A roughly $1-trillion infrastructure bill negotiated by a bipartisan group of senators could provide Superfund sites with more than $3 billion for cleanup over the next five years.
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act would increase federal investment in projects including roads, bridges and broadband —and quicken cleanup of environmental contamination through $3.5 billion in additional funding for Superfund sites according to a bill summary viewed by Weapons Complex Morning Briefing.
Two-thirds of the Senate voted Wednesday to start debate this week on the act, negotiated by a group of Democratic and Republican senators. The package would provide $3.5 billion over five years into the Superfund trust fund to help the Environmental Protection Agency finance cleanups and remedial actions. The bill “also waives the state cost-share requirements” and calls upon the federal government to consider the unique needs of tribal lands with Superfund sites.
This would happen “without changing the process for prioritizing Superfund cleanups,” according to the 57-page bill summary.
Superfund, officially known as the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA), is designed to clean up the nation’s most contaminated sites. For commercial industrial sites the Superfund tries to tap financial reserves of the current owner and other potentially responsible parties.
At least a portion of the land at many nuclear sites within the Department of Energy’s weapons complex over the years have been declared Superfund locations under the National Priorities List. They include the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York, the Hanford Site in Washington state, the Idaho National Laboratory, the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, the Paducah Site in Kentucky, the Pantex Plant in Texas and the former Rocky Flats weapons plant in Colorado. The last of these is now under the stewardship of DOE’s Office of Legacy Management.
Typically, EPA, DOE and the respective states are involved with cleanup decisions at the respective nuclear sites.
