Funding for cleaning up heavily polluted sites in the United States under the Superfund program is shifting from the polluters to the general taxpayers, according to state and regional Superfund project managers.

The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA, commonly known as Superfund) created a trust containing taxes from oil, gas, and chemical industries to fund cleanups when the polluter is unknown or cannot pay. But Congress has not renewed the tax since 1995. Down from its high of $3.6 billion in 1995, an estimated $28 million will remain in the trust at the end of this year.

“Without the [Superfund] money available, the cleanups will slow down and human health and the environment remain at risk,” says Julie Wolk, an environmental health advocate for U.S. Public Interest Research Group.

States cannot afford more than the required 10% of a cleanup. Wolk says 18% of the Superfund program costs came from general taxpayer revenue in 1996 and will rise to 54% in 2003, even though there will be nearly half the cleanups.

EPA regions will not receive any of their $92 million request for seven health hazard sites on Superfund’s National Priority List, according to an October report from EPA’s Office of Inspector General. In the report, Region 1 officials commented that lack of funding means “ecological damage continues.” Creosote threatens groundwater in Region 5 and affects wetlands in Region 6. EPA’s Office of Emergency and Remedial Response lacks resources to fund all requests and “stated that these regional examples posed lower environmental risks relative to other sites funded by EPA in [fiscal year] 2002”, according to the report.

Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), who requested the report, has 20 tripartisan sponsors on her bill to reinstate the Superfund tax. Staffers in her office describe the Bush Administration’s resistance to this tax as a corporate handout, placing the burden of potentially increased cancer risks, increased birth defects, and actual monitoring of polluted sites on the public. A spokesperson for the American Petroleum Institute says industry has paid more than it polluted, so if the responsible party cannot be found, money for cleanup should come from general tax revenue. —RACHEL PETKEWICH