Poster
07-28-2004, 10:28 AM
According to EPA data there is about a 10% chance that Superfund toxic waste treatment centers have not been cleaned up enough to guarantee that drinking water and people will not become contaminated. However, the EPA maintains that none of the sites present an eminent risk to human health. Environmentalists are calling to reinstate the Superfund tax trust fund to better clean up the waste sites. As of now the trust fund pays for about 30% of toxic cleanups, while the other 70% is funded by companies who are ordered by the EPA to clean up the pollution they released.
"Without an effective funding mechanism for Superfund cleanups, dangerous chemicals will continue to seep into our air, water and soil," said Ed Hopkins, the Sierra Club’s environmental quality program director, who wrote a report on the data.
"It would be incorrect to assume that any of those sites are a raw, uncontrolled site for which the public could be exposed to harmful contaminants," Phil Angell, an EPA consultant, in an e-mail, clarifying the EPA's view of the issue.
For more information see: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1894&ncid=1894&e=6&u=/ap/20040727/ap_on_go_ot/superfund_risk
"Without an effective funding mechanism for Superfund cleanups, dangerous chemicals will continue to seep into our air, water and soil," said Ed Hopkins, the Sierra Club’s environmental quality program director, who wrote a report on the data.
"It would be incorrect to assume that any of those sites are a raw, uncontrolled site for which the public could be exposed to harmful contaminants," Phil Angell, an EPA consultant, in an e-mail, clarifying the EPA's view of the issue.
For more information see: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1894&ncid=1894&e=6&u=/ap/20040727/ap_on_go_ot/superfund_risk