A Times Editorial

Selling out to polluters

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 Anna 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.

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