New report: Reinstated ‘polluter pays’ taxes should speed up lagging toxic waste cleanup

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The bipartisan infrastructure bill reinstated a tax on polluting chemical companies, promising to protect Americans from toxic waste

CALPIRG Education Fund

Sacramento — For more than 20 years, the federal government’s “Superfund” program aimed at cleaning up the nation’s most dangerous toxic waste sites, including 97 in California, has languished for lack of funding. The program was originally funded by a tax on the chemical and petroleum industries, but those “polluter pays” taxes expired in 1995. When President Joe Biden signed the bipartisan infrastructure package (BIF) into law last month, he finally reinstated a polluter pays tax on chemical industries. 

CALPIRG Education Fund and Environment California Research & Policy Center released a report on Thursday that evaluates the success and failure of the EPA’s Superfund program in 2021 and explores how the reinstated polluter pays tax on chemical production could speed up toxic waste site clean up in California and across the country. Moreover, the report, entitled Funding the Future of Superfund: Addressing decades of slowing toxic waste cleanup, outlined further actions that federal and state governments should take to clean up toxic waste and protect the millions of Americans who live near a toxic waste site, including thousands here in California.

“Most people in California don’t realize how close they live to one of the most seriously contaminated toxic waste sites in the country or how little we’ve been doing to clean up these sites,” said Jenn Engstrom, CALPIRG Education Fund State Director. “Toxic waste has no place in our communities, and the longer it’s there, the more environmental and health risks we face. Unsurprisingly, when the Superfund program was fully funded, it did a much better job cleaning up toxic waste sites. With some of that funding coming back, the Superfund program will better serve its purpose to protect people and our communities from toxic waste.” 

The EPA’s Superfund program is responsible for cleaning up the most hazardous waste sites in the country. A total of 1,322 sites have been identified for the EPA’s National Priorities List. The chemicals found at these sites, such as arsenic, benzen, dioxin, and lead, are some of the most dangerous in the world. Over the next 10 years, the reinstated chemical polluter pays tax could provide $14.4 billion in funding to clean up dangerous toxic waste sites.

“With new federal funding, we have the best opportunity in decades to finally clean up our nation’s most dangerous toxic waste sites. For people who have lived beside toxic waste for their entire lives, this should mean swift action to address ongoing threats of exposure. For others living near sites that have just become classified as Superfund sites, it could mean their children don’t grow up next door to toxic waste,” commented Jillian Gordner, the report author, who works on PIRG Education Fund’s campaigns against toxic substances. “With new funding from the polluter pays tax the Superfund program will have the opportunity to address and remedy inefficiencies made worse by underfunding in the previous decades.”

Among other priorities, the reinstated tax on chemical production will provide funding for a backlog of 37 sites with cleanup projects since 2021 that are waiting on funding to begin. And, as climate-induced natural disasters become more severe, this new funding provides an opportunity to clean up toxic waste sites in the path of hurricanes, flooding and wildfires. 

To speed up the cleanup of these toxic waste sites, the report recommends:

  • The EPA should take into account the impact of climate change when designing the cleanup plan for a site. 
  • Determining the time and money the EPA needs to clean up all Superfund sites on the National Priorities List sites
  • States and local governments should work with the EPA to notify citizens of Superfund toxic waste sites near them

“With new federal funding, we have the best opportunity in decades to finally clean California’s most dangerous toxic waste sites,” said Engstrom

“But that is just the first step. To ensure more Superfund sites are cleaned up, the EPA will have to start treating the program like the priority that it is.”

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