Tina Smith: “when the Superfund Program was enacted in 1980, it was expected that only a few hundred sites would need to be cleaned…”

“when the Superfund Program was enacted in 1980, it was expected that only a few hundred sites would need to be cleaned up, at a relatively modest cost. Today, we know those expectations were misguided. There are more than 1,300 sites on the national priorities list, and the EPA has been adding an average of 30- 40 new sites per year. To date, the construction of long-term cleanup remedies have been completed at fewer than 300 contaminated sites. The Superfund saga has been running now for 15 years. The cast includes a bewildering mix of lawyers, bureaucrats, insurers, small business owners, polluters and others trapped in a tangled web of retroactive, joint, strict and several liability. The Superfund story is one of good intentions gone bad while a Government program ran amok. I am here today to announce that this sorry show will be coming to an end, soon. My goal this year has been nothing short of a comprehensive, common sense reform of the Superfund Program. The Subcommittee on Superfund, Waste Control, and Risk Assessment, which I chair, held 7 hearings and received testimony from more than 60 witnesses in an effort to formally incorporate a wide variety of views on the issue of Superfund reform. On June 28, I released a detailed outline of a Superfund reform plan and asked for comments from interested parties. I received more than 150 constructive comments and suggestions.”