Charleston Leader

Senator Shelley Moore Capito led a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing focused on improving the future management of the EPA's Superfund program. Delays and rising costs in Superfund cleanups were primary topics. State and volunteer effort actions were discussed to bring certainty to impacted communities.

Chairman Capito questioned experts about causes for delays in the remediation process. Robert Fox responded: “There are very known ways to evaluate what the risk is at the site, and how to clean them up. Some sites are more complicated than others, but those general principles that I mentioned, about knowing who's exposed, knowing what they're exposed to, and eliminating those pathways – I don't want to use the wrong term – but it's not rocket science. We’ve been doing this for a long time. What happens is, the process is so cumbersome, the reports, the back and forth on scientific stuff. It's not a science project where you have to study every molecule. You can get there much faster, get a remedy selected.”

The discussion also included a comparison of costs between federal Superfund and state or voluntary cleanups. Chairman Capito asked Steven Radel to elaborate on this point, who noted increased costs for Superfund sites: “In 2022 in Indiana, the Superfund site, if we had done that cleanup under the voluntary program of Indiana, versus how we did it under the Superfund program, just my consulting costs alone, and to some extent, my legal costs, probably two times more doing it on the Superfund site than if we were in that same work under a voluntary program.”

Chairman Capito acknowledged concerns in communities near Superfund sites, emphasizing the economic potential and health issues: “From the folks that live in and around Superfund sites, they have great economic development promise, in my view, because they are clean, it's much easier for a developer, in some cases, to come in, because the work's already been done. What do you see when you go into different communities, about the restlessness of, why is it taking so long, not adding the economics onto the health issues that are sometimes associated with this site. I think what we're doing, is we're stymieing communities from being able to have confidence that they can redevelop, or be living in a healthy community.”

Robert Fox agreed, stating: “I agree with you 100%, I see it over and over again. Communities are frustrated because the potential exists for a win, win, win. Redevelopment of the site, protective of their human health and the environment, and the longer it goes on, they become distrustful. They become distrustful of EPA, they become distrustful of the private parties that are doing the work, and it feeds upon itself. Speeding up the process will get this back to productive use, and eliminate the exposure of these communities, and they will eliminate that distrust.”

The hearing concluded on a note of bipartisan agreement, with Capito urging collaboration: “I would like to say just in closing, that I think, first of all, this has been an excellent hearing because you’re all so knowledgeable on the issue, having lived it. But I think we have good, bipartisan agreement here that the system is broken. We’ve put more money in this, recently, and we want to see it result in the completion of these projects as much as you do. So, let’s work together to try and find a solution. Hopefully we can ameliorate some of the problems that have been identified today.”