Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 2, 1994 TAG: 9404020101
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-2 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Medium
Only about 10 senators are willing to "tackle the tough issues" posed by Superfund, Warner said Thursday at a town meeting on the subject.
Superfund is up for renewal this year, and Warner, R-Va. and a member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, said changes are needed.
"Congress should raise its hand and plead guilty," he said. "We have written a law which, in my judgment, is a bad law."
About two dozen people, mostly owners of small businesses, spoke at the meeting, and many complained that Superfund is punishing them for the mistakes of others.
"I am not a criminal, but yet my country treats me like one," said Bill Wolfersheim, owner of a Petersburg recycling firm that was charged thousands of dollars to clean up sites it did not pollute. "I am a victim of the Superfund law."
The law, technically known as the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, was passed in 1980 in response to New York's Love Canal toxic pollution disaster that destroyed an entire neighborhood.
The idea was to charge chemical companies a special tax and use the money to clean up contaminated sites. Once the poisons were removed, the federal government then would try to find the responsible parties for reimbursement.
But the law, administered by the Environmental Protection Agency, has not solved the problem. Part of the reason, Warner said, is that in 1980, Congress figured there were only 50 to 100 sites that needed the Superfund.
The number now is more than 1,200 and growing. The program already has cost $15 billion, and only about 160 sites have been cleaned.
One site still on the waiting list is Washington Park, a lead-contaminated, low-income housing development in Portsmouth.
Helen Person, a Washington Park resident, complained about the delay and told Warner of the horrors of life amid contamination. "We are living in a problem, a terrible problem," she said.
But most of the complaints heard by Warner were about Superfund's rule that allows any business even remotely linked to a contaminated site to be held responsible for cleanup.
"The sins of the grandfathers are being rested on the shoulders of the sons," Warner said. The liability chain "never seems to end," he said.
by CNB