Congressional bill could expose millions of Americans to toxic waste

Over the years, thousands of American towns and cities have been contaminated by toxic waste spills. Fortunately, in the United States, we have the Superfund program, an Environmental Protection Agency program to close off contaminated sites and supervise cleanup. However, Congress is considering defunding Superfund, which would expose countless communities to toxic chemicals. 

What is Superfund? 

Superfund sites are contaminated with toxic pollutants that are known to increase the risk of cancer, brain damage and other health issues. Unless they’re contained and cleaned up, these pollutants can poison water, soil and air — putting neighborhoods, businesses and farmlands at risk.

And these toxic sites are more common than you might think. With more than 1,300 Superfund locations across the country, one in five Americans live within three miles of a Superfund site.

Through its decades-long history, Superfund has been a huge success — cleaning up huge quantities of toxic waste. But all that might soon end. A new bill in the House of Representatives would undercut much of the funding for cleaning up toxic waste Superfund sites. That would be a reversal of decades of progress. 

Why Superfund matters 

You may have heard of some infamous examples, like Love Canal in Niagara Falls, New York, where in the 1970s and 80s, 21,000 tons of hazardous chemicals leaked from dumped drums buried underground, causing hundreds of illnesses in people living near or on the site.

The Superfund program cleans up hazardous waste from manufacturing facilities, processing plants, landfills and mining sites, keeping families and communities safe from exposure to toxic substances like asbestos, lead and trichloroethylene.

If funding goes away, toxic contamination will persist, potentially exposing tens of thousands of people to hazardous substances. 

Funding for Superfund cleanups last lapsed in 1995, delaying many efforts to clean up lead, cancer causing chemicals, or other toxins.

Superfunds have long had bipartisan support because of their clear advantages. In 2017, the Trump administration led a renewed effort to prioritize Superfund cleanups, and in 2021, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law got these cleanups back on track, calling on companies that make and dispose of toxic chemicals, not taxpayers, to pay for cleanups. That both encourages corporate responsibility and cleans up toxic waste, all without costing the taxpayer anything. 

Let’s keep Superfund cleanups on solid financial footing, so that we can know we are safe from exposure to hazardous, carcinogenic substances. 

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