Environment & Energy

Environmental Cleanup Programs

Issue
The United States is home to hundreds of waste sites that are in need of cleanup. Hazardous waste site cleanups are managed under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) program, otherwise known as Superfund. The statute sets the basic framework and liability standard for all hazardous waste cleanups, including those at federal facilities. While well-intentioned, the Superfund program has suffered from serious flaws, particularly in the “joint and several” liability system that has resulted in lawsuits and significant delays in clean-up.

The Superfund dedicated taxes expired in 1995, but appropriations for the program have been level at about $1.2 billion per year for nearly the last decade, with funding transferred from the General Fund. The recent stimulus package provided an additional $600 million to EPA for the program, an amount that will begin to help with the backlogged sites, but cleanup costs are not likely to decrease in the near term.

Cleaning up of the U.S. nuclear weapons manufacturing and testing complex is the responsibility of the Department of Energy. The complete removal of radiological wastes and contamination from DOE sites is estimated to cost at least $200 billion and to take several decades. The largest and most hazardous DOE site cleanups have slowed and long range schedules continue to slip. The recent stimulus package appropriated $5.1 billion toward the program, a small but significant step toward accelerating cleanup of these sites.

ACEC Position
ACEC urges comprehensive reform and reauthorization of Superfund, including the replacement of the joint and several liability scheme with one based on proportional fault or negligence. This protection should also extend to claims brought under state law. ACEC also advocates programmatic changes that allow for flexibility and rationality in cleanup decisions. Additionally, ACEC recommends the establishment of a six-year statute of repose, as is common in the engineering and construction industries. ACEC urges Congress to ensure that adequate funding is maintained so that needed cleanup projects can continue without delay.

ACEC also urges Congress to provide adequate funding for the EM program at a level that will allow cleanup progress to continue.