The Tarpon Springs plant won't feel the pinch because the Stauffer company has agreed to pay for its cleanup, officials say.
By CANDACE RONDEAUX
Published January 21, 2004
TARPON SPRINGS - A funding shortage has stalled cleanup work at 11 of the country's worst toxic Superfund sites, but U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials say plans for the Stauffer Chemical Co. phosphate plant are on track.
The EPA's Office of Inspector General reported this month that a shortfall of almost $175-million has held up work on 11 of the country's most polluted sites and caused cleanup plans for other sites to be scaled back. The report focused on Superfund sites where the government must pay for cleanup because it could not establish who had caused the pollution.
That's not the case at Stauffer.
EPA officials said Tuesday that because Stauffer has agreed to pay for the cleanup, the Tarpon Springs plant will not be affected by the shortfall. Reduced funding for the $3-billion Superfund program should have no bearing on efforts to clean up contaminants at Stauffer and monitor the site, officials said.
"Our report does not show a specific impact today on the Stauffer site," said Eileen McMahon, a spokeswoman for the inspector general.
The 130-acre plant processed phosphate ore into elemental phosphorous. When it closed, it left behind the residue of dozens of cancer-causing substances. The EPA declared the property a Superfund site in 1994 and ordered Stauffer to pay for the cleanup.
So far, Stauffer Management Co. has spent roughly $30-million to clean up the plant, said Stauffer's public relations strategist, Jim Frankowiak. Much of that money was spent demolishing old buildings and removing contaminants.
"This site has been under a lot of work and research over the last 20 years," Frankowiak said in a telephone interview Tuesday. "All those things are very costly."
The EPA's Superfund program began in 1980. The agency has completed cleanups at nearly 890 sites and has more than 1,200 Superfund sites left to clean.
Former EPA ombudsman Robert Martin said news of the EPA's shortfall in the Superfund program does not bode well for the defunct Stauffer plant. Now head of the nonprofit Tallahassee-based Legal Environmental Assistance Foundation, Martin said the shortfall is yet another sign that the EPA's regulatory and oversight powers are waning under the Bush administration.
"Any time there's less resources, there's less oversight, and the community needs good oversight," Martin said. "I think the EPA's presence is fading in the communities, whether through lack of resources or through changes in staff. And that's troubling."
EPA project manager Nestor Young acknowledged that any future failure by Stauffer to pay for the cleanup "could be a cause for concern." But he repeated McMahon's assertions that plans for Stauffer will move ahead despite shortfalls in other areas of the Superfund program.
Meanwhile, a final decision on whether to clean up the site by piling up contaminated dirt at the plant and covering the piles with watertight caps could be made this summer, Young said.
Last August, scientific experts raised questions about the results of studies conducted by Stauffer to determine whether the site was geologically stable. But Young said many of those questions have since been resolved and his agency is satisfied with that study and a groundwater study conducted last year.
After the EPA approves the results of those studies, it will review a third study conducted by Stauffer to determine whether the mound and cap solution is workable, he said.
"I don't think there's unanimous consensus about what we're doing and how we're doing it," Young said. "But we have to rely on the science to tell us if this is a viable solution."
- Information from the Associated Press was used in this report. Candace Rondeaux can be reached at 727 445-4181 or rondeaux@sptimes.com
