Superfunds need more funds

Calling them toxic sludge cleanup sites does not have a positive connotation, but that in essence is what a Superfund site is. From 1980 until 1995, various industry taxes were collected and pooled to help pay to clean these sites up. In 1995 the Republican led Congress allowed these taxes to lapse despite protests from the Clinton Administration. Of course, President Bush has decided to continue this tax break for these industries.

Now we as tax payers pay to clean up polluters messes. We hire the maids and they can continue to pollute without having to worry about how these toxins will be cleansed.

Guess what gets the short end of the financial stick under Bush:

With about six weeks left in the federal government's fiscal year, dozens of Superfund sites that are eligible for cleanup money are likely to be granted nothing or a fraction of what their managers say is needed because of a budget shortfall that could exceed $250 million, according to a survey by the Democratic staff of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

The list of sites was compiled from information provided privately by officials at the Environmental Protection Agency, according to a letter sent on Friday to Michael O. Leavitt, the agency's administrator, from Representative John D. Dingell of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the committee.

The letter and an attached list indicate that at sites like Atlas Tack, a company that made tacks and nails in Fairhaven, Mass., Omaha Lead in Omaha and Woolfolk Chemical Works, in Fort Valley, Ga., cleanup managers are likely to fall behind in clearing toxic residue like lead particles, cyanide and arsenic in soil or groundwater.

So while we continue to stand firm against a toxic assault from outside terrorist organizations (and rightly so), we continue to allow the poisoning of our own soil and water to continue without proper funding to clean it up. I just don't understand it.