On the brink of reform: Four bills vie for the Superfund reauthorization title

After months of hearings in the House of Representatives and the Senate, Congress is poised to reform the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980. Without CERCLA reauthorization, no federal tax dollars will be allocated to the Superfund for remediating contaminated industrial sites. Authorization to pay into the Superfund expired officially in 1994, and only $2.8 billion remains in the trust fund, enough to run the program through next September at its current annual budget of $1.4 billion. Critics state that Congress acted ambitiously in enacting CERCLA 15 years ago in response to a general belief that only dozens of contaminated sites existed and could be addressed within a few years. However, the Environmental Protection Agency since 1980 has named 1,300 sites to the National Priorities List. Many contend that the Superfund program was not designed to be a clearinghouse for a multitude of site cleanups. CERCLA`s complicated procedural requirements and taxing transactional costs, some say, were intended to apply to a few, highly toxic sites.