Re-instatement of the Superfund corporate tax
EWA’s innovative approach to New Jersey environmental issues stands as a national model for effective grassroots advocacy. As a result, EWA also takes an active leadership role in many national environmental issues affecting human health and the environment, including Brownfields-to-Greenfields and the Federal Superfund program.
Superfund:
Amazingly for its small size, New Jersey leads the nation in the number of Superfund and hazardous waste sites—with 116 Federal Superfund sites, and over 25,000 total hazardous waste sites. With a long history as an industrial center, New Jersey continues to pay the price of its industrial past. That unfortunate legacy makes an even greater impact in a state that is the most densely populated in the nation.
After the Love Canal incident in the 1970s, America realized that there were thousands of other communities also built on unknown toxins. The “Superfund,” or the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), was enacted by Congress on December 11, 1980. This law created a tax on the chemical and petroleum industries and provided broad federal authority to respond directly to releases of hazardous substances that could endanger public health or the environment.
As the sheer magnitude of the nation’s hazardous waste problem became apparent, states, counties and local communities found they lacked the ability to address the great complexity, size and costs of hazardous waste remediation. The Federal Superfund program was the answer.
After many successes—and with 1 in 4 Americans living within four miles of a Superfund site—the unthinkable happened. The Superfund was allowed to expire. With hundreds of Superfund sites on hold and remaining contaminated and dangerous, EWA Executive Director Robert Spiegel testified before the U.S. Senate on the importance of re-authorizing the Superfund. Click here to to see how you can help keep the Superfund active.
EWA IS successfully campaigning to keep the Superfund on target — cleaning up hazardous waste sites — for two decades. Here are specific things you can do to make your neighborhood and our world a safer place to live in:
- SIGN THE SUPERFUND PETITION
Speak out! Join your voice with others to demand restoration of the Superfund and corporate responsibility for environmental degradation. - WRITE YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS
Our elected officials should represent their constituents, not merely money given by special interests. Write your representatives and let them know your views! - TELL US YOUR OWN SUPERFUND STORY
Regardless of the scale of the contamination or hazardous spill, what really matters are the lives of individual people. Have you lived in a toxic area? Suffered and fought to preserve your health and clean up your locale? - SUPPORT EDISION WETLANDS
EWA is constantly working to raise public awareness and focus attention where it is needed so that both public officials, corporations, and private individuals are held accountable.
Where do I find more information?
- Mother Jones interview of EWA’s Bob Spiegel.
- EWA’s Green Rabbit Story & animated cartoon.
- MORE LINKS to government, environmental and local sites.
- Bob Spiegels’s Senate Subcommittee testimony concerning the
Superfund and toxic Chemical Insecticide Corporation site.
