Rep. Earl Blumenauer called for the return of the federal Superfund tax at the Superfund Research Program annual meeting.
Rep. Earl Blumenauer called for the return of the federal Superfund tax at the Superfund Research Program annual meeting.
The loss of the Superfund tax has complicated massive cleanup efforts throughout the nation, including Portland Harbor.
For 15 years starting in 1980, the Superfund tax gathered $3.8 billion in a trust fund for the EPA to work on sites all over the country. The tax expired in 1995.
Companies oppose a new tax because they say they’ve already paid into the trust fund.
But right now, the EPA Superfund program is so underfunded that work on the sites has become more about “study, stall and sue” than about actually cleaning up contamination, Blumenauer said.
Read more at the Daily Journal of Commerce.
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