On the recordJuly 29, 2014
I rise today to introduce with my colleagues Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey, and Senator Barbara Boxer of California, the Superfund Polluter Pays Restoration Act of 2014. This bill reinstates an expired excise tax on polluting industries to help fund the cleanup of Superfund sites and restore communities back to health. Across our Nation we have far too many un-remediated and dangerous Superfund sites sitting in our neighborhoods--properties that are literally poisoning our residents. This problem is particularly acute in my State of New Jersey, which is both the most densely populated State and the State with the most Superfund sites. Nationwide, there are more than 1300 Superfund sites on the National Priorities List, NPL, which require long-term cleanups. The sites listed on the NPL are the most heavily contaminated in the country and are the sites that pose the greatest potential risk to public health and the environment. In the past five years, 94 new sites have been added to the NPL, but an average of only 7 have been removed each year. Cleanup has not even begun at hundreds of these NPL sites. Officials at the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, and the Government Accountability Office, GAO, state that the reason why cleanup is not starting at hundreds of sites, and taking so long at others, is because of the limited funding available for cleanup activities.…
