On the recordJuly 7, 2015
This is a very simple amendment that would increase funding for the Superfund with the intention the money go specifically to the cleanup program account. Superfund cleanup is right for the environment and certainly right for the U.S. economy, which is right for the U.S. I come from New Jersey, the Garden State. We have great tomatoes, corn, and it is blueberry season. But what we also have, particularly in the southern half of the State, is a history of heavy industry. New Jersey found out the hard way that you just can't take those resources after they are finished and dump them into the backyard. We have more than 200 sites in New Jersey listed as being in serious violation of at least one of four Federal environmental laws. The company offenders, they are gone, and left the constituents, my constituents, holding the bags. My predecessor, Representative Jim Florio, back in the early eighties, was the author of the Superfund bill. He had the vision of what we have to do to protect our citizens. I just want to tell a quick story, two of them. The first one is one site, $1 billion, and it is about a quarter of a mile from where I live. It is the Welsbach & General Gas Mantle in Gloucester City, New Jersey. As part of that process of making gas mantles almost a half century ago, radium, the substance that was used to make it glow brighter, was dumped throughout the city. This material is now sitting there.…
