THE POLLUTER'S BEST FRIEND? Why it's George Bush, of course....
progressivetrail.org
Paying Double For Pollution
by Ed Hopkins
published by TomPaine.com
Paying Double For Pollution
In September, EPA Administrator Michael Leavitt visited one of the nation’s largest, urban Superfund toxic waste sites—where air pollution from a smelter has contaminated almost 9,000 acres with lead. The contaminated area near Omaha, Nebraska, is home to more than 65,000 people, 240 childcare facilities, and 20 public schools with more than 11,000 students—all of whom are at serious risk of lead poisoning.
The Omaha Lead site is on the EPA’s National Priorities List—a list of the nation's most dangerous toxic sites that are supposed to be the first focus of decontamination efforts. But Omaha citizens can’t get their hopes up for a quick cleanup of the lead contaminating their town. Although the EPA says that cleaning up the Omaha Lead Superfund site is one of its top priorities, Leavitt was unable to offer residents much reassurance about how quickly the cleanup will occur. That’s because the Superfund Trust Fund—which pays for the cleanup of sites like Omaha Lead when those responsible for the contamination lack the funds to do the job—is bankrupt. And the bankruptcy can be traced directly back to a Bush administration policy.
Superfund was responsible for cleaning up 900 of the nation’s worst toxic messes, but funding and cleanup have slowed dramatically under the Bush administration. The original “polluter pays” source of funding for cleaning up abandoned waste sites—a tax on crude oil and certain toxic chemicals and a corporate environmental income tax on larger corporations—expired in 1995. The Bush administration is the first to oppose the reinstatement of the polluter-pays revenue.
Last year’s funding shortfall of $175 million slowed or stopped funding at 29 sites, including the Omaha Lead site. According to the EPA’s inspector general, cleanup funding has fallen by 11 percent over the last five years, after accounting for inflation. As a result, the number of cleanups completed under the Bush administration has fallen by half compared with the pace of cleanups between 1997 and 2000. In fact, last week, the EPA acknowledged that in fiscal year 2004, it lacked funding to begin cleanup work on 34 toxic waste sites in 19 states.
Previously, the Superfund Trust Fund enjoyed broad bipartisan support. President Jimmy Carter signed the original law. President Ronald Reagan signed legislation that extended and enlarged the taxes in 1986, and President George H.W. Bush renewed those taxes in 1990. The taxes sunset in 1995, during the Clinton administration. President Bill Clinton proposed renewing the polluter-pays taxes, but Congress took no action.
Instead of the polluter-pays policy, this Bush administration’s policy is to make ordinary taxpayers foot the bill. It is the first presidential administration to shift all of the cleanup costs to the public. In 1995, when Superfund’s polluter-pays taxes expired, only 18 percent of the annual appropriation for the Superfund program came from general revenues or taxpayer dollars. Now that the Trust Fund is bankrupt and the Bush administration has abandoned the polluter-pays principle, 100 percent of the appropriation for fiscal year 2004 came from general revenues.
Under the Bush administration’s Superfund policy, Americans pay twice. The residents who live near the Omaha Lead site and hundreds of other toxic waste sites will continue to live with toxic waste for years longer—and will continue to suffer debilitating consequences. In 2003, about 300 Omaha children tested had elevated lead levels in their blood, but since most children have not been tested, no one really knows the extent of the damage lead has done to area children's health. Lead is exceptionally damaging to the central nervous system, particularly in children, where it can cause brain damage. Lead also can decrease IQ scores, slow growth and cause hearing problems in infants and young children.
Citizens living near the Omaha Lead site are paying with their health. And all of us are paying with our tax dollars.
Who benefits? Americans need to look no farther than President Bush, a former oilman who rewards his friends in business and industry at the expense of the environment—and, ultimately, at the expense of our health and safety. |
