Hearing of the Superfund, Waste Management, and Regulatory Oversight Subcommittee of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee - Opening Statement of Sen. Harris, Hearing on Oversight of the US Environmental Protection Agency's Superfund Program

Hearing

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Chairman, I am really pleased to be with you today. This is my first time serving as a Ranking Member for a committee hearing in the United States Senate, and this hearing certainly speaks to a topic that is part of a core mission of the United States Government, which is to keep the American people safe.

CERCLA statute, more commonly known as Superfund, was created to help make sure that anyone who puts public health at risk by releasing hazardous waste is held accountable for cleaning up the damage they created. This is a matter of basic justice. Communities and families should not have to pay the price for someone else's pollution. This is a matter of basic economic justice.

We should clean up our communities so that jobs can be created and properties can be used for good. This is a matter of basic opportunity, the notion that all Americans should have a chance at a healthy and productive life, regardless of where they happen to call home.

That is why I am so glad to be holding this hearing with you, Mr. Chairman. We share a common goal of improving the cleanup process to better protect public health by restoring contaminated sites, without cutting corners. This is something we have a real opportunity to do, and I look forward to working with you and the members of our Committee to help make it happen and I am heartened to see strong bipartisan interest in figuring out ways to make Superfund work better.

Our work is guided by two key principles that Superfund laid out nearly four decades ago to guide its implementation: first, that toxic waste contamination threatens public health and requires a comprehensive cleanup response; second, that polluters should be held accountable and pay for the damage they cause.

While Superfund has successfully cleaned up thousands of the most heavily contaminated sites across the Country, there are still 53 million Americans who live within three miles of the Nation's more than 1,300 Superfund sites. Poor communities and communities of color are disproportionately likely to live near these sites. This is true from the mountains of Appalachia to the cities and streets of Los Angeles.

The Americans who are most likely to be exposed to toxic waste are the same Americans who have the fewest resources to deal with the consequences. I think we can all agree that that is wrong and that it is something we need to do more to address.

However, I am concerned by some of the signs I have seen from the EPA Administrator about the direction the EPA will take on Superfund. On the one hand, I am encouraged that he has said that he considers cleaning up contaminated lands to be a core responsibility of the EPA and that, last week, a Superfund task force was created, which he created, and offered 42 recommendations on ways to expedite cleanups. Truly am heartened by this action. And some of these recommendations I believe may be genuine efforts to help the program operate more efficiently and effectively, and produce better outcomes for the people we all represent.

On the other hand, other recommendations give me pause, especially in light of the Administrator's skepticism of science and prioritization of corporate interest over public health. Examples of this include weakening requirements that polluters show they can pay for cleanups they agree to or reducing Federal oversight of cleanups. When you add on top of that the 30 percent proposed cut for the upcoming 2018 fiscal year to the Superfund account at EPA, and the 24 percent proposed cut to the office that enforces the law, the rhetoric and the reality may not add up.

We should reject efforts to expedite cleanups if it means cutting corners on health and environmental standards, if it means letting polluters off the hook for the harm they have done, or if it means shutting out input from members of the public that are bearing the brunt of the harm.

So, Mr. Chairman, I look forward to holding a hearing with EPA officials in the near future, and I would like to hear how the Agency plans to accelerate the pace of cleanups while significantly cutting the sources of funding to do that cleanup. And I look forward to working with you to find ways to make sure this program is working for all Americans, regardless of where they live, who they are, or who polluted their community.

Again, thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I look forward to our hearing today.

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