STATEMENT
OF MARIANNE LAMONT HORINKO
ASSISTANT
ADMINISTRATOR
OFFICE OF
SOLID WASTE AND EMERGENCY RESPONSE
U.S.
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON
SUPERFUND,
TOXICS, RISK AND WASTE MANAGEMENT
UNITED
STATES SENATE
APRIL 10,
2002
Good
morning Madam Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee. I am Marianne Horinko, Assistant
Administrator of the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response, U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency. I am
pleased to appear today to discuss the Superfund program and identify some of
the new challenges facing EPA as the program continues into its third decade.
Administrator
Whitman and the Bush Administration are fully committed to Superfund=s mission,
protecting human health and the environment by cleaning up our Nation=s worst
hazardous waste sites. Thanks to a
decade of reforms launched by the first Bush Administration and continued by
the previous Administration, the Superfund program has achieved dramatic
success. In that same bipartisan
spirit, we embrace the new issues facing the program as it matures. Further, as the members and staff of the
Environment and Public Works Committee located in the Hart Senate Building
learned first hand, one of the many challenges of the Superfund program is to
address threats posed to Homeland Security.
Today, I will outline the innovative ways EPA is addressing the
Superfund program=s important tasks.
SUPERFUND
PROGRESS
The
Superfund program continues to make progress in cleaning up hazardous waste
sites on the National Priority List (NPL).
Through Fiscal Year 2001, 92 percent of the sites on the NPL are either
undergoing cleanup construction or have cleanup construction completed:
* 804 Superfund sites reached construction
completion
* 401 Superfund sites had cleanup construction
underway
In fiscal year 2001, EPA completed
construction at 47 Superfund sites.
However, the decline in the number of NPL sites that reached
construction completion in fiscal year 2001, as compared with fiscal year 2000,
did not reflect the amount of cleanup construction underway at Superfund
sites. EPA has maintained the number
of construction projects underway at NPL sites, more than 730 per year, from
Fiscal Years 1999 through 2001. The
President=s fiscal year
2003 budget request continues a commitment to clean up hazardous waste sites by
maintaining EPA=s budget
for the Superfund program with a request of $1.29 billion.
SUPERFUND
CLEANUP COMMITMENTS AND COST RECOVERY
This
Administration reinforced its commitment to the Apolluter pays@ principle
by securing cleanup from responsible parties at approximately 70 percent of
non-Federal Superfund sites. Fiscal
Year 2001 produced a near record in Superfund cost recovery and cleanup
commitments from responsible parties.
EPA=s
enforcement program generated $1.7 billion, nearly $300 million more than in
Fiscal Year 2000 and the second highest amount in the history of the Superfund
program. The cumulative value of
responsible party commitments since the inception of the program now exceeds
$20 billion.
HOMELAND
SECURITY / BIOLOGICAL HAZARDS
EPA=s Emergency
Response program was on the front lines at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon
and the Anthrax incidents and the Agency is proud of our ground-breaking
work. EPA, in partnership with the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Agency for Toxic
Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), and District of Columbia public health
officials, successfully completed anthrax cleanup in the Hart Senate Building -
- a task never before achieved in public health history. EPA continues to provide technical
assistance at three U.S. Postal facilities that have not completed anthrax cleanup
and at the AMI building in Boca Raton, Florida. EPA is also examining ways to improve Chemical plant site
security. We have been working closely
with representatives from the chemical industry, first responders, and
community and environmental groups to ensure that high levels of prevention are
maintained, along with protectiveness and responsiveness.
BROWNFIELDS
PROGRAM
EPA=s
brownfields program, through its grants, loans, and other assistance, continues
to promote the cleanup, development and reuse of blighted, abandoned brownfield
sites throughout the country. The
brownfields program has successfully supplemented the cleanup and development
efforts of states, Tribes and local governments. I am pleased to report that EPA=s brownfields cleanup program has
leveraged more than $3.7 billion in cleanup and redevelopment funds, and has
generated more than 17,000 jobs. EPA
funding has provided the resources to states, Tribes and local communities to
assess more than 2,600 brownfield sites.
Thanks to
the enactment of bipartisan brownfields legislation, we can expect to see even
greater success by states, Tribes and local communities in reclaiming
brownfield sites and encouraging the cleanup and reuse of sites by the private
sector. EPA is now in the process of
planning implementation of the provisions in the Small Business Liability
Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act (Public Law 107-118). The fiscal year 2003 budget reflects the
President=s
priorities and our commitment to cleaning up and revitalizing communities by
doubling the brownfields budget to $200 million.
PUBLIC LAW
107-118 IMPLEMENTATION
EPA has formed a number of internal
workgroups to develop policy implementing the new law. We are conducting listening sessions, both
here in Washington and at the regional level, to gather stakeholder views prior
to issuing new policies. EPA is
developing brownfields grant application guidelines for the new funding that
will be available in the Fall of 2002.
