Good morning. My name is David Masur, and I’m the Director for PennEnvironment. PennEnvironment is a non-profit environmental advocacy organization and the largest state-level, citizen-based environmental group in the Commonwealth.
I’d like to start out by thanking Representative Milne and the members of the Republican Policy Committee for inviting me to speak on the important issue of reauthorizing Pennsylvania’s Hazardous Sites Cleanup Fund—known as HSCA—at today’s informational hearing.
I’ll make my remarks brief.
HSCA is
Pennsylvania’s cornerstone program for cleaning up abandoned and contaminated toxic dumpsites. This program is administered by the Department of Environmental Protection (PA-DEP), which is predicting that HSCA will run out of funding by the end of the calendar year—unless immediate steps are taken by the Pennsylvania General Assembly and Gov. Rendell to reauthorize this much-needed program.
As we all know,
Pennsylvania’s extensive industrial history has left a legacy of toxic pollution that threatens the Commonwealth’s environment and the public health of its residents. This includes hundreds of abandoned industrial waste sites found across the Commonwealth. These sites scar our landscape, drag down our local economies, endanger the health of local communities and threaten our environment.
Many of the pollutants found at these toxic dumpsites are known to cause cancer, birth defects or other health problems. Unfortunately, until these hazardous waste sites are cleaned up the toxic chemicals will continue to leach into our soil and groundwater, and evaporate into the air and into our environment.
HSCA has been the state’s primary method for cleaning up these dumpsites—and it has been hugely successful. To date, the Hazardous Sites Cleanup Fund has cleaned up hundreds of contaminated dumpsites and created and retained thousands of jobs.
Still, there are hundreds of sites—in southeastern Pennsylvania alone—that are in need of cleanup and therefore in need of a fully funded HSCA program.
As you are probably well aware, HSCA has three main components:
Funding
Pennsylvania’s portion of the federal Superfund program. Superfund is responsible for cleaning up the worst-of-the-worst toxic dumpsites in
America, of which
Pennsylvania has the second highest number in the nation only behind
New Jersey;
Funding the cleanup of contaminated sites that don’t qualify as Superfund sites;
And funding the state’s response to toxic chemical spills and accidents in our communities, on our roads and in the workplace.
Unfortunately, HSCA is set to expire at the end of this month—even though hundreds of contaminated sites still require remediation and cleanup. If we don’t work aggressively—in a bipartisan manner—to reauthorize this program, the funding necessary to clean up toxic pollution will dry up and force cleanup efforts to slow down—or worse yet come to a complete standstill; our first responders and hazmat teams will not have the funding necessary to tackle accidents and threats facing their communities; and brownfield redevelopment could come to a grinding halt across the Commonwealth.
PennEnvironment applauds Rep. Milne for the introduction of his legislation, HB2039 to tackle this issue. We also applaud the other legislators including Rep. Steil, Shapiro, Vereb, Taylor, Rowe and others who have introduced legislation to try and resolve this important issue. Furthermore, I would like to personally thank the members of the House who worked so tirelessly over the summer to ensure that we didn’t raid the Keystone Fund—rob Peter to pay Paul—in order to fund HSCA. PennEnvironment supports a two-tiered solution to this problem. Step one, unfortunately, is just doing the necessary triage to keep the program running. This includes passing a stop-gap funding proposal in order for HSCA to remain solvent during the remainder of the fiscal year.
Step two is the more complicated and contentious piece—coming up with a dedicated, sustainable funding source for the Hazardous Sites Cleanup Fund. Everyone agrees on the importance of HSCA. Everyone does not agree on how to pay for it, or if it should have a long-term, dedicated funding source.
First and foremost, PennEnvironment supports a dedicated, sustainable funding mechanism for HSCA. Moreover, PennEnvironment supports a funding system based upon the “Polluter Pays” concept. This would require the industrial sectors that engage in the risky business producing, transporting and distributing toxic chemicals and hazardous materials in the Commonwealth to fund the legacy of accidents and dumpsites that their industries leave in the Commonwealth. Polluters—not taxpayers—should foot the bill for the cleanup of these programs, and it should be an accepted expense of doing this type of business in Pennsylvania.
Polling shows that voters in a bi-partisan fashion support making polluters pay for HSCA and toxic cleanup. An independent poll done during the summer of 2005 showed that nearly 80% of Pennsylvanians supported policies and increasing taxes for businesses that pollute in the Commonwealth. In closing, I again want to thank Rep. Milne for inviting me to today’s event. I look forward to working with you all to reauthorize HSCA and ensure its long-term success in the Commonwealth.
