[ Report Home | Previous Page | Next Page ]

---

Executive Summary

"PCBs do not pose health risks."
-- Jack Welch, CEO of General Electric, the nationâs #1 Superfund polluter with 86 sites, at GEâs April 22, 1998 shareholder meeting

"The International Agency for Research on Cancer declared PCBs to be a probable human carcinogen. And the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has determined that these chemicals are a potential occupational carcinogen."
-- EPA Administrator Carol Browner in testimony before the New York State Assemblyâs Committee on Environmental Conservation, July 9, 1998

Twenty years ago, residents of Love Canal, NY discovered their homes had been contaminated and their children were being made sick by 20,000 tons of highly toxic chemical waste dumped by the Hooker Chemical Company in the 1940s and 1950s. The plight of the citizens at Love Canal outraged the American public and led to the passage of the Superfund law in 1980 to find and clean up the nation's worst toxic dumps.

Unfortunately, Love Canal is not an isolated incident. In thousands of communities across the U.S., millions of pounds of toxic chemicals including lead, arsenic, mercury and dioxin have been dumped in the midst of unsuspecting neighborhoods.

These sites poison the land, contaminate drinking water sources, and potentially cause cancer, birth defects, nerve damage and other health effects. The worst of these sites are called Superfund sites.

• 65 million Americans - one in four - live within four miles of a Superfund site.
• 50% of the U.S. population relies on groundwater for its drinking water. Groundwater contamination occurs at over 85% of Superfund sites.

The core principle of the Superfund program is that polluters -- not taxpayers -- should pay to clean up these deadly toxic waste sites. In addition to providing funding for the cleanups (and ensuring that taxpayers don't get stuck footing the bill), the polluter pays principle creates a powerful disincentive against the reckless dumping of toxic wastes.

Under Superfund, cleanups are paid for two ways. First, directly by polluters that created the sites. Second, through a small tax levied on the oil and chemical industries, as the major sources of the toxic wastes to be cleaned up under Superfund. The current Superfund law also favors permanent cleanups, by treating or removing toxic wastes rather than simply attempting to "contain" them, as was attempted with disastrous results at Love Canal. Finally, as part of the reauthorization of Superfund in 1986, the first national Right to Know law was passed, requiring polluting companies to inform the public about types and amounts of chemicals they were releasing into the environment.

Ever since Superfund was created, polluters like General Electric, DuPont, General Motors, and Union Carbide, insurance companies, and industry trade associations including the Chemical Manufacturers Association (CMA) and the American Petroleum Institute (API) have lobbied Congress to roll back the polluter pays principle and weaken cleanup standards at the nation's worst toxic waste sites. In addition, these groups have fought efforts to expand the public's right to know about toxic chemicals used in the workplace, consumer products and communities.

Now, on the 20th Anniversary of Love Canal, at least three major bills that would achieve industry's goals to roll back Superfund are moving through the Congress. In the House, Representatives Michael Oxley (R-OH) and Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY) have both introduced bills that would let polluters off the hook, weaken cleanup standards, restrict public participation in cleanup decisions and fail to expand the public's right to know about toxic chemical use in their communities. In the Senate, Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS), Bob Smith (R-NH) and Environment Committee Chair John Chafee (R-RI) have introduced S.8, a similar Superfund rollback bill. Each of these bills has received the support of industries seeking to avoid paying to fully clean up the nation's worst toxic waste sites that they helped create. The Senate bill, S.8, was voted out of the Senate Environment Committee and could be brought to the floor of the Senate at any time. In the House, Representative Boehlertâs bill was passed out of a key subcommittee and awaits further action in the full Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

In addition, these industries, and their congressional allies, are attempting to attach amendments, called "riders," to various pieces of legislation, including EPA's budget, that would let polluters off the hook and restrict EPA's powers to require complete cleanups at Superfund sites.

Meanwhile, the tax on chemical and oil industries that pays for Superfund cleanups expired in December, 1995. Every day the tax is not restored, $4 million for cleaning up hazardous waste sites goes uncollected.

On August 2, 1978, residents of Love Canal were told that pregnant women and children under the age of two living in the 239 homes closest to the canal would be evacuated from their toxic nightmare. The struggle to evacuate the rest of the Love Canal residents would continue for another year. As Americans observe the 20th Anniversary of Love Canal, the 105th Congress is preparing to vote on legislation that would roll back the Superfund law and make it more difficult to set strong public health standards for chemicals or expand the publics' right to know about toxic chemical use.

With Congress on the verge of dishonoring the anniversary of Love Canal, PIRG is releasing Super Polluters: The Top 25 Superfund Polluters and Their Toxic Waste Sites. Super Polluters includes a list of the Superfund sites where each of the top 25 Superfund polluters has been named as a "potentially responsible party" (PRP) under the Superfund law (available in the printed version only). The list, obtained from the Environmental Protection Agency, provides citizens with information about which companies helped contribute to creating the worst toxic waste sites in their communities. In addition, Super Polluters provides a close-up look at the behavior of General Electric, the nation's top Superfund polluter with 86 Superfund sites.

Among the findings of the report:

• At least one of the Super Polluters is potentially responsible at 331 of the 1,194 non-federal Superfund sites, 28% of the total; and 342 of all 1,353 Superfund sites, 25% of the total.
• 42 States have at least one Superfund site where at least one of the Top 25 Superfund polluters is named by EPA as a potentially responsible party.
• The Top 10 Superfund Polluters and the number of polluted sites are: General Electric (86), DuPont (81), General Motors (64), Union Carbide (51), Shell Oil (48), Browning Ferris Industries (43), Ford Motor (40), Ashland Chemical (39), Westinghouse Electric (39), Ciba-Geigy (38).
• The 5 states with the most Superfund sites are: New Jersey (117), Pennsylvania (110), California (94), New York (88), Michigan (82).
• General Electric is a potentially responsible party at Superfund sites in at least 28 states and Puerto Rico.

[ Report Home | Previous Page | Next Page ]