Democratic lawmakers gathered at the site of the old E.C. Electroplating factory in Garfield to A. celebrate the successful start to remediation of this superfund site and B. call for a more stable funding source for the federal program to cover so-called “orphan sites,” like this one.
“When the Superfund program was created back in 1980, funding for the orphaned sites came from a diverse array of sources, including, and importantly, taxes collected on crude oil and certain chemicals,” noted Sen. Cory Booker. “However, the tax program for the superfund site expired 20 years ago in 1995.”
Meaning that the cost for cleanup of sites like this one – E C went out of business more than decade ago – falls to taxpayers. So Booker and Senator Bob Menendez, along with House members Bill Pascrell and Frank Pallone will introduce The Superfund Polluter Pays Restoration Act, which would reinstate the excize tax on polluting industries and give the EPA ongoing funding no subject to annual appropriations.
“It just seems to me fundamentally wrong that the taxpayers have to pay for the companies that polluted and left a legacy of failure behind for everybody else to clean up,” added Sen. Bob Menendez, “and everybody else to pay, instead of those who created the pollution in the first pace.”
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