Scaled-Down Program For Expanding Superfund Urged

In a statement to several Senators, an Office of Technology Assessment analyst says the Superfund program to clean up abandoned hazardous waste sites is likely to be a multi-decade effort, encompassing at least 10,000 sites, and costing $50 billion to $100 billion. But throwing vast sums of money at the Environmental Protection Agency now would be throwing money down a black hole, says OTA senior associate Joel S. Hirschhorn. He says this is the first time OTA, the research arm of Congress, has put a price tag on the cost of cleaning up the disposal mistakes of the past. But he is quick to add that OTA's staggering estimate of total cleanup costs should in no way influence funding levels in pending bills to reauthorize Superfund. Hirschhorn says EPA is not now capable of spending efficiently more than $1 billion per year. And by so saying, he reaffirms what EPA has been declaring all year ...