“Wrong Way to Make Polluters Pay "

(As Published in The Washington Post on October 7, 2003

The Sept. 18 editorial "Shifting the Burden" perpetuated the myth that the dwindling Superfund trust fund is crucial to the cleanup program's success.

But thanks to strong Environmental Protection Agency enforcement, about 70 percent of Superfund cleanups are funded by the responsible parties, not by the trust fund.

Also, taxes from oil and chemical companies primarily created the trust fund, which is handy but hardly fair, because these firms already pay directly for their own sites, and most sites were created by other industries, governmental units and even individuals.

Is it any wonder that Congress and the Bush administration have balked at renewing this "some polluters must pay twice" policy?

The important thing is that Congress continues to fund Superfund administration and "orphan sites" with general revenue of about $1.4 billion per year.

As a former Superfund director, I think that this broadly based tax funding -- combined with aggressive enforcement against known responsible parties -- is the right way to go.

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Dr. Porter is president of the Waste Policy Center, an evnironmental consulting and communications organizations based in Leesburg, VA. From 1985 to 1989, he was the EPA assistant administrator with responsibility for Superfund and other waste programs.