WASHINGTON,
D.C.—American taxpayers will pay more than $1.2 billion to clean up
after polluters at Superfund toxic waste sites across the country in
2006, according to a new analysis released today by OSPIRG, the Oregon
State Public Interest Research Group. This marks the 11th year that
taxpayers will pay to protect the health of the one in four Americans
living within four miles of a Superfund site instead of polluters, as
the program intended.
Superfund’s
polluter fees once collected money from polluters to clean toxic waste
sites. New data compiled by OSPIRG reveals that, since these fees
expired in 1995, the cost to taxpayers to clean up after polluters at
toxic waste sites has increased by 427%.
“On
April 17th, Americans will pay our taxes, but polluters will be once
again excused from paying theirs,” said Rhett Lawrence, Environmental
Advocate at OSPIRG. “By refusing to reinstate the polluter-pays fees,
the federal government has opted to charge regular taxpayers, instead
of polluters, for the costs of toxic waste cleanups.”
OSPIRG’s
data reveals that Oregon taxpayers will pay $12,481,122 in 2006 to
clean up after polluters. Despite this heavy reliance on taxpayer
funding, without the income provided by the polluter-pays fees, the
Superfund program does not receive enough money to adequately protect
public health from toxic waste sites.
While
Superfund cleanup needs grow, program financing remains stagnant,
creating funding shortfalls that delay critical toxic cleanups and
jeopardize public health. In 2005, the EPA cleaned only 40 sites, a
significant departure from the average of 77 cleaned sites each year
between 1992 and 2000. If funding shortfalls persist, the number of
cleaned toxic sites will continue to drop. Reinstating the polluter
fees will provide a dedicated source of money and shift the costs of
toxic cleanups back to polluters.
“At
a time of record budget deficits, the exclusive use of scarce taxpayer
dollars to pay a cost that should be borne by polluters is fiscally
reckless,” said OSPIRG’s Lawrence. “Congress and the Bush
Administration’s refusal to shift cleanup costs back to polluting
industries is a reprehensible policy and amounts to nothing more than
polluter welfare.”
To view the data compiled by OSPIRG, please contact Laura Etherton at the contact listed above.
