Long Branch, NJ – Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. (NJ-06) today applauded the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) announcement that the agency will provide funds from the recently enacted Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to clean up backlogged Superfund sites in New Jersey. This is a first wave of funding that comes from the $3.5 billion in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law designated for Superfund cleanups that Congress passed and President Biden signed into law last month. The law included a major component of Pallone’s proposal to re-instate Superfund taxes on corporate polluters.
“With today’s announcement, help is on the way to communities across the country plagued by the risks of living near a Superfund site. Nowhere is that more true than in my home state of New Jersey, which has the greatest number of Superfund sites in the country,” Pallone said. “I’m thrilled the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is being put to immediate use to clean up backlogged sites and give our communities the peace of mind they deserve. Thanks to its reinstatement of Superfund Polluter Pays taxes, cleanup sites will have more dedicated funding moving forward, and with the Build Back Better Act’s full reinstatement, unfunded sites could become a thing of the past.”
The Superfund sites in New Jersey include:
●Diamond Head Oil Refinery Division in Kearney
●Former Kil-Tone Company in Vineland
●Garfield Ground Water Contamination in Garfield
●Kauffman & Minteer, Inc. in Springfield Township
●New Jersey Roebling Steel Co. in Florence Township
●Unimatic Manufacturing Corporation in Fairfield
●White Chemical Corporation in Newark
Pallone has been a longtime advocate for cleanup of Superfund polluting sites in New Jersey and around the nation. An estimated 50 percent of the state’s population lives within three miles of a Superfund site. In August, Pallone hosted EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan in Old Bridge to announce that EPA would advance cleanup of the Raritan Bay Slag Superfund site in Old Bridge Township and Sayreville. As a result of Pallone’s advocacy, the Raritan Bay Slag site was placed on EPA’s Superfund National Priorities List in 2009.
In October 2016, Pallone announced $7 million in funding from EPA to begin the cleanup at Margaret’s Creek, part of the Raritan Bay Slag Superfund site. The area had elevated levels of lead contamination, as well as areas of slag, a byproduct of metal smelting, and battery casings. In April, Pallone re-introduced his Superfund Polluter Pays Act, which would ensure polluters pay for the cleanup of Superfund sites. The bill would accomplish this by reinstating the full extent of the Superfund taxes on corporate polluters that expired in 1995.
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