Further,
EPA=s
enforcement program is carefully reviewing key brownfields liability and
enforcement provisions in the Act and will undertake several activities, such as issuing guidance to regions
on key terms in the statute and promoting a consistent approach on site-specific
questions. In addition, EPA=s enforcement program will be working to
develop guidance on certain key provisions of the de micromis and Municipal
Solid Waste (MSW) exemptions. EPA is
also evaluating what new settlement procedures might be necessary under the
revised CERCLA '122(g).
REDEVELOPMENT
AND REUSE
I have made
land revitalization a top priority for the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency
Response and it is an integral part of the way EPA is implementing all waste
cleanup programs. Achieving cleanup is
not enough. It is necessary to view a
property in terms also of the future economic, recreational or ecological
benefits it represents to those who live nearby. It is important that we build on our success in the Brownfields
program and make land revitalization a part of the Agency=s
organizational culture. We are making
progress in the Superfund program. More
than 260 Superfund sites have been put back into reuse, generating more than
15,000 jobs and representing $500 million in economic activity. While our fundamental mission remains to
protect human health and the environment, we need to ensure that we fully
consider a community=s desired future land use for a property as
we make cleanup decisions. We are
working on tools to assist EPA managers and staff as they work closely with
state, public and private stakeholders in facilitating property revitalization.
NEW CLEANUP
CHALLENGES
As the
Superfund program continues into its third decade, new challenges must be met
to continue the progress in cleaning up hazardous waste sites. Entering fiscal year 2001, EPA had
anticipated the potential for a reduction in achieving site construction
completions. The Superfund process,
from site listing to cleanup construction, on average has taken roughly 8 to 10
years. Decisions made 5 years before a
site ever reaches the construction phase, for instance delaying the Remedial
Investigation / Feasibility Study (RIFS), will have an impact on when that site
reaches construction completion many years later. This is the current situation we face in the Superfund
program. The reduction in construction
completions has resulted from a variety of factors, including decisions made
years ago on funding priorities; the size and number of construction projects
at remaining non-construction complete sites on the NPL; and the need to
balance competing environmental priorities within the Superfund program. In prior years, EPA focused resources on
Superfund sites that needed less construction work and that were further along
in the cleanup process, thus creating a backlog of sites with significant years
of construction work remaining
The
remaining number of Superfund sites that have not reached the completion stage
includes area-wide ground water sites, mining sites, sediment sites, and
federal facility sites. The size and
complexity of these remaining sites generally indicate longer project durations
and increased costs required to complete cleanup construction. There is now a greater number of federal
facilities and very large sites (mega-sites exceeding $50 million in cleanup
costs) as a percentage of NPL sites not construction complete than ever before. Of the remaining 675 final NPL sites not construction
complete, 138 are federal facilities and an additional 93 sites are
mega-sites.
Given the
nature of the remaining sites on the NPL that have not been completed, the use
of construction completion as the overriding measure of Superfund program progress
is becoming less helpful. The time
frame needed to complete federal facility sites and mega-sites represents so
many years, that newer, more meaningful environmental indicators need to be
developed. Currently, the Superfund
program is credited with only one construction completion whether the site
completed would be a 100 square mile former mining site or a one-acre former wood-treating
site. The public needs tools for
measuring success that describe significant accomplishments at these challenging
sites over time.
SUPERFUND
PIPELINE MANAGEMENT REVIEW
Although the number of Superfund sites
completing construction in a given year is being affected by program decisions
made years before, EPA is looking for new ways to improve program performance. The Agency has initiated a comprehensive
review of all Superfund projects in or approaching the most expensive phase of
our project pipeline, construction.
After completion of this analysis and implementation of some challenging
decisions, EPA intends to work toward an optimal balance between the
achievement of risk reduction, construction progress, and beneficial re-use at
Superfund sites. I would expect the
first phase of the review to be complete in late spring with a draft three year
plan at the end of the summer.
NACEPT
PROCESS
EPA is also
launching a public dialogue through the National Advisory Council on
Environmental Policy and Technology (NACEPT), a Federal advisory committee
comprised of a broad cross-section of stakeholders, that will examine the role
of the Superfund program in addressing very large Amega-sites@, the
appropriate role of listing sites on the NPL as one of many tools to address
contaminated sites, and strategies to improve program effectiveness and
efficiency through coordination with states, Tribes, and the public. We will work closely with the Environment
and Public Works Committee as the NACEPT expert panel debates these important
public policy issues.
CONCLUSION
EPA will
continue its efforts to improve Superfund program performance and meet the many
new challenges facing the Agency in cleaning up hazardous waste sites. The President is fully committed to the
Superfund program=s success and toward fashioning a
sustainable future course for the program as it continues into its third
decade. We also will continue our
efforts in protecting Homeland Security, improving chemical plant security, and
working with other Federal Agencies in responding to biological hazards. I look forward to working with Congress in
the months and years ahead as we strive to meet our common goal of protecting
human health and the environment.