Groundwater in the Great Lakes Basin

100 companies are connected to more than 40% of
America’s most dangerous contaminated waste sites
(Center for Public Integrity, 2007b). However, companies
undergo corporate maneuvering in order to blur
and avoid financial responsibility (Sapien and Knott,
2007). If a polluter cannot be associated with the site, if
polluters refuse to undertake cleanup actions or where
polluters do not have financial resources to conduct a
cleanup, a trust fund, supplied mainly by an industry
tax, ensured that U.S. EPA could clean up the site
(Sierra Club, 2004). However, that tax measure expired
in 1995 and was not reinstated. When the tax expired,
only 18% of Superfund’s funding came from taxpayers.
In 2004 Superfund’s trust fund was bankrupt and now
100% of the bill is footed by taxpayers (Sierra Club,
2004). Furthermore the Superfund program has been
underfunded by 1.6 to 2.6 billion dollars from 2001 to
2004 (Table 1). As a result of insufficient funds, the
U.S. EPA’s cleanup of Superfund sites decreased by
50% from 87 sites in 1997-2000 to 43 sites in 2001-2003
(Sierra Club, 2004).
With insufficient funding hundreds of sites remain
uncontrolled (Table 2). In 2007 there were 224 sites on
the National Priorities List where contaminated groundwater
was not under control and 114 Superfund sites
with no control over human exposure to possible carcinogenic
substances (Shaw, 2007). According to 2000
U.S. Census data there are more than 25 million people
living within 10 miles of these 114 Superfund sites.
Table 1. Under-Funding of Superfund Program, 2001-2004
Year
Superfund
Budget
Low-end
Estimate of
Superfund
Program
Needs
Difference
between
Superfund
Budget and
Low-end
Estimate
High-end
Estimate of
Superfund
Program
Needs
Difference
between
Superfund
Budget and
High-end
Estimate
2001 $1,336,000,000 $1,632,000,000 -$296,000,000 $1,740,000,000 -$404,000,000
2002 $1,340,000,000 $1,759,000,000 -$419,000,000 $1,988,000,000 -$648,000,000
2003 $1,265,000,000 $1,760,000,000 -$495,000,000 $2,130,000,000 -$865,000,000
2004 $1,257,000,000 $1,605,000,000 -$348,000,000 $1,921,000,000 -$664,000,000
Total
Underfunding
-$1,558,000,000 -$2,581,000,000
Source: Sierra Club, 2004
Table 2.
Superfund Sites Not Under Control.
State Superfund Sites Sites With
Contaminated
Groundwater Mitigation
Not Under Control
Sites With Human
Exposure Not Under
Control
Pennsylvania 122 23 7
New York 110 9 7
Michigan 84 11 2
Illinois 51 6 4
Minnesota 46 1 4
Wisconsin 44 1 3
Ohio 44 3 0
Indiana 39 6 6
Total 540 60 30
Source: Center for Public Integrity, 2007c.
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