The Superfund isn’t looking so “super” these days. Washington’s system of cleaning up industrial messes is starting to look like something of a mess itself. The money from industry is all but gone, and President Bush says he has no intention of asking corporate America to resume paying the tax. So money will have to come from taxpayers, and the number of polluted sites under consideration for cash from Washington is being drastically slashed.
Critics of the Superfund won’t care. They’ve always said it’s a slow and inefficient system of cleaning up the countryside. Trouble is, it IS the system and until there’s something else, a number of industrial sludge sites just got a reprieve.
Guests:
William Shutkin, MIT Dept. of Urban Studies and planning
Bill Kovaks, U.S. Chamber of Commerce