Contact: Matt Stout FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(202) 482-6090 10/26/95
Legislation being introduced this week in the House will undermine NOAA programs already in existence to clean up hazardous materials and restore natural resources that are harmed by releases of these pollutants.
As currently drafted, "The Reform of Superfund Act of 1995" will preclude any restoration at many massively-contaminated waste sites and severely curtail meaningful restoration at others. Additionally, it will produce an expensive, burdensome, litigation- oriented process that will delay or prevent what little restoration may be permitted.
"This bill represents a major rollback from the fair and effective approach to restoration that has been achieved over the last several years," said NOAA deputy administrator Douglas K. Hall. "This new legislation in effect ties our hands while protecting polluters from responsibility."
Stewardship of the nation's natural resources is shared among several federal agencies, states and tribal trustees. Under the 1980 Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (more commonly known as the Superfund Act), Congress directed the Secretary of Commerce to assess and recover damages for injuries to the nation's coastal and marine natural resources from releases of oil and other hazardous substances.
In addition to limiting, or in some cases preventing, restoration of contaminated areas, this legislation fails to fully compensate the public for real losses (such as local and regional economic, recreational and ecological losses) suffered as a result of hazardous substance releases.
CERCLA (Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act), better known as Superfund, was enacted in 1980 in response to the public outcry when serious environmental contamination and health hazards were discovered at such notorious hazardous waste disposal sites as Love Canal and the Valley of the Drums.
CERCLA was enacted to provide the federal government with authority and funding to clean up these sites. With CERCLA, Congress also empowered the public, acting through federal and state natural resource trustees, to assess and recover damages for injuries to natural resources from releases of hazardous substances. The polluter pays to clean up hazardous materials and restore injured resources.
"What this legislation does is release those companies that have caused the greatest environmental harm from accountability for their actions," said Hall. "The natural resources lost to contamination must be recovered and restored. This legislation wrongfully deprives the people of the United States of their valuable natural resource heritage."