Under pressure from
the oil and chemical industries, Congress allowed the tax
on these industries to expire in 1995. A vote leading up
to reinstatement of the "polluters pay" tax is
expected to take place in the Senate next week.
"We fought tooth and nail to get
the Watson Johnson site added to the federal Superfund list,"
said local resident and community activist Lisa Lambrecht.
"It's outrageous that funding shortages have strained
the Superfund program so badly that cleanups are being delayed
and communities have to compete with other communities to
get precious cleanup dollars. Nobody deserves to have a
toxic waste dump in their backyard. Everyone deserves the
right to clean water and a healthy environment."
"Unless the tax on polluters is reinstated, ordinary
taxpayers will be forced to foot the bill for toxic waste
sites," said Michael Fiorentino, Senior Attorney with
Clean Air Council. "In a time of budget crunches everywhere,
this will likely lead to slower and slower clean up timelines.
Already cleanups have declined, from 76 per year through
much of the 1990s to 43 per year under the current Administration."
"The Watson Johnson site is a scar
on an otherwise beautiful community. Having a Superfund
site in our community threatens public health and impedes
local development," said Anna Smith, Conservation Chair
of the Bucks County Sierra Club. "This toxic waste
site needs to be cleaned up quickly-and at polluter expense.
Area residents aren't responsible for this pollution. We
shouldn't have to pay to clean it up."
The 32-acre Watson Johnson Landfill was
added to the Superfund program's National Priorities List
in 2001. Polychlorinated biphenols (PCBs), trichloroethylene
(TCE), perchloroethylene (PCE) and other chemicals from
the site contaminated the soil and area groundwater supplies.
These chemicals include known and suspected carcinogens
and are also linked to damage in fetal development, the
human hormone system and the liver. Uncertainty over the
extent and seriousness of the health threat from the site
drove at least one family in the nearby Heather Valley development
to abandon their home, and prompted dozens more to sue local
developers for failing to advise them of proximity to the
site. EPA has yet to schedule cleanup of the Watson Johnson
site.
There are ninety-three Superfund sites
in Pennsylvania. Most are concentrated in the southeastern
portion of the state.
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For more information
on the Superfund program, including a PDF version of the
report Superfund and the "Polluter Pays" Tax:
How the Funding Crisis Affects America's Worst Toxic Waste
Sites, please visit:
http://environet.policy.net/superfund/
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