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Show THE VOICE OF BUSINESS The Senate's supertfund-. earaoflher boondoggle for big brother By Richard L. Lesher, President Cha mber of Commerce of the United States For centuries, people believed the oceans, lands, and air could absorb any amount of human or industrial waste. Consequently, very little attention was paid to proper disposal. But now, in view of the discovery of the infamous, abandoned, hazardous waste site at Love Canal in New York, and given the federal government's failure to adequately assist the residents of that stricken community, Americans suddenly have become very concerned about waste site dangers. Everyone today agrees that these sites must be cleaned up, and as quickly as possible. Everyone does not agree, however, on how best to do the job. This is a question that concerns you, since, as a consumer, you will be paying for the incremental costs of clean-ups either through higher prices or higher taxes. What we must decide is: Should we move ahead calmly and intelligently, looking for the most cost-effective ways to meet these responsibilities; or, should we embrace the extravagant demands of hysterical environmental extremists demands which could cost enough to buy us all gold-plated garbage gar-bage containers, but which would have all the effectiveness of trying to kill flies with an ax? The environmentalists are determined deter-mined to make Americans believe that Ix)ve Canal is merely the first of many more industrial time bombs to come. Thus, once the public is in a state of panic, the conditions will be right for the federal government to massively intervene, bulldozing its way through all the regulations and laws many states have' already enacted to deter improper disposal and storage. To accomplish this goal, the environmentalists en-vironmentalists have grossly misled the American public in two fundamental fun-damental ways. First the Environmental Protection Agency released the results of a study it commissioned which estimated, a national inventory of 50,666 hazardous waste sites. Upon inspection, however, it was revealed that the study had been conducted in just 60 days, and that it was based on questionable assumptions extrapolated from 232 cases only 24 of which were actually visited. Texas Congressman Bob Eckhardt's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation, In-vestigation, which estimated the country has only 851 potentially hazardous waste sites, had this to say about the EPA's commissioned report: "While this report has many methodological flaws, the inadequacy of its fundamental data base alone is enough to discredit the study. The estimate of the number of sites and the degree of hazard that they post is little better than pure guesswork..." Second, Michigan Congressman Dave Stockman has pointed out the EPA's definition of hazardous is so sweeping it includes any substance that is flammible, corrosive, reactive, or toxic. He remarked: "My own home is filled with hazardous substances, including sodium hypochlorite (bleach); sulvuric acid and lead (batteries); naphthalene ('Mr. Clean' or 'Fantastic Spray Cleaner'); as well as essentials for life of Capitol Hill such as 'Mouse-Red', 'Rat-Kill', and 'Rat-Guide' p. municipal dump in the Co. probably contains hazardous' stances. .;Every telephone n,i railroad tie treated with creL' hazardous substance on the EPa might need to be inventories" assessed. ; So, by enumerating as ha.. thousands of waste sites which and by defining hazardous subst-so subst-so broadly that virtually any sui', could be included, EPA has groundwork for a bill "Superfund," which is now considered by the Senate. It could-accurately could-accurately be called a Ko t supper-boondoggle. The bill emW;. scope which extends far beyc primary problem of inactive hazi-waste hazi-waste sites. It is so punitive it; establish legal procedures exr.'. industry to incalculable fiK. liability, and it would probably rr situations where companies wil to pay for cleaning up water tor they were not even responsible. Indeed, the bill would turn theb-of theb-of proof of exisiting law upside deforcing de-forcing defendants to show releases did not cause injure" illnesses allegedly suffered bv tiffs. The U.S. Chamber understand; the business community has rs; sibilities, that it must cleanup:-, donded or inactive hazardous; sites, and that it must support-party support-party injury claims. But that is:" cry from the legislation no r Senate which makes not eve pretense of being equitable. |