Cleaning Up Toxic Waste

In 1978, the tragic consequences of the dumping of toxic wastes burst onto the national consciousness with the discovery that residents of Love Canal, NY were being exposed to hazardous chemicals buried underneath their homes by the Hooker Chemical Company. In large part, the Love Canal crisis led to the passage in 1980 of the federal Superfund law. Although the Love Canal cleanup was recently completed, many sites remain to be cleaned up under the federal Superfund program. However, the pace of cleanups has slowed during the Bush Administration because they have allowed the polluter-pays tax on oil and chemical producers to lapse. I have cosponsored legislation that would replenish the trust fund so we can clean up abandoned Superfund sites in New York as soon as possible.

I have also worked to promote the cleanup and redevelopment of less-contaminated sites known as brownfields. These sites sit idle in many communities because of concerns about the cost and potential liability associated with cleaning them up. Cleaning up these sites and redeveloping them is good for the environment and the economy. To spur brownfields redevelopment, I cosponsored and helped to pass the Brownfields Revitalization and Environmental Restoration Act of 2001. This important legislation provides grant funding to assess contamination at brownfields sites and to clean them up.