LOS ANGELES, May 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Superfund site cleanup times could be
cut in half under a new three-point plan proposed this week by Dr. J. Winston
Porter at a Capitol Hill briefing hosted by the Reason Public Policy
Institute.  Porter, a former EPA assistant administrator with responsibility
for Superfund, is president of the Virginia-based Waste Policy Center.
    "Superfund has become one of the nation's most complex environmental
activities, resulting in contaminated sites taking much too long to clean up,"
Porter said.  "After more than 16 years, only about one third of the 1,390
sites placed on the Superfund list have been cleaned up, and the average
cleanup time exceeds 10 years."
    EPA Administrator Carol Browner also released a set of Superfund reform
principles this week.  Porter said these principles are very unlikely to
expedite site cleanups.
    In contrast to the EPA's wide-ranging principles, Porter proposed three
items focused directly on cutting cleanup times dramatically.
    -- Give more authority to the states.  "Over 40 states already have their
own Superfund-type programs, and many of them are cleaning up sites in about
one-third the time taken by the federal government," Porter said.  "This is
because states are much closer to the site problems, the communities involved,
local environmental issues, and land use concerns.  Why not turn over as many
sites as appropriate to states that are willing and able to do the job?"
    Congressman Michael Oxley, chairman of the House subcommittee overseeing
Superfund reauthorization, agreed.  "Who has the most to gain from faster
Superfund cleanups?  It's obvious that state and local groups have more at
stake than the federal government," said Oxley, who attended the briefing.
    -- Make it okay to clean up sites.  "Superfund's complex procedures mean
that even after site remedies become obvious, several years can pass before
cleanup work actually begins," Porter said.  "Why wait?"  Porter proposed a
"cut to the chase" procedure that would allow work to start at a site as soon
as regulators and the affected community agree on a cleanup plan.
    -- Streamline the process.  Simple measures to streamline the process
would significantly reduce cleanup times, according to Porter.  Examples
include establishing fixed study completion dates, requiring regulatory
approval for only key site documents, and reducing the number of potentially
responsible parties to only those responsible for a significant part of the
problem.
    The Reason Public Policy Institute (http://www.reason.org) is a national public
policy think tank based in Los Angeles.

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