The Bush administration’s environmental initiatives are dangerous for people all across America, the Sierra Club announced yesterday.
“We believe that communities across the United States are at risk because of the action of the Bush administration,” said Debbie Sease, legislative director in Washington for the Sierra club, at a press conference yesterday at the Omni Parker Hotel.
The conference focused mainly on Bush’s absence of support for the renewal of the Superfund tax, a tax created by Congress in 1980 to clean up toxic waste sites throughout the United States. The tax, which places the economic burden for toxic clean-up on companies rather than citizens, has not been supported for renewal in the presidential budget proposal since 1995.
If the Superfund tax is not renewed soon, taxpayers might be bearing the full economic brunt of toxic waste clean up by the year 2004, according to Sease.
“Bush is the first president not to support the Superfund tax,” she said. Changes in the Clear Air and Skies acts set in place this summer will “take decades longer to accomplish less,” than the previous versions of the acts, Sease added.
While Bush advocates a policy of, “No child will be left behind,” his current environmental policies are hindering the clean-up of pollution, according to Fairhaven resident Patti Estrella, who spoke at the press conference. This lack of attention to pollution is harming children in her community and across the United States, she said.
The Atlas Tack factory, located in Fairhaven, Mass., opened in the late 1800s and closed in 1985. According to the Sierra Club, the factory — located across the street from the Rogers Elementary School — has left the neighborhood that surrounds it facing serious pollution issues.
Estrella pointed out the gates of the site are often unlocked, allowing children to occasionally wander into the site and become exposed to the toxins there.
High levels of cadmium and arsenic have been found in the ground and water surrounding the 24-acre Atlas Tack property, the Sierra Club says. Buzzards Bay, a community bordering the Atlas Tack site, formerly provided abundant shellfish to the surrounding community, but the area is so polluted, it is no longer safe to eat the shellfish, Estrella said.
Estrella, who has been fighting to clean up the Atlas Tack site for 15 years, said it would cost approximately $18-19 million to detoxify the property, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The money for the clean-up is money that has been lost with declining Superfund revenue, Estrella said.
Sease stressed the Sierra Club’s dedication to standing in the way of Bush’s anti-environmental policies by emphasizing public education and opinion and increasing pressure from Congress.
“There is no sign that the Bush administration is paying any attention to how bad it’s getting,” Sease said.
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