[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 40 (Thursday, March 21, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2627-S2628]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         SUPERFUND LEGISLATION

  Mr. SMITH. Mr. President, I want to thank my friend and colleague 
from Rhode Island, Senator Chafee, for working with me to enact a 
comprehensive Superfund reform measure. As Senator Chafee oulined, on 
September 29, 1995, I introduced S. 1285, the Accelerated Cleanup and 
Environmental Restoration Act. This legislation, which was cosponsored 
by Senator Chaffee and nine other members, was an effort to provide 
comprehensive reform of this troubled program.
  I would like to thank Senator Chafee, the chairman of the Environment 
and Public Works Committee for his strong support in this effort. Over 
the last year, he and I have worked cooperatively to reform this 
program, and it is because of his assistance that I believe that this 
legislation can be passed this year.
  As Senator Chafee has mentioned, he and I are here today to continue 
the process toward making sure that reasonable Superfund reform 
legislation will reach the floor this Spring. To achieve this goal, our 
respective staffs have spent more than 150 hours with Democrats on the 
Senate Environment Committee as well as representatives of the 
Environmental Protection Agency, the Justice Department, and the White 
House working toward achieving a bipartisan consensus toward 
reauthorizing the Superfund Program.
  In a few moments, I will ask to be entered into the Record a copy of 
a staff discussion draft outlining changes that Senator Chafee and I 
are willing to

[[Page S2628]]

make to achieve bipartisan consensus on this issue. As Senator Chafee 
stated, this is a snapshot of where we currently are in negotiations.
  Let me be clear: this draft includes changes that I found to be 
constructive and reasonable--without compromising the underlying 
principles necessary for real Superfund reform. I remain committed to 
passing a strong bill that reduces litigation and accelerates clean up. 
As Senator Chafee indicated, the committee intends to hold a hearing 
the week we return from the Easter recess. At that point in time, 
interested parties will have the opportunity to testify on a final 
product that will be used for markup. Additional agreements and 
disagreements will be worked out in the normal committee process 
through amendment.
  Before I describe some of the details of this proposal, I would like 
to say a few words what this draft is and what it is not. During the 
last few months our staffs have met with hundreds of individuals who 
are interested in the future of this program, and who have provided us 
with specific comments about S. 1285. We have carefully weighted these 
comments, and this staff discussion draft, in part, is intended to 
respond to some of those concerns.
  This draft is also intended to address some of the concerns that have 
been raised by Governors, the Clinton administration, Senate Democrats, 
as well as other interested parties. While this language represents a 
good faith effort address some of these concerns, these changes have 
not been agreed to by any other parties, and we are continuing to 
negotiate and address concerns that have been raised. Indeed, there are 
areas of this bill, including federal facilities issues, amendments to 
the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and natural resource 
damages, that we have not yet had the opportunity to fully address in 
these negotiations.
  Nonetheless, as Senator Chafee has pointed out, we wanted to provide 
a window into our ongoing negotiations, and allow interested parties to 
have the opportunity to comment on these proposed changes. And again, 
it is important for me to stress that a final product will be 
forthcoming. Where we are in agreement, we will agree. Where we are in 
disagreement, we will agree to disagree, and move on with the process.

  One area I do want to spend some time on this evening is the issue of 
liability reform. As many of my colleagues may know, when we released 
our initial liability reform proposal in September, there were some 
members on our side of the aisle who felt that we had limited our 
horizons too much when we proposed a 50 percent tax credit for pre-1980 
disposal activities. Although I was convinced, and continue to believe 
that our proposal had a great deal of merit, we have nonetheless 
decided to modify this section to address these concerns.
  The liability proposal in the staff discussion draft, I believe, will 
provide significant liability reform, and will vastly diminish the 
scope and nature of ongoing litigation. In particular, our proposal 
would have the effect of eliminating liability for parties at 
multiparty disposal sites--those sites where there was an off-site 
generator or transporter--for disposal activities that occurred prior 
to December 11, 1980. These sites involve some of the most contentious 
and expensive litigation in the Superfund Program and have only helped 
to slow down the pace of cleanups.
  This litigation has not helped to address this important 
environmental problem, but instead, has hindered the ability to protect 
human health and the environment in the shortest time possible. By 
providing orphan share contribution for these costs, I believe that we 
will not only significantly reduce the contentious nature of this 
litigation, but our reforms will allow these sites to be cleaned up 
faster.
  Our liability proposal provides that deminimis parties, such as small 
mom and pop businesses, will be eliminated from the liability net if 
they were responsible for disposing of less than 1 percent of the 
volume of materials at a site prior to December 11, 1980, or if they 
disposed less than 200 pounds or 110 gallons of materials at an NPL 
site. This change will significantly reduce the number of parties at 
these sites who are needlessly dragged into the quagmire of litigation. 
Our legislation will not only eliminate their liability, but it will 
also provide for an up-front determination that they are not subject to 
this damaging and costly litigation process.
  In addition, this staff discussion draft also provides a 10 percent 
cap on the total amount of liability for those municipalities whose 
potential liability resulted only from generating or transporting 
municipal solid waste or sewage sludge. This change, combined with the 
orphan share contribution for pre-1980 disposal at multiparty sites, 
will provide significant relief for cities and towns caught in the 
Superfund liability net.
  I would be remiss if I did not discuss changes that we have proposed 
to make in the remedy selection portion of S. 1285. In the legislation 
we introduced in September, we proposed eliminating the requirements 
under current law that mandate the use of applicable, relevant, and 
appropriate State and Federal environmental cleanup laws. Both Senator 
Chafee and I received a significant number of comments from States 
about this provision. After a good deal of reflection, we decided to 
provide that applicable State and Federal cleanup laws can be applied 
to these hazardous waste cleanups.
  There are a number of other issues that have been raised about the 
remedy selection portion of this legislation, including provisions 
related to groundwater cleanup, that we have not modified at this time. 
However, I do want to note that these issues are under discussion, and 
this draft does not represent our final proposal on this section.
  Mr. President, Senator Chafee and I are here on the floor today to 
declare that Superfund reform is alive and well. As Senator Chafee has 
mentioned, he and I are here today to continue the process towards 
making sure that significant Superfund reform legislation will reach 
the floor this Spring. While our colleagues have not heard much from us 
recently, this does not mean we have not been working hard--we have. 
This is not to say that we still don't have a ways to go--we do.
  I believe that the discussions we have been involved in over the last 
few weeks have been fruitful and have been conducted in good faith. Our 
colleagues, the President, and all parties involved in this program 
have frequently stated that they want comprehensive Superfund reform. 
Frankly, given its inadequacies, we simply can not afford to push 
Superfund reform off for another year. If our colleagues, including 
those on both sides of the aisle--as well as those in the White House--
can keep the rhetoric down, we believe that we can pass a comprehensive 
Superfund reauthorization bill this year that will ensure faster, safer 
and cheaper cleanups.
  Mrs. FEINSTEIN addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from California is recognized.
  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I be able 
to speak as in morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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