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Superfund Reality
Mark
Y. Avelli
05/1/2003
Rarely does a week pass without the local news media's overblown reporting on some phase of the Superfund Sites in the area. When legislators craft public policy for regulators to enforce it, they tend to put, Political Considerations Before The Public Interest.
Two respected university researches recently took a hard look at where Superfund concentrates its efforts to clean up hazardous wastes. They found that, "Most of the significant influences on superfund site decisions do not follow the expected pattern for efficient risk management", which should emphasize how many people are being exposed to risks, and how much each clean up cost per life saved. A majority of the clean ups were inspired by political influence. Instead of spending money where it was needed most, Superfund choices reflected which county's had a higher percentage of voters, which sites had received more press attention, which chemicals were most notorious, and which states had a higher rate of membership in environmental groups.
This diverts money from places that need it more. It should surprise no one that this vulturistic policy has exhausted Superfund assets. Continued progress on remediation is now proceeding at a snails pace, where the main product is political lip service, drum beating with no significant reduction in pollution levels. This should not be much cause for concern. Quite often, the technology to correct decade old pollution is not known.
Mary Y. Avelli
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