US Public Interest Research Group


Late Breaking News from America's Progressive Community
			Date: July 30, 1998 10:00 am Contact: Public Interest Research Group Daniel Rosenberg (202) 546-9707
Latest News Releases NewsCenter			Groups Mark 20th Anniversary Of Love Canal Toxic Tragedy And List Nation's Top 25 Superfund Polluters; GE Identified As Worst Offender Nationwide **Statement of Lois Gibbs on the release of U.S. PIRG's Super Polluters report
			WASHINGTON - July 30 - U.S. PIRG marked the 20th Anniversary of Love Canal with the release of a new report, based on data obtained from EPA, that lists the top 25 Superfund polluters in the country and their Superfund sites in each state. The report focuses on General Electric, the company with the most Superfund sites nationwide and a leader in the current effort to get special exemptions and to roll back the Superfund law in Congress. "For the past twenty years since Love Canal, many of the companies responsible for the greatest number of Superfund sites have continued to drag their feet, point fingers, and try to roll back the Superfund law in Congress, rather than paying for the strong, permanent cleanups that citizens deserve," said PIRG environmental attorney Daniel Rosenberg. "This report shines the spotlight on General Electric, the nation’s top Superfund polluter and a leader in the effort to roll back the Superfund law in Congress." Among the findings in the report, entitled Super Polluters: The Top 25 Superfund Polluters and their Toxic Waste Sites: At least one of the Super Polluters is considered a "potentially responsible party" by EPA at 331 of the 1,194 non-federal Superfund sites, 28% of the total. General Electric is a potentially responsible party at Superfund sites in at least 28 states. 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 their Superfund 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). "Unfortunately, many companies, including General Electric, the top superfund polluter, have decided that it is better for business to spend money on lawyers and lobbyists and to avoid their responsibility to clean up these sites, while simultaneously they work to weaken the law designed to make them pay," Rosenberg commented. "BusinessWeek recently called General Electric CEO Jack Welch `America's #1 Manager.' But Mr. Welch should more properly by cited for managing General Electric's high profile campaigns against cleaning up the Hudson River, the nation's largest Superfund site, and the Housatonic River in Pittsfield, Massachusetts where GE "donated" PCB-contaminated fill to residents and schools, while leading the efforts to roll back the Superfund law in Congress," said Rosenberg. "This month in the House, GE has succeeded in adding language to the report accompanying EPA’s budget that would prevent the agency from using dredging as a cleanup remedy at sites contaminated with PCBs. That single provision will achieve GE’s main goal: avoid paying to fully clean up the Hudson river, the Housatonic river as well as other contaminated sites," Rosenberg added. "The anti-Superfund lobby is pushing to pass bills and riders in Congress, under the guise of `fixing’ the Superfund program, that would roll back the polluter pays principle of Superfund, weaken cleanup standards at the nation's worst hazardous waste sites, and reduce public participation in cleanup decisions. General Electric proposing to fix Superfund is like Al Capone proposing to fix the tax code," Rosenberg charged. "Meanwhile, restoration of the expired tax on oil and chemical companies that pays for many Superfund cleanups is being held hostage by these same special interest groups," he added. $4 million dollars a day, $1.6 billion per year, for Superfund cleanups is not being collected, because the Superfund tax expired in December, 1995. The Superfund Trust Fund is projected to run out of money in the year 2000. Representative Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and 58 of his House colleagues have co-sponsored a bill that would broaden the polluter pays principle, strengthen health standards, protect small parties from abusive lawsuits by big polluters, increase citizen participation in cleanup decisions and expand the public's right to know about toxics in their communities. "There is still time to pass a positive Superfund reauthorization bill before Congress adjourns for the year," said Rosenberg. We support the Pallone bill and urge members of Congress to support the same responsible approach to Superfund reauthorization. In addition, we urge President Clinton to veto the VA-HUD Appropriations bill, which includes EPA’s budget, unless all the anti-environmental riders and report language, including the special GE PCB rider, are removed. The anniversary of Love Canal should be an occasion for strengthening, not weakening, our toxic waste cleanup law," he added. # # # U.S. PIRG is a non-profit, non-partisan environmental and consumer watchdog group. Following is the statement of Lois Gibbs on the release of U.S. PIRG's Super Polluters report. STATEMENT OF LOIS GIBBS Twenty years ago, residents of Love Canal, NY discovered that our homes had been contaminated, and our 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 citizens at Love Canal outraged the American public and led to the passage in 1980 of the Superfund law 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 nation, millions of pounds of toxic chemicals including lead, arsenic, mercury and dioxin have been dumped in the midst of unsuspecting neighborhoods. They are the legacy of decades of irresponsible use and disposal of toxic chemicals by polluters. 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 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. On the 20th Anniversary of Love Canal, our laws to clean up toxic waste should be strengthened, not weakened. Congress should restore the hazardous waste cleanup tax on polluting industries and reject all efforts to roll back Superfund and other environmental laws. # # # Lois Gibbs was the president of the Love Canal Homeowners Association. She is currently Executive Director of the Center for Health, Environment and Justice.

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