BushCo Admits to Leaving Communities at Risk from Toxic Waste 2003

[ElsewheresDaughter]

"We teach our children that they are responsible for cleaning up the messes that they make; the Bush administration should demand no less of corporate polluters,"
http://www.commondreams.org/scriptfiles/news2004/0108-10.htm

WASHINGTON - January 8 - An Environmental Protection Agency Inspector General's report released today admits that the Bush Administration failed to adequately fund the clean up of hazardous toxic waste sites in FY2003. The report, a response to inquiries from U.S. Senators Barbara Boxer and Jim Jeffords and U.S. Representatives John Dingell and Hilda Solis, admits to a $174.9 million shortfall in clean up funding and underscores the Bush Administration's willingness to leave communities at risk from toxic waste at Superfund toxic waste sites around the country instead of holding polluting companies accountable.

America's federal Superfund toxic waste cleanup program ran out of polluter contributed funds on October 1, 2003, leaving taxpayers to shoulder the financial burden and leaving communities across the country at risk. President Bush has refused to push for the renewal of the "polluter-pays tax" that expired in 1995, becoming the first president not to support the principle that polluters should pay to clean up the messes they create since President Reagan signed the Superfund reauthorization into law in 1986. With more than 1,200 toxic waste sites still in need of cleanup and more being listed each year, the ramifications of a dwindling Superfund trust fund to clean up toxic waste places our communities and environment seriously at risk.

"One in four Americans already lives within a short bicycle ride of a superfund site," said Carl Pope, Executive Director of Sierra Club "It's unconscionable for the Bush Administration not to hold polluters responsible for the cleanup of toxic waste. Polluters--not taxpayers--should be footing the bill."