FW: URGENT: PLEASE PROTECT SUPERFUND

[Jane Williams <dcap@qnet.com>]

Dear Colleagues,

Superfund is under attack in Congress.

Contact Grant Cope (cope@pirg.org) at US PIRG to sign onto thie atached letter.  Contact your Congressperson and tell them not to vote for HR 1300 because it would roll back important protections in the existing Superfund program including:

1. The preference for a permanent remedy (not a fence and a cap) at Superfund sites
2. The requirement to follow all state and federal laws which protect groundwater, air quality, and public health at Superfund sites.
3. The provision for joint and several liability that gives polluter incentives to get on with cleaning up sites and stop litigating over whose fault the pollution is.

Especially if your representative is on the House Commerce Committe ( Rogan, Eshoo, Bilbray, Capps, Cox, Tuazin, Oxley, Bilirakis, BArton, Upton, Stearns, Gillmor, Greenwood, Dearl, Largent, Bur, Whitfield, GAnske, Norwood, Coburn, Lazio, Cubin, Shimkus, Wilson, Shadegg, Pickering, Fossella, Blunt, Bryant, Ehrlich, Hall, Boucher, Towns, Pallone, Brown, Dingell, Wasman, Markey, Gordon, Deutsch, Rush, Kilnk, Sutpak, Engel, Sawyer, Wynn, Green, McCarthy, Strickland, DeGetter, Barrett, LUther,Capps)  Call 202-224-3121 (house Switchboard) and ask for your representative.

Thank you for your help at this crucial time.

Jane Williams
dcap@qnet.com
 
 PROTECT SUPERFUND TO CLEAN UP TOXIC WASTE

PLEASE SIGN ON YOUR ORGANIZATION

Respond directly to Grant Cope at U.S. PIRG's: grant@pirg.org.

To sign on to the letter, please email:
Your name
Your organization (you must represent at least one)

Hello,

The Public Interest Research Group, Environmental Defense Fund, and other
national and local environmental organizations are working to stop Congress
from severely weakening the Superfund law.

Despite an outpouring of opposition from over 100 groups from across the
nation, the House Transportation and  Infrastructure Committee  voted H.R.
1300 out of Committee with a vote of 69-2. The Commerce Committee in the
House of Representatives isgoing to hold a hearing on H.R. 1300 Sept. 22nd. 

H.R. 1300 would roll back the polluter pays principle, lower cleanup
standards, slow down the pace of cleanups, and increase litigation. H.R.
1300 also fails to reauthorize the Superfund polluter pays tax. Since it
expired in 1995, polluters have enjoyed a $4 million a day, $5 billion in
total, tax holiday. 

Because the bill is now supported by key Democrats and Republicans, its
stands a better chance than ever before of becoming law. 

Thank you for your help and support.

Grant Cope (grant@pirg.org)
U.S. PIRG
218 D Street, SE
Washington, DC 20003
phone (202) 546-9707 
fax (202) 546-2461 

--------LETTER----------

Dear Representative,

This is a letter opposing H.R. 1300, the "Recycle America's Land Act of
1999." The modifications made to H.R. 1300 in the House Transportation and
Infrastructure Committee failed to remove provisions that would rollback
the polluter pays principle, lower cleanup standards, slow the current pace
of cleanups, and increase litigation. The bill still undercuts the
protections provided by the Superfund program and goes against the public's
strong support for the polluter pays principle. Consequently, we strongly
urge you to oppose H.R. 1300. 

H.R. 1300 would modify Superfund's remedy provisions in ways that would
decrease protections, slow down cleanups, and fuel litigation. H.R. 1300
decreases protections for public health and environmental quality by
requiring that cleanups by taking away "reasonable and appropriate
requirements" (such as state water quality standards) that EPA uses as
standards for cleanups. H.R. 1300 still contains a risk assessment
provision that would increase litigation, while lowering the protectiveness
of cleanups. In addition, the bill's ramp down of funding could hamper
EPA's ability to cleanup future sites and monitor the efficacy of remedies
that allowed contamination to remain on-site. 

H.R. 1300 still contains overly broad liability exemptions that would
eviscerate Superfund's polluter pays principle; in particular the standard
of liability for certain owners and operators. The bill also contains
numerous other provisions that exempt polluters from paying to cleanup
pollution, or which would vastly increase the difficult of EPA recovering
cleanup costs. H.R. 1300's wholesale rollback of the polluter pays
principle is contrary to the public's strong support for this principle and
would likely reduce the pace and quality of cleanups.

H.R. 1300 would also increase litigation. The bill's prescriptive
allocation process would punish polluters who voluntarily agree to cleanup
contamination, ending any incentive for polluters to settle cases with the
EPA, slowing down cleanups and increasing litigation. It would also
decrease cleanups funds by forcing EPA to spend money on a costly and
time-consuming allocation process that is unfair to small parties. H.R.
1300 would give large polluters a right to intervene in settlements between
the EPA and small parties who contributed miniscule amounts of waste to a
site. 

Congress should pass legislation that strengthens protections for
vulnerable populations (such as children, the elderly, and pregnant women),
environmental quality, community participation, and the public's right to
know about toxic contamination in their neighborhood. Unfortunately, H.R.
1300 goes in the opposite direction. It weds misdirected brownfields
provisions with a Superfund roll back bill that lower protections for
public health and environmental quality. Americans deserve Congress's
continued assurance that polluters will pay to fully cleanup contaminated
sites and that protections for environmental quality and public health will
be maintained. We look forward to working with members of Congress to
promote these vital principles.

Sincerely, 




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